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...It was Cassidy. Emelyn's breath calmed, but she berated herself, a harsh whisper of self-admonishment that clung to the underbelly of her breath. There was nothing to be afraid of- none of these people have ever hurt you, she told herself as she walked farther into the camp, and out of the jungle. She'd taken to walking in the mornings- getting out of the camp as soon as possible when she awoke, pounding the memories of dreams and fears out through her feet. ...Which were bare. After the change, she'd since sacrificed her beloved behemoth boots to the protection of her lean-to. Her claws were becoming too long to be accommodated by the steel-toe.

Emelyn let out the rest of the chatising breath and came to sit with the snake-like woman at the fire, hoping she wouldn't startle her.

"Hello," she said softly. "I've not seen you in a few days."

Em furrowed her brows for a moment... then her face eased. "Oh, you mean..." she looked down at her tawn and cream colored fur. "Yes, I'm fine. It was over rather quickly." She didn't mention the pain of the spines forcing themselves through her back muscles in a furious cavalcade, or the fact that her nose had elongated so violently that blood had come pouring from her nostrils. There were some things... you just didn't say.

"Not that I know how it happened," Em said, shaking her head and speaking- not just to Cassidy, but also to herself in wonder. "I had an awful nightmare..." a sudden recall of Cassidy's flayed, rope-like body in the dream sprung to mind, and she forced it out of her recall, "and then I woke up changing."

Emelyn smiled, holding onto the compliment and tucking it away. She still hadn't been able to get a good look at herself- the spring water was always so tumultuous that it had been impossible to get a better reflection of herself than as a half fuzzy glance of being half-furry. She hoped she still looked at least someone human- Joli had told her that her eyes were still the same. Perhaps they'd stay that way. She held onto the hope.

"So you think Moreau is still alive?" She said his name softly, still not accustomed to speaking his name without some fear that he was 'watching'.

"I don't know," Emelyn said, exasperated with herself and the situation. "I just can't understand why he'd go through all of this. I guess a part of me hopes that the bodies in the helicopters... well... that one of them is his. Maybe we're still changing because the serum is always in our system. Maybe it's a mutation." Her voice trailed off, and she noticed Cassidy twisting her hair in her fingers. She would have recognized it as a nervous gesture, but her mind was preoccupied with a strange imagining. She saw Cass in her mind's eye, constantly worrying at that same rope of hair, twisting it about her nimble fingers as if it would soothe her... and having the braid, instead, come free in her palm.

Emelyn shook her head, out of the daze and wondering where the thought had come from as she blinked at Cassidy.

The sentence somehow struck a chord with Emelyn, and she found herself suddenly laughing. She wiped at her eyes after a moment, and put her hand out to reassure Cass.

"I'm sorry," she said, taking deep, chuckling breaths, "I'm not laughing at you. It's just something about hoping he's dead so you can read your book... it's a better mental picture than I've had in a long time." She tapped at her temple, realizing the split-second her finger touched the skin beneath the goggles that it was now fur-on-fur... a strange feeling. "There haven't been many good images in here, recently."

"Silly I can handle. Silly is a lot easier to deal with," she said. "And I know what you mean. Everyone else is preoccupied with survival and figuring out how to get off the island... and I'm just feeling sorry for myself that I haven't been able to write anything recently." She was suddenly reminded of the dream, and of Greer's promise to get her skins to write on. She recounted the conversation to Cassidy- not bringing up the dream.

"Tell you what," she finished, "if Greer brings me those rabbitskins for Amaya to cure for me, I'll write you a story or two to read. I'm sure it won't be quite to the caliber of what you expect, but I'll custom write something for you to read."

Emelyn smiled. "It's all I ever wanted to do. I thought it was my calling in life, my destiny- until I washed ashore here, of course. ..What sort of things do you like to read? ...What could I write for you?"