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Casey glance up, following Tristans gaze to the wall. A sad expression crossed her face as she realized he was looking at. It was a dull-colored mural of her and Zane. "Oh... that..." She said grimly, the picture stirring a strong emotion. Her voice quivering slightly she sighed, "Just a picture I did earlier today... s'nothing really... I suppose we should get back to the bonfire now..."

She stopped in the doorway and stared at the mural for a moment. Whatever... it didnt matter anymore. Whats done was done. She took a deep breath to calm herself. "If you see anything you like you can have it..." She said in reply to Malic's compliment, noticing his like for her art. It comforted her to know others liked her work.

[Noah's at 0%, but aware of the island and the animal things, to save time. I have one (WIP) sketch sort of example for him in quest thread, if anyone wants a visual reference.]

Noah lay on his back in his duplex. The German was, for now, sleeping. but it wasn't exactly a peaceful sleep. He stirred uneasily, grunting and aking uneasy whines in his sleep. Nightmares were nothing new for him, but these ones, oh these ones were certainly new!

Creatures, terrible creatures, part man and part beast! They closed in on him, twisted faces splitting in malicious grins...

He woke up with a sharp gasp and sat up quickly, looking around his darkened room. THAT was a terrible dream. He hugged the blankets close to him a moment before he relaxed and little, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.

He got up and headed to the bathroom, flicking on the light. He winced, the sudden brightness hurting his eyes. He rubbed at his face with his right hand and shook his head a few times, trying to chase away sleep, and the remnants of the nightmare.

He turned on the tap and splashed his face with cool water, trying to wake up. After all, there was no way in hell he was going to get any more sleep tonight...not after that nightmare. He groped clumsily for his brush, still awful tired. He managed to pull his sleep-tweaked hair into some presentable fashion and waddled out of the bathroom and sat back on the edge of his bed.

He didn't want to stay in this room...he felt like a caged animal right now. But...he also felt safe inside of these walls. No animals would get him in here...this was his sanctuary. He drew his knees up to his chin, and bit at his lip nervously. He didn't want to go outside at NIGHT of all times but...but he knew he couldn't stay holed up forever.

He picked up a pair of sandles and grabbed his labcoat (it was the only thing he really had considering he had been short-sighted enough to forget a bathrobe), tossing them on. He cautiously put a hand on his doorknob. he took a deep breath and turned it slowly, pushing the door open and poking his head out.

It was pitch black. He couldn't see for crap. No surprise there though...it had to be what? Early morning at least. He stepped out nervously, shutting his door behind himself.

So he was outside. He only hoped he didn't become a snack for one of those beast-men.

It only took him a few minutes to get hoplessly lost in the darkness and the jungle. He knew he wasn't too far from his duplex but having never really explored much since he found out about the island true nature, he had little sense of direction. He stumbled around, wishing more and more that he had stayed back in bed...

Then he quite nearly tripped over Eri's curled figure, pitching forward with a loud yelp of surprise and shock. He crashed to the ground, getting all tangled in his labcoat in the process. He had no clue what he tripped over- but that was partly his fault for wandering around in the overgrowth.

Noah rolled off whoever he tripped over and pulled himself up to his hands and knees and scrabbled a few feet away.

Stupid, what do you expect, crawling around in the undergrowth like that? There was a path, you know. Way to go, Noah.

He managed to turn himself around and pull himself into a sitting position. He had done a great job grinding dirt into the knees of his powder-blue pajama pants, and he was pretty sure his labcoat was in the same condition. Great. What was he doing, wandering around out here in pajamas at the a**-acrack of dawn anyways? Yes, this was by far one of his dumbest ideas.

"Ow..." he groaned, rubbing at his knees. At least his hip wasn't bothering him for once. I'm too young to have a bum hip, he groused mentally.

He tried to peer ahead to see who he had so uncerimoniously stumbled upon. It was hard to see with such light.

"'A-allo?" he called. "I...I'm...sorry about...ze tripping..." he stammered uneasily. Way to go, Noah. That was smooth and totally not awkward at all, his mind snapped sarcastically as he mentally kicked himself the whole way.

A cry tore through the darkness, its source not far from the duplex. Casey jumped in suprise. "Wh... what was that?" She said, a frown potrayed on her features. Casey peered cautiously outside in a desperate attempt to see who or more to the point what had made the noise. With a nervous crack of her knuckles she made her way to the railing. Trees blocked her view. "Hey guys... Do you suppose..." Her voice cracked. "Er... What do you thinks going on down there?"

As she spoke she decended the stairs skipping every other step. She reached the bottom and hesitated. Anything could be out there? Was it another victem of Moreaus twisted mind? Casey tried to push these thoughts from her mind. She began to tremble, her mind played tricks on her. Here eyes were bluring... but that was just her imaginiation. She had done this time and time again- it was ainxiaty gnawing her insides once again.

