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The next day was more than a little awkward for Marcus. He'd woken up groggy, the extra painkiller having put him straight to sleep once his head hit the pillow. The human very much regretted having impulsively taken that extra dose. Not only had it left him more tired than usual, although mercifully still pain-free, it hadn't done a thing to erase his crystal-clear memory of the previous night's events.

Marcus had hardly spoken a word to Zera when he brought her breakfast in the morning -after making sure to knock loudly on the door before entering. He couldn't manage to make eye contact with the dragon, and when he needed to speak he limited his responses to curt yes and no answers. When she had tried to engage him in conversation again, no doubt to ask another barrage of questions about whatever topic she could think of, he'd abruptly cut her off and told the somewhat-dismayed Feral that he had other things to be doing today.

So, for the entire morning, Marcus had attempted to busy himself with various miscellaneous tasks around the house. He'd self-administered another uncomfortable regen-injection, cleaned his weapons and gear -including attempting an ad-hoc repair of his bullet-damaged shoulder pad- and set about pricing a new granite countertop to replace the one he'd cracked unintentionally on the night Zera had arrived.

Zera…

He knew it wasn't possible to avoid her forever, despite how much he might want to right now. She was living in his own damn garage, after all. And, the more Marcus thought about that fact, the more he realised it wasn't practical or humane to keep her locked out there for the duration of her stay… however long that might be.

Thus, the human took some time to psych himself up before returning to the garage around noon. Zera, for her part, had appeared happy to see him again. Especially when she heard his proposal.

“You're letting me into the rest of your home?" Zera had asked, the dragon's rapidly swishing tail betraying her poorly hidden excitement to Marcus, who realised he was already starting to pick up on her foreign body language.

He thought about where that green-scaled tail had been just last night, trying and failing to suppress the mental image of it half-buried in her-

“Marcus?" Her uncertain voice snapped the human back to the present.

“Huh? Oh, yeah," he replied. “As long as you don't touch anything without askin' me first."

Zera nodded enthusiastically. “Of course! I mean, I just-" she stammered, “well, I've been getting a little… bored… just sitting in here." Her ears flicked back sheepishly.

Marcus tried not to cringe at her unintentional implication. “Oh you have, have you?" he mumbled, staring intently at an unassuming patch of concrete floor.

“Yes, I mean, I'm usually so busy, so I'm not used to having nothing to do! And you've told me so much about Two-leg homes, and your machines, and-"

“Sure, anyway," Marcus interrupted pointedly, “Let's see if you can fit through the fuckin' door first." He eyed the interior door leading from the garage into his living area, trying to size it up against the dragon's shoulder width.

Zera paused mid-ramble. “Ah. Um, yes, I hadn't thought about that…"

As it turned out, she could fit. Barely. Tucking her wings back and forcing her hips together as much as possible, Zera just managed to squeeze through the doorway and into Marcus' house proper.

The dragon immediately let out a quiet gasp as she took in the space. Marcus folded his arms and silently watched as Zera swivelled her head to look at every object in the room. There she was, back looking like a naïve little kid again -albeit one that was significantly larger than the human himself. What the dragon lacked in height, standing at just under a head shorter than him, she more than made up for in length and body mass. As if to emphasise that fact, when she spun around to look behind her Zera almost sent the contents of the coffee table flying with a near-miss from her long tail.

“Watch it! This house wasn't built for a fuckin' dragon y'know!"

Zera flinched and recoiled her tail under herself. “S-Sorry!" she stuttered weakly.

Marcus held back an exasperated sigh. “It's fine… just watch the fuckin' tail. Wings too." As he glanced at the former appendage, the human idly wondered how she'd managed to clean up, so to speak -considering just what activities it had been employed in the previous evening. That train of thought made Marcus rather uncomfortable, especially with Zera standing right in front of him, so he decided rather hastily to move on.

He opted to give the Feral a quick rundown of some rules and limits; what she could do and where she could go while inside his house. Off limits was pretty much everywhere aside from the living area, garage and bathroom -if only to keep her from inadvertently breaking anything important.

“This place is incredible…" Zera murmured.

“Hm?" Marcus intoned distractedly. He was sat on the couch once again, feeling around for another irritating phantom itch on his prosthetic arm. They usually cropped up relatively infrequently; over the last couple of days, however, they'd been appearing far more often than normal.

Zera paced towards him, returning from inspecting a poorly-tended houseplant Marcus had shoved into a corner some time ago in an attempt to better fill out all the space. “Do all two-legs live like this?"

The human grunted, both in response and in discomfort. His arm was getting worse. “Not exactly. Hell," he said through lightly clenched teeth, “Some people don't have homes at all. Live out on the street. Nah, I do pretty well for myself."

The dragon gave him a quizzical look. “Oh… why don't they just make their own, then?"

Marcus almost laughed before he realised Zera was being totally serious. “That ain't quite how it works," he explained.

He saw the dragon furrow her brow. “Hm. I don't know if I'll ever understand how all this works."

Marcus could only wince in reply, as the itching sensation in his prosthetic developed into a distinctly painful prickling sensation. Was something in the neural interface acting up?

“Are you alright?" Zera asked, a trace of concern in her tone. Marcus looked over to meet her gaze, only to find she had stepped closer and was staring at his right arm- which he had apparently clenched tight into a fist without even noticing.

“Fine," he lied. “Just a little sore. Oh, there's somethin' else I need to show ya'," Marcus said, standing up from the couch and doing his best to mentally suppress the feeling in his arm. “If you're gonna be here a while, you'll have to learn a few things like this."

Zera appeared a little taken aback, but bought his distraction well enough. “O-oh, okay. What is it?" She fell into step beside the human as he paced back through the open-plan living area, up the single stair to the kitchen and left towards the bathroom. As the pair did so, the painful sensations in Marcus' arm began to subside, much to his relief.

Then came the extremely awkward task of explaining to Zera the function and use of a toilet; to save her having to simply head to the back garden for that purpose. After some embarrassing discussion about biological functions, while Marcus tried to avoid the specific topic of anatomy, the dragon eventually seemed to understand what she was supposed to do.

Of course, the human then left her to it. Thankfully, despite his worry that her unusual body shape would make things difficult in that regard, Zera had no problems. She was even able to operate the physical door lock thanks to her surprisingly dextrous front paws -which Marcus only then realised possessed a fully opposable digit that functioned practically as a thumb.

