Things were far from ideal. It seemed as though the rain hadn’t stopped pouring down for the last few days. It wasn’t the water that bothered him though. He “had” hated it, and eventually he probably would hate it again, but right now it was incredibly soothing on his burnt flesh. It was the lighting that had him on edge. If being electrocuted had changed anything in him, it was bringing out jumpiness in him that he didn’t know was possible. Every flash of light in the night sky received a nervous glance. Perhaps sitting on the rooftops was not the best choice, but being spotted was too much of a risk at the moment, and Shane had always found comfort in a high vantage point.

Most of the burns were healing. Cycling in new flesh always seemed to move the healthiest skin to the surface, but in his weakened state he hadn’t been able to hunt the normal large game he had come accustomed to. Small rodents and birds kept him alive, but they didn’t rebuild his strength, which was something he was going to need when he struck back against the man who had done this to him in the first place. His last meal – a dirty pigeon stupid enough to wander up to him – was a few hours ago, and he was craving something new. His body was tingling pain all over with anticipation. It was more of a painful sensation then he was used to, it had been years since he’d managed to let himself shrivel up to the point he was at now.

That’s when he heard the barking from below him. Things were beginning to look up. Dogs seemed to be becoming the go-to meal for him lately, which he didn’t have much of an issue with. Although he hated to admit it, humans offered a level of growth unlike any other animal he’d ever consumed, but for some reason dogs seemed to come in to his top 5 list. He simply couldn’t pass up an opportunity for a dog hunt.

Uninterested in elegance tonight, Shane grabbed a large rock he had been keeping up on the rooftop with him. Peeking down into the street, he could see the dog – a mangy mutt without any kind of collar – rummaging through the trash at the opening of the alley. He moved the rock to the edge of the roof above the dog as best he could, then he lifted it above his head. Taking a deep breath, he tossed the rock dog at the dog, hearing the loud crash of it striking the cement. He quickly followed it down himself.

He hadn’t killed the dog, but he had wounded it quite badly. He was quick to latch on to it. He wrapped his body around the dog’s head, squeezing the mutt tightly, constricting it like a snake. After a moment, he could feel the dog’s breathing stop entirely. He quickly moved the animal’s body deeper into the alley behind a dumpster where he engulfed the entire animal in his body. Getting the sensations of anticipation, he began to take the dog into himself. His back bubbled and vibrated as it visibly grew in size. He sighed a breath of relief as a large portion of the burnt skin went out with the old, making room for the new.

He leaned against the wall of the alley to collect his thoughts while he waited for the new flesh to finish melding with the old. He had very little control of it until then, but that was fine, all he wanted to do was sit tight and relax until then.

There was a unique freedom in being able to live one's life, if only for a few hours of the night, in the form of an animal. It didn't matter that the animal was technically millions of years extinct and would never again be seen naturally upon the earth, in all the ways that truly mattered it was not so different than the animals of modern day. Amber had no idea how Calley felt, the only multi-shifter she knew who's power was not so different than her own, but for herself being able to shift was her retreat from the world and the thing that helped keep her sane. She didn't know what her life would be like if her power had been something different, something more human but it wasn't something that she liked to think about because it was a reality, that seemed to her, to be very dark indeed. Nor did she really care much what Calley thought anyway because, quite frankly, he was a bit of an ass.

Presently in her Deinonychus form, Amber stalked the streets searching for a meal. Although she had one herbivore form and would probably one day have more, she had come to realize that in her heart she was much more of a predator than she ever could have imagined when she still believed herself to be human. The thrill and challenge of the hunt was part of it, of course, but it was more than that too. There was power intrinsic in being a hunter, the power to take a life in order to help feed her own life. She felt strong while hunting, a feeling that she never felt while in her weak human body. She didn't feel invincible, no animal in the wild really could because there was always something bigger and faster out there, but she felt capable and competent, emotions that used to be almost completely foreign to her.

