Open Memories in the Storm

[Billie]

1st Day of Summer, 514AV
Sometime around midnight

Dark, cold, noiseless. She was in some sort of unlit room. There was no furniture to be seen, and when Billie moved to try the door that lead to outside, she found out that it was painted on. She couldn’t get her fingures around it because it was simply a 2D image. She felt panic rising in her chest as she looked around. There was another door in the room. This one opened into a long hallway. The floor didn’t look right. Long green grass grew through the disheveled wooden floor, as well as a number of random flowers and herbs. On the walls, moss grew, making them feel wet and spongy to her touch. The windows were painting on just as the front door had been. “Hello!?” She yelled out loudly. Her voice echoed down the corridor.

“You’re family is waiting for you, where have you been?” The voice was deep and gruff. She couldn’t name it, but something told her it was her father whom she’d never met. She balled her fist and pushed on down the hallway. She could only see about a meter in front of her at any one time, as if an unseen light was following her in an otherwise pitch black place. The grass tickled her feet. She heard more voices and turned her head towards them. A painting of Lacey came to life“Hey Lee.” She said “Are you dreaming of me?” Billie looked closely at the painting “Lacey?” Lacey laughed “How’s it going, you? Have you made a new life?” Billie felt her hands trembling “Not really… I can’t settle… It doesn’t really feel right without you.” Billie couldn’t meet her eyes “I want to touch you. Why are you in a painting?” Lacey frowned “Shyke! You’re as sappy as ever!” She cried “And how should I know why I’m in a painting, it’s your petching imagination!” Despite herself, Billie laughed “Right, right.”

Suddenly another voice, in Nari this time, called her attention. She turned around to see Sadie. When she looked back, Lacey was gone. “Billie, what are you doing?” Sadie said sternly “Stupid girl. Do you know how many times you’ve almost died here?” Billie blinked and looked around. She was in the wildlands. “You need to learn how to look after yourself in this environment, rather than rely on others. Bitten by a wolf? Having to share someone’s campfire and give up your jacket!” Billie chuckled softly as she peered at the redheaded woman’s familiar face “You haven’t changed a bit.” She said with a sad smile “Neither have you, it seems!” Sadie said sternly “Oh give me a break you tyrant!” Billie said playfully. Sadie sighed “Fine. It’s good to see you, child.” Billie smiled warmly “Likewise.”

Suddenly she heard a crack of thunder. She looked up in time to see lightning flash across the sky. Rain starting falling on her head, and she shivered. When she looked back down, Sadie was gone again. “Bye… I guess,” She muttered, trying to find shelter somewhere in this stupid forest. She preferred the building to this cold, wet forest. “Petch…” She muttered, hugging herself. Her hair stuck to her forehead, cheeks and neck no matter how many times she tried to push it away. “Any other totally helpful soul out there who can provide shelter from this petching rain?” She yelled into the empty air.

[Edith]

"Your wine, miss?"

Edith stares into her silk-gloved hands, fingering the edge of an embroidered tablecloth. She answers without looking up.

"I cant afford it."

"Of course you can." the waiter replies sweetly, filling her cup to the brim. "You can have whatever you want."

She hears his footsteps leave and she finally looks up. Her head is so heavy. She blinks slowly, watching the room through the bars of her eyelashes. It's so big, and heavenly music is playing. Pretty women with sweet voices and bright dresses weave between tables like sparkling fish. Akalak's in their finest cloths dote on all of them with an enthusiasm that a woman could never find outside Riverfall.

It's all so elegant and clean and beautiful. And it's not hers.

"Sir", she grabs the tail of a passing waiter's coat. "I don't belong here at all. Please, I need to leave."

He smiles and pats her hand reassuringly, disentangling himself from her fingers. "My dear, its just a dream. Surely dreams cant harm you, can they? Please, try the wine."

He is whisked away by a sparkling tide of finery and perfect skin, leaving Edith's fingers grasping at the empty air as his words writhe in her ear. Oh, dreams can be dangerous. They can be poisonous. A poison her mother partakes in regularly.

"Fuck this. I'm not my mother", she snarls at the beautiful silverware. Snatching the wineglass off the table, she makes to slug it back.

But then a foul, diseased smell fills her nose, and before the substance can touch her lips she recoils and drops the thing in disgust. A miasma of burnt flesh, sex sweat and curdled perfume rises from the spilt liquid, and Edith has to seize the edge of the table to support herself as she dry heaves over the white linen.

