Derek had decided that most of his time would be spent hanging out on the grounds of the Mansion instead of actually being inside. It was just something about being exposed to the elements that made him feel that much more alive. As far as he knew, it had something to do with his powers just what he preferred.

It was a partly cloudy day with the temperature in the mid 70's and Derek was enjoying his time watering the flowers and plants in one of the many gardens around the Mansion. It was one of the few things that reminded him of being back home in North Carolina.

A couple of butterflies rested on his shoulders as he continued to perform his volunteered chore. Why couldn't life be this simple? Just taking care of a garden? Derek shook the stupid question from his head and headed over to the daffodils that were swaying in the breeze.

Amber had a love/hate kind of relationship with the sun.  She loved the light and warmth that it provided and sometimes felt jealous of those who could enjoy it without a care of worry.  She hated what it did to her while she was in her human body.  In any number of dinosaur forms, she could walk in daylight without fear and sunbathe as she liked.  As a human, however, even a short amount of direct exposure would burn and blister her sensitive skin.  Sometimes life just didn't seem fair, but this was the price she was forced to pay for the amazing gifts she possessed as a mutant.

Recently and on a whim, she had taken to going outside with a large sun umbrella, in addition to the robes that normally covered almost every inch of skin.  It wasn't a perfect solution and, given enough time, the sun would still penetrate her being and cause her harm, but it allowed to her enjoy the daylight for short periods of time with far less worry.  As long as she didn't roam too far from the safety of shelter, she could go outside with relative freedom and that still felt amazing.

A beautiful partially cloudy day, outside was calling.  Since her return from the last couple of years spent in the woods, indoors felt claustrophobic more often than not.  Protective umbrella open, she made her way out to the gardens which always had a peaceful, tranquil feeling.  There weren't many people out that afternoon, except one stranger she hadn't seen around before.  "I hope you don't mind if I join you?" she asked, keeping a polite distance.  She was still getting used to interacting with humans again, after so long spent in self-imposed exile in the woods.

Derek looked over his shoulder at a woman who was holding an umbrella in her hand with her face and body covered up. It didn't startle Derek since being in at the Mansion, he was exposed to lot more things. Though, the black, void eyes did give him pause.

"...Oh, yeah! Sure, you can join me." Derek gave her a polite smile and nodded his head. "I'd love some company. Do you want a watering can? I can get you one from the greenhouse." The butterflies that were resting on his shoulders fluttered away and landed on the beautiful petals of the flowers he was watering. He turned around completely to look at the woman. "I'm Derek by the way. I'm fairly new here."

Even covered as she was, Amber was used to people being unnerved by her appearance.  Her black eyes weren't exactly inviting and when there wasn't the need to cover her entire body, walking corpse didn't scream cute and cuddly either.  Some dinosaurs could be cute and cuddly, but far less so when they were basically walking dinosaur corpses.  Still, she got a fairly warm welcome for the stranger and that was nice.

"Sure, that sounds good, my name is Amber."  While she didn't have a lot of experience with gardening, it was something she had been thinking about learning recently.  Having a natural sanctuary even in the face of living in a human city might do a lot of good for her psyche in balancing the natural parts of the dino and the synthetic parts human sides of her nature.

She extended a hand to shake and even her hand was gloved, a thin silk glove meant to keep the sun off of it.  It was fortunate she was so resistant to the heat otherwise heat stroke might have been likely on hot summer days.  "The butterflies seem to like you."

Derek turned so that his whole body was facing Amber. "Nice to meet you, Amber." He smiled some and looked around at the butterflies that were around him. "Oh, yeah. That tends to happen sometimes. I'll be right back." Derek handed the watering can to Amber before turning around and heading to the greenhouse.

He made sure that a class wasn't going on as he peeped his head in. Once he was assured that he wasn't going to be bothering anyone, Derek walked in and headed to the back where the gardening tools were currently being kept. After five minutes of looking, Derek grabbed a tin watering can and made his way back out to the garden.

"Here, I got one. You can keep that." Derek smiled and went back to the flowers. "So, when did you get here?"

Amber waited patiently for Derek to come back feeling vaguely...excited maybe?  Ya, apparently that was the right word for it.  How long had it been since she'd been excited about anything?  A very long time.  Maybe learning to garden really was the right choice.  A predator by nature, there was an allure to the tranquility of tending a garden that drew her.

"Thanks," she accepted the watering can.  Of course, maybe in the future her gardening might have to be done mostly at night since it wasn't exactly convenient to have one hand occupied with holding an umbrella.  Well, that was nothing new. She preferred the night, anyway.

"I was here a long time ago but then I left. I've been back a few weeks now." She followed his example and choose a different patch of flowers to water.  "How do you like it here so far?"  

"You're welcome." Derek smiled and turned his attention back to the plants. It felt really, really nice to social with others like him. This along with gardening was becoming really therapeutic for him.

The African American mutant looked over his shoulder at Amber. "Oh? That's great, I'm glad you're back. This place is simply amazing so far." He walked over to water a couple of pink pansies. "I've been here for about two days? I love it here so far and I'm hoping that one day I'll be able to become an X-Men."

