Another bright, sunny day... blue skies above, white fluffy clouds spotting the edges of her vision. Andrea heaved a content sigh- or rather, a bored sigh, and blinked tiredly upward. She had finished her book already, Jonathan was running off with trinity and Lance was being left in the dust to come to his senses in the next book. Honestly, she was getting rather bored with the series, the same thing seemed to happen over and over again. The woman meets a man, they consummate, break up, and she falls in love with another- darker and broodier man. Heaving another sigh, she rested the book on her t-shirt clad stomach and rested her free hand on her bare forehead. For once, she had her hair pulled back in a bun- out of her eyes.

It had been rather quiet at the mansion in the hours she had been inside, so she had let her self consciousness go for once and slipped on a skirt. Saph had talked her into buying it while they had been out at the mall, and although she had never planned on wearing it the day was rather hot… and there really wasn’t anyone around to see. With the skirt on her mind, she sat up and poked at the fabric with her fingers. It looked silky soft, but her gloves and damaged hands wouldn’t allow her to feel it. The black t-shirt she wore however was made of a nylon spandex mix… though it was a little too form fitting for her taste, she had to admit it was a good match with the pinks and yellows in the skirt. Her eyes dropped and she frowned. Now if her body would return to normal, she would actually look like a woman again and not a lanky teen. A gloved finger prodded her stomach roughly, enticing a soft growl from it.

The soft shuffle of feet in gravel caught her ears and her chin lifted, eyes following to dart about and spot who ever it was who had stumbled across her. She spotted no one… but still heard the scuffling of feet. Not wanting to be caught with a romance novel in hand, or in a girly skirt for that matter, she stood and slinked as quietly as she could into a slot between the bushes behind her bench. Once she was snuggly tucked into a leafy hiding spot, she turned her attention to straining her ears in order to try and pinpoint where the foot steps were coming from…

The cloth of his clothes was rough. Held, as most of the time, in a dizzying array of browns, greens, and grays that made him almost invisible when he stood in a natural surrounding. Blending in was his specialty it seemed. Blending out were only his steel colored eyes that watched the surroundings with a lazy carelessness that betrayed their experienced attention. It was the gaze people saw before they died sometimes. Gaze of killers? Well greenkillers of course.

He hunted for some growing things again today. Or at least that was his pretense. He had planned on doing some recon on the more dangerous inhabitants of the mansion for a while now. The lump on his head had even given him a prime example of one to test. Search his room really. But for that he needed to get into it. Preferably while the tenant was away (which was easy to confirm) and not coming back for a while (which was less easy). And to that end he was out hunting weeds in the garden again. Hunting under the windows of the mansions dormitories, where his eyes, from time to time only, flickered up to the second floor, where he assumed, after some innocent questions to students, Saphirus was having his quarters.

He was so focused, that the multicolored student residing near him almost escaped his notice. But when she finally was noted, he cursed under his breath. And started pulling weeds again. Hopefully she had not noticed anything.

Who should happen to appear around the corner of the shrubbery, but the gardener. Andrea had not forgotten their last meeting... nor the dark colored lump Saph had given him. She had been actively trying to avoid him for a while now and her efforts seemed for moot. It appeared to her that he hadn't noticed her though... which, was odd given the impression she had formed of him. She had assumed he was the type of person that never missed anything… it was… suspicious. The urge to duck through the hedge behind her was strong... but, at the same time she couldn't help be feel the strings of her great curiosity tugging her to stay... to watch. Perhaps he was lost in thoughts, and therefore hadn't noticed her hasty retreat into her hiding spot... or perhaps she had been quieter than she had thought. Either way, she found herself staying, tucked into the shadows with leaves and twigs poking her in the thigh and shoulder. Curious eyes peeked out from around the foliage, peering at him cautiously as she tried to figure out the situation. It was true, that she feared the man slightly, more because of the way he carried himself- and of course how he had fought Saphirus.

No simple gardener was he... no, he was something else. Something she would probably never be able to fully pin down. Taking a few muffled steps away, she hurried around to the other side of the hedge, where she peeked out at him once more. Her book, which she hadn’t realized that she had dropped sat out in the open where she had been standing previously. Yet in another way, she felt kind of bad for him. The only times she had ever glimpsed him he had been alone, and come to think of it- she still hadn’t fulfilled her promise to help him in the garden. Guilt weighed down heavily on her thin shoulders, and for a moment she left the need to reveal herself and ask him if he would like any help. Surely she could stop the weeds he was pulling from ever growing again, by simply turning the whole plant to stone. …or… would that help? Her eyes were drawn skyward once more. Was a garden of stone weeds better than weeds that could pollinate and spread? She shook herself of the thought, and turned her attention back to spying on Martin.

