FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_ Author's notes: Stories about dinosaurs are often scrutinized for accuracy. Jurassic Park was a bit of a train wreck when it came to that, but, they commented that they wanted to balance entertainment value with realism. That said, it should perhaps be noted that it was not believed that any of these raptors were anywhere close to being as intelligence as this series makes them out to be. However they were the brainiacs of their time. So I'm basically taking that trait and exaggerating it into the modern era.

But hey, this is fantasy writing, and all that stuff is just theoretically anyway. Who knows what it was really like, right?

Another note on accuracy: I've done a fair bit of anatomy research on raptors as I wrote this. For example, raptor's don't have "hands", for the same reasons cats and dog don't. Hand imply there's a palm, which raptor's do not have. Raptor's hands are just called manus, instead. However, for good storytelling purposes, I did not go overboard on anatomic terminology. But I did use some of the words here and there in a synonymous fashion just to acknowledge their differences.

Part 2 is 13k words, and all for one day! By comparison, part 1 was 16k words, but for 3 days. Enjoy ;)_

---

Monday, April 12th, 2021

The internet radio sounded on my phone at 7:00AM. My mind may have incorporated it into my dream for a minute before it finally woke me up, and even then I ignored it for awhile. I was dead tired. I blindly felt around the nightstand, seeking the phone to put an end to its unwelcome racket. My mind was a blank for who knows how long before I snapped to it and remembered I needed to contact the office. I rubbed my eyes and rolled onto my side, taking the phone in hand.

I began to write an email that I was sick, but decided against it. Instead I told them that a family crisis had come up and I wouldn't be able to make it in today. I figured that was more personal and should deflect anyone from bothering me. In any case, it wasn't far from the truth. My folks would be visiting me this weekend and I had to make sure Sophie would display proper social etiquette. Now that she knew she could mate with humans, her behavior around people would be unpredictable at best. Today would be the last full day with Sophie before this weekend, so I had to make the most of it. But for now, I needed a couple more hours of shuteye, and had no trouble falling back asleep.

That was until my slumber was harshly broken by a loud shriek. My eyes shot open with a sudden surge of adrenaline just in time to see Sophie flying through the air over me, maw wide open, limbs and feathers spread. Before I had any chance to react, both her sandalled feet landed on my chest and knocked the wind out of me. Sophie brought her head down towards mine as she stood on me and barked in my face. I could have sworn she was smiling as if to say "Got you!"

As I coughed and gasped for air, the white deinon hopped off me to the bedside, and turned to face me attentively. Two sandal imprints had formed onto the flesh of my chest, as I discovered when I looked down. I returned a betrayed look of shock as I struggled to say "What was that for?" But then I saw why. The clock read 11:19AM.

Sophie immediately answered my question by returning a volley of pitchy barks at me, with an expression I would best guess as saying, "Come on, get up!"

As my tired stupor wore off I began to take notice that Sophie had worked herself up into a pant. I squinted at her for a moment as we locked eyes. "What...What have you been up to?" I asked with concern. Just as soon, her feathery figure blurred away as I refocused my eyes beyond her and noticed a patch of wall I didn't recognize. "Didn't I used to have a painting there?" I thought to myself. Before I could dwell on it, Sophie barked at me again, loudly this time. "What did you do?" I asked. I looked around the room once again and noticed it didn't look right. It took me a few seconds to realize various, select items had gone missing. Sophie didn't have patience for my gazing and took my left arm gently in her mouth and tried to pull me out of bed. "Ow! Hey, cut it out," I yelped as I freed away my slobbered arm, but she immediately recaptured it using both of her long manus. She growled as she stepped back and forcefully dragged me out of bed. Baffled but thoroughly interested, I obliged to her demands and stood up out of bed to see what she wanted.

Sophie let go of my arm and half-walked half-hopped over to the foot of the bed, looked down, then back up at me with the most excited expression. "Whatever it is, this can't be a good thing," I pessimistically thought to myself and hesitated on wanting to see what was over there. But Sophie barked at me again and looked as though she were about to spring at me if I didn't move. "What is it?" I asked as I walked over to see. I felt my chest tighten up and my mouth drop in disbelief at what Sophie wanted to show me. There was my painting. And my silverware. And my candle holders, some men's jewelry, a desktop mirror... I dropped to my knees to sort through the hoard Sophie had created. Items both large and small and mostly of metal littered the floor. I didn't even know what to say to her, other than give her the look of death. "What...what is all this stuff?" I asked as I went through it all. I found a sprinkler head ripped from outside somewhere. I didn't have lawn. Some of this stuff I didn't even recognize as mine. "Is this the neighbor's garden gnome? Oh no where did you get all this stuff?" I asked as I saw more and more items that I'm sure weren't mine. "No no," I whined, "you can't take this stuff Soph!" Just as I said that the doorbell rang two times. I gave Sophie another dreadful look with my eyebrows raised, but she just looked as proud as could be.

I threw some clothes on as quickly as I could and straightened out my bed head as I made my way to the door, which rang again before I could reach it. I felt a breeze coming from my side, and I noticed the back door in the dining area was wide open. I opened the front door to a disgruntled Mrs. Peterson and her golden feathered sinornithosaurus cradled in her arms. Before either one of could get a word in, the mini-raptor came to life and began squawking as fast and loudly as it could at Sophie standing to my side. Sophie returned fire and I had to immediately hold onto her with an embrace to keep her away.

Mrs. Peterson, a next door neighbor of mine who was best described as a dark haired widow in her late 50s, shouted over the drom feud, "There's the devil that's been terrorizing my little Kibbles!"

Kibbles the sinornithosaurus, Carol Peterson's annoying little laprap, was all too well known for its noisy morning yapping by us unfortunate neighbors. The smallest member of the revived drom family, known more commonly as just sinorns, couldn't have weighed more than a large housecat of which it was considered an equivilant to.

"Sophie, settle down!" I tried to command of her with little success. With all my strength, I wrestle her back and away from the door as I make my way outside and shut the door behind me. I faced Carol outside, my eyes wide and my back pressed to the door. "I'm sorry, what happened? Are you missing a gnome?" I blurted out.

Carol returned a disgusted but baffled look. "My little Kibbles was just outside this morning, minding his own business, when that monster came out of nowhere and began chasing him all over the neighborhood!" I looked down at Kibbles, his golden feathers ruffled out and barring its teeth at me while giving off a little growl. He was wearing his usual adornment of fully covered feet, and strapped to his forehead was a brown, triangular leather patch with his name stitched across. I had to translate in my mind what that "minding his own business" meant he was giving his morning monolog and probably attracted Sophie.

I felt the door behind me begin to open and rattle, but I fought to keep it closed and I could hear Sophie barking inside in protest. "I'm sorry, Carol," I said with a struggled tone as I tried to keep the door closed, "I just got her and she's still in training." As I said that my mind flashed images of the sort of "training" I did with Sophie last night, and I could only hope I wasn't blushing infront of my neighbor. It also dawned on me that I may be smelling of sex since I haven't showered yet, and so I took a step back subtly.

