FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Dragoness of Salsea Chapter 7: The Day Before the Demon Sponsored by Dreixes By Draconicon

Morning came, and with it came the smell of sausage, bacon, and far too much smoke. Sarina coughed, gasping for breath as she rolled out of bed, throwing open her window before opening the door. The dragoness was hit in the face by a billow of black clouds, and she stumbled backward, coughing hard.

"Ugh! Your kitchen sucks!"

Erna's voice confirmed her worst fears. The wolf had gotten up before her and tried to cook breakfast, and had utterly failed at it. The dragoness stumbled back to her bed, getting her glasses. They slid on her snout easily enough, and she went to her knees, crawling under the clouds of black above her.

One by one, she opened the windows of the apartment, getting rid of the smoke so she could see. The fact that the room wasn't hot meant that it wasn't going to burst into flames with a bit of extra air, and it was probably not a dangerous fire, but that didn't mean that they weren't going to suffocate if they didn't clear the air a bit.

When the windows were all open, she lifted herself up a bit, getting on her knees rather than all fours. What she saw was a mess and a half.

Four different sausages were thrown directly on the heating elements, and there was bacon grease all over the top of the stove, half of it burnt on, the rest of it turned into something that she didn't even want to guess at. She winced at the idea of trying to scrape that stuff off, and tried not to think too hard about that for the moment.

As she looked over the rest of the stovetop, she saw that there was oil and butter on the side, and she praised whatever deity might be out there that Erna hadn't bothered to throw that on. Who knew if the apartment would have still been there if she had? Hell, the whole thing looked like they had barely avoided a full-on grease-fire.

"What the hell did you do?" she asked, coughing. "And why does it smell like burnt - oh."

The answer to the other smell in the air, of scalded hair and something else burnt, was answered as the werewolf turned around. She had a big burn mark right on her chest, and Sarina realized that the canine must have thrown herself on the fire to start putting it out. Lacking a fire extinguisher, the only thing that she could have done was make sure that it stopped burning on contact with something else, smothered out.

That explained the lack of further damage, as well as the smoke. It had been cut off that way...

She winced, shaking her head.

"You need first aid?" she asked, weakly nodding towards the bathroom. "I have a kit, and there's plenty of -"

"I'm regenerating," Erna grunted. "It'll be fine in a few minutes."

"That...looks like it hurt."

"It fucking did."

"..."

"Hungry?"

"Not really..."

"Good. I'm gonna need all of this and then some."

The dragoness slowly shook her head, walking back to her room as the wet sound of munching through half-cooked meat filled the air. It almost made her gag at the sheer delight that the werewolf seemed to take from how under-done it was, and she wondered if there had been a point to cooking it in the first place.

She reached under her bed, pulling out the different containers of clothes. Thankfully, they were all undamaged from the smoke from being put away, but she made sure to fan the room with her wings before pulling any out.

The red and black dragoness changed out of her clothes, pulling on a fresh, knee-length skirt of red and gold. A black bra and a red-yellow blouse followed. It worked okay with her scales, though it wasn't the best coordinated outfit, she was aware.

She reached for a pair of panties, only for Erna's voice to speak up from far too close to the side of her head.

"Probably don't want those today."

"Gah!"

She almost jumped out of her scales, her shoulder colliding with the werewolf's muzzle and making it click shut. Erna grunted, pulling back a step or two, while Sarina whimpered and rubbed her shoulder.

"Ow, ow..."

"Hey, how do you think I feel?"

As the werewolf spat out a tooth, Sarina shook her head, looking up at her bodyguard...pack mate...whatever Erna was. She shook her head.

"What do you mean, I don't need panties today?"

"Well, are you going out?"

"Eventually. I gotta go to Slegion, remember?"

"Yeah. I meant before that."

"I, well, I don't know yet. I was still thinking about that."

"Might as well leave 'em off, then. There's no real need for 'em when you're down there, and if you're just hanging around the house, I've already seen it all, anyway."

"...Do you have to keep reminding me?"

"Ugh..."

It took a few seconds of glaring, but eventually, Erna walked out of the room and gave the dragoness some privacy. She slammed the door and lodged one of her shoes under it to make sure that it didn't open again, and sighed as she sat down on the bed.

