Consciousness comes to me slowly, as I realize that I am awake and slowly open my eyes. Blinking a couple of times, my vision clears to reveal my surroundings, a typical Somani hospital room. I am slightly disoriented at first from my long period of unconsciousness, but then everything suddenly clicks into place as my memory returns to me. It is then that I excitedly crane my neck, looking over my shoulder, trying to see as much of my back as possible. I find that I don't have to stretch my neck too far though, as my rather-large wings cover a substantial field of my vision, lying there spread out behind me.

Yes, it has finally happened, after weeks of eagerly waiting, what once seemed like a foolish daydream has become a reality. As I lie there in bed, my mind racing wildly out of control, I try to fully appreciate how this is going to profoundly affect my life. Of course I had thought of this before to great lengths, but now that it has finally happened, my thoughts from the past months come flooding back to me.

I have been living on the Somani homeworld for just about eight months now, as part of the newly-developed cultural exchange program between our two worlds. Having discovered hyperdrive a few years ago, Earth had sent several exploration missions throughout our part of the galaxy, in the faint hope that we would discover that we weren't alone out in the great cosmic expanse. We had been very lucky, and by some phenomenal chance had met up with the Somani a little over two years ago.

The discovery of the Somani was very wondrous for us, but also a little strange at first. The Somani were basically a race of winged felinoids, walking upright on two legs, which was a bit of a surprise. Then again, these were aliens, and after the initial confusion, people from both societies began to get used to the other's form.

After the settling-in period, when both races had gotten to know a little about the other, diplomatic relations began. Everyone had been very optimistic, which proved to hold true, as both our planets came together in a somewhat tight alliance. Since both our worlds were now at peace, we had settled upon several ways in which our two societies could help each other for mutual benefit.

The Somani weren't as technically advanced as we were in the areas of space travel or artificial intelligence, but their general level of electronic and computer technology wasn't too far behind us. They had many of the basic instruments that we had, just not a lot of the higher-end equipment. Anyway, to make up for some of their technical shortcomings, they had surpassed us in a couple areas of science, especially in their medical techniques which were leaps and bounds ahead of us. Most of their scientific efforts had been focused on genetics, and their technology in this field was outstanding. Already several technological exchanges had taken place, and both worlds were benefiting greatly from them.

Then there was also the profound social implications of the whole situation. Soon after the initial diplomatic issues had been resolved, sociologists from both planets had flocked to the new world for the rich information and background they held.

It was also soon decided that in order to tie the two races closer together, that a cultural-exchange program should be set up going both ways. Humans and Somani from all walks of life were chosen to represent their people, as they were carted light-years away toward a fantastic, exotic and somewhat strange new world.

Upon hearing of the program, I had jumped at the chance, and made my appointment for the screening interview as soon as I could. I had always considered myself a little shy, and would never have imagined that I would be going so far from my familiar surroundings, but there was a reason that prompted me to be so adamant about wanting to make the journey.

I had always had a secret dream of being able to fly like the birds, and had never quite outgrown it from my childhood fantasies. I still would sometimes lie on my back gazing into the blue heavens and imagine myself soaring up there amongst the ether. Knowing that the Somani were winged creatures, I held them in very high regard and somewhat of a strange fascination. I realized that just being amongst them would fulfill more of my fantasy than I had ever dreamed possible. Just being able to see them fly would at least allow me to somewhat vicariously experience my fantasy.

During the interview I had been a little nervous and it had showed somewhat obviously, but they were impressed with my eagerness. Of course I hadn't told them the real reason behind my desire to embark on the exchange. Afraid of being thought a little foolish, I had skated around the situation by talking about what a wonderful race the Somani seemed to be and how I was interested in experiencing their society, which of course was by no means a lie.

The next week I had waited in anticipation until they had finally called me back with the wonderful news. For the cultural exchange to be the most effective, it was necessary to get as diverse a group as possible. Although many college students had applied, not too many of them had been in the technical fields like myself, so that had almost assured my position. Also, they told me that my genuine eagerness had impressed them and had made up for my slight awkwardness. Secondly, although extremely-outgoing people would have an easier time adjusting to new cultural surroundings, to recruit only those types of people would give a false picture of our population. So a certain percentage of the selected few were chosen to be a little more reserved, such as myself.