"How have you just been home this whole time!? Your dein is out of control, look!" she cried as she stepped sideways and pointed across the street. A fountain of water was shooting out of the neighbor's lawn.

"Ah, so that's where that sprinkler head came from," I thought to myself. "I know, I'm just finding this out. I slept in since I worked until 4AM last night," I lied about the specifics of the kind of work I had conducted.

"I haven't even got to the part where she chased poor little Kibbles inside my own home! Luckily Kibbles was able to hide, probably traumatized, but I saw that beast run away with an arm full of my belongings after it finished rampaging through my house!" my irate neighbor vented. Carol continued to rant and rave but I wasn't really listening. My tired morning mind was still trying to catchup on everything that was going on.

I snapped myself out of it with a shake of my head as I held my hands up in surrender. "Alright alright," I interrupted, "I'll take care of it. Let me gather your things together in a bag and I'll bring them over right away." Knowing Carol was the sort of person who could talk your ear off, I didn't give her a chance to reply and I retreated back inside by the time I finished my attempt at diplomacy. As I stepped back inside it took me a moment to realize that Sophie's not being there was a bad thing. "The back door!" I thought, and just as soon heard her outside going after Kibbles again.

Growing rather irritated by this point, I threw open the front door and yelled, "Sophie! Get in here!" But she was completely not listening. Carol was struggling to hold onto Kibbles and I wasn't about to let Sophie run amuck again. I let out a frustrated sigh and rubbed my forehead as I lost all patience. "That's it! We'll handle this the old fashion way," I forewarned everyone. I stepped over to the garden hose next to the planters by the front door and pointed it at the out of control hybrid. Within a second Sophie was being blasted by high pressure water, much to her disenjoyment. She threw her arms up to shield herself and turned her head away as she stepped back and hissed, but I didn't back down. With a long, whiny squeal she turned around and ran away to take shelter on the side of the house. I sighed as I turned off the spicket, and Carol just shook her head and walked back home.

"What a trouble maker. No wonder I couldn't find her in the lost ads," I muttered under my breath as I put the hose away. I looked across the street again and noticed the saturated lawn was now pooling water out into the street. Sophie must have ripped the head out early in the morning while they were active and raised, and the water had been running all this time. Knowing they weren't home, I trotted across the street and turned off their sprinkler system on the side. I'd have to deal with them later tonight. I returned home and around back to find Sophie preening herself on the patio. She looked up at me and watched me carefully, as if studying my movements to remain alert.

"Don't give me that look, Missy, you were asking for it. Shame on you, picking on a little sinorn. Maybe I should sick an utahraptor on you to teach you a lesson, hm?" I said that but deep down I smiled inside at that runty little squawker getting put in its place. Unlike other droms, the sinornithosaurus weren't nearly as intelligent, and I found them to be a bit more annoying than charming.

Back in the beginning, people would often equate sinorns as cats, velociraptors as dogs, deins as very large dogs, and utahraptors as horses or ponies. That said, it was the sinorns and velos that swept the nation, and I actually knew much more about those two than I did deins. Especially velos, which is what I had considered in the past. They were often thought of as being smarter than deins when it came to logic and cognitive thinking, whereas deins had stronger sociability which was often demonstrated by their desire to mimic those they care about. The small sinorns were mainly popular with the older generations who grew up in the pre-revival years, and still harbored an intimidated disposition towards the larger members of the dromaeosauridae family.

"Come on, in," I instructed her as I stood by the side door, pointing inside. She just sat there looking at me with weary eyes. "Come on," I said again. Sophie just grunted briefly and planted her head down in the tuff of her neck. "Soph," I said in a warning tone. She finally stood up reluctantly and slowly followed me inside with her head held low.

Once again I found myself grabbing the towels and drying down the sopping wet, musky smelling raptor in my dining room. "You've got me into a lot of trouble, you know that right?" I said to her as I dry her down. "Sheesh, I guess it's a good thing I didn't go into work today, if all this happened by only 11:00AM. Can you not be trusted to behave yourself?" I couldn't quite discern Sophie's reaction. She was just hunched over, looking up at me empty eyes and her feathers depressed flat. I wondered if she was holding a grudge against me for hosing her away.

I thought about that for a moment as I dried her down. Sophie may be troublesome but I've already come to love her. As a companion? Perhaps more than that now. I didn't feel right about treating her like a pet anymore if we were going to take our relationship a step further and demonstrated by having sex. I had to treat her with dignity and a higher regard from now on, such as no longer calling her "girl". But how was I going to break her of these bad, wild habits? I knew she could become civilized, trustworthy and reliable. I've seen plenty of examples out there. I sighed in frustration at our communication barrier. Sign language was looking more and more attractive right now.

Doubling back on what I had just thought, I frowned that I was getting myself so emotionally caught up with her. It has only been four days now and anything was still possible. I decided in my head that I wasn't going to check the lost ads anymore. One, because I doubt she'd be listed. And two, I held little respect for the previous handler for not posting something by now. If they cared about her, I'm sure I would have seen something by now. It's not as though I have not been giving it my due diligence. I wanted Sophie to stay with me, but I just needed to find some way to get her tagged somehow so she could be safe.

I stepped to her front and looked into her eyes. I gently ran the back of my hand along the side of her head. "I'm sorry for hosing you like that, Soph," I told her. Perhaps she couldn't understand the words, but rather my tone at least. She responded with a grunt-like squawk that I couldn't help but find a bit funny. "Let's just be nice to our neighbors, okay? Kibbles may be annoying but you have to be nice to him." I began to look like Sophie was returning to her usual self, and she pushed her head against my hand.

"Good...how about we return to Carol's together?" I asked her, with a plan in my mind. The more I spoke to her the more I wished we knew SSL. It dawned on me that I'd have to learn as well, but at least I already understood the concept of it all. I took Sophie by the hand and studied her dark grey fingers closer, wondering how she might do it. Each of her three digits extended about an inch and a half longer than my own. The texture was curious to the touch. It was semi-smooth, comprised of an array of overlapping scutum which traced her back to her reptilian roots. I gave it squeeze to sense that it felt a slight bit softer than ordinary bone. Whereas pures would have dangerous claws, Sophie's hybridized versions were only about half as long. They could still claw you into a bloody mess, but it wouldn't likely be as fatal.

I finished drying down the left arm and then took the right. As I briefly studied her right manus, the slightest shimmer of light caught my eye off her wet, middle finger. "What was that?" I wondered. I brought her hand up to my eyes to look closer, but strained to make it out. As an assist, I coursed my fingertip along her finger and felt out the unnatural source. "Come over here, Soph," I asked as I wrapped an arm around her neck to bring her into the light of the kitchen. I looked once again, squinting closer in on her digit. Barely visible was a nearly clear, ultra thin wire wrapped around her finger. "What's this now?" I asked aloud.

I raised an eyebrow in consideration that it could be some sort of proprietary identification system. Right away I pulled out my phone to scan it using my tag reader app again. But, there to greet me on its screen was a text from a co-worker, Mike, saying "wtf man, u got a drom?", and behind that was one from Katie as "Everything ok? Did ur dein eat ur mom or something?" I closed it, and still, two more similar text messages were stacked behind it.

