FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Dragoness of Salsea Chapter 4: Scientific Ventures Sponsored by Faceless_Lord By Draconicon

There were no dreams that night. She was thankful for that much of a mercy; she doubted that she'd be able to explain what was happening to her 'uncle' and the others.

With morning came a small headache, but not enough to merit staying in bed, particularly not with what she'd been asked to do today. She didn't know what Tobias's goal was, or why he was so bothered with looking after her, but considering how...knowledgeable he seemed to be about her situation, she was going to treat what he said as gospel until proven otherwise.

She really hoped that it wasn't proven otherwise. All things considered, the dragoness had very little that she could trust at that moment.

Dressing herself in a white blouse and a longer skirt than usual and setting the subtle weights into the ends of it - she had learned to do that after people started trying to pull the skirt up or blow wind under it - the dragoness left her apartment. There were no Dobermans standing outside the door this morning, so she could only assume that her protector was off doing something else.

Then again, what else does Bat-Dog do?

She smiled a bit at that, then let the smile fade as she walked down the hill towards the tram stop.

Nobody else was waiting for the tram. Other students would already be in class, and anyone that was going to work at the top or bottom of the hill were probably already there. Sarina sat down on the bench, trying to feel like less of a target as she pulled herself in against the glass wall behind her.

Nothing's out there, she told herself. Nothing's going to find me. Eurig was a...a blip, that was all.

After all, the vampire had been out during the day, but only because it was overcast. It was sunny today, and she was pretty sure that she could spot anything that was out of the ordinary...

Then again, considering that she had been completely unaware of that 'other world' up until the last 48 hours, she was probably fooling herself.

The dragoness could feel her panic trying to get control of her, and she forced herself to take a few deep breaths, willing herself to let go of her skirt and pull her fingers out of it before she left claw holes over her thighs. She reminded herself that, as of now, there was nothing around her. As of now, there were no people around that could hurt her, or do anything like...that...that Erna had done...or...

I'm fine. I'm FINE.

The tram appeared, and she got on-board. Nobody said anything as she paid her fare and took her seat near the side door halfway down the vehicle, and nobody else got on with her.

It was a short ride to Salsea University, passing almost before she was aware that it had started. She was the only one off, just as she was the only one to get on, and she stared at the campus for a moment or two before walking into it.

Everything felt so different after the day of revelations. She kept looking back and forth, half-expecting to see a werewolf jump out of the shadows, or a bat to fly down and turn into some normal-looking person. She expected the dolphin vampire from the day before to pop up and try to get her to do something, or to have Erna's pack come running out of the shadows and -

Someone ripped off my blinders, and I really, really don't like what I'm seeing...or, well, not seeing.

Sarina shook her head as she stepped onto the pavement paths of the campus, looking up at the signs that pointed people to where they needed to go. She'd never been to the science building, as most of her classes took place in other parts of the campus, so -

"All the way over there?" she muttered.

It was down by the waterfront of the campus, probably to keep anything dangerous from catching and to have a ready supply of water for the sprinklers. It was also half a mile from the entrance of the campus.

Sighing, she began the trek.

At least everyone was still in class. She didn't know what sort of stuff the nurse might have passed on to the other students, or what Erna might have let slip to everyone else, but the last thing she needed was to be looked at as even more of a freak than she already was. It was hard enough to get out of bed and come to school when they just looked at her as the only dragon.

By the time she reached the science building, she was seriously regretting the weights at the end of her skirt. They were dragging her down more than usual, making it feel like she was in gym again rather than just taking a walk. She groaned as she stopped to catch her breath, leaning against the front door.

"This Veronica...better be worth...seeing..."

After she felt like she'd be able to walk without panting like a bitch, the dragoness pushed the doors open and followed the signs, letting them take her from the classroom hallways to the lab at the far end.

The lab itself had a pair of steel doors rather than the wooden ones that the classrooms had, and unlike the classrooms, the doors were pure metal, lacking any glass or ways to see into the room. There was a video screen to the side, she noticed, but surely that was a bit of -

WHOOOMPF!

Sarina jumped as the doors shook in front of her, like they'd just stood up to a massive shockwave from the other side. The dragoness paused, slowly pushing her glasses back up her snout before diverting herself to the screen and the intercom under it.

Bzzz.

She swore that she heard something fall and shatter on the other side of the doorway, followed by heavy thumps of other things. The dragoness wanted to do nothing more than lean away from the door at that point, wondering what the hell was going on in there, but...well, what else was she supposed to do?

