A/N: A wild chapter appears!

So, been a while, hasn't it? No excuse, other than laziness and the fact that I'm not a professional writer. Shocking, right?

Anyways, here's the newest chapter!

Disclaimer: If the past disclaimers weren't obvious enough, then let me say it again: I do not own Two Kinds. Okay? Okay.


I looked away. For two minutes.

Yes, you did.

Two minutes, Maria! I didn't even know that it was possible to get lost in two minutes!

I didn't either; but yet again, I am you.

I take in another breath, cupping my hands around my mouth. "Trace! The hell did you go, blue top!?" My voice echoes into the forest, following the calls of everyone else that did the same. Well, minus the blue top comment. Not really sure where that came from, really.

I blame the dragon parts on me.

Hey.

You're part of my mind; you get a pass.

Getting back to the matter at hand, the only other human of our colorful group just up and disappeared, and for the past who-knows-how-long we've been shouting to try and get Trace's attention. Seeing how we have been doing it for this long, it doesn't seem to be working.

And to think that he was complaining to Fuzzball about him being terrible at guiding us through the forest. The irony is amusing, and I would've laughed if the situation wasn't getting increasingly dire every passing second.

I rub my face with a groan. "How can we lose someone with sky-blue hair in the middle of a forest? I turned my back for two minutes..." I look at the others, examining their varying levels of dishevelment. Keith seems to be the most put together, aside from me, while Flora seems to be a hop, skip and a jump away from a panic attack.

Keith lets out a sigh. "You're telling me; at least I have the excuse of staring at the map. You, on the other hand," He gives me a look. "Saw him last."

"What are you implying; that it's my fault he's gone?" I try to put some heat into the words, but... something's been bugging me. Keeping my thoughts elsewhere...

A smacking sound brings my attention back to the present, looking over to its source to see Flora with her palm to her forehead. "Oh, what am I doing? I could've just tried to track his scent!"

"Wait, you could've done that this whole time?" I deadpan at her, and she shrinks slightly at the intensity of my gaze. "You know what, never mind; you were stressed, and people under pressure make mistakes. Although making up for said mistakes would be greatly appreciated."

"Alright, alright; I get the hint. Yeesh, you don't have to be so rude about it..." She looked a bit put off at the pushing, but nonetheless moves to do... whatever she's about to do. Which is to get on her hands and knees and sniff the ground for a bit.

…Oh, and I forgot to mention that she's not wearing anything below the waist.

Yeah. There was a lot of that for the past couple of weeks. Honestly, I wouldn't know whether I should be worried if I somehow forget someone wearing anything at all.

I'm going to er on the side of caution and say that's a bad thing.

At least we know Trace has good taste.

Could you not?

What? Maria had the audacity to sound offended. There is no shame in appreciating what is there. Besides, you cannot tell me that I am wrong, hon.

That's not the point, you useless reptile.

That's right, you can't. Besides, Keith's still staring.

Honestly, would you just- wait, what? Her words just caught up to me, and before I could stop myself I whipped my head over to said basitin to see him doing just that. Oh my god, he really is staring at her ass.

If that piece of tiger meat can get both of the men enraptured, then there's no shame in also being that way.

Just because an idiot said they could breathe underwater in this one lake doesn't mean I'm going to try.

But if two idiots did, and you saw evidence...

Before I could give my annoyed response, Flora's head bolted to one side, a grin on her face. "I think... he's over there! Come on, you two!" And off she goes, running in the direction that she directed.

"A-alright..." Keith says, his ears in that splayed look. "Lead the way, Flor- ACK!"

As I pass him to follow, I smacked the back of his helmeted head. When he tries to give me a questioning look, I just give him one in return, then nudge my head in Flora's direction.

I... never thought it was possible, but that blush managed to show through all that fur on his face. Still, I roll my eyes at him and turn to follow after the impatient tiger.


After Flora caught wind of – or however she tracks – Trace, we spent the next few minutes either calling out his name or waiting on Flora to keep us on track. Although Flora says that his scent is becoming easier to follow as time goes on, I can't help but feel my doubts about how well Trace is going to be when, if, we find him.

He did say he was an amnesiac, right before he disappeared on us.