"Sheesh that got around fast. I wonder if anyone believes my story then," I wondered, but ignored them for now and initiated the scan. But nothing was picked up. I opened the browser and ran a few search queries to look it up. I tried every keyword I could think of such as "wire ID", "animal wire ring", "raptor rings", "raptor wearing wire ring", "what is this ring my drom is wearing?", but all my searches just came up with irrelevant results. Most notably was a specialized jeweler's website who makes wares for pets.

Frustrated by the dead end investigation, I looked at the ring once again. It didn't appear to serve any purpose anymore as far as I could tell. However, it was the first piece of solid evidence that Sophie was under the care of people at some point. "Well, whatever it is, it looks too tight. I'm taking it off," I told her. With haste, I fetched a precision knife from the garage, laid her hand flat on the kitchen counter and carefully sliced the ring apart. Once again I was thankful of how easy it was to handle Sophie, who always seemed to cooperate whenever I was hands on with her. I placed the barely visible wire in a clear plastic bag and stowed it in the junk drawer for now.

The clock was reading 12:09. "Crap, Carol has been waiting for awhile now," I told Sophie and realized how much time I spent on my phone just now. "Come on, we don't want to keep her waiting, lest we look like we've ran off with her goods." I returned back to my bedroom, and Sophie decided to follow me. Hands on my hips, I sighed as I stood infront of her hoard of ill gotten goods. This is not what I wanted to do today, and the day was already halfway over. I bent over and picked up a few familiar items and walked about the room returning them to their rightful place.

Sophie just stood there by her pile, only her head moving as she tracked my activities. As I returned to the pile, I saw Sophie's head cocked curiously. "What's so interesting? I'm just returning this junk," I told her as I walked by her to get some more items. I'm sure Sophie had the best of intentions with this little scheme of her's. Perhaps this was brought on by last night's activities. Does she think she needs to create a nest or something? "Silly goose, this whole building is your home now, you don't need to setup a nest or anything," I said as I returned a chrome candle holder to the dresser.

I heard Sophie chirp behind me, followed by the most promising display I have ever seen in her so far. As I turned around, I observed Sophie clutch a tabletop mirror to her chest and leave the room with a spry in her step. Curious, I followed her and watched her carefully set the mirror back up on the end table in the living room. She twitched her head left and right as she adjusted its placement, as if displaying some obsession with where it originally was. I smiled ear to ear, overwhelmed with encouragement of her adapted behavior. "Very good, Sophie! Now you're getting it," I told her happily as I pat her on the neck and gave her a little one armed hug. Sophie looked up at me with perky eyes, erected feathers, and her mouth hung slightly ajar as if smiling.

"Alright gir-- I mean Sophie, let's clean up this mess," I said to her as I went back to the bedroom. We finished returning my own things. Mostly me, as Sophie spent all her time carefully placing only a couple of items by the time I finished. Then I gathered up Carol's things in a bag and prepared to leave. I washed up briefly to make myself slightly more presentable, then hooked Sophie's belt and leash back on.

The working class neighborhood I lived in was dead quiet during a weekday. It was nice out, and I paused to enjoy the spring weather. The house across the street was beginning to dry out by now from the spring sun. My eyes wandered to the side of the house, which led my gaze far out into the distance. We lived along the border of the suburban sprawl, and only a few houses dotted the opposite side of the street. Across the vast field was a wall of thick trees the city planted to segregate the city in the distance. I grunted in lost thought, wondering if it was that field that Sophie had trekked across. "So why did you pick my house for?" I asked her, interrupting her jerky head movements in which she returned a curious stare back at me. I shrugged and smirked, then continued over to Carol's.

I rang the doorbell and waited as I stared at the door. The peephole infront of me stared back. With a jerk of my hip, I pushed Sophie over a couple steps, outside of its field of view. "Scoot over, we don't need that big face of yours hogging the view," I teased her. "You be good, you hear?" I cleared the saliva out of my mouth nervously as I thought of my plan.

The door unlocked and opened. Carol looked fine when she saw me but frowned after she saw Sophie next to me. "Oh God why did you bring her back over here for?" she greeted me as she started to close the door again and just stuck her head out. The scene reminded me of the gift store from the other day after we were kicked out. I could only hope it would not be a reoccurring theme.

"Well, here's the thing: Sophie is not going anywhere, so she needs to learn to share this neighborhood too. Secluding her from you won't do us any good," I explained, then pat Sophie on the head. "She's not so bad though. She's just a misunderstood sweetheart and I think you all just got off on the wrong foot." I extended my hand to Carol. Carol returned a bemused expression, so I whispered, "Shake my hand so she sees that you and I get along, and she'll do the same." She played along and shook my hand awkwardly. I didn't let her go, and shook hands for an abnormally long time to ensure Sophie would notice. Carol laughed nervously but forcefully pulled her hand back. "Go ahead, shake her hand," I asked Carol.

I got the feeling that Carol wasn't comfortable around larger droms, as she hesitated at first. She reached out reluctantly and held her hand out with a forced grin. I butted my elbow at Sophie as she stood there frozen. "Go on, don't leave her hanging," I prodded her and she grunted back at me. This encounter was awkward. Even Sophie seemed to look out of place and she didn't seem to want to play along. Perhaps my plan wasn't so good. "Come on, this is embarrassing," I thought as uncomfortable silence hung the air.

But there to break the awkwardness was the ever-faithful Kibbles, who popped his little head around the corner of the door down by Carol's feet. His eyes immediately found Sophie and right away he began to yip at her in a way only sinorns could do.

Sophie's face lit up with excitement and she lowered her head all the way down to the cement to face the well-outspoken sinornithosaurus. Feathers extended, she barked right back in Kibbles' face repeatedly with enough force to disrupt Kibble's head crest. Faced with a toothy maw large enough to probably fit half its body, Kibbles immediately retreated back inside leaving us with only his intimated whine. Carol went on in protest but I wasn't really paying much attention as a thought struck me. Was Sophie just copying Kibbles? Who barked first?

I felt Sophie want to follow Kibbles inside but I jerked back. "Sophie, no," I said calmly as I stood infront of her. I gripped her lower jaw with my hand gently to direct her eyes on me.

"You see? She just wants to terrorize him!" Carol said with a frown.

"Ignoring it won't help," I replied as I turned back to face Carol. "I wanted to socialize Sophie. You know, I'm pretty sure Sophie just wants to play with your sinorn, but he's getting the wrong impression."

"Play?" she snorted, "That's her idea of playing? Poor little thing is scared for his life."

"Well, she's only barking because he was. It's in a dein's nature to copy. If you can bring him back, perhaps on a leash, and get him to be quiet, I think it'll be okay," I explained.

"Oh yeah, okay," she said sarcastically. She shook her head, "But alright, we'll try. Meet me around back," she gave in after a moment's pause, then closed the door on us.

