FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Warning: The following contains scenes of graphic transformation, graphic sex, and graphic graphs. That last object cannot be confirmed at this time.

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"Andrew, did you hear a word I just said?" His mother asked, suddenly standing very close to him. The faint smell of alcohol on her breath wasn't so faint today, which explained her sudden outburst. To be fair, he hadn't really been listening, but he was pretty sure that he had gotten the gist of it.

"I've got it," Andrew replied. "Milk, toaster waffles, chicken, and a pack of gum."

"You forgot the most important part!" she screamed.

"Mom, I left that out for a reason. I can't buy beer yet, remember?" he replied, as calmly as he could manage.

"That's crazy. I was buying beer back when I was your age," she said, a hint of delusion in her recollection.

"Yes mom, but I'm not buying groceries from a guy in a trench coat who lives on the corner."

"He was great guy," she replied, nodding in agreement.

"Okay, I'm leaving now," he said, quickly turning on his heels and heading through the door. He was pretty sure that his mother had shouted one last thing at him in her drunken stupor before he shut the door, but it was drown out in the resounding slam. It was probably something about get his paper done again, but he really didn't care.

Andrew was twenty, and a top-of-his-class student. It was ironic, that he could keep his studies under such wraps in this kind of environment. For one thing, and probably the most obvious thing, he was living at home, and his mother was an alcoholic. She was the only family he had left, after his father got up and left. He had offered to take him, but he had been worse than she was. And worse than 'drunk most of the time', is 'drunk all of the time'. His father was a violent drunk, as well. Both he and his mother had suffered a bit with him around, but things were getting better now that he was gone. He had been a bit of an influence on his mother, but with him out of the way, Andrew could influence her instead. And not in the irresponsible, morally-compromising way, either. He was trying to get her into some kind of care facility, and while it was a battle, he had caught her making subtle comments about the idea. They were usually during a drunken rant, but it was better than nothing.

When Andrew reached the corner, he sat down on the grubby bus stop bench and waited. That was the second point, he lived in what might have been called the 'seedy' part of town. When he had been joking to his mother earlier about the man in a trench coat, he had actually been talking about the man that sold beer to the local underage hooligans two blocks down the road. He had even seen his mother buying from the man, which concerned him greatly. He didn't like to profile, but he could guess a few things that might pad that guy's criminal record.

As the loud, dirty vehicle pulled up in front of him, he noticed with some dismay that it was relatively busy. Buses in this part of town weren't nice to begin with, but being on them with other loud, dirty people wasn't any better. He managed to worm his way to the back of the bus, and found an unoccupied seat where no one would bother him. Andrew was one of those guys who just wanted to be left alone.

The bus came to a sudden halt, and Andrew stepped out of the beast's belly and onto the sidewalk. He really could have walked here if he hated the bus so much, but as long as he had a bus pass, he might as well use it. Besides, he didn't want to carry the grocery bags all the way back, either.

This 'grocery store' that he kept referring to, was probably the closest thing you could get to a convenience store without having a gas station out front. It was quite small, barely considered clean, and dark. The whole place was lit by ten year old fluorescent tube lights, which weren't working very well anymore. Entire sections of the store were covered in an annoying flickering light, and most of the tubes now released an incessant hum. It was the only place in the neighborhood that they could afford, and while the food wasn't exactly brand name, neither of them had gotten food poisoning yet.

"Hello, Andy. How are you today?" The store owner asked as he came up to the counter with his small load tucked under his arm. Unfortunately, he had reached 'regular customer' status here, so the shopkeeper, and only member of staff, was always trying to make small talk with him.

"I'm fine," he replied statically. "How are you doing?"

"Well, I can't complain," the man replied with a shrug, running the items over the scanner. As each one passed, a pathetic attempt for a beep moaned out from the speaker attached to the old computer. Andrew didn't know a lot about computer, but he was pretty sure that the computer here didn't even have a mouse. "How's your mother doing?"

"She asked me to buy her beer again," he replied simply. It had happened before, and it didn't require any further elaboration anymore.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he replied, bagging the items in a weak plastic bag. "Oh, by the way, you're the hundredth customer, so you get a free one of these." he added, and opened a mini-fridge that sat behind his counter. It was definitely new, which piqued Andrew's curiosity considerably.

"What's this about?" Andrew asked, waiting while the man fished around inside.

"It's some new beverage company's marketing scheme. They've gone and put these deals in at a bunch of stores across the country. Stores that do it get a pretty big chunk of change for signing up, and I'm not one to turn down free money."

"What's the drink?" he asked.

"Ah, here we go," the man said, and pulled a small container and a clipboard out of the mini-fridge. He put the clipboard on the counter in front of him, and slid the small container towards Andrew. It looked like a small shot glass, except it was made of standard soda can aluminum. The small label on the side read, 'The Hallucinogen: Beta'

"Hey, you know what we think about drugs," Andrew replied, pushing the beverage back. "I know it's a double standard, but I agree with her."

"Let's not jump to conclusions, Andy," the man replied. "This stuff isn't a drug. It's been tested and deemed safe by the American Beverage Association."

"You recited that very well," Andrew replied flatly. "Fine, if it's not a drug, then what is it."

"Some kind of soda," he said. "The rep that came with the stuff said that it causes hallucinations, but has no side-effects. Plus, it's government-regulated, so we know that it's safe."

"I'm no conspiracy theorist, but that doesn't really make me feel any better."

"Come on, Andy. Just give it a try," the man pleaded. "If I don't run this program, I might lose the deal. If I go under, well then, what will the people around here eat? I don't want to put this like I'm extorting you, but you do need to eat, don't you?"

Andrew glared at the man for a second longer, before snatching the drink container up from the counter. "Fine," he growled, and hooked his finger under the tab. The lid popped open with a standard carbonated hiss, but it also released a strange odor that made him feel a little dizzy.

"What's in this stuff?" Andrew asked, holding the open container away from his face.

"They didn't tell me," he replied with a shrug. "Isn't it on there?"

Andrew glared at the container as he rotated it in his hand. On the back he found the list of ingredients, along with all of the other legally required information. After a quick scan, he realized that he didn't know what most of the things in it were, as per usual. "Looks pretty standard," he replied. "Fine, I'll try it,"

"Oh, one last thing," the shopkeeper said, throwing his hand out just as Andrew was about to raise the container to his lips. "The rep suggested that you sit down the first time you drink this stuff."

He pointed at a well-upholstered chair sitting just next to the counter. It was new as well, as the layer of dust that occupied everything else in the store hadn't built up on it yet. It looked like the kind of chair you'd find in a bank waiting area, very plain and grey.

"Fine," Andrew repeated, and lowered himself slowly into the chair. He eyed the plain aluminum container for another apprehensive second before finally lifting it to his lips. He tipped the drink up, downing it all in one gulp. The first thing he noticed was its flavor. It was very sweet, and almost grapey. The next thing was the tingle it left on his tongue. It wasn't quite like a burn, but it was an irritating feeling. After that, there was nothing. Andrew sat tensely in the chair, expecting some sort of hit, but there was nothing. That is, until the drink settled into his stomach, and began to seep through the walls and into his body. As soon as the mysterious beverage entered his bloodstream and flowed up into his brain, everything changed all at once. He passed out, his body going limp against the back of the chair. Then his eyes closed, and he was thrust into the center of an expansive meadow. The sky was a shade of deep green, with lighter green clouds floating overhead. The grass below was dark purple, and an occasional yellow flower would pop out from the otherwise homogenous landscape. The most remarkable part was how vivid and real the dream felt. Andrew could feel the warm wind on his skin, and the waving grass tickling his bare feet. He could hear cicadas buzzing somewhere nearby, and birds chirping above. It was the most serine places he'd never been too, and then it was gone.

****

The majority of Andrew's muscles suddenly jerked forward, threatening to launch him from the chair as he snapped awake. His heart was racing, and he was short on breath from the shock of the ordeal. The shopkeeper was still standing behind the desk, looking concernedly across at him. He hadn't moved at all since he had taken the drink.

"How long was I out?" Andrew groaned, a headache starting to settle in.

"Maybe ten seconds, twenty tops," the man replied. "What did you see? Wait, hold that thought," He searched around the back of his desk for a moment before pulling out a pen and bringing the clipboard that sat next to him in front. "The rep wanted me to do this survey with everyone that took the drink. The weird thing is, apart from your personal info and stuff like that, there's just the one question. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being life-like and one being barely visible, how would you rate the quality of your hallucination?"

"Definitely a ten," Andrew replied, rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times.

"Alright, just fill in the rest of this thing, and I'll let you leave," the man replied, rotating the clipboard and holding his pen out for Andrew. Andrew remained seated in the chair while he twisted and grabbed the items. He wasn't really sure that he wanted to give this company his address and phone number, but he had already drank their crazy drug soda, so he might as well. Once he had read all of the fine print on the bottom of the page, he signed it with his signature and gave a solid attempt at standing up. He was still a bit shaky, but his legs managed to hold him up as he returned the clipboard to the man behind the desk.

"Thanks a lot, Andy," the man said, smiling and giving him a wave as Andrew headed for the door, purchases in hand.

"I better not see those guys at my house," he called back jokingly, and pushed the door open and left. "I wish that guy wore a nametag," Andrew muttered to himself as he headed for the bus stop.

****

Andrew was reading a book in the only cushioned chair in the house when a knock came at the door. It was about ten thirty in the morning, so he was the only one awake and not hung over. With a heavy sigh of annoyance, he closed his book and rose from his rough seat, heading for the door.

When he opened the door, there was a man in a suit waiting there. He was tall and well-groomed, and looked terribly out of place in this part of town. Behind him, a limousine was idling on the curb.

"Can I...help you?" Andrew faltered, confused by this well-dressed and clearly lost man.

"I'm looking for, Andrew Ger...Gerch...I'm sorry, how do you pronounce this?" he asked, and held the piece of paper out for Andrew to see. He was surprised to see that it was the survey he had filled out about a week ago, at the grocery store.

"Umm...don't worry about that. I'm Andrew," he replied.

"Oh good. Anyway, I'm with the Mentality Beverage Company. Perhaps you've heard of us?" the man asked.

"That's a strange name for a soda company, sir," Andrew replied. "But, yes. That's the company that makes 'The Hallucinogen'."

"Very good. Then I guess you know why I'm here then," the man replied.

"No idea, sir," Andrew replied.

"Oh, well in that case. I'm here to invite you for a tour of our production facility, learn how we make our beverage, and have some free drinks."

"And why are you offering me this?" Andrew asked.

"We select surveys at random, and you were the lucky winner," the man replied. "Now, since you said that you were twenty, I'll need to have a parent or guardian sign this permission form. You know, for legal reasons."

"What? You don't think that I can take care of myself?" Andrew asked.

"Again, it's for legal reasons," the man repeated. "I could explain the whole thing on the ride there, if you'd like."

Now, Andrew did enjoy curling up with a good book every now and then, but this tour sounded rather interesting. Plus, ever since he had taken that drink, he couldn't get that vision out of his head. He wanted to feel it again. It had been so real, as if he had actually stood in that alien plain. He wanted to try it again, at least once. "Sure, just give me a moment," Andrew said to the man, and took the piece of paper that was being held out for him. Once the page was in hand, he closed the door and headed quietly towards his mother's bedroom. By this time, she was usually in a post-alcoholic stupor, and was very suggestible. It wasn't that he would ever want to take advantage of his mother, but if he wanted to convince her to do something that she normally wouldn't, now would be the time to do so.

"Mom? Are you awake?" Andrew whispered, pushing open her door slowly.

"What do you want?" she snapped groggily.

"There's a field trip at school today, and I need a permission form signed so I can go," Andrew lied. "Can you sign it for me?"

"Give it here," she replied, and rolled over to face him. Her arms were flailing about in front of her, trying to grasp at something that wasn't there yet. When he put a pen and the paper slip within her reached, she promptly took them and began to scribble upon the page. Andrew was sure that her eyes were still closed, so he really had no idea how she managed to stay on the line and right so neatly. When she was done, she dropped the items to the floor, and rolled onto her stomach.

"Be careful," she mumbled.

"I will, thanks mom," Andrew replied, leaning down to pick up the page. "I love you,"

"I love y..." she trailed off, falling back into her spotted sleeping pattern, and giving Andrew enough time to slip away quietly before the fact that it was Saturday, or that he was long out of elementary school, managed to worm it's way into his mother's brain.

"Okay, I've got the slip signed," Andrew said when he reopened the front door and found the man still standing there. "Now, where is this factory?"

"California," the man replied, taking the slip and giving it a once-over before putting it away inside his jacket.

"California!?" Andrew exclaimed. "But that's on the other side of the country!"

"Very good," the man replied, and looked down at his watch for a second before promptly turning and heading towards the limo. "Come on, let's get going."

Andrew had a brief thought that this was a very bad idea. He was about to get into car with a stranger. Albeit, it was a nice, expensive car, and the man clearly had something going for him, but it was no different. Then again, he did have Andrew's survey. He had known the shopkeeper at that grocery store for a long time, and knew that he was suspicious of people. He wouldn't have given the survey to that man if he hadn't been the rep himself, or very official about picking it up. Still, California was a long way away from home. But, then again, he could take care of himself.

"I've seen that look before," the man called, now standing on the sidewalk in front of the limo. "Don't worry, we're not abducting you. This car is much too nice for something that immoral. Plus, the driver gets paid forty dollars an hour. Speaking of which, his wallet is getting pretty fat, so let's get going before I need to give him another hour."

Andrew took one last look up at his dark, dingy home before turning and heading for the car. The man in the suit held the door open for him, and as he stepped through into the car's spacious interior, the man came in behind him. The door closed, and locked with a click. As the car began to pull away, Andrew suddenly felt very alone, and quite anxious.

****

Andrew was shocked at how much money was being spent to get him to wherever he was going. First, the limousine, which had taken him and the man to the airport, where there was a private jet waiting for them. The jet did not stop, and flew straight to what he assumed was the Los Angeles airport. It was huge, full of people, and they almost gave him a pat-down while going through security. He had never been in a more crowded building, and he had gone to an overcrowded high school.

From the airport parking lot, a second limousine picked them up and took them out of town, heading south along the coast. The terrain began to rise, and soon the road was travelling across a steep cliff, the roadway cut into the side. Andrew glanced up through the limo's sunroof, and could just make out a long wall of glass windows above them, edging right up to the cliff. It looked like the entire west wall of the building was made of glass. Suddenly, the limo entered a tunnel, and Andrew's attention fell away from the ceiling and to what was happening in front of the car. The driver was pulling up to a security checkpoint, with a firm gate lowered over the road to prevent unauthorized access. Upon stopping at the gate, the driver lowered his windows and handed the guard what looked to be an ID card. The guard gave it a quick browse before returning it, and then headed to the left-side window, next to where Andrew sat. The darkened window was automatically lowered, probably by the driver, and the guard peered inside, first at the man in the suit, and then at Andrew. The guard seemed to take an extra minute to glare at him before giving a nod and removing his head from the window frame. After going back to check the limo's trunk, the guard returned to his station and raised the gate, allowing them to pass.

The limo rolled slowly through the checkpoint, and into a small parking lot just beyond. It was fairly empty. It had plain rock walls and ceiling, with four columns to support it. Nine other limousines were parked in the lot, and this one pulled into the only unoccupied spot. Once the car's engine had been shut off, the man in the suit across from Andrew opened the door and led the way out, towards a blank steal door at the end of the parking lot. At the press of a button, it opened up into a spacious elevator, with only two floor buttons. The man pushed the top one, and once the doors sealed in the middle with a clunk, the elevator began to rise.

"What is this place?" Andrew asked. "This doesn't look like any factory I've ever seen."

"Our facility isn't the same as a traditional factory," the man replied. "Don't worry, you'll be given a full tour shortly."

The elevator began to slow to a stop, and the doors opened into a huge foyer. It faced out towards the ocean, and as he had seen from the road, the entire western wall was made of glass. The man in the suit led him away from the window, and towards the opposite end of the room. A female receptionist sat behind a huge crescent-shaped desk, and was currently talking on the phone. The man in the suit gave a nod to her as they passed, and began up a huge floating staircase behind the desk. Each step was held by steel wires from the ceiling, and while Andrew felt a little uneasy, the stairs never wobbled in the slightest.

At the top of the steps, the staircase branched off to the left and right, with both directions leading to the same room on the second floor. The room appeared to be a huge common area, which was again placed against the all-glass wall. There were several seating areas, where people were sitting and chatting amongst themselves. To his surprise, most of them were about his age. A few appeared to be older than him, but otherwise, all around twenty. There was also a large cafeteria on the opposite side of the room.

"What is this place?" Andrew repeated quietly, suddenly realizing that his mouth was hanging open about a half inch. He promptly closed it, but not before the man in the suit took notice and chuckled.

"We do get that a lot," the man commented. "Why don't I explain while we go through the building?"

Andrew nodded, and followed obediently as the man led him to the southeast corner of the room, where a double door was located. It opened up into a long glass hallway, with glass on both the interior and exterior walls. While the exterior windows gave an excellent view of the cliffs and ocean that ran off along the coast, it was what was on the inside of the building that captured Andrew's attention.

From where he stood, he could see that the entire area was a very large, open rectangle. The western side of the rectangle was the common area, and the eastern side was another large white-walled building. The north and south borders were glass hallways, like the one they stood in now. And inside this perimeter of hallways and buildings, a square grid of rooms was built. The grid looked to be about two by ten, meaning that there were twenty rooms in total. Each one had a glass ceiling, so it was easy from to see inside from the hallways that bordered it. Each room was relatively empty, except for a bed. And, in several cases, a person slept in the bed. Even from where he stood, Andrew could see the vast array of wires and tubes that were connected to the sleeping person, and ran into the wall behind them.

"What is this?" Andrew asked, fixated on the room directly beneath them, where a tall, brown-haired boy slept peacefully despite the electrical intrusions.

"Well, as you know, our beverage creates risk-free hallucinations. But, it is very hard to do that without first knowing exactly how the mind creates and perceives realities."

"So this isn't a factory at all," Andrew interrupted. "This is a research center."

"Exactly," the man replied.

"So why are they're so many people my age in here?" he asked.

"Well, from our tests, we've found that people between the ages of eighteen to twenty five can produce the most vivid hallucinations, as their brains are still susceptible to outside stimulus, like our beverage. On the other hand, frequent hallucinogenic drug users produce less vivid hallucinations, as their brains are so swamped with chemicals that they can't properly process ours. You see, our beverage is made with the closest possible chemicals to the ones that the brain uses to create dreams."

"So what's this set-up for?" Andrew asked. "Are you forcing people to dream so you can suck it out of them?"

The man chuckled a little. "Please, Andrew, be reasonable. What we do here, is run proven, safe versions of our mixture into a sleeping subject, and use highly advanced brain-scanning to determine which chemicals are being produced and utilized by the brain. This information is transferred directly to our labs, where scientists synthesize the closest possible counterpart to the chemicals."

"Oh, I get it now," Andrew said with a smile.

"I'm sorry," the man replied.

"You're drafting me," Andrew replied. "You brought me here to try and bring me into this."

"That is true," the man replied with a nod. "We invite every person who rated an eight or higher on the survey. If they agree, we perform a single quality test, and if you pass, you are fully inducted into the program. You'll live on site, earn a bit of money, receive any education that the program may otherwise prevent, and all you have to do is sleep for an extra hour every few days."

"Is that it? Do you just assume that I'll go along with this?" he snapped. "I can't agree with this."

"Andrew, why don't we go into my office," the man asked. Andrew did nothing to object, so he led the way down the hall towards the building that he'd pointed out to be the living quarters. By this point, the several people, mostly other test subjects, were watching them pass. Those that weren't seemed to be fixed on watching the procedure below. In fact, they all seemed to be turned inward, as if there was something they were sharing between them. As he passed, Andrew couldn't help but peek over the shoulder of one of the shorter girls in the group. She was holding what looked like a large tablet. On the screen seemed to be a dark, cobblestone hallway, lit by torches. At first, Andrew thought it was some sort of movie or video game, but there was something off about it. It somehow seemed, incomplete, and vaguely lucid.

"Do you know what they are watching?" the man asked nonchalantly as they passed.

Andrew simply shook his head, looking to the man once the tablet was out of view.

"They're watching the dream from that test running down there," he replied. "Not only do we monitor simple chemical levels, but we can actually have the images of the dream streamed live to our labs. From there, it is streamed wirelessly across the facility, and anyone with the proper authorization and device can watch it live."

"That just looked like a regular old tablet," Andrew said.