Not only that, but this whole forest is giving me the creeps. There's this feeling crawling up my spine every time I don't try and occupy myself with doing something, like there's something that my instincts are trying to tell me. But every time I try to heed their words and take a longer look around me, it's just more forest. It might just be me staying too long in the woods without taking a breather in civilization.

Or, as I've been saying, it's the more draconic part of me creeping me out. Not that Maria is a terrible thing to have around, but the thought that my body has radical changes that start from me being here in Mekkan, and, well...

Is it permanent? I'm going to have to be honest with myself; I want to have my normal body back, and I want it preferably before I find a way back home. If I don't, and I show up home looking like this, will anybody believe that it's me? For crying out loud, my face doesn't even look like mine anymore, not including the horns and fucking tail sprouting out of me!

What am I going to do?

I put on a tighter grip on the driftwood piece, having been using it as a sort of walking stick, and I start moving again when I noticed that I haven't been moving during that inner reflection. I put my offhand up to my mouth to cup it as I take in a breath to shout out Trace's name-

...And then I notice how quiet it is. Last I remember, Flora was checking the scent trail to make sure we stay on path, and they might've started talking quietly between each other but I decided to give myself some time to think. Where the hell did they go?

Looking around myself, I can barely remember which way we were going in, much less which direction they could have gone in. "God damn, why do I do this to myself..." I mumble under my breath.

I don't suppose you have any ideas, Maria?

Sorry, hon- I'm not all knowing.

Well, it was worth asking, at least. Shit, why did I have to be so distracted? Speaking of being distracted...

There's that feeling, again; that ubiquitous something in this forest that makes my skin crawl and my spine shiver. Like there's something sinister hiding in the shadows made by the trees, watching.

Waiting.

Keeping in mind of where I came into this small clearing from, I decide to head in the opposite direction of it. It feels like we've been heading in this general direction, anyways. Unless Trace made a sudden turn at some point, then it probably isn't the worst idea in the world. Or maybe moving is the worst idea, and maybe I was supposed to stay put so it's easier for the others to find me.

Then again, there's a shit's chance in hell that I'm going to stick around with that foreboding feeling drilling into me.


I suddenly feel like breaking this magic stick over my leg.

I've been walking for maybe an hour or so, and so far I haven't seen hair nor hide of everyone else, much less hearing anything. I could've sworn I heard someone shout out at some point, but going in that direction didn't yield anything. Something tells me that it was a mistake making a turn like that, but I could've sworn that I saw the same tree twice and the fact was cemented.

I'm lost, in the middle of a forest, on some magical landmass filled to the brim with enough problems to give an army of therapists a migraine. Joyous place, really.

Please note the sarcasm.

You have a tendency to monologue when things don't go your way, along with a healthy dose of irony.

Oh yeah, my brain buddy. Thanks, Captain Obvious; whatever shall I do without your help?

I didn't get a verbal response, but I get the vague sense of her being miffed. Great.

...Wow, I really do get sarcastic when I'm under stress. Ma would either be disappointed or extremely proud. Nah, Papa would be the proud one; he'd probably say that I'm evoking 'mean girl power' or something to get a laugh out of me. Speaking of, I think I usually flock back to the nest around this time of month, just so that I can get some family contact in. Calling is nice and all, and I still might be in the same town, but hey.

Hm. I'm surprised that I'm not feeling more homesick. I mean, there was that nervous breakdown on my second night here, but that was mostly because of the 'holy shit I'm somewhere not on Earth' factor rather than everything that has happened. The only thing that's somewhere close to that was opening up to Keith a bit about... Danny, but even then it was mostly because I wanted to.

Even right now, I'm not really panicking over getting lost, just frustrated over doing so in the first place-

Crack.

I snap my head in the direction of the noise, all thought crashing to a stop. I could've sworn I heard a branch snap, almost as if...

"Hello? Keith, Flora?" I call out, despite the growing pit in my stomach telling me it's a pipe dream that it's them. I wait, listening for anything to happen again, or if anything walks out of the brush.

And then something forcefully introduced itself to the back of my skull, the last thing I hear and feel is a sickening crack as the world goes dark.


I'm scared.

