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While strange dreams visited Julia in her sleep, rain visited Ironwood Forest. Julia opened her eyes to the pitter-patter of cold drops coming in through the open window - she reached up to pull it down and stopped when she only felt space. Even after weeks of living here there were times when she forgot the strangeness of this place.

She briefly buried her face in the pillow, then gave a sigh and rolled out of bed in order to pull the shutters closed. No point in going back to bed now. She fumbled through the cabin, trying not to wake up either Jamie or the dog. Finding the door was easy. You just had to follow the draft.

Julia eased the door open and slipped outside. Light was starting to illuminate the sky over the trees, but the woods were still black as pitch. What the heck. She was feeling dangerous.

If she'd thought about it a little more she'd have realized it wasn't the only thing she was feeling - she felt oddly carefree, like she was still caught in dreams. Julia chose a path at random and drifted down it, hardly feeling the rain at all.

Nothing ruins a good mood better than crashing into a total stranger. Julia came back to earth - quite literally - with a bump. The impact had her seeing stars.

"Ow." she said faintly. Her brain was still bouncing between dreaminess and pain, not being able to figure out what had happened. She didn't look at Cecil; she didn't even realize he was there for the first couple moments. "Ow."

Julia accepted the hand. Instead of using it to pull herself up, she dug her nails in and hissed, "What does it look like?" Her hands were scratched, her clothes covered in mud and wet leaves, but most of all she was pissed. He'd started to run off! After knocking her down! Crashing into someone was an idiot enough thing to do, and then he'd gone and made things worse.

'Wait. He didn't speak aloud.' It was hard to see what he looked like in the dark, but she released his hand as quickly as she'd grabbed it, suddenly sensing the claws and fur. "You're another one! Like Alex!"

Which meant he wasn't from around here. Was he one of those people Alex 'rescued' from the village?

Julia could tell Cecil was irritated. Too bad. She made a big show of getting up and brushing all the leaves and dirt off, even though most of the damage was mud related and wasn't about to brush off.

From what she could see of him in the predawn darkness, he was young, though not as young as Jamie. And he didn't look outwardly strange. Except when he moved - then his eyes glowed. At home, when you looked outside the windows at night, sometimes you could see eyes like that reflected in the light. The whole effect was very...animal.

So when he suggested she was in the same boat as him and Alex, she reacted more sharply than intended. "I am NOT." she snapped. "Look. I don't know what's happened to you and Alex. Maybe you'll get better. Maybe you won't. But my situation is completely different. Completely!"

Fate has a good sense of ironic timing. The last 'completely!' was cut off with a yelp as a sharp pain lanced through Julia's hand, the one she'd just snatched away from Cecil.

Having already been exposed to the nightmare that was Damian, Julia hardly batted an eye at the two tails. Inwardly she was amazed at how strange and random these changes were. Why two? What was the point?

"The 'expert'. Hmmm." Julia cradled her throbbing hand in the other and raised an eyebrow at Cecil, somehow managing to mock him despite the pain. "Damian, you mean? I suppose you could call him that, though he doesn't have any answers either.."

If Cecil meant someone else, she was very interested in hearing it. But that conversation would have to wait. She waved Cecil away. Another jolt had her doubled over, the pain arcing from her hand and all throughout her body. Her breath was starting to come hard and fast. Was this a heartattack? A stroke? She was only 30!

"Oh, hell." she moaned. "H-how far away is town? I think..." 'I need a doctor.' she wanted to say, but the words wouldn't come.

"You mean she's BACK?!" Julia shrieked. Her voice broke in pain; she seethed with frustration and agony both. A sudden fire lanced up and down her sinuses, and with a grinding sensation the bridge of her nose began to widen. She gasped in through her mouth, a few involuntary tears trickling down her cheek. This was no heart attack. This was...she looked at Cecil through a watery blur and had to look away, horror in her heart. Damn it! She had thought she was different..

The same grinding feeling started in her chest as the bone shifted, her sternum growing much larger, and also hurting her shoulders as well, so her entire upper body was affected by the change. Her hands had been clenched but were pushed apart by growing fingers.

Slowly, slowly, the changes began to fade. There was a 'pop' in the bones of her neck like when one stretches, accompanied by a tickling, twinging sensation in her legs and feet. A stinging in her eyes prompted a few more unwanted tears to freedom. Julia slumped with relief. A wave of warmth started from the tip of her toes and swept to her head - where it went, the pain faded, and her skin took on a soft glow. Some moths started to flutter around the new source of light.