Welcome to Gaia! ::

She stood to her full height, knees cracking and joints popping as she did. Emelyn placed both her newly gotten root and her digging stick into her basket- the sharpened branch sticking up like a tongue from the lopsided weave of her food-carrier. It was nearly full, which brought a sort of satisfaction and joy to Emelyn- those days when she'd depleted her stores, starving herself for fear and exhaustion were ones she longed to forget- and wished for their memory to heal over and scar like those marks on her back. It was spring- though, surely, the island boasted no more than two seasons and spring had long since graced its shores- for in Emelyn's mind, she was determined to start anew.

She saw Colche right away as she broached the divide between the darkness of the jungle and the bright, warm sands of the beach. It had been so long since she'd seen the girl- but even through her changes, that ebullience and joie de vivre was unmistakable- as were the girls marks... so easily identified by her lack of clothes.

Setting her basket down on the sand, Emelyn called to her from several feet off- not wanting to startle her... and, truthfully, giving herself the distance she might need to scramble up the mountain's face... should Colche prove herself to be as vicious as Jamal. Her knife was tucked into the pocket of her cutoff shorts- but she prayed for no need to use it.

"Mrs. Tiggywinkle?" Em said softly, chewing the phrase slowly as if it were an alien cuisine... then, at the insistance of her childhood memories- she laughed, and recalled the rotund washer-woman hedgehog of the tales of Beatrix Potter. She laughed.

"That's right, we're both hedgehog girls." She came forward and wrapped her arms lovingly around the cheetah princess' neck. "So you've been reading? Or someone has been telling you stories? That's so wonderful, Colche."

Somehow... she doubted that Colche posed any danger to her. Call it a hunch.

"A princess cheetah, hm? Let's see..." Emelyn stood back, as if to examine her, searching for evidence of royalty. She brushed a bit of hair away from the sweet, yet animalistic face and smiled, nodding and coming to her 'conclusion'. "Yep. I think that suits a little princess well enough. ...In fact, if you've been reading and watching stories... have you read a book called "A Little Princess" yet? It's about a little girl who has some trouble because she has no parents, and is treated badly... but then she finds happiness in stories and has a happy ending. I think you'd love it." She wished she had her own, childhood copy to provide to Colche- but relying on the island's library would have to suffice.

It struck Em as peculiar- to say the least- that someone so much further along in a change to a dangerous animal might retain so much more of her humanity, her innocence- indeed, becoming even more so human with the insinuation of knowledge and a comfortable environment. Especially after what had happened with Jamal. True- tigers were of a different brand of viciousness than cheetahs- especially princess cheetahs, Emelyn thought with a wry aside. ...But in the end, Emelyn decided that there must be something more inherent, more... soulful about humanity than the possession of ones mind by a dangerous creature- or by the shape and form of ones body. For how else could you explain the princess cheetah who, with every new spot- found a new breadth of her humanity?

"Of course we can swim. But I don't have the story with me, or I'd read it to you. ...I can probably remember enough to tell you, though, if you'd like. Or if you found it in the village, I could read it to you if you brought it out here to me." As she spoke, she unzipped her shorts and slid them down over her hips. She was wearing her bikini bottoms- as well as the top, sans shirt- and so, after kicking the ripped jeanshorts aside, she was ready to wade into the water.

"I'm not living in the village anymore," she explained simply, "I live up in the mountain, now."

The merriment in the water was somehow untouched by the serious answers she held in her mind to Colche's innocent questions. The young woman ducked the splash, but only narrowly, and laughed as she returned the spray of water with a quick, downward scoop of her hands

"The village is nice," she agreed, "But I like living out here, more. And besides- now you can hear a story in the sand- we could even have a picnic. ...Do you know what a picnic is, Colche?"

"You are," Emelyn said, pausing for the brunt of the watery attack to hit her square in the front, "quite the little reader these days, Colche. You know what that makes you? Something called an avid reader. It means you like to read, and you do it a lot."

"You got it," Em said, coming out of the water to sit on the sand. She lay, splayed out on her side, her elbow dug into the sand and her knuckles pressed against her head to hold her up, and probed her memory for those kernels that were the story 'A Little Princess'.