"There is an app for that," the man replied with a chuckle.

On the opposite end of the hallway, the door opened up into a long white hallway that ran along the length of the building and to the hallway on the opposite side that ran back to the common area. This building was felt far more closed than the others, made up entirely of wide but bare corridors. The man led him off to the right, further inside the building, and towards another elevator.

"This building houses all of our guests, staff, records, and labs. It currently has fifty floors, ten above ground and forty below. Guest residences take up the uppermost floors, followed by staff residences, then labs, and finally the records on the bottom." The man said, leading the way into the now open elevator and pressing a button labeled 'negative ten'. The elevator closed with a quiet whoosh, and began to descend.

"So, how many 'guests' do you have right now?" Andrew asked.

"We currently have seventy-six people registered here," the man replied.

The elevator stopped, and they stepped into a wide, white room. There was a large black desk, and a few chairs nearby, arranged into a seating area. A few framed photographs of the sea and sky adorned the walls, and a potted plant was set on a table against the left-hand wall. There was a door in the back-left corner, which led off to some other room, maybe a suite

The man strode purposefully around the desk and took a seat in the large, high back chair placed there. He motioned with his hand towards the chair opposite him, which Andrew sat down in.

"Listen, Andrew. Can I call you Andy?" the man asked. "Anyway, you may think that I don't know anything, but I'd just like to say that I've seen people like you a dozen times. I understand that you can't stay here because you are worried about your mother. You're worried that she could fall deeper into her drinking if you're not there."

"How do you know that my mother drinks?" Andrew asked.

"It doesn't matter," the man replied dismissively. "The point is, I really want you to come and stay here. I have high hopes for you, and because of these hopes, I want to make you an offer. I want you to take the hallucination quality test today, while you're here, and if you pass it, as I'm sure you will, I will pay to fly your mother out here to Los Angeles, and put her in the finest care facility available. What do you think about that?"

"You want to put my mom in a celebrity rehab?" Andrew asked. "Is she really that bad?"

"You tell me," the man replied with a shrug. "Clearly, you think that it's bad enough that you would deny yourself the things that you want in order to make sure that she's safe. But, trust me, there is no place safer than the facilities over in LA. I mean, just look at all the washed-up movie stars they've treated."

It sounded almost too good to be true. Andrew knew that his mother's drinking was the root of her problems. If she was cured of her drinking habit, she could finally start saving money. She could get a better job, and if he was here, she could even move out of that terrible neighbor and into a nice apartment or even condo. He had heard her muttering about it before, and while it had been while she was drunk, he thought that she would go for it. Sure, he would have to tell her that he'd lied to her in order to get to California in the first place, but he was sure that everything would work out in the end.

"Okay, here's what I'm thinking," Andrew replied. "I'll take the test now. But I want some choice in this thing. I want you to get me information on the best five places in the area. I want to know everything, from how big the rooms are to what they serve for breakfast. Then, I want you to take me home, and wait for me to call you when we've decided."

"That all sounds fair," the man said, and reached into a desk drawer to pull out a sheet of paper and a pen. He passed both items across the desk to Andrew. "This is a just a small liability waiver. Seeing as you've already taken the beverage once, you should be fine."

Andrew gave the document a quick skim, but wasn't really paying attention. He took the pen and signed it hastily. He was starting to feel excited at being able to take the drink again. When he was finished, he passed the items back, and waited while the man examined his signature before leaving the paper on his desk and leading the way back to the elevator.

"Let's get you set up right away," he said with a smile.

****

"Alright, Andrew. You're all hooked up," the technician said, standing back after he had inserted the last of the tubes into Andrew's person. He had about five of them, one in his arm and four in his head. Getting the tubes inside his head was quite an invasive, uncomfortable process, but it didn't take long. In all honesty, Andrew was too excited to notice.

"Now Andrew, as soon as we leave, they're going to put you to sleep for twenty minutes," the man in the suit said, stepping over Andrew, who was lying in the room's bed. "Once you are completely asleep, we will begin to administer the beverage's key ingredients directly into your blood stream through this tube in your arm. The other tubes are just sensors. Are you sure that you want to do this?"

"Will they all be watching?" Andrew asked, motioning behind the man at the hallway above. A fair-sized crowd of both subjects and scientists had gathered inside, with most of them holding a tablet.

"Do you want them to?" the man asked.

"Only if it's good," Andrew replied. "Can you do that?"

"Sure. If you pass the test, we'll stream it out," the man replied with a small smile.

"Sounds good," Andrew said, sighed as he rested his head back against the pillow behind me. "I'm ready when you are,"

The man nodded, and then turned to follow the technician out of the room. "Sweet dreams," he called as he left through the open doorway.

"Clever," Andrew called back, but the doorway had already slid closed and locked with a clunk. The lock sent a sudden wave of nervousness through him, but that began to quickly fade as he felt his thoughts begin to loosen. He managed to realize through the haze that it was the drug being pumped into him, and he was surprised at how quickly it took effect. His eyelids began to droop, and he was soon asleep.

****

When Andrew's eyes next opened, he was in the meadow again. It was just as clear as it had been the first time, if not clearer. He thought that it must have been because of the concentration of the hallucinogenic chemicals, but that didn't really matter. He was inside, and he had twenty minutes to explore before he woke up again. He took a cautionary step forward, testing to see if there was something different about this plane's physics. But he didn't float away, or fall through the dirt, or anything. It was all normal.

His cautionary steps soon turned to a steady walk, and then to a steady jog. He wanted to see as much of this place as he could, but with the grasses stretching on as far as the eye could see, he didn't have anywhere to start. So, he headed off in a random direction. Soon, the flat plains began to rise and fall in gently rolling hills. And after that, the hills began to grow in magnitude, rising higher, and soon curling in on themselves like ocean waves. Andrew marveled at the way the dirt hung, perfectly suspended without any sort of vertical support. Even with him standing on the top of one of these curls, it did not collapse.

Once he had passed the wavy hills, he came to a very high hill, which rose one hundred feet up from where Andrew stood at its base. It stretched out for miles in both directly, making it impossible to circumnavigate. So, Andrew began to climb. He was fortunate enough to be in a dream where he did not feel fatigue, because no matter how hard he worked, he never felt tired. It was because of this that he managed to crest the giant, grassy hill, and could now stare out across the landscape far below.

Or, what was visible of the landscape. A thick fog covered the ground in all directions, making it impossible to see past. The only place where the fog did not gather was directly ahead of him, where the fog rose in massive, perfectly straight walls on either side of a grassy path. As Andrew's eyes began to follow the path from where it began at the base of the hill, he noticed that his vision was beginning to fade. And so to were the sounds of the wind whistling across the plain, and the feeling of grass between his toes. The dream was ending. Right before Andrew's vision gave out altogether, he managed to make out the entrance to a large cave at the base of a mountain some five miles ahead. But, unfortunately, he had no more time to explore. The mountain, the hill, and everything else began to darken, and then it disappeared.

****

Andrew awoke slowly, a little dizzy from his experience. Moving around inside his head without his body doing anything played havoc on his sense of direction. Everything was a mess now. He wanted to look up at the hallway, but his head went the wrong way, and he found himself staring at a blank wall. He tried again, moving his head in the opposite direction, and found his target. To his surprise, and satisfaction, the crowd was applauding. He didn't know what they really thought about it, or about the clarity of everyone else's hallucinations, but they looked like they enjoyed it. Outwardly, at least.

He heard a whoosh as the room door slid open, and the man in the suit and the technician filed in. The man stood back while the tech went about pulling the tubes from his body. Luckily, they didn't feel quite as bad coming out as they had going in. When he was done, the tech retreated to the other man's side, and watched as Andrew shakily sat up and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He didn't feel sturdy enough to stand yet, so he merely sat there on the edge of the mattress.

"So, how did I do?" he asked.

"You scored a ninety-six," the suited man replied, a small grin creeping across his face.

"I take it that that's good," he said.

"The second highest score registered in our database," the man replied enthusiastically. "How did it feel?"

"It felt like I was really there, in that field," Andrew replied.

"Do you feel that you'd like to become a member of our team?" the man asked. "There is more than enough room for you,"

"Yes, I would," he replied, with very little hesitation.

"Very good," the man replied. "You can take all the time you need to look around. When you're ready to return home, just return to the garage and a driver will take you back. I'd like to stick around, but I have some very important paperwork to attend to, in preparation of your official arrival."

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself, first?" Andrew asked. "You dragged me to the other side of the country without so much as flashing a business card."

"Really? I must apologize. The anticipation of such a promising participant must have caused it to slip my mind. My name is Blake Sterling, head of research and development with the Mentality Beverage Company. Here, take my card. It has my number on it, so you can get through directly to me when you call."

"Thank you. I'd prefer to know my future employer's name," Andrew replied, taking the small card from Blake's outstretched hand.

"Very good," Blake said, and headed for the door.

"Hold on," Andrew called. "What about that information on the treatment centers?"

"They'll be on the plane before you leave," Blake replied, and left. The technician stayed, though, probably there to make sure Andrew could walk on his own. With the tech staring needles into him, he decided that now was as good as any to give it a shot. Carefully, he slid off the bed, keeping most of his weight on his arms as his feet settled on the floor. Then, ever so slowly, he began to lean forward, leaving the stability of the bed and now stood on only his own feet. They seemed to hold, and his legs didn't buckle, so he took an experimental step towards the door. That seemed fine, too, so he took another, and another, and another. Before he knew it, he was outside the room, and into the connecting hallway. As he passed subjects and scientists, alike, they were complementing him and slapping him on the back as if it had been some big breakthrough. But Andrew didn't mind it one bit. He often felt a little deprived of praise, and while this wouldn't be good for his ego, he was certainly enjoying the attention. He just had to make sure that this didn't go to his head. After all, he wasn't the best, just the second best, and that was five with him.

"A little bland, if you ask me," A voice said, penetrating the fuzzy wall of compliments that Andrew had just built around his mind. He looked to his left with a slight frown, just now noticing the girl leaning against the wall next to the door. She looked to be about his age, a little taller, and her skin was evenly tanned from a long time in the California sun. She had shoulder-length black hair, with a purple streak that ran down the left side. She almost looked like a Goth, but at least her fingernails weren't painted black. "Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad run, especially for a newbie. It was just, boring."

"Who are you?" Andrew asked.

She replied with a smug sort of chuckle, as if that was the stupidest question she had ever heard. "I'm Alexis," she answered. "I'm the top-ranked around here."

"You're the best one here?" Andrew asked. "What did you score?"

"I got one hundred," Alexis replied with a modest shrug, the foil to her quite egotistical remark a moment before. "I'm the best they've seen, until they see something better. That's how it works around here. The scoring system is graded against the best they have on record. When somebody better shows up, they'll dock my score. They'll dock everyone's score."

"That doesn't sound quite right," Andrew said. "Does that mean people can get kicked out of the program if there score falls too low?"

"That's right," Alexis replied. "There's always a new standard to keep. But don't worry, you're plenty good. It'll take a long time to knock us out."

"I'm not even in yet," Andrew said with a slight chuckle.

"Right, that was your initiation," she said in an airy manner, as if she were reminiscing. "Did you like it?"

"Of course," Andrew replied. "I've never experienced something like it."

"Yeah, that's why I got into it, too," she replied. "Life's monotony was dragging me down, so when this stuff showed up at a local gas bar, I got lucky enough to get to try it and do that survey. I was skeptical of it at first, but I can't imagine going back home now. Come on, let's go for a walk."

Alexis led the way back toward the residential building, and then into the elevator. She pressed the button for the first floor, and after a quick descent, they emerged into another white hallway. This one was lined with many numbered doors, which Andrew assumed were rooms for people to live in. It was a long hallway, and there were only six doors on this wall, so the rooms must have been pretty big. Alexis led him off to the right and around the corner, where the numbered suites continued. They went all the way around to the eleventh suite, to which Alexis produced a key from her pocket and opened the door. Inside, the walls changed to a shaded of darker grey, which Andrew thought was quite appealing. Depending on how the light shone, the walls almost looked blue. They entered into a small living room, complete with a sofa, coffee table, and matching loveseat. Off to the right was a full kitchen, with a stove, fridge, and dishwasher. And while the cupboards were all solid, Andrew was sure that they were fully stocked. Off to the left was a separate bedroom. A bathroom, which connected to both the main room and the bedroom, was just to the left of that.

Alexis wasted no time on a tour, and led him straight through the middle of the room to the sliding glass door that was placed opposite to the entrance. Outside was a small, private patio, with high privacy walls in order to keep the neighbors out. Andrew could only imagine how loud it could get out here on weekends, but was also sure that they had managed to weed out troublemakers by now.

As he thought about troublemakers, Alexis was busy climbing onto the patio set table in order to boost herself over the outside wall. With a bit of a jump, she disappeared over the wall and landed on the other side with a dull thud.

"Come on," she called from over the fence. "It's just a little farther,"

"Do they really let us hop the fence like this?" Andrew asked, being to clamber up onto the table regardless of her response.

"Well, officially, no. But they haven't suspended me yet," Alexis replied.

Andrew hopped the fence gracelessly, and landed just beside Alexis. After steadying himself after the drop, he followed her underneath the suspended hallway above, and back towards the cliffs. Once they reached the wall of the common building, they travelled around and onto to the cliff. There was a small indent in the ground where the building's foundation had been laid, and it was just the right size for a small group of people to sit inside. There was a small flat rock placed in the center of the space, which Alexis moved to the side and sat down on. Andrew sat down on her left, in the dirt.

"So, where are you from?" Andrew asked.

"I'm from Oregon," she replied. "You?"

"Pennsylvania," Andrew replied.

"You're not from one of the bad cities, are you?" she asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Never mind," she said dismissively. "I'm sure they're all nice,"

An awkward silence suddenly settled in, as neither of them knew where to go from there. Their eyes naturally travelled towards the ocean, watching the waves crashing against the rocks below, and the seabirds circling far offshore.

"So, is this supposed to be your secret spot?" Andrew asked.

Alexis nodded, not taking her eyes off the water. "I come here before tests. It helps to clear my head before I dive inside."

"What do you dream about?" he asked.

"Oh, all kinds of things," she replied casually. "Last time, I was on a train, firing cannons at another train across a deep desert chasm. The time before that, it was a fighter battle in space, far above the Earth."

"Sounds dangerous," Andrew admitted.

"Well, you can't be hurt inside a dream," she said. "I dove into a volcano once. When I came out, I was really sweaty, but otherwise fine. When you were inside your dream, I noticed that you looked quite comfortable. Eager, even. Had you been there before?"

He nodded. "I went there the first time when I got picked to try the drink and do the survey," he replied. "It only lasted a few seconds the first time, but since I had so much more time there, I wanted to get right into it."

"Most people are still a little shocked about how it feels the second time," Alexis said. "You must be pretty good,"

"Not as good as you," he reminded her.

She chuckled. "Damn right," she said, and to Andrew's surprise, she sighed. "I think I'm going to like having you around."

"Well, I'm not here officially, yet," he replied.

"Why didn't you sign up right then and there?" she asked. "You seemed so excited about it."

"I have to convince my mother to come out here with me," Andrew replied. "She has a bit of a...drinking problem. I'm worried about leaving her there, all alone. Blake offered to pay her admission into a care facility in LA if I signed."

"Blake's great at his job," Alexis said. "He read me like a book, and got me here in two days."

"Why did you leave your family?" Andrew asked.

"Let's just say that my family wasn't too close," she said.

"Oh, do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"No," she replied confidently. "I've finished talking about it a long time ago."

"Oh," he said, and the awkward silence set in again. "So, what now?"

"I think that you should go home now," Alexis replied. "Get your business straightened out, and then come back here."

"Sounds good," he replied, and stood up carefully. Alexis followed him back to the apartment, and through the halls, and all the way back to the garage elevator. Andrew wasn't the best at identifying human behavior, but he was pretty sure that Alexis was clinging to him. "Alexis, are you okay?"

"What? Of course I am," she replied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, it's just," Andrew began. He had to be very careful about how he worded this, or else he could lose the only friend he'd made here. In the end, he couldn't think of a good way to word it. "Oh, never mind. Listen, I'll be back in a few days, a week tops."

"Sounds like a plan," she replied. "I'll see you then,"

She stood there and watched as the elevator door closed, and Andrew guessed that she waited quite a while before leaving. He wondered what exactly had happened in her past that made her feel so isolated from everyone else, and why she would want to cling to him so readily. He thought about it all the way through the lonely ride back to the airport, and while he boarded the plane for home. The only thing that distracted him from his thoughts was the five or six brochures that had been left on one of the tables inside the jet. He sat down in front of them, and after he had waived off the steward, who kept trying to offer him expensive food, he took to leafing through each one carefully, in preparation for when he arrived.

"Oh, this one looks nice," he thought.

****

"I'm glad you and your mother were able to come to a quick decision," Blake said, sitting forward in his high-back chair. Andrew sat across from him, reading over a substantial stack of papers that made up his contract. They were in his office, in the complex, five days after Andrew had departed. In that time, his mother had been accepted into the alcoholism treatment facility of her choice, of which she was surprisingly excited, and Andrew had come back here, to finalize his arrival.

"This line here," Andrew said, pointing to one of the hundreds of lines and turning it around for Blake. "'A test subject may be offered, but is not required nor obligated, to take part in any perceivably dangerous or unscheduled tests. Consent of the subject must be given in order for the test to proceed.' I thought this stuff was deemed safe, that's why it's out in the public."

"This is a research institute, Andrew," Blake reminded him. "We do need to test our product in all manner of conditions and situations. Some of these tests, may, have a possibility to further affect the test participant."

"Has something like that happened before?" Andrew asked.

"No," Blake replied firmly. "But we only recently finished the preliminary research that allowed us to gain approval for sale. Secondary testing, and further along, tertiary test, will involve more, unorthodox, tests, along with the standard tests currently run."

"Like the quality test?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, that is our primary way of gathering data," Blake replied. "Further tests beyond that are completely voluntary, and participants are reward with ample compensation for their time."

"Sounds fair," Andrew said, and returned to his reading. Every now and then, he would peek up at Blake, who looked as calm and reassuring as ever. But if his previous attitude towards his signing was any clue, Andrew guessed that he was feeling quite anxious right now. "This looks to be in order,"

Having reached the last page, his pen hand hovered steadily over the long, flat line that was intended to support his signature. He had read over the whole agreement, agreed with everything in it, wanted to be in the program quite badly, but still that line made him hesitate. If he signed it, then he was bound to it. This piece of paper would own him until his date of termination, which had been unlisted. But from what Blake had said earlier, he might be here into his early or middle twenties, meaning they had him for more than five years. Being owned by a piece of paper didn't really appeal to him.

"Don't worry about the contract," Blake said calmly, reading his thoughts once again. "If at any point you wish to leave our facility, we can meet again and go over the terms of your dismissal. I'm hoping that you'll enjoy staying and working here, though."

"I'm sure I will," Andrew replied, and signed the document. Once he was done, he pushed the paper and pen across the desk to Blake. The man across from him made a quick read of the signature, and left it in the center of his desk. He suddenly offered his hand to Andrew across the desk, which he shook.

"I'd love to help you settle in myself, but I need to get this down to processing and get your first testing schedule. You can talk to the receptionist back at the garage elevator to get your room key," Blake said, and stood up.

"Thank you very much," Andrew said, and stood up as well. His duffel bag, which sat on the floor at his side, was hefted and placed over his shoulder. It was half-full of the few possessions and pieces of clothing he had, and hoped that he might be able to get something a little less ratty down the line. They both headed for the elevator, which Blake politely allowed him to use first. He rode the shiny metal box up to the second floor, and headed back towards the receptionist.

"Hi, my name's Andrew. I'm the new test participant. Do you have a room key for me?" he asked the receptionist as he reached her. She had just put down the phone a moment before he arrived, and was already going through the occupancy records before he had addressed her.

"There's one room here, floor ten, room three. It's on the western side of the building, right next to the elevator."

"That sounds great," he replied, and waited patiently while the receptionist produced a key from under her desk.

"Can I assume you've already read the rules on residence?" she asked, looking at him over the rim of her rectangular glasses.

"You can," he replied, and snatched up the key.

"You're all set, then," she said, and returned to whatever it was she was doing before he had arrived. "Oh, and just so you know, laundry facilities are on the lowest residential level, floor negative nine."

"Thank you," Andrew called over his shoulder as he climbed the stairs and headed back to the residential building. As he travelled through the common area and connecting hallway, he caught the eye of some other test subjects, who were probably only noticing that he was new, and nothing more.

