He made her light as air, skipping from one rock to the next one moment alongside him, the next above as she leapt from one rock to the other. It was freeing, to simply fly as she once had though this time the distance was shorter the joy was no less. She didn’t know the darkness he felt lay within him, though she unknowingly she hoped one day she might, the lightening of his spirits was contagious between the two of them. There was an underlying concern about revealing what felt almost like a dirty secret, though the fact that she had taken a mate was nothing she should feel bad about. Soon she would tell him, he deserved to know everything about her, but it wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on for the moment. For now she could simply fly beside him.

They moved in a synchronicity that while hinted at in the meadow before was pure poetry now. Leaps, foot holds, bodies moving in fluid motion in and around one another as if in some kind of well-rehearsed dance as they ran up the mountainside. It still amazed her, even hours later, to feel so connected to someone like this. It was as if she knew where he would be before he was there, and he knew the same about her. She shot him a sly smile in response to his pointed remark, though she could tell there were words left unsaid thereafter. Her head tilted, wondering what he might have to hold back from her but it wasn’t her place to pry in to whatever inner turmoil prevented him from speaking.

For the most part she followed his lead up in to the higher reaches of the mountains, occasionally running ahead, her tawny form flashing in the sun they were seemingly trying to catch before she looped back around to be near him once more. Her smile widened as his gracious acceptance of her game of tag, or so she thought. Her aquamarine flashed as she watched him leap in and out, unknowing however as to what exactly he was planning. In a flash she was on top of him, her legs straddling either side of his broad shoulders and girth, bouncing along slightly as she shifted her weight to where she seemed to rest perfectly in the curve of his spine. She released a barking laugh which tumbled in and over itself repeatedly, her joy and surprise uncontrollable.

They bounced along, surely a surprising sight for anyone who might happen upon them. She gripped his neck gently between her teeth, holding the slack skin that allowed mothers to carry their pups to secure herself to him. “Faster noble steed!” she cried, the words somewhat jumbled around his hair in her mouth but still understandable. It was a different view up here, high upon his shoulders. The view over the side of the mountain they climbed was breathtaking, the trees, rivers, and lakes below spanning out before them as if they were royalty and all of it might be theirs.

She leaned forward toward his ear, releasing her grip on his neck only momentarily, “How many can say they have ridden the moon?” she whispered to him. He might pick up on her new nick name for her soon, and she would have to explain the metaphor of her Sun and Moon, the two parts of her which rotated seemingly opposite of each other, but that could come later. Gripping his neck again she focused on balancing and where they were going. Surely they were nearing his parents den, as high as they now were in the reaching peak of the mountain. For now she would simply enjoy the view.