Showing the dragon how to work the shower was much less awkward than the previous endeavour. Thankfully, Marcus had spared no expense when designing his bathroom, and the shower area was very spacious. It covered the entire far wall -separated from the rest of the room by a large glass panel with an opening at one end. As such, it was big enough to comfortably fit Zera despite her size, as long as she curled her lengthy tail in under herself.

After Marcus explained how it worked, and that you could fully control the temperature of the water, the dragon jumped at the chance to properly wash off for what might have been the first time in a while. Apparently her kind just used lakes and streams for that purpose, and the human could understand how the prospect of bathing with unlimited warm water would be attractive to her.

Once Marcus was satisfied Zera knew what she was doing, he left her to her own devices once again. A small portion of his logical mind still recoiled at the prospect of even letting a Feral into his house, never mind into his shower, but the human ultimately ignored it. If Zera was going to be hanging around inside the house proper for the remainder of her stay, she could at least be clean while doing so. And Marcus had to admit, despite their differences he knew he ought to be treating the dragon as well as any other innocent person. More so, in fact, given her situation and how utterly reliant she currently was on him.

Just as he heard the shower start up, a dull itch began anew in Marcus' prosthetic arm. He carefully flexed the synthetic muscles and scowled at how the sensation intensified.

Clearly the limb had sustained more damage than the human had anticipated during his fight with Atlas, the immense grizzly who had also left him with five cracked ribs. His prosthetic was practically military-grade hardware -it took a lot of force, or simply long-term wear and tear, to cause major functional damage to tech like that. He knew it wasn't an issue with the psuedoskin since he had already replaced the previously shredded covering with a brand new one.

The fact that it had taken several days for the problem to become apparent told Marcus that it was likely some sort of internal damage. Perhaps one of the many complex pieces of circuity or wiring which made up the artificial nerve network had come loose -a problem to which the fix was both uncomfortable and time consuming.

As the painful tingling continued to intensify once again throughout his arm, Marcus grimaced. He set about gathering the necessary tools and equipment, pulled off his shirt, then sat down at the kitchen island to begin.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Zera understood.

Now, finally, she understood.

Why the Two-legs had abandoned nature. Why they had built their Cities, confined themselves inside walls and structures, perfected their machinery into such strange and complex forms and functions… Now it all made sense.

This was why.

As the blissfully hot water cascaded over her emerald scales, pattering on her half-unfurled wings and running in rivulets down her body onto her brown underbelly, Zera could only imagine she had died and gone to paradise. How could such a thing be possible? It felt like her entire body was being enveloped in a warm, fluid embrace, almost like lying beside a fire on a cool night -though infinitely better than that. With her tail tucked alongside her, the dragoness twisted her body this way and that as much as the confined space would allow her, so that every part of her lithe form was doused by the falling stream of water. Zera had always hated getting soaked by the rain, but this was something different entirely.

Never mind what she had done last night, this was surely the best feeling in the world. Whatever mechanical magic powered this 'shower' had to be the Two-legs' greatest invention of all! Zera found herself immensely grateful that Marcus had allowed her to make use of it.

Her thoughts drifted to the human. He was quieter today, she noticed. More irritable. He seemed far less inclined to talk or listen to her than he had been the previous day, when they had spoken together for a long time. Zera frowned. Perhaps it was something to do with his arm? On their first meeting, the dragon had noticed how one of Marcus' arms was drastically different to the other -his right being much lighter in colour and totally hairless. Then today, just before he'd shown her how to work the shower, Zera had noticed him tensing the limb tightly and looking like he was in a fair degree of pain.

Perhaps he was suffering from some injury or disease? Marcus had denied anything was wrong, an obvious lie that didn't convince her in the slightest. But she knew not to press the issue -her own mother had often brushed Zera off in a similar fashion and wouldn't take kindly to being pushed. In fact, the older dragon had done just that when she started to become ill, repeatedly telling her daughter nothing was wrong right up until she could no longer leave the cave -shortly before her death.

Zera didn't think Marcus was dying -she hoped not, at any rate. Indeed, a part of her mind worried that his change in demeanour might be due to another reason entirely.

Had he discovered what she had done last night?

She certainly hoped not… but it was a possibility. Had she been too loud? Zera couldn't quite recall -she had definitely tried to be quiet, although the dragoness had no idea if the human's hearing was sensitive enough that he might have overheard, and guessed what she was up to.

There was also the matter of her scent, Zera realised nervously. While it barely registered to her own nose, according to her mother's teaching it would smell incredibly intense to a male dragon, so much so that he could detect the presence of a receptive female from a great distance away. Marcus was no dragon, but he was a male -well, at least she was pretty sure he was. Could he tell what she'd been doing from just her scent alone?

Zera took a deep lungful of warm, moist air and willed herself to calm. Whether Marcus knew or not, he hadn't said anything about it. She didn't know the Two-legs' views on mating and such matters, so it was possible that even if he did know he simply didn't care. Unless the human mentioned it, she decided to try not to worry about the matter. At any rate, Zera wasn't going to let it ruin her heavenly bathing any longer.

The dragoness found that the experience of using the so called 'shower', while incredibly relaxing, seemed to spur her mind into thought. She found herself reflecting on the events of the past few days. Her desperate flight towards the City -Horizon, as Marcus called it. The terrifying experience of stumbling blindly through the Two-leg hordes, all while being assailed by a thousand different sights, scents and sounds. Barely escaping from the ambush by unknown attackers, crash-landing near Marcus' house, and finally meeting the human who had, for whatever reason, taken pity on her.

What was next for her? Zera had found temporary respite with the gruff-but-kind Marcus, but she knew this state of affairs wouldn't last forever. Whilst he had generously allowed her to stay until she had fully recovered her health, Zera had little idea of how long that would take. Already she felt significantly better -her energy was up, strength was returning to her muscles, and the pain from her injuries sustained a few days ago was already barely noticeable. As the dragon glanced over her water-soaked body, she saw that even the discoloured patches of her scaly hide had started to regain their lustre.

It seemed she may be leaving here sooner than anticipated.

The idea of heading back out into the wilderness made Zera nervous. What's to say she wouldn't end up in exactly the same situation as before -only this time with no human to save her?

She supposed that was a problem for the future.

It was at that point that Zera noticed that the room had been totally filled with steam, and she wondered just how long she'd been standing under the delightfully warm spray of water. As much as the dragoness enjoyed the experience, she worried that Marcus might get irritated if she spent too long in here. So, with a twinge of reluctance, she grasped one of the metal handles and rotated it just as the human had shown her.

