FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

---

Sentinel of the Concrete Skies

• * * Chapter 2: As the Scales Spread. MORE AUTHORS NOTES! YAY! The alternate title for this was: *In Dr. Weird voice* IT BEGINS! Anyhow, this took a little longer than the 1-week I usually give for new chapters of series', but you can all blame Battlefield 2142, for being a freaking awesome game. I REGRET NOTHING! -Speeds away in a Riesig- Um... Not much to say here. I got yet another urge to do the new series in the form of feeling like asking the author of Bartleby Tales if I could borrow his universe and set a Heaven and Hell war in it, but then decided against it, despite how few readers this story has, heh. -Orpheus Voice- SO THANK ME!... That and by the sounds of things, he's planning on doing that himself. The bad news is that if this one doesn't get a decent turnout (and that means votes and comments, people! I don't care if they're negative, just GIMME!), then there won't BE a chapter 3... Or even an ending. At all. Blame the bums who just read/read half then don't vote or comment. Those mean people. But unlike some people, I write for the sake of immersing people and having people enjoy it, not 'to tell a story that needs to be told'. These stories don't need to be told. They need to be COMMENTED ON! Oh right. Warnings. Warning: If you somehow stumbled upon this and got past the TOS on the homepage while being under 18, you're retarded. And shouldn't be here... But mostly retarded. That's about it. Enjoy! --- The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the transformation is 'Ouch'. As it did at the restaurant, my vision blurred and went into tunnel vision, everything tinting slightly red and motion-blurring as if I was racing forward. Pain rushed throughout my entire body, and I began to feel as if I was being turned inside out, a shriek emitting from my throat as my hands impulsively clutched my head. Alex withdrew a bit as I did this, but then to my surprise, hesitantly moved back and placed a hand on my shoulder. The notion seemed to ease the pain, but only a little. I tried to smile my thanks to her, but just as I did another burst of pain erupted through me as I felt blood begin to trickle down my form. My skin was being torn apart literally now. I could keep my eyes just open enough to watch as my skin was shred by scales that erupted from the tears, although the lack of light made it hard to tell, I was pretty sure they were either black, or very dark red. Not that I had a chance to think much on that at the time, as I felt the skin on the sides of my head tear open. Alex' brother had never warned me it'd be this painful. I could feel my bones breaking as they re-formed, and it wasn't long before my skin was on the tiles of the roof around me; I was still covered in blood, and from the small peak I got over at Alex, she was pretty messed up herself. The best was yet to come however, as I felt something huge burst from my back in a shower of the remainder of my skin and blood. I only had to crane my neck slightly to see the scaly frame that surrounded the bat-like leather of one of my newborn wings; I noticed it was what I had seen, and had distracted me, during the fight with the SWAT team at dinner. Finally, after a few more various bone snaps, the transformation stopped, although I could still feel the pain ringing on for a while. I'm not sure why I didn't pass out - I personally believe it was the adrenaline - but I was still very much conscious. I sat there for a while, feeling blood still dripping down my form, as I looked down to the twisted claw that my hand had become. Huge claws replaced what were once small nails, sharp enough to almost pierce the lightly armoured scales of my palm. Slowly, I stood up; at first I almost fell off the roof from the counterweight that my large tail and wings created, but I quickly got used to them. I originally winced at the pain of moving, but it didn't take long to wear off. Something was replacing the pain... I felt... Good. I slowly studied my form. My shirt lay in tatters behind me; luckily my pants were still fine due to their bagginess, although they were a bit tight now. I guessed I would have been about 7' now, and I wasn't far off, I was 6'6. My chest was, to put it in a word, ripped. I never, ever thought I'd be able to see muscle on my own form, but here I was, sporting a beefed out chest and a four-pack. My arms were just as huge, and judging from the tightness of my pants, so were my legs. My claw, shakily, still getting used to it, moved up to my head. I had a snout now; I opened my jaw enough to trace a claw down my ridiculously sharp fangs, then run my scales over the thin, draconic tongue that had replaced my own. Then ran the claw up to my skull; my hair was still there, although it was much thicker and rougher now; it was spiky, still down to my waist, and reminded me of something out of an anime. Two massive horns grew from the side of my head, which grew forward, then curved back, like inverted bull's horns. My entire body was layered in what I now saw were pitch-black scales, completely onyx, and shiny enough to reflect the moon over their