Here's a little something I've been working together with  adamios He really likes Toulia, my gryphon character and he brought up the idea of a story/art trade. I did the story while Adamios did the art. There is two pieces of art so the story is split into two parts. I hope you enjoy the art and the story.

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"Well, this is the place.” Toulia said to herself, turning off the gravel road into the empty pasture. A ways into the pasture she saw Adamios getting things setup. She followed the existing set of tracks through the field, parked next to Adamios's car, and got out.

Adamios set down a tank of helium and hurried over, "Hey Toulia." he said, "glad you could make it." The Anteater held out his gigantic paw for Toulia to shake.

Toulia laughed at the gesture, as just one of Adamios's claws was bigger than her fist. She gripped his index claw with her hand and, while giving his hand a gentle shake, she remarked, "Oh Adam, you sure do love getting people to shake your hand, don't you?

"Oh I do", chuckled Adamios in reply, "It's so funny watching how some people respond to being greeted with a hand that's as big as their torso."

Toulia let go of Adamios's claw and then moved to his left side and tried to lift his massive hand. Adamios let his arm go limp, leaving Toulia to lift by herself. Toulia let out a chirpy laugh as she hefted the giant hand onto her shoulder. Stroking his hand like it was an animal, Toulia asked, "Your hands are so large and adorable, but sometimes I wonder how you can do anything with them?"

Without missing a beat, Adamios replied, "To be honest, I sometimes wonder how you can eat, drink, or even talk with that cute beak of yours." Adamios reached up with his right hand and gently tapped the tip of Toulia's beak with his claw, the hard tap being quite loud despite Adamios's ‘s gentle touch.

"Point taken", said Toulia, dropping Adamios's hand off her shoulder while eyeing Adamios flirtatiously. Adamios used the momentum of his swinging left hand to turn himself around and start walking back towards the equipment setup a ways from the car.

Looking over his shoulder towards Toulia, Adamios said, "I'd love to chat some more, but I suppose we had better get moving on this while there is no wind. I'll get finished setting things up and you can get your clothes changed."

"Sure thing", replied Toulia. She reached into the back seat of her car and pulled out a small backpack, then stood between the two cars and changed into a black bikini, the fabric being quite stretchy. Toulia left it as loose as possible and then packed up her street clothes and put them back into her car.

Toulia walked towards Adamios and asked inquisitively, "All right then. You said to wear something that will stretch because I'm gonna be blown up like a balloon. What do you have going on here?"

"Well now", started Adamios, grinning sarcastically, "You told me that you wanted to be able to fly, but the problem with that is you don't have any wings. That makes the whole flying business a bit difficult. There are a couple of options we could go with. The most obvious one is to just get you a magic amulet that will give you wings that would let you fly like Hazard does. The problem of course is that an amulet like that from a reputable dealer is incredibly expensive and I'm not about to go looking for a black market amulet made by some third rate mage behind a dumpster. Not to mention it takes darn near forever to learn how to fly with one of those. Hazard makes it look easy, but he was born with those wings.

"Ha-ha, you should see him get ready to fly", interrupted Toulia, "He's got a preflight checklist he goes over as if he's flying an airliner."

"Heh, that's funny. I'll have to hang around him more and see that", chuckled Adamios, "Though I suppose it's not surprising, it's one thing to have something go wrong and crash the plane you're in, it's another when your body IS the plane."

"I suppose you're right. He has mentioned that young drakes crash land a lot when they are first learning to fly. I suppose you'd learn to be careful after a while", said Toulia, "Anyway, go on? From what you've said I'm guess you're going to make me into a balloon?"

"Well....to that effect yes," Adamios said reluctantly, "You're not technically a balloon, but with this amulet you can be filled with helium and become lighter than air and fly.

"Soooooooo, is it safe?" asked Toulia inquisitively?

"Fully tested and certified.", assured Adamios. "The only way you can hurt yourself with this is if you deflate yourself when you're two miles up. I doubt you're gonna want to go that high anyway and you're certainly not dumb enough to do something like that.

