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The black man entered the jungle with a series of strangled cries and sobs tearing themselves from his throat, mangled hands blindly shoving aside plant matter and foliage as he forced himself into the soothing darkness that the same materials provide. The musty, rotting smell of fallen wood brought additional sense of ease, yet smells can only do so much to temper inner emotions.

Jamal slumped down against a tree after having walked for maybe fifteen minutes or so, his bare back rubbing painfully against the bark and sending that burning fiery pain down again. The nub of his tail was also still tender, but he ignored it. If he ignored it, maybe it would go away.

He let his head fall back against the support of the tree and let an unbridled series of tears trace down his cheeks. Some pooled about the abnormal whiskers that sprouted from his face while others continued down to drip off his jawline to the blood splattered skin of his chest, sending ruddy lines down across the faint striping and tattoos there. He lifted a hand to touch a fluff of whiskers, tracing their length with the tip of a claw, then let that claw move across his nose. It all felt so alien.

But this was him.

The thought made his stomach wrench painfully and he dropped his hand into his lap, caring little that the claws knicked at his bare flesh of his thigh due to his carelessness. He was already a bloody mess....both literally and figuratively.

Jamal heard Awen long before her saw her, thanks to his slightly improved hearing, but his sense of smell was hampered due to the heavy cloud of blood that wafted off his own body. He didn't care to move right then though...he figured it was just some animal coming through. Maybe it was something predatory and it'd eat his sorry a**. That'd solve a lot of problems.

When he heard the faint voice calling out, he couldn't completely suppress a growl. He just wanted to be left alone and already someone had to come and bother him. Jamal wanted to suffer in peace!

He wiped roughly at the drying tears on his cheeks and at his eyes, smearing faint traces of blood across his features like it was some sort of warpaint as he did so. The black man didn't get up from his position on the jungle floor, letting the plant life around him drape like a veil to semi-hide him from view.

"Jus' leave me alone," he called back, voice wavery from distress and how clumsy words fell from his foriegn mouth structure. "Jus' turn 'round and get da ******** outta herr." He didn't recognize it as Awen...at least not yet.

From behind the leaves of the bush he hid behind, his ice-blue eyes narrowed intensely and his lips curled into a snarl, the tips of his fangs peeking free of his mouth. Of all the people...the person that was so vivid in his dream...

"Don't say it," he snapped acidly, nostrils flaring as he inhaled snarply to hold back a challenging growl. Say what...well, that was up for Awen to decide. But whatever it was, Jamal didn't want to hear it and she'd be smart to not comment on it.

As she stepped forward, he moved abruptly from lying against the tree to being on his feet in a crouched position, ears flattening back as best they could, being that they were an odd human/animal mix. He gave Awen a very challenging stare, emphasized with the hue of his eyes against dark skin.

"So sorry...so ********' sorry...dat s**t don't fix 'nuthin!"

Claws lashed out to rip the foliage in front of his face down into ribbons, sending the shreds into a flurry of green that eventually settled onto the brown-toned ground. The remaining residue of tears had dried themselves by this point, taking away the impression of vulnerability and leaving a cold fury behind, except for in his eyes which were almost lost and empty.

He looked like he was going to either run off or explode into a whirlwind of claws and teeth, his shoulders heaving with each breath as he contemplated what to do. This was Awen...she held the gun in his dream and in his reality...he had wronged her and now perhaps she was back to get back at him. Maybe this was how she was going to get back at him...to enjoy watching his pain.

Jamal growled heavily and latched his new claws into the soft bark of the tree behind him that had been his backrest, hiding most of his body behind it except for most of his face, which was contorted heavily with anger and pain. "Jus' don't botha. I ain't nuthin' and now ya got yo' last laugh...jus' go."

To Jamal, her steps forward were a challenge. Each step forward made him that much more tense and edging towards the tiger's yearning for confrontation. Tigers were not social animals to begin with and that paired with Jamal's very clear vibe of "get away" clearly would spell disaster for anyone who didn't pay attention to his clear signals. Things were going to get out of hand very quickly.

"I -ain't- comin' out 'n' I'll be ******** if anyone gonna try 'n' tell me dat this s**t gonna be a'ight in da end. ******** dat. This ain't a'ight...this ain't ME. You ain't herr fo' Jamal. He ain't herr no more!"

He tore his fresh claws from the tree's flesh and thumped his chest hard in emphasis, a heavy snarl tearing from his throat.

"LOOK at this s**t. LOOK," he bellowed, the same hand now pointing rigidly at his face as his fangs were flashed to their fullest extent. He hadn't seen his facial changes yet, but knew it was extremely different from the face he identified as himself just from the way the muscles pulled. "How can you ********' tell me dat this s**t is gonna be a'ight...cause dat's what you gonna say. You 'n' Antony tellin' me da same ********' thing but LOOK AT THIS."

The hand that remained on the bark of the tree suddenly slipped downward and he tore a large section of the covering free from the thick trunk, flinging it carelessly in Awen's direction. It was hard to tell if it was intentional or not...if he was aiming for her or not...but when it fell a few feet away he had no sympathy on his face. He only leered at her, brows knitting above his icey eyes and giving his shadowed face a more intimidating feel to it.

Jamal's eyes lit immediately with something that was not very Jamal-like at all...at least, in a way that he had very rarely shown. Pure and unbridled rage crossed his broad features.

