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The Adviser

Chapter One

A lone projectile disrupted the relative calm befitting an academic courtyard between classes. The acorn's irregular shape carried it haphazardly in a series of bounces and skids down a stretch of concrete marred by twisting tree roots. Following closely behind were two friends, dressed in a way clearly begging for summer to last as long as it could, swapping stories after nearly three months spent apart.

"So Germany must be as beautiful as they say," figured one. Tegon, the taller of the two and the reason for the seed's continuing journey, was probing his friend about his travels in Europe. "Otherwise you wouldn't have that constant smile on your face."

"It was the best, Tegon." Sollox, true to Tegon's words, had a grin plastered across his spiked, angular muzzle. "I miss strolling down the Marienplatz already. Oh, and that reminds me. I haven't even started on the food and beer I had there. They have so many types of wurst I couldn't keep track of them all. My biggest regret is not being there for this year's Oktoberfest. It just started a few days ago, as a matter of fact."

Tegon's green eyes blinked as nudging the acorn yet again also kicked up dust into his eyes. "More like 'Septemberfest' then. But yeah. It's been pretty dead around here. I took a few electives over the summer, but nothing too great. Learned a lot about modern art and even took a trip up to MoMA with Alix a few weeks ago. I did see multiple dicks in the city, if you count that as excitement, and I'm not just talking about the exhibits."

That drew a chuckle out of the mustard yellow lizard. "Thankfully I didn't see any of those at TUM. Just lots and lots of chemicals and tedious titrations."

The drake ran his hand up and down one of the horns jutting out of his skull as they stepped over the still seed. His tone became serious. "You know, you were really lucky to win that internship. The university there is one of the best in the world."

"Funny. The beakers there are exactly the same as the ones here."

"Still. It's not just the equipment, but access to some of the best professors in the field."

"They had thick accents. I barely understood half of what they said."

Tegon snorted. He still appreciated the attempts of his friend to make him feel better about missing out. "Things between Alix and me are pretty serious now, Lox. She's talking about moving in with me next semester, but you know how she sprawls out. Half of her stuff is already at my place."

Sollox slapped his friend across the back and brought him in close. "My man! Alix is perfect for you. I can only dream of someone who gets along with me as well as she does with you."

"I guess we're pretty eerily close in our interests, but that's not to say we don't disagree on some important stuff."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Like whether we should watch a Godzilla or a Gamera movie, what restaurant to eat at..." Tegon shrugged and held out his hands.

Now Sollox launched an acorn into the air, nailing a tree trunk dead on. "Deal breakers! Tegon, you're such an ass."

"Nah, I just like annoying you on a regular basis."

When they arrived at a fork in the path, the two diverged. Sollox padded off to the right, saying he was going to grab lunch back at the dormitories. The drake continued straight towards the university's chemistry building.

"Time to go to work."

The knot in his stomach, there all morning, tightened. This was the first time he was going to meet his postgraduate adviser. Dr. Phayon had a reputation around campus for not only being one of the most capable rising stars in chemical engineering, but also one of the most attractive ones. She had about a decade on Tegon's age and taught a few undergraduate courses in addition to her research. Spots in her 100-level classes were traded among underclassmen as if they were cartons of cigarettes in a prison. They certainly did not care she assigned a workload that far outpaced that of her peers. Tegon, far removed from that silliness but still fond of it, was to begin the semester working with her on what was only described to him as a compound with very unique properties.

Tegon had sent her a letter at the end of the previous semester asking her to be his adviser. When she responded in the affirmative, she noted his work in theoretical chemistry would be a welcome addition. They had been corresponding over e-mail ever since, setting up that morning as his first day. Beyond the compound's probable relation to quantum chemistry, the young drake had no idea what he would be in for.

Chapter Two

Tegon's steps echoed on the marble floors of the chemistry building. Down the hallway stretched several classrooms, one after the other, and on either side. He could glance in to see rows of students diligently taking notes, or pretending to do so on their laptops, or none of the above as they surreptitiously glanced at their phone screens underneath their desks. Dr. Phayon certainly demanded attention during her lectures, but not for the content.

After rounding a corner after the restrooms and a humming water fountain, Tegon turned on his heel and headed back to the machine. He hoped a last-minute cool drink of water would calm him down. A button on the side brought forth a refreshing gush which he slurped down eagerly. Puddles of fresh water gathered in the basin after the stream stopped, generating many scattered reflections of the black and green scalie.

Slaked, Tegon wiped his lips and began the climb up to the second floor, where the graduate laboratories were located. The stairs creaked under the weight of his plantigrade feet, belying his slim albeit athletic form. In truth, the staircase was probably going on a century old. At the top of the stairs, facing him, was room 207. The heavy metal door had no window looking in, but there was a small gap between it and the floor. The glow of fluorescent light pouring forth confirmed the lab was in use. Emblazoned on the door was an engraved placard. "DR. PHAYON" headlined it, and slid into one of the slots below was a paper insert reading "Tegon, Laboratory Assistant." He slid his university-issued identification card into a reader affixed to the wall, and the door quietly clicked open. He took a deep breath and stepped into the lab.

Across from Tegon was a wall with several windows overlooking the academic quadrangle. Between him and the windows began a line of workstations down the length of the lab, at the end of which was a tall reptile wearing a white coat and working inside a fume hood. The powerful fans must have muffled the sound of the drake's entrance, because she did not look up from her work. Instead of immediately walking down there to introduce himself, he glanced around.

Beside the door was an open-air cabinet with coat hooks, from one of which hung an appropriately-sized lab coat. There were several more hooks, all empty, but the first hook was labeled with a misspelled "PHAEON." Below was a pair of heavy-duty thick soled lab boots, usually used for dealing with strong acids and other dangerous chemicals. Tegon brought along his own pair of safety goggles in case they would be working with those hazardous agents.