It was humiliating to think of going about her day without something to cover her down there. Her dick had been rather...stubborn lately, and it didn't always stay down the way that it was supposed to. It didn't help that some monsters seemed to be rather interested in it, too, particularly Erna and Eurig. The pair of them had taken delight in reminding her of the part that she wasn't supposed to have.

She blushed a bit, shifting her position, trying to ignore the way that those parts just flopped about without support to hold them up. It was a constant reminder of what she wasn't, what she had instead of what she was supposed to have.

There's no real need for 'em when you're down there.

Did that mean that meeting with the demon would be that bad? Would they be as touchy as Eurig, or would they be as bad about leaving her alone as Erna had been before the event?

There were too many variables, too many things that she didn't know, and it worried her.

At the same time...

There was something about tempting fate, she admitted, something about taking charge of that utter desire that the different Folk had for her. They wanted to rut a dragon, to humiliate one, to break her. They wanted to shove her against the wall and use up all the hate they had for dragons on her ass.

So...why not take a bit of control there?

She looked at her panties, holding them in front of her. They were somewhat lacy, but only around the waistband, rather than being the sort of exposing underwear that would actually show her off. They were the sort that didn't say one thing or another about the person wearing them except that they were a fence-sitter, unwilling to embrace one side or the other, whether to be a prude or to be a slut.

Is that me?

Sarina held them between her fingers for a few more seconds, then let them drop to the floor. She started to reach for her socks, then stopped that, too.

If the demons want to see me that way tonight, might as well take it a bit further...

It wasn't much, in the grand scheme of things. Going panty-less was one thing, as it just allowed easy access. Going barefoot kind of felt...different. Like she was giving up the right to shoes, that she was embracing something that was more embarrassing, more slutty, giving them something that made them more comfortable about seeing her as unthreatening.

It just felt a bit...naughty, and her hole and her other parts twitched at that.

Just focus on doing this right, she reminded herself. You don't want to screw up and get people in trouble, do you?

The fact was that Tobias would be down there, eager to take the fight to the demons. The Doberman would be a great help, and if Erna came along, that meant that she had someone else watching her back, too.

But that also meant that she had to watch theirs. She had to be good enough to not get them in trouble if they came to rescue her.

The red and black dragoness took a deep breath, then let it out.

I'm not going to be that helpless girl. I'm not going to be trapped that way again. Erna fucked me. Eurig humiliated me. No more. Nobody else is going to do it unless I let them.

Whether she could enforce that rule, she had no idea, but that was going to be a rule. A goddamn good rule, too.

Leaving her socks and panties in the room, she rejoined Erna in the living room. The werewolf had at least cleaned off the counters after she finished eating, and the canine looked a bit more presentable herself with a shirt on rather than going barechested and burn-scarred.

"So..."

Sarina sat down on the couch while the werewolf sat on the floor. She looked at the other woman, then sighed.

"Okay. Let's just do this. How long are you going to stay with me?" she asked.

"What do you mean, how long am I going to stay? I'm not leaving."

"Why not?"

"Because you're pack."

"I'm alpha. I thought there was a difference."

"You can only be alpha if you're part of the pack. There's no way to be alpha if you leave it."

"Does that mean I can kick you out of my pack, then?"

If there was a word for something beyond terror that fit the expression that Erna had at that question, Sarina didn't know what it was. What she did know was that the other woman looked terrified beyond the common lot of mortals. Her face had twisted and her eyes had gone to the size of her fists, and they were all white with merely a tiny dot smaller than a period in the middle for the pupil.

Her body language had completely changed, too, going from the confident, slightly abrasive sort of appearance and posture to something that was begging for mercy. The soft whimper that filled the air, the laid ears, the low head and hunched shoulders: this was a dog that was expecting a beating and doing its best not to get it, not to look like it had earned it.

The show was as stark and startling as she had ever seen, and she didn't know what to say.

"Please..."

Erna looked down at the ground.

"Please, don't do that to me. Please, don't ever, ever do something like that to me. I can't...I can't tell you what that would do to me, but it would be horrible. I would break."

"Why?"

"Because a wolf can't be alone."

"But...but why not? There's plenty of wolves out there."

"They're not like us. Not like werewolves. They're not...They're not made like us. We're supposed to be together. It keeps us from going crazy."

So, there was another reason that Erna had latched onto her besides genuine apology, besides fear of the dragons. It was fear of what she might become.