Finally, the screen flickered on, revealing a disheveled German Shepherd on the other side. Her fur was spiky and pulled tight, like a mix of it getting soaked and then zapped by something, and while she was wearing a lab coat, there were so many little burn marks on it from acid and fire that Sarina wondered how the hell it was still holding together.

"Uh, hello? Is someone there? Am I being too loud, or - or something? Hello?"

"Uh, hi..."

"Hello? I - I can see you, can you speak up?"

"Hi," Sarina said again, raising her voice. "Can you hear me now?"

"Ah, yes, now I can. Am I being too loud? Did someone send you to make me stop?"

"No, no, nothing like that. Uh, I had a, uh, friend - let's call him a friend - tell me to come talk to you."

"What kind of friend?"

"The kind of friend that doesn't like intercoms."

The German Shepherd's ears flicked up in interest, then back in caution.

"You, uh, you're Veronica, right?"

"Where did you hear my name?"

"From, um...your brother."

The screen shut down from the other side almost instantly, and the doors opened with a smoky hiss a second later. A gray-furred hand grabbed her from the other side, yanking her in fast and hard enough to make her yelp.

Coughing as she breathed in some of the smoke, Sarina let herself get dragged across the room, marched into a corner and pushed into a seat. The dragoness's eyes watered as she looked up, seeing a much blurrier German Shepherd than she had been seeing a moment ago. The soot on her glasses didn't help, either.

As she pulled them off to wipe them clean, Veronica leaned in.

"What do you mean, my brother?"

"He...well...let's call him Bat-Dog, okay?"

"...Bat-Dog." She stifled a chuckle. "Okay, I can go with that. Bat-Dog. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Bat-Dog."

Having to stifle a chuckle of her own, Sarina put her glasses back on, getting a better look at the woman she'd been sent to see.

Unlike some of the anthro females on campus, Veronica didn't have a bulging sort of chest. If anything, she seemed to be completely flat, her body more like a feral animal's that had learned to walk on two legs than the more humanoid anthros that she was used to. She wore that burned lab coat, but under it looked like some sort of armored vest, and beneath that a t-shirt that was too obscured to really make out. Haz-Mat pull-ons covered her from the waist down, so, obviously, she was taking care of herself.

I guess maybe she's smarter than she looks...

The lab, on the other hand, was in a definite state. There was no hiding that it had been completely trashed by whatever it was the German Shepherd was doing. There were broken vials over a table, a slow-burning fire on the corner of one chrome table that was eating through liquid fuel, and the amount of scattered plastic containers on the floor was just insane.

Deciding that she really didn't want to know what had been going on in here, she turned her attention back to the woman she'd been sent to talk to in the first place.

"Bat-Dog sent me to talk to you. He said...he said that you and I would probably get along."

"...Why?" Veronica asked.

"Well, I..."

How did she go about talking about that? She didn't really know what Tobias had in mind, other than the fact that she was supposed to make friends with this woman, but...

"You, uh...do you know me?" Sarina asked, gesturing at herself.

"Everyone knows about you."

"Yeah, um...yeah, that was a stupid question."

"Very," she said with a smirk. "Do you tend to waste this much time with everyone?"

"Not on purpose. Just hard to think of what to say."

"Why do you think I never talk first?"

"...You do sound a lot smarter that way, I bet."

"You can always find ways to one-up someone."

She filed that away for the future, though she doubted it would work all the time. Particularly with people that did try and be the second one to speak all the time.

"I'm...trying to find people that...won't judge me. Your brother helped me out of a very sticky situation, and he thought...maybe...we might get along."

"..."

"I'm not gonna push. I didn't mean to interrupt your experiments...Maybe I should -"

"Sit."

Sarina did just that, sitting back down after trying to get her butt back out of the chair. She blushed, rubbing the back of her head.

"You sure you don't want me to get out of your hair? I mean, I don't think you want a dragoness rolling around in what's left of it."

"Hey! That bunsen burner explosion was a one-time thing, and it's...mostly grown back," the German Shepherd muttered, rubbing one hand along the center of her head. Looking closer, Sarina could see that it was a bit thinner there.

"I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't said anything."

"...Okay, you weaseled out my secret shame. Now I have to kill you."

Maybe it was the weird situation. Maybe it was the fact that the death threat had none of the punch behind it that she'd been expecting from people for the last twenty-four hours. Maybe it was just stress. Whatever it was, Sarina just lost it.

