Classified: A 1x1 RP (Royalburden & Aramay ONLY please)

[Royalburden]

Jack made a strange sound, something between a snarl and a rattling hiss as Devan snatched off his covers. "What the hell are you thinking! Do you have no intelligence in that scaly scull of yours, you moron!"

He watched as the fish boy covered himself with the soaked blankets. "You made an absolute mess, and don't you think the guards could just follow the soaking trail you leave behind!?!"

Jack caught sight of Aramay lurking by the doorway and stared after Devan with wild disbelief and a good strong hint of disgust. He had no choice but to rise from his bed and trek through the sopping wet after him. "You idiot! Where do you think the guards will be headed the moment they catch wind of the flooding huh? Right HERE! Right where you're walking! You have no clue where you're going OR what you are doing and you assume that we can leave at your convenience! Did it ever occur to you that the escape isn't even prepared yet?"

Right then the first of the guards arrived on their floor. The elevator settled with a resounding Ding! Jack reacted with snake-like reflexes, shoving Devan into the nearest maintenance storage area and yanking Aramay inside as well mere seconds before the doors to the elevator slid open revealing an urgent Dr. Abrams and several security guards.

[Aramay]

Devan completely shrugged off Jack's anger. "Yaou cahme tuh mei firsht." Jack was the one to put the idea in his head to escape. Plus he was more or less responsible for breaking his tank. "Too laeh nohw." They would be leaving behind more than just a water trail if they were going to get out. He already knew it was going to cause an uproar no matter what they did. He heard Jack yelling after him about the flooding, which made him stop. "Tha's ahn youh." For Devan this was probably the best time to get out. Waiting for a better tank wasn't his idea of ideal. He wasn't told shit when it came to how he could still turn human. For all he knew he would be permanently tank bound once they were done with him. Whether Jack liked it or not, he set the ball in motion. It just was happening MUCH sooner than he liked. "I's Nohw or nehar."

The water by now was leaking down into the elevator shaft giving off a sound similar to muffled rain. Devan grunted in annoyance when he was pushed into the storage room but was grateful that Jack seemed concerned enough to want to keep them from getting caught. Ara yelped and was near ready to snap at him. She would shove herself into the furthest corner soon as she had the chance. Anything to get the snake to keep anyone from touching her. Devan didn't need to ask her anything to know that she went through similar treatment.

Devan peaked out of a crack in the door; waiting till the group moved further down the hall. But it was Aramay that made a dash for the elevator. She was too fast for either of them to grab and she would tuck herself out of sight. He looked at Jack before following soon after, the doors started to close.

[Royalburden]

"Yeah to make a bleeding proposition, not tell you to pack your bags immediately!" Jack hissed. "And you had absolutely no reason to grab me. You were and still are being completely and utterly stupid."

Jack didn't follow them out immediately. He took the moment to grab a spare janitorial uniform from a hook on the wall and put it on. Only then did he follow the pair into the elevator. "You two are to follow me from here on out, do exactly as I do unless you want to end up back in your cells."

Jack pressed the button for the floor just under the main floor and the elevator shuttered to life but Jack didn't wait for it to stop. He reached up and removed a tile from the ceiling then opened the hatch to the roof into the shaft. "Come on, when that door opens it's going to open straight into the medical lab you want to be up here."

With that he offered his hand to help them up. "Careful of the pulleys, they'll take a finger off...or tail..." He glanced at Devan.

[Aramay]

Devan gave Jack a toothy grimace as a sign to shut his mouth but nothing more. He simply held up his bit arm to remind Jack that he was still pissed with him. He in truth was grateful to have Jack take the lead. Devan could provide backup better as the muscle. He wasn't particularly larger than the both of them but his added mass did give him an edge as a heavy hitter. Ara meanwhile stayed silent, hunched down in the corner while trying to hide the panic attack she was having.