She left us alone, and I glared at Sophie. "Why didn't you shake her hand?" I stood infront of her and extended my hand out as a test. Sophie looked down and stared at it for a few seconds as she thought about it, then reached out to grasp it. I grinned and shook my head. "I see, you don't like strangers or something?" I said as I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, let's go around back."

Kibbles was standing in the backyard with Carol crouched down next to him. He immediately started yipping at us when we came around, and Carol went to work trying to get him to stop. Sophie came back to life as well, but I was ready with a hand under her chin, and I stepped infront of her to settle her down. I didn't have much trouble getting Sophie to quiet down, but Carol was having a difficult time with her's. Minutes went by, and we just decided to let him get it out of his system. From a distance, Sophie just looked down with fascination at the loud, smaller raptor.

Carol and I stood by, bored and quiet as the encounter went on. Finally, as Kibbles felt less threatened, we cautiously let them get closer together until finally they touched noises and sniffed eachother. Sophie unexpectedly shot her tongue out and struck Kibbles' face with it, who jumped back a few feet and shook his head with a growl. Kibbles returned an annoyed expression towards Sophie, but she looked thrilled by her new little buddy.

As the two droms got to know one another, I small talked with Carol. I didn't speak with her often, normally only when we bumped into one another during our mundane outdoor activities such as picking up the mail. I finally decided to ask her, "Say, does Kibbles have a wire ring on his finger?"

"A wire ring? What? No," she responded, confused.

That was about the response I expected from her. "Have you ever heard of a drom wearing one? It's like a ring, but made out of a thin wire."

She just shook her head and was no help to me. I went on to ask her about some other topics of caring for a drom, but it seemed sinorns were a lot different from deins and what she was telling me didn't seem to be of much use. I sort of wished I had a friend or knew somebody who owned a raptor other than a sinorn. The websites were helpful but I wanted to talk to somebody in person, and the vets were just too invasive.

About an hour went by. Sophie seemed to be enjoying herself, and her and Kibbles ran all about playing as raptors would play. I found the relationship amusing, considering that the sirorns would have no doubt been the prey of a creature such as a deinonychus back in their own time. But due to their sheltered upbringing with mankind, the killer instinct had become buried and allowed them to get along. In a way it wasn't much different than how cats and dogs could get along sometimes. By comparison, a wolf would go after a wild cat if pitted against one another in the wild.

Carol told me Kibbles was already socialized with others, but only other sinorns. She came around to accepting Sophie now that they were getting along, and even admitted to her beauty as she left me with a compliment. I too was glad Sophie could have a friend next door now, even if it was just Kibbles. I figured it would at least keep her busy while I was gone at work. We said our goodbyes and I walked back home.

Sophie followed me back inside, and I undid her belt and leash. I let out a sigh at us finally having a free moment. It was going onto 2:00PM and we haven't even got started on training yet. I flushed a bit as I remembered just why I thought of training Sophie SSL in the first place. Now that we finally had some downtime, I looked over my deinon companion. I felt as though my mind had become poisoned by a new way of thinking about droms ever since last night. Or maybe "enlightened", depending on how you wanted to look at it. I couldn't look at Sophie the same way. Her exotic body was easy on the eyes, but inside she was a passionate and sexual being. I wondered if she thought the same way about me, or even just people in general? In a way I felt a little sorry for the rest of the world, who were missing out. It was too bad breeders couldn't sell unaltered. Though I couldn't put it past the breeders themselves to have fun if they had the chance. I fantasized myself with the thought, and the idea of a career shift into drom breeding sounded pretty inviting at the moment.

My dirty thoughts took their effect on me, forcing me to shift. I snapped myself out of it and pat Sophie on the head. "But they would never compare to you, Soph," I said to her out of context. She swayed her tail to and fro and looked back at me happily.

I grabbed my tablet to check the forums again as I ate some lunch. I pursed my lips as I saw no new replies to my thread, which has now fallen back a page on the index. Then I saw a one private message awaiting in the upper right corner. I anxiously clicked it, eager that it may contain answers. A user by the alias "Royez" wrote "I saw your mystery drom thread. She's very cute, but I've never seen a dein like that before, and I'm a breeder. There is however one thing you could try. Breeders such as myself can't always trust tags when we purchase our queens. They're costly investments and a little proof goes a long way, so we request their GC (genetic certificate) on the sale. The GC will give you a breakdown of what kind of hybrid you have, and from there you should be able to reverse-reference what she is. Below are some providers. You basically just send them a feather and they'll mail you back the results. Keep us informed on what you find out, I'm curious to know!"

Below were several websites to various GC providers. I skimmed through them and it was quickly apparent to me that such a service was going to cost me a fair amount of money. I had burned through a lot of cash in the past few days already because of her, making the solution not very attractive; but I placed the idea in the back of my mind for now and decided that I'll try some other approaches first. In any case, determining what breed Sophie was wasn't as big a deal to me now that I've quit trying to find her prior handler.

I switched over to read up on SSL training as I ate. Sophie saw me eating and helped herself to some food. She seemed to have perfected the practice by now. I watched her neutral reaction as she ate the low-grade food. "Last day on that junk. I'll see to getting you some better food tomorrow," I said.

I wondered why people would bother buying such an expensive companion and then just feeding them that crap. I picked up a discarded food parcel on the table to look at the "poster raptor" printed on the label. "Oops," I said aloud, as I discovered that I overlooked the text at the bottom-right which stated it was intended for sinorns or velociraptors. I sort of wanted to go get her some real food right away, but I figured it couldn't be all that bad for her. She could wait until tomorrow, given the difficulties of going into town at the moment. I smirked that it would least aid in my alibi if animal control actually did come knocking, citing my sales log. "No, I just like to feed Kibbles next door," I would tell them.

My attention wandered on such thoughts and I realized that it was because all this SSL documentation I was reading was overwhelming and quite boring. I grunted in discouragement as my eyes glazed over the walls of text filling the screen. This is why I could never learn a new language. I looked over various signs. Since people had more fingers than droms, you had to combine your pinky and index finger, and thumb and pointer. I pulled up the sign for "food" and decided to just try winging it and starting simple. Or at least what I theorized to be simple. "Food" was an example of word that adopted the ASL standard, since it was simple enough, and just involved tapping your mouth with the tip of your fingers.

I waited for Sophie to finish eating and perform her usual post-meal facial cleaning. When she was finished she looked at me as if wondering what we're doing next.

"Okay Sophie, this is going to be tricky, but I want to teach you sign language," I spoke to her to keep her attention. "That way you can better communicate to people." Sophie just returned a blank stare, as could be expected, so I decided to skip the formalities and get started. "This means food," I motioned the gesture to her a few times.

Her pupils left my eyes to look down at my hands. She stared it for a moment then looked back up at me with a "what about it?" expression.

I stopped and grabbed a parcel of food off the counter and held it up. "This is food. Food," I emphasized the word and repeated it over and over, then put it back down. Sophie went to go take it but I stopped her and got her attention again. I remade the gesture and repeated the word again.

The deinon looked unimpressed but took a step back and copied the gesture, though with a lack of attention to detail. The gesture wasn't quite right. As I went to correct her, she broke the gesture as soon as I broke mine. "Almost, try again," I said as I remade the sign.