When he entered the elevator, there were about six other people already inside. He took a glance at the panel, and noticed that everyone was heading up, and that the 'ten' button was already lit. He settled against the wall, and kept out of the way as people entered and exited at each floor they stopped on.

"Hey, are you new here?" a boy from across the elevator asked suddenly. He looked a bit older than Andrew, but certainly not by much.

"Yep," Andrew replied simply.

"Well, listen up, newbie," the boy said, suddenly taking on an air of superiority. It was then that Andrew saw that three other people in the elevator were watching the older one quite keenly, and were clearly his lackeys. "I'm the best around here, so if you have any questions, feel free to come ask me."

"Nice try," Andrew replied. "Alexis has the best score,"

"Well...it's not all about score," the boy replied, clearly expecting Andrew to fall right under his wing. He was rattled now. "It's about content, and action!"

"She was shooting cannons on a train in her last dream," Andrew retorted. "That's sounds pretty content-rich and action-packed to me."

The door suddenly slid open, and the number ten was displayed on the screen above them. With a polite nod, Andrew left the elevator and headed left, quickly finding his room. He put the key in the lock, and felt a sudden rush of joy when it clicked open, and the door was unlocked. He opened the door to the room that was all his own, and closed it behind him. He stepped into the middle of the room, which was identical to Alexis' in layout and color, except his room had a balcony instead of a patio. He went into the bedroom to lay his bag on the bed, and then went out onto the balcony. He had a stunning view from up there. He could look straight down onto the testing chambers below, and could see right over the common building and out to the ocean beyond. The privacy walls did a lot to block the wind, but if he went right up to the railing, he could feel the salty sea breeze blowing against his face.

Suddenly, the phone in his kitchen began to trill loudly, and Andrew rushed back inside to answer it.

"Hello?" he asked, holding the receiver to his ear.

"Hi Andrew, it's Blake," the voice on the other end replied. "How are you settling in?"

"It's a great place," Andrew replied.

"That's great to hear, but listen. There's a testing slot open in half an hour. If you take it, it will be a lot easier to plan the rest of your tests. You don't have to, if you'd rather take some more time to get settled, but I can't tell you when your first test will be if you don't take this one."

"I'll take it," Andrew replied enthusiastically.

"Great, I'll let the techs know so they can get set up," Blake said. "Come down to the chambers as soon as you're ready,"

"Will do," Andrew replied. "Thanks, Blake,"

"I'll see you later," Blake said, and the call ended with a click.

As soon as he put the phone down, there was a knock at the door. Now feeling a little rushed, Andrew headed straight over to answer it. It was Alexis, who had an excited grin on her face as soon as he opened the door.

"Oh, hi Alexis," Andrew said. "It's great to see you again,"

"Yeah, the receptionist told me which room was yours," Alexis said, as if she needed to explain how she had found him. He only found it to make the greeting more awkward.

"I'd love to invite you in, but they've just scheduled me for a test, and I need to get down there," he said apologetically, and stepped out into the hallway with her. He closed the door and locked it behind him, before heading towards the elevator. Alexis didn't hesitate in following him. "Do you want to come and watch?"

"I'd love to," she replied. "Let's just stop at my room first, so I can get my tablet."

"Sure thing," he said, and pressed the button for the first floor.

****

The technician had just finished Andrew up, and was just now leaving. Andrew, lying comfortably on the bed, looked up at the hallway, and saw Alexis leaning against the furthest wall her left arm crossed over her chest and the other holding her tablet. She looked disgruntled and uncaring, like she had been when he had first met her. It made Andrew wonder why she acted completely different when they were alone, and then it struck him. She was trying to keep up a public appearance. Andrew didn't like to profile people, but she definitely struck him as someone who would try and keep her public life separate from her personal life. It was something about her past, probably having to do with her family. He would need to ask about it later, because at that moment, he felt his grip on reality suddenly lurch, and he was plunged into sleep.

When his vision returned, he found himself in the field again. Maybe Alexis had been right, maybe he was boring. But it didn't matter now, he was here, and he wanted to keep exploring. He had a good idea which direction that mountain cave had been in, and set off towards it at a full sprint. He couldn't get tired in this dream, meaning he could go as fast as he wanted, for as long as he wanted. It made him wonder what else he could do. He stopped for a moment, and for a long while focused on what the front of the cave had looked like. He could see it perfectly, the slate-grey stone outlining the pitch-black interior. He could see in his head every piece of stone and blade of grass, and suddenly, he was there. He had teleported to the front of the cave.

Although he had remembered it in perfect detail, it looked bigger now that he stood in front of it. A lot bigger. A semi-truck could roll right inside without any trouble, or even a couple. He felt apprehensive about entering a cave so intimidating. Even if it was a dream, there were such things as bad dreams. He had no idea what could be lurking inside, and he was completely defenseless. But as he made excuses for himself, a lit torch suddenly appeared in his left hand. It wasn't much by means of defense, but at least getting rid of the darkness helped to ease his tension. The torch's flickering light shone deep into the cave, and revealed just how long it was.

As much as Andrew didn't really want to go in the cave anymore, he wasn't doing anything while standing there. So, he made up his mind and went inside. His footsteps echoed loudly around the cave, and the wavering light cast creepy shadows along the walls. To his surprise, the floor of the cave seemed well worn, and the stalactites that hung from the ceiling had been forcibly removed, leaving upside-down plateaus where they had once connected. It was almost as if someone had done it all be hand.

As Andrew continued into the cave, the light behind him quickly began to fade. Soon, he was surrounded by darkness on all sides, with only the floor illuminated a few feet ahead of him. He was paying very close attention to the floor, as it was the only thing he could pay attention to, so he stopped when he suddenly came across a strange imprint on the floor. It was about five feet long, four feet wide, and almost reminded him of the dinosaur footprint fossils he had seen pictures of a long time ago. In fact, there were several striking similarities. Andrew leaned down to examine the print more closely, the muck suddenly smelling quite musty as he neared it. He noticed that the imprint was molded slightly at the bottom, in low hills. He was investigating under the assumption that it was a footprint, so he deduced that it was caused by a soft sole. The foot had four toes at the front, and one that jutted out from the side, almost like a thumb did. At the end of each toe, there was another imprint a few inches away. It looked like a thin, straight gash, as if it was caused by a curved claw or nail.

As Andrew wondered what sort of creature could have created a footprint like that, a low growl suddenly rose from the darkness and shook the cave around him. He instinctively clenched his eyes shut, afraid that whatever had made the footprint had just found him. He suddenly felt a hot gust of air buffet his head, along with the roar of loud breathing. Then something bumped his forehead. It was gentle, but whatever it was had a large surface area. In other words, it was big, too. With a shaky sigh, Andrew summoned his courage, but when he looked up to check what he was faced with, he found himself back in the test chamber, completely safe, and not in a dark, scary cave. He breathed a sigh of relief, but in the back of his mind, he was curious as to what had been growling at him. He would need to go back there in his next test and confront it, but not after he talked to Alexis. She surely knew the best way to defend herself in a dream. He thought that she might be able to share some tips.

After being alone in the chamber for only a minute, the technician arrived to unplug him. As soon as he was finished, Andrew headed upstairs to where Alexis was waiting. He found that he had at least partially gotten used to the test, and didn't feel dizzy or nauseous at all. It felt good to not feel sick.

"As much as I like a little apprehension, it was still boring," Alexis complained, meeting him halfway by waiting for him at the top of the stairs.

"I wonder what it was," Andrew said, more thinking out loud than actually talking with her. "It...I think it was sniffing me."

"Well, whatever it was, if the pattern keeps up, we'll see it next time," she replied. "Every time you go in, you get a little further along. So, as long as you don't chicken out next time, we can get a good, long look at it."

"I'm worried it might attack me," Andrew replied, a hint of fear creeping into his voice.

"I already told you, you can't get hurt in a dream!" she snapped. It was clear to him that she was still keeping up her appearance, and he was fine with that. He kind of liked her better this way. She was less clingy. "But, you could do a bit more to prepare."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, surely you figured out that you can control the dream in more ways than just walking around. You discovered how to teleport around the world, and you did conjure up that torch at the head of the cave. You just need to do more next time, like conjuring up a weapon."

"You mean like a sword?" he asked.

"Sure, whatever you want," she replied. "Hell, don't be so archaic. Make a tank!"

"I don't know how to drive a tank!" Andrew exclaimed.

"You're really not getting it, are you?" Alexis asked with a sigh. "You don't need to know how. Once you're in there, in the dream, you just do it. I have a test later tonight, why don't you come and watch, and I'll show you how it's done."

"But I don't have a tablet," Andrew replied.

"You can just use mine," Alexis replied. "You don't start getting paid until at least the end of next week. Unfortunately, you're going to miss the big shopping trip. Trust me, you've got to buy a good one of these as soon as you can. Things can get pretty boring around here if you can't watch the tests."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said. "So when is your test?"

"Oh, it's at eight o'clock tonight," she replied. "It's the last test of the day. Here, you can hold on to my tablet for now. Just don't go losing it."

"Don't worry about it," Andrew replied, and took the thin device from Alexis. He was surprised by how light it was, and coming from such an underprivileged family as his own, he was a little overwhelmed by the sheer ability of the device he held. After giving a small chuckle at his awe, Alexis turned and headed off down the hall towards the common building.

"Oh, and by the way," she said, suddenly turning back to him. "In case you didn't notice before, you don't have a stove in your room, or any food, either. You need to pass a certification exam before they'll let you have your own, and you can't get your room stocked unless you have one. So, I'd get on that."

"Thanks," Andrew called after her, still holding the delicate tablet in both hands, to make sure he wouldn't accidentally drop it.

After watching Alexis disappear from the room, Andrew turned and headed for the elevator. Once he was back in his room, he found a piece of paper lying on the floor, which looked to have been dropped through the mail slot. It was a small notice about his lack of a stove, and how to go about getting one. He picked it up and glanced over it briefly, but soon left it on the table, along with Alexis' tablet, and went to go unpack his meager duffle bag.

"I'll get around to it," he thought, and began to load up his dresser.

****

When Andrew made it down to the observation hallway, it was already five to eight. Alexis was in the bay, having the long strands of surgical tubing fed into her head. It was about as fun to watch it as was experience it, Andrew noticed. He took the time to try and navigate this crazy device that had been left for him. It was like an ancient stone tablet to him.

There was person to his left who looked like he knew what he was doing. His fingers glided over the virtual keyboard, never missing a keystroke, and rarely making a mistake.

"Excuse me, I'm new to this. Do you think you could show me how to set this up?"

The man's head snapped to him when the sudden voice appeared in his ear, and merely stared at him while he made his case. When he was finished, the man reached out and took the tablet from him. "You just want to stream the test, right?" the man asked.

"Yeah," Andrew replied.

The man took a moment to explore the device before tapping a few buttons. "I take it this isn't yours," he said, suddenly handing it back with a blank screen.

"No, it's a friend's," he said. "Should it be blank,"

The man rolled his eyes. "The test hasn't started yet," he replied flatly. "You can't watch something that's not playing."

"It will just start playing when they start the test?" Andrew asked.

"Yes," the man replied, on the verge of total exasperation.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Andrew replied, and took several steps away from the man. He ended up leaning in the same corner that Alexis usually occupied. It was an odd feeling, being there, away from where the crowd gathered by the window. He felt so isolated, very alone. It was a dark place, and he knew why Alexis had it.

He was brought away from his thoughts when the screen in front of him suddenly burst into color. But it was just one color, a very dusty brown. A sandstorm was whipping around her, made real by the lifelike visual and audio, which played out a speaker somewhere in the device. Andrew noticed that her view was slightly distorted, and grains of sand were bouncing off the wall in front of her eyes. Because the view was locked into what she saw, he couldn't get a good look at her, but he was pretty sure that she was wearing goggles. The view suddenly shifted as she looked down, and he was given a good look at the new outfit she wore. It was all brown leather, like some kind of modern biker's outfit. But the thing that really caught Andrew's eye was the gun holster that was attached to the right side of her belt. A big, blocky revolver-like pistol was set into it, until Alexis also noticed it, and drew it for a better look.

The gun itself didn't look like it had a single curve on it, made completely out of square pieces. Instead of a standard cylindrical chamber, it had a big cube-like piece, which had a few wires running off it. If Andrew didn't know any better, he would've called it a battery.

A low rumble began to rise from the howling wind, and Alexis suddenly brought the pistol up. With the loud background noise, it was impossible to tell where the sound was coming from. Andrew couldn't tell how Alexis was feeling, but he would've been pretty scared right about then.

The rumble rose to a crescendo, and a motorcycle suddenly flew out of the dust and over Alexis' head. There was a man on the bike, dressed in a similar fashion to Alexis, who suddenly drew a sawn-off shotgun from his side and aimed it at her. She wasted no time in raising her own weapon to the man, and pulling the trigger. A bright blue bolt was propelled from the barrel of the gun, travelling up and into the man's forehead. There was a short moment while the man simply looked dazed, but soon after he completely disintegrated into a cloud of dust, which blew away in the wind and left no trace. His bike, on the other hand, continued to soar through the air, and crashed to the ground on its side, empty.

More of the low rumbles began to appear in the distance, so Alexis rushed over to the bike and righted. It was a massive thing, almost as tall as she was as it needed to be able to drive through the desert sands. She somehow managed to hoist herself up and into the seat, and the bike sprung to life as soon as she wrapped her hand around the throttle. She cranked on the throttle, and the bike shot off, blowing away the dust around her in a spectacular cone as she went. The rumbles from behind her began to grow louder, and two more bikes appeared in her wake. One of the riders had a very large rifle, which had already been aimed at Alexis as he rode in. He pulled the trigger, and the bullet sailed through the air and imbedded itself into her rear wheel. The tire blew out in a massive burst, throwing the bike off balance and sending it sliding on its side. Reacting with inhuman agility, Alexis got out of her seat and stood on the side of her bike as it slid through the sand. She brought her gun out, and shot both the drivers, who quickly fizzled away into nothing. And as the two bikes began to wobble, she leapt from her wreck and into the seat of one of these now unoccupied bikes.

As she sped away from the carnage, the wind and dust began to settle, and left a clear view of the terrain. The dust was all around her, endlessly stretching on as the ground had no elevation changes. They only objects in this barren world were the toppled motorcycles behind her, and a massive, poorly-built tower that rose to the clouds in front of her. It looked patchy at best, and was more than likely to fall into pieces if any shred of reality existed there. It was built from the hulks and scraps from other things, all welded together in a vertical pillar. Andrew could see a big tanker ship, a cargo plane, and an aircraft carrier all thrown into the mixture. Alexis was heading straight for it, and as she raced through the desert, drew her pistol and thumbed a switch on the right side of the grip. The entire thing began to unfold and extend, growing into a long-barreled rifle with a zoom scope. Taking her hands off the handlebars and raised the rifle, aiming it at the top of the tower and looking through the scope. Somehow, it managed to zoom all the way into the tower, and clearly show a man in a long, black cape standing at the top. He was bald, and had a black goatee, and a scar running over his right brow and down his cheek. It was clear that Alexis wasn't good at making creative bad guys.

She flicked the switch on her gun again, and it shrunk back into the pistol for her to holster. With both hands on the bike again, she gunned it forward, closing the gap between her and the tower. Suddenly, the ground began to rumble, and a massive steel tunnel rose from the sands before her. She didn't hesitate, and drove straight inside. The dark tunnel stretched on endlessly in front of her, but it began to grow even darker, and then faded completely.

With the dream over, Andrew made his way over to the window. Alexis was just rousing, rubbing her eyes quickly and sitting up. She seemed to have a lot of energy after coming out of a chemical-induced coma. The technician entered a minute later, and began to unhook her. It didn't take long, as her body never even twitched as the tubes came out. The technician always had to go quite slowly with him, as his muscles contracted and held onto the tubes. Within a minute, she was out of the room and heading up to the hallway. Andrew made his way to the head of the stairs to meet her.

"Well that was...exciting," he said when she appeared.

"A lot more than yours," she replied with a smirk.

"You aren't bothered by shooting people like that?" he asked.

"They aren't real people, stupid," she said, leading him into the elevator. At some point she had snatched her tablet back from him, but he never noticed when. "They're just figments of my imagination,"

"Do you know why you want to kill that man?" he asked.

"Nope, just do," she said with a shrug, and hit the button for her floor.

"We should both get some sleep now," Alexis said when they reached her door. "We need to rest our brains, so we aren't sloppy during the tests tomorrow."

"I don't have a test for another two days," Andrew replied.

"Oh, they don't have you scheduled every day?" she asked.

He simply shook his head.

"Oh well," she said with a shrug, and left him in the hallway as she passed through her open doorway. "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow,"

"Sure," Andrew said, and watched as she closed the door, leaving him alone in the hallway. He returned to the elevator and headed to his own room. He hadn't tried the bed before, but found it to be very soft and fresh. Then again, there weren't a lot of beds worse than his one at home. He found that he had little trouble relaxing in the soft embrace of the sheets, and soon drifted off to sleep.

****

"Hello Andrew," A voice rose the darkness. It was deep, crisp, and if he didn't know any better, had a bit of a sultry undertone. "It's good to finally see you."

"Who are you?" Andrew asked, trying to look around but found himself stuck in place. He suddenly felt very hot, and quite claustrophobic. "Where am I? Let me out!"

"Do you not like being so close to me?" the voice asked. "Would you rather see me first?"

"Yes," Andrew replied, and the darkness was suddenly split as the hot surface around him shifted. It opened up above him, allowing him to stare up at a torch-lit cave ceiling, with many stalactites. In fact, it looked awfully similar to the ceiling of the cave he had gone into during his dream. But he wasn't taking a test right now, was he?

The rest of the surface pulled away from him, leaving him standing alone on the hard cave floor. The rocks felt smooth under his bare feet, and as he looked down, he noticed that the rest of him was bare, too. There wasn't a scrap of clothing on or around him at all.

"You don't need to cover up in front of me, Andrew," the voice said from behind him. "I already know all about you,"

Andrew spun around, suddenly very afraid of what was speaking to him. When he stopped, he merely stood gawking, unable to comprehend what sat before him. He was huge, his head hanging a foot above his from a long curled neck. His shoulders were broad and strong, supporting two long legs that he leaned back again. His chest and belly were smooth and seemly, but a strong musculature was clearly present underneath. Two more legs, identical to the first set, were splayed in his direction, with his massive, padded feet raised to him. Each of his toes sported a wicked claw, and he even had a toe that extended from the side of his foot that looked quite similar to a thumb. Andrew instantly recognized it.

"You're the creature from that cave! From...this cave," he exclaimed.

The dragon nodded slowly, and stood up to approach him slowly. It's long, sinewy tail swayed elegantly as it walked, barely making a sound as it went. As it came forward out of the shadows, a torch illuminated its body. Andrew gasps as his body instantly flared to life, thousands of glittering red scales radiating in the darkness. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Who...who are you," he asked, his eyes never leaving the dragons as it came within a foot of him.

"I have no name, and I have no past," the dragon replied, slowly walking around behind him. "I am the all best parts of you, in a shape that you feel is best."

"The best parts of me?" he asked.

The dragon nodded over his left shoulder. "I am the embodiment of what you desire from yourself, the things that you haven't been able to bring out yourself. I am your unwavering courage, your unmatched beauty, and your independence."

"And, what do you want?" Andrew asked.

"I want to be with you," the dragon said, and he was suddenly pulled backwards as the dragon sat and pulled him against his large chest. Andrew gasped at the shock, but soon calmed as he was pressed against the dragon's soft, warm, strong body. "I want you to become me,"

"But, how do I do that?" he asked.

"Just keep doing what you are doing," the dragon replied. "These tests are the key. The next time you go there, we will become one."

"But, what will happen? I don't understand-"

"Shh, no more talking," the dragon interrupted softly, his head dropping gently onto Andrew's shoulder. "Come on, let's practice,"

"But how do we-" Andrew began, but was suddenly cut off as the dragon brought his large, soft lips to his, and locked him in a passionate kiss. Andrew didn't know what to do, what to think, but he knew what he felt. It felt great, better than anything he'd ever felt before.

The dragon chuckled softly through the kiss, and then brought his strong tongue forward to draw across Andrew's still locked lips. The touch was so delicate, so smooth, and so loving. Andrew couldn't help but open for him to enter. The dragon's tongue tip was large, and filled most of the space as it leapt inside his mouth and took hold of his own appendage. They wriggled and danced with each other, giving them both ample opportunities to taste the other's saliva. Andrew loved every second of it, but it disappeared all too quickly. The dragon's tongue gave him a goodbye embrace before it pulled out of his mouth, and his head pulled away from his. A sweet grin split the dragon's snout as he stared at Andrew for a moment.

