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Despite her almost complete inability to be in it in her human form, Amber liked warmth and sunshine.  Maybe it was because she was able to do so with such rarity, but to be able to sleep in a sunbeam was far more satisfying than might be expected.  The cats had it right when it came to such things.  Of course, if curious eyes happened to discover a dinosaur sleeping in the sun, things were not likely to go well from there and so she mainly kept her activities to the much safer nocturnal hours of the day when she could roam freely as a human without worry of her sensitive skin burning painfully.

For almost a month now she'd be staying at the Mansions since her return from self-imposed exile in the woods.  In some ways, it had been very good for her.  It was  a safe space where she could learn how to be human again and not have to worry about discrimination and violence due to the very obvious fact that she was a mutant.  In other ways it was far more of a challenge than she had anticipated.  For one thing, she'd developed a bit of claustrophobia sleeping outside for so long and it was hard sleeping indoors under a roof.  She was dealing with it.  Barely, some nights, but she was doing the best she could.

Although she normally kept a mostly nocturnal lifestyle, in the spring and summer months when the days were longer she found herself more often awake in the daylight.  Today was just such a day.  After great deliberation, she decided that, despite the burning sun, she'd venture outside and find a place she could shift in peace and enjoy the daylight.  Covered from head to tow in light robes (she was protecting herself from the sun, not from the cold), she also grabbed an umbrella in order to have a walking pool of shade.  That was a trick she had seen on TV and one that increased the time she could remain outside safely quite a bit.

The goal was to find herself an area of relative isolation where she could shapeshift and enjoy the daylight on her own.  The fields, she knew, were just such a place and, if she recalled correctly, there was even a tree out there to offer a bit of shade if needed and where she could stash her robes.  She began making her way in that direction, all too aware of the burning sun above her.  Well, it shouldn't be too long before she got to her destination and the umbrella meant she at least had a good hour, maybe a little more, before it started damaging her.

During this time of evening there were relatively few people around which played strongly to her advantage.  Hiding among fake foliage was a thing easily accomplished but hiding in a lap with pristine, hard floors was quite another.  She relied more upon her hearing than her sight to indicate when it was safe to move from one hiding place to another, darting behind the various objects that littered the laboratory.  It felt like agonizingly slow process, the hurry up and wait game where a quick run would follow several minutes of waiting which would follow another quick run.  

Eventually, however, she made it to her destination at the far corner of the lab.  The challenge now would be to determine which of the tables housed the skull she was seeking.  She had studied pictures of it carefully before leaving on her expedition and was reasonably certain she'd be able to recognize it when she saw it.  It was an almost complete specimen and rather distinctive with large teeth that grew over the openings of it mouth.  So far, nothing like it had ever been discovered before or since.

First, Amber decided, she would explore the tables with the articles presently being studied.  Failing that, she'd go through the specially designed storage drawers used to preserve the fossils and protect them from damage.  She knew from her last trip to the museum that, although the laboratories themselves were locked via key-cards, the drawers were not.  After all, if you can get into the lab you're probably supposed to be able to get into the drawers as well.

Scurrying up the leg of the first table, it was surprisingly difficult to actually determine the nature of the exact shape of some of the larger fossils due to her present vantage point.  As she explored the table, she did her best not to actually disturb any of the delicate fossils or the equipment.  Just because she had basically broken in and was there illegally, didn't mean she didn't have a respect for the work they were doing.

He seemed surprised that she would question his good will.  Well, maybe she was too cynical when it came to other people.  Maybe too much time spent in the woods had caused her to forget that altruism wasn't entirely uncommon among humans.

Then again, cruelty for the sake of being cruel wasn't uncommon either, as indicated by their friendly new neighbors.  So much simpler when you knew who had what was prey and who and what you might be prey too.  

"How much I owe you?"

The man and the woman started laughing, glancing back and forth between one another as if in good mirth.  "Oh, we don't want your money.  Well no, we do want your money but we also want your blood.  You see, we're been bored.  No one wants to play with us and we like to play.  Very very much.  So, will you play with us?"  More sadistic laughter, this time coming from all sides.

Only humans desired violence for no other reason than cruel fun and that made her angry.  Violence for a cause she understood.  Violence for survival she understood.  Violence for fun she did not understand.  A growl rose in her throat, sounding weak and pathetic with her human vocal chords.