surface. I pushed a claw against one of the scales on my tough chest, testing it, and found I couldn't even dent it - I could barely even feel it - despite the fact that the motion would have run me through had I still had skin. I blinked a bit, having lost myself in my new form, and looked down to Alex. She was still simply looking at me with wide eyes, although I could see just a tiny hint of a smirk. "Not as bad as you thought, h-huh?" she asked, although I could actually smell her fear now. Seems I'd gained a few animal instincts, too. "H-heh..," I choked out, even my insides having changed. Talking was completely different to before, and not just for my deep, raspy voice. "It... It has its ups... Upsides," I managed to get out, occasionally having to stop to not just whisper the words, before raising my arm and giving it a flex, the muscles straining against the scales. She looked down at herself, part of her fear vanishing when she realized that my personality hadn't changed. I'd have to discuss this with Alex's brother. "I should probably have a shower..," she said with a half-sad smile. I smiled at her, tempted to hug her, but knowing it would probably just scare her more. "Alright... I'll be back to see you in about half an hour. For now, I'm going to give these wings a workout," I said, still admiring my new voice, and almost sounding like a kid at Christmas. My change of mind from before to now was impressing even me, and I was eager to try out flying. She nodded a bit, not saying another word, and climbed back down into the window she'd crawled out of. Meanwhile, I was working around my new wings. Finding it was pretty much like trying to wiggle your ears, only, not quite as hard due to their size, although I did end up finding out how to move my tail before the wings. It would take some practice, but even the muscles in my rear were strong now, and I was able to swish it around with some pretty cool sound effects. The real fun came with the wings, though. Slowly, I unfolded them from their idle position at my back, craning my neck to watch the leathery webbing stretch out. I gave them a single, small flap and stumbled across the roof; the force generated from just that was amazing, enough to almost make me fall right over if I hadn't been quick on my feet. I narrowed my eyes at the gap on the roof, re-folding my wings, before bursting into a sprint. I actually fell off the roof, completely underestimating my newfound agility, and luckily as I hoped, instinct kicked in. I spread my wings, feeling the air catch underneath them, arching both my body and the wings upwards, and soared up, feeling both air and blades of grass skimming my (relatively) soft stomach. The feeling was absolutely incredible as I glided into the air and began flapping my wings. At first I almost did a forward roll a few times from creating too much air pressure, but eventually I got into the rhythm of slow, easy strokes, just enough to keep myself at the right altitude. I tilted my wings forward a bit, flapping them a bit harder to compensate, and ended up going a good deal faster. I looked down at the ground directly, and realized I was going at least 60 miles. I sighed softly, feeling the scales at the corner of my lips twitch in an imitation of a smirk as, in a completely showoff move, I swooped low to the ground above a desolate public pool, feeling the water spray around me, flipping up to give a single powerful flap of my wings, stopping dead in the air for about a second, before plummeting into the water. I churred at the feeling of the water over my ski-... Er, scales, tongue lolling out of my mouth, finding this whole Dragon thing to actually be a lot of fun. I scrubbed over my scales roughly, currently thanking my armoured hide, getting the blood off fairly easily before wading over to relax against the edge of the water. I looked down at the soft undulations of the water for a moment, before impulse kicked in and I felt my stomach heat up. I grinned widely, muttering to myself, "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me..," before following my instincts, feeling half like I was throwing up, as a small fireball erupted from my mouth, dissipating into the water although heating it a good deal. I sighed loudly and leant back, pausing for a moment, before spitting another fireball into the water, heating it to a nice sauna level, and relaxing back in the steaming water. I looked up at the sky for a moment, before opening my maw as wide as I could, frowning as I felt fire burning through my resistant throat, and spitting out the largest fireball I could; it ended up being a good two feet in diameter, and I lost track of it into the sky before it could dissipate. I smirked, proud of myself, and relaxed again. "Yeesh, I don't believe this... Giant fireballs, huge wings and a tail, flying, packing enough muscle to give bodybuilders a run for their money... I can't believe how good this is turning out," I half-groaned softly, smirking at how powerful my voice - my whole body - felt. I stretched my wings out, getting the same stretch as I would have my arms, before my eyes widened slightly. I looked down, and noticed that