Sophie's attention was waning and she turned to leave, but I snapped my fingers to bring her eyes back to me.

I resumed the gesture and repeated the word infront of her. Sophie huffed and looked away, but reluctantly looked back at me and copied the gesture again. The motion and finger layout wasn't any better and she only motioned it for a second before breaking and trying to leave again. I imagined she was thinking "Yeah, I can do that too, so what? This is boring."

"Eugh, this is harder than I thought," I grunted as I scratched the side of my head. I caught Sophie before she left and tried my efforts again, but she was only growing more impatient by my persistence and I made no progress. I slumped my shoulders in defeat. "If only you understood what I was trying to show you, you might be a bit more interested."

I sighed and I returned to the tablet to do some more research while Sophie wandered off. I had to remind myself that this wasn't going to be easy, and that people usually hired trainers for this type of advanced training. I queried "first word to teach in SSL" and read what people suggested. I was close, as "treat" was typically the favored first word. "Treat, eh?" I thought to myself. I haven't given Sophie any treats yet, come to think of it. I gave it some thought on what would suffice, and recounted a bag of chocolates I had in the freezer. There was surely specialized treats at the store, but I didn't have the luxury of going into town right now. "The chocolates might work, let's find out."

"Sophie!" I beckoned her as I pulled out the bag of chocolates. I heard her chirp around the corner and then trot over to me, eager towards the tone of my calling. She cocked her head slightly and I saw her nostrils flare inquisitively as she eyed the colorful bag in my hands. "This is a treat," I held up the piece infront of her and repeated the word a couple more times, her eyes tracking its every movement. "Try it out," I held it towards her.

She leaned in to bite it right out of my hands but I pulled back, "Whoa there Missy, where's your manners? Use your hands," I asked of her. She squawked in disappointment, but I lowered it down towards her idle hand and she reached out and clasped her fingers around it to take it. The raptor's response was night and day compared to her reaction of eating her normal food. Feathers frilled and wide eyed, Sophie began to come alive and step in place as she ate the frozen treat aggressively. "Ah, I thought you'd like that," I smiled, happy that she was enjoying herself.

Sophie's expression reminded me of a dog after you give one a treat, as she gave me her full attention in hopes of perhaps being given another one. "You can have another one but you need to ask for it this time! Like this," I made the gesture for "treat" for her.

Sophie looked down at my hand, but only for a moment before turning to look at the bag of chocolate on the counter to my side. With outstretched arms she stepped forward to try and snatch it.

I got there first and took a step back with it, "Now now, no cheating," I said. I grabbed a handful and pocketed them and put the bag back in the freezer. I pat her on the head and got her attention again, "focus," I said as we locked eyes.

"Treat", I said as I remade the sign and held it there.

Sophie made a couple of frustrated sounding clicking noises as she looked at my hand again and stared at what it was doing. After some time she lifted her manus and copied the gesture. Her form was accurate, as the treat gesture was easy. It was also an adaptation of the ASL standard and involved twisting your first digit on your cheek. It may be why people liked to use it first.

"Treat," I said again. Sophie looked up at me as she maintained the sign. "Good!" I said and congratulated her with a chocolate.

Sophie gobbled down the treat excitedly and looked back at me for more. A caution rang in the back of my mind warning me that it would probably be unhealthy to give her too many, so I decided to limit the lesson to just a small handful.

I spend the next five minutes repeating the process until eventually Sophie would gesture the treat sign on her own, consuming the last piece I had on me. I leaned against the counter happy at the results of the training at first but then frowning after giving it some more thought. Does she understand what the sign means or does she just think "If I make this sign I get treats"? Obviously I can't keep that up for every single word. I couldn't help get the feeling I was going about this the wrong way, and perhaps doing more harm than good. I did, after all, skip over a lot of documentation on the subject.

Sophie broke my thoughts as she stepped forward suddenly and threw the flat of her head into my chest in a whip like sweep. I grunted, and looked at her. She raised her head and looked at me with her deep eyes brimming with solicitude.

"That was the last piece," I told her and shrugged.

Sophie returned with a bark in my face, where I flinched and squinted my eyes from the sudden outburst.

"Why so loud?" I asked.

Sophie and I stared at one another for a few moments, and I wondered what she was thinking. Whatever it was, she seemed happy, and it rubbed off on me. I smiled back at her. Sophie made a raspy murmur under her breath and pressed her head down by my armpit. She wedged her pointed face between my arm and side until her head was on the other side, then she stepped around and pushed her head against my back, away from the counter I was leaning against.

"What do you want?" I asked, amused as I stepped away and stood there.

Sophie responded by whipping her head again and ramming it into my back, forcing me out of the kitchen. I stumbled forward a few steps and was forced to keep moving as Sophie pressed the flat of her head to my back and pushed me across the dining room and into the hallway. Intrigued on what she was trying to communicate to me, I allowed the behavior to see where this was going. I had to walk unnaturally fast to keep up with Sophie's aggressive speed until when we reached the turn in the hallway. I looked back at her but she returned a couple more yips at me, accompanied by an eager expression.

Logic would assume she wanted me to go down the hallway and into the bedroom, so I did. Sophie agreed with my decision and trotted past me and into into my bedroom, glancing back once to make sure I was following.

"Here we are..." I narrated to her. She looked back at me before walking around me in a circle, then looked at me again. "Now what?" I asked her.

Sophie made another chittery murmur as she looked at me, then looked at the bed. She hopped up on it, turned around and squatted down. The afternoon sun flooded into the bedroom and lit up Sophie's white coat, causing the feathers along her outline to glow angelically. She looked down at me with loving eyes, and it was obvious to me what she wanted.

"What a trip," I thought to myself. It was one thing to have sex with her because she was turned on by porn or arousal, but this time it was all her. She had chosen me. I felt the goosebumps run down my body as I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. There was something special about loving another with whom you face challenges communicating with conventionally. With each passing hour I spent with Sophie, I thought of her less and less as an animal but rather more like a new intelligent being that shared our planet. She was deep with personality, quirks and flaws, strengths, opinions, and had her own goals and agenda. Was she all that different from me? Do other people harbor these same opinions with their drom companions?

"You want to have some fun?" I asked. She lowered her head down as I approached the bed, inviting me to caress her head as if expecting it. I did so, and she closed her eyes as I pet her and scratched her chin. Judging by her position I assumed she wanted to recreate the position we did last night. I may have been correct after all that it was her newly discovered favorite. It was my guess that Sophie did not have a creative instinct towards coming up with new sexual acts or positions. I decided I wanted to perhaps enlighten her world and show her a few new things. My mind flashed a dozen dirty scenarios we could engage in, but I decided to start with the basics for now. Yesterday I would not have considered eating her out, but a lot has changed since then and now I was attracted to the thought. In any case, it wasn't entirely selfless as I rationalized that pleasuring her orally would be a prerequisite towards her understanding that it can go both ways. I felt myself already starting to go rigid in anticipation of the pending fun.

