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Liamh tipped his leafy head, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "What? You're not even my dog!" He sighed and pushed the laptop aside onto the bed. Claire, the computer, would have to wait. "Youuuuu want me to play?" he asked, leaning forward on the bed.

No, no. He'd seen enough old Lassie reruns - okay, he hadn't seen any, but he'd seen plenty of PARODIES, which was just as good, right? He knew when Timmy was Down the Well. Either that, or she thought he smelled like fetching stick.

Shoving himself off the bed, he padded over toward her, scooping up his sandals and slipping them on. "Okay, Lassie. If this turns out to be some joint effort prank between you and Prancer, i'm going to have a new pair of rugs for my duplex...." He smiled as he said it, danging a hand down toward her for accepted sniffing.

"Yerr crathy..." Gaius remained kneeling on the ground where he was, still too shocked to do much else. One hand propped him up on the ground, the other clutched his still throbbing face. At least the pain killers seemed to be starting their work.

It wasn't just sight that was giving his brain hell. Each breathe that came in through his nose brought with it an overwhelming amount of scents, more than his brain was used to processing.

"I can'th thee... I can't shee..." Gaius fought to get the sounds out right, clenching his stubby jaws. "What'sh so... good... about all thish. But if you've given up... good. I... don't want... to hear it."

Back at Liamh's duplex, Vixen gave Liamh's hand a look and turned away, almost as if to say 'oh please.' Instead, she bounded out the door and down the stairs, turning around to wait for him to follow her out, then continued across the lawn towards the village center, pausing and turning to look at Liamh over her shoulder, tail wagging. Before he could catch up, though, she was off again, heading in a straight line for the large building ahead.

"I'm crazy?" he laughed, picking up the remaining coin and polishing the dirt off of it with his scaly thumb. He looked down his snout at Gaius as though humorously pitying him. His attention was soon returned to the coin again. He tossed it lightly in his hand before returning it to the pouch. The island was good. And there were worse places to be in the world. He did have amazing fortune ending up here instead of living out his life as some shadow of himself. Why question it when there was nothing bad about things? He just couldn't imagine Gaius having anything to return to that was worth giving up this chance to become something better than he'd ever achieve as a human. "Is that what you think? Well, there you go with the self-pity again. Oh, Gaius, life's just so cruel to you. I'm sure you can find it in you to continue your tragic tale of woe without me having to be around, though. I'm leaving before you start sobbing... again."

He had been in the process of getting up, wings half-open as a further balance for him, when the dog and vine-riddled man arrived. Zach didn't hear the approach of the other guy, but it startled him when they began shouting. He clenched his jaw, letting his frill fan. It was that greenish guy he'd seen before, at the construction site. On closer inspection, it almost looked like he had vines in his face, but that was just too weird. Zach looked back down at Gaius. "He's fine. He's just moping."

Liamh took a step back as Zach opened his frill. The guy was imposing to begin with... all those sharp pointy bits. He swallowed and glanced at Gaius, setting his jaw and trying to keep his heart from jumping out his throat. He had a sick, fleeting thought of what his heart must look like on the inside now.

He took a breath and edged forward. "Gaius! This is no time for that!" he exclaimed, keeping his expression, his voice, his body language energized and tight. "Your dog is in terrible danger!" he said, deadpanning. "She told me so herself. Something about a well, and some little boy named Timmy? Hell if i know.." He felt his guts tightening and rolling as his eyes crossed over the changes... the wings, the body hair - fur? - the HANDS... Gaius' face was mostly hidden by his long 'mane' and malformed hands, and Liamh steeled himself for the sight of his buddy's mutated face as he kept his voice gravely light.

He glanced at Zach. "Err... out looking for maidens, are you?" he quipped. "Must be getting desperate if Gaius here is at the top of the list..." He cleared his throat and forced a weak half-smile.

Gaius shot Zach a glare out of one eye as the dragon passed, but held his tongue, partly from lack of control with how slurred it sounded, and because he was too emotionally weary to manage any kind of lash back at him. Best to just let him leave than invite his presence any longer.