among all the ego and undulating water, the tip of my shaft was poking from my sheath. Lowering a paw, I carefully stroked at my now, comparatively to before, huge balls, squeezing the soft orbs in my palm. I let out a low groan, the vibration actually rippling the pool slightly, feeling more of my shaft slip into the hot water. A moment later, and I wrapped my scaly paw around the base of my shaft, staring down in awe as it hit what I guessed was 8 inches, and continued growing as quick as ever. I stroked quickly, wanting to see my new full length, getting off better than usual due to the new sensation of the soft scales. I arched my head back, closing my eyes as I imagined Alex's lips being the thing stroking back and forth, beginning to make slower, but long strokes, squeezing tightly at the base, before finally looking down when I knew my cock was at its peak. My eyes widened once again. I guessed just a bit under a foot long, and I was pretty much right; one foot, exactly, as I later found, and thick enough that even now I had trouble getting my digits around it. I gulped softly at the thought of what Alex would think, blushing at the idea of trying to push into her with such a huge shaft, then shook my head. "If I ever get with her in that way, I'll definitely need to be in my human form... For more reasons than that she probably wouldn't like this form, now, heh." I quickly washed the thought from my mind, however, as more images of Alex sliding herself down my length filled my mind, and my strokes grew faster and tighter. As my mind turned to those plump breasts bouncing up and down as she rode me, my paw grew frenzied, a trail of saliva dripping down the scales of my jaw, and a steady flow of precum leaking into the water. As I felt my peak quickly oncoming thanks to the warm water and rapid strokes, my curiosity flared up again, and I hoisted myself out of the water, sitting on the edge as I continued to groan deeply into the darkness. I raised my spare paw just in front of my tip as the pressure continued to build and finally, as my paw sped to a blur, I came. I couldn't help but let out a full-blown roar, feeling even the ground vibrate slightly at the sound, as the thicker-than-before liquid practically slammed against my hand. I couldn't help but grin at this, teeth glinting in the moonlight, as I continued to cum, layering my paw and then some. After at least a good 10 seconds of full-blown orgasm, I looked down and slowly shook my head, tongue lolling from my mouth as I panted. I hesitated a moment, looking down, before raising my paw to test the liquid with the tip of my tongue. 'Sweeter than usual... Much tastier..,' I thought to myself, not surprised at all since there'd been pretty much no downsides to this Draconic transformation, and proceeded to lap up the cum from my paw, churring at the taste. After finishing, I jumped into the other side of the pool (I felt sorry for whoever had to clean the side I was on before - there was quite a mess), cleaning what little I'd gotten on myself, before spreading my wings once more, roaring into the night for the pure bliss of it, and shot into the sky with a single, heavy flap. *** "Did you just hear something like a really heavy wind?" "Nope, you're hearing things, Stun Edge." "Stop calling me that!" *** --- Wednesday Alex's House 01:01pm --- "Holy SHIT!" I growled as the shout woke me, snorting a morning puff of smoke, and craned my neck to look up at 'who would dare to wake the Dragon'. Who else. "D-Dude! You're a freaking DRAGON!" And, to just further add to the good points of this form, even ANUBIS was impressed. "Yup... I am," I grumbled, standing up and looking down on him as I stretched; this was his first time seeing the form, as I'd returned late the previous night. I noticed suddenly that Dragons seem to retain the human condition of 'Morning Wood', and quickly sat down, thanking my scales for hiding the blush I normally would have had. "So, what, do you get the full deal? Can you fly? What about fireballs?" "Yes, and yes," I said lowly, still stretching lightly, puffing a small ball of smoke to demonstrate. Anubis simply gawked, grinning hugely as he shook his head. I half-yawned-half-growled, stretching arms, wings and legs, before crawling over to have a morning game of Tenkaichi 2 with Anu, beckoning him with a claw as I struggled not to break the tiny control in my now massive paws. Yeah, we have strange rituals. Goku VS Trunks; I was in an odd mood and felt like some mass devastation. A heavy wailing as SSj3 finished with a Spirit Bomb as the coda, and I was awake and in a good mood for the day. Our Morning BT2 spar kind of dictates who has the balance of power for the day. "Looks like today's going to be a good day, then," I growled happily, before walking into the kitchen to grab breakfast, leaving Anu grumbling to himself. As soon as I closed the door behind me, however, and opened my eyes from my temporary happy stupor, I came face to face with a very sad-looking Alex. I blinked a few times, stopping there with my wings and tail against the door, looking down at her as I paused. "Um... Alex? What's wrong? Something happen?" I asked, as softly