"Did you like that?" he asked.

Andrew could only nod, unable to find a good way of wording it.

"Would you like to explore more of our body?"

Andrew nodded again, and was suddenly released as the arms around him retreated. He was given free reign over where they went, and he didn't want to waste it. Dreams had terrible timing, and he didn't want it to end before he had finished.

"Don't worry, we have all the time in the world," the dragon said, reading his mind. "This moment will last as long as you want it to."

Andrew smiled, and began to rub his palms over the dragon's smooth chest, feeling every soft scale under his fingertips. All the while, the dragon watched him travel down, that sweet, encouraging smile never leaving his face. Andrew hands ran over the dragon's warm belly, and soon he was straddling the dragon's tail base. Just in front of him, a large gap parted the dragon's beautiful scales, and a pink tip jutted from it. With a smile, he reached forward and grabbed the tip, about an inch in diameter, and tugged gently at it. The lips parted quickly, allowing the shaft to grow outward and release a sweet, heady musk that quickly filled the room. The dragon's member continued to grow, now a foot long and too wide for him to wrap his hand around at the base. But the slit parted even more, and a wad of loose skin began to grow out of it. It began to expand and fill, and Andrew realized that it was the dragon's testicles. They flopped heavily down against his crotch, hanging a few inches above the dragon's puckered tail hole. Realizing that the dragon's cock was finished growing, Andrew began, leaning in a taking a long lick from the cock's head, down across his balls, and even down to his tail hole. It was so clean and taut, and it was clear that there was no part of this dragon that Andrew could resist. His tongue lingered around the tail hole, running his tongue in circles while slowly closing in on where the flesh opened. All the while, he had his nose buried under the dragon's sack, inhaling his heavenly scent and bringing power to his sexual drive. He couldn't resist that member any longer, and jumped straight back to it.

He wrapped his hands around the base of the member while he ran his tongue around the taut skin, making his way to the tip. As soon as he made it to the tapered tip, he spread his lips and brought it inside, sucking gently on it as he slid his hands up and down on the base. He was instantly rewarded with a bead of pre-cum, which felt hot and tangy on his tongue. He wanted more, and doubled his efforts to pleasure the dragon. He began bobbing his head up and down, allowing the tip to pass as deep into his mouth as he could manage before pulling back out. All the while, the cock released lubricants inside his mouth, which he in turn smeared back across the member's sides. It was so slick now, and it easily glided in and out of his mouth so easily, and Andrew suddenly felt it twitch. It was the first movement he'd felt from the dragon since he had begun, and he felt the dragon's hands on his sides and he was pulled from the wet cock and brought to the dragon's head.

"I'm slick enough for us to go further," the dragon said tenderly. "But I should get you ready, too,"

Gently, he lowered Andrew down onto his chest, laying him on his back with his head facing that magnificent member. Andrew held himself up on his hands and knees, but almost instantly collapsed when he felt the dragon's soft, supple tongue begin to run over his own ass. It licked and flicked delicately at his meager defenses, before worming its way slowly but firmly inside. Its textures played against Andrew's walls, giving him spikes of pleasure that made him unable to move. He felt liquids begin to seep from his open hole as the dragon spread his plentiful saliva through him, making him slick and ready for what was to come. The dragon's tongue gave one final, firm writhe before pulled out, and the dragon picked him up again. He rested him on the stone floor, on his hands and knees, and then stood up himself. He walked over Andrew's back, casting his mighty shadow over him, and began to lick at the nape of his neck.

"Are you ready?" he asked gently.

Again, Andrew had no words, and could only nod. He felt the well-lubricated tip of the dragon's member run up his crack, and settle finally on his hole. It was still slightly spread from when the tongue had entered him, so as the dragon's hips slowly pressed forward, the slick pillar of flesh easily entered Andrew's soft body. Andrew suddenly found his voice, and let out a deep moan as the dragon's member opened his delicate rectum. It travelled slowly but surely, and within the minute Andrew felt the dragon's heavy testicles bump into his own, and warm crotch scales brushed against his bare skin. The dragon wasted no more time, and set a fair pace as he began to rock back and forth into Andrew's body. It was an easy pace, a loving pace.

"Harder," Andrew suddenly moaned. "Show me how strong you are,"

"This is our strength, Andrew," the dragon said softly, licking his cheek.

The dragon pulled out, but instead of gently reentering, he slammed his way in, his scales slapping into Andrew's skin and echoing through the cave. For the first time, the dragon showed some signs of exertion, his breathing growing heavy as he drew out and dove back in. All the while, his member spread copious amounts of lubricant inside Andrew's passage, making each hard thrust glide easily past. Andrew was in a blissful shock, as he felt every inch of the dragon's member rub against his passage, and throw pleasure up his spine.

"I am close," the dragon panted, suddenly bringing his feet around to hold Andrew in place. He began to increase his thrusting strength even further, as he pushed forward with his hips and pushed back against Andrew's shoulders with his feet. The result allowed his member to dive deeper than ever before, and bringing more shots of pleasure to Andrew's already wracked brain.

The dragon could only manage three more thrusts, but Andrew would never forget them. As the first and second plunged in and yanked out, ridges and bumps began to grow out from the once smooth surface of the cock. And on the third and final thrust, the dragon literally threw himself forward, burying his cock as deep into Andrew as he could while losing his balance and falling forward, trapping Andrew beneath his weight. He let out an earth-shaking roar as jets of semen burst forth from his member, painting Andrew's insides white and filling him with warmth. As the torrent continued, a much thicker ridge grew from the base of the dragon's cock, locking them together. And as every drop of semen collected inside him, he released his own spray, which left a warm feeling against his stomach as the liquid spread between him and the floor.

They stayed in that position for a long moment, both still basking in their afterglow. The dragon was still fully erect, and locked inside Andrew's ass, leaving them no room to move separately. But neither of them wanted to be apart, so the dragon rolled onto his side, spooning Andrew while they enjoyed being coupled. The dragon's head came around to his front, and began to silently lick at the semen on his belly. Andrew watched him with a smile. He loved this creature, loved it too much. He believed it, that it was the best in him, and he wanted to become one with it. He didn't care how much it hurt, or what it was going to be like. The exertion of the moment finally caught up with him, and he suddenly felt exhausted. His eyelids began to droop, and the last thing he saw was the dragon looking up at him and smiling.

****

Andrew's eyes shot open with excitement. He was full of energy, and ready to go, despite it being five o'clock in the morning. But that didn't matter, because today was test day.

It had been two days since his magical dream, when he had met the dragon. Ever since then, he couldn't get it out of his head, the way he spoke, the way he smiled, and especially the way his scales shone. He dominated his thoughts, and left only impatient and excitement as a border.

He grabbed whatever clothes were at the top of his drawers, and headed into the shower. As he let the warm water run down his body, he slowly tugged at his erect member as he remembered the dream. Andrew had never masturbated before, but the morning after that dream, even after having orgasmed in his bed, he awoke with a full erection and a mind clouded with lust. His showers began his outlet, and although he hated meticulously scrubbing the waterlogged semen from the floor of the tub afterwards, it never made him reconsider. The only problem was that, unlike his dream world, people could hear him if he was too loud. So kept his mouth clamped shut while his semen jetted onto the drain cap, and while the warm water continued to simulate his sensitive skin afterwards.

When he was finished cleaning himself, he left the shower and dried off, all the while still thinking about the dragon. He out his clothes on while thinking about the dragon. He made breakfast while he thought about the dragon. It was repetitive, but he never ran out of things to wonder about. He wondered what it was going to like to be together with him. He wondered what it would feel like, what it would look like, smell like, and so on. And, most of all, he wondered how it was going to work. The dragon had been very vague when he had talked about it, and hadn't given any details about how it would work. But that didn't really matter to Andrew. As long as they were together, he would be happy.

He sat down to read a book once he had finished breakfast, but he found it very difficult to distract himself. His test was at ten o'clock, and it was only six o'clock now. He still had to wait out three and a half hours, at least. He had never been so excited about something, so he didn't know how to deal with the anxiousness. He decided that it was futile to ignore it, so he just closed his eyes and thought some more. He could see him in his mind's eye, just as beautiful as he had been during the dream. He was smiling that loving smile again, the one that Andrew found so soothing. He imagined himself, lying pressed against the dragon's chest, held tight in his arms, while he smiled down on him with that loving smile. He held that imagine for what felt like forever, but suddenly lost it when a loud beep interrupted him. He had fallen asleep again, and his alarm clock had woken him. It had been set for nine-thirty. It was time to go.

"Andrew, what are you doing here so early?" the technician asked, entering the test chamber with fresh bedding. Andrew followed him in, even though he was supposed to wait outside until they were ready for him. "The test doesn't start for another twenty-five minutes."

"I just wanted to be ready to go at nine," he replied.

"You excited for something?" the technician asked, spreading the white sheet over the equally white mattress.

"Not really," he lied. "I just had some coffee this morning to help me wake up."

"Oh, is this your first time having coffee?" the technician asked with a chuckle.

"First time in a while," Andrew replied. "I used to drink it a lot during university, but now that I'm on break, I haven't drunk it."

"What's your major?" he asked.

"Architecture," he replied shortly.

"Really? You don't strike me as an architecture student," the technician said.

"I...don't really have a mindset for it outside of school," Andrew said, trying his absolute best to get out of the conversation. He didn't want to talk about school now, he wanted to test.

"Well, I suppose that since you are here and eager to start, I can get you hooked up a few minutes early," the technician said, and wheeled the IV stand from the corner over to the bedside. Andrew hopped in anxiously, trying his very best to lie perfectly still while the tech began to insert the tubes into him. First, the sensor tubes were fed up into his head, four of them in total. Next, the needle with the sedative was fed into his arm. In his anxious state, every move the technician made seemed even slower and more particular than usual.

"Alright, we should be getting started in five minutes." the tech said, and left the room, carrying out the old bedding with him.

It was the longest five minutes of Andrew's life. It felt even longer than the few hours he had spent waiting before he left his room. Because now he was here, all hooked up and ready to go, but they wouldn't start. All the scientists were still out getting coffee and donuts, while he waited for his life to change.

"Alright Andrew, we're going to get started now," a scientists voice suddenly appeared through the speaker just above his head.

"Finally," he muttered under his breath, and took a glance up at the hallway. There was a small group there, consisting of mostly the people who couldn't sleep anymore and had come down for breakfast. The still had there nightwear on while they held there tablet in one hand and a bagel in the other. He had a secret hope that whatever was about to happen would be highly entertaining to the crowd. He felt the sedative begin to take its stranglehold on his senses, and just before he blacked out, he saw Alexis appear at the front of the group, looking down at him through the glass. He wanted her to see this.

When his vision returned, he was in the center of the purple field again. It was as beautiful as always, but he had no time for sight-seeing. With as much focus as his anxious mind could muster, he gathered a picture of the dragon's footprint in the cavern, and was instantly transported there. He appeared in the center of it, and wasted no time in rush down the hallway towards the cave.

When he finally made it to the cave, he found the dragon reclining on his side, waiting for him. When he approached the magnificent creature, he stood and allowed Andrew to wrap his arms around his front leg in a tight embrace. With a gentle smile, he brought his other leg across to return the gesture.

"It was so hard to wait to see you again," Andrew said, nuzzling his cheek against the scaled limb.

"I'm happy to see you, too," the dragon replied, and released his embrace. Andrew followed suit, and stepped back to give the dragon a bit of space. "Are you ready?"

"Of course," Andrew replied. "I just have one question. What is it that we're doing, exactly?"

"We are joining the two halves of your mind into one," the dragon replied, bringing no clarity to the situation. "You are the part as you are now, and I am the part that you lack. We do not need to worry about details."

"But, if you're a part of me, will we be able to meet like this anymore?" Andrew asked.

"I suppose, if you desire it," the dragon replied, a slight grin crossing his face again. "You can even play my part. Now, are you ready to begin?"

Andrew nodded slowly in reply. "What do I have to do?" he asked.

"Close your eyes, and picture me," the dragon said. "Picture me as realistically as you can muster. I'll do the rest."

Andrew did as he was told, and closed his eyes. He pictured the dragon in all his majesty, and slowly stripped away the background layers. The spiked, dripping ceiling disappeared, followed by the walls and flickering torches, and finally the floor disappeared from under his bare feet. He couldn't see the dragon step forward and wrap his great body around him, he only feet the sudden warmth around him. He kept his focus firm and steady, never letting an impurity disrupt the image. And, in a flash, the warmth was gone, and replace with an almost frigid cold. He could no longer hold his focus, and his eyes snapped open. He lost the image, it collapsed on itself and sunk into the recesses of his mind.

He was back in facility test chamber. Nothing was new, or even a little bit different, but something in the atmosphere was off. He assumed that he had run out of time, and that the dream had ended, but when he looked up at the hallway, everyone was pressed against the glass. They looked confused, nervous. Alexis looked downright scared.

"Andrew? Are you alright?" the voice asked over the speaker.

"Yeah, why?" he asked. "Why does everyone look so scared?"

"You were only asleep for a minute," the scientist replied. "The sedatives and chemicals are still pumping into you at full strength. Are you sure nothing is wrong?"

"Yeah, I feel fi-" Andrew began, but was interrupted by a stabbing pain in his gut that made him growl.

"Andrew? What was that?" the scientist asked, the concern taking deeper root.

"My stomach is killing me," Andrew replied, grasping at his belly as he sat up. He instantly regretted it, as another stabbing pain shot through his chest and sent him back to the bed.

"Andrew, we're sending someone to disconnect you," the scientist said. "Just, try and stay calm,"

All he could do was groan in response. He had been wrong, he was far from fine. He put his hands under his shirt, and felt something moving underneath the skin. It couldn't possibly be a parasite, could it? He didn't know, but he wanted to be over.

The pain and writhing in his guts continued for another minute, and still the technician had not appeared. He hoped that as soon as the chemicals were taken out of his system, he'd return to normal, but he had low hopes for that. Finally, the tech burst through the door, almost breaking out the glass, and rushed over the IV stand. With a significantly reduced sense of precision, he pulled the needle from Andrew's arm. Some blood followed the needle out, which hadn't happened before, but was to be expected from such a hasty move. He tried to stay still while the sensors were removed, but the movement and pain made it extremely difficult. The technician ended up having to hold him by the temples while he removed the clusters. And as soon as the last tube was removed from his body, the writhing stopped.

"Is the pain gone?" the tech asked. "Don't worry, we've got a world-class physician on site who will be here shortly."

The pain was gone, that was true, but something else had taken its place. A weird, uncomfortable pressure was building up all through his body, pushing against the skin. It felt almost like he was swelling everywhere at once. He watched with wide eyes as the skin on his arms began to bulge to insane proportions, along with his legs and chest. The technician backed up nervously, choosing to observe from the far wall as opposed to his bedside. Andrew felt for a moment that his skin might burst, then he waited, and then everything changed in a very short period of time.

First, his bones began to grow and elongate, starting with his spine. He watched with horror as his hips slid further along the bed, his head curled as his shoulders moved towards the wall behind him. His arms and legs began to grow and change shape, conforming to a uniform shape and size, while Andrew stared wide-eyes at his changing body. He was in shock, he didn't dare move at all. If he moved, something could go wrong. And if something went wrong, he was even more screwed than he was right now. His hands and feet began to spread, while his toes extended to the new length of his fingers. His spine continued to lengthen, now growing beyond his shoulder's forming a great pillar of a neck. It also continued below his pelvis, growing out and hanging many feet behind him, now sagging onto the floor. He felt bones begin to just out of his back, first of the right side, and then on the left. The rapid growth of the new bones pushed him from the bed, leaving him sprawled out on his stomach in the middle of the floor. His nose began to grow stiff and press outward, followed by his jaw. His teeth sharpened and grew to interlocking points.

Next, the swelling, which had once felt like water weight, began to condense and contour. The pressure dissipated as the swelling in his arms and legs formed into huge, newly-defined muscles. This continued up into his torso and back, taking his once round, malleable body and forming it into a smooth musculature. It travelled up his neck and down his elongated spine, the muscles extending path the end of the spine and forming a rounded tip that began to twitch with a mind of its own. He found himself able to move his arms, legs, fingers, and neck again, but restrained himself as the wicked transformation continued.

Finally, he felt his ears begin to shrink and collapse against his newly extended skull, soon disappearing all together. His vision flickered and went out of focus as his eyes shifted and morphed, but finally leaving him with a staggering amount of visual detail. His nostrils tingled as the hairs dissolved and were replaced by small nodules of flesh. He felt his nails grow and widen, curving slightly and grinding against the cold floor. From the new shafts of bone and muscle that grew from his back, fleshy membrane began to grow and spread all throughout the space, forming two wide sails that did not come close to completely fitting in the small room. They seemed to fold against his sides naturally. He felt his member and testicles, now rubbing bare against the floor as his clothes had torn long ago, growing and expanding rapidly, before shrinking and slipping inside his body. The skin around it closed together, forming a casing to protect it.

The last step, and the most dramatic, was just beginning to take place as the tip of his nose. Small, red specks emerged from his open pours, quickly expanding and interlocking with their neighbors to form a complete casing around his dissolving epidermis. It began to multiply and expand more rapidly as it progressed up his face, soon reaching a point where it spread fluidly, like water running across a surface. When it reached the top of his head, it sliced any remaining hair clean off, and continued all the way down to the tip of his spine.

He looked down at his nose, as he was still far too terrified to move. It was long, rounded, and split for his lips. His nostrils had small ridges that he could see from above, covered in the same red covering that he'd felt expand across the rest of his body. He focused on the covering itself, on its pattern, its texture, its color, and more specifically, its sheen. It was so brilliantly radiant. It was almost like...the dragon's scales. With a spark of realization, it all made sense to him. The dragon had kept saying during sex that it was 'their' body. He had talked about joining together as one. How could he have been so oblivious? He had become the dragon.

"Ha-ha, wow," Andrew laughed, standing up to get a better look at his new body. He was a little shaky at first, as the muscles were new and awkward to control, but he quickly got the hang of it after falling a few times. When he finally got all four feet under him, and rose up from the floor, his stood at an impressive six feet at the shoulder. His neck was about three feet long, and he found it most comfortable to hold it just above shoulder level, adding to his height.

He took a step to his right in order to get a better look at his side, accidentally stepping on and crushing the bed beside him like a rotted wooden box. Once he managed to get all the new points of articulation in his neck sorted out, he brought his snout around to his shoulder to get a better look at himself. He estimated himself to be about ten feet from head to tail, but he didn't have many good reference points in the small, now partially destroyed room. His tail, still with quite a mind of its own, had been swinging whimsically back and forth ever since the muscles had finished growing. In that time, he had toppled over the IV stand, spilling its liquid contents on the floor, and knocked over a few chairs in the corner that researchers sometimes sat in.

Speaking of researchers, Andrew noticed that the technician was still here. The man was terrified, reeking of sweat, and had probably wet himself at some point. The scent of urine was strong, but not so fresh. The door was a few feet away, but that was occupied by three other scientists, all squeezing through to get a good look at him. They didn't look quite as scared, but they smelled the same as the technician, minus the urine.

"Hey, guys! This is pretty cool, isn't it?" he asked, taking a step towards them.

"A...An...drew?" the technician asked shakily. "Is that you?"

"Yep," he replied with an enthusiastic nod. He grinned as well, sending another rush of terror through the man as he flashed his sharp new teeth by mistake. "Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

The technician simply released a series of high-pitched squeaks from him mouth, and that was about the end of the conversation. Andrew suddenly noticed how very quiet it was. Even the ventilation system seemed to be silent in shock. Andrew took a glance up at the hallway, and there wasn't much to see. Most of the people had shrunk towards the back wall in terror, or fled completely. Only a few brave souls stayed to watch him with wide, still fearful eyes. Alexis was one of them.

"Out of my way," a voice said from down the hallway. It was faint, but his hearing must have also gotten better. The sound of rushed footsteps soon echoed down towards him. "Move!" the voice shouted, much closer now, and Blake suddenly shoved his way between the three scientists in the door. "Andrew? It's Blake. Do you remember me?" he asked, trying to act calm when he was clearly not.

"Hey, Blake. How's it going?" he asked casually, as if nothing had changed.

"Well, it's not going so well, actually," Blake replied, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "You see, it started as just a normal day. It started as a good day, in fact. The coffee maker was working today. But, in just two hours of my day starting, there was a supposedly 'routine' test, and now I have a giant lizard standing in my test chamber."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, isn't it?" Andrew asked.