And that meant one more responsibility for Sarina, too, one more thing that the dragoness had to take care of, one more thing besides herself that she needed to keep an eye on so that it didn't completely go out of control.

She sighed, rubbing her forehead as she tried to be fair about this. She hadn't had the chance to say yes or no about being Erna's alpha, but at the same time, the werewolf had done everything that she could so far to make up for doing what she'd done. Well, mostly. There were some rough bits, but she was doing better.

The fact that she was as willing to do better was a major point in her favor, too, something that she hoped would continue. If it didn't, then they'd probably have problems again, but for now...

"I need to go back to school," the dragoness muttered.

"It's an off-day today. Nobody has to go," Erna pointed out.

"I need to talk with someone. I promised I'd come back down today, and...I just have to go back."

"But -"

"Please, just stay here. I need something that's not supernatural right now."

She got to her feet and left. The feeling of the hallway, followed by the steps down from the upper floor, were strange to her bare feet, but she was able to deal with it.

In a way, this exposure made her feel better. Not a punishment, but a reminder that she was a strong enough person to go out and do something new.

Strong enough to go out and be herself.

Strong enough to do better.

The tram ride to the university was as uneventful as she'd hoped, though she felt vaguely tired and not entirely comfortable by the time that she got off of the tram. Her eyes were hurting from the light, despite it being cloudy, and she was starting to understand why Eurig wore the mirrored sunglasses. She half-wished that she'd brought them with her, but she doubted that it would have worked out well for her. Her glasses were required, and if she wore the other ones, she doubted she'd be able to see where she was going, let alone what she was doing.

So, she squinted and kept her head down for the most part as she crossed the street, walking onto the campus grounds. It was easy enough to follow the paths to the science lab, and she made her way down to the far end, her hand lifting to touch the intercom.

Bzz, bzz.

There was a pause, but no explosion this time. Instead, there was just silence for a handful of seconds before the intercom buzzed back.

"What's going on? Who's out there? I'm busy," Veronica said.

"It's me."

"...You came back?"

"I said I would. You asked for a day, right?"

"I did. I just..."

The pause came back, and Sarina didn't know how to break it. If anything, she felt that touching the button and pushing further would only make it more awkward.

Then Veronica talked again.

"One second."

This time, there was a clatter. Not as loud as an explosion, but definitely louder than what she had been hearing up until that point. It continued for a few seconds before the door finally opened.

The gray-furred German Shepherd looked at her, then looked away almost immediately.

"You look like some bad Bollywood dancer."

"Thanks, I think."

"You heard 'bad' in there, right?"

"Yeah, but I also heard Bollywood, so..."

"...What do you want?"

"To talk, if it's okay."

"I'm busy."

"Really?"

The dragoness leaned to the side, half-expecting to see shattered glass or worse along the tables and ground. Instead, everything was empty, save for a single little beaker and Bunsen burner that were set up on the table closest to the door.

Did she set that up to make it look like she was running some kind of experiment? she wondered, narrowing her eyes at the glass.

"There's nothing in the tube."

"...That was going to be the next step."

"Did I interrupt that?"

"...No."

"You...don't want to talk, do you?"

"Not really. It's..."

Veronica sighed, shaking her head before stepping to the right.

"Just, come in. We should. I just...don't want to."

"After what happened last time, I can't really blame you. All I can do is keep apologizing and hoping that it eventually hits a point where it's enough."

Stepping through the door, she felt little bits of powder on the floor, as well as dust and old bits of cobweb. Obviously, the ground hadn't been swept for a while, and particularly not near the tables. There were no shards of glass or anything, but she was amazed at the amount of old slime that she was finding to step in, and how sensitive her soles were to the grit and grime underfoot.

Veronica guided her past the first table over to the second one, pulling a couple of chairs out from the side of the room. The science lab looked like it had been completely abandoned. Not completely impossible for the sort of day it was, since it was more or less the weekend, but still strange compared to how lively it was even yesterday.

She looked around, the dragoness realizing that there couldn't have been any other experiments running until she got here. It was too clean on the tabletops and along the counters. Slowly, she turned to the German Shepherd again, looking at her as the girl in the lab coat kicked her legs back and forth on a stool that was a bit too tall for her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"No, seriously, what's wrong? Did I do something bad? Did something happen?"

