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Emerwyn was asleep. But, she had also been laden with torment this past month. Though it may haved seemed that the 'blessing' of slumber would lift some of the burden from her weary mind, Emerwyn's sleep was riddled with dark images and nightmares.
When she was wakeful, it was hardly better. Her voice was restricted, and her breathing difficult. Her head had to be propped up, else she choke on a mixture of phlegm and blood. She could not see well at all; her vision was blurred, and smatterd with colours. When she was awake, it was as though she were still asleep, trapped still in nightmares with her eyes wide open.
During some precious times, Emerwyn was able to think with her mind somewhat unclouded. To think of what had tormented her so.
Jerrick... he had written something. Something that brought such unspeakable joy - joy she had not known in more than a year. And, yet, it was just that that had torn her. Why?
Now, now she knew for certain... undeniable proof, proof that Jerrick was-
Why was this a bad thing? This was what she had been wondering all along!
She would dream in the night images of his body, dead and forgotten at the bottom of the sea. And now...

Emerwyn moaned softly. She could hear something in the back of her mind. She could feel against her face, as though he were right above her, tears. Rolling down her damp and clammy face. Her eyes opened slowly, and her head turned heavily against the pillow. She blinked several times, and finally made out an image. Dark, tousled hair, rough, brown body. Wrapped up in a dismayed and forlorn figure.
And yet, she had never seen anything more beautiful.

"I-ian."
Was that even what it sounded like?
If Ian wished, she could have said anything.

Emerwyn's sore face slipped into a smile. She felt sores in the corners of her mouth cracking as it moved. She hadn't smiled in a while.
She cleared her throat, and spoke again.
"Don't hide, Ian."
She shifted a little in the bed, and stretched out an arm.
"Ian... it's time... time I got up."

Emerwyn pushed her arms against the bed and slowly lifted her torso into a half-upright position. She winced a little, and looked as Ian with a little grin.
But, the grin slowly faded as she noticed where he was looking.
The letter rest on the nightstand.
So, he had read it. Of course he had.
What had he thought of it? What was there for him to think?
Except that she was weak. Here she was, completely incapacitated, ill, possibly dying - all over a letter. A few words.
She had started a new life on this Island. She had friends, had found love. Time had taken it's course with her, and she had been unable to accept it.

But, no more. "I'm sure."

She croaked another short sentence. "I am."
Now, she struggled up into a sitting position.
"Maybe... I could eat a little."

She was pointedly avoiding the letter now. They both were. And she was not ready to bring it up just yet.

"Thank you."

She put her concentration on her food. She should be happy. She was awake, moving about. Ian was there. Ian was taking care of her.
What? Taking care of her? How did she become so dependent. So weak.
It was time she stood up on her own feet.

And so she did.
She placed her plate down on the nightstand, on top of the letter. Her feet slipped down off the bed, and onto the hard floor. Her head spun.

"I-i will do it on my own."
She lifted herself achingly, tentatively. She swayed heavily, and stumbled.
But, she did not lean on Ian. She caught herself on the nightstand, knocking over the plate of leaves.
She took a qiuck nervous glance at Ian. He wasn't supposed to help her.

Emerwyn breathed in, and lifted herself again. Her arms held themselves out, as she steadied herself. She looked up at Ian again. This time she smiled.
"It's alright now."
She walked over to Ian, and took his hands in her own.
"It will be a while. For... the rest."
She reached up, and touched his cheek, then leaned up and kissed him softly.
Emerwyn did not know what she was going to do. She had done well, putting on the confident front for Ian, but now, she was lost.
Ian, too, was confused. She had to give him time.
She wiped her face of the little traces of blood left, and headed toward the door.

The second incident!

After Emer had left his duplex Ian dragged himself to the cafeteria with help of his staff. He was sad and confused, but he had an instict as to what he would say during their next conversation. He would bring up the letter, and ask her how she felt. It would be hard but he had to find the courage somehow.

He didn't say anything while grabbing some lettuce from the food line and he settled down at a table in the corner. Life was easier before he fell in love, he decided. Much easier.

Despite what everyone had told him when he was younger, sleep does not cure all things. In fact if it was even possible he woke up more miserable than he'd been last night. Food would help, probably. He hadn't eaten a proper meal since before he'd arrived.

He wandered for a while, not seeing anyone else, thank god. He finally entered the large building set in the center of all the houses, peeking in. Nobody had bothered to explain to him where everything was, so it was all a bit trial and error. He was delighted to discover that this seemed to be a cafeteria of sorts, stepping in.

He immediatly paused, seeing one of those... people. This one was quite... bizarre. It looked mostly like some sort of hoved, horned creature. An elk maybe? A deer? It was unnerving, whatever it was. He decided to ignore it for now and headed over to where it looked like he could get food. <********. Error. He didn't speak english, he didn't know what to do. He fumbled with the damn pocket translator, pulling it out and figiting with it. What he really wanted was a nice big bowl of chicken soba soup and a nice tall glass of ice cold bottled water. It looked like there was a line off to the side with some food, however.

He wasn't happy about it, but he grabbed a few of the most delicious looking meat based items, a glass of water, and then went to sit at a table that was a few away from the only other guy sitting in here at the moment.

Ian looked over at the man that had just sat down. WEll, he sure seemed antisocial. That was just as well, Ian didn't feel much like talking anyway. He finished his lettuce and moved to exit the cafeteria having to pass the table Taro was sitting at on his way. As it happened, as he was passing by the table his hoof slipped on the staff that helped him walk and he was thrown off balance nearly falling into the man. "Sorry!" the deer spoke hastily and quickly regained his footing looking a bit sheepish.