As she worked the mechanism, the flow of water ceased, and Zera immediately resented its absence. The dragon did her best to shake off as much water as possible, but enough still clung to her scales that she had to make use of one of the large pieces of fabric Marcus had pointed out in order to properly dry herself down. Another oddity she was going to have to get used to, it seemed.

When the fogginess began to gradually clear, Zera found herself staring at the perfectly reflective surface which spanned a large breadth of one of the room's walls. Staring right back was an exact image of herself, far clearer and more lifelike than a reflection on the surface of a pond or lake. The dragoness had never seen herself like this before; it was all she could do to just take in the sight.

There were details to her face that Zera hadn't know existed until now. One of her white horns was slightly more angled than the other. Her sky-blue eyes were actually speckled with little flecks of grey. And, barely noticeable even now, she spotted a tiny scar on the side of her snout, perhaps only half a claw-length in size. Zera remembered getting that injury -another one of her mother's 'training' sessions gone too far -but she had never noticed the lingering scar before.

Zera frowned, finding that she didn't much like what she saw.

With a sigh, the dragoness made for the entranceway, and after some fiddling managed to work the opening mechanism. Zera stepped out into the main area of the house and noticed Marcus sitting nearby, only to cry out in shock when she saw what had befallen the human -he was missing his arm!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Marcus would have sworn to kill Atlas, if he only hadn't already put a bullet through the immense grizzly's neck and left him slain in a pool of his own blood. Even now that his corpse had most likely already been put through one of the city's industrial crematorium-furnaces, the bear was still managing to haunt Marcus from beyond the metaphorical grave.

Completely disconnecting a prosthetic as advanced as his own was fucking painful. When it was on and properly connected the limb effectively acted as an extension of his nervous system. To even begin the process of separating the neural linkage, he had to first hook up his arm to a computer running a custom software package, which took several minutes to sync and analyse the connection. Then, with the click of a red button on the display, Marcus' vision went white and his ears rung as he suffered a minor seizure. Such a side effect was to be expected when instantly cutting off the signal from five artificial nerve bundles at once -each one connected to major nerves in his shoulder.

The human's prosthetic right arm now rested like a dead weight on the countertop, as he quickly came back to his senses and grasped the table for support. Marcus shook his head to clear the remaining fuzziness in his brain. Even if the act of doing so was just a placebo, it seemed to help. He breathed deep and slow, gradually calming his rapid heartbeat back to a normal rhythm.

That had been worse than he remembered.

There was something deeply unnerving about how limp and totally unfeeling his right arm now was. It always reminded Marcus of when he first lost the limb; waking up in a hospital ward with a huge section of his body just missing, and trying to move muscles that no longer existed. Except this time, the arm was still there. And after so long using a fully neutrally integrated prosthetic, suddenly losing all control and sensation of it was disorienting to the human. He even felt a little nauseous at the disconnect between what he was seeing and what his mind was expecting to feel -almost like a strange manifestation of motion sickness.

So, Marcus resolved to get the next step finished as quickly as possible. Now that the neural link had been severed, he had to physically disconnect the arm from the implanted socket in his shoulder. The metallic connection port was wired directly to his spinal column -there was no easy way to detach that without extensive and potentially dangerous surgery. It took Marcus about ten minutes using multiple specialised tools to remove and unlatch all the various screws and clamps connecting the prosthetic to the socket.

After undoing the last physical connection, he quickly grabbed hold of the limp arm with his other hand and gently lowered it flat onto the table. All that remained were the five neural bundles -already electrically disconnected from his nervous system, each cable could be simply removed from their corresponding ports in Marcus' arm socket.

When he was finally done, the human looked down at where his right arm should be. He sighed bitterly. In this state Marcus felt utterly useless; he couldn't fight, drive or do much of anything beyond some basic everyday tasks. Those who couldn't afford expensive, high-grade prosthetics generally learned to get by without their missing limbs, but Marcus had never needed to do so. His first replacement arm, while not nearly as advanced as this one, was still fully neurally integrated -courtesy of his police 'retirement package'- so he had simply never learned how to manage with just one hand.

“Should probably get this over with, then…" he muttered contemptuously.

Using his one working arm, the human started the general diagnostics process on the computer. Distantly he was aware of the sound of the shower shutting off, but Marcus was more focused on watching the progress bar inch painfully slowly along the screen. Ten minutes remaining, nine, eight…

He was shaken from his concentration by a loud, strangled sound, halfway between a cry and a sort of growl. Marcus jerked his head up to find Zera, clearly fresh from the shower and still damp, frozen in a startled posture with wings extended and a look of abject horror on her reptilian muzzle.

“What?" he grunted. “Somethin' wrong?"

The dragon looked equally stunned by his response. She shivered. “W-wrong? Gods above, Marcus, y-y-your arm! It's-"

“Gone? Oh, I hadn't noticed." Marcus said sarcastically. “Thanks for pointin' that out."

“But… you… it was…" Zera stammered, her cerulean gaze darting between the human and the kitchen island, where his prosthetic lay flat along the granite surface. Finally, a look of realisation dawned on her face, and her posture visibly relaxed.

“It's not real, is it?" Cautiously, she trod closer, still peering at the detached arm. “It's another machine…"

The human raised his eyebrows, impressed. “Yeah… you figured that one quick, huh?

Zera frowned slightly. “It makes sense, I suppose. You seem to do everything with machines."

“Hmm," he grunted, eyeing the progress bar again. Still a few minutes to go. “I'm kinda surprised you didn't notice it before."

“W-well, I did notice that it was different than the other, but…" Zera looked back up at Marcus, examining the hole in his shoulder where the connector socket was.

The dragon's gaze seemed to be tracing the myriad patchwork of scars around his right side -further remnants of the explosion which took Marcus' arm. Such scars could be fully healed with extremely expensive regrowth treatment, but after some deliberation the human had ultimately opted to keep them. It wouldn't have felt right to undo that damage, not when his original limb could never be returned as well.

“Your arm…" Zera finally said. “What happened?"

At that, Marcus sighed. “Long story. Painful one, too. Rather not get into it, if I'm bein' honest."

Zera looked abashed. “Ah… sorry." She might have left it there, but once again it seemed the dragon's ravenous curiosity got the better of her. “Is… is it a battle scar?"

The human paused briefly before responding. “Yeah, of sorts…"

“Have you been in many fights?" Zera asked quietly.

Marcus let out a short laugh. “Hmph. More than I can remember."