They both watched Jack slinked up onto the elevator roof. Devan had to coax Ara with gestures before she climbed up with Jack. When it came to Devan, he couldn't get a grip, literally. His slime covered, webbed hands kept making him slip and fall back onto the elevator floor. His gill slits opened reflexively to gulp in air which caused a great amount of pain to hit his chest. Coughing and shaking his head he crouched down low, nodding his head in hopes that they would move before he uses his legs and tail to launch him up just enough for his upper body to get through the opening. He slaps his arms onto the roof to keep himself from falling back down. With the help of the others he hoists himself up.

Aramay looked around the dark shaft; her pupils dilating quickly and easily to adjust to the lack of light. A wave of dizziness hits her. It could be attributed to the excitement but she wasn't exactly sure. Devan was already more focused with something else. He stared at his hand, trying to get himself to change back. If he needed practice, now counted more than ever.

[Royalburden]

Jack made a face once all three of them where up there. He secured the hatch and wiped Devan's slime off onto his new clothes. Everything smelt like fish, he could taste it in the air and it made his stomach churn. The elevator continued to rise until it reached floor A the floor just under the main floor. The shaft doors for the main floor where just overhead. "Keep quiet, and keep close."

Jack climbed the 'ladder' on the side of the elevator shaft, they only had to go up a few rungs until they reached a door for maintenance, what they used as an easy entrance to the shaft when the elevator had a fatal breakdown. It saved on trying to pry the elevator doors open. Jack opened the door and climbed into the narrow hall. It didn't take much to realize that the hall was tucked right inside a wall on the main floor of the building. Voices could be heard echoing against the pipes from which steamy water dripped. Jack moved quickly despite the condition the other two where in, he couldn't be in there for too long, it was too hot. Some points where extremely narrow as well. In reality Jack could care less of the difficulties Devan would have getting through there. He'd wanted to wait until the pair where stable and could transform with reasonable ease. This was why.

Several long minutes later Jack found a door to another maintenance room. He motioned for absolute silence and opened it slowly. Jack looked worse for ware at that point, his skin was red and peely as if he had bad sunburn and he seemed to have sweat a fountain. Unfortunately there was a man in the maintenance room. The man looked up and gasped. "Who the fu-"

Jack moved with once again the speed of a striking snake and practically tackled the man, who'd been holding a mop. The yellow maintenance bucket on the floor clattered over and spilled water across the floor as Jack wrestled with the man. Jack was much much stronger than he looked, his arms snaked around the man's chest and neck and Jack squeezed. His form trembled with the force he put into the hold, his neck and gace turning red with exertion but his expression was as calm as the dead. Bones cracked and with every strangled breath the man took clawing at Jack's forearms, writhing with every ounce of his strength Jack merely tightened his grasp. It was like watching an Anaconda making a kill and likely only furthered Devan's vision of him as a snake in a man's skin.

The maintenance man stopped struggling. Jack only let go when he felt the man's heart stop. He set him down next to the yellow mop bucket and moved towards the door.

Outside the doorway was a brightly lit hall to the area that Aramay would be more familiar with, it was the hall she'd walked through every week to see Dr. Abrams for the 'medical testing'. Jack took a glimpse out to see the situation. It was just about to be evening and business was still going on. Jack closed the door. "We need to wait until the place closes, it'll be safer to leave then. There is no way that us three are going to get out of here with more of your recklessness. There are guards.....everywhere especially now that the whole building knows we've escaped. If they search in here we'll retreat to the maintenance tunnels with Mr. Clean over there. They'll move on."

[Aramay]

"Ehy! Ih nee' tha'." Devan wasn't sure what the hell Jack was up to but he was quickly reminded to quiet down again. That's right, keep quiet and follow close. The rungs of the ladder hurt like hell. He had to squeeze them tight to keep from slipping which dug into the webbing of his hands and raked his feet. He made a point to be the last one on the ladder to keep the others from slipping. Ara was having a hard enough time climbing herself. Her grip wasn't as slippery but it was still awkward enough to make her hesitate and lag behind a few paces.