"Okay... well... the story starts a long time ago, back when all ladies wore dresses, and men were called gentlemen. One of these gentlemen was a Captain in the army. He led troops out to battle and every once and a while, he would have to leave his beloved daughter Sara in the care of others while he went away... for she had no mother, and he had no wife. Instead, he would leave her at a boarding school for girls- a place where the girls not only went to school and learned and read books like you, Colche- but they also lived there, all in one building.

Once, when he knew he was going to be away for a long time with the army to a place called India... the Captain left Sara at the boarding house- and he told the woman who ran the house- called a headmistress that she was to have everything she wanted. He was a very rich Captain, you see- and he left her beautiful dresses in all the colors of the rainbow- a china doll with a perfectly painted face... and all the toys and books she could hope for. Of all the things Sara had from her father, she loved the books the most. For Sara loved to tell stories, and imagine things inside her head. So although she was so terribly sad to see her father go away... she was comforted by the fact that all the other girls seemed to like her, and she had so many books to read.

Soon, it was Sara's birthday, and she had so many gifts and presents and toys that the headmistres had bought for her, since the Captain had told her she would be given plenty of money for it when he returned. But in the middle of cutting her cake, news arrived... that the Captain had lost all his money in India- and also... he had been killed in the war.

Sara was heartbroken. She was an orphan, all alone. But to make things even worse- the headmistress turned very mean and cruel, and took all of Sara's things away because she could no longer pay. She was taken out of her beautiful room, and away from her many books and colorful dresses- and given servant clothes to wear- and made to live in the attic. Like Cinderella," Emelyn explained.

"Don't worry," Em said, taking a brief pause from the story when she saw how Colche's hopes seemed to be falling, "it gets better. ...So Sara get put up in the attic, and she is forced to cook and clean and work with the servants in the boarding school to pay off all the money that her father couldn't pay anymore, and to pay for all the beautiful things she'd had- that the headmistress took away. She wasn't allowed to go to school anymore, all she did was clean and work.

But in all her cleaning, Sara made a friend. A little girl named Ellie who was also a servant- lived in the room next to Sara's, up in the attic," Emelyn pulled the name out of a hypothetical hat- since, for the life of her, she couldn't remember a name for the girl in any of the incarnations of the story she recalled.

"And even though they were locked in every night, Sara and Ellie found a board that they could slide out of the wall, and squeeze through to spend time together. They would sit in the windows and laugh... and Sara would make up stories in her head, and tell them to Ellie. She told her of a princess who lived in a castle of thorns, and of a prince with a thousand arms who rescued her. Sara had a wonderful imagination, and loved to make up stories. Soon- Ellie would tell all the other servant girls the stories... and then the students would hear them, too- and let Sara out of her room at night to sneak down to theirs and tell them stories. Sara almost forgot that she lived like she did. ...She and Ellie would imagine that they lived in a beautiful room, with silk pillows and dolls and red lamps and carpeted floors.

Then... one night, when Sara and Ellie went up to their rooms, they discovered... what do you think it was, Colche? A room full of beautiful things! All the things that they had imagined- red lamps and beautiful furniture and china dolls and dresses. It was beautiful, and they sat around in amazement, wondering if it had all come from their imagination. But then, they saw a little monkey sitting on the windowsill! And before they could come closer to it, it ran across the wide beam that connected the boarding school to the house next door. And so, Sara and Ellie followed the monkey into the open window of the next house. There, they found furniture and beautiful things- just like there were in their room. Then- the monkey ran downstairs, and to an Indian man with a long, black mustache and a very, very kind face. Sara and Ellie weren't afraid of him- not at all.

He said that he had been sitting up in his upper room, looking out the window and thinking one day- when he heard the two girls in their open window next door, telling stories. They had been so joyous and so wonderful that he had listened every night. Then, he discovered that they were servants- and had given them all those gifts. But he asked them if they would like more- to come and live with him, and always tell stories and have wonderful things, and never be hungry or servants again.