Amber was a patient hunter, silently running in the shadows of the alleys of New York looking for her perfect target. Usually she hunted dogs and coytes, those larger animals that tended to be found in the middle of the city. Smaller prey she hunted too but normally only in one of her smaller forms. It took time, but eventually her patience paid off and she found the perfect target, a fairly large dog whose owner had let it roam the streets, or perhaps a dog who didn't have an owner. She didn't go into anyone's yard in order to hunt the family pet, but in a way she saw herself as doing her city a service by taking out some of the dangerous wild dogs in the area. If someone let their dog out of their yard without supervision, well, that really was their poor choice and it wasn't really her fault if her prey happened to be a family pet.

Amber was just starting to approach her prey in order to pounce on it for the kill when a large rock came hurtling down on top of it from above. She froze, still hidden in the shadows of the alley, as she watched in fascination as something, she could only assume it was a mutant, appeared to constrict around it and then engulf it whole. It was an amazing display and, perhaps for one who was not a predator at heart, a disturbing one. For Amber, however, there didn't seem to be anything wrong in killing and eating the dog, as unusual as both actions were in the case of the strange mutant. After all, she had been about to do the very same thing, except with her sickle claws and razor sharp teeth.

Perhaps it wasn't the most cautious of actions, but Amber suddenly wanted to speak to the stranger and learn more. Given the way he looked and how difficult it must be for him to fit in with human society, it wouldn't surprise her to hear that he lived on the streets and if that was the case then wasn't it her responsibility to help him find shelter? He was, after all, a fellow mutant. With that in mind, and waiting until he had finished his meal, she stepped out on of the shadows and called out, a high pitched trilling chirp. She was counting on the fact that he would notice her eyes, always their same unnatural full black, and realize that she was not in fact a natural dinosaur, but actually a mutant who currently looked like a dinosaur.

It had been a few minutes since he had launched his attack and eaten the mutt, and by now the dog was almost finished syncing with the rest of his body. Most of the bubbling had slowed down except for a few occasional rumbles, and he was feeling the best he had in the last few days. And yet, all Shane could think about was how he seemed to live in a world of peaks and valleys. If things were starting to look up, something was bound to pull him back down again. He managed to pull himself up onto his feet and began looking for the clothes he’d tossed off the rooftop prior to the attack. Throwing on his jacket, his attention was stolen by a high-pitched chirping sound.

And there it was, his valley. On the one hand, he’d eaten, and was managing to relax a little bit, but of course, balancing things out was some kind of bird making a racket obviously somewhere near by. The noise didn’t sound very familiar to him, which was surprising. He had become pretty good at picking out bird species by their calls. And of course, none of this accounted for the fact that this bird was out in the middle of the night, in the middle of a downpour. The chirp was incredibly high pitched, and remarkably irritating to listen to. It became clear to Shane that the only way to make the best of this was to make this a three-meal day.

Turning the corner of the dumpster he had been behind, he looked up for the source of the noise. Much to his surprise however, the second time the noise came, it came from ground level. Shane’s gaze shifted to a dark corner of the alley where it appeared that some kind of large animal was standing. He started to inch his way closer to it to see what kind of creature it was when a bolt of lighting cut through the air, illuminating the alleyway as well as it’s two inhabitants. Though the light was brief, Shane was confident that what he saw standing in front of him was a full size dinosaur. Nervously he backed off from the creature who’s silhouette implied it was looking directly at him. Clearly the malnourishment has had some side effects that don’t go away very quickly was all he could think to himself. Slowing walking backwards, all the while rubbing his pale eyes, he failed to notice the small pile of his clothing he had tossed from above, he tripped and fell backward. This was not the situation he wanted to be in while facing off against a dinosaur.

Amber didn't often think about the fact that dinosaurs, by their very nature, were considered intimidating and frightening. She understood that humans were afraid of her, as defenseless as they often were, but when it came to fellow mutants fear wasn't the first thing that came to her mind. Sure, she presently had a rather impressive moutfull of teeth and a pair of even more impressive sickle claws, but it wasn't as if she was really all that large, certainly no larger than a large human. Perhaps when she finally gained a T-Rex form or something similar, then she might have something for people to truly quake in fear from, but a Deinonychus? Dangerous but surely not that dangerous, especially since she had just seen the mutant before her devour a dog whole, a feat that she could certainly never succeed at.