Soon as Devan saw the narrow maintenance area he softly groaned to himself. The only thing they needed was to have guards on top of them, chasing them through that passageway. Ara could at least fit. The way her figure was shaped she could crawl around, over or under the pipes with ease and avoid risking getting burned even though she couldn't change. Devan on the other hand could instantly feel the heat radiating from which pipes and no amount of slime coating could protect him from getting searing burns. He looked around to find the best route through. The water pipes were too hot and he had too many extra protrusions to squeeze through the narrower areas.

He watched as Jack and Ara were putting distance between him. It would be Aramay who took note that the amphibious thing that helped pave some of the way was stuck. He would put out a webbed hand before pulling back in error of its placement. She looked forward towards Jack then back at Devan. He looked to be deep in thought over something. The blankets started to flatten or deflate depending on how you looked at them. His features grew more visibly human and it became more clear that he was straining himself to become that way. So he could do it too. Like the snake man, only he had a much harder time.

He wasn't completely 'normal' when he tried again to go through the passage. It would take more time and concentration than he was already borrowing. He had to shrug off all but one of the sheets which he tied more tightly around himself to keep from dragging. Devan would look up to see that Ara was watching him. She instantly turns back down the passage towards Jack acting as if she never stopped in the first place.

The heat seemed to be only helping Aramay as it helped calm her aching muscles. However just like the others she couldn't stand to be in there for too long either with the amount of body heat that she generated. For Devan it was both welcoming and an annoyance. The human parts of him were shivering from the wet fabric while the more aquatic areas of his body stung. Much like the hot and cold sensations someone would get just before they got sick.

By the time he caught up to both of them he caught Jack as the last of the maintenance man's strength and life was fading. The silent, straight faces said it all. They were prepared to do whatever it took to get back their freedom. Not one of them looked like they were having an easy time with their own states. One was too hot, one was in pain and the other was simply trying to hold themselves together. So when Jack mentioned about having to play the waiting game there was a collective grumble of frustration. Devan shivered uncontrollably. Not from feeling cold but to keep himself from reverting, going so far as to say that he was 'holding it in' wouldn't be too far from the truth. If Ara couldn't pace then she would be nodding off if she had to stay in one place for too long.

[Royalburden]

Jack gave them both a look that clearly said 'you have no right to complain'. After all, if he had done the planning he would have made their escape during the night. If Devan had waited even for a few hours it would have made the trip far less of a stress. Jack took the time to move the maintenance guy out of the center of the room and back into the steaming maintenance corridor. He closed the door and found a comfortable place to sit under one of the shelves closest to the door leading out into the main hall. He peered out, watching Aramay closely his gaze impossible to read.

In his eyes she was becoming something beautiful, she was the equivalent to the most magnificent piece of art and he was given the gift of watching her be born again. He truly hoped she could learn to embrace what she was becoming.

After a while Jack fell into a very light sleep. He was still conscious of the movements around him and some core part of him was still counting the minutes as they went by but he was very still and his breathing had slowed as if he where fast asleep. His eyes appeared to be closed but a closer look would reveal that they where still open, his eyeballs protected by a second clear lid just like a snake's.

Outside the door the search for the three went into full force. Every inch of the lower floors where scoured and searched as well as the grounds up to a mile in each direction. Eventually they did come to search in that particular maintenance room but the moment they got near the room Jack ushered the two back into the tunnels. They where never spotted and when night fell the search dwindled. They doubled the guard around the building for that night.

[Aramay]

Devan was so focused on maintaining his state that he didn't comprehend they would be stuck there for a while. He didn't had to ask for Jack to repeat himself. His actions already stated that they would be there for a while longer. Not only did it mean that they would be stuck there waiting with anticipation but Devan would have to keep his head with no clear source of water around in case he lost focus. He had to remind himself that he would need to do that regardless. There was no way of him knowing if there would be water for him to gain access to once, or if they did get out. Right now he would at least have time to sit and 'practice'. Still, that thought didn't comfort him in the least.

