Tales from EXODUS - A Lizard in the Orchard

August 2067. Xadre is a reptilian alien working as a fruit-picker in an orchard, together with others of his kin. His recent "cultural exchange" with a Terran girl, though, has made him long for meeting her again. Thus, when he receives a sudden message from her, he asks his friend Brandon to help him find the right words to write back to Paddy...

Strong teeth pierced the pulp of a odd-looking fruit, in the light of a fading summer. They snapped out a chunk of it, ripping the peel with it too, savoring its sugary taste with tranquillity. Another bite, as small yellow-ish grains scattered on his snout, spreading juice all over his reddish scales. He crunched his improvised meal for a while longer, while rubbing his skin with his clawed hand. That impromptu snack had been refreshing, as the August heat had decided to make its presence clear. He glanced at the remains of the fruit, the naked, rugged core protecting the plant’s seeds. Seeds that would, no doubt, foster new, healthy trees, which then would mature and produce plenty of those soft ripe, bubbly, orange balls. Despite being familiar with them and enjoying their taste, he still couldn’t remember how to properly pronounce their name. Peech, pix, pees. Terran alphabets and phonetic rules were very confusing. He could barely read and understand the meaning of their written texts. Speaking it was fortunately not an issue, but also not something he did often. He licked the exposed core of the fruit with his long tongue, following its contours, its curves, its folds and bumps. It reminded him of her, somehow. The taste of her delicate skin, of her lips, the softness of her embrace hadn’t left his memory yet. If anything, licking that core brought back feelings he didn’t want to let go that easily. He pulled out his phone – a reinforced EvE model created explicitly for devsks and shoigas – checked that message again. He wished he could understand half the words she wrote him. He couldn’t really be sure of whether that was good or bad news, at first. He even went so far as trying to fiddle with the built-in English-Gradka translator (still experimental and prone to catastrophic errors), but the result had been equally bizarre. Then, the picture she sent him not even one minute later cleared all of his doubts, causing his mouth to just fall agape. He opened it again, zoomed it, stared at it without saying a word, for several seconds, still wondering about what to write back. He let his eyes wander on that face, those emerald eyes, that shining red hair arranged in a long ponytail, those freckles sprinkled on her fair skin, skin that also showed a pronounced blush at the level of her cheeks. She was perfect. Absolutely perfect. His snout contorted a little, in what shoigas could have called “a smile” – more like a mockery of it, but the rigidity of their facial features didn’t allow for a vast range of expressions. And that’s when he heard it, a voice from behind him.

“Yo, Xadre! In a good mood, ain’t we?”

The shoiga called Xadre turned around, only to notice another reptilian creature waving his clawed hand at him. Contrary to him, his scales were of a dark green and showed significantly less spikes. He was wearing his same uniform, though, consisting of light t-shirt, trousers and an apron with a colorful logo – a super-deformed, cartoonish version of their boss, diving into a gigantic barrel of wine. The name La Maison du Vin towered over the picture, written in an elaborate script that felt foreign and alien to the shoigas, but was considered elegant and refined by humans. Apparently, it was French – a human language spoken on the other side of the English Channel, and it roughly translated to “The House of Wine”. Xadre has asked himself multiple times why J.J. of the Saxo brood had chosen that specific language for christening his commercial activity, finding no good explanation. It might have been the same reason why that nightclub managed by that old cranky devsk had been renamed to “Le Coq Heureux”, but as much as he twisted his brain about it, he couldn’t find any double entendre in “The House of Wine” that could have forced the change. Maybe, his knowledge of human languages was still too rough to reach a satisfying conclusion – a conclusion that would have had to wait anyway, as the other shoiga approached while waving his clawed hand. Xadre nodded at the newcomer, while still clinging to both his phone and the core of that fruit he was feasting on moments before.

“I’d say so, yes. A good mood, indeed.”

“So, she wrote back? She wrote back, didn’t she?”

Xadre tapped on the phone, scrolled up to the message he received sooner that day. A seemingly endless wall of text his neurons were refusing to parse, distributed in around four screens worth of length.

“She did, but I can’t read it. Too complex. I can only make out half of the words. Seems positive, though. There’s a lot of sorry and apologies and I like you. Sounds good, doesn’t it?”

“Want me to read it for you?”

Xadre squinted his eyes, his tongue licked his own lips.