Chase started laughing which either meant that he appreciated her dark sense of humour or that the context of the comment had gone swoosh right over his head.  Asking the blond if she ate people made the whole experience all the more entertaining.  Who said zombies couldn't' have a sense of humour, anyway? 

The blond sputtered her indignant response at the very idea of eating people.  Amber smiled at her and although the smile was meant to take the sting out of the words and indicate she hadn't been serious, she was well aware that now days her smile was more ghastly and possibly a bit horrifying rather than mirthful.  If she took it as the grin of someone a little mentally unstable and threatening rather than playfully mischievous, well, how was she to know?

"Who here is normal?"  It was a fair question, as far as she was concerned.  They were all mutant, right?  And in the crowd was a robot girl, a zombie, a girl with funny black and white hair and she was pretty sure she saw Chase's eyes change colour.  Probably given enough time, the others would prove to be unusual too.  Nope, nothing normal there.

At the suggestion of working in groups, Amber's attention returned to the task at hand.  Cooking.  Cooking without any actual teaching at all.  Thrown right into the deep end and being expected to sink or swim.  It was all fun and games until someone ended up unintentionally poisoning someone else.  

"Um...yes, groups.  Please."  Suddenly she wasn't feeling nearly so confident as her momentary mirth had almost allowed her to forget her usual collection of anxieties.  So apparently they would all sink or swim together.  OK then.  She was beginning not to like her new teacher very much.  He seemed mean.
It was probably a good thing her sister, Aura, was no longer in her life because her sister's violent tendencies had tended to rub off on her when they were together.  Biting off the teacher's hand was probably not the best way to encourage a passing grade.

"So, um, does anyone actually have experience with cooking things?"  That seemed like a good place to start.  At least it looked like she could actually eat all the ingredients. That was something.

"Don't get me wrong, I love the city but sometimes it can get super chaotic.  It might be nice to live somewhere quieter for a while, you know?"  Although in truth, she would probably enjoy it for like, a month, and then start going seriously stir crazy.  Maybe one say she'd be rich and be able to afford a nice little cabin in the woods for whenever she needed to retreat from the chaos of the city.  A girl could dream, right?

Ambrosia could tell by the forced laugh that 'big bucks' was a bit of an exaggeration and she offered a sympathetic look before taking another sip of her margarita.  "I'll bet its sometimes hard not to completely lose it, especially when there are children involved."  She grimaced at the thought.  

"We help one person at a time though, right?  You might even be surprised, sometimes a few kind words and a bit of patience can turn bad people good.  Sometimes people just haven't been given a fair chance to understand."  It didn't happen often, but it did happen.  She wished it happened more.

Being so low to the ground, it wasn't easy gauging the line of sight for the humans towering above her.  The trip from the first display to the second occurred without incident as did the excursion from the second to the third.  It was the last trip that almost ended in disaster.  As she ran into the open walkway in an effort to get to the last place of relative safety, she heard a woman shouting above her that she had seen a rat.  Heart in her throat, the shouting and pointing went on for several minutes before it was eventually decided that the woman must have been imagining things.

Next was another waiting game.  Being sized tiny and lacking arms and hands to open doors, the only way to get into the research labs was to wait for someone to enter said labs.  She was banking on scientists and other workers coming and going even as the public areas of the museum were starting to shut down, otherwise she might end up stuck there for the entire night.  That was not exactly the most appealing proposition.  While the displays might look lush and full of edible critters, it was all an illusion and she couldn't eat a plastic plant or a plaster insect.

Fortunately the wait wasn't long and although it was difficult to tell time in her present circumstance, her best guess was around half an hour before the doors opened.  A pair of boots walked past her, a distinct beep from a key-card scanner and the human walked through the doors, Amber skittering in just behind him, almost under his feet.  Once again fortune saw fit to smile upon her and the man she followed didn't notice the tiny lizard that trailed behind him.

Once inside, there was a whole new set of struggles to navigate.  Most specifically, where and how did she find what she was looking for.  Looking up and around, the place was huge although no larger than it had been the first time around.  She knew the general area where the dinosaur and related fossils were kept but beyond that general concept, had no idea on the specifics.  Running underneath tables and around equipment, she made her way to the quarter of the research labs she needed.