He looked over at Ara's fidgeting. She was breathing oddly and started sweating more than the both of them combined. At at once she slumped over like a sack of potatoes on the floor. Devan wasn't so slow to pick up on her sudden fainting spell and jumped up to reach for her, to check on her. The sudden shift in thoughts lead to extreme discomfort in himself. He recoiled back to refocus his thoughts just as everything began to shift. Much like trying to grab onto a rope again to keep the current from pulling a boat out to sea, and you're body is already sore from having to pull that same boat back to shore. It could be done but the exhaustion was already setting in. Soon as he could calm himself down he tried for a second time to check on her, whether Jack there to see what was wrong or not.

She felt very hot to the touch like she was running a fever. "She's burning up." The best he could do was find the janitor's sink and anything clean to retain the cold water so it could be placed over her head and behind her neck. He barely touched her shoulder when he both felt and heard something shift beneath her clothing. A joint settling into its new setting. He should have known since he had been going through the same thing, only through a slightly different process, with different results. He would feel ill beforehand. Suffering from a fever was not one of his symptoms. She was still breathing and she in fact looked a little better; being unconscious to the world around her. Sick or not. It seemed best to let her sleep with how edgy she was, its a wonder she didn't bolt out in front of everyone. "So what's her deal?" He asked in a hushed tone.

By the time the area they were in was about to be searched she was still completely out of it. Devan had to pick her up and carry her into the tunnels. It wasn't too difficult. Having more than one set form wasn't the only thing that changed about him. He had the strength to lift her up and juggled her into a sort of piggyback position. Devan would be insistent on carrying her himself. No need to have them getting caught with two people fumbling with her.

[Royalburden]

Jack snapped out of it the moment that Aramay keeled over. He got out from under his spot and went to her side along with Devan. "Well this one basically went through the same treatment as you, minus the fifteen billion in budget. She's struggling to accept what she's to become, more-so than you. You seem to already have some general control of yourself."

At that moment their room was to be searched. Jack ushered Devan into the tunnel, following close behind to shut the door. There they waited until the guards searching decided it was all clear and they where nowhere to be found. "Can you handle carrying her across the grounds?" Jack asked once it was clear. "You will have to move quickly. No stopping not even for a moment. We need to be well into the woods before we can rest for the night."

[Aramay]

Devan watched Jack rather quickly go to her side. Faster than he thought a cold-blooded man such as himself would bother. "Mm..." He looked up at Jack then back at Ara. "I wouldn't blame her." He paused before continuing. "I'm no different. I just happen to see what I have to do in order to get out of here. Whatever it takes." There was a lot more truth to what he said than he expected out of himself. The process wasn't as painful, or physically demanding. He just didn't allow himself the idea that this would be permanent.

He felt Ara's breath on his neck while he held her which tickled to the point of annoying. Re-adjusting his grip he hoisted her up further to change her position. 'Ow, ow, ow. Ow.' He learned that his focus was slipping. Having her chest push against his back was also not as enjoyable as one would think. The bone of her sternum pushing against his back which also wanted to push back made for a slowly growing pain similar to someone slowly pushing their elbow against your ribs. "...long as we go now..." He responded, wincing. "Just. Hurry up will you."

When Jack gave the go ahead he would take off after Mr. Scales to the best of his ability. Ara's limp form thumps against his back making him grit his teeth. The luck he did have was in managing to keep the sheet wrapped around his waist with the way he carried her. It was bad enough having a slimy janitor, a half naked man and a beastly girl run out of a building in the middle of the night. The hard part didn't occur till they finally reached the forest.