as I could with my powerful voice. "Kyo... You... Like this, don't you?" She asked, avoiding my eyes. I hesitated. It was the question that, even though I knew how I felt about it, I wasn't sure I wanted to admit it. "Are you... Going to stay like that?" I knew this one. "No, definitely not," I shook my head. "Stun Edge said that if I concentrate I can change back, right? Have the human genetics fight back the Lizard ones? So... I guess I am enjoying it... But I'll definitely keep my human form, if that's what you're worried about," I said, starting a bit defensive but then lowering my voice, trying to be comforting. I guess being so powerful wasn't ALL good. Alex smiled at this, looking up into my eyes, but the moment was broken when Stun Edge burst in. "Oh, hey guys! Good news Kyo, using my far superior intellect and genius, I have devised... This!" SE's ego was flaring as he triumphantly held up a small, skin-coloured pill. "This, will-" "Transform me back into a human?" I asked, eyes narrow, unimpressed. "Y-yeah, how'd you know?" He returned in disbelief, disappointed at his surprise being ruined. "Well, duh. You made it skin coloured and everything. Oh and, let me guess, you also have a black one that will turn me back into a Dragon?" He almost looked heartbroken. "I was going to save that for some dramatic moment when another SWAT team came and you needed to beat them up..." I laughed cruelly, noticing Alex looking a bit relieved from the corner of my eye. "God, your surprise tactics are as bad as your Guilty Gear ones. Make me a bottle or two of each and I'll keep them around. Nice job anyway... Though I'm quite comfy in this form right now," I said with a relaxed groan and, pushing past SE, went to make some tea. Alex joined me after a moment, getting a cup for herself, although I couldn't help but notice her brushing quite purposefully against my side. I gave her a slight glance at one stage, seeing her giving that playful, confidant smirk that I hadn't seen since our interrupted date, returned it with a twist of my scaled lips, and took a sip from the boiling, just-made tea, finding it, if anything, lukewarm. "Ahh. That reminds me. We shall have to finish our date sometime, shan't we?" "Alright, but not while you're all big and scaly. I'm not sure if they had full livestock on the menu, Mr. Countryside Pillager." "I'd say I'd just bring your brother, but I doubt he'd be too appetizing." "I HEARD THAT!" "Shut up Stun Edge." *** Eventually I got tired of the pathetically lukewarm tea and equally pathetic tiny game controls, and decided to transform back into my human state. I gulped slowly, not quite sure what would happen after the last transformation, and gulped down the tiny pill, not needing anything as it practically plummeted into my stomach. For a moment, nothing happened. I turned to Stun Edge, just about to ask him what the deal was, before I felt the change begin. It was significantly different this time; for one thing, when it began, I felt almost completely numb, so much so that I almost fell over. My whole body was shrinking rather than growing now, and it was a much different experience. Instead of the violent burst as before, it was a slow, easy process, more like the scales just shrinking and softening, instead of just tearing away what was there before like last time. I was so numb, in fact, that by the time the dizziness wore off and I became re-aware of my surroundings, the transformation was already over. Looking around, still half drugged out and trying to think of what was going on, I simply saw Anubis offering me a shirt, which I gratefully took after realizing I was naked from the waist up, and slid it over my head. "In case you're wondering," SE simply said, "I put in a large amount of painkillers. I noticed during research this morning that the transformation might be a bit painful, so I decided to include them. The human ones all have painkillers, only the first bottle of Lizard ones do, in case you can't afford to be drowsy... I'm assuming these SWAT guys might want to be tracking you down since this is probably why they were doing it." I sighed softly as the stupor finally wore off, and I gave SE a thumbs-up, smirking at him. "Nice job. Maybe you're not such a bad quack after all. Bit late to realize the pain of the transformation though," I said, shivering as I thought back to last night's ordeal. "Well... Either way, both you and Anubis are welcome to stay here for as long as you like," Alex said happily; it seemed like she relaxed a lot now that I wasn't a giant ball of scales anymore. "Whoever's after you will probably be checking both your houses, and hopefully they don't know who I am quite yet, so you should be safe here for a while." I felt Anubis' elbow in my side and instantly knew he was giving me a wide grin and a sly wink, so happily returned the elbow to his own side, although not quite as gentle. "Thanks Alex... At least, that's what I'd say if I wasn't sure that you're doing this more for yourself than us," I said with a grin, causing her to roll her eyes and boot up the PS2. "You're completely screwed." "Janemba begs to differ." *** Sadly, no one had thought to clean