It was therefore with some surprise that Amber realized that the strange mutant in front of her was backing away in apparent fear. She chirped at him again, high pitched and questioning, halting her advance. The difficulty with shifting was the lack of vocal chords capable of forming actual words and as a result, communication was nearly impossible. She chirped again, trying to gain and maintain the mutant's attention. Once she was fairly sure he had it and it wasn't going anywhere, she pointed to herself with one reptillian arm. With the other arm she mimed letters in the sky, trying to spell out by action alone, the word MUTANT. One of the reasons why had taken a particular liking of her Deinonychus form was the fact that it had almost human-like arms and hands, minus the opposible thumb of course and with the addition of some rather pointy claws.

Amber chirped again and cocked her head to the side, trying to ascertain whether or not the stranger before her had actually grasped what she was trying to say. Surely it shouldn't be that hard to figure out that she was actually a mutant, right? After all, not only did dinosaurs no longer exist in the world, but no dinosaur that she had read about in books had ever been able to spell.

Well, it was clear that this was not the monster from the movies. He was pretty confident that if it had been, he would have been food (or it would have at least attempted to eat him, he wasn’t anywhere near as defenseless as he was little more then an hour ago). But this creature certainly wasn’t interested in eating him. It actually seemed to be trying to communicate, though Shane kept telling himself that was ridiculous. But still, the arm motions being made by the dino were quite deliberate looking, and as far as he could tell, it seemed to be maintaining eye contact. That is when Shane finally managed to get in good look at its eyes. Black. Quite the opposite of his own, he thought to himself. This creature was becoming more and more peculiar by them second.

Feeling as though he ought to embrace the situation, Shane sized up his opposite, then gave himself a quick once over with his eyes. The two of them probably had a similar mass overall. He could tell that all of the bubbling and ripples on his back and completely ceased – the dog was 100% a part of him now, and he was anxious to put his new addition to the test.

He’d always loved dinosaurs when he was a kid. His father had bought him all the toys, and he’d seen every animated film with dinosaurs in them. At one point he used to imagine himself as one, roaming the countryside in search of his prey. It was time that he pulled that young imagination out from retirement.

His body collapsed in on itself, making a bit of a ball form on the ground. It all happened so fast that he could only hope that the dinosaur wasn’t startled or threatened. However, just as quickly as he was down, he was right back up again. A long, pointed snout and a very long tail sprouted out first followed by two very powerful legs as the lifted what chunk of the mass remained off of the ground. Finally two three fingered arms worked their way out, stretching out, seeming almost sentient themselves.

And that was that. He was a fully formed raptor. Not quite as large as his opposite, but sizable all the same. Locking his white eyes on the creature’s black ones, he attempted to replicate the chirping of the dinosaur, without much success. At this point there was no going back, so he certainly hoped that he hadn’t offended the creature.

Amber watched the other mutant carefully, trying to ascertain whether or not her mimed letters were actually getting through to him. Realizing that he still didn't seem to be getting it, she mimed out the word MUTANT a second time in the air, hoping that maybe this time he might get the message. How else was she supposed to get across the fact that she wasn't a natural dinosaur? Although the fact that he was niether running nor trying to attack her at least gave her hope that he realized that she wasn't just any old dinosaur standing in the middle of a dark alley.

When the strange mutant's body appeared to collapse in on itself suddenly, Amber took a hopping step backwards in surprise. When it somehow remolded itself to look remarkably like she knew her own form looked, she watched in rapt fascination. The end result wasn't quite like a natural dinosaur (or at least what she assumed was a natural dinosaur based upon her own forms) but it did look incredibly similar. It was also the very first time she had ever met another mutant who could also change into a dinosaur.