Ara awoke with a start, jostled awake when Devan stumbled from stepping on a sharp rock. Her claws dug into his skin as she reeled in confusion and pushed herself away from his grasp. She hit the ground running, almost quite literally. Not without taking a little tumble first. But soon as her limbs touched solid ground she launched herself further into the woods with no intent on stopping. Her stumbling was frequent and she still somehow managed to move faster than the both of them.

[Royalburden]

Jack smiled his strange smile that never quite reached his eyes. "I might have been wrong about you. Out of the two of you, you truly seem fit for your newfound gifts. Survival is the most important."

Jack waited until Devan had her steady on his back then swung open the door silently. He gave a quick glance down the hall and slipped out. His movements where quick and light almost as if he glided across the floor. He was their eyes concerning the guards as he'd studied their movement vigilantly during his fre-roams around the lab. He opened a front door located nearest the corner of the building and lead Devan out.

Outside was a manicured lawn and expensive landscaping along which danced several dozen flashlights manned by men with high powered tranquilizer guns that looked unnecessarily fearsome as if they where designed to intimidate rioters in a state of chaos. Further off and to the right of the main road was a vast expanse of forest that seemed to go forever. To the left where some fields that hadn't been used for farming in a long time. Everything was cast in a silvery light from the moon which shone down tauntingly, lighting up the vast open space of the yards and the parking lots that surrounded them.

Jack again took the lead, carefully darting across the grass directly for the treeline. They where going well for a while, just a couple of shadows among shadows. It went perfectly well and they vanished into the pitch black forest on the other side. It was then that Devan stumbled and Aramay woke up.

"Stop, Aramay!" Jack hissed trying his damnedest to both speak quietly and shout "Shit!"

There was no way that a serpent and an overgrown tuna would catch up to her in the dark. Jack's jaw tightened and he shook his head. "Well now Devan, you're free. You want to bolt into the night as well or will you make camp with me for the night??

[Aramay]

For a moment he thought he could grab her before she even hit the ground. Instead he flopped onto the ground like a fish out of water. The leaves and pebbles that lay on the ground now stuck to his cheek, chest and legs. It was the slime that covered his body again that served as glue for the debris. "Crap..." He re-tied the sheet that loosened around his waist even when it kept slipping out from his partially webbed hands. Neither of them would be able to catch her. They would only hope to find her later when its light out. And when he isn't pushing his luck to drown in the air without a drop of water to save him.

Devan looked out into the dark woods where Ara fled one more time. "Don't wait on me. I don't know where to go....hurry up before my shit starts dragging on the ground again." He rubbed his back sorely while trying to not think about the stinging in his feet and burning sensation over his skin. His urgency was clearly present with the way he walked. There would be no way that he would allow himself to be carried by Jack. As if that man would be able to carry him if...when he won't be able to hold himself together like this any longer.

[Royalburden]

Jack tasted the air with his tongue and for a moment it would've looked like his tongue was forked and slim like it was in his snake form. "This way. There's a stream...or something not far from here, you can do what you need to do."

Jack hoped he was right, there was more moisture in the air in that direction but he had no way of telling how much. Jack started off again in the direction he'd motioned to and they finally began to put some significant distance between them and the lab.

It took them about a half an hour to find the water. It was a pretty small stream not enough for Devan to soak in but enough to give him some relief at least. Jack immediately went to work finding twigs and sticks to start a fire with. They where deep enough in the woods that the light from a fire wouldn't be seen and since it was still dark smoke would be difficult to distinguish as well. Devan might not like the dryness of a fire but Jack needed something to warm up with. It was cold and damp out there.

[Aramay]

Ara didn't stop running for a while. In some ways it was her adrenaline that propelled her through the near pitch black forest making it impossible to stop. It also felt freeing to be out of there after being trapped for so long. The exhilaration that each step took her further away from that damnable place made her crave the act of putting more distance between them. Even when her lungs started to hurt from the cold air and her muscles burned she did nothing to yield to it. The searing pain that suddenly pierced through her very being however was quick to put her place. And that was through causing her limbs to seize and her body to suddenly lose its strength faster than a plant wilting in a raging fire. She slide and tumbled head over hocks along the forest floor till she came to a less than gentle halt. Heat rose from her body in the form of visible steam due to how hot her temperature ran. It hit her that she didn't need to be back there with tubes attached to her anymore, to go through another ungodly fit of growing pains. Muscles spasmed from the pain she felt and she was leagues away from any sort of drug to ease her suffering.