It all happened so fast; we were just going through a shortcut, Master saying that it could save us a couple of days, then as soon as he finished it blood started leaking out of his mouth and he fell off of the cart and- and-

Now I'm in a cage, and a bunch of scary humans are laughing as they move around Master's things as they keep giving me weird looks. They never get close enough for me to hear what they're saying, but they took my clothes and I really don't like how the one with the big axe is looking at me.

And I'm so, so hungry... they gave me some nasty-tasting things to eat, and I threw up once...

Crying just makes them mad, though, so I just curl up in the corner. I used to stay in the center, but then the... thing was dragged in here with me.

A bit ago, they dragged in a human that had horns and a lizard's tail. They took her clothes, too, and I can see the dry blood running down her back. I though she was dead, but she's still moving a little bit. She hasn't waken up yet, but from what I can hear they think that she's a dragon.

She doesn't look much like one lying on her side and not wearing anything-

"Snrk!" She suddenly snorts, like she was just sleeping, and lets out a groan as she curls in further, her tail going to wrap herself a bit.

And then she twitches. Suddenly, she sit up, facing away from me as she tilts her head down at herself.

"Why am I naked?" A voice that almost sounds like it's growling comes from her. She looks up as she lets out a hiss of pain, her hand going to her hurt head. "And ow, what hit me? I swear if that car came here just to try and finish me off-" She starts to turn around, then freezes when she faces me.

My gray eyes blink.

Her amber eyes blink back.

"...Hi?" She says, sounding like she's asking me something. Her eyes start to look down, then they quickly go back to my face. "Uh... you wouldn't happen to know why I'm here, would you? Or," She looks around, seeming to notice the cage for the first time. "Why we're in a cage?"

I blink, again. "You're weird."

Her face drops, giving me a blank look. "You're telling me, kid." She runs a hand down the side of her face, looking up to the ceiling of the cage. "This has got to be the weirdest month of my life, by far. But yet again, this is probably yours, too. Right?" She gives me a crooked smile, then goes back to rubbing the back of her head.

...She's right, this is the weirdest couple of days I've had. No, it's more scary, but it definitely isn't normal. "Bandits." I tell her.

She stops her motion, then looks me in the eye. "Bandits?"

"Bandits."

"Banditos?"

What? "What?"

"Oh, sorry," She points to her head. "Probably the head injury-"

"Well, well, well," A deep, scary voice comes from behind her, cutting her off. "The freak lived after all."


I turn around after being interrupted to face the person behind me. The guy is huge, with a shitload of muscles and hefting an equally large axe on his shoulder. His face is grizzled, with a five-o-clock shadow and a few scars slapped on along with a sneer on his lips.

My eyes, however, instantly drift towards his hair, which is a bowl cut, of all things, which kinda ruins the whole intimidating figure he seems to be working towards.

"Kind of you to join us among the living." He starts, voice sounding like he's gargling gravel – or a bad case of morning voice. "Now, here's the deal-"

I let out a little chuckle, cutting him off, which then quickly turns into a laughing fit that lasts a few seconds. "I-I'm sorry, but," I give him an amused look. "I can't take you seriously."

Silence. His face seems to twist from the seeming sheer absurdity of my words, and there's enough time for multiple pins to drop through the quiet.

"Don't get me wrong, you did pretty good on the whole 'I am your doom' thing you had going," I cough out another chuckle, then point at his head. "But to be blunt, your hair looks so fucking stupid."

I hear a couple of laughs suddenly come up from behind him, and I lean around to see that there is an entire camp sitting right in front of me, complete with about six other, equally bandit-y individuals. Two of them, currently, are trying their hardest to quit their laughing, and unsuccessfully from the looks of things.

One of the non-chortling bandits gives Bowl-cut an amused look. "He's got you there, boss."

Bowl-cut is now fuming, hand gripping his axe as I see him grind his teeth together. "You three shut it, or else."

That shut them up instantly, as if he just hit a magical mute button on them. That... doesn't really bode well for me. At all.

He then looks back to me. "If I were you, freak, then I wouldn't be so brave. After all, you're the one in the cage."

Dawn, Maria speaks up. I suggest you come up with something to say that doesn't end with an axe in your-

"How about you let me out of this cage so I can beat your dumb ass."