Amber chirped back at the newly formed dinosaur, marvelling at the wonder of it all. She wagged her tail in what she assumed was the universal sign of happiness and approval, although she probably new that it would likely look just a little bit ridiculous coming from a dinosaur. She also grinned at the raptor before her, feeling strangely excited. She gestured for it to follow her, hoping that it might consent to follow.

This was a feeling Shane hadn’t had in quite some time: fun. He truly did feel as though he were a kid again, playing make-believe as a dinosaur with one of the neighbors. He wagged his tail in response to the creature, mimicking it as best he could. They say to copy someone is the highest form of flattery, and he hoped that this was true across different species. As he examined the calculated moves of the raptor, he couldn’t help but think to himself that perhaps this felt like playing pretend with a friend because there was a person inside his opposite, just as he was inside this dino-form he had taken on himself. If it was possible for him to change shape, why couldn’t other people as well?

The dinosaur began to gesture with its head and arms in a way that implied it wanted Shane to follow. Unsure of what the proper response was, he took a step forward and began nodding his head a few times, exaggerated to make sure the action came across. He truly did feel like a kid again. The raptor responded excitedly with approving gestures and chirps before turning around and heading off into the dark of the night.

Shane took a deep breath. He usually wasn’t one to blindly follow someone else into an area he didn’t know much about, but for some reason he trusted this raptor, and he couldn’t help but admit that it felt good to shift into a form other then his human and blobby forms that had become his two standards. Going out for a run in a new form sounded pretty nice to him. Taking one last deep breath, Shane took off after the other dinosaur, letting out another failed attempt at a chirp.

Amber had never before had a pack of her very own to run with and she knew Deinonychuses were supposed to naturally be pack animals. So what if her pack was tiny and included only two members, it was still a fantastic new experience. Once she regained human form she knew she simply had to ask this miraculous other mutant about his powers. Surely they might just be the only two in the entire city who could turn into dinosaurs and that was a miraculous feeling.

Amber began running at a pace that wasn't too quick. She had the impression that her new mutant friend might not have been as experienced in that particular form as she was and she didn't want to leave him behind. She craned her long neck backwards to chirp at him quickly and make sure he was keeping up before resuming her run. She was careful, always, to remain in the shadows, just in case some easily frightened humans might be around to spot them. She had enough experiences dealing with frightened and angry humans that she didn't want to have to deal with them again that particular night.

It was tempting to bring the newcomer on a hunting trip, but in the end Amber decided against it. While the idea of hunting in tandem with someone else was definitely appealing, she thought it better to wait upon that particular adventure. Not only had the new mutant all ready eaten but it was something she should probably actually speak about first. Besides, she could just have regular human food when she returned to Sanctuary. Instead she ran in the direction of the hidden corner she had left her robes in. Talking, after all, was much easier when one had actual vocal chords capable of speech and that was achieved much easier when one had actual clothes to put on once human form was regained.

He knew he was having too much fun. The child inside him was clearly holding onto the reins at the moment, but he didn’t care. In his mind he knew that he needed to keep a level head in case this was all some kind of rouse or trap to lure him away. He had no idea who this creature was, what they wanted and what he had to do with it. On any other occasion, we would have had his fight or flight reaction kick in by now, but for some reason he felt safe with the dinosaur. He trusted it, or perhaps connected with it somehow. Either way, he wasn’t acting like himself tonight, and the thrill of the whole thing was definitely the cause.

They continued to run through the shadows, never pausing for anything. Every obstacle was easily avoided or jumped over, and the pace never deviated. In fact, they were so consistent, they even began stepping in rhythm with one another. He was certain that the raptor was holding back though, which he appreciated, as quick as he was in the forms he was used to, this body was far from a perfect representation, and as such, had quite a few limits. Speed was certainly one of them, and pushing himself too hard would only mean that he was going to need to eat again pretty soon.

