Welcome to Gaia! ::

The entomologist paused in her meal, her old self pricking its ears and aching to give the other one solace. It was frightening thing to be torn apart at the genetic level and remade in an alien image, and that feeling of wrongness never quite went away. Especially when you woke up one morning to find that your face was gone...

"Yes. Practice."

Greer shrugged. "Other ways to speak."

Had she still been as social as the hawk would have like her to be, she would have cared more about the slow death of her speech. As it was she found it quite useful to have an excuse for silence around those she didn't care to speak with.

"Yes. Glide well, flap some. Hawk flight." Large birds of prey were not known for moving their wings too much, after all. And she was pretty sure she won the "large bird of prey" award of the year, size wise.

"Run or swim fast." Greer suggested, trying in some small way to make the other woman feel better, even if she agreed. What was the point of having to endure the growth of feathers if you couldn't fly.

"When wings, I teach." she offered quietly. Depending on how well they got along, it might not even be an empty gesture.

She nodded, a sharp bob of her head. "Have nest. Duplex for people." And an old life she wanted no part of, anymore, but that was nothing she needed to go into.

Greer raised a wing, pointing back deeper into the jungle behind her. "Top of big tree. Yell and I come down."

Food and a possible pack mate. The hawk would be happy with her for days.

Cats had very different senses of time, Greer decided. And odd habits. If someone she'd counted on had suddenly disappeared for ages and then made no attempt to locate her and make it clear they were okay when they returned, she certainly wouldn't track them down, act like nothing had happened, and present them with a rock. Well, she might offer them a rock, but it would be less of a gift and more of a projectile thrown at the head. She was just funny that way.

The Captain, though, was not. He had found her at last - and lasted alone - and had throughly picked up where they'd left off. He was living with her in her tree, came and went and slept whenever and wherever he cared to, and expected her to provide him with meat any time he was hungry. It was distressingly comfortable.

Hurrah to the dog that had chased him up the and into her arms, although Greer was certain it had all been an act and the beagle had been threatened with broken kneecaps if it didn't play along. Sean's giant, ragged orange tom had never struck her as the sort of cat bothered by canines. The Captain might be annoyed if they tasted bad, but otherwise held them in no particular level regard. They were just noise.

The rock he dropped into her hand had added to the oddness of the cat's appearance, as it seemed to have been painted on with holiday tidings by a child before the tabby thief decided to bestow it on her. It reminding her of speed and spots for some reason, but she couldn't place why and so did her best to ignore the niggling memories. Captain insisted she keep it since he'd gone to the trouble of carrying it for more than five minutes, and so as not to go deaf from his rumbles of disapproval she oblidged.

Two random gifts falling from the sky in the same day - all right, hurtling up from the ground, but that didn't have the right ring - wedging themselves into her life and forcing her to adjust and accept them. She wanted to be annoyed, but found it hard. The cat was a pain, but he had been Sean's cat, so that only made her sentimental and like him more. And how did you hold something against a rock?

The hawk in Greer knows that something both forboding and envigorating is looming on the horizon. Like a coming storm, Greer can feel it in her very bones before the change ever starts. A building pressure, a tingling in her blood. It is not a pleasant feeling - quite the opposite, as it builds so does a low-grade fever and a soreness about her. Even her bones seem to ache as many of them begin to become lighter.

Then... it all seems to hit at once. The leathery/scaly yellow texture sweeps over the remainder of your legs. The remnant tiny external ears completely shrink away, leaving only holes on the sides of your head as aural passages. Your legs shift - the thighs becoming stronger and your toes becoming more flexible. While tiny thumbs do remain on your broadening wings, your feet become ever so much more practical for the manipulation of objects.... and the claws all the more deadly to small mammals that might make for a tasty dinner.

Your head feels like it is in a vice as your skull flattens a bit, your head becoming more streamlined and your bill bigger... and finally your tailplumes grow longer and more numerous - serving as a perfect rudder for the gliding that you can do do about the island.