The waiter is back. He stomps towards her and crosses her arms under his steely frown. "Something wrong with your wine, miss?"

"What the fuck is this!" she nearly screeches, pushing herself away from the table.

"You're wine." he says sardonically, and for the first time she can hear the quiet laughter in his voice. "It's payment, miss. I said you could have anything, I didn't say it would be free."

"What? You're sick" she howls, stumbling out of her chair and backing away from the opulent room. The beautiful, glittering people converge on her like flies to a fresh kill. "You're evil", she rips the gloves from her hands and throws them at their feet. "And this is not what I want!"

And then she turns and flees. A forest springs up around her and she hacks her way through the clawing branches and thick mud. The dress shreds itself on brambles and thorns and she makes no move to stop it. A lashing rain washes the thick layer of powder off her face, and it pools in the ridges of her scars. It looks like she's melting.

Finally, just when she decides she can go no further, a voice weaves itself out of the trees. A tall woman, or a small man, stands on their own in the space between two towering maples, having an animated conversation with something she cant see. A completely one-sided conversation, so it seems. Edith stands back to examine this person without disturbing her.

And upon closer inspection, it is a her. She can tell by the graceful slope on the nape of her neck where the hair has been cut short. She's tall, by female standards. Even taller than Edith. Her hair has been darkened by the rain and sits in a wet mop on the sides of her head. She looks cold, as she stands hugging her upper arms. So cold. When will the rain stop?

“Any other totally helpful soul out there who can provide shelter from this petching rain?”

"Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing", Edith growls, igniting the rasp in her throat like a chorus of suffering bees.

[Billie]

Finally a voice, and a new face with it, though not a particular helpful one. Her voice was a low growl, not an aggressive sound, but more as though the woman in front of her had a sore throat. “Who are you?” She asked shortly as she obsereved the woman. Her eyes jumped straight to the awfully devastating looking scars on her face, neck and chest. Despite the wounds, she was pretty. Her eyes, specifically. Why was she dreaming of this woman in the middle of the rain. It would be almost romantic if she wasn’t so freezing cold and uncomfortable. What right did the dream world have putting her in the middle of a storm with a stranger.

“Let’s not stand in one place.” She suggested as she began to move forward. The scenery changed drastically, but slowly. She was on the streets of Sunberth, which unfortunately gave away more about her that she would have said out loud. Of course, it was still relentlessly raining. Now, though, she knew where to go. Sadie wouldn’t be at home, she only ever appeared once in her dreams, painfully consistent with her personality in life. It was as if she still had a mind of her own, and entered her dreams of her own free will.

“Shelter is near, watch out for the vagabonds and cutthroats,” She muttered as she avoided the eyes of the more dangerous looking men and woman. Two such people burst from a bar up yonder as a barfight broke out onto the streets. Billie switched directions immediately taking another way around the fighters and down a shadey allyway where a few prostitutes worked, for fear the drunk brawlers might start puking on her shoes if she passed them. She didn’t let anything else deter her as she found her home. She threw open the door and suddenly found herself startled. “Oh shyke” She muttered seeing the bloodied remains of Sadie’s corpse. The redheaded woman didn’t move or breathe. The house was a wreck. Once again, her dream didn’t hold back her secrets.

The awful sight disappeared soon enough, and the house returned to it’s normal state. Billie sat down on her desk and looked at the scarred woman “Caught me in a bad dream, I guess.” She said, trying to compose herself so that she didn’t break down into a pathetic quivering mess like she usually did when this particular sight haunted her sleep cycle. The house didn’t look quite right to her. Maybe it was because this stranger was her inflicting her own thoughts on the fabricated world of her dreams.

[Edith]

"I'm the scarred, nearly delusional washed-out whore you're currently dreaming about", Edith replies with a wry smile. "And what the void does that say about you?"

The woman suggests they leave and Edith silently, though heartily, agrees. The stranger leads the way from damp forrest to pissed-on street in that strange continuity you always have in dreams. Edith doesn't recognize the place. The stone is a strange colour, the plants are foreign and the people are haggard and dry. But the woman seems to know the way, and Edith wisely sticks to her like a child, letting her shadow fall across her body like a cloak.

A cloak...

She pulls experimentally at her face and the woman's shadow comes away on her fingers like woven spider silk. Delighted, she bunches the material in her hand and gives it a firm tug. Without a sound the thing detaches from the stranger, and Edith wraps it around herself like a shield. And suddenly she feels just a little bit better.