The plants were nice and this was all ready an activity she could see herself doing more regularly.  Maybe if she asked Gemma she might be able to get her own little corner of the garden to care for all on her own?  What were the possibilities of growing something that resembled a Mesozoic garden?  Something to consider.

"It is pretty amazing, isn't it?"  His enthusiasm reminded her of her early days at the Mansion.  "Its not always easy being a mutant and finding a place you feel like you can belong.  This is one of those few places."  She hadn't always looked like a walking corpse and even when she looked more human, the statement was true.  

"Best of luck in becoming an X-Man.  Do you mind if I ask what your power is?"  Her sister, Aura, had taught her to be proud of what powers you were gifted with and that it was a question she should always feel comfortable asking and answering.

Derek nodded his head.
"Yeah, it is amazing. Being here is like being at an oasis in the middle of a desert. Everyone's so accepting here." Derek smiled to himself and continued to water the plants. The Mansion was truly an amazing place.

"Oh, no, I don't mind. I can influence the behavior of animals," he answered, "and I'm able to communicate with them. What can you do?" He asked politely. For some odd reason, Amber looked like as if she could turn into sand with a second thought.

Amber had yet to be to a desert, but the analogy seemed apt from what she'd heard of them and she nodded.  "It's good to have a sanctuary like this."  It wasn't quite the same as the actual Sanctuary she'd once called home, but it served well enough.  Fewer painful memories.

"That sounds really neat," she answered, meaning it.  I change into dinosaurs."  She was also half dead, but that part was something she still didn't fully understand.  "I wonder, could you communicate with a dinosaur?"  Now that would be something!  She couldn't talk when she was in any of her non-human forms.

Derek nodded his head again in agreement. "Very much like one."

The mutant tried to think about it. "I'm not for sure..." He bit his lip in thought before a lightbulb went off in his head. With a gasp, he turned to look at Amber. "Wait, can you turn into a dinosaur?! I love dinosaurs!" Derek bounced a bit on his toes from excitement and pure glee. He remembered being a kid and having so many toy dinosaurs.

She grinned at Derek although, of course, her shared enthusiasm was hard to spot behind the veil covering her face.  She was used to excitement regarding that part of her power, the not creepy part.  What kid didn't have dreams of being a dinosaur one day?  It was right up there with wizards and dragons, in the grand scheme of things.  Of course, being a zombie or even a zombie dinosaur wasn't quite the same thing.

"Do you want to try?  I mean, do you want to try to see if you can talk to a dinosaur?  Maybe I could change and we could find out?"  Or maybe it was a stupid idea.  The idea of actually being able to communicate with someone while changed was too exciting to let pass, however.

"Of course!" Derek exclaimed with excitement, "can you turn into a brachiosaurs? Wait, no, no, a, ah...an iguanodon." Derek stopped so that Amber didn't get annoyed with his excitement. It had to be a dinosaur that wouldn't cause people to scream and run away. With a few seconds of eternal thinking, Derek found the right dinosaur that he wanted Amber to turn into.

"A parasaurolophus!" That was his favorite duck-billed dinosaur of all time. "Can you do that one?"

Amber laughed at his enthusiasm, which was really quite infectious.  How delightful to find enjoyment in something so simple.  In the complicated world of mutants and especially in the place she all too often found herself within it, there wasn't always enough room for fun in her life or enough appreciation of it when it was there.

"I'm afraid I can't change into any of those things."  Hopefully that didn't disappoint him too much.  "I have to find a fossil first and imprint it.  Fossils are hard to find."  And funny thing about fossils is they didn't tend to just let mutant girls go in and play with them.  "But I can't change into a pterasaur, a deinonychus which is kind of like a velociraptor except bigger and a styracosaurus which is the smaller cousin of a triceritops.  You may not want to watch me actually change though.  Its kind of unsettling."

Unsettling was, perhaps, an understatement.  The deinonychus had long been her favourite second form and that was the one she choose to change into now.  A roughly human sized sickle clawed dinosaur, it had excellent senses and was a superb hunter, combining natural weaponry of deadly sickle claws and teeth with above average speed and maneuverability.  To change shape was not a pretty picture nor a painless one.  Bones warped and mutated to take on new configurations, scales and feathers erupted from flesh and teeth and claws exploded from hands and face.  Within a half a minute, a dinosaur stood amidst a pile of robes where once there had stood a woman.  She chirped her greeting at the man, excited to see if he would be able to speak to her like that.

Even though Amber couldn't turn into parasaurolophus, Derek was still excited about the prospect of her turning into a dinosaur.

"That's okay. Uh, could you turn into a styracosaurus ? That's the one with the one long horn and the spikey frill? I think so." Derek rubbed his hands together. He was so excited to see a dinosaur in real life. When Amber told her that it would be smart for her to look away, he listened and turned around. He could hear the change happening behind him, but unlike Lot's Wife, he didn't turn around to see the transformation.

When he heard the greeting, Derek slowly turned around to find himself face to face with not a styracosaurus, but the rapor, deinonychus. He stared at her for a while before moistening his lips.

Hey, Amber. Nice feathers." He said telekinetically. "I think we can understand each other."