The wedding party stood assembled in their finest gowns and suits. Excited children ran wildly from person to person. Streamers and balloons escaped small hands, and flew erratically in the air above the crowd.

A band of unreliable size played folk music on traditional instruments; energetic celebratory sounds settling in around the chatter.

Teenagers expectant, jealous; parents nostalgic, excited, scared.

Suddenly the band stopped playing, a discordant last breath from the large horn hushed the crowd, and the bride appeared. Her father would have said she was beautiful, and she was. Eela's long black hair was plaited close to her head, and her glittering eyes were moist with happiness. She was dressed in a spotless plain white robe, covered from toes to neck.

Walking silently up to her parents, she kissed them both on the forehead, pulling her father's face down gently to reach; turned and bowed to the gawking crowd of relatives, took her father and mother's hands in hers, and slowly walked to the edge of the cliff between them, hushed but smiling.

As the trio reached the precipice, they looked across the deep valley to the slightly lower cliff on the other side. The Groom and his family and friends had gathered there in similar fashion, and Eela saw her beloved Karth walking to the edge of the grass on his side, his mother on one side, and his uncle on the other. He too was dressed in a white robe, its folds outlining his muscular body in the wind.

As the two parties stood in silence about a hundred metres apart, Eela could hear only the wind whistling past. With a last hand squeeze, her mother walked back toward the crowd, tears streaming down her face, and Eela was left with her father. He was traditionally required to confirm with her that she wished to continue, and he turned his kind face to her as she looked up. The nod he received was sufficient, and he too backed away, to join his wife and the rest of the family.

As these brief farewells were being enacted, Karth's family were repeating them on the far cliff, and soon the two betrothed were standing alone, separated only by the immense valley below, and the relatively short distance directly between them.

As the band started to play again, Eela collected her thoughts, and flexed her shoulders, as her mother had taught her. She could see Karth stretching in a strong but graceful manner at the same time, and realised again how much she loved him. At the completion of the traditional Hymn of Hope, the band went quiet again, and Eela could hear the drummer beating a strident rhythm on the animal skins, slowly increasing in tempo, and she knew the time had passed for second thoughts. Focusing on the beats from the drum, not influenced any more by the crowd behind her, Eela closed her eyes, and slowly undid the ties on the fluttering robe, reciting the name of her mother, then her mother's mother, and continuing until no ties remained. Opening the robe completely down the front, she stood there, naked and unashamed, boldly bare to the elements. She let the gown fall carelessly behind her now, and stood still, voluntarily blind, just an extension of the beat of the drums. The small lump on her back was now visible, and the muscles beneath squirmed randomly, tradition and genetics combining to effect them at this time.

Alone, naked, blind, Eela listened for the final command. Suddenly the drum stopped, and she stretched her arms out and then up, and leaned slightly forward on the tips of her toes, stretching out into space, into commitment, into life.

As her body cleared the edge of the cliff and started its rapid descent to the river far below, she opened her eyes, still trusting, still smiling, her skin curiously warm, her heart beating fast, her inner thighs hot and damp, her fear banished by the moment.

As she plummeted downward, she caught a glimpse of Karth across from her, falling just as quickly, and then lost him again as she turned slightly in the rushing air about her. As the seconds ticked by, and her speed increased, she could feel the lump on her back growing hotter, the muscles actively seeking leverage, pushing against her skin furiously. Suddenly she felt a sharp stab of pain between her shoulderblades, and the long hidden growth burst from her, spreading as it dried almost instantaneously in the air, extending well beyond the rest of her body, clawing at the now rushing air, expanding, filling, strengthening and finally beating.

Her wings slowed her descent, tilted her headlong rush away from the thundering torrent below, and pushed her aching, stressed sack of bones up, up, back to the sky above, where she belonged. Bursting from the cliff tops to tremendous gasps from the two crowds now below, she surveyed the area around her, and was greeted by Karth, also ascending into the open air above the clifftops on broad white wings, a seeming mix of magic and biology, the impossibly strong surfaces holding his body aloft with apparent ease.

As her naked husband circled effortlessly above the cheering families, Eela waited, floating in the air, instinctively knowing what needed to be done. As Karth moved closer to her nakedness, and eventually floated almost motionless in front of her, Eela did her best to glide gently toward him. If this was done incorrectly, the wings could become tangled, and the newlyweds would fall again toward the river, this time to their deaths. Slowly their bodies moved closer, and as their wingtips almost touched, Eela grabbed for her husband's shoulders, forcing her wings to fold back behind her, though they wanted more of the freedom they had just gained. As she touched his shoulders, her wingtip brushed his ever so slightly, and he tilted dangerously to the side, before recovering and wrapping his arms around his bride.

Stable in the air again, the final test began. Eela had been waiting for this moment all her life, and she could tell that Karth was just as focused. As he concentrated on keeping the two of them afloat, his immense wings thundering down and lightly back again, Eela stroked his shoulders, and gently wrapped her legs around his body, her feet locked in behind his firm naked buttocks. She could feel the sweat running down his back, and the pressure of his hard penis against her, and knew she would have to be quick. Moving herself down slightly against him, she positioned her moistness on the end of his familiar manhood, and gently pulled him towards her with her feet. As he sank deeply inside her, she realised how wet she was, and how hot and large he felt.

Pulling his face down to hers, as she held him tightly with her other hand, she kissed him hard, their tongues dancing intimately in the warm space, much as was happening further below. The beat of his wings created a rhythm, and their bodies were rising and falling in the air, their hips parting and joining in time as well, his penis sliding up and down inside her slowly but regularly. As the heat and slipperiness continued to build, she realised she was nearly ready, and whispered in his ear.

Given the permission he needed, he put his hands under her buttocks, and increased the pace a little. His thrusts now were applying pressure in exactly the right place, and just as she felt she couldn't take any more, her whole body started to shudder around her, and her new husband shot his seed deep into her, as she clenched tight around him, screaming loudly in the air.

Unsure how much longer he could keep them aloft, Karth slowly floated down toward his new family on the cliff, and alighted with a thump, and their two naked bodies collapsed on the ground, spent in more ways than one, but happy. Eela's relatives surrounded them on the grass, the children throwing flowers on them, the adults congratulating, and welcoming Karth to the family. They would stay in Eela's old room tonight, and then the two of them would make the journey to her new home tomorrow. By wagon, not wing.