Sophie opened her eyes to look at me briefly then bumped the side of her head to mine for a moment. She sat back up and looked down at me as she shifted in place, her deep eyes coaxing me to climb up to join her.

I glanced down at the bedsheets below where she was squatting and noticed a couple wet spots below her crotch. Her snatch was already drooling with excitement. "Wow, you can really turn on the juice quickly huh?" I asked her. "I bet she would be fun to eat out," I thought. I looked her over trying to work out the logistics of the act. I surmised that it would be best if she laid on her back with her business department down near the foot of the bed, infront of where I stood.

I sat up on the bed, on my knees infront of her. I gave her a one armed hug with my left arm as my right crept around to her flank. I felt some damp feathers, followed by her wetted vaginal folds. I gave her a brief massage just to let her know that I knew what she wanted and that I was going to give it to her.

Sophie immediately responded with a chirp and lowered her head as she raised her ass, wanting to give me easier access. She looked up at me with relaxed eyes, wanting to express to me her pleasure as she held her mouth slightly open.

Smiling back at my dein lover, I told her "I know you want to do that same position as last night, and we can, but first I want to show you something new." I retreated my pussy-lube covered hand and with both arms tried to roll her onto her side. Sophie resisted, since she rarely assumed such a position, but after some soothing talk and encouragement I finally got her onto her side. I fingered her a bit more just to let her know the fun isn't over yet. Sophie cooed, rubbed her head along the bedsheets, and flapped her feathery tail all about as the euphoric pleasure resumed. I sensed that she was coming to an orgasm much quicker than I anticipated, so I denied it as I intended to save it for the oral act.

As I pulled my hand back once again, Sophie quit her sex induced shuffling and looked up at me with desperate eyes, as if saying "Why'd you stop?"

I gave her some more soothing talk as I embraced her feathered frame and spun her around in the bed, and then rolled her onto her back. Sophie tried to roll back onto her side but I did my best to prevent it and balance her steady. She gave up on her resistance after awhile, hopefully because she picked up my good intentions that I had planned for her.

Sophie lifted her head up and looked down her body towards me. She cocked her head curiously and expressed amazed eyes, as if wondering just what benefit being in this normally unused anatomic position would be to her. I answered her question by quickly giving her a couple strokes along her slit. Sophie chirped happily and looked up towards the ceiling, just wanting to take in all the enjoyment coursing through her loins. From my new angle, I saw all the long rectrix feathers along her tail stand on end as she was overcome by feeling of pleasure.

I didn't want to disrupt her pleasure for a third time, so I slowly continued to finger her as I positioned myself infront of the bed. The smell of sex was thick in the air around her genitals, there to greet my nostrils as I lowered my head towards her. I shifted my eyes up and observed that Sophie had not noticed what I was up to as she rolled her head around on the bed with her eyes closed, lost in another world of pure enjoyment. I remained thoroughly surprised at how expressive the raptors were towards sexual pleasure, as it was not something I had ever really considered outside of the human world. I looked back down at her love well I had been pumping. Each stroke soaked my fingers with her juice and deposited it along her lips as it dove back in for more, causing the wetness to roll down her sides.

My fingers received a warning squeeze, and I looked up and could see Sophie's chest heaving as the pace of her breathing quickened. "You're too quick, Soph, I hadn't even got started yet," I said as I pulled my fingers out again, denying her the orgasm once more.

Sophie lifted her head up to look at me and yipped in protest. I stalled as I busied myself removing my clothes while keeping one arm on standby in case she decided to roll back over. However, Sophie may have figured out my intentions by now as she remained stationary on her back. In fact, as I finished undressing and looked at her, I noticed she was holding both of her arms out to help keep herself steady as she patiently waited for me to continue. I admired her figure from this new position for a moment as I waited for her to cool down a little bit. The structure of her body wasn't exactly as I thought it to be. While standing, Sophie's pubic boot dropped at a steep, vertical angle. However, while lying down on her backside, her body relaxed itself in a way that rested it back to more of a 35-40º angle. I imagined I could climb up ontop of her and go missionary, and the very idea had my throbbing member even more excited.

My dirty thoughts were interrupted by a couple more impatient barks. Sophie's eyes had gradually shifted from desperate to annoyed towards my denial.

"So needy," I smirked at her. "Fine, let's finish you off." With both hands I split apart her folds and lowered my head towards her soft, pink pussy. The heavy aura around the raptor's sex with mind-blowingly tantalizing towards my own needs, but I had to remember good things came with patience and that I would get my turn soon. I extended my tongue and greeted it with the taste of the raptor's vaginal wetness as I coursed the tip of it between her folds. With my face planted in her feathery groin, I could only feel and hear her reaction as her whole body flinched at the new sensation I was granting her. I was expecting her organ to taste similar to a human's, but instead it tasted like slightly sweetened water with the faintest tinge of something I could best relate to as some kind of fruit, perhaps a peach. "Interesting, wasn't expecting that," I thought to myself, welcoming the unique taste.

The flavor had me wondering if her organ was excreting the juice to encourage and welcome such sexual activity, just like how nature makes its fruit taste sweet so creatures eat them. Did raptors engage in cunnilingus naturally? I wondered about that as I played with her, fantasizing what it would be like to be a male raptor with their long, pointed tongues. I felt a bit jealous of what it would feel like for her to have such a well endowed tongue moving about and playing deep inside your sex. I couldn't compete with a male raptor's physical features, but perhaps I could utilize what I had to work with better. I was determined to rock Sophie with a massive orgasm.

I ran my tongue up and down the entrance of her tunnel, causing the female raptor to coo loudy. Her tail was under my left arm and I felt it swooshing all over, out of control. I felt her trying to cheat by attempting to raise her hip and capture my tongue, but her unorthodox position didn't allow her much mobility in that regard.

Pivoting my head to the side, I caved and decided to give her what she wanted. I dropped my lips all the way down to her entry and sunk my tongue in as deep as it could manage. Sophie's whole body squirmed and I blindly held her in place with my arms to keep myself on target. With my head firmly attached to her frame, the vibrations of her euphoric cooing filled my auditory senses and assured me I was on the right path. I danced my tongue around inside her lube flooded pussy, which had overflowed out along the base of my tongue. I pulled my tongue in and out, thoroughly enjoying the taste of her lustful juices.

My arms coursed along her belly and then up her firm legs that stuck upright in the air. They landed on the base of her soft, flexible sandals, but I slipped my hand between them and her bare feet and held on. I was going for the gold, trying to treat my dein lover to her greatest orgasm yet. I continued to fish for new ideas, and executed them as they came up. I tickled her clitoris between dives, and moved my head about trying to work all the angles. Sophie was writhing all about and I could hear her cooing become broken by heavy panting. I didn't stop and aggressively pleasured her until at last I felt a rhythmic series of vaginal squeezes come down hard on my tongue.

Sophie's whole body jumped in place on the bed and I almost lost her, but I had my head planted down on her hard and held onto her feet. Her tail was shaking about violently. I felt her extend her body out and all her feathers ruffle out as the raptor cried out with orgasmic release. Her upright legs contracted and squeezed her sandals into a "C shape" as if trying to squeeze my hands, and a second later my face was greeted by multiple torrents of girl cum, squirting out around the base of my tongue and spraying in all directions with aggressive force onto my face.