And so, Sara and Ellie had all they ever wanted. They stayed together, they were friends and were taken care of... they had escaped the headmistress, and told stories. They had been saved by the power of their imaginations... and the power of their hearts," Emelyn finished, easing up into a sitting position.

"Did you like the story, Colche? Was there anything you didn't understand?"

"Well," Emelyn said, starting from the beginning, "a monkey is a little animal- it looks a little bit like a person- it has hands, and feet, but a loooong tail and they have fur on them. Have you ever read any of the Curious George books? The main character in that is a monkey. Or... in Aladdin? Abu is a monkey. Also, Rafiki in Lion King- but he's a big, different kind of monkey called a baboon. Not like the little pet monkey in the story."

For Colche's next question, Emelyn drew a very rough map of the continents into the sand with her claw, then pointed to it. "This is a map. It's what you would see the world looked like if you went way, way up into the sky and looked down on it. We are about here... on the island..." she said, circling a point somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle with her claw. She didn't know if she was correct in this guess- but it was as far as she could approximate where her boat had capsized. "And India is a country here, way on the other side of the world. People there have darker skin, and they speak a different language than we do, and have a different culture and way of living."

"And you can be like Sara," Emelyn said, smiling, "all you have to do is use your imagination. Make up stories and tell them to other people- or just keep them inside your head. I love telling stories. ...I'm glad you liked this one. But I didn't write this one. It was written a long time ago by a woman named Frances Hodgson Burnett- and I'm sure if you told Aubrey you wanted the book she'd help you find it."

"I have many, many stories in my imagination," Emelyn said, the writer in her coming to the surface in her soft, happy tones. "And so do you. Anyone's imaginations has hundreds and thousands- countless stories that they can put together in their head. It's the joy of having some humanity in us," she said, putting her hands together over her heart in a gesture of joy. Somehow- being near this innocent soul- a child, really, threw any of Emelyn's self-consciousness to the winds. Why be worried that a gesture may seem.. frivolous or strange- when you're with the most uninhibited, happy creature ever born?

"You can make up stories, too."

"I would love to hear a story you make up. That would be wonderful." She smiled at the compliment, and nodded in agreement to Colche's request. "Any time you want to hear a story, Colche, all you have to do is find me, and I'll be happy to."

"No thank you, Colche. I already ate. I keep lots of food up in my cave," she said. "Besides, I don't like to go in the village anymore. It's more important for me to stay out here." She tried to keep it simple, not wanting to confuse her.

It had been a full week since Nita had arrived on the island. She had already had several pretty drastic changes of mood, and was currently trying to quiet the myriad thoughts that had been distracting her. Instead of wandering around the village, or lying out on the beach (where she might easily run into Zach again), Nita chose to follow a small stream that trickled past.

The stream deepened and widened, eventually becoming a respectably sized river. Nita stuffed her socks into her shoes and hung them around her neck by the laces, enjoying the coolness of damp soil under her feet. She watched the ground carefully for sharp sticks or rocks, lulled by the soft sounds of the water.

Emelyn burst up through the water, gasping for breath- and facing- not entirely away from the newcomer, but enough that, with her eyes still closed against the droplets of water that sat on her lids, and her torso at 3/4ths profile to her, Emelyn would still believe that she was alone.

She ran her hands up through the mass of proto-spines that could not reasonably be called hair anymore, then scraped at her eyes with the sides of her hands. Em had been underwater for far too long- especially since she'd never been able to hold her breath for very long.

A sudden splash distracted Nita, who whirled around just in time to see Emelyn emerge from the depths of the river. "Oh!" she gasped, nearly stumbling over her own feet. "Emelyn..?" she asked tentatively, approaching the water's edge. "Are.. are you alright?"

Nita set her shoes down on a dry patch of grass and rolled up her jeans to just below her knees, ready to help Em to the bank, should she need it. She sincerely hoped the hedgehog girl hadn't just been about to drown.

Em's torso jerked around, so startled was she to hear someone calling her name.