...skull... Her voice turns thoughtful. Perhaps I am suppressing more than stress...

Bowl-cut does a double-take, and that intimidating facade of his breaks again to show how surprised he is. Hell, even I am a bit surprised with myself.

Not enough to stop, however. "Shit, I'll do it buck naked just to rub in how much of a total bitch you are, Bowl-cut."

Wow, I'm impressed with myself. I think that growl at the end beat out his, and he's the bigger one out of everyone here. Probably has something to do with the dragon-ing that I'm going through.

We're dead.

Relax, it was just a bluff; I only just met the guy and even I know that he has an ego that's far from his IQ-

"Alright."

I blink.

I hear a smacking found come from behind me, and a glance shows the little tiger girl facepalming.

I almost hit my head against the bars as Bowl-cut calls for one of the others to grab the key the cage I'm in, and I only stop because Ma would beat me if she saw me agitating a head injury. "Oh, goddamn it."


Okay, so I think a few minutes have passed, and in the time it took for me to both get my ass handed to me and pull some freaky body mutations, a certain Fuzzball came charging out of left field yelling his head off while I-

You know what, let me back it up a bit- I took a few extra blows to the head and I feel like I need to give myself a more coherent recap. So, where do I start...

How about when I get punched really hard by Bowl-cut and started tasting more copper than I'm comfortable with.

"Gah!" And... now I'm on the ground, the feeling of getting pummeled on by someone who definitely knows how to fight screaming through my body. My naked body.

God-fucking-damn, why did I suggest that? Oh yeah, because I'm an idiot, despite what my GPA says. I don't need Maria to tell me that. Bringing an arm up to wipe off the small stream of blood leaking out of my mouth, I shakily take stock of my surroundings.

So there's the gaggle of Bowl-cut's mooks snickering and sneering at me, the big guy himself, my beaten and bloody ass on the ground, and a depressed-looking kid in a cage adjacent to Bowl-cut. He's really been at it, forgoing that axe of his so that he could 'really enjoy this', or so he says.

I try to drag myself to my feet, but after a few tried I can only manage a kneel. "Okay, yup... that last one hurt, I'll admit." I wheeze out, spitting up a glob of saliva and crimson. "Y'know, you really didn't have to take my clothes. Or the kid's either, for that matter." I give Bowl-cut a weird look at that. "Why the hell did you take our clothes, anyways? I'd get me, but it gets a bit creepy when you pull the girl into all of this."

It gets a bit quiet at that, before there seems to be a unanimous dark chuckle coming from every member of the fucking neanderthals. Bowl-cut stops long enough to give me another once-over, especially the tail and horns. "Oh, it's just that we don't feel like clothing the animals, really. Although, to be honest, we never had an Adrakist washout before, but it certainly will be an... interesting experience."

I let out a wet cough that was almost a dark laugh, and I give him a look. "Oh great, not only will I die naked in the middle of a forest, it's to a rapist. Lucky me."

And then I start feeling genuinely worried when everyone responds with another chorus of sinister laughter.

One of the goons pipe up from the back. "Oh no, darling. We's not gonna do that to ya, we're more interested in ya's other special parts." And yet again, their eyes go to the tail... and horns...

Oh... I look at everyone, again. Harder. They're wearing old-ish clothing, yes, but they also have on some fur cloaks of some kind. I didn't really take notice of the shape, before, but now...

They're shaped like humans, as if they were... keidrans...

Oh shit.

I start hearing the little girl start crying again. She must've been sharp, if she just understood what I just did. We're nothing but animals to these monsters. I distantly hear the big guy say something to the others, but it sounds miles away from where I am. I barely see a couple of them come up to me and start dragging me off to the cage.

Then the only thing I hear is the crying turn to screaming as the monster yanks out the little girl, who can't be older than eleven. The screaming, crying little girl, whose name I don't even know, about to be harvest like some animal.

Monsters.

I feel my body tense up, and a huge, wracking pain running through me. But I can barely feel it as I stare at the monstrosity walking further away with the child in its grasp. I distantly hear some distressed noises coming from the things dragging me, the pain writhing into my legs, my hands and up my arms, then into my back.