Beside that was a dry-erase board covered in calculations. It began with a few Feynman diagrams and continued into a mess of quantum field theory that he attempted to understand. Most of it was over his head, but the end result appeared to be a few orders of magnitude reduction of a quantity. While he tried to figure out just what that quantity was he became solely focused on the board. In one place he uncapped a different-colored marker and flexed his own calculus skills to double-check the work. Losing focus of his adviser, he jumped as a claw tapped him on the back.

Tegon immediately took Dr. Phayon's outstretched claws and gave a strong shake. It was somewhat awkward with his five fingers and her three slate gray ones, but such was life with so many different species on campus. She smiled down at him. Phayon had about an inch on him barefoot, but her lab boots added another couple inches, not even counting the cluster of tall brown feathers sprouting from the top of her head. "Hello there, Tegon. It's good to finally meet you."

He ignored a series of quick pulses in his pocket indicating someone was trying to call. "Same, Dr. Phayon. It will be an honor to work so closely with you. I'm sorry about sneaking in, but these equations are really intriguing me. This is part of your work, or did the janitor have a 'Good Will Hunting' moment?"

Dr. Phayon sniffed amusedly but didn't answer his question directly. "My coworkers can call me Phay. Tell me what you see." She motioned towards the dry-erase board Tegon was so intent on studying.

"Some sort of chemical process that results in a reduction of something, to be sure. But I haven't seen QFT applied in a way like this. You'll have to tell me what I'm really looking at here."

Again, she remained coy. "It could be worth a major grant in the near future," she said. "Or it could be nothing. I'm a bit of a risk-taker in my research, just so you know."

Tegon looked up at her sideways, wondering why she was acting so cagey. But before he could get out another word, she sidestepped and began unhooking the newly-laundered lab coat.

"Here you go. Should be the perfect size for you. Make sure you grab the neoprene gloves, too. The nitriles aren't going to be good enough for what we're working with today. For that matter, grab an apron too."

Tegon slipped his arms through either side of the coat. Sure enough, it fit quite well. Not surprising as one of the questions she had asked about was his height. He found an acid-resistant apron in a box at the foot of the cabinet and tied it around his back. The equipment suggested some pretty corrosive acids.

Already on the other side of the room, Phayon wrapped her claws under the lip of a nearby stool. It scraped above the steady sound of the fume hood as she brought it into place and sat down. The reptile slipped off her goggles.

"Are you ready for the next step, Tegon? You're going to be directly involved in important research, in a way that you haven't been before."

Tegon rubbed at the side of his snout. "Yes. This is something I love doing and I'd definitely like to work alongside you."

She nodded her head a few times. "Good. We're admittedly a small team, but two people is all we're going to need. Let me start by laying it all on the table for you."

Dr. Phayon rubbed her temples before beginning. "Imagine you have a pallet of food here in the States. Transportation costs are going to be significant to get it from here to where it's needed."

Tegon leaned back on a table with his hands gripping the wood behind him. "Yeah. I read that the global food crisis is not actually a matter of production, but a matter of distribution."

"Correct. Now, there's only so much you can optimize in a situation like this. Naturally, minimizing fuel costs by shortening shipping routes is beyond the scope of anything we could look at. The mass is fixed for a given amount of food, right?"

"Of course."

"Well, indulge me for a second. Consider this to be one of the more esoteric _gedankens_you've heard. What if we could temporarily reduce the mass? Not by throwing anything away, but literally making the mass of the same amount of food lower."

Tegon's thumb brushed against the raised etching of a nearby empty Erlenmeyer flask, marking the constant increases in volume. "So not weight, but mass. That's physically impossible, but I'll indulge. It depends on the factor," he paused for a brief second. That was the second time in only a few minutes he considered orders of magnitude. "But it would have the potential to solve our global crisis overnight. Not to mention put more than a few freight companies out of business."

Dr. Phayon shrugged. "I hadn't really considered the latter, but correct, it would have some of the farthest-reaching implications we have ever seen. Now I want to change gears slightly. You said you were good with computers. You know how a zipped file works, right?"

"Yes. Some kind of algorithms represent repeated data in a more efficient way. If there are a thousand zeros in a row, the phrase 'one thousand zeros' takes up less space than a thousand zeros in a row. That's pretty simplified, I guess, but I don't know much beyond that. The data's still there, but it's represented in a different way."

"How about a digital photograph, like a JPEG?"

"That's a little different. If you get, say, a RAW file from your digital camera and compress it to a JPEG, you're actually throwing away data. We just balance it in a way that the reptilian eye wouldn't notice."

"Let's go back to our food example. If we were to choose between the two options, we obviously would want the former. Looking at atoms, molecules, building blocks of our foodstuffs, it's probably not a good idea to cut out bits of that."

"You're talking about, what, shrinking this theoretical food palette? Sounds like science fiction."

"I can assure you I'm not kidding. My research revolves around reducing the physical size of bulk material while keeping all other physical properties intact. And I believe I have engineered a compound that allows me to do that. So that pallet of food could actually become as dense as a neutron star, while retaining all of its original physical properties. The atoms are still there. But to the outside world it has shrunk to a fraction of the size. Once the food is delivered, we can then reverse the process with another compound that destabilizes what we've created and returns the properties of the matter to normal. It works best with organic molecules, so for now I'm only testing it with those."

Tegon kept a poker face but internally he was screaming. It was a mistake, the wrong Phayon. There was no way the famous Dr. Phayon would be indulging in a harebrained scheme like this. But he knew this was really her. And it was too late to ask someone else to be his adviser.

"I can see you're struggling with what I just said." Dr. Phayon's eyes carried much weight with them. "For now let's just do some chemistry. The theory will fall into place later. Make sure your gloves are on well and pass me the bottle of hydrofluoric acid over there." She pointed to a collection of chemicals.

"Hydrofluoric acid is some scary stuff." Tegon narrowed his eyes at the plastic bottle, covered in warnings and a skull and crossbones. "It can go right to the bone if you spill it on yourself."