The dragon looked back over at his inert prosthetic. “Mother tried to teach me to fight," she murmured. “She said it was important for a dragon to be able to defend themselves… not that I was ever any good at it…"

Before either of them could say another word, Marcus' right arm jerked violently on the kitchen island, clenching its fingers into a tight fist before releasing them with a strong spasm.

“Agh! By the Gods!" Zera practically jumped out of her metaphorical skin. Even Marcus flinched back. He hadn't been expecting that to happen.

“Shit…" he mumbled. The general diagnostic check had finished, and when he looked at the display the human groaned in frustration. The results didn't look good. A major connection fault had been identified, which was causing a short-circuit somewhere within the incredibly intricate and dense artificial nerve network.

That would explain the uncomfortable sensations Marcus had been feeling, as well as the uncontrolled spasm when the computer sent an electrical pulse through the arm as part of the diagnostic process. Unfortunately for him, the general check wasn't enough to identify the precise location of the fault -it could potentially be just one nervous fibre out of thousands.

So, with a resigned sigh, Marcus keyed in the command to begin a fully detailed diagnostic -a process which would test the conductivity and integrity of every individual fibre.

Zera watched him intently as he worked, saying nothing -yet Marcus knew the dragon was just itching to ask what he was doing. Once he finished inputting the correct parameters and hit 'start' on the screen, the human waited with dread for the estimated completion time to show. And when it did, his worries were proven valid.

//ESTIMATED TIME REMAINING: 1D 5H 37M//

“Fuck…"

“P-pardon?" Zera asked. “What's wrong with it?"

Marcus glanced back at her. “Damaged," he replied curtly.

The dragon shuffled her wings. “Can... can you mend it?"

“Hmm. Sure fuckin' hope so. Won't know for sure until tomorrow evenin', though."

“Oh. Why?"

The human might have found her repeated questioning almost amusing if he hadn't been in such a foul mood. Still, Marcus gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore the growing irritation he felt. “I gotta' leave it here to run diagnostics. It won't be finished until then. That means," he swivelled to fix Zera with a firm glare, “don't come near it durin' that time, okay?"

The dragon practically recoiled at his look, and Marcus quickly felt guilty once more. “O-of course!" she stammered. “I'll stay out of the way!"

Perhaps that glare had come across more intimidating than he intended. Although, he did wonder how a man with one arm could be intimidating at all…

“Alright," Marcus nodded. He hopped down from the stool and began to make his way back to the living area. “And, for fuck's sake, you can stop bein' so afraid all the time." He turned around to look Zera in the eyes, as the dragon stared uncertainly back at him, and sighed. “I've told you before, I'm not gonna hurt you."

Zera appeared as if she was going to say something in reply, but ultimately, she simply shut her mouth and nodded. Marcus thought that perhaps she didn't quite believe him, but then the dragon's posture softened, and she followed him over to the living room, moving to stand next to the coffee table as the human collapsed back onto the couch.

“Um… may I?" she asked, gesturing to the cream-coloured rug which took up much of the floor space around the table.

Marcus waved his hand dismissively at her. “Sure, go ahead."

The dragon settled down on the rug, stretching her quadrupedal body out and relaxing partly onto her side. “Wow, that's…" Zera rubbed her scaled body against the soft fabric of the rug, apparently enraptured by the texture. “Gods, that's so comfortable!" Quickly she glanced up at Marcus, hesitating briefly. “May… may I sleep here tonight?"

He sighed. “Sure, if you want." What harm could it do?

Zera looked ecstatic. “Thank you!" She kept her head up, watching Marcus as he affixed the temporary cap for his shoulder socket -a simple piece of plastic meant to protect the delicate and expensive neural fibre connectors from dirt and damage.

“You know, I never imagined you to be quite so hairless," she quipped.

Marcus frowned, unsure if he'd really heard her correctly. “What?"

Zera tilted her head. “I always thought you'd have some fur under that fabric you cover yourself with."

The human shifted awkwardly. He suddenly felt self-conscious about his own semi-nakedness, having been so preoccupied with sorting out his arm that he'd almost forgotten he was half undressed in front of his 'guest'.

“Yeah, well, now you know." He wished she'd stop staring at his bare torso. After the previous night's display, the last thing Marcus wanted was to feel like the dragon was ogling him. At least the regen-injections had already fixed the severe bruising he'd suffered during his most recent fight. Those would likely have raised even more awkward questions.

“Surely not all Two-legs are like that, though. I saw so many on my way through the City, and most were covered with fur!"

Marcus grunted as he fixed the last clip into place. “Nope. I'm a human. That's kinda' what we're known for. You mind?"

“Hm?"

“You're starin'." Perhaps he ought to throw his shirt back on, he thought. Or was she just staring at his missing arm?

Zera quickly looked away. “Sorry! I didn't mean to…"

The human rolled his eyes. “ 'S fine. Just distracting is all."

Marcus attempted to activate the viewscreen with a right-handed gesture, only to be reminded that that particular limb was no longer attached to him. Scowling in irritation, he repeated the gesture with his left hand -unclenching his closed fist into an open palm- and the screen came to life, startling Zera from where she lay.

“Ah! What is that?" she asked, looking at the screen with her ears flicked back in apprehension.

Marcus allowed himself a small grin. “You were impressed by just the bathroom? You ain't seen nothin' yet."

The system finished booting, and a loading icon was replaced instantly by the feed which had been streaming to the viewscreen when it was last shut down.

The human froze. He was looking straight at the live camera feed from his garage, the final thing he'd viewed before hastily turning off the system last night. The room was empty, as expected, everything just as it had been when they left it. Marcus was torn between quickly closing the feed versus not wanting to appear suspicious, but when he glanced at the dragon it seemed he was too late. The gears already seemed to be turning in her head as she processed what was in front of her.

“Wait, that's-!" she stuttered disbelievingly, her head whirling around towards the garage door.

“Uh, yeah…"

Zera settled her wings back down, but remained standing. The look on her face was something between confusion and disbelief. “But… how?" she asked, looking back expectantly at Marcus.

Well, it was too late to turn back now. Marcus suppressed a grimace at the thought of what would surely come next. He'd been hoping to keep his knowledge of last night's incident to himself, but given the current situation and how astute Zera had proven herself to be, he doubted he'd be able to lie his way out of this one.

“That's from a camera. They're, uh-"

“Machines?" Zera interjected.

“…yeah." Her sharp-wittedness once again left Marcus somewhat taken aback. “They let you see things that are happenin' in other places. I've got 'em all over the house, and outside too, so I can see what's goin' on. Actually, that's how I knew you were outside the other night."