"No, nothing bad, just...new."

"Can you explain?"

"Ugh...Look...I'm not used to...people, okay?"

Sarina nodded. That was an understandable thing, she supposed, and she'd gotten that the last time that they talked, the last time that they had spent time together. She'd pulled Veronica along by the arm, invaded the no-touch zone, and that had been a major mistake. She had apologized for it, but she'd had the feeling that it hadn't been enough.

Looked like she might have been right, judging by the way that Tobias's sister couldn't meet her eyes. She rubbed the back of her head.

"I didn't mean to make things bad last time. I know I did something I shouldn't have."

"I'm bad. I wanted to bite."

"But you didn't."

"Wanted to, though. Could have hurt you."

"Heh...you know, if you had, that would have been the least hurt that I've had since I got here."

"What? Someone -"

And just like that, the canine was in front of her, grabbing her by the shoulders and forcing the dragoness to look her in the eye. A low growl filled the air, coming from deep inside the scientist's throat.

"Who...hurt...you?"

"Nobody you know," she muttered, only for the Shepherd to pull her forward again.

"Who hurt you? You said that it would be the least hurt. That means that someone's already hurt you here, and bad."

"Look, it's not -"

"You know Tobias. I didn't say anything about that last time, but I know he works with dangerous things. Things he doesn't talk about. Tobias...What is he doing? What are you doing with him?"

"...I can't talk about it."

"Don't you dare."

"I mean, he asked me not to," Sarina tried to say, her glasses fogging up as Veronica leaned in closer, the two of them almost nose to nose at that point. "He said that you deserved a chance to live your own life, not get dragged into something dangerous."

"I make my own choices. He can come here and stop me if he wants, but until he ties my ass to a chair, I get to make my own goddamn choices."

"..."

"Who. Hurt. You?"

"...A couple of people," she admitted. "A couple people. One is trying to make good. The other's still out there."

"Do you want to hurt the first one?"

"...No. Not much, anyway."

"Alright. Then tell me what the second one looks like."

"Heh...you can't do anything about him." Sarina shook her head. "But...if you want to help..."

"Help is good."

"Let me talk? Let me talk...and promise not to tell anyone."

"I can listen. I'm good at that."

The two of them chatted for the next hour or so, with the dragoness spilling the beans more than she meant to do. She had meant to respect Tobias's wishes, to keep the truth of the Other Folk from Veronica, but that wish faded so quickly against the chance to actually talk to someone that had so selflessly volunteered to make her safe. The fact that there were no conditions, the fact that the German Shepherd barely needed to know that she'd been hurt before she was threatening vengeance...

It opened the dam that she'd put up against her own fears and worries, and it made everything come spilling out in one giant mess.

She told the German Shepherd everything. She told Veronica about the first rape. She told her about the dragons in her head. She told her about Eurig the vampire and what he was planning to do. She told her everything.

Just as she'd promised, Veronica didn't say anything during the whole conversation. She'd occasionally hold up a finger to ask for a pause and write something down, or she'd grab her own muzzle to keep herself from speaking - or in some cases, shouting, judging by the sounds that came free - but she never interrupted, never asked questions that the dragoness might not have been able to answer.

She took the story right up to that morning, when she'd made her rule about nobody touching her without permission again, and then stopped. Sarina looked down at her hands, realized that she was shaking.

It was the first time since Erna's attack that she'd gone through everything, and it threatened to pull her down with it. The fact that she'd gone through so much, been through everything, and was still standing...

It shouldn't be possible. She should be broken. Maybe she was and she was just fooling herself. Maybe she was -

"I'm slapping Tobias next time I see him."

That put the mental image of the Doberman getting his head spun sideways and his glasses going flying. Not a good picture, but then she imagined the flabbergasted look on his face at the fact that someone had actually made contact with him.

That, on the other hand, was funny, and she sputtered slightly.

"That toad-humping, frog-licking, back-alley-whore-in-a-goodwill-dress of a Doberman should have told me all about this years ago. I mean...fuck...fucking fucking fuck!"

"That...that was..."

"Oh ho ho, don't let me get going. If I get going, I'm going to start screaming, and if I start screaming..."

The German Shepherd hopped off her stool, steam almost literally pouring out her ears. She was obviously beyond pissed, and growling deep in her throat like an engine about to explode.