I couldn't believe how outstanding my luck had been. I was walking on air for the next two weeks before I had to report for my indoctrination into the exchange program. First there was a rather thorough and somewhat grueling series of medical exams, in which a small translator chip was implanted in each participant's cranium. This wonderful device allowed us to become instantly fluent in both written and spoken Somani, as if it was our native tongue. These chips had been in use for close to a century, and had been one of the driving forces behind global peace.

Once the exams were finished, and we had received a few vaccinations against the new strains of diseases we would encounter, we were ready to embark on our fantastic journey. The trip took slightly less than a month at our extreme speeds. During this interim we were thoroughly educated on what was already known of Somani culture.

Then finally after all of the waiting, we were finally there. It was such a wonderful, yet slightly scary experience to step out of the ship onto such vastly foreign soil. Their world was similar to ours in the fact of a blue sky, which was of a little deeper hue than ours, but it was also strangely different. The landscapes were similar to those on Earth, but a lot of the vegetation was changed to forms we had never even dreamed of.

Their architecture was also vastly different, using primarily curved edges in contrast to our straight lines and angles. Their cities were not as crowded as ours either, with their population density being a little less than half of ours. Therefore the cities didn't seem quite as crowded as ours, being rather spacious.

Then of course there was the Somani themselves. I had seen hundreds of images of them, but that didn't compare to seeing them in the flesh, face to face. They were basically large cats, who's spine had changed enough to enable them to walk upright. Although they were bipedal, they didn't have flat feet like we do, instead their feet and lower legs resembled that of a cat's, but thicker to support their weight; only their toes came into contact with the ground as the rest of the foot came up at a slight angle.

From the knee's up, they were roughly the same as humans, if you overlooked the thick tail extending from their lower back, reaching down to the ground giving them the balance they needed to offset the unsteadiness from the construction of their feet. Their upper body, arms and hands were again much like those of humans, although small retractable claws extended from the four digits on each hand.

Their heads were pretty much what you'd expect to see on a large feline, although their eyes were easily much more expressive, reflecting their intelligence. There were two exceptions to the design of the feline head which immediately caught the eye. First of all, the top of their heads was covered in a mane of hair, much like human hair, and their ears were larger than you'd see on a cat of that size. They appeared to be a bit more vulpine than feline, but the added effect was rather nice.

The coloring and fur patterns of the Somani was extremely varied. Colors varied from blacks and browns, to tans, to yellows and oranges, with many individuals having wild swirls or stripes of various colors, or even leopard spots. Also, having dark mitts and boots of coloring on the hands and feet was rather common. Some Somani had coats of uniform color, while many of them had a patch of lighter coloring along their abdomens. Just like Earth cats, their looks were wildly varied.

Then there was the asset about the Somani, which I found most exotic, the wings. Although they stood about equal in height with us humans, as soon as you added the extra foot or so from the wings, they somewhat towered over us. The wings connected to the body just below the shoulders and ran down to about the middle of the back. When fully extended, their wing span was about seven or eight feet, which was extremely impressive. The wings had several vertical ridges running through them, which not only supported them, but allowed them to fold inward against the body when not in use.

Their wings were covered in fur of the same color as the body, although slightly thinner there. The tips of the wings came to just over a foot above the head, while the lower edges extended to just a few inches above the ground. It was obvious that with their wings, the Somani took up much more space than us humans, and their buildings and vehicles reflected that. Every seat, table, doorway, couch and bed, was larger than it's Earth counterpart to accommodate their expansive wings.

Stepping off the ship and being confronted by all of these alien sights through me for a bit of a loop. Standing so close to the Somani was quite an experience, but nowhere as wonderful as seeing many of them flying gracefully through the air above and around the city. They were so graceful and fluid, they were pure poetry in motion.

The first few weeks on the Somani homeworld were kind of hard for me. I was part of the first group of the cultural exchange, consisting of only one thousand people. This had seemed like a large group on board the ship, but once we had landed we were quickly separated into much smaller groups. Each of these groups were spread throughout the surrounding continent so as to maximize the effect of the cultural exposure.