Passing beggars, prostitutes and drunks the stranger leads Edith up to on old, run-down house she has obviously been looking for. With a bang she throws open the door, but the next sound from her mouth is little more than a whimper. A red-headed woman lies sprawled in a pool of congealing blood, her body hacked at and contorted. Edith's heart gives one last, painful pound and then stops dead.

But almost as soon as she has seen the image it vanishes with nay a puff of smoke. The woman sits heavily at a nearby desk, her anguish contained- though barely.

“Caught me in a bad dream, I guess.” she says with false bravo.

"I wont judge you on your nightmares if you don't judge me by mine", Edith mutters sadly, knowing almost instinctively that the memories bleeding from the woman need to be paid for with many, many more nights like this. "I just hope you're not terrified of bears or drowning or something. Then we'd be in trouble" Edith nods sagely, and her ruined lips twitch in the beginning of a smile.

Just then a door opens off the main room and a child in a fine lacy night dress appears around the opening. Her black hair is bushy with sleep and her eyes are large, dark and much older than they should be. She rubs one eye with her small fist and looks straight into Edith matching eye with the other. Edith waves her away. "Go back to bed Eedee, someone will be along to tuck you in soon ok?"

The child nods, her sleepy eyes studying the taller woman for a moment, before quietly shutting the door.

"My turn, I guess", she sighs. "He'll be here any minute now. In the mean time, tell me your name. If we are going to ride out our collective nightmare together, I at least want to know who my partner is. I'm Edith", she holds out her hand in a friendly gesture, keeping firm hold of the shadow with the other.

A quick, tapping knock sounds on the door. Edith immediately moves to answer it as if she has done so a million times. On the other side of the door is a massive, blue-skinned man with an old, handsome face and a kindly smile. "Is the little deer still awake?" he asks.

"Yes. Can you give me a moment please?" Edith replies tonelessly. Without looking at her partner she slips quietly into the child's room, and returns a moment later looking haunted. "She's inside. Please be kind."

"Of course", he nods like a concerned uncle as he steps around her to let himself in. And just as he closes the door behind him she catches sight of his blue tongue darting over his amiable smile.

Slowly Edith returns to the desk and sits back on the corner, her back straight and her hands folded in her lap. "Now that that is over with", she says, taking a deep, cleansing breath, "If you have any dormant fears or bad memories, you better fess up now before they show up later."

[Billie]

Washed out whore, huh? What a dismal life that must be. And she was right of course, what did it say about her? That was it. She must be pretty damned lonely if she was dreaming about whores. The first stage of her nightmare had come and gone, though and the woman, now named Edith, had asked for her name, and for her fears. Billie agreed there was no use putting up any barriers. After all the two young women were sharing a nightmare. “My name is Billie.” She said, but not two chimes after she’d introduced herself and taken the young woman’s hand had the dream taken a new turn. It seemed now it was Edith’s turn to paint the dream with her vile memories.

Watching the different yet probably far worse horror show that unfolded before her eyes was like having her nails pulled from her fingers one by one. She felt sick when she eventually understood what was going on, and then imagined it for herself. A little girl, couldn’t be any older than 10 years old, would go to bed with a horrible blue skinned Akalak man. Her face said more than she could portray with words, and she wondered even more how that young lady got her scar, and how she was living now. “Fears…” She thought for a moment “Memories…” she shook her head “Tame for now. There is a woman in my bed who will die slowly and pain-“ A paniced gasped rang through the room “B-Billie?” The voice was Lacey’s, and it sounded weak and strained.

Billie tried to ignore it, she didn’t want to see it again. “Lacey…” She mumbled closing her eyes tightly as the wall opposite them opened up like that of a dolls house to revel a pale, sickly woman with frizzy blonde hair and bruise-like dark circles underneath her squinted blue-green eyes. She lifted her arm and called to her “Billie will you s-stay with me?” She asked. She didn’t want to act this out again, but she felt compelled to say the next line as if the script was written into her brain “Course…” “Thank-you… love… you” She muttered before drifting away, the great amount of pain in her eyes was visible every time she tried to speak or move. She was having trouble heaving even half a lungful of air in.

It went on like this for a long time, the sickly girl growing closer and closer to death, if you didn’t know her, you’d almost want her to just die, because it was heartbreaking watching her suffer. “There will be fire. It wont hurt us” Billie said softly to Edith. Surely enough the blonde woman lay still and burst into flames and the floor below her turned into a river. Billie and Edith could watch from their half-eggshell of a room as the burning body drifted away “Can’t count how many times I’ve watched this damn girl die.” Billie said mournfully “Thought I’d let go… guess I haven’t.” She gave Edith a shrug “Well, that’s the only other death I have to offer. I suppose we’ll be surrounded by bandits soon, so fun times ahead” She said with a half-hearted chuckle “So, what’s the next chapter of this dreary dream?”