“How so? Since when you can understand written English, Brandon?”

The shoiga named Brandon winked, pushed his elbow against Xadre’s shoulder.

“The perks of dating a Terran chick. I swear, you’ll learn soon enough!”

Xadre grinned. He had been so jealous of Brandon for such a long time. He would have paid his weight in gold to have a chance with a Terran girl. They looked so sweet, cute, frail – and, yet, determined and assertive. The fat deposits of their bodies created curves, shapes shoigas weren’t familiar with – not to mention their colorful hair, their shining irises. The combination of those traits made them feel exotic, and not in a repulsive way. Many shoigas had a fascination for them, but very few had a close encounter with a human female. Those who had one liked to tell those stories over and over, of how it felt like squeezing a soft cushion, of how much they sweated and of how the taste of their skin changed depending on where they were licked, and of how – down between their legs – their anatomy wasn’t so much different from theirs, to the point where one could even consider a full intercourse. Obviously, there was an aura of sane skepticism around those claims. Pictures and videos were just that – not even close to a real experience. Yet, when that red-headed Terran pounced on him and started sucking his scales out of the blue, he was forced to accept that there was something true about those rumors. And, by the time they sneaked into his pickup truck to complete the act, he found out that they were nothing but the truth. Still, compared to others of his kin, he kept it for himself, reveling in those memories, keeping the warmth inside his heart. The only other shoiga who got wind of it was Brandon of the Saxo brood – and only because Xadre knew he was very discreet. Brandon was an odd fellow, even for an earthbound shoiga. For starters, he was one of the few that replaced his own name with a Terran-sounding one, down to the use of sounds their native language wasn’t designed for – when another shoiga pronounced it, it sounded more like Vrandon. Secondly, he was a sort of comeback kid. He had worked under a human mafia boss for a couple years, before having a change of heart and turning over a new leaf, under his brood uncle’s tutelage. Thirdly, he had been dating a human girl called Lizzie for a while, but never made it public – something extremely unusual for such a rare achievement. Xadre had found out about it serendipitously, as she came to visit Brandon at the orchard to bring him a present. Fortunately for Brandon, there wasn’t anyone else around who could see them being lovey-dovey together. Unfortunately for him, Xadre had just returned running to the front gate, after realizing he had forgotten his house keys inside, and stumbled upon them by absolute chance. What followed was an awkward round of introductions, topped with a plea for not spreading rumors around. That’s how Xadre met Lizzie, an interesting human specimen with deep emerald eyes and short jet black hair, Apparently she worked as an escort (a human term for a high-class prostitute), but that didn’t seem to be a problem for Brandon.

“It’s just a job. I pick fruit, she fucks guys. In the end, what’s important is that we have our sweet time together”, he had said once. Xadre respected him for that. He agreed to keep his mouth shut on their affair – mostly to keep Brandon safe from a torrent of questions from their numerous shoiga coworkers – but also took that chance to ask him about his experiences and what to expect when getting physical with a human – what to do, what not to do, where to touch, where not to touch. Now that he had filled the gap, he felt even more entitled to talk about it with him – the only other shoiga he would turn to for sentimental advice on an interspecies relationship. He glanced at his phone again, to the unending stream of characters spread over three full display lengths. He stopped right before reaching the picture. He didn’t want Brandon to see that yet. No way he wouldn’t recognize her – which meant a lot of unnecessarily embarrassing remarks.

“Okay, let me see…”

Before he could protest, though, Brandon had seized the device from his claws, his eyes going through the thick layer of crammed characters.

“Dear Xadre, I apologize for having ignored your attempts at reaching me for more than three weeks, I’m truly sorry and no amount of text can convey how ashamed I am by my own despicable behavior. In fact, the reason why I couldn’t contact you before was that I was indisposed – and, technically, still am. Don’t worry, though! I’m slowly recovering and I would love to chat about my current predicament with you – while also being honest about the reasons of my reprehensible behavior…”

Brandon went on for a couple more lines, stopped all of a sudden, coughed, let his tongue rest for a second or two.

“Kraal forfend, what the heck? Did she write a whole essay? I’ve gone through less than half of it…”

Xadre was too occupied to try to parse the content of the message to protest or say anything. So many apologies… did she say she was indisposed? Did it mean she was ill or injured? But it seemed like she had gotten better, whatever that meant. Brandon’s voice interrupted that stream of thoughts, resuming with the reading.