Liamh, however, apparently wasn’t going anywhere. Gaius turned his face away towards the wall, wishing he could hide the rest of his exposed self – why hadn’t he worn a shirt? Slowly, he got his feet under himself, resting the hand not covering his face against the wall as he pulled himself up. The wings were heavier, threatening to topple him over backward a they twitched achingly, but Gaius managed to retain his balance. What added to the difficulty was the lack of toes to dig into the turf and steady himself. Just flat hoof now.

Vixen was beside him, circling around and panting as she waited for her master.

Gaius forced himself to open both eyes, wincing as he was met once more with the double-vision, but he forced himself to keep them open, and glanced sidelong at Liamh.

“I’ll… I’ll be okay… I can manage…”

“I feel like hell…” Gaius muttered from behind his hand. Ugh, this was ridiculous. Or horrible. Somewhere between those. Was he going to have to keep his hand over his face all the way back to his duplex? The only other option was letting Liamh see his face, as twisted as it might be.

Well… if anyone would be understanding of that sort of thing, then it’d be Liamh. After all, he’d been a good sport when Gaius freaked at the viney guy’s last change.

Slowly, he pulled the hand away, revealing the stubby, flat muzzle and coarse facial hair that had once been his face. Gaius cast a quick glance at Liamh, then lowered his eyes. “I don’t know how bad it is…”

Now that his brain was beginning to adjust to the vision, he was beginning to get an idea of what was wrong – he could see too much. His field of vision was wider than before, if only a little. He could see more to the sides, and there was a lot more between his eyes.

Taking his first shaky step proved almost disastrous as his still adjusting eyesight made for poor distance judgment, and his unfamiliar footing caught in the grass. Stumbling to one knee, Gaius caught himself on the wall, saving himself from falling on his face at least.

A frustrated growl escaped his throat. “Not again…”

Gaius winced at Liamh's staring, tempted to turn away again, but managed to hold his ground. It just… hurt. He’d never realized how much he valued his face until now, when it was gone.

He grabbed Liamh’s hand with one of his own, wrapping the stiff remaining finger lumps around and hauling himself up enough to catch himself on Liamh’s shoulder. At least he still had thumbs, that much he was grateful for.

“I might take you up on that…” he said, though his voice lacked any of Liamh’s humor. More than anything, he was tired. Tired and defeated.

Vixen seemed to sense a bit of his mood and walked close on Gaius’ other side, providing a warm presence, but not close enough to trip up his already unsteady steps. That painkiller Zach had given him was doing a number too. At least the ache had dulled to only a persistent throb.

As they neared Gaius’ duplex, the horse-man, who’d been largely quiet, spoke up without looking towards Liamh. “Hey… Liamh… I’m shtill… still human, right? Despite it all…”

“If I let myself be…” Gaius said, more to himself than to his companion. Casting Liamh a curious look, he managed a horse-ish smirk. “You know, for a scrawny guy who spends way too much time out of the sun and away from human contact, you’ve got a pretty wise head on your shoulders. Must be some kind of hermit. Too bad you can’t grow a beard!”

It was refreshing, even bolstering, to hear that conviction from Liamh, one of the people many would label as ‘unlucky.’ Maybe Zach was right in some aspects, he did spend a lot of time self-pitying his state compared to others in worse shape. But he didn’t think that was wrong. After all, grieving was a sign that something was wrong, and the first step to changing it, if only it could be followed by action.

Yes, action. It’d been too long since he’d last worked on any escape plans.

But first, he’d have to take care of himself.

“Thanks for the help, but I think I can manage on my own…” he said as he let go of Liamh’s shoulder, shifting his three-fingered grip to the stair railing and started up the hard steps.

Clack.

Gaius stopped and looked down. What had been hidden by the thick grass of the lawn was now clear for all to hear – the distinct sound of his footsteps. Muffled as they were by the still fleshy padding on his lower feet, there was no hiding the hoof-like tap.

Taking a deep breath, Gaius continued up the rest of the steps, followed closely by Vixen, who pushed past and through the door before him. He paused, looking back at Liamh with a conflicted expression. Part of him wanted to invite the guy in, needed his company terribly, but the other part wanted to just be alone, to have time to think, or not think as the case might be. He gave a little wave to the plant-guy before disappearing through the door, closing himself inside. At least he had Vixen for company. She wouldn’t judge the tears.