They had been running for a few minutes now. It seemed like longer, but it couldn’t have been any longer then 10, and all the twists and turns had finally lead him away from any part of the city he had ever seen before. He started looking up and around at the buildings that loomed over his head, trying to sport something that could help him get his bearings. There was nothing though. He was lost, and was now depending on the dinosaur leading him around to guide him back again at some point. He was starting to panic a little bit. The fight of flight reaction in his gut was starting to work it’s way to the surface, and when he realized that the alley that they were currently heading down was in fact a dead end, that panic couldn’t be held back any longer.

Amber was having so much fun with the newcomer to her little pack that she was just a little bit disappointed when the alley in which she had stashed her robes finally came into view. The only thing that kept her disappointment from mounting was the idea that maybe, just maybe, she might be able to run and possibly even hunt with this newcomer again. It was an odd sensation to to have and something she normally would not have even considered, especially of a stranger. It was, perhaps, something of a lingering instinct from the form she currently inhabited, the idea of finding a pack. The instincts of her shifted forms rarely had a significant impact upon her, but they still existed on some small level and this was, perhaps, a representation of such. Much like her joy of hunting was surely because of the instincts of the predatory form she currently inhabited.

Once her destination was spotted Amber stopped and waited for her companion to stop as well. She then pointed at the garbage can in which her robes were hidden behind and gestured with her hands that her companion was to wait there. She took a step towards the can, turned around to make sure he was waiting and then scurried the rest of the way to the garbage can. Once there she turned around a second time, chirped and lifted a hand with one finger up, trying to indicate that she would only be a minute. With the hope that he would understand, she then sent entirely behind the large bin and began shifting back to her usual human form.

Amber's shifts were always both agonizingly painful and rather disturbing to look upon. She had watched herself shift in the mirror only once and then vowed never to do so again. There was a mix of shifting flesh, scales, feathers and teeth and claws all coming together in horrible and unnatural manners until finally her human form regained ascension. The process took less than a minute and once completed, she put her robes back on in order to cover her paper white skin. The only thing that remained of the dinosaur that was a moment ago was her pitch black eyes, the one constant between every form she possessed. Once she was back in possession of her human skin, she walked out from behind her little piece of privacy.

Things were starting to piece themselves together now, but in a pretty strange way. After a few moments of waiting suspiciously in the alley without any incident, it was clear to him that this was not the plan of someone who intended to ambush him. However, the raptor was acting quite bizarre, by his standards anyways. It had begun motioning with it’s hands again, appearing to try and communicate once again with some confusing brand of sign language. Shane was disappointed to admit that it clearly was useless to try. He just wasn’t getting it.

The creature then wandered behind a dumpster, as if to go into hiding from him. He hand no issues with the dino camping out for a few minutes. He wasn’t in any kind of rush at the moment. If anything, he could use the break to catch his breath again, the run had been quite the exercise, and long bouts of physical exertion tended to have rather negative effects on him. Plopping down onto the ground, realized he didn’t quite know how to sit in this body, but wanted to do his best to maintain it for as long as he could, ideally as long as he was going to be with this new acquaintance of his.

Struggling to find a comfortable place to rest his tail, he could hear a bizarre collection of sounds coming from behind the dumpster, some of which were the same chirps that the raptor had made earlier that he had done his best to emulate. He wasn’t too keen on getting right back up again after finally getting comfortable on his stack of newspapers, but he reluctantly stood up again an began wandering towards the resting place of his comrade. He was skeptical still, keeping himself ready to pounce if he needed to, sticking with the shadows as best he could. Just before he could poke his head around the corner, out stepped a woman from the very place the raptor should be.

Startled and concerned, both equally for himself as his missing companion, Shane began growling and snarling, showing off his mock teeth as much as he could while he backed up towards the opening in the alley behind him. Searching for another way out, his eyes were scanning his surroundings, keeping her in his peripherals the entire time.

Continuing to retreat slowly, he began to shift back to a more human form. A mouth was something he was going to need. His posture began to straighten out and his face began to flatten as he could feel the mass from his tail flooding into his arms, filling them with strength. His slit of a mouth opened up wide, toothless, but still fuctional.