She rolled her head back and laughed, holding her arms around her middle, and after a few seconds, Veronica joined her in a couple of little sniggers.

"Okay, okay, that's good. You got a sense of humor."

"Oh god, oh god," Sarina wheezed. "Sorry, I just..."

"Don't be sorry! God, do you know how hard it is to find someone that knows when I'm serious and when I'm not?"

"People think you'd actually kill them?"

The German Shepherd arched an eyebrow, then gestured around the lab. Seeing the devastation that they were ankle-deep in, the dragoness admitted that the other woman had something of a point.

Still...

"So, um...let me start over, huh?" Sarina asked.

"You can't really do that, but let's say yes, for now."

"Do you, um, want an assistant?"

The look of astonishment on the canine's face was the last thing that the dragoness expected, but what followed was even better. Veronica yanked her off the stool, pulling her to the closet of lab coats and started yanking them off the hangers.

"Not your size, no, not that one, not this one -"

"I guess that's a yes?"

"YES!"

Laughing, the German Shepherd kept yanking down the different coats as if they were going out of style, piling them on the floor and then kicking them towards the laundry hamper as the pile got too high.

"Do you have any idea how long I've been asking the university for an assistant? And now I get the only dragoness in the world walking in, asking if she can help? Monkey-fucking Christ on a Christmas tree, that's like winning the lottery."

"Because I'm a dragoness?"

"Because you're asking to be here. Do you have any idea how many people run screaming as soon as they see the inside of this place?"

"...I can make a guess."

"Double that guess and you're probably closer," Veronica said. "Here we go."

Sarina took the lab coat that was shoved into her arms, barely able to think straight as she was maneuvered through the room towards one of the cleaner tables. The debris on top of it was swept away, leaving it mostly clean.

"How much do you know about science? Chemistry in particular?"

"...I know that fire doesn't hurt dragon scales?" she said, hoping to be helpful.

"Not chemistry, but very useful. No more paying for heat-resistant gloves, then..."

Something had definitely changed. She wasn't sure what, but as long as it meant that Veronica wasn't going to kick her out of the lab, Sarina was willing to be a bit of a freak assistant. It would keep her safe for a while, and she was pretty sure that nobody else would be coming into the lab while the German Shepherd was there.

Now, as long as she could keep herself from being blown up, that would be absolutely perfect...

The afternoon whizzed by in a rush, and by the end of it, the dragoness's brain was spinning with more random scientific facts than she could shake a stick at. The fact that most of them were chemical formulae wasn't helping, since her brain wasn't the best with numbers. She groaned, rubbing her forehead as Veronica continued to gush about the latest bit of work that they'd done, the flow seemingly unending as they walked out of the lab.

"God, that was perfect. I mean, I didn't expect a volcano effect, but - and you're okay, right? You're really okay? I still have the thing, the, uh, chemical burn kit if -"

"I'm fine. Just, just two seconds, okay?"

"Oh, oh, right. Right. Sorry. I...sorry."

The speed with which the mad scientist went from excited to looking almost scolded was beyond insane. It was like an emotional whiplash watching it happen, let alone what it must have been in like in her head.

That said, she needed those few seconds to pull herself back together after the barrage of scientific facts that she'd just gone through.

It had been three hours of watching the other woman geek out about all sorts of things, seeing her go crazy about how different chemicals reacted with one another, hearing her say exactly why and how they should be reacting. Most of the time, to give her credit, Veronica was completely right about it.

The times when she was wrong, however, left Sarina very grateful for the strength of her scales. Not nearly as good as the legends of dragons of old, she knew, but against fire and chemicals, more than enough to keep her intact.

When the bubbling, bouncing facts in her head stopped rolling around, she took a deep breath and tried to smile. She mostly succeeded.

"It's okay. I just...I'm not used to...talking with people very much," Sarina explained.

"...Heh. Me neither."

"You fake it good."

"Well, that's what I do. With people. Socially. I guess."

The further they got from the lab, the less confident the other woman seemed to be. They had barely taken a few dozen steps away, and not only had she seemed to lose her raw spark of authority, but she was backtracking on herself.

Sarina looked back at the metal doors, then at the hallway. The bell was about to ring, she realized, the whole building about to empty out.

"Come on."

