Welcome to Gaia! ::

Emerwyn lay there for several minutes, hazily pondering her fate. It had been going on for a couple of weeks now. First, she gradually began to grow quite tired, incapable of traveling very far before having to rest. She couldn't eat for long periods of time - then she was starving! However, she could only eat from her favorite plant, plus one she'd never really liked before.

And now, this... Was she missing anything? Everything else that was strange was something that was always changing with her transformations.
Maybe she really was just sick. And what would the labs say? Just what Moreau had told her last time - it's all in your head, psychosomatic. Just rest. Rest, and leave us the hell alone.
She appreciated Newton's gesture, but she was beginning to think it was a bad idea.

Emerwyn sat up slowly as Newton slid into view before her. She cocked her head slightly.
"Mrs. Delia? I am afraid I do not know who that is." Not that she was looking forward to finding out. Probably another cold-hearted doctor.

"I can," she said. Then, she started to get up to her feet. The sand caused her to stumble a little, but she was able to stand with relative ease.
"I believe it has passed for now. Shall we go, Newton?" Her throat still croaked and burned, but at least now she could string coherent sentences.
"Lead the way." And she took his arm.

Emerwyn smiled. "Of course we shall."
They started to walk along, and indeed it did seem that Emerwyn was supporting the frog more than the other way around. However, it was Newt who led the path.
"Just where are we headed, Newton?" The Doe asked. "N-not to... the labs?"

They made it to the village in very slow steps. Once they were free of the sand, the going was much easier.
Emerwyn had to pause once to rush into a bush and relieve herself once more, but it was not nearly as much.

They came to the clinic, which Emerwyn had never even noticed before. They stopped at the door.

Emerwyn nodded. She could see why he'd feel uncomfortable. She felt uncomfortable, too.
"Thank you. Thank you so much for helping me. I'm not sure what I would have done." She took his hands in her hoofs and squeezed them gently.

"Farewell," she said with a wave, and she disappeared behind the door.

Emerwyn stepped tentatively into the room, now alone, with the strange woman called Mrs. Delia.
She tentatively walked in, looking around for the sinister woman. The sinister woman emerged, an aged individual in simple clothes. Emerwyn’s first reaction was that she had an extremely kind face. Her nerves were almost instantly calmed at the smile Delia offered her.

“Hello, dear. You do not look at all well. Come; sit down. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Emerwyn smiled weakly and gratefully, and moved to a chair. It felt good to rest her legs after that thoroughly tedious walk. It had been ages since she’d come all the way back into the village.
Delia also sat down across from Emerwyn, after checking a paper.
“Your name is Emerwyn Achenson, right?” she asked.
“Yes, yes I am Emerwyn. I… fell rather ill today. I woke so early, and so nauseous. I felt so strange… and then I… I retched. Poor Newton…”
“Perhaps you have a stomach virus,” said Delia thoughtfully. “Tell me dear, what other symptoms have you been experiencing?”
“Well, for the past fortnight, I have been experiencing the most strange sensation. I have been plagued by this terrible weariness that simply will not disappear. I tell myself that perhaps it is simply bad reaction to my changes – though it has been a while since it occurred.” Emerwyn took in a deep breath.
“Is there anything else?”
“Yes. My appetite has been changing – drastically. There is very little I may eat anymore. One leaf I simply must have, though I had never liked it at all before. Again, I say, is this not an affect of my changing self?” It seemed Emerwyn was having a conversation with herself. Delia simply listened very intently, nodding now and again.
“But it cannot be. Something tells me it cannot. And this morning, today, when I fell so terribly ill… It feels like, like something is at work beyond my control. Tell me,” she looked into Delia’s eyes pleadingly. “Are They doing something to me? I could not bear to think that I am turning to the ones who are causing me such grief. And Ian has been so worried…”
“Ian?”
“Ian… I have been staying with him, in the jungle. He is very dear to me…” It was so easy to talk to Delia. Emerwyn soon found herself quite comfortable talking about her feelings to her.
Delia nodded. “And, tell me dear, when did you start living with Ian?”
“About a month ago… maybe less.”
“Do you get your period at a normal rate since you began you transformations?”
Emerwyn shrugged, thinking. The menstrual cycle was of little concern with everything else that had happened to her the past sixteen months. “Not particularly. I didn’t…” Emerwyn swallowed. She hadn’t gotten her period that month; that she knew. She thought nothing of it at the time. But – what was Delia suggesting? No…
“Emerwyn. You did not get your period, did you?”
She shook her head.
This wasn’t right; this couldn’t be right. Emerwyn’s heart started to beat faster and faster.
“Now tell me this, and this is very important. Did you sleep with Ian the night you started living together?”
Emerwyn just looked at her.
“Had sex?”
“…yes.”
Delia stood up and walked over to her desk, where she took a paper, and wrote something down. She seemed to mumble something to herself, but Emerwyn couldn’t hear it. She couldn’t hear anything. The insinuation was perfectly clear now. Even Delia’s energies seemed a little tense. But really now, was it possible?
Ian was a deer. Emerwyn was a deer. However mangled and mutated, they were the same.

“Delia, please,” Emerwyn finally said, breaking the silence of an eternity. “Tell me what you are thinking. You do not think I could be…?” She left the last word off. She could not yet bring herself to say it.
Delia looked up at her. “Well, it is hard to say just yet. The signs certainly implicate… However, we cannot be sure… just yet.”
Emerwyn’s hoof moved to her stomach, where she touched it lightly, dazed. Whether or not it was true…

Her head was so light, so light… It was floating upward, beyond the ceiling… So… dizzy…
“I… have to go…” Emerwyn began to stand up, stumbling a bit.
“Wait, Emerwyn! Are you alright?” Delia rushed over to her.
“I… really must go,” she said, turning to Delia now. “I will return. And… then we may find out… for certain? Is it certain?”
“Almost certainly,” Delia said softly, resting a hand on Emerwyn’s shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Emerwyn nodded. “Thank you. I’ve never been afforded such kindness and patience. But for now, I really do need to leave.”
And she turned and walked away. She made it as far as the jungle’s edge before she stumbled forward and fainted.