Being a college student, I was assigned a position at the local university, along with only fifty other humans. Since the university had over seven thousand students enrolled in it, we quickly became a vast minority. Then we were even further spread out throughout the campus. The dorm that I was assigned to only had three other humans in it, amongst the one-hundred fifty residents, so I quickly began to feel pangs of loneliness and homesickness.

It was particularly hard on me since I was somewhat shy. Also being a little shorter than average, around 5' 7", the height difference between the Somani and I was even more pronounced. This tended to make me feel even more uncomfortable, but luckily for me my floormates made up for this. There were several rather outgoing Somani who lived nearby, and who took it upon themselves to make me a part of nearly all of their activities. After we got over the awkwardness of dealing with aliens, and got to know one another as individuals, things began to go really well. By my first month there, I had made several close friends.

So the last several months had been extremely invigorating, exciting and lots of fun. It hadn't been without its small upsets though. Sometimes the differences between our two societies would be remarkably profound, and there were a few awkward moments here and there. The biggest one of these was the fact that the Somani tended to be a lot more "touchy feely" than humans do.

To them hugging or lightly touching the arms, shoulders or the legs were just simple signs of friendship, nothing more than a handshake or a high-five was to us. This had caused a couple of embarrassing incidents early on as I received these attentions from both males and females. Noticing my uncomfortable reaction, they had been confused and somewhat hurt, which had caused both of us to become rather uncomfortable. Again I was lucky that my new acquaintances were very understanding. We had been able to discuss the situations and easily resolve them. I then had begun to adjust to the laxness with which they treated personal space, and had been able to freely give and receive their acts of friendship.

I had gotten quite close with one or two of the Somani, and our friendships had become very deep. We would sometimes sit up talking until late in the evening, with topics ranging from discussions of our different cultures, to deep philosophical conversations, to random and rather silly ramblings caused by loose associations and our tiredness.

One of my closest friends, had asked my what had prompted me to come on the exchange program in the first place, noting the fact that I had been kind of shy at first. I hesitated a moment, thinking of just what to tell her, not knowing if I could trust her with such a personal secret, but then finally deciding that if I wanted to strengthen our relationship, I should be totally open with her. Taking a nervous breath, I had slowly told her about my dreams of flight and how I admired and also somewhat envied them for having that wonderful ability.

She didn't laugh at me like a small part of my mind had feared, she was very understanding. Although, at first it was a little hard for her to grasp, since she couldn't comprehend not being able to fly since it was an innate ability of theirs. We talked late into the night, with her trying to explain to me just exactly what it felt like. It was obvious that I couldn't truly comprehend what she was telling me, but she did her best to try and convey it to me.

It was then a little less than two weeks later, when she came running up to me in the hallway, obviously excited, and had thrown her arms around me in a friendly hug. She then began talking so fast and in broken sentences that I could hardly understand her. After she had calmed down, she was able to convey to me the wonderful news she had heard.

She was a research assistant in one of the many medical labs on campus, and had heard of an intriguing project that was in the works. She knew the doctor in charge of the project and had spoken to him at length that afternoon. It turns out that ever since our contact with the Somani, they had been vigorously studying our anatomy and genetic structure. Using loads of medical data as well as some cadavers transferred from Earth, they had succeeded, in a rather short period of time, in learning just about as much about us as they knew about themselves.

One of their big advances in medicine over us was the ability to re-generate damaged limbs, tissue and organs, thus restoring the body to its former state after any type accident. They had already performed some of these small procedures on humans hurt in accidents, such as healing broken bones or replacing cut or smashed fingers. Since they had such a phenomenal success with these simple operations, they were eager to try something much more ambitious.

Seeing as how humans and Somani were relatively close in body structure, one possible experiment that had been suggested was trying to give humans wings like they had, reasoning that it would be something very useful and helpful to our race. This is where I came in, she knew of my desire to fly and had mentioned this to the head doctor. Upon hearing this he was very interested in seeing me.