up the bloody mess on the roof. And even more sadly was that no one noticed the extremely faint red light amongst the ribbons of flesh. *** --- Wednesday (Well, technically Thursday...) Alex's Roof 3:14am --- "You wanted to see... Me..." Alex paused as she saw me in my dragon form, back to her, standing on the edge of the roof and looking to the skies. I'd told her to meet me here at 3, after everyone else had gone to bed. "You're late," I simply said, looking back at her over my shoulder. I noticed a backpack slung over one arm, which was just made more odd due to the fact that I was also carrying one. Surprises all around. "My brother wouldn't leave me alone." It seemed that even now, Alex was uncomfortable when I was in this form, even though I'd spent the better part of the day in it. I sighed softly and shook my head, turning to her with my arms crossed. She flinched slightly and drew back, drawing another sigh, this one more upset. "Alex... You have to relax around this form. I really do enjoy it... You've got to stop being so high strung around me. It's getting irritating. Besides, there's something I wanted to show you here, and I can't show you unless you trust this form. I'm still the same old me, I'm just... Big, black and scaly," I said, adding in a grin that I'm sure would be ridiculous in this form considering my intimidating presence. Sure enough, it caused her to notch her head, before stopping a giggle. "I'm sorry... I'm still getting used to it. But I will try and be less weird around you. Now show me what you wanted to already," she said, taking on a husky, almost seductive voice for her last part. I gulped softly, for the second time today thanking my scales for hiding my blush, before grinning and, with a huge flap from my wings, basically disappeared. I could see from above as she looked around, trying to find where I had gone - the pitch black of night didn't help. I quietly lowered myself behind her and, giving a huge push from my wings, shot up beside her, one arm moving behind her knees and the other to her upper back, pulling her off her balance and picking her up in one quick swoop, before shooting into the night sky with a huge grin over my muzzle. "AHHHH! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING! LET ME GO YOU SCALEY FREAK!" Alex was practically screaming and trying to squirm out of my grasp. I simply laughed off her weak hits against my chest, tightening my grip to make sure I didn't drop her. "Quit your whining or I WILL let you go. Hush. Enjoy the scenery," I said quietly, trying to soothe her, and sure enough her squeals eventually died down. I looked down at her to see her staring back up at me with an odd look in her eyes, unable to make it out in the darkness, before she looked down to the ground below us; I grinned as I felt her arms tighten around my form, and sped up to what I guessed was around 100 mph. "How fast can you go?" she asked as we sped up, looking up to me. I shrugged with a smile, simply saying, "Never tried." A pause. "Let's try." I looked down to see her giving a devilish grin, one that instantly caused my pants to tighten, before grinning back at her and, turning my wings almost vertical, grunted as I gave as strong a flap as I could, causing us to almost literally shoot off. I could briefly hear her squeal in excitement, before the sound of the air around me blocked out my hearing. I was thankful that even my eyes were tougher as a Dragon, as normally this speed would be making them water like crazy. Feeling a light bumping on my chest, I looked down to see Alex trying to scream something with a worried look on her face. Gradually, I slowed down until we were going as before, about 100, and notched my head as she panted for breath. "G-God, you seriously didn't feel that at all?! I was practically being torn apart! You had to at least have been going 300 then..." Blinking, I looked down at the ground and, after scanning the area for a bit, recognized a building and noticed we'd gone all the way out to one of the outer-city suburbs. It was probably more around 400. I chuckled and shrugged, grinning. "Er... Wow. And I wasn't even trying as hard as I could. I might have to test if I can break the sound barrier later," I said with another chuckle (and would later slap my forehead at the irony), before looking around again. "Hey, wait a minute, we're in... Ah hah!" I exclaimed, scanning the area and finally finding what I was looking for, reaffirming my grip on Alex before shooting off in the direction I was looking. She just squealed again, before slowly calming down. "These outer-city towns have some really nice places, if you know where to look," I said softly as I slowed to a leisurely speed (although I was still going a good 50), and began to hover over a huge, almost forest-like area. "I came here once when I was younger. This place is known for being really big and expansive. You could get lost in it... But getting lost is the best part. Some of the places around here are absolutely beautiful, and few people can be bothered to search them out. And it's just barely small enough so that even if you do get lost, you can eventually find your way out." This