"It's also the first ingredient to a catalyst that's vital to the functioning of our compound." Dr. Phayon dug around in a cabinet below the table before producing an acid-resistant full face shield. "If you'd like you can use this instead of your goggles. It has the added bonus of making it look like you're in the middle of some serious badassery to anybody looking in from the building across the quad."

Tegon accepted it and strapped it around his head. She was still probably crazy, but at least she had a likable personality.

Dr. Phayon carefully read out her handwritten instructions to Tegon. "Measure out that quantity of deionized water from the spout."

"Seven hundred milliliters," Tegon confirmed. They worked through each step, setting aside some formulae for later use and mixing others together under the fume hood.

Chapter Three

After eight full hours of carefully measuring out the necessary portions of chemicals and taking notes on the reactions, Dr. Phayon called it a day as the sun began to set. Tegon was relieved. She didn't even squeeze in a lunch break. The professor was clearly focused singularly on her goal of getting a stable compound.

The two disrobed together, Tegon removing his face mask and Phayon her goggles. Their gloves were tossed into a waste bin and lab coats back on their hangers. Phayon was wearing the clunky lab boots, and sighed like a weight was lifted off her shoulders when they came off.

"I wish they'd make these things more comfortable. I'd rather wear my heels any day of the week." Dr. Phayon rubbed her fingers together, as if to remove some hardened glue. "I'll probably be back here later tonight, you know."

"I'm impressed. Even I don't have that kind of energy. I'll see you tomorrow, professor."

"Take care, Tegon."

Tegon checked his phone on the way out the door. The notification tray included a missed call from Alix. He tapped on it to dial her up. "Hey babe, sorry I missed you. First day back and all."

"Well you know I don't start until next week. Today was so boring, I just spent the day at the gym. Come over. Vil's not in tonight."

Tegon counted his steps back to the first floor of the chemistry building. "Uh, sure! I'm on my way. Give me five minutes."

"See you then. Love ya." The phone beeped twice indicating the end of the call. He unraveled a tangled pair of earbuds from his jeans pocket and dialed up some music for the short journey. The notes faintly leaked through to the outside world.

I feel like I possess only the bad aspects of invisibility, but none of the good ones...

He grabbed another nice long slurp of water from the fountain and pushed his way out of the back of the building.

The campus was always a sight to behold on summer evenings. Fireflies flitted about in abundance, flashing their yellow-green glow as the fiery red rays of a dying sun glinted through the tree branches. Since they were so slow, Tegon loved to catch them in his hands and just observe the insects crawl about for a bit before flying back into the sky.

Without wings, Tegon was considered a drake, but he certainly had dragonblood as well as mammalian coursing through his veins. Feral dragons still existed, but as a distant evolutionary relative with the intelligence of no more than a predatory big cat. He had never seen one in person owing to their notorious aloofness, but he always envied their ability to soar into the sky.

As he thought this the reptile crossed a street and continued his path towards the graduate apartments. Alix, the same age as Tegon, and one of her friends, an undergraduate entering her last year, shared a room near the top floor of one of the newer buildings. One perk was a small balcony where Alix and Tegon occasionally sipped wine in the fresh air and danced around their plans for the future.

Reaching her door after a few flights of stairs, he switched off his music in the middle of a song.

When you're forced to face the physical world, you scurry like an insect...

Alix welcomed him in. "Don't forget to take off your shoes."

Tegon obediently went barefoot. "One of those people. What's a little street filth between friends?"

"Grime and trash bring bugs and bugs are evil," she shivered. Then Alix used her claws as scissors to open a sealed parcel lying nearby.

"Ooh, what's this? Some goodies for me, I hope. Amazon's selling booze in our state now, aren't they?"

"Non-alcoholic goodies for both of us, actually." The packing slip and inflatable cushions went into the trash as she pulled out a vinyl record and a movie case. "I really wish they packed these things more carefully," she said as she carefully inspected the surface of the record for warping. "A giant box for a tiny memory card and then a vinyl just tossed in with everything else."

"I'll have to borrow that one from you when you're done, and not just because I see a few boobs on the cover. That's their newest album, right?"

"Yep, just came out last month. And naturally their lyrics are as strange as ever. But I'm really glad you turned them onto me." When she was satisfied with the vinyl's quality she slipped it back into its envelope and filed it into her collection. Next up was the Blu-ray.

She slipped the case into his hands. It smelled fresh from the factory as Tegon eagerly tore at the cellophane and read the synopsis on the back. "Yeah, that's right, Tegon, it finally came out on the thirteenth. See what it says on the cover? 'For the first time in North America.'"

"I'm more interested in the second line. 'Uncut and Uncensored'?" Tegon laughed out loud. "Wow, I heard rumors, but I never thought a kaiju movie would include scenes that would need to be uncensored." He made a square with his fingers. "Do you think they'll keep the classic Japanese fuzzy pixels over Godzilla's junk, or?"

Alix yanked the case back and popped the disc out of its holder. "Shaddup. I'm sorry to break your heart, but there's definitely no sex in this one."

"Dammit. Where's that record again?"

"Xbox, turn on," Alix called. It beeped in response, ready to accept the movie.

"Alix, turn on." Tegon got slapped in response.

The two spent the evening with a bowl of either "the most tasteless popcorn known to reptilekind" according to Tegon or "the healthiest meal you'll probably have this week" as per Alix. He protested while sneaking candy from his pocket. "I didn't have lunch today," his reasoning. Both paid more attention to a man in a rubber suit than any normal couple should.

"Do you think Godzilla would've used that sub as a sex toy if he didn't destroy it? I don't see any Ms. Godzilla for him and it must get awfully lonely under the sea." Tegon stretched and brought the dragoness in close. She shut his sex-addled ramblings down quickly with her lips and tongue.