"This is the bullshit that he's been doing all these years? This is the sort of - oh, that explains so much. Explains the bullets, explains the special chem mixes that he asks for, explains the - oh Tobias. You better fucking tell him that he's bringing me along next time," Veronica said, pointing at her. "You better fucking tell him."

"Heh...I think he's going to know before I see him next."

"Fucking Bat-Dog, thinking he's gotta do everything on his own..."

"Well, not everything. Tonight, at Slegion, he's having me help him."

"Yeah, well, you sure as hell aren't doing that alone."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean? I'm going with you."

"...Come again?"

"Did I stutter, bitch? I'm coming with you."

Things were moving fast, and Sarina realized why Tobias might have been keeping this secret from the Shepherd. As Veronica roamed about the lab, pulling down different chemical vials as well as various test tubes, making mixtures and then corking them off, the dragoness finally understood what had happened.

Veronica had made a friend. They'd latched together, shared pain, and now...

Now the Shepherd had to get rid of the pain her friend was suffering. Now, she had to be part of it. Now, she had to do what she could to get rid of the bad feeling from before.

"Look. You don't have to do this," she said, trying to speak over the clatter and clanging going on. "I can handle this. Tobias will be there, and so will a werewolf."

"Tobias isn't invincible. He's close, but I'm not letting him do this alone. And werewolves? Pah. Throw a bit of silver on them then toss some mercury into the burns, and they'll be poisoned. Anything out there that fights them regularly will know that."

It was a bit disturbing just how well-informed the other woman was, but Sarina had very little choice in the matter, forced to watch as she failed to come up with a good argument for the other woman to stay behind. By the time that she found her tongue again, Veronica was in the middle of punching holes through a belt, creating a makeshift bandolier for all her chemical grenades and bombs and...

"Is that a Molotov?"

"It's ready to be one, if I stuff a rag in."

"...Good lord..."

This was not what she planned. She had just wanted to come down and talk, maybe vent a little bit, make herself feel a bit better before she went into the demon's den. Now she was dragging someone else along, someone else that might get hurt for her sake.

She didn't like this. She didn't like this at all, but how was she going to stop it now?

"Slegion, right?" Veronica asked.

"Yeah...yeah. Slegion, and the boss, Snarl."

"When?"

"Nine..."

"I'll be outside at eight. Make sure that you don't chicken out."

"Hey, I'm the one that's compelled."

"Oh. Right. By the way, how does that work?" the Shepherd asked, turning around. "Is it just eye contact, or?"

"I don't know. I haven't tested it yet."

"Might want to try. If you figure it out, you can use it in the building."

"Good point. Just...don't want to hurt someone, you know?"

"Yeah. Yeah. And that hurts the mind, too, so...yeah."

Veronica looked down at her explosives, then shouldered them, pulling the bandoliers over her chest. The leather had been double-layered, almost creating a vest and chest-piece under the harness, probably something to keep any leaking chemicals from hitting the other woman's fur and flesh.

Smart, considering how volatile and dangerous some of the vials looked.

"Right. Well. Close the lab when you go. I've gotta grab some more stuff."

"You're going now?"

"There's more stuff, heh. And maybe I can find someone else to pull in on this."

"No, no. No more people."

"Heh, you gonna follow me? Because that's the only way you're gonna stop me."

No matter how hard she glared, the Shepherd's smirk didn't fade. Eventually, Sarina sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Fine, but...please don't bring too many? I don't want people to get hurt."

"And we don't want you to get hurt, so as long as you be careful, we'll be careful. Fair enough?"

"Fair enough."

As the mad scientist ran off, Sarina was left alone in the lab. She sighed, leaning back and folding her hands over her lap, shaking her head as she stared at the ceiling.

When did things go so completely crazy? she wondered.

Probably when she'd been put here to begin with. The thing that the dragon in her dream had said continued to bother her. That she was supposed to be 'safe' because she didn't have magic, but...

But she had the eyes, now, and those were definitely magic. And before that, she'd had a supernatural sort of stamina, something that she'd never felt before. Both of them had come out after...

Her eyes widened as she bolted upright, thinking it through. If that was the case...And if these powers were specialized the way that she thought...

"Oh fuck...oh fuck, you've gotta be kidding me..."

The End