Then two weeks after it landed, it opened and she appeared. �A giant lion with human characteristics� is how the news service described her. She was just a kitten then, well a 50-foot high kitten. Although the rock was believed to be hundreds of years old, she was only 4. She walked upright like a human and could talk, but was still a lion. And it did not take long to realize she was intelligent either. The scientist who discovered her named her Crystal after the �mystery rock.�
Initially the military showed a strong interest in Crystal. At first they thought she was a threat and had to be destroyed. Then when the military realized how young she was they wanted to raise her to be some sort of super weapon.
That went out the window when Professor Thomas Deco, the scientist who discovered Crystal, was able to prove in court that she was a sentient being. He was also able to get the court to declare her a citizen of Centari 7 on the grounds that she was �born� there.
After that, Professor Deco fought a long battle to adopt her. It was soon obvious that he had strong public support. The public did not like the idea of the military turning Crystal into a weapon. Consequently due to the public pressure, the government reluctantly agreed. On June 1, 2123, Professor Thomas Deco was granted permission to adopt and raise Crystal on the University she was discovered at.
Hence over the years the professor raised Crystal as his own. However, that turned out to be a real challenge at times since his little girl grew up to be a 100 feet tall. But the university did everything they could to help, with generous financial backing from the government and some private organizations.
Over the years, various private tutors handled Crystal�s education and she turned out to be very bright. Although her fur covered her private areas, she would still wear specially made t-shirts and shorts for decently. To house her they build a dorm that ended up being the size of a large warehouse, with many of the conveniences of a normal home. In addition, a large farm of livestock was kept on hand with various live animals shipped in daily for her meals. Crystal was a carnivore after all.
Due to her size, Crystal had to learn to be real careful around others. However it was never any secret when she approached. The ground would shake and anyone standing by her would find themselves in a dark shadow.
In the beginning the university wanted to limit her exposure to the public since the sight of a giant lion was enough to scare the wits out of any man. However despite the university�s concerns, Crystal turned out to be very kind and ended up earning the nickname �gentle giant.�
Her father, Professor Deco, taught her the appropriate way to act around others and to treat humans as equals. As she grew up, Crystal also developed the desire to be accepted into society. The idea of being viewed as a monster or a freak of nature bothered her. So despite her size, Crystal would often do anything she could to make others comfortable around her.
Once Crystal got to be about 8 years old Professor Deco decided to petition the university to allow her free access to the campus. He knew of his daughter�s desire to be accepted, however that would never happen if the university kept her isolated from the public. Initially the professor�s petition was meet with criticism. But this was not the first time he had to fight for his daughter and was persistent. As a result, within 4 months the professor had won his petition and arrangements were being made.
To accommodate Crystal, it was decided that an old bike trail that ran through the campus would be widened. This would allow her access to most parts of the school. In addition special classes were held and pamphlets created to help students, faculty, and visitors adjust.
Despite some initial fanfare, after a while Crystal�s presence became a routine sight around the campus grounds. By adhering to some simple safety precautions, most people were never in any danger around her.
Nevertheless even with all the precautions, from time to time an accident would occur. Usually this involved someone�s car or other piece of equipment, but there were a few injuries. Although careless students usually caused these accidents, Crystal would always feel guilty.
However in the one case Crystal was the one who was careless. One day she accidentally stepped on a student who was lying in a grass field. Both of the student�s legs were crushed and had to be operated on. Crystal felt so bad about the incident that, after the reconstructive surgery, she carried him around wherever he needed to go. In time the student�s legs healed, but Crystal never forgot what happened.
Once Crystal turned 12, she began to look for ways to give something back to the community. It did not take long to realize that construction was the way to go. Despite all of the advances in technology man has made over the years, construction was still a long and labor-intensive task. However Crystal found out that she could do the work faster, cheaper, and safer than any conventional means. For example, Crystal could help assemble a building frame in a just few days. That same job would take hover pods and energy cranes months to finish. It wasn�t long before construction companies would start paying top credit, and still save money, for her special abilities.
These days Crystal, at age 18, has developed into a very beautiful young woman, for a 100-foot lion. She now attends the University that has been her home as a student. Despite a lucrative career in construction Crystal has decided to pursue a degree in architecture. Ever since Crystal started working construction, she found the design of buildings to fascinate her. Crystal hopes to one day be designing the building she assembles.
The University once more found itself making special arrangements for her. Crystal�s classes would either have to be in open-air auditoriums or specially modified classrooms with large roofs that would open up. Yet this time Crystal paid for all of the modifications herself.
Today Crystal is about to meet someone who will change her life forever. It�s a sunny afternoon in September and she is walking home from class. During the walk home someone starts yelling at her from below. She gets on one knee and looks down.