By the time the credits rolled, Tegon was already passed out with his arm curled around around his girlfriend. Alix deftly slipped out of his grasp before turning off her television and finding a much more comfortable place to sleep.

Chapter Four

The next morning, Tegon woke up early and showered. One thing he was glad to leave behind was the campus's shitty low-pressure water. A morning shower was supposed to be thinking time, not huddling under a warm trickle hoping you don't miss a spot. At least Alix's fragrant scale conditioner was a joy using. He instantly felt more supple, albeit smelling like some random assortment of berries. While massaging his scalp and around the horns, he turned his body and smacked against some sort of unusual protuberance against the back of the stall.

"That. Is a dildo."

Vil couldn't have been that kinky, so he figured she simply forgot to pull the suction cupped sex toy off the wall the night before. It wasn't like anyone was watching, but he still turned his head both ways before leaning in for a sniff.

Yep. The smell's still there.

Soaping up his lower body was positively tame compared to that encounter, and he didn't seem to care about the lack of water anymore, either.

After toweling off, he pulled his phone into the room and snapped a picture of her shame. He shot a quick text to her advising her to be more careful, as well as one to his friend asking to meet within the hour. Tegon left Alix snoozing in her bed with a peck on the cheek.

Tegon and Sollox sat together munching on pastries at Jimma Java, the campus coffee shop. Tegon's larger build took over most of the small wrought-iron table's space, so Sollox balanced his laptop on his legs.

"You know what they call that, Tegon? Manspreading," Sollox noted. His spiky body pressed into the fabric of his chair.

"Careful, Lox. I could mistake you for a crumb."

A female frilled lizard brought their drinks to the table. If Alix's colors popped, hers were head-turning. She liked to dye her frill different shades of neon, and today it was a royal purple. She wiped some excess whipped cream from another customer's cold drink and checked the names scribbled on the side reflexively. "One coffee, extra cream and sugar, for Tegon, and an English breakfast for Sollox. Really mixing it up to start off the year, Sol."

Sollox hissed. "Hear that? It's the sound of your tip going down, Vil. To zero. Then you'll never graduate, and be stuck here forever."

She crossed her arms, and took on an air of superiority. "Funny, I thought you were the type who liked put downs. At least Tegon was opening up to me about that over the summer. And I'll remember what you said when I graduate next year and put that petroleum engineering knowledge to use."

Sollox's inky eyes remained resolute while she spoke, but he slapped Tegon's chest with the back of his hand as she sauntered off. "What the fuck are you spreading that around for?"

"I didn't say a damn thing. I swear it must've been Alix."

Tegon played with one of the spikes running down the length of his back as he spoke. "So I think Dr. Phayon is crazy, Lox." He leaned in close. "She wants to make things," he pinched his fingers together. "Tiny. Like small tiny." His index finger swiped up a crumb from their morning meal. "She talked about making a pallet of food this big."

Sollox nodded as he typed on his laptop. "Yeah, pallets of food. I remember she won an award for her humanitarian work recently."

Tegon grunted. The drake uncrossed his legs, reached across the table and shook his friend with both hands. "Listen, man. This is serious."

"You know what else is serious?"

"What?"

"You're spilling my fucking tea!"

Tegon looked down and quickly righted the tipped-over cup. Thankfully it had a lid, so he mopped it up with a few napkins from the table's dispenser. "Sorry. But are you listening now?"

"Yeah, you're working with some sort of compound to use on food?"

Before Tegon could correct him, Vil approached them with a chair from another table, drink in hand. He decided to drop the subject while she was in earshot. He didn't want his ranting getting back to Alix.

"It's pretty slow this morning, so I think I can join you guys for a little bit." Vil flipped the chair around sat on it backwards. Her work shoes brushed their feet aside. "'Scuse me. For the gods' sake, Tegon, put your legs closer together."

The drake stuck out his tongue, acquiescing and giving all three slightly more room. He sipped on his coffee. "What'cha got there?"

Vil tilted the cup, lifting her head. Her pierced frill fluttered slightly. "Just some OJ. But I'm more curious about you, Tegon. You're not the type to knock over someone's drink. What's up?"

Tegon played it cool. "Oh, that? I was just asking Sollox about, uh, taking Alix to this weekend's homecoming dance. What else we could do that day."

Vil leaned on the table, forcing Tegon to back off. "Bullshit. You and Alix are way more serious than that. Be honest, or I'll tell Sol about your after-hours interests right here," she jammed her fingertip into the table, "and right now."

"Woah, what?" He put his hands into the air. Sollox raised a brow ridge. "I am vanilla as it comes. I don't know what's going on! Alix doesn't know anything!" He simply had to cooperate at that point. "Shit. OK, fine. You heard I'm working with Dr. Phayon this year, over in chemistry?"

"Oh, yeah, that one. She mysteriously fills up her classes every semester. All men."

Sollox shook his head. "He's just bragging about his work. And I guess his adviser, too."

"No, Lox, if you were paying attention earlier you would know better. Phayon told me she was working on some kind of weird sci-fi compound."

"What's it do?" Vil leaned in, pushing her drink aside. "I got it! A love potion perfume. That's why her classes are so popular."

"Heh, it, well, efficiently maximizes space," Tegon said, choosing his words carefully.

"Like a lubricant? I mean, industrial-grade, not like that," she blushed as Tegon flashed a grin.

"Sure, that was the first thing on your mind, naturally. But not quite. I mean it, I-" he bit his lip. "It changes the size of things."

"Come again?" Vil asked.

"Apparently you slather it on something and it makes it physically smaller? I don't know for sure yet."

"You mean you can slather it on Alix and re-enact your favorite scenes from those Godzilla movies? Awesome! Or, wait! Slap some on yourself and you can be a house slave for me and Alix to abuse. You could live in a thimble and get sugar cubes for my coffee!"

Sollox cupped his hand around his chin and played with his tea bag. "Well, I suppose a revelation like this means one of two things. Either you're a dumbass and misunderstand what's going on, or our fundamental understanding of physics has been undermined by a thirtysomething assistant professor. Get a grip."

