Drok'ti laid there and stared at the wall for a while. Strife is so loud sometimes. She can't just relax and be at peace. She's always up and about, doing something and making noise. At least she's stopped now. She's just sitting there very quietly like she should.

Drok'ti closed his eyes again and went back to sleep.

When he woke up Zaz was batting at his hair. He sat up, shoved the cat away and looked over at Strife. She was still sitting in the same spot, not moving at all. Drok'ti growled and walked over to her.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

No reply. He reached down and picked her up. She weighed nothing. He looked closer and realized she was totally hollow. This was just a shell. Drok'ti growled and looked around. What is going on? Oomans don't shed their skin. He didn't see anything else on the ship. Where did she go? Did she just evaporate? Drok'ti shook his head and snorted. Oomans don't evaporate either. There must be a logical explanation for this. He looked at the location of the ship. There was a planet not too far off. Maybe something came onboard the ship while he was asleep and took Strife's body and left her shell here. He had to get her back. He was getting really tired of having to go save Strife from things. Maybe someday she'll be able to save herself. Drok'ti got into the craft and went down to the planet. It was uncharted so this should be interesting.

As Drok'ti got out of the craft he was greeted by a strange smell. It set him on edge. If a smell could seem sinister, this one was. Drok'ti activated his shoulder cannon and headed into the dense undergrowth of this strange primordial jungle. He stopped and looked at the trees. They were giving off a strange heat pattern and they seemed to be pulsating. He put his hand on the side of one and felt it pulsating. He drew his hand back quickly and snorted.

This was getting weird already. He was pretty far into the jungle when he saw something approaching him. He growled and readied his shoulder cannon. Something strange walked out of the foliage and stopped to regard Drok'ti. It gave off little heat and had very spindly legs. On it's neck there was a huge pouch that was filled with something Drok'ti didn't care to imagine.

It just looked at him for a moment and then walked into another set of bushes.

"Am I going crazy?"

He continued on his search for his lost companion. Would he ever find her? Did something get her? If so then this was all pointless. He could be back home by now instead of walking through this jungle in search of someone he may never find. He stopped for a moment and looked around. He may not even be going the right way. He might as well give up now and call her lost for good.

Drok'ti stood there and growled at himself. He owes her a lot for what she had done for him. If it weren't for her he would be dead, his whole planet might be destroyed. He decided to continue on for at least a little while longer. Maybe there is intelligent life around somewhere and he could ask them if they had seen Strife. If he didn't find her he knew he would miss her a lot. She had her moments where she was good to be around.

For a while he didn't see anything. He almost thought that maybe Strife did just evaporate and was gone. That's when he saw Strife hanging upside down from a tree. Something was strange about the way she was hanging there by her tail. Her tail? Strife didn't have a tail when he last saw her. Drok'ti walked over and Strife spun herself around and smiled at him.

"Hey buddy. Took ya long enough."

"What are you doing? Where did you get that tail?"

"I don't know. As soon as I got here I started mutating all kinds. You should have seen my toes earlier, luckily I got them back to normal."

Drok'ti didn't bother looking. This was madness.

"We should go."

"I don't think he would like that much. He said he would be right back with something for me. He's giving me a prezzy."

"What's a prezzy?"

"Like a present."

"Who is he?"

"He's. . .well. . .um. . .I'm not sure."

Drok'ti snorted.

"Can you stand on your feet, you're giving me a headache just watching you."

"Ok."

Strife's tail unwrapped from the branch and she fell on her head. Drok'ti cringed slightly. Strife stood up and smiled.

"Heh heh, I'll have to figure out a better way of getting down."

"What is wrong with your hands?"

"Aren't they cool? I always thought I could use another joint in my fingers. Three was never enough."

"It's disturbing."

"It's just me mutating, er. . .the dude said I was evolving. I can't wait until I'm done. It should be really awesome to see what I'm going to turn out as."

"You look strange."

"Well, now my body matches my brain. Weird brain weird body. It makes sense in my head."

"It would."

Drok'ti looked around for a moment at the surrounding area. It was very strange, sort of creepy in a way.

"When did you get here?"

"About two hours ago. It was crazy when I first got here I had gills and an eye in my forehead for a few minutes, but they went away pretty quickly. Dude told me that I can evolve within a few hours as apposed to millions of years."

"Why am I not evolving?"

"Because you are at the last stage of your species evolution."

Drok'ti whirled around and looked at the creature that was standing there. He looked familiar.

"Alvorus! You're dead!"

The being held his hands up.

"I am not the one you call Alvorus. My name is Junayus."

"He's the one that told me he would bring me a prezzy."

Drok'ti watched as Junayus walked over to Strife and handed her something that was wrapped up in a leaf.

"Yay! Prezzies! I love them."

Drok'ti didn't trust this being. He didn't seem right. Drok'ti turned to Strife.

"Strife, we're leaving."

"I'm afraid you can't take her with you. If you take her off the planet before her evolution is complete, she may die."

Drok'ti cast his glare on Strife.

"See, so we should hang around for a while."

She was hanging from the tree branch again. Drok'ti turned to the Alvorus look alike.

"Why should we believe anything you say?"

"The girl already believes me. You should believe me because I am telling the truth."

Drok'ti snorted. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked down. It was Strife's deformed hand.

"He's really a nice guy. At first when he brought me here I thought he was Alvorus too, but he's not."

Drok'ti pulled away from Strife's hand and started walking towards the craft. He had enough of this. It was getting too weird for him here and

"Drok'ti! Where are you going? Hey wait!"

"If you want to stay here, that's fine! I'll just go back to Lau'thalus. Send me a postcard or something."

"Drok'ti! Don't be like that!"

Drok'ti wasn't looking, or else he would have seen the next stage of evolution that Strife went through. He was also too caught up in his anger to notice Strife coming after him.