To illustrate the point, he brought up the combined view showing every camera feed in the building. “See us there?" he asked, pointing to a section of the display containing a live video of the living room.

Zera peered closer, and gasped quietly when she saw the small image of herself looking back. “What kind of magic is this?" she practically whispered.

Marcus snorted. “Magic? No magic here. Just technology. There's a camera mounted right on top of the screen, lookin' at ya'"

The dragon's gaze flitted about, searching for it, before she focused on a point just above the top of the viewscreen. “There," she inclined her snout towards a small black sphere, only a few centimetres across. “I see it," she breathed.

Impressed with Zera's keen eyesight, Marcus thought for a moment his attempt at side-tracking had worked to distract her. He allowed himself a quiet sigh of relief. Now to just change the subject, and-

“…There is one of those in the ga-raj?"

Fuck.

“There's one in every room, see?" he added hurriedly.

It was too late. Zera's expression had morphed into one of poorly restrained panic. Her reptilian maw was set ajar, and her deerlike ears were flattened as far back as possible against her head. Marcus even picked up a slight quiver in her stance. This was going to be bad…

“Uh, anyway, I'm gonna-"

“I'm sorry!" Zera blurted. “I-I thought I was alone, I had no i-idea you c-could see in there! I just-"

Marcus did his best to feign ignorance. “Whoa, calm down! I don't know what you're goin' on about, Zera. I didn't see shit," he lied.

The dragon didn't buy it. “P-please, Marcus, don't l-lie to me… you've been acting differently a-all day, I didn't know why, I mean I was w-worried, but I didn't know for sure, but now…"

“Look, Zera…" the human began, but the words died in his mouth. There was no point in keeping up the façade if she'd already worked out the truth. “I… I didn't mean to see anythin'," Marcus relented, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck with his remaining hand. “I just heard a noise, and looked at the camera feed to check there wasn't trouble…"

Zera's eyes widened even further. “Y-you HEARD?" she squeaked.

The human grimaced, but couldn't bring himself to reply, not even to make a joke and lighten the mood. He blinked slowly and brought his hand up to massage his temple, exhaling forcefully.

The dragon was no longer looking at him. “Oh nooooooo…" she whined, slowly sinking onto the rug before burying her face under her front paws. She remained still for a moment, breathing heavily, and a weighty silence settled on the room.

Marcus cringed internally. The human was no prude, and had spent enough years kicking down doors and breaking into residences that he'd become almost desensitised to interrupting people's private acts. But this was something else entirely. This was inside his own house, and it wasn't just some stranger he'd embarrassed; it was a person who was going to be living with him for several weeks at least, and who was currently entrusting her safety to him.

Minutes passed, and neither human nor dragon attempted to break the uncomfortable silence which made every tiny noise seem like an earthquake -especially to Marcus' enhanced hearing. His mind raced trying to find the right words to diffuse such an immensely awkward situation. Zera still had her head in her paws, but Marcus noted with some relief that she at least wasn't crying into his nice clean rug. But what the fuck was he supposed to say?

“Uh, anyway… sorry 'bout that."

Zera's reply was barely audible, muffled and hoarse as it was. “W-what?"

“I'm sorry about spyin' on you like that," he sighed. “Shoulda' respected your privacy and all. It, uh, won't happen again."

One paw lifted away, and a single blue eye peered back up at him. “You're sorry?" she asked incredulously.

Marcus nodded. “Sure. 'S my fault, this whole thing," he admitted. “Me bein' too fuckin' paranoid."

Zera raised her head to look straight at him, still lying belly-down on the rug with her wings folded defensively over her. “B-but, it was me who… who…"

“Yeah," he shrugged, “but it's not like we all haven't done that at some point."

Zera frowned and stared down at the floor, apparently unsure what to make of that comment.

“Well, maybe not the thing with the tail…" Marcus muttered quietly.

Apparently not quietly enough. The dragon looked absolutely mortified for a second, before she buried her head under her front paws again and let out a muffled scream into the carpet fibres. Marcus snorted, and completely failed to suppress the chuckle that followed. Something about the absurdity of the situation tickled him. A one-armed man sitting on his couch, making awkward conversation with his resident dragon after he'd caught her fucking herself with her own tail, feeling just like a dad who'd caught his kid downloading something racy onto their datapad…

Before he could stop himself, Marcus' chuckling had dissolved into laughter. Not just amused sniggering, but full-on belly laughter that forced the human to clutch his sore chest with his single arm, and as he fell back into the couch he heard another, impossible sound -muffled giggling coming from Zera's heaped form, which eventually too broke into proper laughter, a high and melodic tone that sounded all too pure for this world, and then they were laughing together, human and dragon both caught in this inexplicable situation as their bodies shook with unrestrained mirth that was more cathartic to Marcus than any amount of distractions or painkillers could ever be…

It could have been ten minutes or more by the time the pair composed themselves, their contagious bout of laughter almost threatening to repeat itself again before Marcus forced himself to stop. The human leaned heavily into the cushions behind him, breathing deeply, and he could hear Zera doing the same from her position on the floor. An amused smirk was still spread across his features.

“This is not how I thought this week would go…"

“That," the dragon gasped between deep breaths, “I can agree with."

Marcus sat forward again, and gently ran his hand through his dark hair. He couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed like that, as if he had no other cares in the world. The human exhaled forcefully and stood, glancing over at Zera -who seemed somewhat more at ease now that the situation had been defused.

“You wanna just put this behind us?" he asked with a lopsided grin.

Zera's eyes darted down to the floor again, even as she let a small smile grace her reptilian snout, residual embarrassment clearly still visible in her expression. “Yes, that would be best," she said. “I'd rather just forget about it entirely…"

The human nodded. “You got it." He made to walk into the kitchen, skirting past the dragon's prone form as she eyed him curiously. “I'm starvin' -you want somethin' to eat?"

He almost chuckled again when Zera's eyes lit up, and her whole body tensed in anticipation. “By the gods, yes. I could eat a whole deer!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An ocean of green spread out below the dragoness. The grassy plain stretched all the way to the horizon, where the great azure firmament appeared to reach down and meet it at a distance some several days flight away. Though her overworked wing muscles had by now begun to ache in protest, Zera couldn't help but appreciate the peaceful moment for what it was. She was certainly no keen flier, but conditions were about as perfect as she could hope for; with the warm summer heat providing ample updrafts to catch lift from, and a firm breeze blowing from behind, a dragon didn't have to work nearly as hard to stay in the air.