"Don't ********' tell me about jus' how NORMAL I get ta be. THIS AIN'T ********' NORMAL," he screamed, advancing now on her with his clawed hands tearing and yanking on offending plant life as he stalked forward. He was like a whirlwind of destruction as he came at her. "I don't wanna ********' hear about how you 'n' how ******** you are. I GET IT. I ********' GET IT."

He snarled and reached out with a hand to jam a claw-tipped finger in her face and it was clear that he was at the absolute end of his rope by the way the finger wavered in the air as though he was going to jam the clawtip right into the center of her forehead. He didn't want to be harped on about how others were going to have to deal with their changes...he was blindly stuck on how this was about him and how his life was ruined.

"I went SO long thinkin' dat maybe I was free. Dat fo' once I wasn't screwed. Thinkin' dat maybe I ********' succeeded," he hissed, ripping the pointed finger away from her face and stalking around her harshly, caring little if he almost knocked her over or not. "This is like a ********' GAME ta them 'n' I'm jus' da ********' token black man. I woulda ratha' changed two weeks inta gettin' put on this ********' island than goin' so long wit' fake hope. Fake hope. FAKE ********' HOPE DAT THEY SCREWED UP."

He latched onto a dead, broken branch and clenched it tightly with both fists, willing the wood to splinter beneath his hands. It was too thick, however, and so he picked it up, wielding it like some great sword, facing Awen. Jamal held no recognition in his face now for the blue haired woman. He just saw opposition and he was -tired- of it.

"If yo' smart, you'll jus' leave me alone. Jus' let me live what's left of ma life o' I'll make ya go." The veiled threat in his voice was no joke.

"It's betta fo' all ta jus' leave me alone," he insisted heatedly, still staring the woman down from his position with the dead branch. "You ain't abandonin' me...you can't abandon someone who jus' don't give a ******** no mo' cause they ain't themself. You don't want me ta be alone? Go find dat part of Jamal dat got left on the beach this mornin'. You find dat 'n' then you come back 'n' then I ain't gonna be alone."

The branch in his hand shattered abruptly as it met the side of another tree as he turned his back on her and let it cut the air like a whip, pieces of wood scattering into the air. He wanted to destroy things. Jamal wanted there to be as much visible destruction there in the jungle as what he felt inside and it just wasn't happening. The black man wanted someone to physically hurt as bad as he was hurting and it seemed that Awen was going to be his willing subject. The rational part of his brain screamed at him to not even think about it...that this would sort out in the end and he would regret it...

But the other half would have none of it. He could smell her fear now and it was prickling at that predatory part of him that he held both as a human and as a his new animal-self. It was winning. He wanted blood. If he couldn't have his own, then he'd have someone else's. It's what the animal wanted and that's what Jamal was now.

Slowly the man turned again to face her, eyes leveling onto her smaller form, and his licked his fangs. He was suddenly glad that his claws were not retractable...it would make things so much easier...

Dream Awen might have had the last laugh, but the real Awen would not if he could help it.

A fresh snarl of rage erupted from his mouth as he lunged for her, hands reaching out to their absolute furthest reach as he went to tackle her and take her down. He'd given up on his inner human strength at that time. The animal had won...and so had the anger he'd built up since day one of being put on this island.

He hit her hard from the charge and took her down like any old predator taking down prey, landing on top of her so she was pinned. Clawed hands took hold at her shoulders as he straddled her waist, his face hovering inches away from her own, whiskers bristled stiffly at either side of his face as he felt her breath on his face. It would be so easy to slit her throat in this position. Just a flick of the wrist... His fingers spasmed at the thought, digging them into her flesh.

He stared unblinkingly down into her violet eyes, caring little for the fact that up close like this, he should be able to see that she had changed more from the last time he had saw her...those eyes were still so very familiar despite all of that, but it didn't seem to register either.

Jamal couldn't reconcile that he was still the same person with a different outward appearance. It didn't compute.

He hissed and lowered his face closer to hers, almost so his whiskers were brushing her cheeks, yet there was nothing seductive or gentle in his facial expression. It was anger, rejection, and a sense of hopelessness that guided his snarl and lit his eyes.

"I don't wanna hurt anyone, Awen," he drawled in slightly garbled speech, a slight growl accentuating his vowels. "Don't make me do it. Jus' fo'get 'bout me like ev'ryone else gonna do in time. I ain't nuthin'. You can't abandon nuthin'...cause there ain't anythin' ta leave behind."

Jamal realized his claws were dug in at this point and he pulled his hands away slowly, as though he relished the feeling of bleeding flesh beneath his grip. More blood...it smelt so good at that moment that he lifted a set of claws to his mouth and looked as though he was going to lick it. A pause followed before he tenatively lapped at one digit, pulling the ruddy material into his maw with almost a reverent-facade, then turned the rest of the claws to wipe across Awen's abdomen as though cleaning the rest off. He wasn't particularly careful as he did this, but he didn't really intend on hurting her further. Jamal was clumsy with his new weaponry, afterall.

He then slid off her slowly, landing on all fours to her side before standing up fully and walking towards the protective shadows. The tiger was suddenly satisfied...the need for explosion was lessened...it was time to just melt away into the shadows until the next time he needed to hunt. The darkness would be his friend. He had nothing to say to anyone. It was time for them to let go and accept that Jamal was not Jamal any longer. Jamal might still be there inside somewhere, but something had snapped deep inside and it would take a lot for him to mend it.

It was okay though. The tiger would take care of him.