Then I hear a series of bony snaps and bloody tears, my body lurching and skin crawling as the two let go of me.

And I run- no, leap at the monster trying to butcher a kid, feeling more than hearing a roar of anger leave my throat. The monster turns around, but all it could do was have a flash of fear overtake its face before I got my hands on it. Using the momentum of the pounce, I drove the side of its head into the ground.

Then I pick it back up and throw it back down, again and again. I got in a few good bashes before I hear a familiar voice roaring out from the treeline, running his sword through an unsuspecting freak-

STOP!

-and then everything about the situation comes crashing down. I seize up, watching as Keith catches the attention of the rest of the bandits. Slowly, glacially, I look down to the form below me, only to be met with a bloody mush under... are those my hands what the-

I snap my head up to the girl, with tears running down her fuzzy little face, and her gaze is trapped at the crushed head underneath my hands. When I look at her, she moves her head up to meet my – probably panicking – face.

"We need to go, now." I tell her.

She nods, but she doesn't go to move at all. She looks back at the large tent, hugging herself.

Right, clothes. "I'll be right back. Stay safe, alright?" A nod, and then I rush off to the tent.

When I push back the flap, I'm met with piles of, well, stuff. There's a mish-mash of miscellaneous things here and there, like an open crate filled with oranges, some rolls of cloth, and so on. I try to look for my clothes, but the sounds coming from outside doesn't sound too great, so I find a pile of clothes and grab a pair of essentials as fast as possible – while also spoiling a few to dry the blood oh god – and then run out.

Or stumble out, because my legs aren't even normal, anymore. I'll deal with that later.

As soon as I leave, I watch as Keith looks over in my direction and the biggest flood of relief flood over his face in weeks. Currently, he's intimidating the hell out of the rest of the bandits, along with Trace- who seems to be the most intimidating, despite looking vaguely clueless. Some of said bandits are wounded in some way- and that guy is missing a hand, okay.

I shake my head – which hurt to do; head injuries and all – and I head over to the kid. "Time to go, kitten."

She stumbles upright, then practically buries herself into my side, claws and all. It hurts, but I'll ignore it until we get the hell out of here, preferably yesterday. I take a wide berth around the group of marauders, which doesn't seem all that hard seeing how when they look at me they flinch.

Serves the bastards right...

Soon, we get to the treeline, where Flora is waiting. It was hard to spot her at first, because somehow I missed it being close to dusk, but she helped by waving her arms. She doesn't give any questioning looks towards the plus one at my side, which almost makes me question how long they were here until I remember that we're in the middle of something, and so I rush over to her.

With an arm around the little tiger attached to my hip and the other holding onto some clothes that I don't even know if they had previous owners, along with that fact that I'm still not wearing anything, I give Flora a tired look. "This place is going to make me an alcoholic, Flo, I'm telling ya."


"YOU DID WHAT?!"

I flinch back at the shout, giving the bewildered basitin a nervous half-smile. "I said I might have taunted the bandit leader into a fight while na-"

"But why? Why?!" He looks to be getting progressively more exasperated by the minute, his tail twitching every which way as his expression goes deeper into horror.

Well, I could tell him that I was buying time for them to probably show up. Although, I'm not really in the mood to be lying. It's getting later and later into the night, and while I managed to put some pants on and cut the back of a shirt in half and tied it so it could fit my motherfucking wings, I still feel like I'm missing something. I look down at my feet, only to be met with a dragon-like version of Keith and Flora's strange legs.

Yeah, who knew that having weird feet made wearing shoes a challenge. Never liked heels, anyways...

"...'cause I got angry." I mumble at him.

My only response is a loud smack, and I glance up to see his hand making harsh contact to his face. Facepalm. Okay, yeah- I need to turn down my Dawn-ness, if I want to keep his sanity intact.

"Well, that and he was implying some... terrible things in store for the kid, and I'm not one to sit off to the side when something like that happens." I cross my arms at him. "I might've gone about it in a weird way, but you can't tell me it was the wrong thing to do." I go to rub the back of my neck, feeling the new additions of my body interacting.