“I have indeed enjoyed your company a lot. The moments we shared together in the back of your pick-up track, those tender hugs, have been etched in my memory and I can’t let go of them. My body doesn’t want to forget them either, despite the rather lackluster performance it offered (and for which I am truly, truly sorry)! I would really like to do it again, experience those moments a second, a third time with you!”

Brandon whistled, let his tongue crack like a whip, as he tried to stop himself from wheezing. That Terran… that Terran was an absolute disaster. Who would ever write a message like that? Not even a chat bot would spend so many words to convey something so basic. He kept himself under control, as he scrolled the display once again. Xadre felt like his main heart skipped a beat, as the other shoiga’s claw grazed the reinforced casing of his phone.

“In light of my despicable lack of clear communication, and knowing you’ll probably find it tiresome to read through this long apology of mine, I close this message with three ending remarks: 1. I’m currently staying at St. Vincent Hospital for the next couple of weeks, room number seventy-six (please, come visit me, when you have time, if you wish! I’d be so very grateful!) 2. I’m attaching a *special* picture of myself taken by a close friend before I went to the hospital. This is just *for your eyes only*. I wanted you to have it, so that the intent of this message and my feelings for you are clear, despite my absolutely shameless worldliness.”

Oh, so there’s a picture of her too! Curiosity killed Brandon, but before sliding his fingers down, his eyes rested on the last, short paragraph. He smirked – or he would have, if his facial structure allowed him to, licked his reptilian lips while savoring the effect of those last words.

“3. I like you, Xadre. I really like you. I want to know you more, to learn everything about you, to mate with you until my breath dies out (if you want it, of course!). Can’t wait to be healthy again and be able to enjoy your company! Love you, Paddy.”

Brandon’s laughter echoed among the peach trees, his eyes wet with tears.

“I want to mate with you until my breath dies out! But only if you want it! Kraal forfend, this is rich!

Oh my frickin’ goodness, she can’t have seriously written this!”

He almost lost his posture fell on his knees. He felt bad, extremely bad – Xadre had been nothing but nice to him, and this is how he was repaying him? Yet, that message, that message was so incredibly clumsy. He couldn’t believe a human girl could write something like that. Did that Terran ever learned how to communicate with normal people? He knew robots that felt more natural. He couldn’t stop wheezing, as the thought of showing that message to Lizzie crossed his mind. He wondered what she would have said, after going through it. Probably, she would have laughed with him too, only to pull out some weird stories about her customers and how one of them did exactly the same thing. He wiped the tears with his claw, turned back to Xadre, guilt assailing him for his indelicate reaction. Only to see him deeply flustered, unable to keep eye contact, as his hand kept on rubbing the surface of the peach core.

“Was that it? All of it?”

“Y… yes. All of it. My goodness, pal, where have you found this specimen? Like, wow.”

“Can you give me my phone back?”

“Not so fast, there’s still a picture!”

Xadre’s eyes widened.

“Don’t! You…”

“Hush, you’ve already met Lizzie! Come on, let me see how your ‘Paddy’ looks like!”

Before Xadre could grab his phone back, Brandon had already scrolled down, finally revealing the picture his friend had received. His mouth fell agape, his voice extinguished. He gulped down a lump of saliva. Now he understood why that photo was for Xadre’s eyes only. The girl portrayed in it was kneeling on a bed, smiling and blushing, with her long red braid falling on her bare, wet skin, as only an open bathrobe wrapped her figure, leaving nothing – absolutely nothing – to imagination. I want to mate with you until my breath dies out indeed – that picture made it extremely clear that it wasn’t an exaggeration. Yet, that wasn’t even the most surprising aspect of

that ordeal. What startled Brandon was actually the fact that he had already seen her, and several times to boot. And that name, ‘Paddy’. It couldn’t, wouldn’t mean that…

“You… you can’t be serious!”

Xadre took advantage of the moment to seize his property from his claws, pulling the phone away from Brandon, sheltering it close to his chest.

“Well, huh…”

“Xadre, you… you bedded Paddy the phagefucker?! Paddy frickin’ O’Rilley?! ”

“Huuuh… yes?”