Vil noticed a customer walk towards the counter and excused herself. "Sollox, get my cup, will ya? I don't know who's right here, but if we can make your head just a bit smaller I'm all for it. I wanna hear more about this later."

Tegon drained the last few drops out of his coffee mug. "Will do. And Lox, if you really think I'm stupid, just forget I said anything." The drake thumbed a few dollars from a billfold and placed them on the table. He slid on a pair of sunglasses and took up his empty cup. "See you later." As he walked by his friend he felt a tugging on his tail fur.

"Look, Tegon, I'm sorry. My adviser is already riding my ass and it wasn't like my trip to Germany was all fun and games. Let's talk about this more this weekend. Write down some of the equations and I'll take a second look at them. Just do what Phayon says until then."

"Thanks man. I think that'll really help." Tegon gave a two-fingered salute to Vil and placed his mug with the other dirty dishware. He walked out onto the graveled entrance to Jimma Java and started towards the chemistry building.

Tegon felt his phone vibrate. He checked the lock screen, noticing an e-mail from Dr. Phaeon. She granted him the day off, noting he probably needed some time to digest all she told him the day before. She also asked him to stop by the campus library and pick up a book reserved for her.

"Don't worry, your name is attached to it too," she wrote.

The coffee shop was covered by glass walls on all four sides, so he looked back at his friend. He considered grabbing the book and bringing it back, but Sollox was so wrapped up in his own work it didn't seem worth bothering him again so soon about the matter.

The library had a few coffee-perked early risers skittering about, but the information desk had no line. Tegon approached the young clerk.

"Hi there, I'm here to pick up a book called 'Heavy Electrons: Beyond the Standard Model'."

A saurian desk assistant nodded and plodded over to a line of reserved books. The parasaur couldn't have been any older than a sophomore. He fingered through each letter of the alphabet before settling on the Ps.

A line of keys against the wall indicated private study rooms available at the library. For being so relatively early in the day, the week, and the school year, most were still hanging on their hooks.

The parasaur handed Tegon the text along with a slip of paper for his signature. The drake motioned to the line of keys. "While I'm here, can I check out a study room? Three hours should do it."

"Any particular preference?"

"Nah."

The assistant unhooked one of the keys for a room on the first floor and swapped it for the signed slip. "Room 103, right around the corner on your left."

"Thanks. Have a good day." Tegon lifted up his hand as he walked away from the desk, book in hand.

"You too."

The room had one wooden table with two chairs and a chalkboard. The chalk was there, but with no accompanying eraser. There were no windows except for the once facing back out into the library. With the door shut and locked and the blinds drawn, he had a quiet, distraction-free space to start digging into this mystery. Dead silence was a worse distraction than the constant weekend parties outside his apartment, so he threw on his earbuds and slid the book to be facing him on top of the desk.

The spine of the book cracked as Tegon opened the cover. He thumbed through the first few chapters. It appeared to focus on experiments in particle physics, mentioning processes by which electrons could theoretically contract closer to the nucleus and eliminate much of the empty space between the two.

Tegon yanked the buds out of his ears, talking himself through the implications. "Technically, something like this could be possible, but this is something happening in particle accelerators, not a chemistry lab."

He spent the remainder of his reserved time combing through the book, looking for any mention of similar experiments with chemical compounds, but to no avail. He snapped a few pictures of relevant sections with his phone before leaning back in the chair and yawning deeply. His bowed head bobbed along to the tinny sounds from his unworn earbuds.

Why don't you come out and say it? I'd walk a miracle mile.

With the book slung under his arm, the reptile flipped the light switch and locked up the room before depositing the key back at the library's desk. The chemistry building wasn't too far away, and after a short walk in the early afternoon sun he was placing the book in her mailbox. It was time to go back home.

Tegon used a bicycle to travel between his apartment and campus. He had decided the previous semester to save some money and move to his own place a handful of minutes away in the suburbs. He strapped his tail into place to make sure it wouldn't interfere with the wheels, and pedaled out into the street. At a red light his booted paws touched the asphalt. Pretty soon these roads might not even be necessary. We could travel back and forth via spitball. Then the light turned green and he was on his way.

If Tegon's apartment was his lair, the couch in his living room was his throne. The two had been through a lot, through many late nights of both work and pleasure. It was even tailored to his species with a removable tail-hole for comfortable sitting. That night, though, the couch was just a couch. He sat with his instant dinner in front of him and the television on but muted. The drake couldn't think of much besides his strange new adviser and her seemingly impossible scheme. Could he, barely into his mid-twenties, be on the cusp of a world changing invention just like that? If the compound shrunk food, could it shrink people? Could it shrink them small enough to perform jobs that no ordinary reptile could? What would it be like to view the world from such a perspective?

Tegon surmised it would be pretty disgusting. When he was still an undergraduate, taking introductory biology, they viewed some organic samples under a microscope. The details were never pretty. Plus what looked clean from the perspective of normal scalies could be a dusty wasteland as far as a mite was concerned. That is, if they could even see it. At truly tiny sizes, their eyes would be unable to process the wavelengths of visible light because they would literally be smaller than it. On the other hand, the percentages Tegon and Dr. Phayon discussed probably wouldn't allow for shrinking into that territory, of only hundreds of nanometers. But it would allow for a world where an insect could be a dangerous threat.

He always had a weird relationship with insects. If they left him alone, he would leave them alone. Most scalies didn't share his opinion, which made him the odd person out. Alix absolutely loved punishing stray bugs, or at least seemed to be delivering deserved justice in her mind. He would be lying if he didn't say it turned him on to see her relishing a stomp, but it wasn't to say he would prefer her just not doing it in the first place. He tried to indicate as much when she was afraid by its size and asked him to do the crushing. Alix would be fine around a giant version of himself, but he wouldn't stand a chance. Then he began to think of being even smaller, under her notice. Would it be worse to be killed unknowingly?