This time, it was her turn to yank the dog off her feet. Veronica yelped, immediately squirming, but Sarina had a pretty firm grip. They were down the hall and out the door just before the bells rang, and the dragoness pointed towards a little nook just around the bend, pulling the pair of them into it.

It was only after they were hidden that she realized that the German Shepherd was holding a hand over her own mouth, shaking her head a few times.

"What's wrong?"

Veronica gestured with a finger, asking her to wait for a second. As the students filed out a few feet away, the crowd away from them, the other woman eventually was able to pull her hand down and speak.

"Making sure...I didn't bite."

"...Oh. Because I -"

"Not used to contact. Or being pulled."

"Sorry. I wasn't thinking. That wasn't okay."

"No."

She let go, wincing and rubbing the back of her head as Veronica pulled both hands to her sides.

"I'll...not do that again. I just didn't want us to be in the middle of a crowd, and -"

"Wasn't good way. Good thing, not in a good way."

It took a moment for her to understand what was going on, but when she looked the German Shepherd in the face, it was pretty clear.

It wasn't fear there, not like what she had seen on her own face in the past. Nor was it the nervous look of some of the shy girls that she'd seen in the library before, either. No, it was more...anxious, like she was already anticipating the worst, mixed with resignation.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that," Sarina said. "I panicked."

"You - no, I -"

"No, no, you might have panicked, but I did," the dragoness said. "I wanted to get us out of there as fast as possible, and freaked out at the thought of being around a lot of other people, that tightly packed in...you know...that kind of thing."

"..."

Veronica looked at her with one eyebrow cocked, almost as if the other woman didn't quite believe her, but...

Well, it was better than saying that there was nothing else she could have done, right? That would have been a lie, and an easily disproved one, at that. She was willing to be the one to apologize here...particularly when she had made a mistake...

"Apology accepted," the dog muttered. "Just...not again. Don't pull again."

"I won't."

"..."

They waited in their little nook for all the other students to pass, most of them walking down the path towards the other buildings on the university grounds, while some made their way around to the waterfront. After a few minutes, they were left alone. Veronica straightened her coat, snorting twice.

"I need to get back to work."

"Do you still need an assistant?" Sarina asked.

"...Tomorrow? I need...need some time to think."

"Take as much as you need..."

Nodding, the other woman walked back into the building and out of sight. The dragoness watched her go, staring after the canine until that still tail was completely out of sight. She sighed, slumping her head down against the wall.

"Well, that could have gone better..."

Here's hoping she doesn't end up complaining to her brother about this. She's...she's a good person...And I could really, really use a friend...

Shaking her head, the dragoness turned away from the building. Maybe she should hit the waterfront as well, see if staring out at the sea might calm her down and give her a better perspective on what she should be doing. Theoretically, she was still under Bat-Dog's watch, so she was probably safe from anything that might be out there on the water...

Theoretically...

The dragoness stood there for almost a minute before she forced herself to take that first step. She needed to live her life, not just exist. Just because everything was terrifying now...

She needed to do it. Simple as.

It was a short walk around the building to the waterfront. It wasn't so sandy as some beaches, the whole place more of a rocky one that you had to climb down with sure, slow steps if you didn't want to fall and gash yourself open. Most of the students kept to the railing that marked the end of the university grounds rather than going down there.

Sarina, on the other hand...

Not sure if she was just more adventurous these days or if that rape had done something to her sense of danger, the black and red dragoness climbed over the railing. She reached back and tugged off her shoes, carrying them in hand as she placed one bare foot on the rocks, and then the other. Her claws gripped at the edges of the various stones, giving her something of a foothold as she descended.

It was a long way down, and cool from the water that had soaked the rocks and not yet evaporated, but soon the swell of the waves drowned out the sound of the other students. She made her way all the way down to the bottom of the pile, sat on the smoothest rock she could find, and let the water lap at her toes as it went in and out.

The dragoness stared out at the water, looking at the edge of the horizon where the sky met the sea. Here and there, boats of passengers and cargoes passed to and fro, but it was that joining that caught her attention.

Two worlds meeting, she thought. Sky and sea. Both of them so vast, separated by...what, really? Two different states of being?

Water and gas. Each one breathable to the ones that lived in it and deadly to the one that did not, but something that could be overcome with enough ingenuity, as the various intelligent species had proved.

If two worlds had to exist side by side, why couldn't it work like that? Why couldn't the supernatural stay where they were...

Sarina sighed, leaning her head down. Because that would mean that she would be over there, too, as would the dragons that she saw in her head. They mixed and moved because they were free.