So, a full report of my new changes might help me remember that they're there; hate to wake up one morning and fall on my face because I forgot about it. So there was my old – sort of – changes, starting with the horns, ears, eyes, and face. They stayed mostly normal, except now there's two strokes of scales coming from somewhere behind my neck, going over the back of my jaw and just barely ending in points at my cheeks. Then there's the tail, which is still mostly normal, except for something that I'll get to soon.

Now, for the new stuff: my hands are still shaped like hands, except for them ending in sharp points, like claws. The scales covering them go up to my elbow, which fade back into my normal skin color. My legs have been completely altered, with only the general shape of my thighs being the same. I mentioned to myself that they are covered entirely in those yellow-blue scales, which then bend back some and then forwards into what I think is called digitigrade. Then there's the wings, with a similar color scheme going on.

Still hate the fact that I have no back to my shirts, now. Stupid wings, I bet they don't even work...

Oh, and apparently my hair decided to pull a chia pet and grow in a perfect line, tracing my spine and meeting the fuzzy part at my tail. Great.

I think it looks great on you, for one.

How can you tell; aren't you entirely inside my head?

Yes, but I can make a guess, and I like the results.

"Um..." A small voice pipes up from behind me. I turn around to be met with the tiger girl looking slightly embarrassed.

A few thing about the kid: one is that her name is Gwyneth. Two, after Flora coaxed her out of my side and cleaned her up, is that she is adorable. Her eyes, sort of like how most non-humans I've met – however few they were – they're huge and gray. Her hair is a bright orange, which goes down to a bit past her shoulders. And despite the events that happened, she doesn't act shy like kids her age might.

Yet again, I didn't really act shy when I was her age.

Although that's probably because she looks oddly sharp for someone so young. I would think that she was educated, but thinking back at Keith's map, we're on the wrong side of Human Territory to be close to the Tigers. But that only leaves the other option, and if slavery here is how it was a long time ago...

Well.

I turn to face her as I watch her tug the hem of her shirt. "What's up, Gwen?"

She wrinkles her tiny nose at the nickname. "My name's Gwyneth, not Gwen."

"I know, but I shorten everyone's name. For example," I point to Flora, who's having a hushed conversation with Trace. "Flo," I move my finger to Trace. "Blue," I then point to Keith, who looks deep in thought. "And Fuzzball."

When I look back to Gwen, she only looks more confused. "Those last two don't make sense."

I give her a crooked smile. "Yup. I only do that because it's funny to see Keith get all huffy- right, Fuzzball?" I call over my shoulder to Keith.

"That nickname is stupid; you know that, right?" Keith sighs back, hearing another soft smack of a facepalm. Which also has the effect of getting a small giggle out of Gwen. Bonus.

"See?" She nods. "So, why did you come get me? Need something?"

She lift up one of her arms to hold the other, glancing off to the side. "Um... where can I sleep?"

I go to tell her that she could use my tent, but as I go to grab my pack I remember that it's not there. Bandits, right. They still have everything; the only thing that I could grab was some clothes and then bail out of there-

-which means they have my satchel. My camera. My photos-

"No..." I bemoan into my hands. "My stuff, I forgot to grab them."

I hear Keith from across me speak up. "You managed to grab your staff, didn't you?" I look up to him, only to see him facing a space beside me. I follow his gaze-

And behold, my weird seawater staff is leaning up against the fallen log I'm sitting against. I slowly go to grab it, pulling it closer and looking it over. "I... don't remember grabbing this." I shake my head. "Well, it doesn't exactly help not having my tent anymore. Sorry, Gwen; looks like I'm in the same boat as you."

She looks down slightly, and I have the overwhelming urge to comfort her. I only hold back, because I only just met the kid, I shouldn't do that. But still, it's a bit embarrassing to not be able to help a child find someplace to sleep, of all things. I'm an adult, damnit!

"She can use my tent."

My eyes shoot wide, head moving over to face Keith. He sees my surprised look and scoffs. "I'm not heartless, Dawn."

"Um, okay?" I look back over to Gwen, who doesn't look as surprised as I do. Well, it'll be a matter of time before she understands. "Guess that answers your question, sunshine. C'mon, let's get you to bed."

And so the three of us went to Fuzzball's tent, where he pulled out his stuff and I got Gwen situated. She gave me a thankful look, right before she dived behind the tent flaps. That kid, I swear she's mature for her age, or something. I just wish I could do something more, instead of being next to invalid because of these stupid appendages...