A rapping on his front door interrupted his thoughts. He wasn't expecting anyone and a quick glance at his phone didn't give any insight as to who it might have been.

"Coming!"

Chapter Five

Tegon pressed his eye to the peephole. Through the grimy, distorted perspective of the glass he spied Alix, dressed for the day's sticky weather and snout buried in her phone. The door opened just enough for Tegon to push his muzzle through to the outside world. "No thanks, I don't want any."

She rolled her eyes and bowled him over. "It's too hot to play around with your scaly ass. Probably shoulda called ahead, but I was around and thought I'd drop by."

Tegon mocked sucking on his claws. "You chipped a nail, I think! I'll get my revenge the next time my fingers are down there," he pointed to her colorful orange shorts.

Alix stopped abruptly so Tegon would stumble over her tail. "Speaking of fun, I had something else in mind for this afternoon. Follow me." Amid cries of "not doing the hip thing," she swung her body back and forth all the way to Tegon's couch before flopping down. The drake dutifully followed and scooted onto one end, with her sitting up on the other. He knew where she was going with the teasing. Alix's feet must have been in need of Tegon's expertise.

There are two types of foot types among scalies: plantigrade and digitigrade. Tegon had plantigrade feet, inherited from his mammalian ancestors. This meant he walked on his soles. Accordingly, footwear could afford to be flat without the need for heel support. Alix had digitigrade paws, like a dragon's. She walked on her toes and they were thicker and more muscular as a result. Her footwear was also appropriately different. Gladiator-type sandals with lots of straps were popular. In Alix's case that day, she wore a slightly different type, with a toe strap that had support from a wrapping around her heel. It also had some thickness and form to it, especially for the portion Alix actually walked on. It was also worn a little looser, so like a plantigrade flip flop it would slap against her foot as she walked.

Alix kept her phone on, but temporarily placed it in her lap. She unbuckled the strap on both flip flops, then went back to clicking away on her phone and bathing in its glow. While her paws were crossed one over the other, she took her right foot and held it out over the floor, jiggling until her flip flop bounced onto the carpet. All the while Tegon simply stared, taking in the sight. Unlike the public glances at particularly attractive paws, he had this pair all to himself. The dragoness readjusted herself with one bare paw, placing her feet on Tegon's lap and tucking her tail under her lower body. Her left paw swung out and hovered just above the carpeted floor. She enjoyed the flow of cool air between her toes. They dexterously wormed their way out of the flip flop's confines and dangled the whole shoe by the toe-strap. "I got them nice and squeaky clean for you," Alix showed off the clear polish on her nails, knowing he loved all the details. "Used the body wash you love too."

Tegon readjusted himself on the sofa by bringing his thighs closer together. His own loose, long shorts suddenly felt a size too small. He appreciated the bit of privacy Alix afforded him when he indulged in his fetish. She made a point of losing herself in her phone and simply enjoying the tactile stimulation. The drake felt awkward otherwise when all attention was on him and what he did.

Before even laying a claw on her feet, he picked up the discarded flip flop from the floor. Unlike most males Tegon paid close attention to his mates' choice of footwear. This was her favorite pair of shoes to wear casually, and she had worn them since they had met. She was the type to slip them on with a sweatshirt in cold weather because they were so comfy and easy to put on. In their shared elective classes, Tegon made sure to sit behind her on those days, doodling nonsensical notes and imagining what he would do to those creamy soles later.

Sweat and friction from each of her three toes had worn down the appropriate shapes in the leathery material coating the flip flop. At various points throughout its lifetime, flakes of hide had worn off and been casually flicked out during her travels. The dark base foam underneath was beginning to show through, retaining the rich natural scent of her paw as well as the fruity scents of the lotions and oils Alix used to keep her scales moisturized and undamaged. A few grains of sand lodged themselves in the ragged gaps between fabric and foam on the surface. Alix also took this pair along to the beach whenever she had an opportunity to over the summer. Many a sunny day was spent with her feet tucked inside soaking up the rays. Tegon imagined the toe strap grinding at the scales between two of her digits and could not help but moan.

The drake swallowed hard and shot a glance at Alix. From her slouched posture and the constant pinging vibrations from her phone, she was clearly utterly uninterested in what he was doing. His thumb massaged each toe-print, and he allowed himself a brief sniff of its surface. His saliva felt thicker in his mouth, a Pavlovian response considering these actions usually preceded a session cleaning Alix's feet with his tongue. His other hand slipped under Alix's heel, right above his stiffening erection. He applied a bit of pressure, eliciting ever more length and thickness out of himself.

Tegon thought back to Sollox's reaction earlier that day, afraid his supposedly deep secret of being into BDSM was out in the open. His best friend had no idea Tegon was a paw fetishist who spent many a day enjoying the parade of open-toed shoes past their table as they sat at Jimma Java. Admittedly there was a bit of a domination aspect involved, too. If his size ever permitted it, he would volunteer to be tied to Alix's toe-strap for a day in a heartbeat. Especially if she wasn't even aware of the abuse she was putting him through. At a normal size, it would be incredibly erotic to worship in public, but in that case he definitely wanted to keep that one a fantasy. The drake was relieved when he broached the subject of paw worship in general with Alix, who was perfectly fine with having her paws pampered on a regular basis. What dragoness wouldn't appreciate near-daily foot massages?

"Your feet are so fucking sexy. The other day I saw you slip your sandals off and grab the strap between your toes. Then you dangle it idly while you work."

She looked up briefly and bit her lip. Alix wasn't aware she did anything like that on a conscious level.

He pressed his lips to the ball of her foot. Here he showered one of the most muscular and thickest parts of her foot with kisses.