“Who are you?” he managed to force out, his voice hoarse and crackly, as was often the case with his fist few words. It was at this point that he finally looked directly into the eyes of the woman in front of them, realizing that they were the same empty black he had seen on the raptor earlier. The wheels in his head were turning, but he had never met another mutant before, at least not one he was aware of, so he wasn’t entirely sure how to react.

“I…” he more gasped out then really spoke before stopping himself. He wasn’t sure what to think, so he did the only thing he knew how to do; he stayed on the defensive.

Amber halted her movement the moment the strange raptor shifter growled at her. She put her hands up in front of her face, trying to indicate that she meant no harm. It seemed so obvious to her that of course she must be a mutant with both a dinosaur and a human form that she didn't think it would be too much of a shock when she regained human form. What she didn't count on was the fact that not all mutants were intimately familiar with other mutants or the way they worked. It also didn't occur to her, though perhaps it should have, that not all mutants, even mutants who could shift, had a strictly human form.

"M-my name is Amber and I was the d-dinosaur you ran with." She hated the way her voice stuttered and how weak she appeared in her human form. As a Deinonychus she had a confidence born of natural strength and skill. She was a hunter with natural weapons and superior senses and instincts. In her human form she was nothing more than merely human and, in many ways, she was less than human. After all, humans could go out in the sunlight and she was forever doomed to remain in the shadows.

It was fascinating to watch the former raptor shift into some strange hybrid between human and dinosaur although she was beginning to realize that he didn't look quite right as a dinosaur or...whatever it was he was currently. It was almost as if he hadn't truly shifted into a dinosaur at all, but rather some unusual imitation of a dinosaur. His skin possessed neither scales nor feathers and the colouring, if her own feathers were any indication, was all wrong.

"I'm a m-mutant. Like you are." Even if he wasn't a dinosaur, she was quite confident in her proclamation that he was a mutant. Nothing else could possibly do what he had just done.

There was his confirmation. This woman standing in front of him was one in the same with the raptor he’d been running with not moments ago. This was new, to say the least.

Mutants. He’d heard the word before, but only in passing - at least until he moved back to the city. It would make all of the other pieces in his life fit together, using mutant to answer all of his unanswered questions. He’d always assumed he was some kind of monster. A freak. He’d had no one to talk about it with, and no one had ever told him it was a possibility. Perhaps he’d run away before they’d ever had a chance. Regardless of the reasons that things happened the way they did, it didn’t change the fact that it most likely was what he was.

He looked his opposite up and down as he continued to shift back into a human form. Features popped up on his face that weren’t there before. His tail was completely gone. His legs took on a more human shape, with his fingers and toes losing all signs of talons. He was nude, however, so for the sake of the woman in front of him, he left out a few details. His retreat had halted by this point, and he was even inching his way towards the girl - Amber, she said her name was.

So she was a mutant as well. In this form of hers there wasn’t much to give her away, except for her eyes. “Were eyes a give away to mutation?” he wondered to himself, picturing his own lifeless whites. He wasn’t ready to rule out any other possible mutation entirely though, she was covered up from head to toe. It wasn’t impossible that she could be hiding something underneath her robes, a bizarre skin condition for example – scales perhaps. However, regardless of mutant claims, the situation hadn’t really changed much. He was still in a situation he didn’t fully understand, and nothing made him feel more cornered then the unknown.

“What do you want from me?” he asked. “And what do you know about Mutants?” His voice was much smoother this time around, something he wanted to make sure of. There was un-easiness to her voice that lead him to believe he could control the conversation, if nothing else. The fingers on his right hand began to rotate between a melded and separated state, readying themselves in case a whip became necessary in the near future. You could never be too careful.

Amber felt the slightest pang of envy as she watched the mutant before her slowly regain human form without the slightest hint of pain in his expression. Her own shifts, while relatively quick, were also filled with agony. Bones and ligaments shifted, body parts rotted away or pushed through the flesh that all ready existed in order to appear, none of which was painless. She had learned to endure, of course, because she had to but that didn't make it any easier. Her only comfort was the fact that it was a quick process, taking less than a minute to complete and once complete the pain went away entirely.