It seems that many humans were not very fond of the idea of having new body parts grown on them, and for good reason since it had shades of Frankenstein written all over it. I however was somewhat intrigued by the possibility of actually being able to fly, and that had offset some of the misgivings I had of the whole idea. I was still worried about the idea of genetic tampering, and had several in-depth and frank conversations with the doctors working on the project.

They understood my concerns, but also showed me how their genetic engineering had been used to totally remove birth defects and many debilitating diseases. Realizing that this would be different, by adding something totally new to my body, they assured me that the operation could be reversible, if I decided that the additions were something I didn't want. They also were confident of their abilities to perform the procedure with no major side-effects. Finally my curiosity and yearnings for flight had won over my misgivings and I decided to give it a try.

First off, they had started me out with several simulations, using the latest technology in virtual reality that we had given them. In these simulations they were able to let me experience what having wings would be like, how it would feel, and how my body area would be expanded. I was then able to experience for the first time what it would feel like to fly. It was a totally incredible experience, and that convinced me that I wanted to give this experiment a chance.

Over the next couple of months, several preparations were undertaken. First of all, they told me that I needed to strengthen my upper-body, especially my chest muscles, in order to be able to support my wings. So in addition to my daily runs, I would also spend time in the gym lifting weights. I had never liked weight workouts, but thinking of how I would soon be able to fly made it all worthwhile. A few of my new close friends went through the workouts with me, to keep up my ambition. It turned out that upon hearing of the planned experiment, they were just as excited as I was.

In the last month of the preparations, they had laid down a rudimentary set of artificial nerves running along my back. The operation, although somewhat involved, had been quick by Earth standards, only taking about four hours. Once these nerves were in place, they had given me a small portable unit, about the size of a deck of playing cards, which would send wireless signals to this nerve array. This unit would detect proximity information and relay that as tactile sensations, simulating the feel of wings. This allowed be to get used to amount of space my wings would take up, and learn how to avoid bumping them into objects.

At first it had been extremely difficult, but the gain of the simulator had been turned way down, so that even when I hit my virtual wings hard against something, or managed to shut them in a door, the pain was very light. As I got more used to them, the feedback amplitude of the unit was increased to more accurately simulate how real wings would feel. I soon got quite proficient at avoiding obstacles, and learned to sleep with my back propped against special pillows so they wouldn't be crushed while I slept.

I must have looked rather strange standing clear of objects with my invisible wings, but by then a lot of people had heard about the project. One good thing about Somani culture is their respect of individual privacy. Even though most everyone knew about what I would soon undertake, they were all very polite about it, and only my closest friends would discuss it with me. Had this been Earth, I would have been hounded by just about everyone from curious strangers to the media. The media here was much different than from back home. They reported only the essential news, not getting into people's private lives, not having all the tabloids and commercialism which still plagued us humans. After the operation, I was told, there would be a small press conference, to be scheduled at my convenience. Even then they would be very courteous with me, I would know all the questions ahead of time, and they would keep it rather short.

As the date of the operation grew nearer, I became much more excited. I was still a little nervous, but I had complete trust in the miraculous Somani medical science. They answered any and all of my questions in a friendly and thorough manner. They explained that the operation would consist of the controlled activation of cellular growth, producing the construction of the wing structure from my back. The artificial array of nerves they had laid down would be replaced by real neural pathways, then the new muscles, bones, flesh and skin of the wings would be added.

Although the wings would be of Somani design, they would also be of human genetic structure. Fully understanding both Somani and human DNA, they would be able to tweak my genetic codes, adding the desired sequences which would grow the wings. The whole process was rather involved, so it would take a little over two days from start to completion. During this time, I would be unconscious, suspended on life support, in a chamber of amniotic fluid which would promote tissue growth.

As for the operation being reversible, they assured me that this would be no more difficult than the original procedure. Instead of simply removing the wings, which would leave me an amputee, they would slowly reverse the process. They would remove the wings, but would leave the nerves intact, for the moment. Then, just as I had been trained to learn how my wings felt, I would slowly be weaned from their sensory input, until my body no longer expected it. The extra nerves would then be removed, and I would be just as I had been before. There would be some residual mental effects from this though, since I would then know what it felt like to have wings, and would somewhat emotionally and intellectually miss their presence. They reminded me though, that if I liked the wings that much, than there was no need to have them removed, and if I absolutely hated them, then getting rid of them would make me feel better.