The drake pressed his snout deeply into her sole now, nuzzling at her flesh before resting under her three toes. His hand cupped the other side of her foot, bringing it in close to hold it closely against his face. A sharp intake of air drew the air-conditioned room's cool flow between them, eliciting a wiggle and a snort from the dragoness. The peachy scent of her body wash mingled with the headier scent of leather from her flip flops.

Alix was quick to point out Tegon's tongue could never match the flexibility of a snake's, but for a few months now he had been carefully exploring every feature of her feet to help her forget about that little fact. His tongue pushed against her flesh to make ripples in her scales. Then he pulled ever so slowly up to coat his taste buds and quench his ravenous senses, desperate for maximum stimulation.

Alix had Tegon's favorite feet so far. Unlike five-toed reptiles, with only three toes each digit had to be much thicker to support her frame. That meant when Tegon slipped one into his mouth the prodigious toe demanded his full attention. He made sure she filed her claws down regularly after the first session resulted in a sore maw and about a week of avoiding solid foods. They were pushed towards the back of his throat as his tongue glided over ridges of aqua flesh. The pads of her toes were a blend of reptilian and mammalian features. In places scales gave way to a kind of proto-ridged print that evolution must have deemed successful at some point.

Tegon alternated between deep breaths under her toes and tracing serpentine shapes down the length of her sole. The scales on her sole were like silk, to be expected since she never actually walked on them. For her benefit, Tegon massaged both feet with his hands, getting his own muscles into it, forcing hers to relax and become putty in his hands. With her fully relaxed he took the broad side of his claws and brushed it against her sensitive flesh.

Alix reflexively jerked back and let loose a cry. "Ha! Stop it!"

Her paws collapsed back into his lap with a thump. Now that Alix was paying attention again, they awoke with energy. She yawned with her whole body, right down to her toes flexing and curling back before squeezing tight. When they came to rest, Tegon ensnared her left foot in a vice grip and shook. "You're in for it now," he growled.

Tegon went in for the kill with his blunted claw-tips, scritching randomly up the entire length of her foot. Alix's phone clattered to the floor while she writhed and thrashed, laughing until tears streamed down her face. When the feeling had worn out its welcome her other foot kicked and clawed at his face. He finally released her, with the dragoness panting and her face turning red.

"Let's fuck already, Tegon." Alix finally withdrew her feet and tail-smacked the flushed drake before heading through the bathroom to the bedroom.

Alix had already moved some of her things into Tegon's bedroom, including a speaker. The reptiles had had an argument about whether having sex in a silent room was "creepy." Alix won and triumphantly hooked up her sound system the next night. This particular evening, she docked her cell phone in its cradle and set the music app to shuffle through her playlist. Some pop music quietly filled the room as Tegon entered and shut the door behind him. Alix grabbed a fresh towel from the messy floor and stretched it out over the surface of the bed.

All pretense and preparation was thrown aside the second Tegon wrapped his arms around Alix. He pressed his lips to her neck. Holding back his teeth, the drake nipped at her amid a few quick kisses. She hummed contentedly and pulled the two of them onto Tegon's bed. Alix felt the heat just under the skin of her cheeks, the jump of the faster heartbeat in her throat. Her legs felt full of energy, her feet were dancing.

Tegon sensed her arousal and got down to work, lifting up her shirt and undoing the clasps of her bra. With those balled up and thrown among the other clothes on the floor, he resumed kissing. The drake nestled his lips on her chest, between her perky breasts. By the time he got down to her belly button, his claws were fumbling with the zipper on her shorts. For a second it looked at though he wouldn't get them off in time, but just as he reached her waist the shorts and panties slid to her heels.

Tegon stopped his lips just before her mound. The fingers of his right hand curled, its pads exploring her body under his chin. The drake lifted her hood and brushed against her clit. When he hit just the right spot she gasped and moaned, wrapping her hand around the back of his head and pushing him into her body.

Tegon forced his snout up and dropped into a deep growl. "You're so sexy when you blush." He pulled aside the sheets until their bodies laid bare on the mattress. The drake finished shimming down the side of her body until his face was level with her pussy.

Alix giggled as her hips wiggled. Her legs fanned out as Tegon came in close. He rested his cheek on the inside of her thigh and imbibed the aroma of her sex. Much like his tongue traced the creases of her sole, it encircled her folds. His thumb continued to jiggle on top of her clit while his tongue tilted sideways and probed into her. Her natural lubrication soon dripped onto his tongue, which he smeared back onto her. His fingers on either side kept her wide open to his maw.

He looked up, taking a mental picture of her lusty, begging face. It was framed on either side by her breasts, each topped with erect nipples. There was an enormous amount of sexual energy dammed inside Alix's core. Every rub, flick, and lick punched a hole in what was holding it back. His tongue flattened out and worked her clit. His fingers took their time exploring the geography of her pussy before flipping up and honing in on her textured g-spot.

Her arm shot straight, pulling on the horns of his back. Her orgasm began with a tight quivering, setting her whole body on fire. Then she exploded in release, her insides pulsing, her hips grinding into Tegon's face. Tegon's erection flattened the loose fibers of the towel Alix had laid down earlier. His pre spattered on the lemon-colored towel, temporarily dyeing it a darker shade.

Now that Alix was properly wet, Tegon exacted his tribute. He sat down with bent knees on his legs, presenting his erection before the dragoness. Her silky soles, relaxed and softened by the drake already, descended on his sensitive shaft. A toe pushed down on his tip until it freed itself and bobbed in the air. A drop of pre flew up and splattered across Tegon's maw. His tongue quickly took care of the evidence. "Careful!"

Her legs were wide enough apart to show the lips of her pussy spreading. As her legs moved he could briefly see deep inside at the undulating, textured flesh that would soon be enveloping his cock. At the end of every stroke, the tease would be over with, as her lips came back together and cut off the show. On a warm evening the slightest sheen of sweat on her sole lubricated her motion, grasping and flicking at his tip. His meaty shaft was fully engorged, pulsing with his blood under Alix's squeezing toes.