"No, not really," the man replied. "You see, if anyone hears of this, if they think that drinking this stuff will turn them into terrible monsters-"

"Hey!" Andrew interrupted.

"They'll recall!" Blake exclaimed, ignoring him. "They'll shut me down. All these kids will have to go home. Not all of them have a good place to go, too, Andrew. We want them, and they want, to be here. So, why don't you lie back down, nice and slow, and let us hook you up and fix this."

"What? No," Andrew replied. "I like my new body!"

"Andrew, be reasonable," Blake insisted. "You can't go around as a giant lizard! If you go anywhere near a town, they'll send the National Guard! You may like being that way, but nobody likes having a tank shell shot up their ass."

"Then I'll stay here," he said.

"What am I supposed to do with you here!?" Blake exclaimed. "We don't do tests on lizards, and we don't need results on lizards. You'd be better off in a zoo!"

"You want to cage me up?" Andrew asked. "You can't do that!"

"I don't know what else to do with you!" Blake shouted. "The only thing that I can do is try and turn you back to normal."

"I told you, I don't want to go back," Andrew replied. "I'm whole now. I don't want to go back to being a half."

"I don't know what the hell that means, but until somebody tells me what to do with you, I can't deal with it," Blake said, putting his hands up in a 'surrender' pose while he paced away from the door.

"Hide him," a familiar voice chimed in.

All eyes snapped to the doorway, where Alexis was squeezing her way through the door.

"Hide him where?" Blake asked. "In case you haven't realized, it isn't easy to hide something like him with all the satellites around."

"As soon as you get him out of here, you can deny any connections, if they catch him and make some connections," Alexis replied.

"But what if he's got my chemicals in his blood?" Blake asked. "They're not widely available compounds. If they find them in him, they'll come straight after me."

"Then run your own blood test first, right now," she said. "If he doesn't have the chemicals in him, he can be relocated. If he does have them, and they are going to stay in him, then you'll be forced to keep him here."

Blake let out a sigh of resignation. He had to admit, that did make sense. As much as he didn't want to deal with the lizard if he was full of his chemicals, it was the only decent way. "Alright, someone go and get me a needle," Blake sighed. He cast a glance at Andrew's arms, and added, "The biggest needle."

One of the scientists rushed away, and a few minutes later returned with a massive needle about six inches long. Andrew had no idea why they would have a needle that big in the first place, but it seemed to be a good size for him. The scientist stepped forward, quite slowly of course, and towards the arm that Andrew had extended for him. The man took the warm, scaled limb in his arms and began to press and prod at it. As he worked, Andrew could smell the stench of sweat rising from the man, and couldn't help but wrinkle his nose a little at it.

"Is something bothering you, Andrew?" Alexis asked.

"Oh no. it's just getting a little stuffy in here, that's all," He half-lied. The air was getting a little stale, too.

"Sir, I can't find a pulse," the scientist reported. "The scales don't let any tells through."

"Oh? Here, let me have the needle," Blake said, and stepped up to the scientist's side. He took the needle from man's hand. He then started to do similar actions to the scientist, but as he worked, he slowly brought the tip of the needle to rest in a tiny space between two of his scales. With a sudden, abrupt motion, Blake stabbed the needle into his arm, causing Andrew to jerk in alarm, knocking the man back against the wall by accident. Blake looked a little shaken as he rose back to his feet, but was otherwise unharmed. He returned to Andrew's arm, and pulled the plunger back on the embedded needle. At first, nothing entered, but after Blake began to really yank at the plunger, viscous red liquid began to enter the chamber.

After a few ounces of blood had been taken, the scientists had rushed the needle down to the lab for analysis. The technician had scurried away to change, and left Blake and Alexis alone with him. He had been waiting for some time to speak with Alexis about the dream he'd had a few night ago, but he couldn't do that with Blake there.

It was almost completely silent in the room. No one spoke. The only sounds that could be heard were the background noises of the vents, and Andrew's tail dragging across the floor as it swayed slowly behind him. He had lied down and taken to watching the scales on his forearm glimmer in the sunlight, but even that could only hold his interest for so long. Suddenly, a low gurgling sound began to rise from his gut, growing to an embarrassing crescendo before retreating into silence again.

"Could I, uh, get something to eat?" Andrew asked. "Please?"

"I suppose I could see to getting you something brought down here," Blake replied. "You won't be getting out of here until we get the roof off, and that won't be for another few hours. I assume that those teeth mean you're a carnivore?"

"Yeah, meat would be nice," Andrew replied.

"Alright, come on, Alexis," Blake said, moving to the door. "I'd better not leave you alone with him. He might eat you."

"Hey, I wouldn't eat her!" Andrew retorted. "Alexis is my friend!"

"Oh, you're her friend?" Blake asked. "I thought you were the loner, Alexis? Did you go soft? I should've known that you'd be enough of a hipster to be friends with a giant lizard instead of a normal human person."

"He was human when he got here!" Alexis shot back. "God, get out of here, Blake."

The older man stormed off down the hallway. The events of the morning had clearly gotten under his skin, but Andrew understood. He was trying to be empathetic towards Blake's point of view, but he didn't want to go back to being human. He also didn't want to be put in a cage, but they'd discuss that later.

"So, how are you doing, Alexis?" Andrew asked, training his eyes on her. He tried to appear as unaggressive as he could, but he could see how unsettled she was by his predatory shape alone. There was nothing he could do about that.

"I'm..." she started. "I'm alright, I guess. How...how are you doing?"

"I feel great!" he exclaimed, a dumb grin fixing itself onto his face.

"Did it, hurt?" she asked. "When you changed?"

"At first, yeah" Andrew replied. "I think all my organs were changing around. But after that, I didn't feel a thing. What do you think?"

"What do I think? About your new body?" Alexis asked.

Andrew nodded.

"I think that it's...new," she replied. "I'm willing to try new things."

Her eyes seemed drawn to his scales for a long moment, and she caught herself reaching out to touch them, quickly retracting her arm. Her eyes dropped to the floor, embarrassed. She began to rub her arm awkwardly, her eyes shifting around a little before she looked up at him from under her brow. She suddenly looked very fragile. "Can I..." she began.

He nodded before she could finished, giving a gentle smile while he shuffled across the floor towards her. He settled about a foot away from her, with his broad left side facing her. He watched her encouragingly while her hand shakily extended towards him, and finally pressed her small hand against his side. Her skin felt so soft against his hard scales, he couldn't help but enjoy the contact.

"You're so warm," she said quietly, and to his surprise, she turned and sat back against him. She let out a sigh of contentment as her back curved against him. Andrew simply marveled at her. Everyone seemed to be scared of him, yet here she was, lying against his side. She felt so delicate, looked so beautiful before the backdrop of his scales. He felt a strong stirring in his loins, and shocked himself. He couldn't do that here! People were watching, and if she found out that he'd just gotten an erection, she'd leave and never come back. He shuddered as his freshly-formed nerves rubbed against the cold tile floor, allowing for his member to extend further despite his wishes. She was going to think that he was just some beast. He couldn't stand up, not until everyone was gone, or his erection was.

She closed her eyes and smiled, her left hand beginning to stroke his side slowly. He visibly shuddered, trying to will himself back down but having no luck with Alexis still there.

"What's that smell?" she asked suddenly. Andrew took a deep whiff of the air himself, and almost choked on it. He recognized that scent, that sweet, heady scent. It was his own musky, escaping the containment of his body and slowly filling the room.

"I...don't know," he lied poorly, hoping that she wouldn't question him further and would just leave.

"It's so, rich," she said, her voice slowing a little, making her sound lethargic. "Oh, I feel...I have to go,"

She stood suddenly and with such haste that Andrew almost thought it was his fault. Well, technically it was his fault, but it was her who had decided to leave. As she made it to the door, Andrew noticed something odd about her scent, but couldn't quite identify it before she was gone. Now, he was alone, his room filling with musk, and a crowd of curious bystanders watching from above. With a sigh, he tried to ignore the scent, and forced himself to wait the feeling out. It was difficult, as the flesh was so sensitive that every twitch sent an invigorating spark of pleasure through his body.

"Here's your damn meat," Blake suddenly growled from the doorway. He had three large steaks in his hand, which he discourteously threw randomly in his general direction. Two of the three fell short of him, landing on the floor with a wet splat. The last one sailed through the air and landed on the tip of his snout, drenching his nostrils in beef juice. It was a very effective way to block out the scent of his musk, and help to overlap the lust in his mind with hunger. "What's that smell?"

"Dunno," Andrew replied with a shrug, and flicked the steak on his snout into the air, watching it flip in midair before snapping it up in his jaws. He saw a few people in the hallway above cringe as his keen teeth plunged into the tender flesh. He let the tattered shred of flesh lay on his tongue for a moment, his heightened sense of taste thoroughly relishing in the taste of the meat. It was cooked a little too long, but that could be overlooked. "Thanks, Blake,"

"You're welcome." he replied acidly. "I'm going to bump forward the work order so we can get this roof off and air it out."

"Sounds good," Andrew replied. "It's a little cramped in here, anyway."

"Sir, the test results are in!" a scientist suddenly shouted, running down the hallway towards the room. He was panting by the time he made it there, and handed a set of papers to Blake while he caught his breath in the doorway. "He's negative, sir. There are no traces of the chemicals in his bloodstream."

"The sample wasn't contaminated in any way, was it?" Blake asked.

"No sir, not that we could tell," the scientist replied. "In fact, the composition of the blood is nearly identical to a human's. The only difference is that his blood cells are nearly double the size, which is why the blood is so viscous."

"Good," Blake said with a nod, and handed the papers back to scientist. "Lizards love caves, and there are plenty of caves in these cliffs. I'll find you a cave, show you were it is, you can live there, and everybody's happy."

"But what will I do for food?" Andrew asked.

"You're a predator! Go hunt!" Blake exclaimed.

"But I don't know how to hunt," he replied.

"Then go back home and ask your mother. She's a giant lizard, too, she'll know," Blake grumbled, and stalked off down the hallway. Andrew had wanted to fire something back at him, but he'd missed his chance. Now he was gone, and he was alone again. Luckily, his member had retreated back into his body, and the thick smell of his own musk was slowly but surely being pumped out of the room through the vents. Seeing nothing else that could be down now, he laid his head down on his hands and quickly fell asleep.

****

Andrew was jarred out of his slumber by the roar of drills above him. He blinked slowly and raised his head, looking up through the glass roof to see about five men standing on the solid parts of the roof, unbolting the giant glass sheet from its supports. He couldn't tell how far along they were, but judging by their pace, it wouldn't take too long. He drew his eyes higher, and was startled to see that the entire hallway above him was filled with people. Even the hallway on the opposite side of the complex crowded, along with the two building on either side. Everyone had come out to watch him get free of the room. He turned his head back and watched the tip of his wing flutter softly, wondering how much a show he could give them. He had no idea how to fly, or anything like that. If he tried, he might end up crashing back into one of the test chambers, or worse, into the hallway.

The drills suddenly stopped altogether, and a loud whirring sound took their place. He looked up to the sky directly above him, and saw a large helicopter slowly descending with four long cables dangling from its underbelly. When the cables were lowered all the way down to the roof, the workers attached a cable to each of the corners, and signaled the helicopter. Slowly and deliberately, the glass began to rise from the roof. Fresh air instantly rushed in to replace the musty, warm air that had built up inside the room over the past few hours. Andrew took a deep breath and released it with a sigh. He saw the workers take a quick glance down at him from the roof before they disappeared from his vision.

"It's all clear. You can come out now," a voice called from above, probably one of the workers.

Andrew stepped into the center of the room, directly under the hole, and rose slowly and steadily up on his hind legs. He grabbed at the edge of hole as soon as he could reach, steading himself as his head rose up through the hole and took a look around.

It was a beautiful, warm day today. The wind was blowing gently against the back of his head, rushing over his earholes and making that beautiful rushing sound. He couldn't help but grin.

He reached further out of the hole and wrapped his claws around the outside edge of the room, getting a firm grip before pulling himself up. He felt very unsure, and often wondered if the walls would collapse under his weight as his shoulders appeared over the rim. He managed to weave his tail out next, and used it to gain a bit of extra leverage. Finally, after much effort, his hind feet found a perch on the edge of the hole, and he was able to pull himself up completely. He now stood, beaming while the sunlight shone down on his back. He felt his wings rise by themselves, their tips extending far beyond the sides of his body. He felt the wind catch in his fleshy sails, and something in the back of his brain sprang to life. His legs began to bend at the knees, and his hips moved backwards, sending him into a hunter's crouch. His wings rose into a fully vertical position, turning sideways so the wind could rush past on both sides. With a grunt of exertion, he threw himself forward, extending his legs as he leapt high into the air. And at the peak of his jump, he threw his wings down, blasting the workers beneath him with a massive downdraft as he shot forwards and upwards.

He couldn't believe it. He was flying! "Yahoo~" he screamed triumphantly, and pumped his wings again. He angled himself straight up and rose, flying high above the complex. When he was high enough, he closed his wings, flipping backwards as he dropped like a rock back towards the earth. As he fell, he closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing over his scales and its deafening roar. With a sigh of contentment, he snapped his eyes and wings open, transferring all his momentum forward as he shot past the hallway for a second time. The construction helicopter had begun to lower the glass sheet back into its place, and as he flew past the turbulence from his wings caused the aircraft to buck and shake. Andrew turned his head back while he nervously watched the pilot bring the chopper back under control, and managing to keep the brittle glass sheet in one piece. He rode out the last of his extra speed, and as he passed back by the chopper, shot the pilot an apologetic smile.

"Don't knock down my chopper, Andrew," a garbled version of Blake's voice sounded. He began to back wing, hovering while he looked for the source of the voice. He soon saw Blake, standing on the roof of the residential building with a megaphone. He easily stuck out from the white building in his black suit, making it easy for Andrew to see him while he flew over and came in for a landing. As he came up and over the edge of the roof, he threw his wings forward, blasting Blake with air while he negated the last of his momentum and dropped down onto the roof. "Great, now you're a giant flying lizard," Blake complained once Andrew had folded his wings back against his sides.

"You have no idea how good it feels to fly under your own power," Andrew replied, ecstatic at his new experience. "You have so much freedom. I'm so glad I didn't go back!"

"Yeah, good for you. Anyway, we found a great cave for you," Blake said. "It's about ten miles south of here, along the cliffs. Our scout left a red flag hanging out the entrance, so you can't miss it. So, if you don't mind, just get out of here before someone comes by and sees you here."

"Alright, just one last thing. If someone comes looking for me, like my mother, what are you going to tell them?" he asked.

"PR has advised me to claim that you ran away," Blake replied. "Don't worry, we'll take care of anyone looking for you."

"Yeah, well, if my mother does come looking for me, can you tell her that I love her?"

"I'll...see what I can do," Blake replied.

"Thanks. I'll see you later, Blake," he said before turning and leaping from the building. He plummeted about halfway down before snapping his wings open and heading towards the sea. "Just one stop to make first,"

He flew in low, weaving around the outside of the complex before slipping in under the hallway. He landed with a dull thud on the grass below. He took a quick moment to relish in the feeling of the grass between his toes before walking ahead. He came to the corner of the common building, just before the cliff dropped off into the ocean, and saw Alexis sitting on her rock.

"Hey," he said slowly, trying not to startle her. She didn't appear to jump, so he had accomplished at least that much.

"Hey, glad to see you out of that room," Alexis said, not taking her eyes off the ocean as she spoke.

"Listen, they found a place for me to stay. It's a cave in the cliffs, ten miles south of here."

"Are you going to take it?" she asked.

"I don't see why not," Andrew replied. "It's clear that Blake doesn't want me around, so I don't have much of a choice anyway."

"Why do you have to listen to what Blake says?" she asked. "You're the big scary reptile with sharp claws and teeth and stuff like that!"

"Do you find me scary?" he asked.

"No, I..." she paused, and took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't want you to leave, though."

"I'm sorry, Alexis, but I can't stay here," Andrew replied. "I don't belong here anymore."

"But, I'm so lonely without you," she whimpered. Small crystal tears were forming at the edges of her eyes, and soon began to roll down her soft cheeks.

"Aww, I'm sorry," Andrew said, reaching forward with his neck. He couldn't fit his body into the small space between the wall and the cliff, so it was the best he could do. With a gentle smile, he reached forward and licked her tears away with his supple tongue. She closed her eyes and cringed as the slimy appendage touched her bare skin, but as soon as it was gone, she looked to him with a smile.

"Thanks for coming to see me before you left," she said. "I'm going to miss you."

"Hey, just because I'm going to live somewhere else, doesn't mean that I won't come back and visit," he replied.

Her face lit up at his remark, and she leapt forward to wrap her arms around his neck. "Oh, you will? Thank you! I'll wait for you here every day!"

"Sounds like a plan," he said with a smile, and drew her out of her crevice in order to wrap her in a proper embrace. "I'll see you here every day, at this time."

"It's a date," she replied with a laugh.

They held their embrace for a long moment, until Alexis lowered her arms. Andrew removed his hand a moment later, and took a step back so he could look at her face to face. She looked so beautiful in the sunlight, more so than he'd ever noticed before. It must be the new eyes.

"I guess I'd better get going, then," he said.

"I guess so," she repeated.

They stared at each other for an awkwardly long time, with neither of them moving. Andrew knew that it was long passed his time to leave, but he didn't feel like he was done here yet. He wanted to prove to Alexis that he would be back, and that she shouldn't worry about him. So, without a second thought, he reached forward with his lips and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek, which ended up covering most of the lower-right side of her face. The kiss lasted less than a second, and as soon as it was finished, Andrew turned and leapt away, diving below the cliffs and heading south. Alexis just held her cheek and watched the shining red creature flit away from her.

****

It didn't take Andrew long to see the red flag waving in the sea breeze. It hung by a pole trapped under a pile of rocks, and as soon as he landed in the cave, he pulled the flag free and cast it into the wind. There was no need to draw undue attention to himself. Once that task had been taken care of, he turned and inspected his new home.

It was a nice cave, as far as caves went. Andrew didn't have any experience with caves, but at least this one was relatively clean and free of pests. The cave was about thirty feet deep by twenty feet wide, with more than enough space for him. At the back, the last ten feet were raised, probably on a shelf created through millennia of erosion. It looked like a good place to sleep, as not even the highest rogue waves would reach it. And speaking of sleep, with a wide yawn, Andrew's fatigue finally caught up with him. He'd done a great deal of flying on his first day, and deserved a nap. He sleepily shuffled to the back of his cave, hoisted himself onto the platform, and lay down. Despite sleeping on hard stone, Andrew found it to be quite comfortable. He might be able to build some sort of bed later, but at least he was comfortable for now. With another great yawn, his eyes began to flutter, and he drifted off to sleep.

****

"I'm late! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" Andrew cried, pumping his wings in a flurry as he streaked past the cliffs. Alexis would've been waiting for him for a while now. What if she had already left? What if she didn't want to see him again? He redoubled his efforts, beating recklessly at the air in order to draw any amount of extra speed.

Within the minute, he came around a turn and could see the high white walls in the distance, marking his destination. Keeping low in order to keep out of sight, he hugged the cliff as he skirted around it. His scales stood out terribly against the grey cliffs, but there was little he could do about that. He just had to hope that no one was looking for him.

With one hundred feet between him and the facility, he rose up above the cliff wall and over the open grass. Winging as fast as he could over the exposed ground, he flared his wings and threw his legs down, coming to a skidding halt in the nick of time. He nearly plowed face first into the wall.

"Glad you made it," Alexis said, coming around the corner from his space and walking towards him. "That was pretty fancy flying. I thought you didn't know how to fly."

"I guess it comes naturally," Andrew replied, backing up a step from the wall before taking a step and meeting her in the middle. As soon as she was in range she wrapped his foreleg in a tight embrace, and then waited for him to lie down so she could sit down against his chest, with her head resting on his left shoulder. They smiled at each other for a moment, before Andrew wrapped one hand around her and held her close to him. "I'm sorry that I'm late," he added apologetically.

"It's okay," Alexis replied, placing her hand over his own. "You don't have any way to tell the time, do you?"

"Well, there's the sun, but I don't really have the hang of using it yet," he replied.

"Well, you're only twenty minutes late," she replied. "I suppose that's pretty good."

"Yeah, I would have been here sooner, but I guess hunting doesn't come as easily as flying," he replied.

"Did you try hunting today?" she asked. "How'd it go?"