Beating her wings a few more times, Zera glanced to her left, towards the ochre-scaled form of her mother. The larger dragon seemed to glide almost effortlessly, with more poise and control than Zera ever felt she could achieve. For every four or five wingbeats Zera needed, her mother only made one, making as she did such expert use of the updrafts and air currents that flying seemed as easy as walking for her. Her yellowed muzzle was set in a mask of total focus, one that broke slightly when she noticed her daughter gazing over at her. Zera's mother gave her a small smile, a rare token of affection coming such a harsh and stern dragoness. The easy flying had clearly put her in a good mood.

Zera smiled back, and did her best not to let her mounting exhaustion show. Weakness was not something her mother tolerated lightly; Zera had learned over the years to hide it whenever possible lest she incur her mother's anger. They might have exchanged some words, but at this altitude and speed the dragons would have to shout at each other just to be heard over the rushing air, so the pair instead held their silence as they continued to soar over the open plain.

At this time of day the sun was directly overhead, and despite the wind whipping past her Zera felt herself starting to overheat. In the distance, a sparkle of reflected sunlight revealed the presence of a river meandering its way across the plain. The young dragoness thought it would make a good place to rest, drink and hunt for their next meal, and was about to call out to her mother to suggest as such when a jagged pain tore across her left wing and she began to fall from the sky.

Zera barely heard the distant shout of her mother as she careened towards the ground, caught in a spin and completely unable to correct herself. She screamed and roared, in pain and in terror, as she tumbled wing over paw with no way to slow her descent. The green ocean rose to meet her, coming closer and closer until she could almost see the individual blades of grass, and then it was gone, replaced by towering spires and immense constructions which glowed like rainbows in the night as they speared into the sky. Zera hardly had time to process her shock, as she tried and tried to extend her injured wing and catch the air again, but it was for naught. She plummeted down through the City, passing right between the impossible Two-leg structures as the hard stone surfaces of their great pathways grew ever closer, closer until Zera hit the ground with a sickening crack…

…and yelped as she jerked awake inside Marcus' house. The dragoness' sleep-addled mind took a moment to fully process where she was, and dismiss that horrifying experience as just another nightmare plaguing her dreams. Zera's heart hammered in her chest as the residual fear began to fade, and she took a deep, shuddering breath, willing herself to calm.

Zera had always suffered from frequent nightmares since she was a hatchling, but her last few sleeps since arriving in the City had by contrast been restful and uninterrupted -despite all the awful things she had just endured. Now, however, it appeared her mind had caught up with recent events and was ready to fill her nights with imagined terrors once again.

The dragoness sighed deeply, and stretched each of her limbs out as she lay lengthways on her side. Marcus had generously offered for her to sleep on what he called a 'couch' – the long object he'd been sitting on while showing her the wondrous viewing-machine on the opposite wall. Zera could hardly believe how comfortable the fabric-coated 'couch' was. It was like nothing she'd ever felt in her life, even better than the soft material covering the floor below.

Her most comfortable sleeping arrangements prior to arriving here had been limited to spongy, moss-covered patches of grass and smooth cave floors, and they didn't even come close to this. Zera felt as if her whole body was being supported by a soft and fluffy cloud, or that she was floating weightless on the surface of a pond. The fabric cushioned her scaled hide so well that it was difficult to tell where her body stopped and the couch began.

Just another wonder of Two-leg creation, she thought.

It was so comfortable that Zera had fallen asleep barely moments after climbing up onto it, before Marcus had even left the room. She wasn't going to fall asleep nearly so quickly now, not with that nightmare still playing freshly in her mind. And, Zera realised with a frustrated snort, there was a more pressing physical issue as well.

Giving a quiet groan, the dragoness shuffled herself off the couch and stood on tired legs, before trudging off in the direction of the 'bath-room' which Marcus had introduced her to yesterday. The inside of Marcus' home was almost pitch black at night, with only a few pinpricks of light originating from what Zera presumed to be various machines scattered around the place. The human's machine-arm was also still there, positioned on top of the raised stone platform where Marcus had left it. It looked unnerving to her, its shadowed form still and unliving. Zera almost expected it to suddenly jump to life at any moment, so she chose not to dawdle and continued on her way.

The machine used for relieving oneself was still bizarre to her, and had certainly taken a bit of practice to get used to. No doubt it had not been designed for a dragon to use. Still, it worked well enough, and Zera once again marvelled at the casual usage of so much clean water for the simple purpose of removing waste.

She almost wondered why anyone bothered to live outside of the Cities at all. Well, aside from the fact that most Two-legs seemed to disdain her kind, to the point where she'd been openly attacked by a group of them for no apparent reason other than being what she was.

Zera knew she wasn't safe in Horizon. Marcus seemed to think so too, hence he'd told her not to leave his home under any circumstances- not until she was fully healthy and ready to leave for good. It somewhat disappointed Zera that she wouldn't be able to stay in the City for the long term, and the dragoness wondered how she would manage to cope back in the 'wilds' once she'd grown acclimatised to all the comforts of living here.

She supposed she'd have no choice but to.

Upon finishing her business, Zera returned from the bath-room to hear a series of quiet clicks, followed by one of the entranceways opening up -the one leading to Marcus' sleeping chamber, she recalled. Lo and behold, the human appeared looking out through the gap, with what had to be another weapon clasped firmly in his left hand. His gaze was agitated and hostile for a moment, and Zera almost panicked herself in response, until he recognised her approaching form in the darkness and visibly relaxed.

“Oh. Zera. Jus' you…" he breathed, before lowering his weapon. “I heard some noise, thought maybe… uh, never mind. Trouble sleepin'?" Marcus asked, leaning against the side of the open entranceway.

The dragoness did her best not to appear startled. “A little…" She padded softly back towards the couch as the human failed to suppress a yawn. “I'm sorry to wake you… who were you expecting? An intruder?"

Marcus exhaled deeply. “Hmm. Maybe. Don't worry about it, anyway. Need anythin'?" he asked tiredly.

Zera shook her head, before climbing back up onto her makeshift bedding, craning her long neck around to look at the human over the high back of the couch. “No, thank you."

“Alright. Jus-" Marcus interrupted himself with another yawn, “just knock if ya' do." With that, he retreated back through the entranceway, closing it over behind him. Zera listened curiously as she once again heard multiple clicks originating from it. The dragon could only guess at what sort of complicated mechanism was responsible for the noise, but she assumed it had something to do with keeping the entrance closed off. Marcus did appear to be quite fond of his privacy.