Her fingers clenched into her legs as she remembered her rape again. The dragoness remembered how she had been pinned against the wall, how she'd been forcefully exposed and then ridden, used as nothing but a thing. Her claws dug in deeper as she bit her lips, grinding her forehead against her knees, and she could feel her scales on the verge of ripping.

"Not...a thing...Not..."

She ripped her hand away, punching it into the nearest thing she could find. Unfortunately, that happened to be a rock.

"NNNGH!"

The pain pulled her back to the moment, leaving her hissing and grimacing from the sudden gashes along her knuckles. She pulled her hand back to her chest, cradling it against her breasts as she forced herself to think about that pain rather than the other one. Physical one, rather than mental one.

Unfortunately, she wasn't left alone with it. Truly unfortunately, a bigger reminder decided to say hello.

"Dragons don't regenerate, Alpha."

Erna. The werewolf that had done...that.

Sarina slowly turned, looking at the wolf woman standing beside her. The dragoness tried not to glare, but the anger must have been there, because the wolf sighed before sitting down.

"Still mad at me?"

"...Yes. Do you really think that's going to change?"

"Well, wouldn't mind if it did. I mean, you did flip it around on me."

"That's your excuse?"

"And I got kicked out of my pack."

"And then latched onto me. Your victim."

She was being venomous, and angry, and spiteful, and she had a goddamn right to be. It was giving her a headache and it made her feel a little sick to do this, but dammit, she had been raped by this woman, and now she had to deal with the wolf pushing her 'service' on her. Sarina was barely holding it together with as much denial as she could pull together, and she had the walking reminder of her attacker sworn to her now.

What kind of joke was that? A really bad one.

The wolf took her bleeding hand, squeezing at the wrist just enough to stop the immediate blood flow.

"You'll want to fix that. Vampires are like land-sharks. They sense this stuff easy."

"I've met one already."

"That was quick. Which one?"

"A dolphin. Eurig, I think."

"Him?!"

Almost sent tumbling from her rock perch into the water, Sarina scrambled to catch herself as the wolf jumped back to her feet. She was still swaying and scrambling as Erna grabbed her by the tail, pulling her to her feet before shaking her by the shoulders.

"You met...you met Eurig? You're sure? You're sure that was the name?"

"...Yeah...I..."

For a split second, she thought about mentioning Tobias, particularly since Erna seemed to be aware of him, but then she thought better of it. A protector wasn't very good if everyone knew he was there; sometimes, they worked better without having to prove that they were around all the time.

So, she moved on.

"I met him on the tram. He didn't do anything, but -"

"He doesn't have to. Do you know who he is?"

"...A vampire?"

"Ugh!"

Erna growled, raising one hand -

CRACK!

The wolf went over, tumbling head over heels into the water. The bitch gasped, rubbing her cheek, and Sarina stared at her own outstretched fist.

I...when...

Well, when was pretty obvious. She'd just punched Erna in the face, but...

It took her a second to be aware of the raw anger that had leaped up as soon as she saw the slap building up. She was used to fear, powerful fear, particularly in regards to the wolf in the water, but this time anger had come rushing up in its place, burning and searing and refusing to let any more hurt come.

It wanted to do the hurt, instead, and she struggled to hold back, pulling her arm back to her side before kneeling down and helping Erna out of the water.

"Are you okay?" Sarina asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Heals fast." The wolf cracked her jaw. "That's a mean punch, though."

"Yeah, well...you were gonna slap me."

"I didn't, though."

"You were going to."

"...Well, you were being stupid."

"I don't know anything, remember? I didn't even know you were a -"

"Shut up!"

With a gesture up at the railing, she was reminded that they weren't alone. Sarina glanced up out of the corner of her eye.

They'd attracted quite the crowd with that sudden scuffle. At least ten other students were staring down at them, one even mouthing 'fight, fight, fight' under his breath. The dragoness blushed, rubbing the back of her head and collecting her shoes.

"Maybe we should talk elsewhere?"

"Yeah. Like in a panic room or something."

"We have one?"

"Not exactly, but...come on..."

The wolf led her back up the rocks and over the railing, and soon, they were making their way through the campus. Sarina followed, not liking it, but knowing that she needed to do something if she wanted to figure out what was going on.

For all that she was a dragon, she obviously didn't know a thing about their world, or the world of the other supernatural people.

The End