The further the two walked the more his body adopted the features that he hated. To many the leaves and air would feel damp but not to him. He may as well be walking through the Mojave desert with the way he silently complained to himself through grunts and stumbling over sharp, vengeful objects of nature. He heard an unnerving sound off in the distance. It was too far away to tell what it was but it left a chill to run up his spine. Which now a good portion of it was protruding out from under the sheets, forming into a developing tail. He hoped to high heaven that the man was talking right. It would be nowhere near soon enough to reach it.

By the time they reached the stream he was shuffling his feet, holding at his ribs to keep the developing gill slits from opening and ready to simply let the sheet fall off him. The water depth was meager at best. It was just enough to come up four inches, and tease him into thinking it wasn't nearly as shallow as that till he tried laying himself into the water. He cupped the water and splashed it onto his face. It wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. Not only that but it smelled odd and tasted different. He continued to try scooping and pouring it over himself to sooth his skin but it just made his gill slits open and gulp in air making him cough and hack. He completely lost it after that. The claws that now sprouted from his fingers were quickly put to work digging into the bed of mud beneath the stream. The mud was then tossed aside sloppily so he could dig deeper still. The water flooded into the shallow pit that he dug to fill the gaps where the displaced mud used to be. He testingly stuck his head it to feel the mud settle or wash away, and the water flow over him. Still not enough. He dug like a rabid dog making the ditch longer and deeper, only stopping when he had to roll around in it and splashing noisily. He was definitely getting somewhere but the further down he went the silt and mud turned to pebbles, then to stones. It became harder to dig to where he wanted it to be. The water needed time to fill the gaps and wash away the upturned soil so he didn't suck down silt and muck to clog his gills. He completely forgot that Jack was not more than a few feet away from him.

[Royalburden]

Jack had slowed his work, trying to light a fire. He watched Devan splashing about like a bird whose found a bird bath he just can't quite fit in and carefully moved the few dry sticks he could find out of the splash zone. "Easy where you put all that water!"

He looked incredibly like some sort of sand fish flopping about like that trying to move silt. If Jack had a sense of humor the whole ordeal would've made him laugh. However, he was more or less annoyed about the whole thing. He would have been comfortable in his bed had he not decided to give fish boy there an impromptu greeting. He blamed the discomfort on him.

Deeper in the forest Derek's head rose from his tiny burrow, black and gray dusted ears pricked high as something went blundering through the forest, taking a massive tumble and landing not far from the base of his hill. Derek got to his paws. He'd been sure that he put up significant markings around his camp, he shouldn't have any intruders, wolf piss was hard for any animal to miss....unless the animal is a human. Derek retreated a bit into the just barely wolf-sized hole in the base of the hill located between a large rock and a cluster of brambles. He peered out trying to get a good look at what was out there. He could practically smell the heat and pain coming off of Aramay and it made him anxious. He crept out of his burrow, ears like radar dishes pointing forward at Aramay. He sniffed the air and moved forward, growling low and loud to make his presence known and to warn whoever it was that they where intruding.

[Aramay]

Devan ignored Jack, or maybe he couldn't hear him over the noise he was making in the water. He was tempted to put out the fire. After all it was him that put in his head the possibility of escape. Now he had to dig a trench and call it home for the night. Trying to turn back again would only make him pull something. The more recent times he went to sleep in a bed as normal he ended up waking up gasping for air with the blankets stuck to his drying skin. It took him a few times of doing this to give up on sleeping in a normal bed and resigning himself to the cold tank.

