The monster sailed through space, through the solar system.  The monster was a spherical stellar mass to small to be an ignited star like Sirius or Sol.  It's atmosphere was dark purple with brick red bands of clouds flying over its surface.  The monster continued to sail towards it's more luminous, bright yellow G2 counterpart.  Whether it had an intelligence, or whether it did not no one can say.  However, it blazed light in the infrared spectrum.  It was crossing the orbit of another like it. 

This other like it, was yellow green in the light of it's captor star, Sol.  It had a ring of ice around it, and the ice moon, Encelidus, supplied the planet's rings with more particles of ice.  Saturn, was once a brown dwarf star like the monster that was crossing its path.  The IR radiation it was getting from the monster was affecting its atmosphere, driving huricane like storms along its surface.  And soon, the monster will be crossing its path in a couple of days on it's orbital path with destiny.

----------------------

Kyle rode the bus to his destination.  He promised that John that he'd meet him at the park he specified, at the James Madison trailhead along the Jordan River.  He did some homework as the bus took him to his destination.  Kyle did his algebra homework.  Doing quadratic equations would mark him as a nerd, but a nerd wearing a black nylon tracksuit with green stripes up the sides was nothing to laugh at.  Besides, he wore his running shorts and t-shirt underneith his tracksuit. 

It was a hot september day, even though it was getting close to Autumn.  The day was clear, and just pillowy clouds floated in the sky over the Salt Lake Valley. The clouds looked like cotton puffs.

The bus finally stopped, and Kyle got off, stopping his algebra homework.  He put his mathmatic texts in his bag and got off at 33rd.  He found John waiting for him.  Kyle waved at John, and he walked towards him.

John was a lean dragon-human mix.  The mixture of a mythical and a dragon, he was supposed to represent the pinnacle of one man's vision of Transhumanism.   Green lizard like scales covered John's face and body.  His face was drawn out to look like a lizard's muzzle, and a pair of horns erupted from the top of his head.  He had green fin-like ears.  His neck was a little longer than Kyle's human neck, but not by much, and ventral scales ran from his muzzle down to his tail.  His body was taut and lean, built to be a runner's body.  Over his body he wore a track suit, but from the back of his body sprouted a thick, muscular tail that tapered to a point.   He wore no shoes, but his feet were digitgrade and he stood on four splayed toes and a long heel and each toe had an ebony talon sprouting from it, with a talon coming out of his heel.  His back had a long green fin, that started from his head down to the middle of his tail.  His track suit was hiding his wings, which strained to get out.  His hands were human like, except each finger and thumb ended in a short ebony claw. 

"Hi, kyle!" said John, waving.

"Here, along the Jordan river parkway, are you serious?" asked Kyle.

"Yeah, I am.  The parkway is perfect to do some running, 3 mile run, are you up to it?" asked John.

Kyle shrugged and started stripping off his nylon tracksuit.  He took off his jacket to reveal his white t-shirt, and just stripped off the bottoms to reveal his running shorts. Kyle's running shorts were also black, and had a red stripe on either side.  They also had a 3 inch inseam, revealing a lot of leg.  John was a bit overcome with his arousal at seeing Kyle's legs, and he took his time to get his track suit off.

John didn't wear a shirt, but his wings were finally made free. He took off his track pants to reveal a jockstrap that accomodated his large muscular tail.  The fabric of the lower strap was made of blue spandex.  He had a fine, lean figure.  "Sorry about exposing myself like this," he coyly said.  "But a jockstrap is the only way I can make room for my tail."

"It's fine, dude," said Kyle.

They started to warm up a little on the trail, and then in ten minutes after stretching the muscles, they started to walk together, and then break into a run.  Running with a transhuman like John was nothing for Kyle, except that John flapped his wings as they ran.  They caused a small counter breeze to the warming breeze that they felt.

They ran for fifteen minutes until John grabbed Kyle and pushed themselves off into the bullrushes and behind some bushes.  Kyle felt trapped under John, but John shushed him and pointed to two supicious looking men walking the trail.  They were wearing black hoodies, were darkskinned, and had deep serious looks on their faces.

"Is it safe?"

"Yeah, looks like it," said John.

"Whoa, what are two gangers coming around here for?" said Kyle.

"I don't know."

John had to make a pass at Kyle's buttocks, which were sticking out at him so invitingly.  He touched them briefly, giving them a pet.  Kyle turned around, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, really," said John.

"Why are you touching my butt?"

"I . . . uh . . . I . . ."

"Come on."

"Have you ever been kissed?"

"What?"

"By a boy, have you ever been kissed by a boy?"

"No, why would you suggest such a thing!" Kyle said in horror.  He had a genuine look of horror on his face.

"Sorry I asked," said John.  "Sorry, I asked."

"Lets just continue our run, alright?"

John looked down, and sighed.  He got up with his new friend and they both continued their run.  He was wondering why his proposition wasn't accepted.   They both continued their run until they reached the half-way mark, where they turned about and ran the other way.

John felt down, actually.  He wanted to kiss his new friend and to taste his lips and kisses against his lips.  He wanted more from his new friend than just kisses.  He had to wait until the right time when he can make the same proposition and win his friend's heart.

----------------------------------------------

Epilogue

The black man had slightly graying hair.  His suit was sloppy and dirty, and his tie was mismatched.  He carried a bottle of whiskey where ever he went, and it was his intention to head west towards the mountains.  He waved down a truck, which the trucker opened.

The trucker opened the door. "Say, do you need a lift."

"Yes," said the man in a melancholy tone.  He took a swig of his whiskey.  "I'm headed to the mountains.  Where are you headed?"

"I'm heading to Colorado!"

"Good," said the black man as he climbed in.  The trucker, a white man with red hair, turned to him and said, "Say, you look familiar."

"I'm just an ordinary drifter," he said seriously.

"Did you hear about the former President's residence?"

"I was there," said the black man.  "I was . . . there."  He closed the truck and stared out the side window as he and the trucker drove down Interstate 70.