Brandon blinked twice, his jaw dislocated, his brain unable to process the information. Paddy the phagefucker, the absolute protagonist of one – if not the most – notorious human porn video that was ever shared among EXODUS refugees. And now, that very same Paddy was willing to date Xadre of the Rantai brood? Brandon suddenly felt like he was friend with a celebrity, his eyes shining.

“When she gets better, can I meet her too? I can… I can bring Lizzie with me, we can go eating something all together!”

Xadre sighed, put his hand on his shoulder, while still eyeing the photo the human girl sent him. A photo that he saved and put as his phone background as soon as he got it back from Brandon – shyness be damned.

“I’m… still not sure about what to write her. I’m so bad with this!”

“Kraal forfend, use her own words! Tell her I want to mate with you till my breath dies out too! Play her game, pal! Really! A human gal ain’t writing you something this scandalous and direct if she ain’t ready to be told the same! Trust me!”

As stupid as Brandon’s suggestion sounded, Xadre found some beauty in it. He grinned with all his teeth and started composing the message, one letter at a time, under his friend’s guiding hand. Then, before pushing the send button, he gazed at it longer than he had intended. That message felt very… direct. But the human girl, the same human girl who sent him a whole essay just to apologize and say she liked him, had been equally shameless. So, without further ado, he pushed it, sent it, with the exact words Brandon proposed. He felt a heavy weight lifted from his chest.

“Aaaand done! Thanks, Brandon. And not a word, okay? If anyone gets wind of this, I’m screwed.”

“Don’t worry, pal! My lips are as sealed as the gates of Driska.”

“Hey, you two!”

A voice from behind them, higher pitched. Brandon gulped, Xadre jolted. They both could feel the anger looming in it, as they slowly turned. Only to face a female shoiga taller than them, her scales of a bluish hue, with several feathers coming out of her neck in an elaborate crown-like structure.

“J.J. pays you for picking fruit, not for chitchatting about human whores!”

As their eyes met the imposing figure of Talissa of the Kasdra brood, they both felt their main heart sink. She crunched her claws, bent her neck a little to look at them better.

“Come on! Move your asses! Those peaches ain’t gonna pick themselves!”

“YES, MADAM!”

Xadre and Brandon responded in unison, as their direct superior growled at them. She watched them as they hastily ran back to their work, picking up fruit and filling baskets in the dying heat of August. She squinted her eyes. She didn’t need slackers, not during that period of the year, but J.J. seemed fond of both of those idiots – idiots that looked like they were in a very good mood, despite being reprimanded. A voice from her side broke her concentration, a rough, human voice with a strong foreign accent, whistling in admiration.

“So, that’s where the peaches for J.J.’s premium fruity wine comes from. Consider me impressed, for once.”

Talissa growled at that remark. She would have gladly shoved that human’s head down the nearest toilet, but that wasn’t an advisable course of action. He was a dirty hound of Yard, after all.

“Detective Kristhhoffer, we’re very busy right now. I’ll bring you to J.J., but don’t disturb the workers, yes?”

The human in question grinned, his brown hair shining under the sunlight, his perfect teeth showcased with pride, as his boots marked each of his steps in the soft terrain.

“It’s EiN, lizardbrain. EiN. Call me Kristhhoffer once more and I’ll make a nice crocodile purse for my wife out of your scales.”

The huge shoiga spat on the ground, showed her fangs to the annoying brat she had the displeasure of escorting through the premise.

“I’d like to see you try.”

Suddenly, she felt it, her scales felt it. Static electricity, building up around him, small blue sparks dancing, voltaic arcs crackling between him and the ground. He kept his hands inside his pockets, but it felt like his arms were spread, in a menacing, welcoming gesture. His body, his essence was mingled with that of a giant blue lion, almost transparent and yet visible. Talissa stepped away from that weird light show, feeling impotent to even stare at him, let alone retaliate.

Only for the electricity to die down all of a sudden, the sparks to cease as fast as they appeared.

But not his smile.

“No, you don’t. If I try, you’ll get hurt badly.”

Then, he shrugged, walking his way towards the central building.

“Now, now. No need to be hostile, or? After all, your boss and I are old acquaintances…”

He grinned, stopped for an instant to stare at the diminutive dwarf shoiga looking at him from the distance, standing near a scrawny human male, with unkempt ash-blond hair and an eyepatch.

EiN waved his hand at the reptile, only to be welcomed by a bothered rolling of eyes and a couple swearwords.

“… even if he’d love to forget about it.”

