Daniel can keep pace on foot.
The rush, the wind, the sudden realization of just how fast a car can move when it accelerates faster and faster and faster. Daniel aware that she losing ground kicks off into a job. Outright doubling her previous speed and only barely keeping pace with the truck ahead. Thick paws pounded into the solid pavement, so very different from the sensation of walking on dirt and mud. This was hard and flat, not unlike running over a single large rock. In the exertion she could feel her claws poking out on reflex, all four legs having the awkward scrape of nails on stone when the sharp tips jabbed against that road. On any natural formation be it trees or dirt or even rocky mountains this would have been a good instinct to stabilize with, but the constructed blacktop did not deign to yield itself against a kitten’s scratching.
The car slows upon taking a wide turn, swerving right around the thick threes on either side and vanishing from view.
“Come on girl, you can do it! Fly if you need to.”
“Not a girl!” Daniel all but roared, now breaking into a dead sprint and rushing along as fast as her legs could carry her.
Gone were the smooth movements and easy lopping gait, now it was furious pounding for the paws smashing against the smooth road and the discordant bounce of her spine and shoulders. The tail hung wide and stiff behind her to act as a balancing tool and the wings remained taught, coiled up like a spring just waiting for the chance to burst out and take flight. At this full sprint the Sphinx could feel like she herself had suddenly become a spring, each moment was coiling her legs together and then leaping forward. To slam those meaty paws down, grip the earth, and coil back up to do it again. And again and again through the trees, wind zipping past and the landscape a blur of green and brown. From down at this height it all seemed so much faster than when she was up above the clouds.
Angel seemed to be torn between the sheer amazement of her ride and the terror of what could occur if the ropes tore or Daniel’s stance shifted. To say nothing of an outright crash, be it into the trees or directly into oncoming traffic. This was so much faster the wind all but stole her breath, her entire body devoted to maintaining a hold on that soft bit of skin around the Sphinxes neck. Hands gripping the outright luxurious fur, a face stuffed deep into the back of the woman’s hair, and her legs wrapped up tight like one’s first time riding a wild bull. The ride was now bumpy and wild, the seat bucked and tossed with each step of the giant, and the woman found her seat was about as comfortable as one expects from riding without a saddle at full gallop.
“W-whaaahooo!” she screamed as an echo to the Roar, a wide smile on her face. “This is like riding a motorcycle, ahaha!”
“What?” Daniel shouted back, ears swiveling to try and hear past the blasting winds.
The trees offered no warning, one moment they were tall and imposing with a deep shade over the pathway, and the next moment they were simply gone. Replaced by wide open fields of slight dunes and patchy grasslands, the glistening shimmer of water far off to one side, the blend of brown and yellow where dirt became beach and the calm lake remained settled over a sandy shore.
Daniel found herself staring, even from such a vast distance away the waters appeared clean and vibrant. It was a place for people to fish in, and it was common for visitors to eat what they catch, so of course the lake needed to be habitable. But the road seemed to angle the opposite direction, aiming strait into another patch of tall trees that came up just as suddenly as the last forest had left. Flanked on one side by the tall mountains, and across the other was glistening waters.
With a swoosh the air around tinted green and the only view were the blending, blurred together shuffling of wood and leaves to either side.
“Is that the lake we’re after?” Daniel called back over her shoulder.
“What?” Angel replied in turn, leaning so closer her face was almost inside the Sphinx’s tawny colored lion ear.
A repeat of the above, making sure to keep pace with the truck just ahead, with Daniel starting to feel her muscles burning the question of when they stop becomes an important one.
“Yeah it’s just around the corner, but the dock and resort is the other side of the lake.” Angel shouted back by way of an answer. Her gaze swiveled in amusement at what it felt like to be in direct wind at this speed while riding something that breathed.
“Cool.”
Written by Arbon on 30 September 2016