Of course, as Amber watched the man regain his human form, she realized there were certain advantages she possessed as well. She could pass for human, for example, at least mostly. Her eyes were a minor deformation compared to his unnaturally black skin and his own white eyes. Maybe looking like a void eyed victim of disease wasn't such a bad thing when compared to someone like him who surely coudln't do much of anything to fit into human society unless, perhaps, he chose to wear robes from head to toe like she had to do.

“What do you want from me? And what do you know about Mutants?”

"I d-don't want anything from you." Amber allowed the mutant to inch forward towards her, although she kept her right hand hidden under her robes, holding onto the switchblade her sister Aura had given her not long ago While she didn't distrust the mutant, exactly, she had learned that it was always best to be on the safe side of things. Far too often things had gone badly and gotten out of control because hadn't been prepared for them to do so. Of course, it was usually humans that caused her the most problems, but it didn't hurt to be prepared just in case.

"I was curious, is all." Which was, ridiculous as it might have sounded to an outsider, entirely true. "And then I enjoyed running w-with you." She paused as she prepared to answer his second question, her black eyes searching his white ones. "I know a bit about m-mutants. I know that its hard to b-be a mutant when left in the world with no one, especially those of us who d-don't look entirely human. D-do you have a place to stay?" The words were said with genuine concern. She was acutely aware that her life would have gone very differently had Abyss never adopted her and had she never found Sanctuary. Even if her eyes weren't such an obvious mark as the skin of the mutant before her, they were enough to cause hatred and violence at times. Not only that, but her skin was so sensitive that she wasn't even sure she would have been able to survive if not for Sanctuary. The sun, if she was left out in it while in human form, could burn her skin so severely that her skin would crack and bleed, if not worse.

If Shane were to put a single label on his first impression of this Amber girl, genuine would have to be it. She wasn’t hiding anything (except for her face) and was showing no fear as she looked upon him. Refreshing would also be a fitting description of their first official face to face. Although her eyes were hard to read, he could tell she wasn’t looking at him with the fear or anger he had grown accustomed to. As every second passed, his tension slowly faded away. He was relaxing, and doing so while having a conversation with another person. This was a pretty big step for him.

She referenced the run in the few words she responded with, which only continued the calming he was going through. He was still trying his best to hold on to the feeling he had during that run. Memories were hard for him to hold on to, but something about being in that form, or perhaps being with this other mutant helped to knock a few of those memories free. He was already starting to loose them again, the feeling being replaced with the typical post-meal headache he had been waiting for since he’d eaten the dog earlier. Eventually the headache would replace the positive feelings, but until then he was quite content holding on to what he had.

The girl’s words continued to hit Shane hard as she answered his questions. Although she did speak with a bit of a stutter, she kept cool, and as much as he hated to admit it, she controlled the conversation. Interestingly though, he wasn’t intimidated by it at all. In contrast, it was a pleasure to hear another person speak. This conversation already contained more words then any exchange he’d had in years, and it was this sort of thing that he had been hoping for when he decided that it was time for him to leave the woods and come to the city.

Amber continued on about mutants, expressing understanding to his cause. He imagined that she lacked the ability to understand his experiences completely, but she clearly was speaking from her own experiences, and again, they were genuine. The she threw the curveball at him. A question. “Do you have a place to stay?” she asked him, and he truly didn’t know how best to answer.

Once again his survival instincts were kicking in, telling him to be weary, that this girl was not to be trusted. That sort of information wasn’t meant to be handed out lightly, not that he really had any place to go in the first place. And yet, despite his better judgment, he seemed to act as bystander as his mouth responded on it’s own.

“I tend to stick with the streets. Roof tops sometimes.” He’d finally brought his breathing down to a more natural rhythm, and there was almost no rasp to his voice any longer with this response. Although internally he was paranoid and concerned, on the outside he hadn’t felt this good in a long time. The faintest hint of a smile may have even worked its way onto his face.