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Pyroth waved a paw dismissively. "They wouldn't even bury us I'd wager, just leave us to the jungle. Then again, I don't count on them for anything, I'll look after myself and defy those assholes all the way." He gave Em a reassuring grin

"And so long as we stick together till we find the others we should be okay, I've had to live in situations like this before, and you are no fool." this comment didn't really equate to the story he had given before about spending all his time in a tattoo parlour, but he didn't elaborate.

"Anyway, we'd better go find shelter before the rain starts, the last thing we need is pneumonia on a tropical island."

Pyroth walked on a little way ahead, sniffing the air instinctually, his tail waving as he considered where they could go. "I'm sure there could be somewhere along here, maybe a tree with broad leaves or something?"

He was busy seeking out said place, when, from above, the first flash of lightning and roll of thunder tore the sky in half.

It did not produce the usual Pyroth reaction which would be mild annoyance and wonder. Instead, instincts white hot in their intensity flashed across his mind, the coyote in him did NOT approve of the lightning. In fact, as his ears snapped back, tail tucked and hackles raised, he would have run away if some more residual memories hadn't chosen that moment to resurface, memories that he had been travelling all this time with an individual which should have, by all rights, been his lunch.

He stood there, frozen where he stood, his back to Em, his hackles evidently raised.

As the first rain began to fall, he let out a long, low snarl. Fear it seemed had been the key to losing control again.

It was lucky that Pyroth was still fatigued from the first chase and their trek, otherwise his movements might have been faster, he sprang forward, once again jammed in instinct mode, but as he broke into a run his muscles screamed their protest, he wouldn't be able to pursue Em far, particularly not with the coyote in him so terrified beyond belief.

It was rediculous, he was gradually losing a battle with his own head and looked set to chase off for good one of the only people who had opted to accompany him.

I'm so sorry. he said inside his own head, feeling he had betrayed her.

And all the while, he was closing ground.

Pyroth ran on despite his agonised muscles, decimated in his energy reserves. Still, he was gaining little by little and a sort of sadistic hope drove him. He could see no way that he would avert the surging emotion this time.

But for once, the lightning proved beneficial, as it snaked across the sky again, a boar charged from the undergrowth, terrified out of it's wits. Pyroth didn't hesitate in shifting his pursuit onto this prey, to the hunter, all food was alike, to Pyroth a pig was a more suitable quarry than a living being.

Doubling back with a snarl, he swung the pig out of the air as it lept past him, then, in an unfortunate demonstration of skills gleaned through his old career, powerfully snapped it's neck. Then, still in an instinctual state over logical humanity, he tucked in, hoping, somewhere in his mind that his distraction would afford Em's escape.

It was astonishing how one day the world could be at your feet an the next you were alone in a thunderstorm after driving off everyone else, eating raw pig.

He would never have believed anyone who told him it would happen to him.

Pyroth slid into a half dream as he allowed himself to sat the hunger that had been seething in him for a while, the raw boar tasting as sweet to him as any food he had ever eaten. He should have been worrying about his weight, he always had for as long as he could remember but now that obsession, that problem seemed paled. If there had been anything in this world he could have depended on, it was his own mind, now even that had been swept from under him. He was confused.

And Em, he hoped she would forgive him his fallibility but if she chose not to, he would just have to deal.

Apparently the most dangerous combination of all was the instincts of a wild animal and the ability to kill indescriminately that was something humans tended to call their own.

When he next came to his senses, the storm was past leaving only nightmares in it's wake. His paws and face were bloody and his muscles were claiming cash he didn't have.

With a groan he staggered to his feet and raised his nose to the air, it smelled like....civilisation.

He walked onwards.

Emerwyn slipped in and out of shadows. She had begun her journey.
The small degree of grace she had acquired helped her move silently and unseen first through the village, and into the jungle.
She found a path to follow, and kept around it, dodge around trees, and through bushes, making a rustle equal to that of a spring breeze.

She soon came upon a large body of water. It was the lake. Emerwyn had never been here before. She leaned over, looking at her own reflection in the faintly moving waters. She no longer looked dead and strained, but she looked... different. And right now, she didn't have the words to describe it. How odd, to not know what to say. It was a feeling Emerwyn found to be growing more common over time.

Suddenly, she heard... singing. A sweet, untainted voice. A rare, and altogether beautiful sound. Emerwyn moved closer, dancing through the trees, in the shadows, unseen, unheard.
She recognized her from behind. It was Colche. Emerwyn smiled, and ducked down about the bushes, observing that last shred of innocence left in her world.

Emerwyn sighed, and leaned against a tree, watching Colche dance with herself. She even caught herself humming softly, a hardly audible sound under Colche's joymaking.
She almost jumped up and rushed to Colche's aid as she fell, but held herself back. She couldn't forget herself. Not now. She sank back, and watched intently; Colche could do it.

"Don't worry, Colche," she whispered. "You're big and strong now. You can do it. All by yourself..."

"Way to go, Colche." Emerwyn laughed softly at Colche's fluffy appearance.

Her muscles ached a bit, leaning against the hard bark, so Emerwyn shifted her body, making a noise that was a little too loud.

She swept away from the tree and hid elsewhere, so that if and when Colche decided to investigate, all she would find was a disturbed bush, and an imprint in the ground where someone may have sat.