I swirled my tongue around deep in the raptor's sex until she settled down at last. As I pulled out and away, multiple drippings of her cum fell from my mouth and chin onto her, the rest rolling down my chin and neck. I looked down at her still winking vagina, seeing her wetted feathers all around. Even the bedsheets around the base of her tail were wet as excess juice rolled down her flanks. We were both a mess, but we loved it.

Sophie was fighting the need to breath and the desire to express herself by cooing happily. As I licked the lube around my lips, Sophie lifted her head and gave me a blissful, slack-jawed expression.

The thought of climbing ontop of her to join in was screaming in my mind. But I knew if I did that now, I would probably cum inside her within a few seconds after being exposed to all that. I bit my lip and closed my eyes for a brief moment to forcefully exercise my self discipline. As I stood there cooling down, it dawned on me that I had entirely forgotten to teach her the sex sign I wanted to do. "Hell, that was the main point of learning SSL," I thought to myself. "Or at least it originally was." Now, I just wanted to be able to communicate with her in general, and the sexual benefits were just a side bonus. Sophie gestured it once last night, and I wondered if she would again. "Hey," I said outloud to get her attention as she was resting her head back on the bed. She looked up at me, and I gave her the heart sign again.

Sophie looked away for a moment, then back, and raised her arms to copy the gesture as she gave me a happy expression; but it only lasted for a second before she squawked since she was using her arms for balance and had to drop them back down on the bed to stabilize herself.

I chuckled, "Don't want to leave that position now do you?" I said as I guessed Sophie had affiliated the new position with that of great joy.

The cooing died away at last and she replaced it with a subtle chirping as she looked down at me with seductive eyes. She shifted her position about slightly and spread her legs apart a few more inches, as if wanting to entice me to take her again. "Enough cooling off!" my mind yelled at me. Her exotic body was calling out to me and I couldn't wait any longer. I felt myself falling in love with Sophie and I just wanted to be one with her now. My head flushed red as I became aware of my emotions and how obscure they were. Was I literally falling in love with something that hasn't existed for tens of millions of years? The power of love, and the act of love making, was helping us understand one another and break past our communication barriers. We both wanted the same thing. I felt the goosebumps hit me again and I was grateful for the era I lived in and how mankind could experience such things, perhaps taking it for granted all this time.

I climbed up on the bed where Sophie had remained on her backside, patiently waiting what I had in store. She lifted her head up closer to mine as I came down on her and gently head butted me with the flat of her head as soon as she could reach me. "Ow, is that how you say 'hello'?" I asked her as I gave her a affectionate scratch under the chin. Like before, as I looked at her face I noticed the small feathers around the start of her mouth were wet with salivation from earlier. Her arm's remex feathers were sprawled out on the bed, and I put each hand between them as I positioned myself. My aching penis moved about blindly until I felt it center on her heated and wetted vaginal lips. I teased her, and myself, a bit as I ran the tip of it along her folds, enjoying the feeling of her fleshy texture splitting apart.

Sophie winked herself down below and I felt as though she was trying to take me in. I felt her squirm about slightly under my weight as she grew more excited. Her head was slightly elevated and twitching about, but she looked up at me with lusty but anxious eyes, an expression that I read as "Quit teasing me!"

"Alright alright, Ms. Needy," I said with a smile, "here goes." I relaxed my hips and let myself slide into her depths, but I hit with some initial resistance. I realized I had to adjust my angle into a slightly unnatural downward dive to match her inhuman anatomic layout. But, it wasn't a problem, and the angle my penis wanted to rise up into added significant pressure to the roof of her vaginal tract, benefiting us both. Her honey pot literally felt like one as I dived down. My penis was greeted with a flooded pool of her juices that would have normally spilled out if she were standing, like how she would normally mate. I felt all the juices spill out between Sophie's legs as her pussy had to make room for its welcome guest. My legs shook a bit for a moment as my body's nervous system was overtaken with how amazing she felt, not just inside but how she made me feel as a whole to be connected with her like this. I finished my dive and groaned in pleasure. "You're amazing, Soph," I said to her as I looked down at her where she was watching me. I suddenly remembered her behavior earlier today and I squinted my eyes. "Hey wait a sec, is this, like...make up sex?" I joked, remembering our prior dispute. I closed my eyes and shook my head at the goofy notion and went back at it.

The deinonychus resumed its cooing as I made love with her. She looked up at me with droopy, loving eyes as she got to experience yet another new sexual position. She wanted to join in on the humping rhythm but there wasn't a lot she could do from her compromised position, so I felt her give up after awhile and just relax, soaking in the experience.

I took one arm and slipped it under her back to embrace her as I picked up my pace, feeling the need to release growing stronger and stronger. Sophie's frame shook with each hump, which could be heard by the change of pitch in her cooing each time. She rolled her head around on the sheets struggling to maintain her composure as I worked her, but she stopped and looked up at me again occasionally. Feeling I was right on the edge of eruption, I stopped for a moment. I wanted to go at the same time as Sophie, so I did my best to maintain myself right on the edge. "Come on, don't keep me waiting too long," I told her as I dropped back into a slow pace. I curled my toes and bit my lip trying to hold on as I felt my body burning up with nearly unstoppable arousal. If she were a woman I may have tried to fondle her breasts to get her off, but when I looked down, Sophie apparently did not have any. The mammalian genetics didn't go any further than the genitals, I figured. I improvised and reached down and tickled her clit, which was immediately answered by a pitchy squeal as Sophie felt her sex being double assaulted. "That'll do," I thought, happy to please her.

I continued my slow pace as I fondled the perimeter of her sex, but it only lasted for about a minute before I felt her pussy growing impossibly wet and heated and began to contract down from end to end. "There's my cue!" I thought, overjoyed that I was able to last as long as I could in this state. My balls felt like teapots, with their contents boiling and ready to go. I took both arms and put them under her back and got as close as I could to her while still being able to trust at her peculiar angle. Sophie's panting once again picked up and she squirmed all over. "Don't you dare jerk away again!" I told her with a sly smile as went all out on her. One, two, and on the third stroke, I buried my throbbing penis down and finally blew my load into her depths. I groaned loudly as I couldn't help hold back my reaction of the orgasmic pressure I had built up. My other senses faded away as my mind was flooded with the powerful orgasm I had been working towards. Her face below me blurred away and the sounds became distant during the few seconds I gushed several long ropes of boiling cum inside this raptor of mine to mix with the flood of juices already stirring deep in her snatch.

Sophie joined in right after as I felt her clamp down hard and release even more of her own juice to the mix, some of spurting up and splashing my crotch and stomach like an over-pressurized well. I looked down at her as my vision cleared. She was letting out a delightful sounding squeal and closed her eyes tight, her jaw trembling from the experience. But it finally came to an end, and the room fell silence save for our panting.