The dragoness relaxed back into a lying posture, but she doubted sleep would come again soon. Zera was no longer as tired as she had been over the past few weeks; several days of rest and plentiful food had served her recovery well, and she had gone from feeling constant exhaustion to being relatively full of energy. More than that, however, Zera was still somewhat shaken from the vivid nightmare, and the sensation of falling uncontrollably from the sky still echoed in her imagination. Such a fatal misfortune had almost happened to her in real life just a few days prior, after the desperate escape from her attackers and barely-controlled landing in this outer part of the City.

Having had some time to ponder those events, Zera realised that, despite all her previous misfortunes, she had been incredibly lucky to land where she did, and chance upon Marcus' home instead of the potentially hundreds of others she might have tried to seek shelter near.

Because, despite his initial hostility, the human had shown incredible kindness and generosity to the ailing dragoness, a sentiment Zera felt she had done nothing to deserve. By her mother's own words, one who was not fit to survive on their own was not fit to survive at all. That lesson had been repeated over and over to her, and weighed heavily on Zera's mind even before her mother became deathly ill. Her own repeated failure to live up to the expectations of her sole parent, and subsequent inability to survive and provide for herself alone made Zera feel practically worthless. For after all, what was a dragon who couldn't even keep themselves fed, never mind grow strong enough to master both the sky and land as was their birthright?

And yet, it seemed Marcus didn't care about any of that. Sure, he had been gruff and sometimes short with her, yet he hadn't once judged or berated her when she told him what had happened to her. He had offered her food, shelter and the comforts of his people's inventions unconditionally, expecting nothing in return other than following some basic rules of conduct. The human had even brushed off the immensely embarrassing incident of last night, and had actually apologised himself! For something that was entirely Zera's fault!

The dragoness felt a deep shame resurface at the memory. Knowing that Marcus had seen her so… exposed, and in such a compromising position committing such a humiliating act… Zera didn't know if she would ever live it down. Although, she once again was indebted to him for turning the whole situation on its head and forcing her to laugh at the utter absurdity of it; once the human had begun chuckling, Zera couldn't help but see the funny side, despite her embarrassment. She hadn't laughed like that since she was a child, back when the days were easy and life was almost carefree. The warm, fuzzy feeling it gave her was almost enough to override the shame of being caught.

Almost… but not quite.

The rest of the day had been uneventful in comparison. Marcus prepared food a few more times, and the two had engaged in progressively less awkward conversation as the day wore on. Zera found there was something liberating about talking to the human. After living her whole life until recently with only her own mother for company, and then spending a whole cycle alone, having someone new and relatively non-judgemental to talk with and learn from had given the dragoness an outlet she hadn't known she needed.

She told him about dragons and life outside the City; he listened with interest, and talked about life inside it. She spoke about her struggles to survive and confessed to her own weakness and unhappiness; he reacted with sympathy, and explained that life wasn't so easy here either, just more complicated.

Zera supposed Marcus had become her first real friend in the world.

Still, it bothered her that the human had seen her so… well, intimately. She felt there would always be an uncomfortable edge to their interactions going forward, something unspoken that lingered under the surface even if neither of them mentioned it again. Just now, Zera noticed that slight sense of embarrassment and nervousness arise in her gut at only the thought of it. Imagining Marcus standing frozen, looking at her displayed openly up on that wall committing that unspeakable act, the human thinking gods-only-knew what… Zera felt a flutter in her stomach as she shifted uncomfortably on the couch. How long had he watched for? Did he… enjoy it?

It took her noticing the gradual dampening of the scales around her tailbase and between her hind legs for Zera to finally realise where her train of thought was leading. Her eyes shot open, and she brought a front paw up to her snout in alarm, horrified with herself for even considering such a notion.

Why was she reacting this way? It didn't make any sense! Zera was embarrassed, ashamed, humiliated at what had happened… and yet, somehow, the thought of Marcus seeing all of it also excited her in a perverse sort of way. The dragon squeezed her thighs together in an attempt to stave off the unwelcome sensation, her mind racing trying to understand why this was having such an effect on her. It wasn't like she was attracted to the human! She couldn't be -he wasn't even a dragon!

But… he was a male. The first male she had ever properly met. Was it just a natural reaction? Zera so desperately wanted to blame this new and unwanted feeling on some unconscious instinct, for it was the only sensible explanation she could conceive of.

Then again… he had been so good to her. Marcus had literally saved her life, and gone out of his way to not only help Zera but treat her with compassion and selflessness the likes of which the dragon had never experienced before in her life. He was gruff, maybe, but strong of body and of will. He had fought in battles, and had the scars to prove it, yet was willing to make peace with and even help someone who had trespassed in his home.

Though she had only known the human for a brief few days, Zera could not deny that she very much liked being around Marcus. Perhaps, she thought, that could explain why thinking about him watching her last night made her feel the way it did…

The dragon groaned quietly. This was all getting to be so complicated. Zera felt trapped in her frustration and anxiety over the matter. Perhaps this was all just a crazy notion spurred on by the events of today, and in the morning she would feel totally normal again and be able to dismiss the whole idea. That would certainly make things a lot easier.

But as she tossed and turned and tried desperately to sleep, Zera only felt that frustration grow. When she did eventually drift off into unconsciousness once more, it was to half-dreamed thoughts of Marcus… and of just what he might be hiding underneath all that clothing…

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The muffled thumping of bassy electronic beats rattled around Zianos' skull incessantly, setting his already fraying nerves even more on edge. The sound carried easily through the bare-metal walls and floors of the dingy little apartment, frustrating any attempt he made to concentrate on the task in front of him. He brought a paw up to wipe the sweat off his furred brow. It was sweltering in the small backroom, with no windows to open or air conditioning to turn up, the heat bolstered by the hot water pipe running along the ceiling in one corner.

The tiger reached over to crack the door open, flinching as the music became even louder as a result.

“Hey!" he called out, receiving no response. “HEY!"

The music cranked a little lower. “What?" came the irritated reply.

“You mind turning that shit down a little? I can't hear myself think in here!"

“Yeah, I do mind, you stripey fucking prick. This is my apartment, and I'll listen to it as loudly as I damn like!" A scowling canine muzzle appeared from around the corner, black-furred and edged with silver. Rian's frown deepened when he met Zianos' gaze through the doorway. “You look like a fucking mess. Have you finished the job yet?"