The trench still wasn't deep enough but it was a far cry from the shallow puddle that he started out with. He pulled the sheet up over the top of himself since he no longer had the energy to dig and still couldn't submerse himself completely. This was the most he had moved in a long time. The soreness that he felt begin to set in was an unwelcome surprise. The water slowly cleared enough to run through his gills. Something about it made him feel ill. At this point he was willing to go to sleep over keeping an eye out for guards or anyone on the lookout for them.

Derek would also smell strong hints of blood coming from Ara as well. She could hardly stand it and was scratching at herself. Like a rabid dog trying to remove porcupine quills from its back and sides. His growling would hardly be heeded. There was clearly something wrong with her. The movements were harsh, unnatural and discomforting to watch by any means. As series of pops were the only changes when her struggling began to die down. She lay stretched out, coming to rest on her back with her head tilted back till her face was partially buried in the leaves. One arm covering a part of her head that was still exposed to the open air. The exhaustion that kicked in was no small joke. The only thing that didn't quite calm down was her breathing. It was still pained. At least now Derek would be less concerned over the risk of being lashed out at or attacked. Ara felt like she was dying. What she would give just to go back to a comatose stupor again.

[Royalburden]

Jack finally got some form of a fire going. He turned snake and coiled himself deep into his wad of clothing, using it as a buffer from the heat of the fire and a quiet dark place to rest.

Derek went close to Aramay, nose twitching, he became concerned. What on earth is this? Not human but not animal. He nosed her rib cautiously then her arm, like a dog with a fallen owner. He tasted her wrist hoping to get her to snap out of it. Something was very wrong with it. He took a wad of her clothing in his mouth and dragged her inch by inch to his Den. It would be a very tight squease but perhaps the confinement would be like a pressure blanket and somehow ease the pain, or at least ground her to one spot and help her fight through it on her own. There was only room for her in there. He transformed back into a man and slipped on his clothing, a pair of well worn jeans and a lumber jack shirt. He wrapped his autumn vest around her. The soil she lay in was soft and malleable, it would conform to her changes yet it was secure enough not to collapse around her and kill her. More or less like semi-dry clay.

Derek left her there to first fortify his markings then search for some herbs that will help with the pain. He managed to find a few. Derek hesitated and considered following Ara's tracks back to where she came to see perhaps where she came from or why she was running. Most of all to figure out how she got the way she was. Something in his gut told him not to however and he returned to the burrow. He crushed the herbs and mixed them into a bitter paste to make it easier to swallow. He plucked a waxy leaf from a bush and used it to scoop up the medicine then wiped a little bit onto the middle of her tongue. He held her mouth closed until he felt her swallow and repeated the process a few times then fed her water he'd been collecting in a crinkly old water bottle to wash it down and hydrate her.

[Aramay]

Ara hardly reacted to his presence. She didn't budge from the prodding. Any signs of movement from her were negligible when he slowly drags her to his den. A meek groan is the only response to his lick, and the only resistance she puts up against him. Aside from her own dead weight. She looked too sickly and in pain to do anything else but let herself be pulled into the den. In a way it helped her. She wasn't tensing up like before.

It felt slightly damp in the enclosed space. It wasn't until the figure left that she saw where she was placed. Turning her head just enough, she could look up at the roof of the den. What it reminded her of was an stash that an animal would have to hide food in for later. An unsavory thought to have when she barely had the energy to shift an inch from her stop. Foreign smells intermixed with more familiar ones entered her nose. One in particular was coming from the vest wrapped around her body. Something that didn't feel like the rest of the earth around her. An insulating fabric to keep her protected from the elements. Protected...

