Daniel spots Keth
Despite everything, the sphinx manages to stay calm and patient with her new role as a theme park attraction. Conversations were more often short and frustrating than a means to gain new friends, having to constantly fight against disbelief in her words and a stunned awe at her existence. In the distance she manages to spot Keth walking forward with a fishing pole slung over the shoulder and a very meager looking basket in his hand. At first it appeared as if he would be shifting towards the line the same way everyone else was, but Daniel took this moment to stand up. A startled gasp from so many onlookers, a happy cry of excitement from those riding between her wings.
To all the world it looked as if half of these folk were stunned anew at the movement. They acted as if on the notion that Daniel was merely a mechanical park attraction and her gentle shifting onto four legs shattered a dozen preconceptions. With a crowd still milling under her feet and on her tail, she had to take extra care so as to avoid stepping on anyone. Which for the most part simply meant never raising her paws more than a few inches off the ground.
A few toes were stepped on as punishment for venturing too close, yet the shape and width of a lions paw pads simply gave them the impression of a heavy pillow weighing down atop a shoe.
“Looks like you’re having fun.” Keth intoned, watching a few of the crowd disperse as the more cowardly decided it best to hand out of claws reach.
“I feel like I should get a job here and demand snackrifices. These fish are like popcorn that taste funny.” Daniel’s tone was of half resigned annoyance rather than a genuine mirth, even through a forced attempt at levity.
“They don’t taste fishy to you, do they?”
Daniel could only frown.
“You’re doing that on purpose.”
“Fish, much like visitors, start to smell after but three days.” Was Keth’s smug reply. “Most of the boats are tied up right now, Angel wanted me to ask if you’re up for going swimming?”
“I don’t know. Cat’s aren’t supposed to like water.” Daniel thought it over, scanning her eyes toward the horizon in search of the other two friends she’d made. Or were they just allies that happened to be friendly?
“Do birds like water? You look like you’re part bird and I know some don’t like getting their wings wet.”
It was at that moment Daniel flinched her head back, hair standing on end and her tail going stiff. There was a dripping, sticky spot of liquid that for a moment felt like rain dropping onto her shoulders. It clung to the fur and oozed in between her feathers, thin lines spilling down her chest and dropping to the ground bellow. But a glance to the sky showed all but no chance of rain, let alone singular drops big enough to wet the entire base of her wings. While the drop may have felt normal size, by her current scale that would have meant a raindrop as large as a human hand.
“Billy!” a middle aged woman all but shouted, surging forward with a panicked desperation as if worried over embarrassment and dismemberment at the same time. “What did I tell you about climbing with your juice bottle, you get down right now and apologize!”
Keth, for his part, just snickered in the background.
The sphinx had a hard time looking back at what transpired, yet she could feel as more than one person slid off and still others extended grasping hands to help the smallest down. The woman strolled rather nervously toward Daniel’s front, having to look up and up and so very up now that the human shaped skull wasn’t flat against the dirt. The lioness could see her arms cradling a very small boy, toddler more than a young child, clutching a crunched up plastic bottle with bright decorations on the sides.
“I’m sorry.” The boy mouthed.
And it was all Daniel could do to repress a sigh. Heavy, deep breath in from the nose, fallowed by a sharp yet slow exhale that ruffled hair and spread a warm fish scented aroma over the crowd.
“Its fine, I’m sure it will wash out. You don’t have to worry about anything ma’am.” But now standing among a widely dispersed crowd, seeing the lake empty and quiet with so many concentrated in this patch by the roads, and more to the point her stomach full and the taste of fish still lingering on her tongue, she had another decision to make. “You all don’t mind if I take a break from this soon? I have a friend I’d like to meet up with.”
Friend. Angel was definitely a friend, which probably meant that Keth and Charley should be to. What else could you call them? How else could one think of them? Even now those three had given up a great deal just to help a dangerous looking stranger. Someone who was yet stranger than most, by present accounts.
The sphinx was met with rather mixed results, some opting for a last few petting’s now that she was standing as if having the chance to rub a lion’s belly was some grand achievement. Others milled off toward the parking lot of the log hotel amidst heavy gossip. Some seemed to be complaining and griping, mostly those of middle age. What exactly their offence might have been was hard to determine, and awkward for the winged giant to go and find out.
“Eheh …” Daniel offers, glancing down at Keth. “Give me a few moments, I’ll catch up.”
Written by Arbon on 19 January 2017