With this knowledge, I had decided to go with my dreams and undergo the procedure. I was still a little nervous, but I knew that if I never took advantage of this opportunity, I would always regret it and wonder what it would have been like. Now lying in bed like this, with my real wings finally spread out beneath me, I am confident that I made the correct decision.

As my mind is still racing somewhat wildly with all my of excited thoughts, I am interrupted as the head doctor from the project enters my room. "Hello Will, how are you feeling today?" he asks in a very cheery, yet professional tone.

"Great!" I reply enthusiastically. "I can't wait to get out and stretch my wings and see how well they work."

Noting my enthusiasm, he smiles warmly at me. He was impressed with how strong my desire to fly had been, and has been very supportive throughout the whole experience. "I'm glad you're so happy with the results so far, how would you like to take a better look at yourself?"

Seeing my second enthusiastic reply, he helps me out of bed and to a standing position. I am a little unsteady at first, since the simulations hadn't been able to thoroughly show me what the weight of the wings would feel like. After a few moments of slightly adjusting my posture I am able to become comfortable to their small, yet noticeable added weight.

He then leads me to a full-length mirror on the opposite side of the room so I can admire my reflection. I stand there clad only in somewhat loose-fitting hospital pants, with my upper body exposed. Spreading out my wings I am impressed with their full span of about seven feet, scaled perfectly to my size. As with the Somani, their tips come to just under a foot above my head, and down to about two-thirds of the way down my calves. However, unlike the Somani, my wings are made of human flesh, with the skin color being the same as the rest of my body. They look weird since they are just naked flesh, not covered by fur like the wings I'm used to looking at, but I had seen projections of what I'd look like, so I'm prepared for the view.

Standing there, I admire my new attributes as I somewhat vainly flex them for my own viewing pleasure. I get somewhat lost in the reflection and am brought back to reality by the doctor's gentle touch on my shoulder. Turning to him, his smile reflects that of my own. "So I trust everything turned out to your satisfaction Will, you seemed to enjoy the view."

"Yes" I agree, feeling completely at ease with him, enjoying his warmth and personableness which has been with me since the beginning of the project. "I look a little strange for the moment, but it is something I'll get used to. Already I can appreciate how good they look on me..."

"That's good, now how would you like to try them out instead of just admiring them?"

Again I am very quick to agree to his suggestion and he leads me out of the room, and down the hall to a very large and expansive room. I am a little sheepish about walking around in just a pair of hospital pants, but luckily they are full pants, unlike the ones commonly seen in hospitals with the backs open, and at least in this part of the hospital, nobody else seems to be around. Entering the room, which is the size of about two and a half gymnasiums, he explains, "this is our flying room. Sometimes we'll have a patient whose wings are badly damaged and they will need to go through an operation much like the one you went through. Afterwards we need to make sure that everything came out okay, so we need to have a place where they can take a quick test flight. We've already done a complete physical scan on you, and things seem to be all in order, but we can't be sure until you show us how they actually work."

I practically jump at the chance to finally test out my wings. Crouching down slightly, I spread my wings out and jump up lightly in the air, flapping my wings the way I had learned from the simulations. Again the simulations weren't totally accurate, and I am a little unsteady at first, but soon fully get the feel for it. Before long I am swooping throughout the room, enjoying the ability to do graceful glides and quick turns and spins. I fly excitedly around the room for what must have been half an hour before remembering about the doctor waiting below, and somewhat grudgingly coming down to a skillful landing. I had enjoyed the times I had spent on the simulator learning how to fly, but there was always a slight bit of unreality about it. Now after really flying for the first time, I could see how pale the simulation had been to the actual experience.

When I finally do land, I greet the doctor with an outburst of excitement as I try to describe to him just how wonderful the experience had been. He stands there patiently listening to my wild ramblings with an amused smile on his face. It is also obvious from his expression that he is very impressed with the amount of skill my first flight involved.