"Alright, I suppose," Andrew replied. "I found a dairy farm a few miles inland, and snatched a cow when no one was looking."

"You stole a cow?" Alexis asked. "Oh, you'd better be careful, Andrew. People will notice if livestock start to mysteriously disappear."

"What's the matter? I thought you liked living on the edge?" he asked teasingly.

"I don't want to see you get hurt," she replied softly, and ran her hand over his chest absently.

"Why do you act like this?" he asked, suddenly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You acted so tough when you're around everyone else, but you're so kind and gentle when we're alone. Why is that?"

"I..." she began, looking down at the ground. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Come on, talking will make you feel better," he tried.

"I said I don't want to talk about it," she said, a little more firmly this time.

"Alexis," he said softly, caressing her cheek with one on his large, scaled hands. "I don't want to you feel hurt inside-"

"Get your scales hands off of me," she growled, suddenly shoving his hand away from her. He was shocked by her sudden outburst, and didn't try anything to stop her as she stood up and began to stomp back towards her room.

"Alexis, wait!" he finally called, but she had already hopped her fence and was gone. "I'm sorry!"

There was no response. He heard the sliding door wheel open, and slam shut a moment later with a bang. He gave a sigh of regret, wishing that he hadn't pushed her so far. It was her business, and he had no right to get involved in it. With his body feeling heavy, he rose and treaded slowly away from the wall before lifting onto lead-filled wings and heading home.

****

The next day, Andrew returned to their planned meeting place, but Alexis was nowhere to been seen. He waited for her to appear, hoping beyond hope that she would hop the fence suddenly and rush to him with open arms. But she never appeared. He waited many long hours, watching the sun arch across the afternoon sky, alone. He eventually summoned the courage to go to her patio and peer inside her room, but it was empty, or she was hiding from him. With a heavy heart, Andrew turned and headed back for the cliffs, taking wing and heading back towards his cave.

When he was about two miles from home, he rose over the cliffs and headed inland, keeping his eyes and ears open as he flew high above the ground. He had no desire of letting a person or plane see him, so he remained vigilant, looking for both signs of humans and the landmarks he'd picked to mark his route. He was heading to the farm, his stomach growling anxiously, even as he flew. He was starving, having decided to hunt after his attempt to apologize to Alexis. Now he felt depressed, which only seemed to enhance the feelings in his guts.

The deep calls of the grazing cattle soon reached his ears, drawing his thoughts back to his task. With much effort, he began to climb, going higher and higher, until all the cattle looked like ants. From that altitude, he probably looked no bigger than a vulture, and he began to circle, waiting. With his keen eyesight, he watched the farmhands tending to their last minute chores. He knew that they would be herding the cattle into the barns soon, so he had to make his move now.

There was a hill just behind the pasture that he used to hide once he'd captured his prey, but he needed to avoid the farmhand's detection before he even made it that far. He watched and waited patiently, eyeing the little humans keenly, like a hawk. He had a fleeting thought that if he took out the farmhands, now one would see him take the cattle. They wouldn't have any bodies to find, either. He suddenly realized how disgusting the thought was, and banished it completely from his mind. He may not be human anymore, but that didn't make it alright to eat them. He wouldn't do it. Not ever!

Half a minute later, he saw his chance. All the farmhands had their backs to the cattle, busying themselves with other tasks. Without wasting another second, Andrew tipped himself into a dive and folded his wings. His aerodynamic shape broke the air easily, the whistling barely louder than a whispering wind as he plummeted down from the heavens. Near the bottom of his fall, he kicked out the tips of his wings, only enough to redirect himself forward and towards the cattle. The claws on his right hand instinctively pointed forward and extended themselves, catching the unsuspecting cattle nearest to him in the side and bringing it with him. With a quick move, he jabbed his other finger into the cow's mouth, silencing its cries as he winged off around the hill and landed. Once on the ground, he stood perfectly still, and listened. He heard no sudden shouts, no cries of alarm. Not even a curious remark. No one had seen him, and for the moment, noticed the missing cattle. He managed to take a little pleasure from that, and locked his teeth around the cow's neck in order to quickly snap it. He would enjoy that meal once he got home. Clutching the fresh carcass firmly in one hand, he took off and headed for home.

****

When Andrew's eyes opened, he was standing in the middle of a wide field. It was a regular looking field, not the purple one he'd seen in the facility, but it was certainly too lush to be around where he lived. Was he dreaming? He must be. He remembered eating his meal, then going to bed, and now he was here. It was definitely a dream. It seemed peaceful enough, the wind whistling through the grass. It was all peaceful, ordinary, and clear, until it all blurred at once.

A blast of pleasure suddenly ran through him, startling him and almost making his jump. The only thing that stopped him was suddenly realizing that his body was already in motion. His hips were lowered, pumping forwards and back, as his thick pink member dove in and out of a hot entrance beneath him. He didn't know who or what he was having sex with, but it was the best thing he'd ever felt. With his eyes half-lidded in ecstasy, he turned his head down under his body to see what was there. His eyes snapped open immediately, and he almost felt nauseous.

On hands and knees beneath him, completely naked, and eyes shut tight, was Alexis. She was rocking back and forth with his thrusts, her nether lips stretching and collapsing as his cock dove in and out of her. What was he doing!? Was he raping her? As he watched her, he realized that the answer was no. He eyes were closed lightly with pleasure, not clenched with pain, and she seemed to be pushing back against him just as much as he was pushing against her.

"No, this is wrong," he said to himself. "She doesn't want me. She doesn't want this."

But as hard as he told himself that, his hips did not stop moving. He felt his loins begin to clench, and he knew his orgasm was unavoidable. He felt the ridges on his cock began to expand outward, further stretching her warm, tight passage.

"No! Stop!" he cried, but to no avail. He felt the pressure continue to build until he felt that he could no longer contain it. He felt the final ridge at the base of his cock puff out...

Andrew gasped as he was suddenly lying on his back on the stone floor. His cock was standing hard and erect, and as soon as his eyes opened, he erupted straight upwards. His shots flew a tremendous distance, some sticking to the ceiling, while the vast majority arched through the air, only to fall back towards him. Many jets hit his chest and neck, but a few strays made it into his still open maw, forcing him to taste the warm sweetness of his own seed. At any other time, the lust he felt would've made him enjoy it, but the shock and disgust overshadowed that lust, and only brought tears to his eyes. He angrily spit his own seed onto the floor beside him, wailing at the top of his lungs as he tears streamed ceaselessly down his cheeks. How could he have dreamed that? It was so disgusting. It was so wrong. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it only made him miss her more. He wanted her back, but she wouldn't have him. And while his thoughts carried him into the darkest recesses of his mind, he eventually cried himself to sleep.

****

The next week passed agonizingly slow for Andrew. All he could so was eat and sleep, because if he let his mind wander unfocused for too long, it would linger back to Alexis. He had tried to see her again, the day after his dream, to tell her that he wouldn't be coming anymore. But when he had shown up, she was once again not there. And, once again, she had not come out at any later time. With a heavy sigh, and a heavier heart, he had resigned, and simply scratched 'I'm sorry', in the dirt with a claw before leaving for the last time. From then on, he vowed that he would never again go near that place.

So in order to fill up his now freed time, Andrew busied himself by hunting. And not just grabbing cows when no one was looking. No, he practiced on rabbits. The tiny things were fast, hard to find, and were everywhere. They made the perfect targets. He'd fly high in the air, but not so high that he couldn't see them, and waited for a small flash of white or brown to catch his eye. As soon as his eyes locked onto a target, he dove and reached out, catching the rodent in his outstretched claws as he pulled out of his dive less than ten feet from the ground. It was risky, his diving hunting style, and it was only a matter of time before he screwed up and broke a leg. He was trying to get the hang of stalking prey from the ground, but he was just too big and shiny to blend in with his environment. After many failed attempts, he decided that the air was the only place for him to work from.

He'd grab his cow after practice, which was growing harder and harder to do each day. They'd started to notice the disappearances now, and every day there were one or two more farmhands out, patrolling with hunting rifles. He knew that his scales were thick, but he didn't really want to test their resistance on a rifle shot. But even with the added men, Andrew's patience won out eventually. He just needed to find their patrol pattern, wait for a gap, and go. They never saw or heard a thing.

After silencing his cattle, he took it home, where he ate and then discarded the bones into the ocean. He'd sloppily carry sea water back up to his cave, sometimes in his mouth, to wash the blood from the stone floor before it soaked in and stained. He wasn't expecting any company, but that was no reason to let his home fall into disrepair.

Once his meal was finished, it was usually only noon or early afternoon. He'd usually go out flying again, to help work off some of the weight, but that day he simply lay on his doorstep, watching the ocean roll beneath him. It was calming, just to lie there and watch the waves rhythmically crash into the rocks below, and then recede back into the mass. But today, something was different. It wasn't the something different about the ocean, or the rocks, or the sky. Something was different in the wind. It carried to his ears an unfamiliar sound, which started very faint, but slowly grew in volume and clarity. Soon, the sound began to form into understandable words, and further grew in volume until it sounded like it was right above him. The words sounded urgent, and worried. Someone was coming this way, calling his name.

Curious now, Andrew took wing from his cave and began to circle upward. Who could be calling for him? It didn't sound like Blake, or any of Blake's employees. Then again, he hadn't really been there that long, so maybe there was some messenger that he hadn't met. He rose up and dropped onto the surface, looking around intently. When he saw the person calling for him, he froze. It was Alexis.

She'd had gone past his cave now, and was continuing on to the south. His heart leapt with joy when he saw her. She did want him back! She had come down here, just to see him! But with any amount of joy, came some paranoia. Maybe she was there to tell him that she hated him and never wanted to see him again. That would be a little extreme, hiking ten miles to tell the person you hated that you never wanted to see them again, but it was possible. He suddenly had the temptation to let her keep walking, but then he thought that she might keep going south, getting to the point where she couldn't get back to her room by nightfall. Being out there, all alone and defenseless, was sure to be a scary thing for her. Andrew hadn't seen any predators other than himself, but he was sure that they would be around. It was decided, he had to stop her from wandering.

"Alexis," he called, loudly enough for her to hear, but not loudly enough to sound like he was happy to see her.

"Andrew?" she asked, whipping her head around. To his delight, her eyes lit up when she saw him, and she took off at a run straight towards him. She practically leapt at him, wrapping his neck in a tight hug as soon as he was within range. "Oh, I'm so glad I found you. I came as soon as I saw your message. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to miss our meetings this past week. Well, to be honest, I did the first time, because I was kind of mad at you. But then I got over it, but Blake got me doing these new tests every day at our meeting time, and I couldn't get away for long enough to tell you that we had to reschedule. And the after I kept missing it I kept thinking about you, and wanting to see you again, and..." She suddenly stopped midsentence in order to take a deep breath. Her sentences had run on quite quickly, leaving her breathless. Andrew just smiled, and nuzzled his cheek against hers and smiled.

"It's okay," he said softly. "There's no need to explain. I'm just glad that you do want to see me, after all."

"Of course I do," she replied. "Every day that I didn't see you made me think of you more. Specifically, about that day you first transformed. Do you remember when I just got up and left suddenly?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Well, I had to leave..." she began, and then hesitated. It was as if she wanted to tell him, but was really embarrassed or scared to do it. He understood that, because he knew exactly what she was going to say, and then he'd have to reveal his dream to her, and await her judgments. He supposed for a moment that he could not tell her about the dream, and just try to forget it, but he didn't want to do that. No lying. "Well, I started to get really...needy. And I needed to go take care of it. And after I...did that...I did some research, found out a few things. You...make musk, don't you?"

He nodded slowly.

"Then, that was why I left," she said. "You're musk got me all worked up, and I didn't want you to see me like that."

"Why wouldn't you want me to see that?" he asked.

"Come on, Andrew. We've only known each other for less than two weeks," she replies. "I...didn't think you liked me that much."

"Well, Alexis, you should now that I like you every bit as much as you like me," he replied. "I, had a dream a week ago. With us."

"Us?" she asked.

"Yes, us," he repeated.

"What were we doing?" she asked.

"We were, ahem, doing that," he replied, recycling the term she had used moments before.

"You dreamed that we were having sex?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied quietly. He didn't know whether she would hate him now, want to leave. She might even hit him.

"Was it good?" she asked suddenly.

"What?" he asked, incredulous.

"Was it good?" she repeated. "Did you like it?"

He nodded slowly, and smiled. "It felt every bit as real as being in a test. It even...made me orgasm...when I woke up."

"Oh, it was that good, huh?" she said, grinning. "Well, in that case, I have a surprise for you."

"What sort of surprise?" he asked, quite interested now.

"You'll just have to come to our usual spot and see," she replied. "Come an hour after noon. I should be done the tests by then. If not, just hang around. I will be there, this time."

"I'm looking forward to it." he said with a pleasant smile.

"Maybe we should, you know," Alexis began, rubbing her arm in a classic sign of embarrassment. "Make sure that we want to do...that,"

"We're not children anymore, Alexis," Andrew replied softly. "If you want to talk about sex, then let's not dance around it like this."

"Kiss me," she said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"Kiss me," she repeated, bring her face right up to the tip of his snout. "I want to know what it feels like, before we have sex."

Andrew nodded, and slowly began to bring his lips towards hers. It was like a melodramatic romance movie, except none of it felt so to him. Every second before the kiss was apprehensive, and the moment her soft, plump lips brushed against his, sparks ran through him. Their lips were soon firmly pressed against one another's, and Andrew was the first one to move it forward. He brushed the tip of his tongue lightly through the small crevice between her sealed lips, as the dragon had done to him during his dream. And then he waited, waited for her to either accept or decline his offer. To his relief, his lips slowly slid open, and his tongue slithered in, as if it was a creature all to itself. It dragged slowly around her cheeks, tasting her sweet saliva like it was honey. Once finished, it reached forward and coiled around her appendage, gently caressing it. Her hands reached forward and cupped his scaly cheeks. He couldn't help it anymore, and his sensitive member began to poke out from its slit. His musk began to mix with the light winds, blowing it up and around them. He heard Alexis take a long breath through her nose, and her eyes fluttered a little when she caught his scent in the air. He took a breath, too, except instead of being overwhelmed by his own musk, another scent came clearly through. He had smelled it before, when Alexis had fled from him in the test chamber. It was the smell of her arousal.

With much reluctance, Andrew broke their kiss slowly. He gave her tongue one last squeeze before slowly withdrawing it, and letting their lips draw apart. Sticky strands of clear fluid connected them for another short moment before he began to speak.

"Do we, need to wait until tomorrow?" he asked.

"A...Andrew," Alexis replied, looking a little taken aback. "I don't have my surprise ready."

"Do we need that?" he asked.

"It'll be better if you experience it first," she replied.

"Why don't we try it out now? And then, if you like it, we can do it again tomorrow, with your surprise," he suggested.

"I...I don't know," she replied. "Maybe I should think about it."

"By all means," he replied, slowly walking around to her back before lying down. He then rolled onto his side, exposing his belly, and erect tip, to her back. "Why don't you just sit right back and think for as long as you want?"

She did as he asked, sitting down and leaning back against his soft belly. She sighed when the warm scales rubbed against her back, and let her eyes close. She took a deep breath, his fresh musk permeating her senses as she did. When she next opened her eyes, she caught sight of his tip, and couldn't take her eyes off it. Andrew shot her a sly smile, though she never turned to see it.

"Is that just the tip?" she asked.

"Yeah," Andrew replied. "There's much more than just that?"

"Is it rough?" she asked.

"Why don't you find out for yourself," he whispered, licked her cheek as he brought his mouth to her eye. "Why not touch it?"

He kept his head right where it was while Alexis hesitantly inched her hand closer and closer to his emerging shaft. Just the thought of her even brushing those soft, warm hands against his most sacred of places made him shiver in anticipation. She got closer and closer, until her hand hovered less than an inch from his shaft, now about as long as her palm. He continued to lick at her cheek, trying to will her on while she battled in her head. Luckily, his side won out, and her hand dropped again to press gently against his shaft. She gasped at his heat and smoothness, while Andrew simply shuddered with pleasure. It felt so good to have someone real, and wasn't him, touch him there.

"What do you think?" he asked softly. Seductively.

"It's so warm," she breathed. She leaned her head in a bit closer, and took a long whiff of the fresh musk radiating from it. "And, it's getting so big."

"Oh, there's more where that came from," he replied.

"I don't know if I can fit it all," she replied. "And, will it hurt?"

"Don't worry about it now. We don't even have to do any penetration tonight, if you don't want to," he replied. "I just think that we should both be comfortable with each other's bodies."

"You, want to get comfortable with my body?" she asked.

He nodded slowly. "I want to know what you're like under all the guises," he said. "And, under all the coverings."

"You want me to take my clothes off?" she asked quietly, suddenly feeling very fragile. Andrew had known that she was putting on a tough act, but he never knew that it had been covering this.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I...I..." she started, and then sighed with resignation. "It's about my dad,"

"It's okay to tell me," he said, licking her on the cheek reassuringly. "I don't want you to feel nervous or uncomfortable around me."

"He, was the reason I left to come here," she began. "He beat my mom and me. And, he almost raped me one night."

"Did he?" he asked, concerned.

"No," she replied, and Andrew breathed a sigh of relief. "Mom stepped in and stopped him, but..."

"It's okay, Alexis," Andrew said calmly.

"She...she told me to run, and I did," she choked out, starting to sob. Andrew reacted quickly, pulling her away from his now receding erection and hugging her gently to his chest. "I made it all the way out of the house, but when I looked back, she wasn't behind me. I heard these terrible noises coming from inside, so I ran away. I...I think he did it to her instead," she sobbed.

"Are you afraid that I just want to use you for pleasure, like your father tried to do?" Andrew asked.

Alexis sniffled and wiped her tears, but slowly nodded. "I know that you're not like him. Not at all. But, there's still fear there. I'm still afraid of having sex with you, with anyone."

"We can stop, if you want to," he said. "I don't want to force you into anything you don't want to do."

"No," she replied, wiping her eyes again. "I want to get over my fears. I love you, Andrew, and I want this from you."

"Okay, but, maybe we should leave the actual sex for later," he suggested. "Why don't we just 'explore' today?"

"I like that idea," she said, a smile crossing her face as she stood up and took a step back. He followed her with his eyes, and his breath caught in his throat when she bent down to take her shoes off. As soon as the tight laces had been undone, she kicked the footwear off behind her in a messy pile, followed by her socks, and then her jeans. Her shirt came off next, flipping wildly through the air as it was randomly discarded, and left Alexis standing before him, in only a pair of blank panties and a matching bra. This was where she began to hesitate again. Andrew couldn't bear to see her stop, but he was not going to force anything on her, especially himself.

"Do you want to stop?" he asked again.

She shook her head firmly, and reached around behind her back to undo the clasp. Andrew's jaw dropped a few inches when her small, pert breasts dropped against her chest once the bra was taken out from under them. Next, she bent over and pulled her panties off, kicking them back onto the pile. Now standing completely naked before Andrew, his shaft already beginning to emerge again, she couldn't help but blush and reflexively put her arm over her chest. Andrew smiled gently, beckoning her forward.

"There's no need to hide, love," Andrew said, putting a hand around her back and drawing her to him. His head dipped forward and kissed her again, his tongue pushing inside her and wrestling her appendage into gentle submission. Her arms dropped away from her body in response, and as soon as she was uncovered again, he released her, and took a moment to look down her front, all the way from her face down to her little feet. Of course, his eyes did linger in certain areas, but he wanted all of her, not just those parts. "You're even more beautiful than I dreamed," he breathed.

"So are you," she replied, and leaned in to kiss him again. Andrew accepted the offer, playing fondly with her tongue for a moment before pulling away again. He wanted to go a little further than that, and see just how willing Alexis was to go through with it. Their lips unlocked, and Andrew began to run his tongue across her lips, over her chin and down her neck. She followed him with her eyes, a small tremble rumbling through them as his warm, wet tongue weaved lower and lower down her neck. It stroked across her left shoulder, tickled over her collarbone, and slowed once it reached the edge of her right breast. Her breath hung for a moment, simply staring at the soft, pink appendage holding so near to her private area. She shivered as rogue strands of saliva dripped off his tongue and over her soft skin. Their eyes then caught for a moment, and as she stared into those great red windows, she saw nothing but love and sensitivity. She knew that he would always love her, and never try to hurt her or do terrible things like her father had. She could do this thing with him. So, she gave the slightest nod, barely moving her head, but he caught the signal. The next time his tongue moved, it sent jolt of soft pleasure through her, as it ran into the crevice between her breasts and then began to circle around her right breast towards the center. She gave an airy gasp when the tongue gave a firm run over her hardened nipple, and she couldn't help but reach up to her other tit in order to mimic his ministrations.