And about all the property damage he caused, but that was an old story, not really worth pulling back from the past. Without saying anything else, EiN picked up the pace, as J.J.’s reptilian eyes started focusing on him with a mixture of resignation and annoyance. A visit from a hound of Yard wasn’t exactly atop his most coveted wishes, but it could have been worse. The small reptile shook his head, as the imposing man started closing the gap. The summer heat was still thriving and there were still too many peaches to pick, too many workers needing his supervision.

He hoped that talk didn’t take long.

And, especially, that it didn’t end with his whole orchard burning down, in a blaze of ravenous fire.

**

“What did he write? What did he write?”

“Stop it! Leave my phone alone!”

In her hospital room, Paddy was fighting against the combined effort of three pairs of hands (one of which made of some sort of ceramic alloy), all trying to seize her phone from her grip, as soon as it rung. She growled like a caged beast, kicked them away as she managed to keep hold on her property – a red and blue device with cat ears and a hematophage-shaped strap.

Of course those three idiots had swarmed her room, as soon as they got wind of it. Of course.

Because Chai couldn’t keep it a secret, right? No, her Nirvana withdrawal and subsequent hospitalization had to be broadcast to the odd couple too, almost instantly. And, if that wasn’t enough, Lejl had taken care of telling the other two everything she knew about the red shoiga Paddy pounced on while drunk. Yet, if anything, she was happy that they didn’t leave her alone.

They coordinated their efforts to visit her every day until her treatment was over, which was more than she could have ever expected – those blockheads really cared for her, after all. Yet, asking them for advice on how to write Xadre that she wanted to apologize and meet him again had been her worst mistake. She sighed, thinking back at all their botched attempts at composing a message for her. Chai suggested sending him an extremely direct “Fuck you later!” with a smiley and nothing else, Cyphr penned a very long and dry apology that sounded like a police report, completely overlooking the sentimental part, while Lejl tried to convince her to attach an anatomical schematic of a human woman’s reproductive organs to her message, highlighting which parts he had to learn to stimulate to cause her the most pleasure. All three of them had the sensitivity of a flying brick, so she simply discarded their absolutely useless takes and went for what her brain suggested, albeit with a lot of backtracking and rephrasing. Somehow, at some point, she got sidetracked and started writing about the growth cycle of phages instead, much to her chagrin. Deleting that and getting back on track had been hard, but she couldn’t flood his inbox with a treatise on how to distinguish juvenile hematos from lymatos. That back and forth resulted in a very convoluted, long and passionate apology, which her current state of mind didn’t make easy to finalize. If anything, she felt flustered as she pushed the send button with that final, bizarre remark – I want to mate with you until my breath dies out. How did she even think it was a good idea? Did she really feel like that? Would that gross him out? Or make him laugh like an idiot? If anything, that provocative photo she asked Chai to take the day before had had its use – no way her intent could be misunderstood, even by an alien reptile with a different set of cultural values.

As the phone rung while receiving a new message and “Xadre (gorgeous red shoiga)” appeared as the sender’s name on her display (yes, that was how she saved his contact), her heart skipped a beat and her anxiety peaked. Not even the fact that she was currently recovering from her first nanomachine infusion seemed to faze her more – and that was an experimental cure for Nirvana addiction. So, there she was, dressed in a white hospital gown, tucked under the sheets of a hospital bed, with an IV drip tethered to her left arm, while totally going full hormonal overdrive because of an unread message.

“Did he send a dick pick? Oh, please, tell me he did! I’ve never seen a real shoiga dick!”

“Oi, shut up, horny gremlin! Not everyone’s as shameless as you!”

“Says the ero streamer!”

“Who’s still dressed more tastefully than you – like, a semi-transparent t-shirt? Really? One can see your nips while watchin’ you from behind!”

At that retort, Lejl grew silent, started fidgeting with her hair while chuckling uncomfortably. That gave Paddy some long-sought-after moments of peace. Finally left alone to her devices, she opened the message Xadre had sent her, ready for the worst.

As she read the short paragraph the shoiga sent her, her cheeks turned as red as her hair, warmth spreading all over her body, as her mouth fell agape. And her friends started getting closer, with big, curious smiles opening on their faces, eager to know what had caused that flustered reaction.

“HA! It’s good news, or? Or?!”

“Oi, you look like a traffic light, gal!”