As I'm babbling wildly to him, overwhelmed by my excitement, I hear a familiar feminine voice behind me calling my name. Turning around I see it is one of my close Somani friends come to see me. In fact she is the one that first introduced me to the idea of the whole project. "Hello Will," she greets me with a warm smile, "you look wonderful. Did I miss your first flight?"

"Yes you did" I say running madly at her, pumped up from the exhilaration, and extremely happy. I embrace her in a rather strong friendly hug as I start to talk wildly at her. "Mazzi, it was wonderful, I never knew it could be like this, now I know what you were trying to tell me when you were trying to explain it to me, it's just so wonderful, I felt so free..."

Seeing me all hyper like this, she giggles with her usual bubbly personality. Finally she puts one of her hands gently over my mount and hugs me a little tighter with the other one, slowly calming me down. Smiling at me she replies, "it's good to see you lose control like that, I don't think I've ever seen you so taken by anything quite this way before, it's really amusing and cute." Then turning to the doctor who is watching the whole spectacle with obvious amusement, she asks "so did everything come out okay, is he ready for his first outdoor flight?"

"Yes, he's in wonderful shape. A moderate flight would be very good for him." Then addressing me before he leaves the arena, "everything should be just fine Will, but I'd like you to come in for a quick checkup in a week just to make sure."

I respond with a quick affirmative as he leaves and then turn back to look at Mazzi. Over the past few months, she and I have gotten very close. I'd easily say that she is my best friend here. I had occasionally wondered if things between us would develop into something romantic, but I didn't want to push the issue. I was extremely happy having her as such a close friend, and I was somewhat reluctant to chance that and try and pursue her as a possible lover. For the moment I am content with the way our relationship is. "Thanks for coming Mazzi, this really means a lot to me."

"Well you know I wouldn't have missed this, being such an important day for you and all. Besides, I wasn't going to let anyone else take you out on your first real flight. I wanted the pleasure of that experience for myself. Oh and I brought you a present." With that she picks up a small bag she had been holding, but then dropped when I practically jumped into her arms. Reaching into it she brings out a Somani shirt, with a slit running down the back to accommodate for the wings. In keeping with the Somani's love of bright colors, the shirt is a nice radiant hue of red.

"Thanks Maz, that's really thoughtful of you, it will go great with the blue shorts I'll be wearing."

"You're welcome, I had the feeling that you might have been so excited about everything that you may have forgotten about needing a whole new set of shirts, so I went ahead and got you this. We can go shopping later if you want, but first I'd like to take you to a peak near here which has a really nice view this time of year."

"That sounds great, how far away is it?"

"About twenty-five kilometers." At first this seems like a huge distance to me, since I'm used to running for my exercise, then I realize that by flying it will be much easier to cover the same distance in a much shorter time. Therefore, this flight won't actually be too long.

"Okay, let's go. Just let me get changed first." We walk out of the large flight room, and back up the hallway to my room. Then after opening the door, I turn to her, and in keeping with our playful friendship, I jokingly flirt "so you can either stay out here, or if you want you can watch me change." I finish this up by winking at her a couple of times and flashing a wide grin.

Returning my grin she playfully replies "oh I'd better stay out here. I don't know if I could stand seeing your wonderful body naked. I might get all excited and pass out or something."

Laughing briefly at our silly joke, I close the door and quickly change, returning out into the hall to model my new shirt with my shorts. Standing there I pose playfully for her, keeping my posture as straight as I can and flexing my wings slightly.

"Will, you look great" she compliments with genuine affection making me beam with pride. "Let's get going, I'm anxious to see you fly."

Walking to the top of the building and then out onto the roof, we emerge into the sunlight of an absolutely gorgeous day. Following her lead, we run to the edge of the roof, jumping out into the air spreading our wings and taking flight.

Again the feelings are so new and wonderful that they almost overwhelm me. My mind and heart almost explode from the joy I'm feeling from the realization of one of my innermost dreams. The trip to the peak lasts about twenty minutes and we enjoy every moment of it. Mazzi is somewhat surprised at the skill of my flight as we do a series of complicated swoops and swirls around one another.