Well, that sounds like a tomorrow problem, not a tonight problem. I turn to head back to the campfire, only to see Keith giving me a look.

I move over to stand across from him. "I, uh, forgot to thank you for saving me. This is, what, the second time you helped me? First this whole adventuring business and now this."

His mouth twitches into a smile for a second. "Three times, if you count that time you passed out in South Leighton."

"Ha, you right. I don't exactly remember that time, so you know..." I sigh. "Alright, enough stalling on my end; what do you want?"

"What are we going to do to it- her? We aren't exactly equipped to bring a child along with us, especially with our track record of getting into trouble." He sighs, crossing his arms. "I know we couldn't exactly leave her, but keeping her?"

I'm silent for a while, looking back at the tent Gwen is sleeping in. "I don't know."

"Listen, you can't just keep-" He pauses. "What?"

I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I said 'I don't know'. I don't know how I'm going to help her, I barely know how to help myself, and I just lost the one thing that reminded me of the good times that I had with Danny to a bunch of savages in the middle of the woods. I'm optimistic, not omniscient, Keith. I don't know what the hell to do anymore other than see where this takes me, and even that sounds like a terrible idea, seeing how I'm apparently slowly turning into a dragon!"

I throw my arms up. "Now I'm left with nothing but someone else's clothes on my back, a kid that I felt like I failed supporting mentally, and an ass that won't shut up and stop questioning why I wake up in the morning, so giving up sound great! You heard me; I. Want. To. Give. Up!"

And then I level Keith with a look that feels as sharp as a knife. "But. I'm not going to. Are you gonna ask why?"

Keith looks shocked beyond belief. Hid eyes are wide, jaw slack, and any wind in his sails gone. Still, he works his jaw and says, "Why?"

I walk right up to him, not dropping the sharp look for a second. "Because it's in my very blood to not. Give. Up. My mother had a choice, you know? She knew that giving birth to me was probably going to kill her. She had the choice to try and go about it differently, but she chose to keep going."

"When she did die, my father could've just given up. He was a single father, with a newborn and no relatives to take care of me while he worked. He had nothing but a dream and a baby, and he didn't give up. Even though he had no family to support him, he kept going, and he managed to move on despite his best friend and wife dying and leaving me behind."

"Hell, Ma could've chose to not love me; I'm not her flesh and blood, why should she care? But she chose to do something about it, because she wanted to be my mother where the one who gave birth to me couldn't from beyond the grave."

I take a second to breathe, closing my eyes and taking a step back. After a few moments of quiet, where the only sound was the crickets and nightlife of the forest. When I open my eyes again, Keith is looking me dead in the eyes, with some sort of emotion going through them.

I give him a somber look, along with a crooked smile. "I managed to make it this far, in spite of everything that happened to me. Danny, college, ending up here – somehow – and coming along with you guys, this," I gesture to my body and it's new additions. "All of that isn't going to stop me. I lost everything but myself, and even that is subjective at this point, but there's so much more out there, and you can bet that I'm going to find that 'much more', even if it kills me."

Quiet falls over us, again. I feel something trailing down my face, and putting my hand up to it tells me that I started tearing up during my rant. I take the front of my shirt and rub my face, seeing how my arm is mostly scale, now. Great, what a way to ruin everything I said.

I wait for a response. I wait, and wait, but all he does is stand there, watching me with a blank look.

So that's how it's going to be from now on, huh? "Okay. Good to see where you stand on this." I don't give him another glance as I walk away and towards a tree near where Gwen is sleeping.

At least you have my back.

I do, hon.

I let out a huff as I lean against the tree, sitting down and ignoring the small choking sound that was in the huff.


A/N: Shorter than the past couple of chapters, but if I was to get to the stopping point that I had in mind, this wouldn't be here until the end of the year.

But guess who's kinda back? It's smol kitten! I felt like I didn't do her quite as well this time around, but I'm going for a different attitude, instead of the cliché 'shy around others, happy around protagonist' child. Kids are hard to write for me, so hey.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed! See ya!

P.S.: Expect something soon, if everything goes right. Hopefully.