"Nita!" She said, the name fresh on her memory. It hadn't been that long since she'd met the girl. "I'm just fine... I was just underwater a little too long." She tread where she was, moving slowly into the slightly deeper slope of the river. It was just a tributary here, but there were still a few edges where you couldn't touch the bottom.

Emelyn looked the girl up and down, kicking against the gentle current to propel her forward. "How have you been?"

"Ack!" Nita squeaked, in turn surprised by Em's startlement. "Good, just making sure I wasn't about to have to haul you out because," she grinned, "I'm not that good a swimmer!"

The ripply water looked wonderfully cool, and not moving so quickly that the pebbly bottom was obscured. Nita waded in up to her shins, sighing happily. She leaned down to wet her hands and rub water on her face and arms. The fair-skinned girl was still unused to the constant heat and humidity of the island.

"I've been... alright, mostly. Thinking a lot, and reading."

Em nodded. "They've got a good library there in the village. ...I'll give them that." She said it both to ease the girl's mind somewhat about her predicament without painting a perfect picture of the island... and to let her know that the library existed, if she'd not known about it before. She could only imagine what Nita had been thinking about- probably quite troubling things, if her own realization of the island's purpose was any indicator- but at least she was thinking, letting her mind muse on her predicament- yet escaping this place through books. It was probably too early to know for sure, but Emelyn had an idea that, in the long run, Nita would find a way to cope and maybe even thrive here.

"Do they really? I'll have to check that out some time. I brought quite a few with me, but I'm a fast reader."

A library. That was reassuring, Nita thought. At least someone around here had their priorities in order!

Nita had a tendency to dive into her books, escaping into other worlds, a tendency which had gotten her into trouble in the past. Mostly, however, reading was a refuge for her, a temporary way to forget her own problems. It was when her immersion became not-so-temporary that problems occurred.

"How about you? Do you.. stay out here?" Nita had noticed that Em was wearing the same thing she'd had on the last time they'd met, plus the basket Emelyn had had on the beach.

The warm sun beat down on her, tempting Nita to plunge into the water, but she didn't want to get her clothes wet, and her modesty kept her from stripping down.

"Oh, didn't I tell you last time? I'm sorry." She gave a kick, and let herself be propelled through the water with a gentle ease. "Yes, I've been living out here for months. ...I think since... just after Christmas?" Her eyes tilted up to heaven: had it really been that long since Moreau's last, filthy trick?

"Really? That's-- wow, that's almost four months!" Nita exclaimed, impressed and a little horrified.

She had never been the outdoorsy type, although she was enjoying being outside on the island. She'd only been camping as a Girl Scout, and a couple of summers at a friend's church camp, where they had been in cabins anyway. Nita did not enjoy feeling dirty, and just the thought of not being able to shower regularly gave her the creeps.

"Why?" she asked, perplexed. "I can understand camping out for a few days, for fun..." (Although she probably never would), "but why so long?"

A few feet away, a grey boulder sat squatly, just the right size and distance from the water for a small girl to perch on. Nita settled herself, feet dangling a few inches above the surface of the river.

"Weeell.." Em said, tipping back into a float, thinking that she really ought to come up with a more succinct explanation of her 'sabbatical' one of these days. "I don't know if anyone has told you yet... but a few months ago, Moreau decided to do some sort of experiment... and he locked us all out of the duplexes and out of the little phony civilization he'd built. We were forced to live out here for... oh... at least a month. It could have been more."

She stretched out in the water, putting her arms above her head summarily, then back to her sides. "The others would know the time. They went back to the village after he opened it back up. The would have learned the date, looked at their calendars. ...Gotten back to their 'lives'. I decided not to go back." She looked over to where Nita sat. "After he made such a point that he could take away our comfort... I couldn't just crawl back to his village and prove his point that we were under his control. So I stayed out here. My choice. That one less thing that he can take away. ...Aren't you coming in? The water's fine."

Nita listened quietly, brows raising further at every sentence. "Oh my god," Nita muttered, shocked. "That's horrible! I can't believe.. well, actually, I can believe they'd do that." She snorted softly, a contemptuous noise directed at the powers that be.