She could see a shadow cover up the entrance, then human hands reach in making her grunt and whine anxiously. Her mouth, more of a half muzzle-it wasn't that difficult to pry open. After snapping down on the first leaf she immediately opened her mouth again to spit the bitter concoction back up. The leaf was removed but the paste wasn't. Drool oozed out the corners of her mouth when she sputtered. He of course kept her mouth closed so she had no choice but to choke it down. Worse yet the process had to be repeated. She dry heaved as her stomach tried to purge itself of the disgusting mixture. If he had given her the water first she would have been much less inclined to drink it. By the time he offered her the water she bit with her front teeth onto the mouth of the bottle, desperate to get the taste out of her mouth. Water still managed to leak out of her mouth. Stupidly she drank too fast till she choked.

[Royalburden]

"Easy, Easy...." Derek had her sit up slightly, leaning on his knee so her airways could clear up. He had a closer look at her now. That half muzzle, it didn't take long for him to realize that her features where canine. Immediately he felt a sort of responsibility towards her. Wolves don't let wolves down, not in the same pack. His first assumption was that she was a shifter, perhaps wolf or dog and somehow she got stuck halfway through her transformation. For all he knew it could be a new rare disease. He frowned. "What happened to you?" He murmured.

Derek stayed with her through the night. He lay her back down once she stopped choking and put her into a more comfortable position. Then he turned wolf and paced for a few hours, nosing at her on occasion to make sure she didn't flat out die on him. He curled up just outside, seeking shelter next to the large rock at the mouth of the den and eventually fell asleep, keeping one ear opened.

[Aramay]

It was a relatively quiet night considering what they got away with. Devan would wake up every couple hours or so when his tail hit one of the muddy sides of the trench or a part of a particular side was above water too long. The sheet did help but there was still a huge difference between being draped with a wet cloth and being completely submerged. Better accommodations still wouldn't do much to to offset that. He was worried about her. The cool air would help with her overheating. It did nothing to help the fact that she was all alone out there.

Devan would be the first one up. Webbed feet, caked with mud and leaves firmly planted on either side of the pile of clothes. It didn't take long to guess where Jack was by the coiled mound that lay covered in the very center. Slimy water, or watery slime dripped onto the fabric. The fire was nothing but embers by early dawn. The one thing nice that Devan did was endure the heat and stoke the fire. Albeit it was tricky considering that he kept getting the logs wet. The fire very wasn't large. Just enough to get the cold-blooded jerk to warm up and-he thought about it for a moment. He wasn't sure what to do now that he was out. He could have kept following the creek to find more water or a town. Odd that he only just now thought of that as being a possible idea. "Haek uf." His pronunciations seemed to be getting worse. Trying to turn human again just wasn't worth the waste of energy unless they had good reason...as much as he missed having dry skin, skin that preferred to stay dry.

"Hnnnngnnn." Would be the only answer that Derek gets out of Ara. Her pain started to ease up enough to get her to stop shaking like a chihuahua. Claw tipped, stubby fingers still maintained enough dexterity to curl into the dirt or grip at whatever else was close by. With the protruding sternum and extreme weakness she had it just made sense to lay her on her side. What stuck out the most was her hair. The hair on top of her head was starting to grow out and change color to match the patterning on the almost completely furless skin. It wasn't long until she passed out into a deep sleep. Possibly deeper than everyone else combined.

Once morning arrived it became a very different story. A languishing heat that was impossible to ignore stirred her awake. Her eyes slowly drifted open to see that she wasn't in the woods. Birds were chirping like it was morning but the sounds were dampened and there wasn't much light filtering in. She jumped up, or more correctly, she bumped against the sides of the enclosed den which both hurt and gave her an even bigger jump start of adrenalin. Like a trapped animal she clawed her way out of the entrance out of instinct, ignoring the still evident soreness her body felt. It was like she was stuck back in a bad dream having allowed herself to be caught. The sunlight hit her eyes with full force bringing her more to a crawl than to a full speed escape like last night. It stung her eyes like red hot pokers repeatedly jamming into her sockets. She covered her eyes with one hand while trying to use the other to help maneuver herself. All it got her to do was bump into a tree and fall back in a panic thinking it was someone pushing her over.