Andrew kept up his titillating actions for a few long moments, relishing in the way Alexis moaned and shivered under his tongue. He'd rub his tongue up and down over her tits, using his suppleness to curl around the tiny nub and gently tug on it. Then he'd pull his tongue around her entire chest in a wide figure-eight, before closing back in on the opposite tit and beginning to service it. And while he thoroughly enjoyed the feel of his lover's soft flesh and heartbeat under his tongue, he wanted to go further still. Specifically, he wanted to go lower. So he gave one last tug on each of her tits before continuing his snake-like weaving, dragging his tongue down across her belly, dipping into her navel for a moment, and then down to her thighs.

"What are you doing?" she breathed.

"I want a taste," he replied, and before she could protest or act hesitant, he pulled his tongue back up her inner thigh and over her well-shaved nether lips. The affect was more dramatic than he had expected, as she immediately spread her legs, which caused her to collapse onto only his tongue. He quickly reached in with his hands and scooped her up before she fell, or worse, he opened her before he wanted to. He didn't want to break her hymen until they were really having sex. This was just exterior pleasure. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I...I just didn't think it would feel like that," she replied, stuttering as her brain still dealt with the initial pleasure of the touch.

"Good, then why don't we just put you up here," he said, and held her tightly as he rolled onto his back, his wings splayed out to either side. He then lowered Alexis, belly down, rump towards his face, onto his chest. "And you just relax."

She seemed a little shaken up after being carried so easily, but not nearly as shaken as she was when his tongue darted back between her legs. He pressed his tongue firmly against her vulva, running slowly around it in a circle. She shuddered a little bit more every time his taste buds dragged over her clit. She was soon moaning and groaning loudly as the pleasure wracked her body, and Andrew was incredibly glad that no one else was around for miles.

"Andrew," she gasped out between her ragged breaths. "It's...so good...I'm getting close."

Andrew simply smiled, unable to talk with his lips pressed firmly against her thighs. He brought his tongue down to her clit and pressed firmly, getting the wide, flat top of his tongue to completely cover her opening. He then dragged it firmly, and slowly, all the way up, from her vulva to her ass. That, luckily, he found to be quite clean, and took a moment to stroke and probe at that with his tongue. All the while, Alexis was on the edge of her orgasm, the simple presence of Andrew's tongue on her body enough to hold her there, but not bring her over the edge. But as soon as his tongue dragged back down to her nether lips, she let out a loud moan as she began to spasm, throwing lubricating juices back against his thick tongue.

With the rewards from his lover's pleasure now coating his taste buds, and couldn't help but moan a little himself as the hot, sweet fluid's flavor permeated into him. Whatever parts of his member that hadn't emerged while he'd been pleasuring Alexis were now fully exposed. Even his flesh sack and fully left his body, rocking slowly back and forth over his crotch scales as he shifted.

"Did you enjoy that, my love?" he asked.

Alexis turned her head back and nodded quickly, reaching up to her face to pull her thick black hair out of her face. "You feel amazing," she replied, and then turned away from him. He could feel her hands begin to rub over his belly scales, slowly working their way down his body. Her body and legs soon followed, until she hovered over his member, with her legs spread. He could see his member twitching and flexing under her, but when he felt one of her soft fingers grazed the sensitive flesh, he felt like her could no longer hold his head up, and flopped back down against the grass. He could feel her other hand join the first, touching, then kneading, and then completely wrapping around his thick shaft.

"You're so warm," Andrew heard her say.

"So are you," he replied.

Andrew relaxed his clenching neck muscles as Alexis began to rub her hands up and down his shaft, sometimes twisting slightly and sending a jolt up his spine. But as this continued, he began to feel something else graze his member, up near the tip. At first he thought it was just his brain fogging up with pleasure, but then it happened again, and again. That third thing was soon almost constantly pressed against his head, running over its taper with long, firm drags.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I want a taste," she replied, and turned back to smile at him. If Andrew could, he would've blushed. She looked so beautiful like that, even without the pleasure from her hands on his shaft to force his bias.

Alexis turned back to her work, leaning in and taking another drag at Andrew's tip. But this time, instead of returning for another lick, she brought her lips down over the first inch or so of his shaft, and gently sucked. Andrew had to really control himself, as his urge to thrust up was almost too strong to contain. Then, the real pleasure started. Alexis began to bob her head up and down on his shaft, slowly sinking more and more into her mouth until it almost reached her throat. Her left hand dropped down to rub along his thick base, quickly pulling in time with her mouth. And finally, her right hand reached around and dove under his sack, hefting up the heavy testicles and gently squeezing each one in turn. The three sources of pleasure on Andrew virgin cock flesh were too much to bear, and he immediately felt his balls squeeze and his urethra tense up.

"Alexis, I'm coming," he said, barely able to get the words out coherently before his snout opened up and a massive roar was loosed.

Alexis pulled her mouth away just in time, before Andrew's first jet of semen jetted up into the air and came back down as hot, sticky white rain. Each subsequent jet rocketed up a little bit lower, slowly tracking back towards Alexis. When the final spurts began, the cock simply poured its white contents all over her face and chest, coating her in a thick layer of semen. She leaned in to lick the excess cum off her lover's spent cock, and watched it disappear back into its slit.

"Did you like that?" she asked, turning around to face him. She couldn't help but giggle when she saw his face. Thick strands of his own semen were dripping down his snout and landing in the puddles of the stuff that were already plentiful all the way down his stomach. With a smile on her face, she crawled back up his stomach, her knees collecting any semen they passed through, and began to lick his seed of his cheeks and snout. When she was finished cleaning him, he reached out to lick her, although he had much more to lick than just her face. "How does it taste?"

"Not as good as you," he replied with grin.

As soon as she was cleaned of any remaining trace of Andrew's sexual fluids, Alexis began to shake her discarded clothes free of grass and put them back on.

"It's getting late, I should get going now," she said.

"Yeah, I should probably go get cleaned up," Andrew said, rolling over and watching as his own semen slowly began to drip from under him. "Are you okay getting back?"

"Sure," Alexis replied. She stood up after tying her shoes, and came over to give him a peck on the lips. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," he replied, and watched with a smile on his face as she turned and left. As soon as she was out of sight, he turned and headed north, to a small beach at the bottom of the cliffs. It was protected from the waves by a large rock outcropping, and was just big enough for him to submerge himself completely. The salt water easily cut through the sticky cum, leaving him completely clean in a few minutes. As he headed back to his cave, he thought about the next day. They were really going to have sex, he and she. He couldn't wait.

****

The next day, Andrew rose bright and early. He hadn't planned to, he was just excited. He tried desperately to fall back to sleep, but the combination of the bright dawn sun shining at him, and his restlessness, completely prevented it. So with a wide yawn, he rose from his bed and headed up the cliff.

He decided that it would be best to do his hunting early, as he hopefully wouldn't have time to do it later. He headed out to the farm, shooting up to his observation height a good three miles before he even saw it on the horizon, just to be safe. Once he reached a certain height, his keen eyes could pick up the rough shapes of objects around the farm, even at that distance. And what he saw didn't make him feel any safer.

At the front of the farm, where several vehicles were park, there were four small white and black objects that hadn't been there the day before. As Andrew shifted his head around to try and get a better view, a glint of blue and red reflected back at him from one of the vehicles. It helped him to better speculate on what the object was, and to his misfortune, he identified the four vehicles as police cruisers. The police would be much more observant than a simple farmhand, and he didn't even know how many there were. If there were only four, one per car, he may be able to handle it, but more, and it was going to get tricky. He supposed for a moment that he could go looking for another farm, one that didn't have police around, but they probably had heightened security anyway. Word would have spread about his thievery. He would just have to take his chances here.

When he reached a place directly above the farm, and began to circle, he got a much better look at the farm's bolstered security. He could see six officers outside, there black uniforms standing out against the dirt and grass. All the farmhands that had been there yesterday were still there, their rifles held ready despite the police nearby. He could've sworn that there was a law against firing weapons so close to occupied buildings, but apparently those were being waived. It didn't look like the officers were carrying anything more than their pistols, but he might not have been able to see a black rifle out shotgun slung over their back. Each of the three pairs of guards were facing a direction, one north, one east, and one west, while a pair of farmhands were facing south. The remainder of the farmhands were patrolling in a wide circle around the grazing cattle. It was too risky, he knew that he'd get seen, but just when he was about to turn back, something caught his eye. On the north side, the pair of officers turned south to talk to a man, and the patrol heading across the northern side of the field turned around for a moment. He had a window, albeit brief. He knew that hunting involved so risk, and if he wanted to eat today, he'd have to go for it. Without giving himself another moment to think, he dove.

Everything was going smoothly. He was halfway down his silent dive, and just pulling out of it. A cow had just turned broadside to him, and his claws extended to catch it. And just as his claws began to pierce through the cow's thin hide, his blood ran cold.

"What the hell is that?" someone behind him had shouted.

His head whipped back to see what had happened, and as he did, his finger missed the cow's mouth and its terrified call rang out clearly across the now dead silent farm. Any eyes that hadn't locked onto him at the first shout were now on him, and Andrew saw a few glints from behind him as gun barrels were raised towards him. He heard a bang, and not a second later he heard a loud whizzing sound fly over his ear. It had been a bullet. They were shooting at him. With a terrified yelp, Andrew ducked in midair and shot forward, curving around the hill behind the pasture, but not bothering to stop as he continued to turn and reappear from behind it, now heading back towards the ocean. He didn't even silence the cow, its pained cries ringing out but steadily growing weaker as the wound sapped its energy. He heard another bang behind him, and this time, a searing pain suddenly blasted from his right hind leg. The resounding roar was made up of equal parts fear and pain, but neither half diminished its volume. He was sure that he'd hurt the ears of the people three hundred feet behind him, and the cow was now in a state of silent shock. He'd probably deafened himself a little bit, as well, although he'd never feel the pain in his ears over the pain in his leg.

When he got home, he dropped the stiff cow in the corner and lay down on his side, contorting his legs and neck in order to get a look at his leg. It was a comparatively small would for someone of his size, but it still hurt like nothing he'd ever experienced before. He knew that he needed to get the bullet out, and since there was no one around to do it for him, he'd have to do it himself. He certainly couldn't go to a veterinarian and ask them to take it out. They'd just call the police and he'd get shot again.

He brought his lips around to his small wound and stuck his tongue out, using it to probe into the blood-flooded hole. Even though his week of eating fresh cows had gotten him used to the sight and taste of blood, having his own blood on his tongue made him nauseous. But he needed to know how deep the wound was, and if he was lucky, he might be able to fish it out.

To his surprise, the wound was barely more than an inch deep. He guessed that it had only been a pistol shot, and that the distance and toughness of his scales had drastically reduced his penetration, but that did little to help him through the procedure. Every time he touched the sides of the wound, a fresh stab of pain washed over him. Not to mention, the metallic tang of the bullet, mixed with his rich blood, was making him gag. With a certain amount of resignation, he realized that the only way to do this would be to jam his tongue under and pull it out, quickly. It would hurt the most, but be better than sliding it out slowly.

He shut his eyes tightly, and used his pain-addled mind to shakily count down from three. On one, his tongue jerked forward, running past the side of the bullet and hooking around the crumpled head. He felt his muscles seize as the pain overwhelmed him, and as he tensed up, his leg moved away from his mouth, wrenching the bullet out at an odd angle and dragging it against more open flesh. The pain filled every inch of his body, his eyelids began to flutter, and his vision darkened. His head suddenly felt very heavy, and fell against the floor with an echoed thud. Right before his senses quit completely, he heard a tiny metallic ring as the bullet hit the stone floor. Then he blacked out.

****

Andrew didn't know what time it was when he awoke, but to his surprise the pain in his leg had greatly diminished to a dull but persistent throb. He tried minutely flexing the damaged muscle, but when he felt the pain flare back up, quickly relaxed it. He'd need to stay off that leg for a while.

To his surprise, the bleeding seemed to have stopped entirely. He vaguely remembered a scientist saying something about his blood being thick, and realized that must've caused it to clot much more quickly. He felt a little woozy from the lost blood, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been. With a groan, he put his weight on primarily his front legs as he rose to stand. He managed to steady himself with his back left leg, but kept his injured leg firmly tucked up against his belly, like an injured bird.

A delicious scent suddenly caught his nose, and he noticed that cow, still lying where he'd left it. Apparently, his dropping it had left it quite dazed, and the blood loss from the four puncture wounds finished it off. The meat had been sitting out for a few hours, but he was sure that it was still alright. He hobbled forward, stepping with his front legs and hopping with his back leg, until he stood over the carcass. He wasn't really feeling hungry after his ordeal, but he knew that some food in his belly would help him heal. Plus, if he could make any guess about what time it was, he would guess that he was late to meeting Alexis. He ended up only getting through half the cow before he forced himself to leave it and head out, but not before a long, quiet listen for anyone who might have tracked him here. When he heard nothing but the wind in the leaves, he left the cave and headed south, towards the facility.

A few minutes later, the bleached white walls of the facility were in sight. He raced towards it, keeping his open wound tucked up and out of the wind. He saw Alexis sitting in her normal crevice, looking a little disheartened. She probably thought that he wasn't going to show up, but she hadn't noticed him yet. It wasn't until he was fifty feet away before the buffeting of his wings against the air could be heard over the wind, and the glint of the sun off his scales caught in the corner of her eye. Her head whipped around towards him, and a massive smile broke across her face as she got up and raced to meet him. It only took a second more for her to realize that he wasn't quite right, and the smile began to fade a little.

"What's wrong?" she asked as soon as he'd touched down heavily on the grass a few feet away. She let out a gasp when she watched him hobble over to her. "What happened!?"

"I was at the farm again, hunting," he replied. "There were police officers there, and one of them saw me. I...was shot."

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" she rushed beneath him suddenly, going to look at his wound as if there was something more she could do for him.

"It's a lot better now," he replied. "The bleeding's stopped, and the pain's gone down. I just need to stay off of it for a while."

"You need to bandage it, or it will get infected!" she exclaimed. "Here,"

He heard some rustling behind him, followed by a loud tearing sound. He then felt a warm, rough material being pushed against his wound, grimacing and growling a little as it was tied tightly around it.

"What did you do?" he asked, trying to look around to see her. He didn't have to, though, as she soon reappeared from beneath him. The pair of jeans she'd been wearing a moment earlier was now gone, and to his surprise, she was completely bare beneath the waist. She wasn't even wearing a pair of panties.

"I bandaged the wound," she replied. "I haven't bandaged anything like that, but I think it's okay. We have something more pressing to deal with now, regardless. We need to get you out of here."

"What?" Andrew asked.

"People know where you are now, or at least where you hunt. It's not safe for you to stay here," she said. "We need to find somewhere else for you to live,"

"But-"

"No, we need to," she repeated, before he could object. "The only question is, where can we send a giant lizard where he will be safe?"

"I don't think that's the only question," he muttered.

"Ideally, it should be a place with plenty of food, and no one can hurt you," she said, mostly to herself at this point. "That's either somewhere very remote, or someplace like a wildlife sanctuary. But if you do go to a wildlife sanctuary, where would you best fit? It needs to be relatively open, so you can fly around, but with some places to hide in case you ever need to do that. It should also have others of your species, but as far as I know, that's not possible. But maybe something similar? But what's similar to a giant flying lizard?"

"Alexis?" Andrew tried.

"I've got it!" she shouted. "Have you ever heard of Komodo National Park?"

Andrew shook its head.

"It's a big island, sort of. I don't really know how big it is, but the point is, the whole thing is a wildlife sanctuary for the Komodo dragon, the world's now second-largest reptile. If anyone would take you in, it would be the people down there."

"That sounds reasonable," he asked. "Where is it?"

"Well, I suppose that's the problem," she replied. "It's in Indonesia."

"Indonesia!?" he exclaimed. "Isn't that near Australia?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"Well, sure it sounds great, but how am I supposed to get there!?" he asked.

"Well, Blake has a lot of connections. Maybe he could set something up," she thought aloud.

"Blake and I weren't really on the best of terms when I left," Andrew remarked.

"Well, maybe I can squeeze something out of him," Alexis replied. "News about is sure to start spreading like wildfire, and he's going to start getting panicky. If I threaten to go to the media if he doesn't do something, maybe he'll get you to Indonesia."

"You're going to blackmail him!?" he asked. "But, he's your boss! He could cancel your contract, and you'd have to go back to your father! I don't want that to happen to you, Alexis."

"Believe me, when I get out of here, I will not be going anywhere near him," she replied. "I'll change my name if I have to."

"Don't make sacrifices for me," he said. "I'll be okay here, even if people are looking for me."

"You're not invincible, Andrew," Alexis replied, fittingly punctuated by another throb from his leg. "I'd rather have you a thousand miles away than dead a few miles from here."

He could tell that he wasn't going to change her mind, and that she was going to do this for him whether he liked it or not.

"But, I love you," he said quietly.

"I love you, too. Which is why I'm doing this," she said. "Now go home and lay low for a day. The media is probably going to blow this whole thing out of proportion soon, and I don't want you to be around any humans when it happens. The people around here may be used to catching glimpses of you now and then, but if the media or police start asking the public for information, there's bound to be someone who will leak it. I need to go prepare to meet with Blake. Come back this time tomorrow, and I should have something for you."

"I guess we're not having sex, then," Andrew muttered quietly.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Oh, uh, nothing," he stumbled.

"Okay then, I'll see you tomorrow," she said, and turned to leave. As she walked away from him, her uncovered hips swaying before his eyes, he felt a something stirring in his loins. But that fire quickly burned itself out when he realized that he wouldn't be able to share that heat with her. With a disappointed sigh, he turned and headed home.

****

The next morning, Andrew awoke with a low grumble in his gut. He hadn't eaten since he'd finished his cow after returning home, and his hunger had only now caught up with him. He'd tried to lie low, like Alexis had said, and conserve his energy, but it was just too boring to stay cooped up in his cave. He couldn't help but fly up and do a little rabbit hunting late yesterday, and all that extra flying had converted in to hunger pains this morning. He groaned in unison with his stomach, and rolled over to try and get some more sleep. Judging by the position of the sun, it was still early, only eight or nine o'clock. He wasn't meeting Alexis until one. He figured that sleeping would be a good way to pass the time, but sleep just wouldn't come again. With a grunt, he rose and stumbled to the edge of his cave, peering out over the great expanse of glittering water below. It was still quiet. He leapt out of the cave and headed up to the soft grass above. There were no police cars, or media vans, or anyone else in the vast field in front of him. He was still very much alone out here.

He caught a glimpse of a rabbit that suddenly darted through the low-lying brush, and suddenly had an idea. He'd never eaten the rabbits he'd caught before, as the cows usually did a good enough job filling him up. But without any thick beef to gorge on that day, who was to say that he couldn't eat the rabbits? It's not like there would be a shortage of the little things, considering how rapidly they bred. He made up his mind. If humans could stomach eating rabbit, then so could he.

He flew lower than he normally did while hunting, but still managed to get enough speed out of a dive to catch his prey off guard and snatch it up in his outstretched claws. He landed in the field and watched the rabbit flail in his grasp before he reached up to pop it in his open maw. As soon as his fingers released the rodent, and his jaws closed around it, it rose to its feet and began to run in wobbling circles around his mouth, bumping into his cheeks and teeth as it went. He had been trying to get a taste of the small creature, but this merely annoyed him. With a quick flick, he caught the creature around the waist with his tongue, and tossed it down his waiting gullet. He felt a peculiar, but not unpleasant, feeling as the small creature writhed inside his throat, before landing in his stomach. There it continued to wriggle for a minute before his stomach flushed out any remaining air, and the rabbit succumbed to suffocation.

Andrew continued to hunt until the sun rose to its noon position. Having caught and eaten seven more of the tiny creatures, his belly was pleasantly full, and its incessant growls had ceased. He probably could have kept on hunting, as catching each one gave him enough of a workout to burn off the last one. His other catches had not been as oblivious as his first, and they had all given him quite a runaround before being grabbed up. But it was time to leave, he had to go meet Alexis in about an hour, and there was nothing wrong with being early. Maybe she was early too, and they could get to the best part of their meeting even sooner. If she was going to send him away today, then he wanted to really love her one last time. And even if she hadn't gotten anything out of Blake, he wanted to have sex either way. Of course, he wouldn't force anything on her, but she wouldn't deny him if he asked nicely, would she? He didn't think so, and took off towards the facility.