And whatever it was, it seemed his hopes were to be disappointed again. Small hopes they were, the only permitted thing, seeing that it had been his mistakes back in the fight with Saphirus. He could have just let him hit and be done with the whole matter. To accept the thick lump which had continued to adore his cheek for a few days. Instead he had opted for doing a lot of dancing (and ruining a bed of perfect roses he had had quite a hard time growing) in front of the girls eyes. And now had two witnesses to deal with.

One of whom now apparently resented coming out... of the bushes for him. And he had to deal with the ruined roses of course - a fact he resented much more then dealing with the ruined Saphirus, who, for some reason, had proceeded to occupy some of his rather unpleasantly titled mental categories. Would-be vigilante and Too-brawny-to-think were among them. The words that appeared in his book, too, actually. He had scribbled them down, just in case. But as long as the pain had lasted remembering that name had been an easy task.

But now to another name that needed his attention. One that had not yet manage to attract as much attention. Yes she undeniably deserved some more of his. Seeing that she was ineptly trying to avoid it. But how far would she go down that lane? How far was she convinced that Martin was necessary to be spied upon or just an unpleasant fellow whom her defender had tried to decapitate with a spade. So the logical consequence was testing her resilience with a little piece of one of his other sides, the other masks. This one liked smiling. In a very cheerful way. One screaming 'Schadenfreude'... but since he was bowing deeply in the greens she would not be able to see that.

So he made his was through the bed, thinking about what to do with the brightly colored girl in the bush behind him. And then moving on... down the grounds. He had had an idea the mask liked.

Oh! He was moving... The green woman glanced around quickly, before turning her attention back. The way he had gone... it had a few bushes here and there, but nothing like what she was hiding behind. Pursing her lips, she decided to travel back to her old hiding spot, and carve a path around in that direction. She found that her shoes seemed to make much to much noise while walking through brush, so she abandoned them off to the side of the path she had found, and tried to ignore the random sharp pains stabbing away at her feet when sticks and rocks dug in at her heel. She walked for a few minutes, before pausing to reconsider her actions...

Was it really all that smart to stalk someone who probably knew the grounds like the back of his hand? Something shouted an answer from the back of her mind, along the lines of 'No, no it's not...' but she pointedly ignored that little voice. It was like an adventure... a silly, immature adventure and she was unwilling at the moment to give it up. Withdrawing from the depths of her mind, she returned to tailing the gardener.

Or... well, trying at least. Andrea blinked, staring at the wall of green in front of her. She had been staring at it while lost in thought- which meant she could have lost her target. Frowning, she backtracked a bit, until she found a familiar path, and bent low as she moved onward in search of the lost Martin. When she found him again, it was in a place she was unfamiliar with. She hadn't had time to explore everything, and had taken to simply residing in a few spots when outside. She watched his actions from behind an azalea bush, ducked down low so that her knees dug into her chest. Where was he going? What was he going? So many questions, so little time...

Dancing in a million pieces / I find myself wondering / truth in lies / lies deeply hidden / Walking the narrow path / Dancing

The infantile leaf-colored lady had decided on following him it seemed, despite all the lack of shrubbery to hide behind. That was if his instincts could be trusted. And his ears maybe. Ears were good. Instinct was better. Always better to know when someone is following you. The tingling in your back. Unpleasant sensation that was. But Martin refused the urge to turn around. Refrained from doing so despite a part of him, strangely the part that had experienced war, wanted to turn around to her, if she was still there, turn around and make her regret following him maybe, or just walk along, away from here, as if nothing, just nothing, had ever happened.

But something had happened. And unruly children needed their discipline to learn that faulty actions, inept actions, indecisive actions, impertinent actions, were punished by society, by this society. How will that be in a hundred years? Just a thought that crossed his mind. A thought that he toyed around with just a little bit. Fun to imagine the future it was for those that were sure not to reach it. But for him the future carried more certainty. The chance of looking at pictures of something you heard of as a child as an adult. And a child. Both at the same time. He was all of it. And more.