was proven further by the fact that the entire place was layered in a thick canopy that I simply couldn't see through. Estimating the location, I slowly lowered us to the floor of treetops, folded my wings slightly to let us slip through the leaves, then re-opened them to immediately stop our fall. Alex let out another small squeal, causing me to roll my eyes. And, sure enough, spot on. I grinned as I heard Alex sigh in wonder. A lake, a small waterfall, and plenty of beautiful fauna. A typical 'beautiful setting'. I'd actually remembered the place at around 14 years old and told myself, 'I am TOTALLY bringing a girl here to make out with when I'm older.' I was a bit more playful now than in my younger years, however, and half-dropped Alex, letting her fall for a split second before grabbing her wrists to hold her up. She squealed, but this time glared up at me. "HEY, WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?!" "Nothing much. I thought you might want to take a dip, is all. Maybe have some fun riding down the waterfall like a waterslide?" I asked innocently as I hovered close enough to the waterfall so that she was getting hit by some of the spray. "Kyo, totally not funny!" "Funny? I'm being nice. It'll be fun! C'mon, I'll just let your wrists go, and-" "DON'T YOU FREAKEN' DARE!" I pondered this for a moment, before leaning down to lick her neck with the tip of my lizard-like tongue. "And what'll you do if I do 'freaken' dare', hm sweetness?" I felt her shiver before she craned her neck to glare up at me. "I don't care how tough those scales are, NO species is tough in the area where I'M going to kick as hard as I can if you don't put me down somewhere dry!" I laughed again, hoisting her up to grab her midsection, and swept over to the edge of the water, dropping her on her feet. She stumbled cutely for a moment, getting her balance back, before sitting down in a huff. "You're such a jerk..." "Aw c'mon, I do all this nice stuff for you and all's you can say is that I'm a jerk? There's even more good stuff still to come!" I said as I brought around my backpack. Alex hadn't seen it due to it being hidden behind my wings, and simply raised a brow. I raised one back as I pulled out a few things; first a blanket that I rolled out and sat back on (shortly followed by her), a number of balls of aluminium, a square box which I put behind me (causing her to show as much curiosity as I'd hoped), and a closed cooking pot. "Oh, God, the prepared-food picnic routine?" she asked, raising both her eyebrows, trying to look unimpressed and only half failing. "I know, it's a classic though. Plus if you do it RIGHT it can actually be good," I said matter-of-factly, as I picked the closed cooking pot back up and, holding it above my head, frowned for a moment, before I emitted a small (in proportion) flame beneath it for a few seconds, until I heard the contents start to bubble, and put it back down. "Alright, now, I've been practicing this trick, so y'haf'ta watch, okay?" I said, looking at her mockingly seriously. She simply nodded and I grinned, taking five plates out from my backpack. In a single motion, I threw the first ball of aluminium into the air, belching out a small fireball to engulf it, slashed my spare hand along it just once, let it land on the first plate on the pile, then slid the plate onto the blanket beneath us. The motion of moving the plate caused the slash marks to show, the whole chicken that was inside the foil (and the foil itself) cut into 5 perfectly spaced pieces. I repeated the motion as quickly as I could with the rest, ending with a boiling pot of fancy vegetable stew in front of us and 5 perfectly done pieces of various meat. I inwardly sighed in relief that I hadn't botched anything. For a moment, Alex just looked at me with an unimpressed look, before bursting into giggles and a blush. "Okay... I'll admit, that was pretty impressive. And much better than the usual, 'Care for some more champagne, madam?' act." "Please! In any event," I said, pulling out a bottle of Beaujolais, "I know you prefer red wine. Even then, red wine's better for meat, and considering our menu here it was just too easy," I said, desperately thanking my short time spent in cooking courses. Alex rolled her eyes as she took the glass and cutlery I offered and, after taking a slice of the lamb, removing the foil and taking a bite, took a pretty generous sip from the wine. "And, of course," I said, turning to the box I'd earlier placed behind me, rummaged around a bit before pulling out my violin, causing an instant groan from Alex, having to fumble a bit not to break the now tiny thing, before beginning to play so basic Mozart pieces. Alex took one look at me, a giant dragon, holding this tiny violin and playing classy classical music, and immediately almost fell backwards laughing. I couldn't blame her, and was thankful I didn't have a mirror. I wasn't so thankful when she pulled out her phone, although I did just grin and bear it as she took a picture. "That's great," she said, still recovering from the laughs. "But... It is nice," she said, finally relaxing as she took another sip from her glass and looked straight into