Of Scales and Feathers

"This stinks. We stink," Gilda said weakly, a mixture of pain and fatigue washing over her body as she lay beside Spike at the campfire. He had gathered a few stray vines and her wing now lay in a pseudo-splint; while it helped with the pain to a substantial degree, it did nothing for her comfort levels. It felt stiff now, and she could tell that her armor was doing nothing to help the matter.

"Speak for yourself," Spike said with a smile, reaching in and shifting a log with his hand. "I smell like a bed of roses!"

"If roses smelt like garbage day in the slums, sure," she retorted with a half-hearted smile. She didn't have much energy left for joking but couldn't bring herself to sleep. It hadn't helped matters before and it sure wouldn't do anything for her now with a broken wing. With her luck, she'd be unconscious for some big disaster and have to be dragged away.

"You want me to help you out of your armor?" he said nonchalantly before backpedaling into a stammering, nervous tone. "I mean, not like in a romantic way. You just seem like your.. Y'know, fidgeting a lot. Sorry."

If she wasn't so tired, she might have laughed and gave a flirtatious retort. Unfortunately, Gilda only felt about three things: pain, fatigue, and sticky. "Yeah," came the quiet reply, her weight shifting off of Spike and rolling her onto her feet. She twitched subtly as her feet struggled to support the combined weight of her body and all of its accessories.

"Alright," Spike said shakily, still mentally slapping himself for not paying attention to his speech. He got to his feet and reached out, his hands hovering over her torso hesitantly until he realized something rather important. "I have no idea what I'm doing here, Gilda."

"There's a buckle on the underside. Had to stand up. Sit back down, unbuckle the buckle. Oughta come off," she said, speaking in short bursts as her energy slowly seeped from her bones the longer she stood up peering into the forest. Any moment now, she expected something to come to them. To finish them off. To start something else.

But as she heard the clinking and clacking of buckles being undone, felt the weight of her armor being gently - she'd have to thank Spike for that - lifted off of her back, she couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. She opened her mouth to thank Spike, but all that came out was "Tha-" before she dropped like a stone, face-first towards the fire.

Her vision swirled as she felt herself being pulled away, a muffled "Woah!" coming from her side before all went silent. The moon was the final sight before darkness rightfully claimed her thoughts, sleep overtaking her. This left a rather confused and uncomfortable dragon in a bit of a predicament, however.

Spike now had what seemed to be a living, breathing boulder lying atop his chest. While this wouldn't be a problem normally, as he could just roll the perpetrator over and off of him, he didn't believe such a thing might be too good of an idea, given Gilda's condition. He had been silently wishing for her to sleep for what seemed like hours now, and she had finally collapsed - quite literally - from exhaustion.

On the other hand, she was also pressing down onto his chest with dead weight. With a sudden pang of fear, he held extremely still - he needed to know if Gilda's dead weight didn't mean a dead gryphon. After hearing shallow breaths and feeling her ribs press into him gently repeatedly, he let out his held breath in relief and happiness.

"Okay," Spike said determinedly. With just over a crawl of a speed, Spike wrapped his arms around Gilda and slowly shifted to sit upwards. He could feel heat rushing to his face as the thought of just how close he was bringing her, but it didn't slowly him down. Cradling her head to him and holding her body still, namely her wing, he shifted her posture until she laid across his lap and he could safely set her down.

Then he worked on maneuvering his legs and scooting over until her head was supported by his thigh, with her torso only partially leaning onto him. It took some effort and he was now panting due to the precision and strength it required to make it all work, but she seemed genuinely comfortable as she slept atop him. Behind him he felt something brush against his tail and he whipped his head around instinctively to check for danger.

Greeting him was an unusual sight, but nothing to be afraid of. Gilda's tail, with its bushy tip and furry length, was twitch slightly as it bumped into the scaly obstacle that was Spike's tail. His expression softened and he let out a half-relieved and half-amused chuckle. On a whim, he moved his tail to worm its way under Gilda's and twined around it carefully; to his surprise, her tail ceased its twitching and he heard a soft murmur come from the sleeping gryphoness.

When he looked down to check on her, thinking she had either woken up or become uncomfortable, he found only that she had the faintest hint of a smile on her beak, its corners raised ever-so-slightly. Taking another glance at their entwined tails, Spike gave another short laugh, tilting his head at the oddity.

"Wonder what's up with that," he asked the empty air around him. Nothing could be heard, save the soft breathing of the gryphoness below him, a crackling fire, and a very faint breeze brushing through the trees. Oddly enough, he felt at peace here. Despite the insanity that had overcome both he and his companion, Spike felt rather comfortable just sitting here by the fire with Gilda.

He also noticed how often he looked back on a day's events when he was left with nothing to do. Maybe it was something Twilight had taught him, or perhaps it was just something he taught himself how to do when the hours grew longer and the times grew calmer. In any case, it wasn't anything short of entertaining for the young dragon, so he couldn't rightly complain.