So wonderfully thinking, walking he was, down the lawn, into a densely grown area, full grown trees, high grass, it looked wild, bewildering in its natural beauty. He had not laid hand here, just looked and pronounced it satisfactory to be left along for the time being. One needed rough patches in a garden for people to appreciate the smooth ones. This one was a very rough patch indeed a few steps into the shadows of the trees. There lay, almost hidden in the right light of day, a multitude of low bushes, extending their leaves upward in a greeting of the sunlight, greeting their life-giver with thin fingers of malleable wood, extending the digits, hugging the stems of the trees, growing upward, calling for heaven. Hear heaven calling yet, young child? You will.

Poison Ivy.

A Nasty surprise awaited the unsuspecting follower, the uneasy walker, under those trees. And Martin was content to go even farther into the mere of green. He had long clothes of after all. And gloves. And the trees shade was relaxing in the springs first heat. The light of day was just a little much to bear sometimes....

It was ominous, she had to admit. The terrain he had chosen to wander into was... spooky, in a way. She felt a tingle of fear creep down her the back of her neck, but ignored it. She had come to far to turn back now... Edging into the shadow of a large tree, and paused to feel the ground underfoot. It was softer... less work had gone into its upkeep. Her eyes traveled back to the figure walking up ahead. Maybe this was a place he had yet to put a lot of work into? She bent by the tree next to her, and plucked a small yellow flower from the ground. It looked like a weed in her mind... and oozed a thick white blood. She wondered if Kai would know what it was, seeing as he was the plant manipulator... Standing once more, she stuffed the flower into one of the small pockets on her skirt, and followed after the man.

She stopped before entering a large patch of leafy greens... it was vastly different from the grass she had been wading though thus far. It looked sort of like black berry leaves... or at least from what she had seen from blackberry's they did. One thing that she was rather iffy about was the lack of coverage in the rather bleak, open space... it made it pretty hard to sneak around without someone seeing you.

After giving brief thought to crawling through the green on her stomach like a soldier, she decided against it and waited until he was a good distance away. Then, taking the first careful step out from behind a bush, she sank into the greens up to her knees and moved to take another... until her toes caught on a clump of root like vines hidden under the leaves. With a surprised squeak, she jerked forward into the greens and landed snugly on her tummy. She let out all of the air in her lungs with a Ooof, but thanked her lucky stars that foliage was there to break her fall. Until... she started to feel itchy, that is...

It started at her toes, like small things were crawling on her, and slowly spread up her legs. She jerks to her knees, thinking she had fallen on an ant hill, until the feeling started creeping up her bare arms and her chin. She didn't see anything physically on her... so, what then? The itch shifted though... from a crawling sensation, to a maddening one. Old Greek phrases she had heard her mother shout when needles pricked her fingers and thorns stabbed at her palms, sprang from her tongue before she could stop them, and tears born from confusion pricked at her eyes. She didn't understand what was happening, and it itched So very bad! Scratching away at her ankles and arms, she had to curl her toes as the itching stepped up another level. The pitch in her voice intensified and she pushed herself up to stand, and discovered that she had gotten the vines of the plant wrapped around the foot that had tripped her.

A loud noise, swinging vocal chords was his reward for patience and some quick planning. His problem now being: He could not, of course, ignore the scream, for it was quite obvious from its amplitude that he must have heard it. So, quite reluctantly, his steps were retraced, retraced in a hurry among the trees, until he found a green figure lying amongst the shrubs. The poison shrubs. And she very much looked like she had been drowsed in Urushilol , red spots appearing all over her body where she had touched the rather uncomfortable plant, while she slowly pushed herself back to her feet.

The face of the gardener changed into a mask of concern as his hands slowly, reluctantly almost, touched the nimble figure standing there in the midst of a green hell, or maybe as close as once came to that in these rather frosty climates. “You need to get up Andrea.” He spoke with a strangely emotionless voice. “We need to get you to a water tap as quickly as possible. You need that cooled immediately.” He was of course referring to the angry red rash that was spreading across her green skin like an unknown fruit being born there from a flower one could not perceive. His hands were offered as support. And just maybe she would fall once or twice on the way. On the other hand: Her rash was bad enough already. He did not want to mar the young girl forever. Just teach her a rather painful lesson.