Ten minutes later, the bleached white walls of the facility were in sight, and he flapped a little harder. He felt a little sluggish in the air after his meal, the weight of the undigested matter in his stomach making him heavier and harder to lift. He'd have to remember not to fly too soon after a big meal, although he hardly considered eight rabbits to be a big meal. He landed on the grass next to the common building with a dull thud, and peeked around the corner into Alexis' crevice. She wasn't there, which meant that he'd have to wait for her. He didn't mind so much, and lay down against the white wall. As he lowered himself down slowly, he noticed that the pain in his leg had, again, greatly diminished from the pain he'd felt yesterday. He took a look at the wound, and while it was still gaping at its full diameter, it didn't seem to be quite as deep as before. Maybe his body healed faster than a normal human, but he wasn't complaining either way. He flexed the muscles, even put some weight on the leg, and all he felt was a dull ache in the muscle, as if he'd merely pulled it. He couldn't help but smile.

"Andrew!" someone suddenly shouted. His head whipped around in the direction the voice had come from, and saw Alexis running towards him. She seemed pleased with herself, very excited. He hoped it was the same reason he was excited for their meeting.

"How did it go?" he asked, but couldn't get an answer as Alexis threw herself onto him, wrapping his head in a hug and kissing him on the lips.

"I was right!" she exclaimed. "The news broke of you stealing and killing local cattle, and Blake turned into a basket case. He resisted my pressing a little, but I ultimately worked something out with him."

"That's great," Andrew replied, not quite feeling as enthusiastic as he sounded. "What did he say?"

"He said that there was a big transport ship leaving the nearby shipping port today, bound for Australia," she said. "He's bought an extra container on the ship, stocked it with food and water, and made sure that it was the last container on the ship. It will be ready for you before it leaves tonight. The door will be open, he said to just fly in. An employee will be by before the ship leaves to close it, whether you're inside or not."

"So, I don't have to go?" he asked.

"Listen, Andrew, I would give up anything to put you on that ship. This is the perfect opportunity, and you may not get another break like this. The news people said that they were looking for professional hunters to help for a hunting party to come find you. It's like a witch hunt, Andrew. They're going to kill you without even taking a moment to realize that you're just like them," she said. "But, it's ultimately your decision. Once you leave here, I can't do anything more. If you really want to stay, then so be it, but it's not safe here anymore. I don't want to see you mounted over a fireplace, or stuffed, or...or anything other than how you are now. Very much alive,"

"Okay," he said.

"Okay?" she repeated.

"I'll leave," he said with a sigh. "I don't want to be so far away from you, but if it will help you sleep at night, then I'll go. I suppose once I'm down in Australia, I can just fly up to Indonesia, to this park. Even if they won't let me stay, it'll be safer there than here. Far fewer people there."

"I'm so glad to hear that," Alexis said, and wrapped him in another hug. "But...I'm going to miss you. I'm going to miss you so much."

"I know," he nodded, and brought her down to embrace her tightly against his chest. "I will, too. So, before I go, why don't we get to know each other better?"

"You mean?" she asked.

He only needed to nod.

"Okay," she sighed, and reached into her right pocket. A small object was bulging out of it, and when she pulled it out, he discovered that it was a small can of Blake's drink. He hadn't seen one in what felt like forever, even though it had only been near two weeks ago. But this one was different than the one he'd gotten at the store. It was unlabelled, and looked somehow, newer. "This is my surprise to you,"

"What is it?" he asked, curving his neck to get a better look at the can.

"It's Blake's newest research project. It exactly replicates what the dreamer dreams, so whoever drinks it can experience it, too. This was one of my dreams. I thought you might like to have it before you leave."

"Oh, thank you, Alexis," Andrew said, opening his palm to accept the tiny container. "Should I try it now?"

"You can if you want," she replied with a sweet smile.

"Okay, can you help me with it?" he asked. His fingers and claws were too big to handle the container now, and any attempt he made to open it would probably cause him to loose all of its precious contents.

Alexis giggled a little as she took the can back, and broke it open with a quiet carbonated hiss. She brought it up to his snout, and he opened it wide for her to dump the liquid inside. But to his surprise, she first reached inside and began to rub the palm of her free hand over his flat tongue. He quivered under her touch, her sweet flavor sinking into his taste buds and forcing him to salivate more. His tongue instinctively wrapped around her wrist and gave a little pull, but he managed to avoid disaster by forcing himself to release her and pass it off as a playful tug.

"How do I taste?" she asked.

"Umm, you taste..." he stumbled. "You taste great,"

She giggled a little at his nervousness. He didn't find it so funny. If he hadn't eaten those rabbits this morning, he may have just eaten her!

"Good," she said, and pulled her soaked arm out of his mouth. This gave him a quick moment to swallow before she put her arm back inside, this time with the can in her grasp. As she poured the liquid onto his tongue, he felt it tingle as it rushed down into his throat. As soon as the can was empty, Alexis pulled her arm out again, and lay down with her back against his belly. "Now relax, it should begin in a second, and I don't want you to hit your head."

Andrew agreed, and wrapped his neck down to his front, wrapping his body around Alexis in a protective ring. He began to feel tired as soon as his head hit the grass, and a moment later his vision completely blanked out as the drink entered his brain.

When Andrew's vision returned, he found himself in a peculiar position. He was under him, sort of. He, as in the dragon, was standing above himself, his forelegs standing like giant scaled towers, shining much bright than usual. But he was not in his normal body. He didn't quite know where he was.

He tried to move, but quickly found out that he had no control over his new body. He remembered Alexis saying that this was a recreation of one of her dreams. Maybe that meant that he couldn't control it, but only see and feel what she had seen and felt. It made sense, considering he couldn't move an inch.

His vision moved on its own as his head hung, and he faced the ground. Two thin, fleshy arms were standing on either side of him, and a pair of soft breasts bounced forward and back before his face. He was in Alexis' body! But why was she moving like that? Then he noticed something, like a giant hidden behind a curtain. As soon as he found it, it completely overwhelmed every part of him. Massive surges of pleasure that ran through his body like tidal waves, and a terribly strong force beating that pleasure into him. It didn't take long for the situation to reveal itself, and he realized that he was now, sort of, having sex with himself.

It was the strangest feeling he'd ever felt. Massive shoots of pleasure originating from a place on his body that had never existed before. The feeling of his huge shaft rubbing along his clit, and his heavy testicles rocking up against his belly, was all very overwhelming to him. It was very meta, but that didn't change the fact that it was terribly arousing. She was dreaming about having sex with him, and as soon as he woke up, they were actually going to do it. He was sure that outside his dream, Alexis was faced with his full erection, considering where he had left her. As much as he enjoyed this experience, he wanted it to be over so he could enjoy a much more real one.

He felt the thick cock wedge into his passage twitch and shake inside him, and he realized that he was about to orgasm. This forced a new level of pleasure through his brain, as Alexis must have realized that, too. He felt a pressure building around the shaft inside him, and all these muscles he'd never felt before fired at once, squeezing the tower of flesh so deeply embedded in his body. He felt a rush of liquids run out of his passage and drip down his legs, adding a wet slapping sound as they dripped onto the fleshy sack that was so savagely beating his lower abdomen. He'd just experienced Alexis' orgasm, and hoped that he could give her something better outside the dream. He then felt the cock spasm, and viscous, hot liquid poured up into him, flooding into the uterus and painting it white. The shaft drove as deep as it could go, grinding his smooth groin scales against his soft, supple flesh.

Despite how real all the pleasure felt, he noticed that a couple important things were off. First of all, his cock's ridges hadn't grown when he'd neared his orgasm. And secondly, he could fit all the way inside her, even though it was a physically impossible for him to do that in reality. But he couldn't blame her, he supposed, because she'd had that dream in before she'd seen his cock. Plus, he'd been thrusting in to the hilt during his dream, so to complain about that would be hypocritical.

He felt the cock, still wedged deeply in his borrowed vaginal passage, spasm and spit its last ounce of semen before his world was flipped upside down. His dragon self had just rolled over onto his side, and held him in much the same position that he was holding Alexis before the dream began. He felt one of his own powerful arms wrap over his chest, and his own tongue lapping lovingly at his head, and then the dream began to fade.

****

When Andrew awoke, he found that Alexis was gone. In her place, his member was fully extended and ready for use. His muscles felt a stiff and heavy after being a guest in Alexis' small frame, but he managed to get his feet under his body and hoist himself up with a groan.

"So, what did you think?" a voice asked to his right. He turned slowly, still a little disoriented, and saw Alexis standing nearby, now completely naked. He could only gawk at her for a moment before he summoned the energy to move his mouth.

"It was...it was great," he replied, and took a step towards her. "But I think that I can do better,"

"I didn't know how you looked before I had that dream," she said. "But now that I know just how ridged you can get, I'm sure it will be very nice."

"Just remember, I won't be able to fit all the way in," Andrew replied. "I'll be very gentle. I don't want to hurt you."

"I'd hope so," she replied, and sauntered forward to run her hand over his shoulder and down his side, moving back towards his hips. "Now, why don't you roll over so we can get each other ready?"

"What happened to all that nervousness from two days ago?" he asked rolling away from her until he lay on his back.

"We're not going to get a change like this for a very long time. Maybe never," she replied, and hauled herself up onto his belly. "I don't want feelings about someone else to get in the way of our last moment together."

She turned around, facing towards his standing shaft, and lay down against him. Her belly felt warm against his, but not as warm as her tongue as she suddenly ran it against his shaft, covering it in saliva. With a bit of a moan and a grin, he reached forward to lick the passage that she's revealed to him. He took long, heavy licks against her vulva, salivating heavily to thoroughly drench the region. Then he let his tongue delve the slightest bit inside her nether lips, spreading them enough to let his saliva drip down into her without breaking anything inside. He found her to be surprisingly hot and wet already, but a little of his own lubricants couldn't hurt. He let the clear fluid fill her passage until it nearly flooded out around the edges, before pulling his head away.

"Am I ready, love?" he asked. "I think that you are."

"In a second," she replied, and took one final lick from base to tip. His entire cock felt strange, covered in a film of sticky liquid, but he knew that an even heavier film would be covering it within moments. Alexis gave his wet flesh a light slap, listening as the wet sound echoed up to their ears. "I think you're ready now,"

"Good, now why don't you get off so we can do this just the way we dreamed about?" he asked, and waited while she slid off his high stomach and onto the soft grass below. She had experienced this before, so she knew to get down on her hands and knees in front of her, and look back at him with an encouraging smile. Seeing her presenting herself to him like that boosted both his love for her, and his arousal. This moment would not slip past him again.

He slowly, carefully, stepped forward, making sure not to accidentally step on her hands or feet as he went. With every step he took, a little bit more of her disappeared beneath him, until he felt the head of his low hanging cock brush against her, slowly sliding up her back as he overshot his target. He could hear her giggle beneath him as she felt him miss, and reached up to grab his shaft and help him into place. He moved his hips with her guidance, and soon found himself pressed up against her warm, tight entrance.

"Are you ready?" he asked, curling his head down to look at her.

"More than," she replied with a smile, and he felt the slightest pressure as she pushed back against him. It wasn't enough to bring him inside, but more than enough to convey her feelings. She wanted this just as much as he did, and they were finally going to start. So without further hesitation, he gently pushed himself forward, feeling her entrance give and open as his tapered head began to slide into her tight, slick passage.

"This might hurt a bit," he warned, and continued to press. Alexis currently had her face screwed up in a mixture of pleasure and pain, but gave a little gasp when his head nudged, and then broke, her hymen. He took that moment to slide himself down a bit, sliding against her clit to help mask the pain. She seemed to receive it well, as her face relaxed into a pleased sigh.

Andrew's member was already dribbling pre into her at a consistent pace, making it progressively easier for his entry. Unfortunately, her small size and vaginal shape forced him to stop when his head bumped against her cervix. He was only about halfway inside, but that was better than he'd expected. He'd have to be sure not to overestimate his size next time.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"R...Ready," she replied simply, stuttering from either the pain of being stretched or the enormous pleasure she felt. Andrew sincerely hoped that it was the later, and began to pull out almost as slowly as he'd gone in, stopping only when his head was just inside her. When he pushed back in, a little faster and a little harder, he was rewarded with a moan from his partner, and a fresh squeezing against his shaft that sent more waves of pleasure through him. He knew how easy it would be to be lost in the pleasure, and made sure to keep his movements controlled, so as to not hurt her. "Maybe...maybe go a little faster," she stumbled. "I can take it."

"If you're sure," he growled, and put more power into his thrusts. His head hit her cervix with a gentle thud, and he worried that it would collapse. But it held firm against the pressure, and he felt inclined to pull out and push back in, just as hard and fast as he'd just done. It held that time, as well, and even felt like it would give him a little more room. So he pulled out and dove in a little harder. This time, the taut flesh inside her flexed to hold tight to his head, and he knew that that would be his limit. He could go no deeper, or harder, but that was fine with him. His pace was already working wonders on his shaft, and Alexis seemed to be enjoying it, too. She'd moan and rock forward on every thrust, and sink back against him with every retreat. She squeezed his shaft tightly and rhythmically with her internal muscles, trying desperately to milk the seed from him that he knew wouldn't be contained for long. His testicles felt tense as they wrapped around to slap at her belly.

"Andrew, I'm so close," she moaned. "Go harder!"

As much as he wanted to, and his pleasure-addled mind would let him, he couldn't go harder. He would break her wide open, and he didn't want her blood on his hands, or his cock. But he did the next best thing. He went faster. He drove in an out of her with all the speed he could muster, the copious amounts of both their lubricants making each thrust feel almost frictionless.

A moan began to rise in Alexis' throat, and slowly rose in volume as he dragged in and out of her sensitive tunnel. When her vocalization suddenly jumped an octave, Andrew felt her muscles clamp down on his rocketing shaft, and liquids spewed out around it as an orgasm wracked her body. It was also enough to bring him to the edge of his own release, his balls tightening in their sack and his thrusts growing slower but more powerful. His worries grew as he really began to put pressure on her cervix, but to his relief it held through his final, jolting thrusts, and he was rewarded with orgasm. Pleasure like nothing he'd ever experienced before rolled up through his body, and crashed over his brain like a massive wave. He couldn't help but roar out as his shaft's ridges extended to lock them, and semen burst forth, coating her insides in a way he imagined was much like her dream. She suddenly felt very heavy on his shaft, and heavily looked down at her once his ecstasy had diminished enough to allow him muscle movement. He let out a sigh when he saw that she was not injured, but merely tiredly and addled from experiencing the results of two orgasms. Andrew himself was also quite tired, and worried for a moment that he might collapse and crush her beneath him. With the last amount of energy in his legs, he pushed himself over, carrying her with him on his loosening member into a spooning position. He draped an arm over her, leaned down to lick the top of her head lovingly, and fell asleep.

****

"So, I guess you'll be leaving now, huh?" Alexis asked, standing in front of the dragon that sparkled in the sunset's glow. Both she and Andrew had napped pleasantly, washed up, and she had re-clothed herself in time for his departure.

"Yeah, I'd better get going. I don't want to miss the boat," Andrew replied.

"Do you remember where the container is?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah, thanks for that picture," he replied.

Their conversation then descended into a terrible, awkward silence. Neither of them both wanted to admit it, but they both knew that it was the time to say goodbye.

"I wish we had more time," Alexis said softly, a tear dripping down her cheek.

"Me too," he said, and reached forward to lick the droplet away. He took that moment of closeness to kiss her, as well. It was a loving, meaningful kiss, but not nearly as long as Alexis would have liked.

"Will I ever see you again?" she asked.

"I'm sure we will," Andrew replied, and then stepped away from her, back up all the way to the cliffs edge. "I'll see you soon,"

"See you soon," she repeated, and did her absolute best not to try and lunge for him as he turned and leapt from the cliff. His wings caught the air with a loud whoosh, and he flapped his great sails to carry him up into the orange sky. She couldn't help but run to the cliffs edge to watch him, but he soon turned north and disappeared behind the building.

It had all happened so suddenly. He had come into her life suddenly, they had fallen in love suddenly, and now he was gone suddenly. But, when she thought about him, it only made her feel glad. She was happy to have met him, to have loved him. She was happy that he was going to be safe from harm, and that she had the chance to see him again later. With a smile, she turned, and headed home.

****

"One year," Alexis whispered to herself as she stared out of the giant common building window. The sunset was blazing orange, the same way it had done on the night. "It's been one whole year since he left,"

"Oh, Miss Alexis, a package came for you today," the receptionist behind her suddenly called. She turned and headed for the desk curiously. No one had ever sent her mail before. The only mail she'd ever gotten was just junk advertising mail.

"Who's it from?" she asked, coming up to the desk.

"I don't know. There's no return address," the receptionist said, and pulled a small box wrapped in standard brown shipping paper. "It only has your address on the front. You're exact address, which is strange. I've never seen such a precisely addressed package come in from an outside source."

"Well, thanks for letting me know," Alexis said with a smile, and picked up the package gently with both hands. It wasn't too heavy, but its contents seemed to shake inside as she lifted. She held it straight and steady as she carried it through the quiet hallways to her room.

When she sat at her kitchen table, she pulled out a knife and began to cut the paper away. The package itself wasn't bound in any way, and the flaps simply folded up as soon as they were released from their paper prison. With a curious but tentative eye, she peered inside.

Inside the box was a small note, along with another, smaller box. She pulled the note out first, and began to read it quietly.

"Dear Alexis, I can't believe it's already been a year since I last saw you. First of all, I apologize that I haven't written to you sooner. I would have, but I didn't really have a firm place for you to send your letters back. I would have sent you something, simply saying that I was okay, but then you would've felt anxious if you couldn't write back. Let's just say that it took me longer than expected to get to where I was going. That container you got for me was put on the wrong ship, and I ended up in complete wrong place. It took me a while to get my bearing, but when I finally figured out where I was, I knew that I had to get to Indonesia myself. Luckily, I met a ton of great people who fed and housed me throughout my journey, but I finally made it here a few weeks ago. That's right, I made it to Komodo! At first I was nervous about meeting with the people there, but to my surprise they were very friendly, and welcomed me with open arms. There's a big problem with poachers here, and they said that I could stay and hunt if I flew patrols around the island every day. All the researchers here are so friendly, and were more than happy to help me with this letter. They told me that tourism here is a bit exclusive, but promised me that if you wanted to come and visit, they could make it happen. I put the postal address on the bottom of this letter for you to write back to. I'm so anxious to hear from you, even if it is just in a letter. See you soon! Love, Andrew."

Alexis couldn't help but smile as she finished his letter, and wiped the tears from her eyes as she set the letter aside to reach for the small box. When she pulled it out and opened it, she found another note, along with two items. One was a dull, red plate that took up the entire bottom of the box, and there was also a small vial of viscous white fluid. She put both items in front of her and took a look at the note.

"I thought I'd send you a couple presents, too, just to help pad over any anger you felt that I was abandoning you. The first one is one of my scales. It turns out that I shed my scales, and I kept the biggest one for you. While they lose a lot of their sheen when they fall off, I'm sure if you polished it enough, it will be pretty close to what it looked like before. The second gift was a weird, sick idea of mine. It's for those long, lonely, nights, when you really want me around. Why don't you open it up and give it a whiff, if you haven't already?"

She picked up the vial for a moment and eyed it again. It was about the size of her index finger, and nearly filled to the brim with the white ooze. She carefully pulled out the black rubber stopper, and aloud the built-up fumes to rise to her nose. The scent instantly made her wet and aroused, as she instantly recognized it as his semen and plugged it again.

"I don't know how long that will hold its scent, but if you come out, I'm sure I can get you a fresh batch. P.S. There's a lovely American zoologist here who helped me fill that vial. I hope that doesn't make you feel sexually threatened or anything, because I assure you that we haven't gotten that far yet. It's suddenly gotten very awkward in the office where we're writing this, so I think I'm going to stop now. See you soon! Love, Andrew."

She couldn't help but laugh at his narrated antics, and set the note down on top of the other. She stared down at the assortment of items on her table, and her eyes again fell on the vial. She was still feeling aroused from her first whiff of his bottled musk, and decided that there was no better time than now to deal with it. She could write him back later. She knew that it wouldn't be the same without him there to sate her lust, but his smell would help. Perhaps if she used it and some of the Hallucinogen she had in her fridge, it would feel close enough to the real thing. With a sly grin on her face, she headed towards her bedroom, the vial in one hand, a can in the other, and her first love in her mind.