"I know I'm dependant on that faux-society, but good on you for staying out here," Nita said, her tone sincere.

She stared at the water for a few more minutes, debating. Then, with a shrug, she pulled off her t-shirt and jeans, revealing pink cotton underpants and a white bra. Her numerous freckles extended down past her collarbones, which, along with her ribs, showed prominently through her pale skin. A pair of small white scars stretched acroos her left hip-bone. Doing her best not to be too self-conscious, Nita waded into the river, finally sinking down until the water reached her shoulders.

"Oh," Emelyn said, after Nita had waded into the water. "Don't worry about the whole 'relying on the faux-society' thing. I don't judge anyone for wanting to stay in the village." She paused, seeing the freckles that seemed like constellations on the pale girl.

"Aw... I miss my freckles," Em said softly and a little amused, rubbing at her cheek.

"Well good. Because I like showers," Nita said seriously, a smile threatening the corners of her lips. "This is awfully nice, though. I'm a little white girl who's not used to it being this hot.. at least not in April."

She dunked her head, getting wet all over, then bobbed back up, careful to stay where her feet could touch bottom. "Really?" She held out her arms in front of her, gazing at them dispassionately. "You can have some of mine; I've got plenty." She giggled, part of her wondering what she would look like without her freckles. It was a weird thought.

She smiled, wondering how much longer she could stay in the water without finding an answer Ambrose's cheeky 'hedgehog prune' question. But for now, she was still enjoying the water enough to stay mostly beneath the surface. Only her head poked up out of cool blue.

"That's awfully nice of you," she said, her voice a fluffy English accent as she spoke. "But no thanks. I don't think they'd fit. Mine were brown. And I didn't have nearly as many as you." ...She had been joking, but suddenly, Emelyn realized that letting Nita know that soon she'd look so different... perhaps wasn't the kindest thing to do.

"I'm sorry." Emelyn said- covering not just her freckle-talk... but also as a sympathy for that blanket of the unexpected that Nita faced.

"Well, fine!" Nita replied, imitating Em's accent and haughty manner, sticking her nose in the air. "I'll just keep them all to myself!" She giggled and was brought up short by Emelyn's apology.

"It's okay," she said, shrugging. "Hopefully I won't be anything too weird. I mean, a hedgehog doesn't seem so bad. They're really cute! And the spines suit you somehow." That was the first time Nita had spoken blatantly about her impending transformation. It wasn't so bad if she thought of it as something in a story. This was just the next level of involvement...

"Someone said I could use that intercom thing and ask. I've been considering it." Nita trailed a finger along the surface of the water, watching the ripples that followed the slim digit.

"Thank you," Emelyn said, accepting the compliment with an easy smile. "...You know, it's funny to think that those new people to the island- like yourself- will only see me the way I am now. You'll never know what I used to be." Emelyn had never thought about it before- not until Nita had issued that sweet compliment about how her spines 'suited' her. She knew that the true 'her' was not the visage she projected- not her skin or flesh or bones- but it was still strange to think that the only witnesses to her life- how she'd appeared before- were contained in a handful of islanders that had been there with her, since the beginning.

"And I think that was me," Emelyn said, recalling their conversation with a laugh. "I seem to remember telling someone about the intercom system on the beach. Seems to be you that springs to mind."

Nita blushed. It was actually a bit hard for her to imagine Emelyn without her spines. "I bet you were pretty, though," she said, without thinking. "I mean! Um. You're still pretty, and... Oh hell. You know what I mean!" She dunked her head under the water again, trying to calm her furiously pink cheeks.

She resurfaced and brushed the water out of her eyes, peeking through her fingers at Emelyn.

"Oh! Was that you? I've heard so much from a couple of different people... My mind's all mixed up!" She tugged one of her long braids, embarrassed.

Emelyn couldn't help but breaking out into laughter.

"You poor thing. Your cheeks are as red as your head," she said, splashing the girl with a friendly scoop at the surface of the water. "Word to the wise- don't listen to a word I say!" She laughed, and ducked beneath the water.

Nita turned even redder and giggled.