my eyes. I returned her gaze and continued playing softly. "Are you going to eat?" She asked, now settling right down and enjoying the mood of the area, slowly picking at various different meats and occasionally taking bit from the stew with the cutlery I'd given her. "Oh, I already devoured a few sheep before you came onto the roof," I said quietly, earning a smirk from her. "But really, I did eat earlier. So dig in," I said, closing my eyes as I let myself get carried away with my instrument. I still don't know how long I switched between various stereotypical classical pieces for, but I was only woken from my reverie as I felt a hand on my side. I opened my eyes to see Alex leaning close to me, looking up at me with a gaze that would have given the most devout of monks a hard on (and of course, no question when it comes to a perverted human-turned-Drake), my playing stopping as my heart leapt to my throat and silence engulfed us. Slowly, as she knelt in front of me, I felt her hands pulling my own, leading them to rest both instrument and bow on either side of the ground beside me, before she leant in and, feather-light, put her lips to my own. At the time it didn't even occur to me that I was in my Drake form, as I simply returned her kiss, just as light, and let go of my violin, moving my arms to wrap them around her and pull her into my embrace (and my lap.) The kiss seemed to last almost as long as the meal. We were both silent, so was the air around us. The only noise was the gentle sound of the waterfall in the background, and even that was just barely audible, to me, at least. It wasn't a making-out kiss, just... A gentle, soft moment that seemed to last forever. When she finally moved back from me, even in the darkness I could see that her cheeks were red, and I'm sure mine would have been if they could have been. "I... Really enjoyed tonight," she said, as light as the kiss. "Me too," just as light. A smile crossed over both of our lips as she looked away, and began to speak. I could only just hear her. "The reason I was so nervous all of this time, is-" Night of Fire started playing in the background. Both of us lightly slapped our foreheads, and just like that, the mood was gone. With a glare that would've killed the hard on of the most devout pervert, Alex picked up her phone. "Who the hell is calling at this hour?!" From the corner of my eye, I saw her eyes widen and, thanks to my now quite acute hearing, heard someone talking before what sounded concerningly like a gunshot, then the line went dead. Alex just paused for a long moment, my own eyes widening a bit now, before she practically threw her phone into her pocket and stood up. "We have to leave. That was my brother. There was-" I simply nodded, putting a digit to her lips, and in a few rapid movements had already packed up the empty plates and pot, thrown it into my backpack, grabbed Alex and shot into the air, bursting through the canopy and shooting straight back in the direction of her house. An angry frown was affixed to my muzzle... I didn't have to guess hard to figure out what'd happened back at Alex's place. *** --- Technically Thursday Alex's House 4:53am --- I had already guessed who was behind whatever happened to SE... But I felt like throwing up when I first saw smoke billowing from a distance. I picked up speed, already going only just slow enough to not hurt Alex, wanting to just get to the house and confirm my fears. The house was, in a word, razed. Half the walls were rubble scattered around the house, the roof had completely caved in and crushed just about everything underneath. I looked over it, eyes glazing over, unbelieving of the sight, as I heard Alex gently whisper her brother's name. I snapped to my senses just quick enough to hear an engine in the distance, thanking my senses and, taking Alex, thinking she'd be safer with me, burst in the direction of the car that was moving, quite fast, away from the house. It was only a few seconds before I had the typical large black van in sight. "Hold on, Alex," I snarled, letting some of my anger slip. She nodded and grabbed on tight around my neck as I swooped low beside the van and tore a hole in the side with my claws. A dull red glow began to emit from the inside of the van and, as soon as I felt my scales begin to heat up, wrapped my arms around Alex and spun around just in time for a massive burst of flame to hit me in the back. I heard Alex scream, but knowing she was fine, ignored her. The motion of guarding Alex caused us to fall a bit. I let my foot hit the ground just long enough to spring off it and back into the air, landing on top of the van and punching a hole through the fragile metal almost as soon as I did. Once again I was met with a dull red glow, this time when I span to protect Alex, falling on the roof purposefully, instantly parting the hole and landing on whatever it was that was shooting the flames. I got up after having practically bodyslammed the poor soldier holding the flamethrower and shook my head. I looked up and saw SE and Anubis, both unconscious and tied up. Grabbing the rope, I wasted no time in shooting back up through the hole in the ceiling, giving