With one last yank on her foot, the appendage came free and she was able to stagger to her feet. She inspected her arms, resisting the strong urge to scratch and scratch and scratch, and spotted the small red bumps decorating her uniquely colored flesh. They reminded her of ant bites, like fire ants. She felt the corners of her lips pull down in a frown and pinpricks of tears swelled at the corners of her eyes. Whatever the plant was, she didn't like it at all. She was half tempted to put an end to its evil itch inducing life with her bare hands... Martins shadow fell over her though, and she froze, all thoughts of revenge against the greenery slipped from her mind. She had forgotten the whole reason she had come out here, and the reason she was covered with stinging, itching red spots. The pinpricks of tears swelled with embarrassment, and she dipped her head to wipe her cheeks on her shirt sleeve before turning to look at him. She had been caught...

The expression on his face caught her off guard slightly, she would have expected him to be angry at her. Stalking someone was generally looked down upon as far as she knew, so concern was far from what she felt she deserved. She muttered a quiet apology in her own tongue, before catching herself and switching back to English. "...Sorry... I-"

Her weak attempt at explaining herself hauled when he reach out and touched her. She flinched at first, attempting to step out of reach, but felt herself beginning to trip again and had to grab a hold of him to steady herself. He sounded serious, and when he explained what she needed to do. She nodded, and didn't attempt to stop the dribbling of tears that fell from behind her glasses. There was no need to try and put on a brave face when you were covered with angry burning spots. Fear had already swelled within her chest and overtaken her lungs. It was harder to breath... and she could feel herself shaking slightly. New things tended to have such an effect on her, she had discovered, like when she had first met Aura... and the paranoid fear that she was going to die, and would probably still be itching while standing at the pearly gates to be judged didn't help at all either. At least she seemed to be able to stop herself from whimpering like a kicked puppy...

Need. Need drove him down that road. The one and only road. The need to be so many things at once. Father, Son, Child, grown up. He was all at once. And so much more. A touch could startle him. Did startle him. Her touch as she accepted his hand and he slightly shuddered. Yet he could stare down a mountain and probably would if he thought it necessary.

There was need in him. The need to teach, but she looked at him with her swollen, ruined face and he decided that he had done enough to teach her. That she broke into sobs affected him, like the touch, in a strange way, unpredictable as they were, he felt himself overcome with a very curious emotion. Even though he had lead her here, and deservedly did so, she still looked pitiful in her ruined self and pits, like the shudder fleeting, crossed his face for a while, while his relentless eyes remained a merciless reminder of her guilt. Except that she did not have to know so many things.

His hands had done. The hands she touched.

And so he said the one thing that a parent could tell his child in situations like these. “Its OK Andrea. It will all be OK.”

His motions were light, steps falling with incredible precision among the bladed greens, seeking out the fastest path to the next water outlet on the outside of the mansion, heading her to leave behind the itching substance under the shadow of the trees. The thing that grew in the dark deservedly. A little drowsing there might help her ease the pain until she could get inside to ease it more. To ease what he had made her do to herself. She had taken the final step down the road he had put her on, which made him feel quite good about this. But somehow not smug. No. No reason for smugness at all. If you step into the shadows... you might find unpleasant things there. Me for example. Just a thought. Luckily.

Once her feet were clear of those dreadful greens, she felt the need to withdraw her hand from his... but couldn't find the energy to act on it. She shook her head ever so slightly, she didn't believe his words for a moment. With the shame, and the itching, came the guilt again. The longing to return home and recover her room... perhaps Chester would even give her a second chance. She became oblivious to where she was being led to, she didn't really care. She was sure that she deserved whatever was to come. Her eyes darted martins way through the tears, before they landed back on her feet. Which looked swollen... and had little bubbly patches forming on her ankles and toes. Her feet had taken the brunt of the exposure after all.

She sniffled quietly, and tugged one of her gloves off with her teeth to rub at her eye. She didn't know what caused the itching exactly, but sure as day she knew she didn't want it anywhere near her eyeballs. The glove fell into her palm once she was done, but she didn't slip it back on. One of her hands was taken anyway, and she didn't know if she would need to run at her cheeks again."I'm sorry Martin, I've been nothing but trouble for you since the day we met." Not bothering to hide the downcast tone of her voice she dropped her hand to her side, ignorant to where the brushed across her skirt- leaving a light claw marking on newly hardened Grey cotton. What was a skirt anyway, she had plenty of pants... and they at least would cover the ugly rash she now sported.

