The smell of dark moist dirt and the hint of water from the sprinklers calmed Riu to an almost trance. She stood at the entrance of her garden with her brown eyes closed as she slowly breathed in the scent that felt like home to her. She slowly opened her eyes to the vibrant colors of her garden. She had all sort of plants spread around, organized in sections. As a botanist, you had to have organization or else you'd place plants near each other that would be incompatible. Plants are surprising vicious in the most sneakiest of ways.<br/><br/>Riu smiled at this thought, softly reaching her hand out to touch a leaf of one of her floral plants. She silky smooth texture sent goosebumps up her arm and her face softened as if she was caressing a lover. She moved away from the floral plant, pulled her hair back into a long ponytail to keep it out of her face, and began to walk down along the wooden planks that covered a section of the dirt floor for a walking area, her heels softly clicking against the wood. She walked towards her lab area, where her lab equipment sat.<br/><br/>She sat on the stool in front of her lab desk, the white desk spread wide to cover a large range on the south side of the garden. Several beakers, microscopes, burners, and much more spread across the desk. Her white coat hung over her back, covering her stool as she leaned down to grab a recent test sample from the fridge below the desk and placed it under her scope. As she moved the microscope closer to her and started to lean forward to take a look, a voice spoke.<br/><br/>"Hey Riu!" Sarah, a co-worker, practically yelled into Riu's ear. Riu jumped, shoving the microscope and the lab sample over and quickly caught them both before they crashed to the floor. Riu closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to try and slow her sudden fast beating heart. "Oops! My bad!" The giggle from behind her made her cringe and she started inhaling deeper  this time to keep her irritation and annoyance at bay.<br/><br/>"Hi Sarah." Riu finally answered in a calm manner, placing her materials back in their right place and turned around halfway on her stool to look over at Sarah. Her bubbly co-worker stood behind her. Sarah's blonde hair was long like Riu's brown hair, and was curled in soft waves that framed Sarah's face perfectly. Riu tried her best not to compare her body to Sarah's but the thoughts rain through her head. Thin, blonde, and average sized breast. The perfect model body. While Riu glanced down at her own, but her DD sized breast stood in the way hiding her curves. She sighed, closing her eyes before glancing towards Sarah again only to notice a shadow from the outside of her green house walking by.<span style="font-style: italic">Wonder who that could be.</span>She thought for a minute before shaking her head and turning her attention back to Sarah as she babbled on about something.<br/><br/>"Can you believe they make us wear these stupid white lab coats? And around dirt? Are you kidding? Do you know how hard it is to get dirt stains out of this thing?!" Sarah babbled on, complaining about one thing or another and Riu fazed out her words, nodding her head and saying 'uh huh.' at the appropriate times but not really comprehending anything. She had no idea why Sarah kept coming into her work space to talk to her. The Green Garden company was all about the environment and has safe ecological green houses and gardens for each individual botanist that was employed by them. This one was Riu's. It was hers. Why was Miss Babbler Bimbo Blondie in her garden?!<br/><br/>Riu's irritation was getting the best of her and she forgot to respond to Sarah who noticed the sudden change in Riu. "Are you okay? You seem a little irritated." Sarah gasped suddenly, covering her mouth in shock and Riu felt a cold shiver run down her spine at the sudden idea that her co-worker could read her emotions and thoughts from her face. "I totally forgot to ask you about your date with Tyler!"<br/><br/>Riu couldn't help the sudden cringe on her face and she quickly turned around back to her desk to busy herself.<br/><br/>"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad... was it? Oh please tell me you didn't bring up marriage again!" Riu groaned and her face fell into her hands. She wished she had never told that date story to Sarah! How could she think that was a good idea?! Oh right, she was drunk. Another groan left her mouth and refused to peak back at Sarah to see her face. She could feel with doom the sudden lecture that was about to directed at her.<br/><br/>"I told you! I told you that if you brought up marriage again it would ruin all chances! You don't do that on a first date Riu. I mean... look marriage is all great and such but don't you want to have fun first? You know... get down and dirty?" Riu turned around to see Sarah shaking her eyebrows up and down. Riu just gave her a lazy 'are-you-kidding-me' face.<br/><br/>"No." That one word made Sarah stop her silliness and frown at Riu with a pout.<br/><br/>"You're no fun."<br/><br/>"I want to be married. I want kids. I'm not going to waste my time with a guy who is only looking for 'fun'." Riu huffed, turning back away from Sarah who she could hear sighing and could easily imagine her shaking her head in disappointment.<br/><br/>"Whatever sweetheart. With that rack you're only going to get guys looking for fun." Riu thought she heard a slight disdain in Sarah's voice. Could Sarah be jealous? Pff! Riu wouldn't believe that for a minute, and brushed away the thought.<br/><br/>"My 'rack' has nothing to do with it." Riu looked down at her breast with disdain. She honestly hated it. She was constantly having to deal with stares from rude, disgusting men who didn't seem to have a problem with rubbing their disgusting filthy hands on her in some way. Honestly, one guy takes a look at her, narrows on her chest, and thinks she'll jump into bed with no problem. God humanity was disgusting sometimes.<br/><br/>"You're rack has everything to do with it."<br/><br/>"Can we please stop talking about my chest?" Riu begged, glancing back at Sarah who seemed to give her a look of pity.