The little man looks up at her with a nervous look on his face and says, �H..Hi, I�m Jim.�
Jim has seen Crystal around campus before but had never been this close. Her large powerful body looming over him blocks out the sun. He can�t help think that he�s little more than an insect compared to her. That makes him real uncomfortable.
Crystal smiles and says, �Hi Jim, I�m Crystal. What can I do for you?�
Crystal�s large grimacing smile exposes several of her fangs, some of which are as tall as he is. But somehow her soft feminine voice calms him enough to talk to her.
Jim proceeds to tell her that he was a junior pre-med student who is studying alternative medicine and taking a class on Reflexology. Jim explains how Reflexology is an ancient oriental type of foot massage that uses nerve ending in the soles of the feet. He wants to write a paper on what effects reflexology would have on her. Her size and the fact that she is a lion makes it a real challenge.
Crystal never had anyone offer to give her a massage before and was curious. Also it sounds very appealing since she had been helping resurface a road the day prior. That type of work always left her paws sore since she had to stomp on the concrete to break it up.
�Okay Jim, I�m free tomorrow night if you would like to come over to my place.� She says while pointing to her dorm room, which was just over the hill.
Jim looks down at his personal organizer and says �That�s fine, a couple of friends from class already agreed to help. Can I bring them along?�
�Sure� Crystal says while looking at her paws �Besides I think you are going to need all the help you can get.�
Jim looks at her feet and they both laugh. They wave to each other and go their separate ways.
Later the next evening Jim meets up with Sam and Judy. Earlier that day it was decided that he and Sam would each work on one paw, while Judy would watch her to see what kind of reaction they were getting. A couple of handheld two-way radios will help them keep in contact, while Judy takes notes. Once they are ready to go, Sam loads up some supplies in the back of his car. The fusion cell in Jim�s car was on the fritz again, so they�re using Sam�s car to drive to Crystal�s dorm.
It does not take long to get to the dorm since it was on campus. The building is huge, if it were a normal dorm it could house hundreds of students. After parking the car, they walk up to a door that is located on the side of the building. After pushing the buzzer button on the intercom they hear Crystal�s voice, �Come in.�
Once inside they find the interior of the building to be a large open space. All that can be seen are two large doors, what appears to be some closets, some mats that appear to be 8 feet tall, a large stuffed pillow, and a large monitor mounted on one of the walls.
Crystal walks out of one of the large doors and kneels down on the mat in front of them. Jim introduces Sam and Judy to Crystal and explains to her what they want to do. He then asks Crystal to lie down on her stomach so her paws will be facing up.
At Jim�s request, Sam goes over to the janitor�s closet and begins filling two buckets with soap and water. When he gets back, he takes a good look at Crystal�s paws. They�re bigger than his car with dark black pads. The only major difference between her paws and human feet is that there are only 4 toes on each of her paws. Sam thinks to himself �I�m going to get one hell of a workout tonight!�
Once everyone was in place, they start by washing Crystal�s paws. Crystal had just got a bath, so her paws were mostly clean. But there was still some dirt that needed washed off. After the washing, it�s time to dry them off with some clean towels and proceeded to the next step.
Crystal�s leathery pads are naturally soft, but still too stiff to work with. So they apply some massage oil to them using mops. It took Jim and Sam over 10 minutes to apply the oil and they end up going through several gallons. Since the oil will take at least 20 minutes to absorb in, Jim and Sam now decide to take a break.
After 30 minutes Jim and Sam walk back up to Crystals paws and climb up on them. This time her pads are much softer and they feel like the cushions on an expensive leather couch. Jim then instructs Sam to follow his lead. Jim gets on his knees put his hands close together on her pad. Using his body weight to apply as much pressure as possible, he begins to lean into a spot he believes will contain a pressure point. Jim�s arms manage to sink in about halfway up to his elbows and then a loud moan comes from up front. Jim immediately stops and gets on the radio to ask Judy what happened.
But Crystal responds instead, �I�m fine! It was a little sore at first, but then it felt real good.�
Jim looks at Sam and says �Sounds like we found a pressure point.�
So over the next half an hour they continued to apply pressure to various parts of her paws listening for moans. Once they finished with her pressure points, they massaged the pads to relieve the remaining tension in her paws.
Crystal can feel everything they were doing to her paws. At first, it felt good because they were relieving the soreness in her paws. However after a little while, her whole body began to relax. All of the stress from school and work seemed to be disappearing as well. This was pure heaven to her.
However after an hour and a half Jim and Sam were both exhausted. To them this is hard work that leaves them with sore aching backs. It was time to quit. So Sam gets up and starts to walk up to Judy.