Taro stood up immediatly, almost knocking his food over. "Hey! Watch where you're going. God, what are you?" Taro flinched away from the deer man - a part of his brain still registered the strange, bestial apperance of all the other islanders as costumes.

It had to be there was just no way for them to really be turning into animals.

Taro was just shy of raising a hand to try and punch the other away. He was in a foul mood for more reasons than one and having this ugly THING nearly land on him wasn't very helpful. As it was he flapped his hands wildly at the other, cursing at him loudly in his native language.

When the man was flailing madly at him Ian lost what footing he had gained and fell to the floor with an oomph. Ian couldn't understand what he was saying, but by the tone of his voice he assumed it wasn't very polite. Hopefully, whoever this guy was, he knew about the island and the people here. If not. .

"I'm really sorry honest! Its my leg!" Ian gestured towards his bad leg with a hoof and looked sheepish. He really didn't want to have to deal with this.

Taro stopped his yelling and instead glared. The man was disgusting, an animal. He wasn't even a man, he was an it, a thing. There was a split second where Taro thought about hitting the deer-thing.

He recalled Thom, however, and there was also the real fear of the thing hitting him back, and those things on his hands and feet looked like they'd cause a great deal of pain. Instead he opted to rummage around angrily for his translator and tap in a message.

"The place where it has gone, watch." He scowled at the other, taking a moment to look him over, a little thoughtfully. As a side he added. "It is what?"

He motioned to the translator and then thrust it forward at the thing. It was human once, and it was obviously speaking english. Here's to hoping it could type with those disfigured appendages that were probably supposed to be hands.

Ian looked over the translator and grimaced, glancing at his hooves. He would have to try though it would be hard. And beside that he didn't quite understand the question. "wew are alkl turning into animals here." he put that with relatively few typos and d he continued hopingt the translation would get the point across. "you invcluded. never leave. we have wolves, deer lizards." And he pushed the translator back feeling even more uncomfortable with each passing minute

Taro looked at the garbled translation. All words misspelled were instantly not translated, and it didn't help that it was jumbled up slightly to begin with.

He got the barest minimum of what the other was trying to say, though. He looked up and pinned the deer-thing with a simmering glare. For all intents and purposes Taro was imagining that everything was this abominations fault, and it did so make everything easier.

It was this things fault that Natsumi hated him, that she was cheating on him with that guy, that she was pregnant with probably his baby, but it was probably more likely that other guys.

All. His. Fault.

Taro let loose a string of angry curses at the poor bystander, fists balling at his sides as his face flushed with the passion of his anger. Spittle flew off of his lips. His rage was as good as waisted on this thing but it felt so good to just let himself fly off the handlebar. It also helped that it probably didn't understand a single word, which was probably for the better, it might have been either hurt deeply or enraged.

Finally he began to wind down, his anger switching to vague, detached fear. "This isn't going to happen to me, you're a freak. I'll get word through to my parents and they'll get me off this place. I'll be scott free." And, since the idea of being free of this place was exceptionally delicious he repeated the word. "Free."

He stopped, falling silent and smug, arms crossed over his chest. He stared at the deer-thing for a little bit, traces of contempt still in his eyes, before turning completely away from him and sitting back down at the bench he'd been on, picking up his spoon, and continuing to eat.

During the entire long rant Ian just stood there his eyes widened. He had no clue what the guy was saying but from the rage Ian could see in his eyes and the rage Ian could smell, it was definately not good.

When there was a significant pause the deer hesitated and took a step backwards hoping that the man would not become violent. Ian had no particular desire to hurt anyone, and he might be left with no other choice should the man decide to attack.

"No harm," he pleaded. "No harm."

Taro paused in his dining to shoot the deer man another glare. He gave a huff, ignoring him and whatever it was he said and continuing to consume his food.

After a few bites it wasn't really that appealing anymore. He looked back up, slightly disgruntled and pointed at the other, using the only english he could speak on his own.

"Name?" He pointed to himself. "I am Hirohito Taro. Pleased meet you."

His accent was thick and difficult to understand.

So now this guy was trying to be civil? Well, I an supposed that the guy had a right to be mad, after all he was stuck on an island about to be turned into an animal. "Ian Campbell." the deer replied speaking slowly and carefully for Taro's benefit, correctly assuming the name Taro was his first name. Of course, there could have been more to the name Taro, the accent was rather hard to understand.

Another question nagged at him and he had to ask. "Are you mad at me?" He was still speaking slowly so the other man could understand.

Oh great, another Ian. Well it wasn't like it'd be too difficult to tell them apart, one was a terrifying lizard thing, the other was a disgusting deer thing.

"Ian." he said the name easily enough.

He didn't understand the other question, however. He furrowed his eyebrows, scowling lightly. He didn't want to have to bother with this guy anymore, he was annoying. Blowing him off didn't seem to work though.

He shrugged, looking blankly at the other. "No engrish." He said simply, and then haphazardly tossed the translator onto the table. It skidded over to Ian with a clatter, the screen blank and ready for a message.

Ian scowled at the translator and didn't touch it. HIs hooves made it so he couldn't type. "Can't type." he said just as simply as Taro had. This was extremely annoying. Natsumi had spoken much better English than this idiot.

"We're done talking," he said in a half growl (which sounded extremely weird since he was a deer) and started to limp away using his staff to head towards the door.

Surely if Ian wanted to talk to someone he could find someone that knew English, and wasn't mad at him for no apparent reason.

Taro watched the freak limp away, giving a half shrug to himself. He reached over and grabbed the translator, stuffing it back into his pocket. Fine, he didn't want to talk to the deer-thing anyway.

If he wanted to talk to someone he could find someone that knew Japanese.