Drakeven claims fluff is valuable but is unable to experiene it firsthand. But Mikah is an alchemist! Looks like a job for... the debut of my sona, finally, Melody. Comes with a story too!

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Mikah was wrapping up her presentation on the value of fluff, her only local audience the lanky noodle dragon sprawled out on some of her precious metals used in alchemy in the corner of the room. Melody had promised to put them back before she left, the draconic instinct to laze on a bed of riches an indulgent temptation Mikah was fine with letting her relish in while she worked. It is not like she even had that much – mostly it was just a lot of scales and fluff rolling around on a hardwood floor.

As camera Mikah had been recording with beeped off her sole audience member commented, “You say you can’t find the exact value of fluff without any. But I’m sure an alchemist of your talent could whip up a potion to give yourself some fur to experiment with. Even if it's only temporary!” The dragon was practically high with the forged bars, coins, and irregular scraps under her given she had yet to acquire a hoard of anything since getting so scaly.

“Can you imagine the kind of risks associated with that? It's mixing transmutation and transfiguration! I don’t even have any fluffy kobold genetics in my family tree! It would be like trying to brew you a potion to grow gills.”

“I didn’t say it would be easy, just that I know you can pull it off. You’ve spent days assembling a presentation on fluff just to conclude that it's good! I feel so rude rolling around in my fluff on your riches while you are over there singing its praisessss.”

Mikah had to assume the dragon was ignorant of how her enunciation and emphasis of words affected the kobold, “I said it was fine!”

“That doesn’t make me feel less guilty. So how about giving it a try?”

Mikah was feeling the pull again. Even if the noodle dragon before her was tiny compared to almost any other drake she had encountered or heard of before, even if she were up until recently still one of those gross hairless monkeys and had only come into possession of her current form through ancient curses and a years long unhealthy obsession, she was in all ways that mattered to her draconic now.

She had become cognizant of it, though. The past week since they had met she found herself finishing projects with newfound gusto and being more bold in putting her work on display while finding renewed pride in her creations. At first it just seemed like the constant praise was causing it but over time she pieced together it was a bit more complicated than that. Every time the noodle proposed she do something she was subconsciously compelled to do it by her kobold instincts. Realizing it was happening now though gave her the propensity to resist it. But in this instance… like all the others, so far… it wasn’t just her subservience compulsion she would have to resist to not go 5along with Melody’s request. She had just spent days making a presentation on how awesome floof is...

“For a dragon you sure have an easy time putting a lot of faith in a kobold.”

“You let me hang out at your place and talk about all this cool stuff nobody else is into, why wouldn’t I think you’re awesome?”, accenting her sentiments by continuing to roll around in her borrowed hoard.

It wasn’t just the compulsion to obey dragons, kobolds could find extraordinary satisfaction in their praise. With those words Mikah was now the one starting to feel the tinge of guilt as if she were taking advantage of her house guests naivete.

“… I do know of at least one recipe that might be able to give me some temporary floof with a few modifications. It’s meant to regrow fur on those that lost it though, so I’d need to experiment a bit…”

The dragons bright pink eyes practically – no, literally – glowed as Mikah knew she was getting herself into shenanigans again. That sure has been happening a lot this week. As the drake got up from the mess she had made Mikah noticed many of her drawings and manuscripts were included in the makeshift hoard...

A couple of days later the two stood in Mikah’s lab over a cauldron of lightly bubbling green goop. Melody still didn’t know squat about what Mikah was doing, but she sure was happy Mikah was doing it.

“See, this wasn’t so bad. The only hard part was getting the hydra scales.”

“You almost got your tail bit off!”

“Almost, all according to your flawless plan. And it was hilarious when you chucked that potion of confusion in its face and all the heads started fighting. Stellar follow through on the toss too, direct hit, pow!” She was totally into it, mimicking the overhead throw with her paws like a baseball pitcher.

Mikah brought her claw to her face and sighed, “I have no idea if I’m going to get myself eaten or have a heart attack from the anxiety. And it has only been a week.”
The bubbling in the pot died down and the potion came to an equilibrium before them.

Mikah was brought to attention as her brew settled, “Ok, we will need to run some tests first, make sure it's stable and uh, working. Even with the modifications I made. It's unproven magic-science!”

“Yes, but my calculations could have still been off! It's complicated stuff! Let me go get one of the golem dolls, they should be a good starting point before moving on to live subjects…”

Between her turning around and speaking her thoughts out loud the dragon scoops up a liter vial of the verdant elixir with Mikah tilting her head up automatically to something passing above it. In one swift continuous motion the taller of the two dumps the concoction right on the shorter one’s face.