He went on this way for any number of hours - it had felt like two to Spike, but as he saw the beginnings of light peering over the dark horizon of trees, he realized he may have misjudged. Then he remembered just how quickly the day had passed before. Giving a glance towards Gilda and then back towards the light of day, he gave a quick groan before making a split-second decision.

"Gilda. Hey," he said softly, nudging her shoulder with minimal force. He didn't want to wake her, truly - he wished he could leave her there in her blissful rest for as long as she needed. But they needed to use the daylight to their advantage. The timberwolves wouldn't stay away forever, and who knows what else would be out in the forest lying in wait for them.

"Hey," he said, leaning a bit closer. As she began to stir, he smiled in greeting her. "Hey there," he whispered. Her eyes slowly opened and he could see the gears beginning to turn within her eyes. Suddenly she gave a gasp and jerked her body, pain obviously shooting throughout her body.

"Woah, woah, chill out. It's okay," he said as he laid a hand across her chest and slowly laid her back down onto his lap. Ignoring the heat rising back to his face, he gave priority to the gryphoness' safety over his own comfort. "You've been asleep for a few hours now. The sun is rising, though. We should get moving."

Gilda's breathing slowly returned back to normal, reverting back from the pained panting that she had brought on by moving her body in just the wrong way, bending her wing. Her eyes opened again, focusing beyond the adrenalin brought on by pain. "I'm good," she repeated a few times, raising her head and rolling off of Spike's lap carefully. If she had a comment upon Spike's choice of a pillow, she didn't let it be known.

Spike watched as Gilda regained her bearings, blinking her eyes shut tightly a few times as she adjusted to the change in brightness. "Yeah, you're.. Right," she said, her voice dropping suddenly as she took on an expression resembling an animal caught in the path of a train.

Following her gaze, Spike's eyes rested upon his tail wrapped around her own. "Oh! Sorry about that," he said casually, moving his tail to slither off of her's. Immediately the bushy tip of Gilda's tail disappeared from view as she pulled it back around her, out of sight. She seemed to be looking everywhere but at Spike and he could only think to ask what was wrong.

"The, uh.. The tail thing," she stammered, her voice uncharacteristically shaky. "That, for gryphons, is uh.. Well, you know how we have beaks?" He nodded. "And you know how you need lips to.. Well, to uh, to kiss?" He nodded, this time a bit more slowly as he clenched some grass underneath him. She knew he knew and could partially feel the heat radiating off of his body from being so close.

"I am so.. So, sorry," he said sincerely, his voice dropping to something of a mixture between mumbling and whispering. It was evident he understood the gravity of the situation, but Gilda figured that it wouldn't exactly be fair to torture the dragon - he hadn't known, after all.

"It's okay," she blurted out perhaps a bit more quickly than she meant to. "I mean, you didn't know, right?"

His reply was instantaneous, nervous, and utterly confusing. "I promise I didn't, Gilda. If I had, I wouldn't have - I mean, I'm not saying that I wouldn't.. Do that, but I didn't mean to. And I, uh.. I'm just gonna be quiet and find us something to.. Yeah."

Spike turned away and visibly shook at the hands and knees as he walked towards the woods to try and do.. Whatever it is he intended to do. She had to admit that his flustered speech was kinda cute - in its own confused way. Like someone who.. Inadvertently kissed her without realizing what he was doing. Yeah, there weren't many things that could top that in her mind.

In any case, she did have to get moving before she got too comfortable sitting here in wait. Struggling to her feet, she slowly and carefully stretched her limbs until she heard various poppings, felt the comfortable pulling of muscles, and gave a slight groan as she woke herself up. With a subtle limp, she followed after the dragon and called, "Wait up! I can't move nearly that fast."

He spun around mid-step, nearly tripping over himself as he rushed back towards her. He began to apologize but caught himself before he could, settling instead on, "You shouldn't be up yet."

"You just said we should get moving. And it's true," Gilda said truthfully, catching him in his own logic. She caught his glance and shrugged, "Forget the armor. I can always get another set. We won't be able to buy more daylight, and who knows how long this day will last."

"But-" he began, but saw her expression. It was something he hadn't ever seen on her face before - something he truly never did expect to see. Her eyes matched her expression, and she was pleading with him. He caught his complaint in his throat, stammered a bit, but dropped his shoulders and sighed.

"You know I'm right," she stated obviously. Then, seeing his expression of concern, she reached over and nuzzled him affectionately - appearances be damned. It was all she needed to do to let him know it was okay, and it seemed to do the trick. He perked up quickly and exhaled quickly as he became more determined.

"First thing's first, then. We need some water," he said with finality, reaching his full height and full attention. Gilda realized how simple his emotions could be sometimes, but also realized that that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Maybe - just maybe - she could get used to this kind of thing.

Only time would tell.