Another pathetic sniffle passed and the itch intensified a little. She could also feel the beginnings of a headache springing up behind her eyes. "You do not have to help me, I know you are busy." Managing a small smile, she rubbed at her eye again, wondering why it had started to itch as well, until she realized she was holding her glove to her face while she rubbed. With an inward sigh, she slipped the glove back on with help from her teeth, and forced herself to keep her hands at her side, least she make it worse. She could look up the plant online once she was back in her room, maybe take a shower like he had suggested. Her attention turned to her feet once more, in time to watch herself trip. She stumbled forward, managing to stay standing, thankfully, and once again considered removing herself from Martin, before she caused him to fall as well.

Ah. Her sniveling (and it was sniveling, there was no other word for it) did not help the feeling o pity towards Andrea to decrease. Rather it made for a slight increase. Maybe the fact, that blisters were popping up on her legs now also had something to do with that. Or just the fact that she was still sobbing. Sniveling. Groveling. But then she spoke up. And something changed.
Yes, there was pity. A little bit in his voice when he spoke. But also... amusement? “Oh Andrea, you are – by far – one of my smallest troubles.” He was a hired eye and ear after all. A professional listener, a digger in the information business, planing not only roses, but also observations in his gardens, growing not only herbs but also deceit. It was a way of life that held far more troubles then a simple, single, girl could provide. Or rather: Then he would a single simple girl, mutant or no mutant, allow to ever be for him.

He set his steely eyes upon her and gazed into the blackness of the sunglasses for a short while and left her other weak outbreak uncommented. Instead he began to quicken his steps to where he had plugged his garden hose into an outlets on the Mansion wall, pulling at her hand, though never with much force. He was unaccustomed to such gestures and maybe it showed just a little.

The yellow hose was used mostly for drenching the flowerbeds when the hottest days of summer came around to prevent them from falling into the slumber of the slowly dying plants. During this season it served another purpose. Newly planted greens needed a healthy sprinkling to aid in their growing into the soil. So the hose was out already. And so he let go of Andrea and proceeded to grab its end. After a short twist, a steady jet of water sprouted from the hole and began thoroughly drowsing the (luckily) still clothed youth. It was very cold water. But it should help with the burns. At least somewhat.

The Greek shook her head again, only slightly. "..But a trouble all the same..." Oh, if her mother could see her now. She'd be slapped on the cheek for sure, and told not to sulk so. It was not befitting of a lady to slouch, or weep in public. Andrea sniffled. She was not home though, and her mother was far, far away. She hardly considered herself a lady anymore anyway... Rather prominent ribs and scrawny arms and legs got her mistaken for a boy more often than she cared to admit. She shifted her eyes upward on that thought, spying that they were closing in on the side of the mansion. From behind her glasses she watched as Martin collected the nozzle of the hose, and winced as he aimed at her and pulled the trigger. No amount of preparation could have prepared her for how frigid the water was once it hit her, nor could she stop herself from issuing a squeak of a whimper while getting soaked through and through. Within seconds, a puppy like symptom of shivering set in with a vengeance. It was odd, she found, that the same instrument she had witnessed children play with during hot summer days, was very, very unpleasant when fully clothed and covered in a rash. Halfheartedly, she wondered if that would change after introducing a bathing suit and a handful of friends to the equation...

"I am going to assume this is punishment for me following you...?" She asked, raising her voice so it could be heard over the rush of the water. With her eyes closed, nose wrinkled and arms wrapped about her waist, she couldn't really see what his reaction was, and part of her didn't really want to know. Her attempts at humor often fell flat, so she had learned to simply not care if what she intended to be funny- didn't come across as so.

So she stood, shivering, nearly drenched from head to toe and shook the thoughts from her head. So distracted was she by her thoughts that she hadn't even considered the fact that her clothes were sticking to her like plastic wrap. Before her sickness had set in, she had been rather happy with her body. Not proud, but happy. She had been an adequate weight back then, and with things to actually be shy about. Now… she lacked anything worth hiding. Sure, a light blush still tinted her cheeks, but it was more out of habit than anything else. With a quiet sigh, she wrapped her arms tighter around her scrawny middle, and resisted the urge to squat down and curl into a ball. “....What did I fall in…?” She asked. She was curious to find out. Nothing in the garden at home had been so violent... so innocent looking- but not. Roses had thorns and such, but one could at least see them before they were pricked. Andrea felt a flutter of anger in her chest… a raw emotion that told her to go back and destroy that patch of green before it hurt anyone else. Her tired gaze rose from the ground to him, and she raised a wrist to wipe water away from her eyes. What with being currently hosed down however, chances were slim that she would act on that urge...