"No to both of those", said Toulia in an absolute tone of voice, "Hazard has shown pics of him flying that high and the only time I want to see the ground that high up is from the inside of an airplane."

"You sure do like Hazard", said Adamios in an inquisitively flirtatious voice.

"Oh I do", said Toulia, turning away in embarrassment. "He's such a wonderful friend and we hang out so much with the volunteer fire department stuff, but he's not my only friend." Toulia turned back towards Adamios and leaned towards him, her shiny black beak only a few inches from his muzzle. Taking the hint, Adamios went and gave Toulia a kiss on the tip of her beak.

"Oh come on now, you get more than that", whispered Toulia.

"Oh, OK", answered Adamios, who then promptly buried his face into Toulia's cleavage.

"HEY!" chirped Toulia in surprise, "That's not what I meant!" Keeping her cool she put her arms around Adamios's head and squeezed him against her breasts while mussing up his hair, his head slipping partway between them.

"Totally worth it," Adamios said in a muffled voice.

Letting go of Adamios, Toulia got back on topic, "OK now, so explain how this amulet works and how we get helium inside of me.......Never thought I'd say that phrase ever."

Adamios chuckled at Toulia's words as he took a moment to smooth is now ruffled yellow hair before responding, "Well, it's rather straightforward. You put on this amulet and then press this fitting into your belly button. It will fasten to you and then we just attach a hose. To inflate you we just turn on the helium, to deflate we just turn off the helium and open a vent valve. To get the fitting out of your belly button you just take off the amulet."

"What happens if the amulet falls off while I'm in the air?" Toulia asked in a concerned tone.

"Not possible", assured Adamios. "You can only put the amulet on or take it off by undoing the clasp on the chain." He demonstrated by taking the amulet, which looked like a blue glass ball on a long necklace chain, and trying to put it on with the clasp fastened. The Amulet and chain glowed blue as it resisted his efforts to put it on over his head.

"Well it sounds like you've thought through all this", said Toulia, "let’s try it out." Toulia took the amulet from Adamios, undid the clasp, and put it on. Toulia swayed uneasily for a moment as she felt herself get lighter. She looked at her hands and body, but she didn't see anything different about herself. "Whoa, this feels weird", Toulia said uneasily, "It feels like I'm hollow now, though I suppose I probably am."

Adamios stood by patiently while Toulia adjusted to the amulet. After a minute or so he could see that Toulia was getting steady on her feet and then handed her the fitting. Toulia looked at the fitting for a moment and then pushed it into her bellybutton. Her skin flowed around the fitting and fastened it to her. Toulia tugged at the fitting inquisitively. "This feels so interesting, I have feeling in this like it's part of my skin. Uh, should have asked this first but how do I take this out when I'm done?" she asked, "It feel like it’s part of me now."

"It will pop out when you take the amulet off when we're done," responded Adamios, "OK, let’s get you tied down and attached to the tank." Adamios tied a long rope to Toulia's tail floof and fastened the other end securely to an anchor he had screwed into the ground. Adamios then grabbed the end of a similarly long hose and handed it to Toulia. He told her, "OK, this fastens on just like the hose on an air compressor. Just a heads up before you do, you're gonna get vague sense of feeling of the hose and tank. As if it's a quasi-part of you."

"That sounds.....interesting. Let’s see how this goes." Toulia said cautiously. The fitting on the end of the hose and locked to the fitting attached to her with a metallic *click*. "OOOOOO, that's an interesting feeling." said Toulia, staring at the hose and tank. She felt over the hose and tank with her hands inquisitively, her mind trying to make sense of the new sensations.

Unsure if he should say anything or not, Adamios stood next to Toulia while pointing to one of the valves and said, "Um,......if you're ready Toulia, that valve is the low-pressure side of the regulator. You can turn it on to start the flow of gas.