I nearly collapsed on her but I held myself up with shaky arms. We looked at each other with blissful eyes, both of us aware of how we could love one another despite our differences. "Don't think," I started to say, panting between words, "this is some kind of reward for stealing the neighbor's property," I remarked as I smiled at her. I let out a heavy sigh, aware our sexy romp was over, and pulled out of her sloppy mess. I looked down and it looked as though someone had just spilled two glasses of water onto Sophie's crotch, with a sizable damp spot underneath her. I really needed to wash the sheets now. "You raptors really turn on the water works down there don't you? You'd best drink some water before you become dehydrated," I joked as I shook my head.

Sophie's breathing settled down and she looked at me while she remained on her back, perhaps wondering if she should maintain the position she had grown to love to be in. She frilled out her feathers and looked at me playfully, trying to disguise her exhausted state. It looked as though as was asking me "Again?"

"Yeah right," I smirked. "As much as I'd love to do this all day with you, this is just too exhausting. I don't have the stamina like you crazy raptors. And look at you, you're a mess," I said as I threw both arms down to point her out. Sophie whined briefly at what I was implying and pulled her arms in to roll onto her side.

I glanced down at her business end again as she rolled and saw the milky mixture all run out. I shook my head at her sloppy carelessness and sighed as I collapsed down to lay in bed next to her. Sophie scooted towards me while remaining on her side and rested the side of her head on my chest up near my neck. I embraced her with my right arm and pulled her closer, enjoying the cuddling she seemed to enjoy doing. We sat there in silence for a few minutes, just happy to be with one another and not needing to say anything.

I needed to settle down and gather my thoughts. My focus typically seemed clearer after sex, and I recounted my sign language training efforts with Sophie. I got the feeling I wasn't going about it the best way. Her strengths could be better utilized. I stared at her lying with me, but I was looking right through her as I zoned out in my thoughts. I felt that light bulb above my head light up after a minute or two, and I sat up to consider it.

"So you deins like to mimic what you see, right?" I talked it out as I looked at her with studied eyes. "Perhaps what you need is to see another raptor doing it. And not 2d. You need to see the real deal. Maybe then it would click in that feathery head of yours on what these hand gestures are for," I said as I caressed the top of her head.

I liked the idea. But then I frowned as I realized I didn't really know anybody who owned a raptor, much less a trained raptor. I mulled it over for awhile, and was trying to work up the boldness in myself to step outside of my constricted social circle and find somebody who was willing to help. "This looks like a job for some social networking," I thought to myself.

I cuddled there quietly with Sophie for about 10 minutes before the peace was interrupted by a buzz from my phone coming from the pocket of my pants down on the floor. I reached down and pulled it out to look. It was my wallet app going off. "That's odd, it's not payday, and I'm here..." I thought, sitting up as I thought someone forged my data perhaps. I brought up the details and saw that the hefty gift store bill I paid two days ago was just refunded back to my account without any explanation as to why. I stared at the screen, the illogical event confusing me. "Should I call them?" I thought. "No. That can't just...happen. They must have changed their mind I guess," I tried to figure it out, and decided to just take it as a blessing and not question it. I sat the phone down on the nightstand and tried to not dwell on the unexplained event since it was in my benefit.

Sophie looked up at me with gentle eyes, wondering what had disturbed me away from our cuddling. She pushed her head against my chest trying to get me to settle back down and lay with her. I sighed and relaxed back into bed with her for another 5 minutes. But, I had things to do, so I finally got out of bed and cleaned myself off. The smell of sex in the air with thicker than I realized as I left the bathroom and came back into the bedroom. "Come on, no time for snoozing, up," I teased Sophie as I made her get out of the bed. I scooped up the creamed sheets and threw them into the wash, then settled down at my computer to work my magic.

As Sophie napped next to my office chair, I spent the next couple hours rattling the cages of my social circles online and asked around. After a series of dead end leads, I took a break and decided to do something else for awhile as I waited for more people to come home from work. I logged back into the care forum and saw that somebody had bumped my thread, and it had received a couple new posts. They read:

> The pictures by themselves are sorta useless. OP needs to post her age because they can change appearance as they mature. > I think the OP just got handed a junk breed lemon reject, lol. That's why nobody knows what she is. Though she's a looker...

"Age..." I thought to myself as I stared at the thread. I had no idea how old Sophie was. I didn't even know how old deins lived to scale it towards. I ran a quick query but just found out that nobody knew what their lifespan was because the oldest ones alive today were only in their mid 20s. It was theorized that their lifespan was similar to a human's, based on their aging pattern. I read a guide on how to estimate their age, which was mostly based on observing their scutum, state of their teeth, jaw structure, and the maturity of their rectrices. The guide was intended for breeders who engaged in trading, since no ordinary consumer would not know how old their legit drom is. My head darted left and right from the monitor to the napping Sophie, comparing pictures. Based on the guide, I put her somewhere in the age bracket of a young adult which made her only a few years old. I paused in reflection of what the rest of her earlier life must have been like considering how much has happened here in just a few days. The thread reply box blinked, waiting on my input, but I decided to just forget about the whole idea for now. It was becoming obvious to me no schmuck on the internet could give me credible assessment of what Sophie was exactly.

With a bit more time to kill, I dwelled on the gift store refund a bit more. "Nice having all that money back," I began to think to myself, having nearly come to accept that it was gone now. Getting the money back gave me the illusion that I was receiving extra income, and my mind wandered over to shopping. I was not looking forward to taking Sophie back into a store to take care of my shopping, but I needed to get her some proper food. After a couple minutes of brainstorming, I decided to simply shop at a local store that offered a grocery courier service. It would cost a premium, but I figured I'd only need to do it once. With any luck, the courier would arrive before the end of the business day.

The guy's name was Dan, who looked to be in his 30s and married based on his profile picture. He didn't bother interviewing me too much, and seemed awful relaxed on the idea of meeting up with a stranger. As I found out, he lived in the same suburban region as me, so we decided to meet up in the nearby park tomorrow morning. He told me he took his velociraptor, Domino, for a morning walk there before he left for work.

"Tomorrow eh?" I thought to myself as I scratched my chin, considering how I was going to handle work. After giving it some though, I decided Sophie would come to work with me tomorrow after the park meeting. I didn't quite feel comfortable leaving her home alone just yet, especially since she wasn't tagged. If anything it was an excuse to spend more time with her. I've seen other co-workers bring their dogs and such in, and figured Sophie could just hang out in my office. My job, thankfully, had a good pet policy as they felt it boosted employee morale.

"Looks like you have a play-date tomorrow, Soph!" I poked her with my foot as she napped next to my chair. She grunted back at me as I disturbed her nap. "And you'll get to meet a whole bunch of people, too! Just don't anything inappropriate," I warned her, worried she might suddenly feel horny while at the office and cause a big scene. I wasn't overly concerned with it though, and had a hunch it wouldn't be an issue while we were outside of the confines of the house here where she felt the most comfortable. I could always take her home in the worst case scenario and make up the hours later. She looked up at me with puzzled eyes as I spoke to her, and I smirked. "Yes well, you'll know what I'm saying soon enough."