"Gah!" she sputtered, the splash of water catching her in the face. "Hey, no fair!" she protested, as Em ducked underwater and just out of reach. She waited for Em to emerge and splashed her back, immediately scooting back several feet with her arms up to ward off further attacks.

"Geeeh!" Emelyn squealed, turning her face aside, anticipating the splash. Nita was out of reach for another above-the-water attack, so she dove beneath the water and tugged Nita beneath the surface- quite summarily, since she didn't know how well of a swimmer she was- then let her free and surfaced.

Nita shrieked as she was tugged underwater, hoping that Em remembered she'd said she didn't swim well. She managed to hold her breath before her head went under, and almost as soon as it happened, she had bobbed back up, blowing water out of her nose.

"Gack!" she choked, her sinuses tingling slightly. "I should have seen that coming!"

Emelyn burst up from the water in time to hear Nita's words- tossing her mane of keratin-stiffened hair back with a dew-throwing gesture. Em put her hands on her hips.

"Yes," she said, a triumphant smile on her face, "you should have. Emelyn, Queen of the River, has spoken."

"'Queen of the River,' is it? More like 'Emelyn, Queen of Water-Related Trickery!'" Nita grinned, imitating her stance.

"I'll get you for that! Maybe not today, maybe not toorrow, but someday," she intoned. Nita nearly doubled over laughing at the 'threat.' She was hardly intimidating, even less-so in nothing but underclothes and her long hair weighed down by water.

"Well, as long as there's still the word 'Queen' attached, I can fuzz the rest out." She stretched up, standing on the balls of her feet, eking her torso out of the water an inch further as she tensed all the muscles in her legs.

"Ooh, this feels good. ...I used to make fun of those older women who do water aerobics, but ooh... stretching in the water really relaxes your muscles." She exhaled and let herself fall back to a stance with her flat feet.

Nita grinned again. "But would a tiara sit right over your hair?" She cocked her head to the side, imagining the balancing act that would ensue.

She stretched as well, shoulders popping. "And would you make fun of them if they weren't two-hundred pounds and wearing, like, hideous polka-dotted bathing suits?" Nita wrinkled her nose, amused.

"How old are you, anyway?"

"One," Emelyn said, putting her fingers out to tick out her answers on them, "I don't think this really counts as hair anymore. But damn skippy I could get a tiara in there. Priorities. Two. ...Oh heck no... but hey, who am I to judge these days?" She put her arms straight out to her sides and spun, exhibiting her furry form in all it's 'glory', before turning back to Nita.

"And I'm 21. ...Had my birthday in December. ...You?" Emelyn asked, praying that she was older- just for the sake of her having had more life outside this island prison.

"I'm sure you'd look lovely in a tiara, hair or not."

Nita watched Em spin, amused. "My arms are fuzzy, too, you just can't really see it because the hair is so light." She held out her arm to compare.

"I'll turn 21 next month," she replied. Her birthday would be interesting this year. She'd known she'd be out of town for it, but she didn't think it would be quite this "out of town."

"Well.." Emelyn said, softly, glad that the girl wasn't- say-17 or 18, "we'll have to have a big party. If you wanted it to be a more typical 21st birthday, we could even have it on the beach. There's a beachbar there."

As she spoke, Emelyn stepped up onto the bank, standing with her back to the sun.

"It's been great to talk to you again," she said with a tiny yawn, "but after all that stretching and swimming- and that sun," she said, jerking a thumb up and over her shoulder, "I think I'm ready for a little mountain nap."

"Oh! This girl Fiona is planning a beach party, although she's not sure when it'll be. I don't know if that counts as returning to society, but she's really excited about it." Nita traipsed out of the water and worked on wringing out her hair.

"I don't need anything special for my birthday, but I could pretend Fiona's thing was partially for me." She nodded and brushed large droplets off of her arms and legs.

With most of the moisture wrung out, and the rest quickly evaporating with the heat, Nita pulled her jeans and t-shirt back on. "Anyway, I'll see you around, I'm sure." Once she was re-dressed, her shoes hung around her neck, she waved and followed the river back towards the village, smiling slightly to herself.