Ah, pity. As if it had not been enough, Andrea proceeded to create the image of a highly lost puppy in his mind. Complete with sniveling and shivering, even whimpering, it seemed. All these awesome additional functions, that were usually omitted in the creation of electronic playing equipment, but would make it the best selling piece ever if they were to be included one day. Wonderful new thoughts for business ventures were one thing that came to mind sometimes, if you let it wander astray during the endless times of watching. He concentrated back to the matter at hand. The girl that was being hosed down by him in all her squeamish glory.

A rather green puppy. Puppies in green tended to look rather ridiculous as natures logic went. Another bonus for his non-pity side. A rather snoutless one, too. (A general bonus, that one. He did not like to imagine the concept of a snout in the viridian ladies face) The latter fact being, of course, much more becoming to her than a dogs organ, but with mutants you might never be able to tell. But some kind of sixth sense she seemed to possess as she, with utter aclarity, pinpointed the cause of her current predicament. A rather unfortunate event indeed. Martin was, contrary to what he was experiencing about her other behavior, not amused about so much. A stop had to be made, inserted forcefully into this girls mind. And all he had to do it, was a jet of cold water and his voice. Therefore he proceeded to speak, while drowsing her even more thoroughly.

“You do take yourself to be far more important then you really are, Lady.” Another shot of cold water was added. Not out of malice, but rather aimed at her legs, where the most vicious plant had struck her with intensity. “But you should reevaluate your stance on the possible impropriety of walking right into a patch of poison ivy.” Ivy. A mythical plant indeed. And here he was in no way mystic, but very practical in its application. Burn your skin to teach you a valuable life lesson. Don't follow people whose intentions are unknown to you into dark corners. They might come out of the shadows to bite your behind. And as was his way, he would not demand compensation for that one. Just expect her to be smarter next time. If she got better at following him, he might even have to become creative in finding better deterrents. But this one. A shivering girl in front of him. A green girl. And all because he wanted it so. Pity indeed. A small amount of pity now. More determination. That young girl needed education in some very important things.

“I believe the chemical responsible for the burns forming on your skin is called Urushilol. A secretion of that plant.” Nothing a gardener wouldn't know. This was his domain after all. And he sounded somehow... distanced reciting that bit of information. Soon the cold water stopped flowing from the nozzle. “How are you feeling now?” How am I feeling actually? Was this the right course of action? It had to be. They always had to be. There was no margin of error. Only a hairline fracture along the skull.

Far more important than you really are... The Greek blinked, fixating one only half of what he had said, and ceased to shiver while her mind was overwhelmed with thoughts. Did she consider herself important?.... no. Why should he think she did? Maybe it had been something she had said... She blinked again, wincing as a shot of cold water hit her square in the thigh, and took a step back from him. Distance. She wanted distance. What he had said confused her... "Andrea." She muttered, trying weakly to replace his 'Lady' with her actual name. She knew full well that she had introduced herself to him at least once... or at least she thought she had. He dropped the name of what she had walked into, fallen into, and she blinked yet again. It was a name she did not recognize. "Poison... ivy?....I do not know what that is." She started softly, dipping her chin.

Had she made another mistake? He didn't sound angry... he had never really sounded angry. Her eyes darted around behind her glasses, thinking, and she refused to let them rise from the ground. "Where I came from, I was not allowed to touch most things outside..." Nor had she really been allowed outside, period. A snippet of truth, not that he needed to know.... but perhaps it would explain her lack of knowledge on the subject. The explanation of what was coating her skin fully sank in, and she fought back another sniffle. Saph would be very angry with her... very, very angry. She heard Martin ask her if she was alright, and shifted her weight from one foot to the other quickly. She was still itchy... she felt swollen... and there was a strange type of pain just under her skin that she had never felt before. She wondered if that was what it felt like when she touched things, then shook the thoughts from her head.

"I am fine." She stated, maybe, possibly a little to quickly, and turned to glance back the way they had come in hopes of spotting her shoes. Shoes that were probably quite a distance away. Her original plan of heading inside for a shower seemed shot down... water only helped temporarily, so she would have to ask Verdi what she was supposed to do. Then again, with swollen arms, legs, and feet... and shivering that had set in again, she probably didn't want Verdi to see her in such a mess. "I am sorry for bothering you, Martin..."