"Cassie and Tiamat obviously know each other," Katrilla mumbled. "Wonder how long she's been coming here?"

"About two or three weeks, I think," Maxine said. "That's about when she hooked up with Fido."

"Fido?"

"Yeah. That's what someone in the lab decided to call him, and I guess he hasn't bothered to pick a better name yet." Maxine shrugged. "I've only seen him and Cassie together once, a few days ago. He's a German shepherd type. Really cute. A real sweetheart, from what I saw. She spends time with him whenever she can."

"Well, she has the advantage of knowing her way around here, then." Katrilla glanced at the doors they were walking past and shrugged. "We've been here five minutes, and we're lost already."

"Well, sooner or later we'll find someone who can show us around." As he spoke, Clyde heard voices coming from the far end of the hallway. Three draconids walked around the corner, two male and one female. Clyde raised an eyebrow. One of the males had an almost human face, and a fairly handsome one at that. The other two had beaks and two long horns, sort of like a Triceratops, sticking out of their foreheads. They were pretty much identical except for their skin color and the female's considerable rack.

"Cool," Maxine said, "maybe we can ask one of them to give us a tour."

"Wow," Katrilla said softly, smiling, "look at that one on the left. He's cute."

The draconids waved, and the one with the human face smiled. His skin was bronze and his shoulder-length hair was black. The other male had powder-blue skin and dark red hair, and the female was the color of chocolate milk and her hair was wavy and cyan-colored. All three were about six feet tall and wore shorts and T-shirts modified for their anatomy, and all had a soft yellow glow emanating from their eyes.

"Yeah," Maxine muttered, "but the other two … yikes."

"The chick's got a good body," Brent said. "And just look at those tits! But from the neck up … "

Clyde flicked a scowl at him. Maybe the female wasn't what most people considered attractive, but he thought she was kind of cute.

"I guess I could do her," Mitch grumbled. "If I put a bag over her head first."

Even though they were still at the far end of the hall, the draconids seemed to hear his comment. The two males frowned and the female looked down at the floor and her wings and tail sagged a little.

Oh, crap. Clyde realized their ears were probably a lot more sensitive than his. She probably heard remarks like that all the time, and he immediately felt awful. He couldn't do much to control Mitch's behavior, but it reflected badly on him and the others, anyway.

"You goddamn prick," he snapped. "Didn't your parents teach you any manners?"

"Hey, I'm just saying what we're all thinking."

"Not all of us, you dick. I think she's cute."

The female brightened a bit at that, and Clyde smiled at her.

Mitch snorted. "I suppose you'd do her even without a bag over her head?"

"You know what, asshole? If she wants me, she's got me." He walked straight up to the draconids. Once he was close enough, he saw that their eyes had vertical pupils.

"Hi," the beaked male said. "I haven't seen you here before."

"This is our first time here. And we're, uh, not really sure where we're going."

"Ah," the other male said with a smile, "need a guided tour?"

"If you wouldn't mind. I mean, if you're busy with something else, maybe you could just point us in the right direction." Clyde smiled at the female and added in a low voice, "Actually, I'd like to get away from the rest of the gang for a while. I'd like you to show me around personally if it's not a bother."

"I'd be happy to. Thank you for asking."

He grinned and held his hand out. "I'm Clyde."

"I'm Andraste." She clasped his hand and he noticed that it had four digits instead of five. Her leathery skin was warmer than a human's. "Sometimes people call me Andi."

"Nice to meet you, Andi."

She blushed and glanced at the floor. "Um, well, is there anything in particular you'd like to see?"

"I dunno anything at all about this place. So I guess you can just pick a direction and we can start walking." He realized that he was still holding her hand, but he didn't try to pull away from her. "It'd be nice just to walk around with you for a while."

She blushed again and pointed a thumb over her shoulder. "Okay, I guess since you were already headed in that direction, we can go that way."

"Okay." He smiled again. He began walking with her, glancing over his shoulder long enough to wave at the others. He noticed that Katrilla was still gazing at the bronze draconid.

"Well, what're you waiting for?" Maxine whispered and gave her a push. "You think he's cute, go talk to him!"