“Come on, what did he write? Tell us! Tell usss!”

Paddy gulped down a lump of saliva, stared at her phone’s display again, looked at the trio of dumb morons circling around her like sharks that smelled blood. She read slowly, to be sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her. And that’s when she had to accept those words were real.

“I… I…”

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, blurted it out all together, as one continuous stream of words, without interruptions or pauses.

“Iwanttomatewithyoutillmybreathdiesouttoo!”

Silence fell into the room, like a heavy blanket, as the three girls tried to parse what Paddy just said in human-intelligible terms. Then, cheers broke out, as Lejl and Cyphr started performing a silly dance out of a carbon-datable internet meme, while singing in unison.

“Oh-oh-oh-oh! Oh-oh! Paddy Paddy has a lizard boyfriend! Paddy Paddy has a lizard boyfriend!”

Paddy, on her side, felt like sinking to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, not knowing how to parse the content of that message and how to manage the strong, sudden reaction spreading through her lower body, while blushing to the deepest end of the red spectrum.

“Paddy Paddy has a lizard boyfriend! Paddy Paddy has a lizard boyfriend!”

The obnoxious voices of those two trolls she called friends made nothing to ease her mind, if anything amplifying her embarrassment much more than needed. How did she feel about Xadre?

True, they had slept together, smoked a joint together, had breakfast together, even taken a stroll together, eaten something together for lunch, then kissed each other before saying goodbye, all in the span of two days. That was what happened before her withdrawal kicked in, before she cut bridges with the world in the constant search of a way to fix herself. Only for him to get back into her life from the back door, with a bang. She caressed her own pants, skirting the area that actively caused her that much discomfort. Once her cells were cleared from the remnants of Nirvana that dulled her receptors, maybe she would have started enjoying that again. Without tricks or drugs, this time. She found herself smiling, thinking at their shared hug, at Xadre’s big arms, his lucid scales pressed against her skin, after her body betrayed her so badly when she needed its cooperation the most.

“Paddy Paddy has a lizard boyfriend! Paddy Paddy has a lizard boyfriend!”

Still, those two were becoming very annoying very quickly. Chai must have thought the same, as she grumbled something unintelligible, before touching her contact lenses, almost to the point of displacing them. That lasted only one instant though. Unleashing Medusa’s gaze in a public place was the stupidest thing she could have done, if she wanted to keep her secret under wraps. So, she elected to start rummaging through her bag instead, until she pulled out a baseball – much to Paddy’s surprise. Chai weighed it on her hand two, three times, making it bounce nonchalantly, grabbing it in mid-air.

“Paddy Paddy has a lizard boyfriend! Paddy Paddy has a lizard boyfriend!”

“Oi, shut up, you dolts!”

Just to turn around with a rapid twist of her hips and throw said ball at full force. Hitting Lejl squarely on her forehead. Causing her to tumble and fall to the ground senseless, nape first.

Under Cyphr and Paddy’s frozen stares. As Cyphr was still in her dance pose, hands just above her head and bent to the outside. Before breaking in a loud, high-pitched scream.

“LALLI!”

Chai snickered, sat down near Paddy’s hospital bed, as the tall German girl kneeled to check on her downed co-performer. A wicked smile opened on her face, as Lejl seemed to be able to open her eyes, mutter a couple meaningless syllables, before falling again to the floor, almost as senseless. Chai clapped her hands, quite amused by the show, relieved too.

“Silence, at last!”

Paddy’s eyes went wide, her pupils shrunk as she started sweating.

“Chai! What… what was that?”

“Duh, a baseball, obviously! Though I would have preferred a brick. Shame I can’t bring one with me that easily.”

“You would throw a brick at Lejl?”

“Oi, you wouldn’t?”

As Lejl gasped for air, finally sitting without a risk of falling off, Paddy let that bizarre situation steal a chuckle from her. Her gaze wandered to her phone’s display once more, to Xadre’s answer.

“I want to mate with you till my breath dies out too! ”

That was much more than she could have hoped, wished for. She brought her phone close to her chest, as her blush became even more prominent, as she found herself fantasizing about that healthy red shoiga’s amazing body, the delicate touch of his tongue, the roughness of his scales on her soft skin. She let out a nostalgic sigh, savoring the moment, accepting her body’s reactions as a part of her – for once, without shame.

Their next meeting couldn’t come soon enough.