[Edith]

Tame?, Edith's initial reaction to Billies statement makes her scalp prickle. Through this woman's memory she has been dragged from an ominous forest to a bent city, to the sight of a woman Billie obviously knows very well broken on the floor. And that was tame? Edith has never stepped outside Riverfall, where she suffered a bit with the fundamentals but otherwise lived in borderline decadence. Billie has lived with the kind of outward strife you would never find in the cliffside city. The rift between the two couldn't have been wider, but she feels an affection for the tough woman. Perhaps riding out the waves of your most private memories with a stranger will do that to you.
 
Suddenly a voice that rings worse than Edith's gasps through the room. "Billie", the voice begs. The wall in front of them is pulled away like a stage curtain. A sickly creature lays dying on the other side in a patchwork bed, her look is long suffering and filled with pain. Edith feels rather than sees Billie's reaction to this recurring trauma. It lifts off her like a swelling cloud threatening a storm.
 
The Billie goes to the girl and Edith follows, feeling out of place and ashamed, like she is looking in on the darkest part of the strangers soul. They both stand by her bed and watch her die with agonizing slowness.

When her breath finally rattles to a stop, Edith appreciates the warning as the body burst into flames. Even so, she flinches and looks away instead of watching her hair disintegrate and her bed clothes melt away. How many times has Billie had this dream?

“Can’t count how many times I’ve watched this damn girl die. Thought I’d let go… guess I haven’t.”
 
"I'm so sorry", she whispers, watching the last of the fire trickle away down the river. The resignation in Billie’s voice seems to be stirring something inside her, the hollowness slowly being replaced with a hot, sick feeling of indignation. Why do they have to watch the same thing over and over?

Billie informs her that bandits will soon be on them- the next chapter of her nightmare. And she says it with such certainty that the indignation ignites into full-blown anger. It smolders behind her eyes and burns away the dead, haunted look.

“So, what’s the next chapter of this dreary dream?”

This is not how I’m doing this, her mind growls, living chapter by chapter and politely bowing my head as they serve me another helping of shit.
 
"Well, there will be fire. And it will hurt us", Edith states, and her voice crackles like tinder. "But I'm sick of just waiting around for it to find me. Lets run. I don’t know where and I don’t care. Anything is better than this." turning back to the dissected house she takes the leg of the desk and pulls with all her might. The thing splinters in her hand in complete defiance of how the real world works. She swings it experimentally. "You say there will be bandits? Fine. I'm not going to lay on my back and take it."
 
Suddenly a quiet, seething voice creeps into the room on the back of an overwhelming stench of cheap ale and kerosene; the speech slurred and promising violence. "Cant make a man happy? What a pathetic little slut."
 
Edith's body seems to react physically to the voice, and she seizes in place. A tight, strangled whimper escapes from her closed lips at such simple words. The roots of her scars scream in silent terror and her heart starts a pounding, stucco rhythm. But her eyes still hold on to that burning anger. Stiff legged with the memory of pain, Edith marches over and grabs Billie by the wrist, dragging her away from the house.
 
They are less than ten paces away when the first of the flames spring up around both the young women's legs.
 
"RUN!" Edith shrieks.

[Billie]

The expression on Edith’s face now was one of revolt. She was getting sick of waiting around for the next memory to happen. She saw it before her words reveled that she had been right. They sparked the same rebellion in her own heart. Why should she have to just remember these chapters from her life and be sad about them. Sitting around to wait for the next morbid tale to unfold. That wasn’t how she lived her life, so why should it be how she dealt with her dreams? “You’re right” She agreed, balling her fists. They were her weapon. After all she was older and much more skilled now.

Taking on seven sloppy men shouldn’t be too difficult. Depending on what the dream threw at her, for it seemed bent on making her miserable. Maybe she ha to learn to concur her dreams. Before she could ponder this too much, she heard a voice saying something vile. A man’s voice. It made her skin crawl as she imagined what he might look like. She did, however, know what he smelt like. The stench was overpowering: Liquor and kerosene.