"You want me to fuck you with this?"

"Mmm, God, Tegon, I need you in me."

"So, uhh, I know you weren't too keen on it last time, but do you want to try-"

"Don't push your luck, sexy."

The pair came together in embrace once more before Tegon stood up to his full height and stumbled over to his armoire. He pawed through his underwear drawer desperately, even shaking out a few pairs of briefs hoping a square package would fall out. "Shit, I'm sorry babe, I can't find a rubber anywhere. I'm so stupid, I forgot to stock up again after rutting season."

Alix huffed, her hand busy playing with herself in the delicate way only a woman could truly know. "Hff, Tegon. Check next time. Just pull out this time. And no accidents."

Tegon nodded, licked his lips, and came back to bed. Bareback with Alix was like heaven. He was actually a little greedy for asking her to try anal all the time, considering she was already very tight. First he pulled up on her tail and slung the extra length over his shoulder. Then he halfheartedly slapped his open palm against her uncovered ass, pulling up on her cheek until her lips were revealed to him. The drake tugged on his cock, letting the looser flesh gathered around the base slide back over his glans. Against her pussy, he pushed forward, unfurling the length from the gathered flesh and launching into her.

Having starved himself from sex for a while, Tegon began a little rougher than he usually did, going balls deep on the first stroke and forcing all the trapped air out of Alix. Both stopped for a brief moment as they fell into fits of laughter.

"Sorry for the noise." Alix covered her face.

"Shh." Tegon was more concerned about getting back into rhythm.

An almost-full bottle of lube was left untouched that night as both Tegon and Alix were producing plenty of their own. He fondled both of her breasts after he had guided himself back into her. She met him on the upstroke and their bodies slapped together every few seconds.

Living on a quiet street had its perks. Tegon could enjoy the slick sound of his cock sliding in and out of his love, her cute squeaks and pained gasps uninterrupted by little else. Alix's phone continued serving up its music.

German love, I will give it to you...

"C'mon, let's do it doggy, Alix."

Tegon slipped out of her, leaving behind a bubbly mix of stickiness clinging to her lips. He did his best to mop it up by running his cock parallel, waiting for her to reposition.

Alix clutched a pillow tight by grasping it in her claws and stuffing it back towards her elbows. Her shapely body stretched the lower half of her body, propelling her ass into the air, making it ripe for penetration. Tegon sat up and had no trouble slipping back into her. At first he sat still with his arms crossed. She milked him, spearing her ass onto his shaft. Her pussy certainly didn't want to see him pull out any time soon, judging from how tightly the dark blue flesh clung to his obsidian length. Tegon's jaw slackened like an idiot, just watching the globes of each cheek gyrate and smother his cock. Although her other, puckered hole lie tantalizing close, yet again he could only dream of drilling into it. Instead he a free pass to probe and widen it with his fingers. Tegon enjoyed slipping in and out as she pushed in and pulled back.

This got him back into motion, taking over for a tired Alix and fulfilling his primal instinct. It felt right, it felt just good to fuck. Tegon's feet sunk into the bed, remaining inside Alix, but standing and hunching over her body. He angled his cock to press against her g-spot.

Alix loved the way his particularly low-hanging sack managed to reach and thump against her clit. In this position Tegon reached deeper inside her than ever. Thankfully she was deep enough he didn't bottom out so they could both enjoy the position. Tegon's battering ram continued to push aside her folds and float along her features.

"You like that?" Tegon leaned into her cat-like ears.

"Mmm hmm. Ah, oh god, you're so thick..."

"Oh, fuck, c'mon babe, lemme come inside."

"Ugh, you're pulling out big guy. Now."

Tegon groaned and afforded himself a few final thrusts. Moreso than many species, male drakes were forced to fight an overwhelming urge to finish inside the female. The "accidents" Alix referred to earlier referred to the males' notoriously poor timing. But he dutifully slipped out of her with a wet pop and shot thick, milky ropes onto her convulsing belly. Every once in a while, Tegon held back from pleasuring himself for a while so the finish was all the more impressive. This time he was especially proud of his heavy and virile load.

Tegon felt a tugging underneath his back as Alix retrieved the towel laying there to catch the products of their lovemaking. As the drake puffed and came down from his high, she held the fabric to keep the cum contained and gathered it up on her stomach. The dragoness pulled the handle on the top drawer of Tegon's nightstand and fiddled past a dildo and a fleshlight to take out her battery-powered vibrator.

Since Alix shared an apartment with Vil and tended to be rather loud she used it more often at Tegon's place than in her own bed. Vil wasn't as discreet but Alix never shared that with Tegon or Sollox. Although only a handful of years separated them, she smiled at the ignorance of those just blossoming sexually. She never had the heart to tell Vil it was a little suspicious she only blasted music late at night and for a few minutes at a time. Not to mention Alix was always careful to put her toys away when she was finished.

Alix's finger switched her vibrator on to the highest power setting. It burned through batteries like a dragon in heat lusted for sex, but the wand still had some juice left in it. Buzzing rubber rumbled across her clit for a minute or two, and she couldn't resist fingering herself all the while, carefully avoiding any drops of the drake's seed. Then, after a small, tingly orgasm, Alix wiped herself off in full and passed the towel to Tegon.

"You dirty dragon. You shot cum right into my bellybutton. Ugh, fuck, it went all the way to my boobs. Time for a shower."

She sat up and went off to use his shower, switching off the music and leaving the soiled towel behind. The thought of her juices lingering on the cloth got him stiff again. His balls shifted before contracting as he wrapped the stickiest portion over his drooling tip. With the melody of her humming and the steady stream of water as a backing track, Tegon climaxed again. Despite the powerful churning of his muscles he only produced a few trickles of clear fluid before being totally spent. He tossed the thoroughly violated towel on the floor after wiping his own body dry and didn't wait for Alix to come back before slipping into fantasy-packed dreams.

To Be Continued