It started innocently enough.

There I was, standing on the precipice, wind whipping my hair out behind me and turning my face ruddy. The sheer drop lay inches before my feet. I raised my head to the skies and let out a piercing shriek.

In the distance a small speck caught my sight. It grew larger and larger, forming her unmistakable shape. She rose and fell on the wind, effortless. Such a magnificent creature, like nothing I’d ever seen on Earth. With a dip of her splendid wings, she circled high above. Tucking them into her body, she plummeted in my direction. I couldn’t help but smile. I waited for her to pull up… waited, then worried. Still she fell and I lost sight of her in the mists below.

My pulse raced, my breathing shallow, and then I heard her. She called to me on the wind. A high-pitched whine, growing louder by the second and then her feathered head was in front of me; her amber eyes boring into mine. I inched back from the edge, taking in her beauty once again. Her humanoid face surrounded by the glorious orange-tinged feathers. Her bare, elegant neck, shoulders and arms wide supporting those wondrous wings. My gaze lingered on her full breasts covered only with the slightest down, down past her slender rear and thin legs to her clawed feet. Like nothing on Earth.

She floated before me, head cocked to one side. I smiled and she mirrored my expression.

With a single flap of her wings, she came to rest before me on the ledge. Her eyes implored me to speak.

I cleared my throat and stammered a little. “I… I have to go.”

A look of puzzlement flirted across her face. “Go?” she said, her voice high-pitched and quavering.

I nodded and took a deep breath. “Yes. My time here is over.”

She cocked her head to the other side. I knew she understood. She just didn’t want to. She understood English well. I taught her… even though I shouldn’t have.

Those amber eyes peered deep within my soul. “We?” she asked.

I shook my head, holding back the tears. “No. Just me. This is your home. I must return to mine.”

I had told her that this would happen some day. The longest a human had been able to stay on Arcuria IV was two years – and that was not without complications. I’d been here 18 months and I was starting to struggle with the atmosphere. I should never have let our relationship develop this far. She and I were not even compatible in so many ways.

Her eyes glistened. I wondered if it was the wind or something else. I didn’t even know if she could cry. She opened her small mouth and let out a bloodcurdling screech. I covered my ears and shut my eyes.

When I re-opened them, she was gone. I turned and trudged my way down the mountain via the narrow muddy track I’d traversed so often over my time on the planet. It was a lonely walk and the twin moons were high in the sky when I reached my dwelling. Would I see her again before I left in the morning?

~

The sun painted the horizon in glorious yellow as I rose the following day. You know in stories when the main character has a tinge of melancholia the weather reflects that? It’s bullshit in real life. Your mood has little effect on the weather. So with a heavy heart, I ventured out into the beautiful dawn… and there she was, perched high in the branches of an Ashkar tree, her wings furled around her like a feathered quilt. Her eyes were closed and she cooed in soft, even tones.

I watched her just as I had the first time I encountered her. She was more skittish then, unsure of my presence but every day she returned. I figured it was her territory we were surveying. Each day she came a little closer, timid but curious. We grew comfortable in one another’s presence… and something more.

Her eyes sprung open and she was staring back at me. Spreading her wings, she floated down to me and rested her forehead against mine. Our daily ritual.

“Stay,” she murmured.

“I can’t.”

As she drew away, her face was wet. My throat was dry. With a beat of her wings, she launched herself high into the sky, disappearing into the distance. I wiped away an errant tear. It was better this way. If I stayed it would be just as bad. I’d have maybe another six months before the atmosphere destroyed my body and then she’d have to watch me die. Maybe I’d be able to come back… although no one ever had.

With our own planet dying, Arcuria IV was to be a stepping stone to a more viable planet, if we could ever find one. Nothing more.

I spent the rest of the day packing and readying my craft for the short hop to the upper atmosphere to rendezvous with the transport carrier. She remained absent.

I secured my belongings and settled into the cockpit. The whine of the engines increased and I inverted the jets to perpendicular in preparation for take-off. They gathered power and I rose into the air. I busied myself with the readouts and gauges, as I altered the position of the jets, and I almost missed her.

I caught a movement from the corner of my eye from the viewing-port. Just the tip of a wing. She was there. She flew in a tight arc before my craft and hovered before me, letting out a shriek. I raised my hand. Did she know what a wave was?

“Stay!” she screamed.

Tears streamed down my face as I increased the power to the engines once again. I manoeuvred the craft away from her but she followed, coming dangerously close.

“Don’t go!” Her scream reverberated around me. I’d never experienced this before and I knew I had to go.

She pointed her wings forward and drew in a deep breath. I’d only ever seen this when she hunted; when she went in for the kill.

“Please, don’t!” I yelled but it was too late. She dove at the craft whilst I struggled to move out of her way. The craft lurched to the right, one engine whined and I saw the plume of smoke, fire and… feathers erupt from the left hand jet and I knew she was gone.

I slumped into the chair, my heart heavy, my vision blurred. Gone. The sirens drew me out of my fugue state. The control desk lit up, beeping and whining. The engines were in meltdown. I toggled switches and levers but to no avail. After a brief feeling of weightlessness, I plummeted, pinned against the ceiling. I rushed past the escarpement I’d spent so many hours on with her, down past the mists below.

Is that what she felt like when she flew? It was an errant thought as I realised that she was getting her wish after all. Maybe we’d meet somewhere else, where all of this didn’t matter; where we’d be able to soar together and never have to be apart.

Who knows?