Edith beside her whimpered, then, with terror on her dark eyes she grabs Billie’s hand and suddenly they were running through fire. Billie could feel the heat. She felt as though she were burning already, burning alive. Gruff voices that Billie recognized echoed from the shadows as if the two memories were crashing together. She felt as though she were being cornered, for no matter where they ran, fire broke out in front of them.

They were in the forest again, but random pieces of furniture, curtain and wooden floor would fall and shower them in flames. Billie held tightly onto Edith’s hand, pulling her away from any such hazards. They were in this dream together, so she would protect her. Besides, this girl had already been burnt, she couldn’t let her relive that, if she could help it. Nothing could kill them here, but it seemed so real that every threat seemed lethal.

A burning branch from a tree fell from above their heads. Billie tried to shield Edith from the flames by pushing her to the ground. The flame caught Billie’s right leg, though Edith had been cleared. It wasn’t nearly as painful as it could have been if Billie wasn’t only imagining what it was to be burnt., but she screamed anyway.

The fire still burnt, but it looked far off, as if it was stalking them. Through the blaze came 7 burly men, all adorned with scars, tattoos and evil smirking faces. Suddenly it grew into nighttime, so visibility was limited only to the glow of the small campfire that burned by their feet. The men in the distance looked ghostly in the low light. Billie, wounded, stood up anyway. She remembered what it was to be a teenager alone for the first time and facing these men. “Give us yer gold, girl” the leader demanded. Billie shot him a murderous look “Not this time.” She decided. They surrounded her “Yur a lier girly, this here be only half yur miza.” Someone kicked the blanket in her tent that had appeared and underneath was a small bag of money.

They loomed over her and closed in, holding up their various weapons, some only with their fists. Billie refused to play out the scene as it happened. She refused to be beaten to a pathetic little pulp this time. “Come fight me for it!” She yelled defiantly. The men smirked and snickered, then they attacked, seeming to acknowledge Edith as an extension of the one they were actually assaulting. They attacked all at once. Their attacks were sloppy and untrained, but the power behind them was unreal.

[Edith]

The hand in Billie's fits with a vice grip as they run through the burning woods. Edith likes to think that she is brave, that she can deal with anything, but she cant deal with this. Fire, and the threat of burning, is her deepest phobia. And there are a lot of things that take a backseat when you are faced with your worst fear.
 
Though she still runs with Billie, if she was at all a hinderance Edith would have shaken her off. If she had tripped, or was stuck, she would have betrayed her and went on without her. Her instincts were narrowed and focused, almost animal in nature; get away it screams at her, get away.
 
A branch falls from above and again Billie saves her by forcing her to the ground and away. And just as Edith rights herself there is a piercing cry of pain from her companion. The smell of burning skin nearly throws her into a fit, but the scream grounds her. The memory of that pain sits laced with a single thought: she did that for me. Edith was ready to throw her to the dream her twisted little mind brought down on them, and she protected her anyway.
 
Oh god, Billie.
 
The promised bandits emerge out of the forest, and the fire retreats, though it doesn't disappear. Why isn't she waking up? The fire is suppose to consume her and then she wakes up in her bed, screaming but unhurt. Why isn't she waking up. Billie gets to her feet and Edith follows, eyes darting over this new threat and teeth clenched with anxiety and a rippling determination. She wont be a coward this time, she will battle out this woman's dream.
 
The men attack, howling like dogs on the sent. Her mind clears and cools in a second. This is her chance to repay the woman. She is stronger than this, and it's her turn to protect her.
 
"Get away!" she snarls, and her eyes flash yellow in the low light. She throws her shoulders back and falls to all fours as her body erupts. Her bones bend and retract and her skin bubbles, a muzzle and gleaming teeth appear out of the mess and a lean body and long tail follow behind. What was left of the ripped, smoldering dress falls away as the male cougar straightens up on its new legs. The moulding process was like a bolt of lightning compared to the usual process, but she wont question it now.
 
She launches herself at the first attacker, blowing him over she rides him to the ground with her teeth through his throat. Before he is truly dead she let him go, coils her legs and pounces on the next man to bear down on her friend. She hangs off the back of his shoulders and pulls him to the ground too, one heavy paw reaching over to drag a fist of claws across his throat.
 
As he bubbles uselessly on the ground she backs up and stands next to Billie. This woman she's with doesn't need a protecter, she realizes, she needs an ally. The cat opens it's mouth and screams at the remaining men.    

[Billie]

oocSo sorry about the wait but I’d like to say this dream thread was epic! Maybe one day our characters can meet up for real!

