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Richard was once again spending a lazy day up by the river in her 'territory.' She was frustrated, Awen hadn't contacted her yet. Her task was on hold until she got some info from Jordan, one way or another. She didn't know how much time she had until Moreau returned to the island and she would have to operate with much greater secrecy if he did.

She consoled herself with to have patience and wait for now. Her reading had grown some what more topical, and the pile of books under the had a couple books on canine behavior interspersed with the normal spy thriller novels. At this moment the heat had driven her from her tree and down to the river bank. The summer afternoon was brutal enough to disturb her afternoon nap. She sat waist deep in the cool waters, not caring about the muddy state of her capris and the raggedness of her T-shirt.

While Richard's hearing was keener than most humans, the transformation had to overcome decades of slow hearing loss to get to this point and She did not enjoy that high pitched world that many of the other islanders experianced at her level of "progress." Cody's sonics bounced off her body without so much of a notice.

Her eyes were scanning the river bed for movement, her tentacles posed to strike any fish that made its presence known. She had played this game before, she had yet to catch anything but it definitely passed the time.

Cody was almost on top of Richard by the time she noticed the ripples and splashes on the surface of the river. She turned her head and saw a figure rushing toward her and the tentacles, already primed, struck into the water. They hit the figure almost full force as Richard herself, scrambled backward, onto dry land. She filled the air with a surprised screech.

The muscles that stretched from Richard's back to the tips of her tentacles strained with effort trying to pull the thrashing boy to her. But the force of the small suction cups on each club were simply not up to the task of handling prey the size of Cody. The popped off as soon as Cody's weight encountered the sandy bank Richard had been sitting on. As they gave way Richard scooted backwards, fliping herself around so she faced Cody on all fours, teeth bared, the tail held ridgedly behind her as she growled at the fish man. In the heat of the moment she did not recognize Cody.

Richard only snarled in reply at first, drowning out Cody's whistles with a screaming roar that caused the nearby birds to take to the sky as one. She readied herself to pounce, to teach this youngster some manners about charging someone like that. Just as her legs trembled to spring, recognition hit her like a thunderbolt. Her eyes widened as she was who it was she was about to attack. "Cody." The high voice was half surprised and half scolding.

Richard was unable to completely suppress her hostility, she still thought he had attack attempted to attack her. Her lips relaxed enough to speak with but the whites of her teeth were clearly visable as she spoke. "Cody... what are you doing here?" She took a tentative step toward the bank. "Why did you charge me?" There was suspicion in her voice but the hostilty was fading as she remembered who Cody was and how young he was.

Richard crept closer still to look at Cody's writing. She looked somewhat dubiously at the first word and her ears drooped a bit at the second. It appeared she still had a soft spot for the youth and her heart sagged a bit at so honest an admission from the boy. She looked him over, he still had a fairly human upper torso but the legs were all aquatic. Could he still be unfinished? It didn't appear so, all of his changes had the look permanence to them. Nothing looked incomplete, unlike her own body with her small hands and sparse fur.

And he had ended up with no voice.

With a sigh she slid back into the water with him, not giving a second thought about pulling him into a four armed hug. "Its okay Cody." She whispered, muzzling his hair before releasing him.