a single flap of my wings to break my fall, before landing on the sidewalk with a quiet click of my footclaws. I let Alex go, seeing her instantly sit down and curl up a bit, before slashing the ropes around Anubis and SE in a single motion of one claw. "Well... Now there's just the matter of where the hell we're going to stay," I muttered to both Alex and, more so, myself, sighing as I ran a claw through my hair. "Oh, I've got somewhere that a few of you can stay." The voice was deep, as rough as mine, and I spun on my heel and spread my wings in reflex. Standing there was nothing but a middle-aged man, I would've guessed about 50, looking at us nonchalantly. He would've looked harmless if I hadn't already heard his voice. "And you are?" I snarled, not trusting him in the least. No answer. I growled again, spitting a ball of smoke from my mouth and feeling my stomach heat up. "Answer me!" The old man shook his head, and slowly, a pair of wings, similar to my own, spread out from his back. Just as my eyes widened and I stepped back, there was a gust of wind and I was hoisted off the ground, a large claw tight, constricting around my throat. I flapped my wings as hard as I could to try and get away, but the... Thing... In front of me didn't even budge. He had sprouted wings, and from the shoulder down his arm gradually began to thicken until it emerged from his sleeve as the Draconic claw that was now around my throat. Other than that, he was still human. Snarling, I swung a claw at his arm, digging my talons deeply into his shoulder and causing him to shout out and let me go. I instantly thrust my foot into his stomach, sending him flying straight back. Instantly, thanking Tenkaichi 2 for the idea, I burst into the air, a single burst of my wings sending me soaring past him, only to land in his path and sledgehammer his chest directly into the ground. I arched my back fro a moment, before a huge flame erupted from my mouth, both engulfing him and melting the gravel around him so much that he sunk into it slightly. I looked at the blackened corpse for a moment, half expecting it to jump up and grab my throat again, before straightening my back, sighing deeply, and leaping back over to a wide-eyed Alex. I smirked slightly, proud of myself. "Well, that'll teach him to mess with a proper Dragon," I said in a teasing voice, making Alex smile just a tiny bit, before it completely faded and she screamed, pointing behind me. I had just enough time to turn to see a Dragon at least twice my size, his back covered in broken pieces of cement, pull his arm back and slam his fist into my snout. I was out like a light. *** I woke up with enough of a headache to make me felt like I'd been binge drinking for the last 4 or 5 years. I clutched my head with a loud groan and the first thing I realized was that I was in my human form. I blinked a few times and immediately, ignoring my headache, looked to my pockets for the transformation pills. Gone. In one pocket that they were previously in, however, was a piece of paper that wasn't there before. I unfolded it, ignoring the middle aged woman that walked past me with a snobbish 'hmph', probably thinking I was drugged off my nut, and quickly scanned the letter. 'Dear Kyo, Sorry about the punch kiddo, but you got me pretty good, yourself. Your friends are at Old Warehouse Number 8. I'm sure you know what you should do from here, right? Oh, I was originally going to say to come in your human form, but judging from these pills I'd say you don't have much of a choice in the matter, right? Oh, and I'm not so chivalrous that I can resist the allure of this very attractive lady friend of yours for too long, so I'd hurry were I you. Signed, -The Dragon that Knocked You the Fuck Down.' I could feel my blood pressure rising the whole time. "Argh! That old fart's as impetuous as I am! Chivalrous my ass!" I yelled out loud, getting more than a few stares as I stood up. I looked around, and noticed that they'd left Alex's backpack from last night behind. I unzipped it, looking inside, and raised my brows for a moment. I paused there, and slowly took out one of the items that was in the bag. A heavy black trench coat, much higher quality than my old one. It had two large slits in the back, which I assumed were for my wings, and in my current human form was a fair bit too big for me. A number of buckles hung at either side, and I could tell when it was done up the straps would crisscross my front and look unbelievably cool. I was tempted to wear it since my top was bare thanks to the transformation, but didn't want to dirty it. I neatly folded it and put it back into the back along with the matching, semi-baggy bondage pants, and shook my head. I could tell they were both hand made. It just made me angrier at that Dragon. Sighing softly, trying to cool down, I looked around, quickly releasing where I was, and began the trek to the city; I didn't even care that I was shirtless. I had no money, my wallet had gone along with Alex's house so I didn't even have my bank card to withdraw anything. Luckily the city wasn't far away, so it would only take about a half hour on foot. Straight towards the Dock district.