Billie watched with awe as the scared woman reacted to the attackers with a devastating attack of heer own. Her body changed into that of a powerful beast and she charged them men. For a moment, all she could do was stare with awe, but the distinctive sound of a blade slicing the air near her head brought her back into reality and she sprung into action. She ducked and caught his arm, swiftly breaking the bone by dealing a crushing blow to his elbow. The man cried out and she quickly moved on, to the next man spinning, ducking under the strike and sending a high swooping kick to his face.

She continued in this graceful but deadly dance, keeping an eye on the attackers, which only seemed to grow in number the more they fell, painfully, to the ground under their feat. Billie didn’t seem to tire. In this state she was invincible, and deadly. The adrenaline that had pushed her to save Edith from being burnt, was still pumping through her veigns and fueling her powerful arms and legs to move. She cried a battle yell every time she blocked or attacked, and her yells echoed into the night

Her ally fought beautifully as well, and the couger was strangely in sync with her. This felt so much better than every other version of this dream she’d ever had, and she’d had many. She didn’t lie down and let people step on her, why should her dreams be any different. But she felt something else. What it was to fight with someone rather than alone. She hadn’t felt that particular feeling since she’d been with Lacey. And she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it. Looking out for herself alone was so much less rewarding. This… this was worth more than that. She didn’t hate being forced to trust Edith with her secrets either, because she was shown hers as well.

Now the endless enemy’s finally seemed to be thinning, and Billie’s high didn’t run out, even though she was desperately out of breath. Suddenly one struck her from behind. His fist met with the back of her head and she fell like a tonne of bricks to the earth. “Enough of this!” She bellowed after she’d spat the dirt from her mouth. She kicked the laughing man in the knee, damaging his leg, but not breaking it and rose to her feet while he fell. Suddenly there was no one else but this last bandit. He was the only one whose face she remembered properly because of the thick rippling scar that ran down his face between his eyes.

She picked up a sword that lay on the ground and lightly trailed it across the man’s neck. “It’s over.” She muttered. She could have killed him, but what would she gain from that? Instead she just knocked him out with the handle of his sword, then dropped the weapon and stumbled back again. Above the sky grew stormy again, as if the dream was resetting to when they had first begun. She turned to face Edith with a smile on her face “I should like to meet you one day Edith.” She said nodding at her with respect “This is by far the best version of this dream I’ve ever had.” She smiled slightly wider as she held out her hand so the young woman could shake “It’s truly a pleasure”

[Edith]

OOC :

No problem. I'm a little late myself! If every Billie and Edith were to meet some crazy shit would go down, I agree. Thanks for the thread.

The battle doesn't so much end in a victory, but rather with a final sizzling sense that this is over. All of it. Every fear was met, handled and shoved aside leaving a quiet, surrounding peace that seeps through the forest. The sky darkens and opens wide to bring back the rain.
 
Edith sits on her haunches and tilts back her muzzle, letting the water wash through her fur and weary bones. The one scarred bandit moans as he lies unconscious on the muddy ground. She wonders if the man was conjured out of Billie's memories. Or maybe that man is really there, dreaming about finishing off the little girl she used to be. She wonders what he is thinking about now.
 
With one heavy, spade-like paw she shovels a helping of mud into his up-turned face. There, let him dream of drowning.
 
"I should like to meet you one day, Edith. This is by far the best version of this dream I've ever had." 
 
Edith looks at her through one bright yellow eye, and then pushes herself into the change. The male is replaced with female, the fur with skin, the muzzle with jaw, and her true, twisted body steps out a moment later. She would have been embarrassed, but the two of them are beyond such trivial matters of trust after all this.
 
Edith smiles. "No, it was awful, soul-wrenching and sordid. But thank you for showing me. I'll see you again. Somehow."
 
And surprising herself, she takes the woman's proffered hand and pulls her into a hug. A fierce, desperate hug of someone who never wants to let go. She's safe here with this poor, damaged woman. And this woman is safe with her. It'll all be ok.
 

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

 
A loud, fleshy thud from the wall rocks Edith in her bed and she sits up with a twinge of bleary eyed panic and a strange sense of loss. The bedclothes are tangled around her legs and sweat mats her hair to one side of her face. The noise is her neighbor. Perhaps she called out in her sleep.
 
Falling back onto her pillow she tries to recall what she had been dreaming about. Well, it was the usual noise; a burning forest, her first mistake, a couple of deaths... And something else. Something that washed it all away...
 
Edith rolls onto her belly and tries to go back to sleep. But this time there is a small, secret smile on her face. Everything will be ok.