There it was. Just ahead in the distance two figures lay curled on the ground. "What the heack?" She exclaimed when she realized one of them was but a child. The other one was much larger and his clothes glowed musky white against the darkness. Casey took several more steps towards the pair. Her eyes were night-blind but after a moment she made out the blury outline of a lab coat... a lab coat!

"WHAT THE FRIGGINHELL ARE YOU DOING?!?! GETAWAY FROM HER YOU TWISTED-BASTERD!" She cried out, running over to the child. She clenched her hands into tight fists, her knuckles whitening from pressure. It was apperant she was frightened, her better judgement told her to flee but her mind was set. Oh heavens, not a child... She menally sobbed. No one deserves this, especially a child.

Before Eri could say a think a loud yell rang in her ears. It was another female, and from the sound of her voice she was very angry. She wasn't to sure why the woman was yelling but she knew it was directed towards the man who tripped over her.Eri watched as the man cowered away from the enraged woman. "Miss? I'm not sure what is going on, but I don't think he was going to hurt me...."she said softly. Eri didn't like loud noises, especially yelling.She wanted to make sure there would be no more yelling, atleast not around her.

Noah sat scrunched up, and very slowly lifted his head up, letting his arms drop to the ground. This was getting too damn weird, he thought as he raked at the dirt with his fingers. First he got here thinking he'd have a nice vacation...then he found out the scientists were turning people into animals. Finding that out had caused him to hide in his duplex like a frightened animal for a week or so. And then the first night he ventured out...it was turning out to be one big disasterpiece.

He had to admit he felt a little ashamed at his reaction, though...he was just so jumpy lately. He was wearing a blush himself and he stared down at the ground, suddenly fixated on a line of ants puttering by near his legs. God, he hoped that he wasn't going to be turned into an ant. He hated bugs. Pests, they were.

"It's okay...I...should haf...been more careful." he trailed off. He shiverd a bit, last of the "attack's" residual fear ebbing away. He took the girl's hand shakily- girls always made him nervous- and managed to right himself again. "It's okay...really. It vas a dumb idea on mein part to substatute a lab coat for a bahsrobe anyvays." he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground, peeking up occasionally at the girl. God, he hated his accent sometimes.

What if she had been one of those specimen? It's obvious there are some people on this island that DO NOT like the scientists...and you're out wandering in a labcoat...in the dark...where it's easy to be mistaken for a worker... He shuddered to think what would have happened if it HAD been a disgruntled beast man.

But it hadn't been. Regardless, he was damn lucky he got out of *this* run-in without any bruises. He had no idea how close he came to getting clobbered by Casey. Ah, ignorance at times was truly bliss.

((Sorry for not posting earlier, I've had a compelte mental block with this character))

Malic flustered at her offering of her art work to take. It wouldn't feel right to just take a picture without giving anything in return and Malic really had nothing to offer, after all money was useless here. His mouth opened in an attempt to reply but promptly shut again as his body jolted from surprise at a cry in the night.

He looked at Casey with pale features, maybe it was nothing, an animal out hunting. Malic made himself stop thinking what else it could've been as his mind had a habit of creating the worse case scenarios. He hung at the door as Casey peered into the darkness her questions chilling the night air further. A slight shake of his head indicated he didn't know, hell he didn't want to know.

"Casey!" He called as the brave (or perhaps foolish) women descended the stairs and became engulfed by the inky darkness blanketing the island.

This is where the man's natural cowardice kicked in. He hovered near the light of the duplex, eyes and ears straining to follow Casey, while his mind caught up with what was happening. He gripped the rail. She was ok, of course, I'm just worrying for no reason, the labs wouldn't let anything bad happen to- Comforting thoughts were seized as an accusing shout and a curse then an equally loud reply echoed from the eerily quiet scenery that brought Malic out of his rabbit-like state and urged him to follow the invisible path Casey had taken.

"Casey?"

Leaves and claw like branches brushed against his skin and clothes, flinching away from one that grabbed blindly at his shirt caused him to noisily trip over a root sticking out from the ground. With a muted cry that never made it past his tongue, he landed heavily on the ground and wondered guiltily what possessed him to venture into the pitch black jungle full of beast-men.

Voices sifted through the bushes and branches, he sighed quietly realising he had been over reacting again, thankfully this time nobody was here to see and so hauled himself up with the aid of a stump.

Grey eyes strained to see more then the black outlines of the foliage that surrounded him with no luck.

"Uh, hello? Casey where abouts are you?" Better to follow voices then blindly stumbling along any longer.