Jim is too tired to get up so he turns around and lays back on Crystal�s paw to take a rest. He is shocked to find out that the pads got soft as pillows. His whole body sinks down into these warm soft pillows comfortably. Crystal�s peaceful purring can be felt through her soles and it�s very relaxing.
Jim thinks to himself, �I�m just going to rest my eyes for a little while.�
As Judy and Sam walk back Judy looks to Sam and says, �Crystal was in heaven up there. She ended up passing out 10 minutes ago with a big smile on her face. Wait until Jim reads my notes.�
Just as they make it back to Jim, Sam looks at him and says, �looks like she isn�t the only one who passed out! What do you think we should do?�
Judy looks at Jim and says, �Hate to wake him up he looks so comfortable, but you think it�s safe?�
Sam looks back at her �Yeah, he�ll be alright for tonight. Even if she wakes up before him, I�m sure he�ll realize something is up when his bed starts moving.� and they walk back to his car laughing.
The next morning Jim wakes up to what feels like the earth moving below him. It takes him a few moments to realize that he�s still on Crystal�s paw and it�s moving! Jim jumps off of it and runs clear so he would not be kicked. Then a soft voice says, �Are you alright?� It was Crystal, apparently she�s already awake.
Jim yells back �Yeah, I must have fell asleep last night.�
Crystal gets up, turns around, and gets on one knee. �Sorry about that, I felt something on my paw and when you started to snore� Well it wasn�t hard to figure out what it was.�
They both laugh softly and Crystal looks back down at him and says, �I haven�t slept that good in a long time, how did you sleep?�
Jim starts to rub his back �My back is still sore from last night, other than that not bad. But I have to admit that falling asleep on someone�s foot was a first for me.�
Crystal looks down at a can of oil that was left behind last night �Is that the stuff you used on my paws?�
Jim looks over �Yes, I�m surprised there is any left though�
Crystal thinks for a moment, lays her left hand down next him and says �Take off you shirt and lay down, I have a idea�
Jim looks at her hand �What?�
Crystal blinks her eye at him �What you did last night was very sweet and I want to do something to return the favor. Trust Me!�
Gazing up at this giant cat that is asking him to trust her, he feels like a fool for believing that line. But reality is she wouldn�t need to ask to do anything to him. Somehow that is oddly comforting.
So Jim does as she asked and lies down on the giant hand face down. A moment later he feels a big leathery finger gently rubbing the remaining oil up and down his back. To his surprise, Crystal turns out to give a really good massage. Not only is the tension in his muscles beginning to melt away, but Crystal is also applying just enough pressure to pop his vertebrate into place. This is defiantly one of the best massages anyone has ever given him.
However after only 20 minutes Crystal stops. Jim turns over in her hand, now completely relaxed. Looking up at a very sweet smiling face he realized just how attracted she was.
�I�m sorry Jim but my Psychology 101 class is in 25 minutes, I have to go.� she says.
Jim thought for a moment and says, �Can we do this again sometime? I�d really like to see you again.�
Crystal smiles and says, �You can rub my paws anytime you want, but perhaps you would like to go to the lake this weekend instead.�
Jim smiles �It�s a date.� and walks back to his dorm room.
That weekend Jim and Crystal met at the lake and over the next several months ended up spending a lot of time together. They became real close but Jim was finding he really wanted more than a friendship. He found himself making excuses to spend time with her. When they were apart, Crystal was all he could think of.
Jim managed to talk Sam into helping massage her paws every couple of weeks. It was long exhausting work and he began to owe Sam a lot of favors, but Crystal loved it and that was reason enough in his mind. Also after they were finished and Sam went home, Crystal would rub oil on his back.
On occasion Crystal would fall asleep before Jim and Sam were done. But Jim was persistent and would just curl up on one of her warm paws and go to sleep. At first the idea of sleeping on her feet was unusual to him, but he got used to it after a while. And of course when he woke up in the morning, Crystal would always be waiting to pamper him.
Jim was starting to worry that reflexology was all he had to offer Crystal physically. For all he knew, she may not consider him anything more than a friend. Or even worse, a pet. Besides he couldn�t even figure out the logistics of having sex with a 100 ft lion. But boy he would like to try more than anything else in the world right now.
What Jim did not know is how much Crystal cared for him. Although Crystal never had been in love before, she might be falling in love with Jim. Of course she wasn�t sure if it was really love or just a good friendship. That doubt was enough to scare Crystal into not telling Jim how she really felt. Also Crystal was afraid if she told Jim, and he didn�t share those feelings, it would scare him away. But the more time she spent with him, the more she wanted to take that chance.
Unfortunately time was not on there side. Something was about to happen that would change everything.
Character based upon that created by Rogue.