The tiger tried to glare back, but found his resolve weaker than the wolf's. He glanced to the side, unable to match his gaze. “I've been trying," he sighed. “Can't exactly concentrate very well with that awful noise going all day!"

“Hmph. You'd fucking better. You sure as hell aren't living here rent-free. Ain't that right, Lin?"

A female voice shouted from the next room. “Damn right! That bitch is lucky I'm giving him an advance in the first place!"

Lin, Rian's maned-wolf fiancé, was the one who roped him into this whole scheme to begin with. Desperate for somewhere to hide out and lay low after that disastrous night just over a week ago, Zianos had accepted the first offer he received from his network of relatively trustworthy contacts. Lin was well experienced with retrieval, and had worked as muscle for him on a couple of data-heist jobs in the past -Zianos trusted her enough to believe she wouldn't give him up if anyone came knocking. Her price wasn't cheap, however.

“Zianos! How close are you to cracking that account? I'll be needing that money soon, or this deal of ours is off!"

“At this rate?" he huffed. “Another day, at least."

Lin growled. “Then you'd better get on with it." Rian grunted in affirmation before vanishing around the corner again, and Zianos made to quickly close the door before the music blasted back to full volume once more.

Of course, now the power balance between them was reversed. Zianos didn't dare risk accessing any of his extensive personal finances lest his location be traced, so he needed to make some quick money fast to match Lin's high price for her 'hospitality'. The tiger was currently trying to gain access to the social profile of a wealthy local official, in order to pull off a classic extortion scheme the likes of which had been his main speciality for some years in the past. If it all went smoothly, he -or rather, Lin- would be in for a pretty decent pay-out.

Zianos had managed to graduate from those kinds of low-level jobs some time ago, and had built up his own criminal operation to almost a dozen people strong, all of whom were working directly for him. But then, just as the big money was starting to roll in, and Zianos was starting to gain the attention of some pretty powerful interests…

Marcus happened.

Zianos could hardly recognise the man he once called friend. The human had efficiently torn through his entire operation and killed every single person in the building, and had done it so expertly that the tiger didn't even know anything was wrong until the first shots punched through his office door.

Kirin was killed where she stood. Zianos then had to watch Marcus shoot his own gun out of his hand, before murdering three more of his people- including Atlas. Marcus had slain the grizzly with such horrifying and brutal precision that the tiger couldn't help but void his stomach at the sight. The blood, the stench…

Yet as gruesome and terrifying as that sight had been, it wasn't what was keeping Zianos up at night. No, what had him lying awake in a cold sweat was the reason he was hiding out here in the first place. The data Marcus took from him was wanted by some very powerful people; people Zianos had agreed to sell it to, and who would be extremely displeased to learn that he'd lost it.

His old friend… how had it come to this? Marcus had declined to put a bullet in his head himself, yet the tiger still felt that he'd been handed a death sentence.

All he could do was hide out here until the heat eventually died down, however long that might take, and pray to whatever gods were listening that he hadn't been tracked…

Zianos let out a shuddering sigh. He'd been here a full week now, and there had been no sign of any danger so far. Maybe he'd managed to give them the slip. Maybe…

His train of thought was broken by Rian's shout, just audible over the music. “Zianos!" he called; the wolf's normally steady voice tinged with a note of worry. “We might have a problem!"

Zianos' stomach dropped as his eyes widened in panic. A problem? What kind of-

The door swung open, revealing Lin's muzzle- her expression a contradictory mix of panic and fury. “What the fuck did you just bring down on us, you lying little bastard?"

The tiger felt his hands begin to shake. “Wh-what?"

“That camera I planted just got triggered. There are three armed men coming down the corridor right now, and I somehow doubt they're looking to speak to our neighbours!" The maned wolf bared her teeth and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders, spittle flying as she raged. “This ain't the police! This is unmarked, armoured-up private fucking security! Just who the fuck did you get involved with?"

Zianos trembled in her grip. “I -I need to hide! Our deal… you agreed!" he stammered.

For a moment, Lin looked as if she was ready to just hand him over and be done with it. Much to the tiger's relief, however, she instead sighed and released him, a scowl fixed on her muzzle as she broke eye contact.

“Yeah… I fuckin' know." There may have been no honour among thieves, but the idea of ratting people out would never sit right with someone like Lin.

She quickly indicated the wall behind Zianos. “There's a loose panel there. Crawl space should be enough to fit even your fat ass in. Now hurry the fuck up!"

The tiger nodded firmly and immediately spun to find the panel. As he worked, he heard Lin shouting instructions to Rian.

“Get your gun!" she cried, slamming the door shut behind her. “I'll try and send 'em away!"

A few long moments passed. Zianos had managed to get the panel removed, and was busy trying to stuff his rotund frame through the rather modest gap, feet first. There was a banging at the apartment door, and he redoubled his efforts as panic took over once again.

He heard the apartment door open, and the sound of an unknown voice distorted by a helmet speaker. The tiger couldn't make out what was being said, but Lin's response was just audible.

“Tiger?" she asked. “Not here. Think I saw one a few doors down, maybe. What's it to y-"

A gunshot rang out, the noise almost deafening even through the walls. Half a second later, the unmistakable sound of a body thudding to the floor reached Zianos, and he suppressed a terrified yell as he tried frantically to scramble backwards into the crawl space. He'd barely managed to get his waist through when he heard the enraged roar of Rian, followed by a cacophony of gunfire from automatic weapons and bullets slamming into metal surfaces.

Silence followed, punctuated only by Zianos' heavy breathing. He was through up to his shoulders now, with one arm outstretched in front of him to grab the metal panel and replace it to cover his tracks. Almost through! Just-

Heavy boots approached faster than he could move. The door to the back room swung open, and despite Zianos' desperate struggling his head and forearm were still stuck outside of the crawl space when he saw the gun pulled on him.

The armed figure loomed over him, face obscured by a smooth black tactical helmet. Zianos was sure there was a smirk hidden under it. The tiger almost pissed himself in fear. Was this really how it was going to end?

“Got him," it spoke. “In here. Come and see this shit."

Zianos could do nothing but lie there, too frozen in dread to even beg for his life -not that it would make any difference with these people.

More heavy footsteps preceded two more figures appearing in the doorway, clad in identical gear as the first. No part of their bodies was visible, only the design of the helmets giving some clue as to their individual species. Zianos guessed at least one was human, judging by the lack of a muzzle space in its helmet.

“Ha! Fucking pathetic. Get him out and bag him."

Bag him? What were they-"

The butt of a rifle cracked down on his temple, and the tiger knew only blackness.