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"I suppose if you were raised to believe such things, I can see how it would be hard to think otherwise. But why would God allow these things to happen to us? I would say it's one thing to allow us to solve our own every day problems, but this... why would He abandon everyone here?" Joshua asked.

Early evening looked the same as any other part of the day to Zach. Each day blended with the last in its unchanging scenery and routine. He didn't dare call it boring - that time Aubrey had been attacked had been enough trouble.

His left arm still felt like a glove, and that wasn't really a part of him. It swung by his side. His tail trailed behind him on the ground. He was headed in the general direction of the entertainment room to get a book that could take his mind off the question that had been nagging him silently each time he'd seen an islander who'd changed. How much longer did he have before the next time?

He was so lost in thought that he practically ran into the back of the other guy. It was his chance to make a quick five-second surveillance. They looked awfully human from the back... no tail, and nothing sticking out of their head. Not good. Were they new? They had to be. There was only one way to find out if they knew what was going on around here.

He cleared his throat a little, speeding up to walk alongside the man's left and tapped a clawed finger lightly on their shoulder to get their attention. Time to get blunt. "New here?"

Zach held up both hands defensively at the screaming and swore. There was his answer. Any annoyance he had for the rude reaction was drowned out by confusion. How was he supposed to deal with this guy? All the furry islanders must have had less problems with the new people, at least most of them didn't look scary. "Wait! Stop!"

He reached out to grab the man's jacket before he could run away, momentarily forgetting about the kind of grip he'd have on it. The claws hooked straight through the material. Zach would have to slow the guy down or be dragged along by his hand. And was guy speaking Chinese?

He tried to dig his feet into the dirt and grass. "Don't run!"

Zach had to follow after the unintelligible man, continuing to holler at him to stop running. It wasn't until the guy had wriggled free of his jacket that Zach could slow down and assess things better without wasting his breath. Panting, he looked down at the hand caught by the jacket and back at the guy. More shouting? The concensus showed that he looked even scarier to most others than he'd thought.

None of his fleeting thoughts could provide him with a way to calm this man down, except to back off. Well, it was worth a shot. After unhooking his fingers from the fabric, he set the jacket down lightly on the ground and took a few steps back. He couldn't help grimacing, causing his frills to flare up defensively. His tail was curling in a small loop on the ground. He had to rely on the hope that this man knew some English.

"Stop yelling. Please..." Maybe the man would get what he was saying based on the tone rather than the words. He didn't know any Chinese. Why had the doctors decided to bring someone at such a distinct disadvantage when it came to understanding the situation? This was absurd. The other man had to be doubly terrified. "Do you speak English?"

Zach blinked at the sentence of foreign language and the other guy's sudden change of demeanor. It was probably not a good thing, but at least he wasn't shrieking any more.

What little English was spoken at first seemed completely unrelated to the past minute. He scratched his head. "Design? What are you- oh! Oh, great..." He held up his left arm and pointed at it with his right hand. "You... you think this is fake." He tried to grit his teeth together but all the sharp points wouldn't allow it. He couldn't forget he'd thought the same thing when he was first introduced to the island's rather important secret.

A thought occured to him. If he just nodded and smiled, he wouldn't have to be the one to deal with this. In a month this guy would be as much an animal as everyone else, and that would be the end of the debate as far as this new guy was concerned. There was no case for morality in this place anyhow.

"Er... yes. This is a costume. Costume," he repeated again, making sure the word was clearly spoken. Maybe that gadget the man had would be good for would translate what was said back into Chinese.

The 'dragon' looked puzzled again at the broken English the foreigner spoke. So this other man was an actor, it appeared. This was getting more difficult. Lying seemed worse of an idea than before. Even that, passed, though. Soreness at the sight of the Asian man running and screaming not a few minutes ago provoked him to continue his guilt-free charade.

Gingerly he took the device. After examining it, he figured out how to type into it and began to prod it into taking his message. Anyone the man met would dispute the simple collection of short sentences that Zach was giving to him in an instant. That was the Chinese guy's problem, though. In English, the screen read, "I am an actor too. Everyone here has costumes."

As an afterthought, he added, "You will too." In the process of hitting buttons, a claw pressed into a small rubber button and pulled it off.

"Oops!" He gave the translator and the small button back to the man, hoping he knew what to do with it to turn the English into Chinese.

Peaceful unit? More like a psycho ward. His mind worked to decipher the bizarre-sounding question and supply a believable answer. What were costumes for? Movies! "It's an, uh... movie set."

He realized once again that the other man couldn't understand a thing he'd said, and slowly typed it in. The language barrier was infinitely frustrating. His simple lie was already being figured out very easily. More detailed explanation followed, which he said aloud slowly as he wrote. "The movie.... is about people... on an island... turning into animals. Everyone here... will... tell you this."

He handed back the translation device and plastered an extremely fake grin on his face. Would the guy buy it? There were no other alternatives but the real truth, and that was a significantly bigger leap of faith than believing the twisted bit of explanation he'd put forth. If it was this easy to stop the newer people from tripping over their own feet screaming bloody murder at the sight of him, he'd have to keep using it. He wasn't getting any more human as it was.

Test - some test. Joshua had a hard time believing that being here could sway his faith in either direction at all. "Hmm. Well. Perhaps that's true." It was obvious he was still doubting Stewart's words by the tone of his voice. Who was to know the truth, who was to know who was right? No one would know for sure until death, and he was in no hurry for that.

"Well, Stewart... I think I'm going to head back to my duplex now, or I'll be late for my tutoring appointment. It was nice to meet you, and I hope I didn't offend you too much with our conversation," he said, smiling.