<br/><br/>"Fine. Fine. But Tyler was a good catch! You really screwed that one up." Suddenly Sarah's eyes brightened and a perfect symmetric smile grew on her tiny face. "But! I heard that Kevin from HR has a thing for yoooou." Sarah sung out the words and Riu cringed, groaning again as if in immense pain.<br/><br/>"He tried to grab my ass at the last Green Meeting."<br/><br/>"Oh my god, no way! For real?!" Sarah eeped at the sudden juicy drama and Riu sighed, feeling a sudden headache appear in her temples.<br/><br/>"Hey Sarah, I actually have a project I need to finish before noon-."<br/><br/>"Oh gosh! I'm sorry! I didn't realize you were behind with your work." Sarah said in shock surprise. Riu tried her best not to comment and just gave her a tight smile.<br/><br/>She was not behind on any work. She was actually ahead of everyone else, including Sarah, and on the top charts on progressive methods. However, she wanted Sarah to leave. Wanted her to leave really, really badly.<br/><br/>Sarah gave her farewell goodbyes, walking out of the garden door. Riu had turned back to her work when she heard a sudden noise outside her door and focused in on it. "Oh! Hellooo there. Who might you be?" Sarah's voice seeped through the thin walls.<br/><br/>"I apologizes. I'm looking for a Mrs. Estivale." A soft feminine voice spoke.<br/><br/>"Oh! That would be<span style="font-style: italic">Ms.</span>Estivale." Riu winced at the sudden change and muttered under her breath about how it was actually 'Dr. Estivale'. "She's right in there! But..." The voices got really soft and Riu sighed, picturing Sarah gossiping about how Ms. Perfect was behind on her work.<br/><br/>"Ah... yes. Thank you." The woman seemed smart enough to brush Sarah aside quickly and Riu turned around to see a woman with black hair and a business suit come into her garden. The sudden look of disgust appeared stranger's face as she glanced at her surroundings and Riu narrowed her eyes. She could tell this wasn't going to be a fun visit.<br/><br/>Riu stood from her stool, giving her full height and watching the newcomer walk her way with her hips swinging side to side. Riu felt like the movement was on purpose or she just had a huge ass. She really couldn't tell from this angle.<br/><br/>"Mr. Estivale?" The woman asked.<br/><br/>"Dr. Estivale." Riu corrected, giving a tight smile at the woman who stopped a few feet.<br/><br/>"Ah. Doctor Esssstivale." The woman seemed to hiss like a snake on the s in her name and a sudden shiver went up her spine. What was with this woman?<br/><br/>"Can I help you with something?" Riu asked, a sudden sense of fear creeping under her skin.<br/><br/>"Yes... yessss you can." The twisted grin on the woman's face told every cell in Riu's body to run away. She tried to take a step back but her stool was in the way and tripped over, falling onto the ground. She caught herself with her hands, feeling the skin on her palms peel and scrape against the wood and dirt.<br/><br/>The woman smelled the air and sighed with delight. "Ah, the sssmell of blood. How I've missed this. Stupid Gods won't let us play with humans anymore. But He let me freeee." The woman grinned and Riu could have sworn she saw fangs and her tongue peeked out, long and thin like a snake.<br/><br/>"W-what are you?" Riu's eyes grew wide as she tried to scoot back on her hands, wincing at the sting from her scraped palms.<br/><br/>"HA! What am I? What about you?" The stranger huffed, giving Riu a snarl as she followed her movement. "You're just a disgusting halfie!" The woman hissed, closing in on Riu faster.<br/><br/>Were those... scales? Riu must be hallucinating right now. What in the world was going on? Riu watched in plain shock as the stranger in front of her began to... shift? Change? Become some monster? Riu couldn't put words to it.<br/><br/>The shredding of the woman's clothing echoed in the small garden, and the slithering of scales came next. Riu watched in shocked horror as the strange woman's legs appeared as snake tails. Two snails tails.<br/><br/>"I... am a Ssssscythian Dracanae." The monster said, slithering closer to Riu and quickly tried to scoot away again but became cornered against her plants. "And you... you are-AH!" The sudden monster screeched as the plant that Riu had hidden against sudden exploded with a puff of smoke and hard seeds.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"Stay away from Miss Riu!"</span>" The sudden voice echoed in Riu ears, but she knew no one else was in the room.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"Evil snake!"</span>Riu's head jerked to her fly snapper plant nearby who suddenly snapped at the monster who yelped and hissed, slithering back from the plants.<br/><br/>Did... did Riu just hear her plants speak?<br/><br/>[i]"Get up Miss Riu! Get up!"[i] Riu shook at the sudden voices she kept hearing, all chanting the same thing. She quickly scurried to her feet. The monster hissing at Riu.<br/><br/>"You won't get away!" The monster rushed towards Riu, fast for no legs. Riu freaked, feeling cornered with no where to run and sudden just threw up her hands in hopes of stopping the monster, closing her eyes with only the thought of having a barrier between her and the monster. "AH! What is the meaning of thisss?!" The monster hissed again, squirming in an entanglement of vines. Riu opened her eyes and gasped at the sight. She looked at her hands, then back to the monster but decided now wasn't the time to figure out what the fuck just happened.<br/><br/>Now was the time to run like the wind.<br/><br/>She quickly moved around the squirming snake thingy, rushing out of her green house, grabbing her purse on the way. Outside seemed like a field of more green houses here and there but she ignored them all and rushed towards the parking lot nearby. She stopped by her red Honda, hysterically digging through her purse for her keys. She clicked the button to unlock the door but when the handle wouldn't budge the groaned. "Come on!" She tried again and heard the click, quickly getting into her car and speeding off.<br/><br/>A few minutes later, she was back at her apartment. Her door was locked and bolted in three different places. All windows had been secured and locked. She stood in her small studio place, hyperventilating from the sudden sense of things. When she finally had nothing else to do, she decided to let the dark spots she was seeing take over and she fainted.