Finally we reach our destination where the view is extremely rewarding. We stand on the top of a small mountain, which is flattened out on top giving a small plateau of about an acre or so. In all my time on the planet, I had never been up this high, in fact I had never really been outside of the city. Now looking out across the wonderful landscape I see the city in the distance, surrounded by roaming countryside. The sun is bright and the sky is its beautiful shade of blue as small puffy clouds drift lazily overhead. The whole picture is just so perfect, and accompanies my exhilaration quite nicely.

Turning to Mazzi, I look at her and once again notice just how beautiful she is. She stands pretty much at my height, with her wings being roughly the same size as mine. Her coat is a lovely golden color, dotted with leopard spots which are very cute. Her hair is a light brown with light waves through it, coming down in the back to just above her shoulders. Her muzzle is covered in white fur, which runs down her neck, trailing down into her shirt. She is wearing red shorts with a rather bright green shirt, both of which nicely compliment her fur coloring. The whole effect is really quite adorable, and in the back of my mind I briefly ponder the remote possibility of us falling in love.

Then once again we embrace in a comfortable and friendly hug. I lean my head against her shoulder enjoying the feel of her warmth, still teeming with excitement from the flight. "Thanks for taking me here Mazzi, it's just so beautiful. I can't possible tell you how wonderful this has been and what this means to me."

She reaches up to softly stroke the back of my head and run her hand through my hair. Then with a gentle nudge, she guides my head up and back so we're looking face to face. She is smiling at me with incredible warmth, and gazing into her beautiful blue eyes, I almost get lost in their depths.

In the back of my mind I realize that something is different here. There is something subtle in the way she is looking at me with a mix of emotions registering on her face. Then looking up at me with those beautiful wide eyes, she brings her mouth to mine and gives me a soft, yet deliberate kiss.

As our lips make contact I'm startled by the whole turn of events, yet pleasantly surprised. I reflexively kiss her back softly but also give her a quick squeeze of surprise with my arms. The kiss only lasts a few moments, she then pulls away slightly and asks me "was that okay Will?"

"Yes," I stammer slightly in my amazement, "it was wonderful, it's something I have been sort of thinking about for some time now, but I didn't know that you felt that way about me."

Again smiling warmly at me she replies, "I have been becoming more interested in you over the past month, but I sensed some hesitation or uncertainty in you, so I thought it would be best if we played it slow. Then lately I've decided that I should give it a chance and see how you responded. I figured today would be a good day to do it, with all the other wonderful experiences you were having. I also wanted to make the moment perfect, so I waited until I could take you out here where we could be alone in this beautiful setting."

"Thanks Mazzi. I'm glad you made the first move, otherwise who knows how long we would have waited. I still want to take it slow though. We've come this far, and I don't want to mess things up by moving too quickly."

She answers me with a quiet nod. Then squeezing her a little closer, I move my lips toward hers and we once again kiss, just as softly as before, but this time stretching out the moment, savoring it. The feel of her fuzzy lips against mine feels so nice, and our embrace feels so warm and natural. I enjoy holding her there, as we relish in the feelings of this close friendship, which has just grown even closer.

We hold each other for what seems to last for ever, nothing could happen to make this a better day. Right now it has obtained perfection and will be forever etched in my memory. I finally end the moment by softly thanking her again for all that she has done for me. We then decide that since it is starting to get late we should be leaving.

"Why don't we fly into town quickly and do a little shopping, since you need some more shirts? Then my parents would like to have us visit them for dinner, they are really excited for you. Then I thought we could spend the evening at the theater since there are several new movies we haven't seen."

I agree with her on all counts. Her parents are extremely nice, and have become somewhat of a second family to me. Spending the rest of the day with her sounds wonderful, and the thought of cuddling against her while watching a movie is just so inviting.

So having decided how to spend the rest of our waking hours today, we again take a running leap off of the plateau and glide gracefully into the wide blue sky. I let her get slightly in front of me for a moment so I can admire her beautiful form flying ahead of me. Then with my spirits soaring high, I rush to catch up to her, and fly swooping by, as we continue the game of aerial tag we had been playing earlier.

Copyright 1994, Will A. Sanborn - was1@shore.net