Welcome to Gaia! ::

The light gently filtered through the wooden boards of the window. Gentle snores could be heard from within a pile of cloth piled up on a wooden bed. It snorted and moved as the beam of light that had slowly made its way to the sleeping form announced its presence.

Ryan groaned and rolled over, rubbing his eye with a hand. It took him a couple of minutes to properly get up, he still felt achey from the hash couple of days living out in the woods on the cold ground, but not as exhausted. It wasn't a two star hotel, hell it wouldn't scrap a one star, but it was better then outside.

He got himself ready, feeling very grotty to have to wear the same clothes he's been wearing for almost 5 days and without a nice hot shower, but he got on with it with only a mutter under his breath at every pace.

A long, angry growl tore at Ryan's stomach, he hadn't been this starving in his entire life! his stomach must be eating itself by the cramps he felt. He'd give anything for a macdonalds or a chinese takeaway. He ravanishly hoped they had invented some form of fast food or a chippy.

The afternoon outside (for Ryan had slept through the entire morning), was bright and mild, all around him was a bustle of people, many working on the nearby market, calling out their wares. It was no where as congested as his home city, but it had the buzz of life. The market almost resembled an English square in the pre-victorian age. Where does he start? Everything from fish to lamb was rare and fresh. Nothing seemed pre-cooked and ready for him to devour there and then. He aimlessly wondered until he found a bakery and bought some local bread, just to ease the gnawing hunger pains.

Some villiagers stared at his foreign clothes, but didn't seem all too surprised, others have been here and gone before him. Ryan kept walking as lost as a tourist without a map or a guide.

Ryan turned around curiously at the tap on his shoulder; he certainly didn’t expect to see a red haired person wrapped up like he was in the middle of winter in this mild weathered dark aged town, nor the question he asked making his eyes widen but it was not what was said but how it was said – without words or sounds. It was like he heard someone speak in his mind, or was this world starting to get to him? Making him hear things?

Some kids stopped and stared at the pair, asking their mothers in their childish high pitch squeak and then pulled away as if their parents feared only asking such questions would bring their God’s wrath. Ryan was starting to feel annoyed at their stares and whispers, what was he a freak show? Can’t a guy from another time and dimension shop in peace?

He frowned at the young looking man in front of him. “What?” Maybe he only thought he heard the voice in his head, after all the scarf covering this strange guy’s mouth could’ve given that affect. Then he processed the actual meaning of the question and really looked at his modern looking clothes. “Either? I take it we’re in the same boat then?” He didn’t lighten his expression, if this guy was indeed like him and Chris then that means another tagalong. Great, why did it have to be a teenager of all things?

((Ok edited a bit in my post, my fault for some reason I thought of him being 15 or something))

Ryan only grunted at the first response and watched him curiously as he adjusted the scarf, He must be partly turning into an animal, that’s why he’s covering himself. He finally realised before he almost chocked on laughter at the lad’s conclusion, battling with a sudden cough, he managed to give out a loud burst of laughter.

“You’re kidding right!?” He said loudly between controlling another fit of giggles, then lowered his tone and giving a ‘mind your own business’ look to some passerby until they moved away from earshot.

“Not months no, try 5 days with someone called…” He paused and leaned closer, his voice lowering in tone again. “Christopher um can’t remember his last name, begins with 's' but he’s-” Again he hesitated and chose his choice of words carefully, “-going through some rough changes in his life.” He wondered if the lad would pick up on what he meant and straightened up and looked around the market before leading the teenager to walk with him, standing around may bring about unwanted attention and he was sure that was the last any of them wanted.

“So how long have you been here then?” He asked without actually sounding overly interested in the answer. “I suppose long enough to know where I could get some camping gear?” He browsed at the wares offered on the market, his stomach grumbling loudly.

Ryan nodded slowly with a slight faraway look in his eyes, Chris had said it would change him too, of course he still didn’t believe in it, even with this wrapped up ginger lad in front of him. He didn’t look that much of an animal to Ryan as he walked with him.

“Yeah I guess it does. Although I think it’s changed Chris in more ways then one.” He said twirling his finger by his ear in a sign of someone gone a bit crazy. “I had to practically make him take me here before he cut himself up more or I’d be still lost in the forest.”

Ryan held a slight amused smile on his chubby face. So he was the only one to actually think ahead for this? Well, true he was planning on being lead to the city then staying, but in these circumstances it would be prudent to make plans in case the worse case scenario should happen. He figured he could stay in the forest for a week or two and when he didn’t change, return to this backwash city and enjoy some extra comfort – if you could call it comfort. He didn’t relish the idea of camping. He hated camping, but it was better then being burned at the stake for witchcraft if he did start to deform into a frog or something and the last thing he wanted was to be caught with his pants down, thinking it was never going to happen to him. It wasn’t, but best play along anyway.

“Really? I guess some of us had better forethought and warning then others. Well you’re back and mingling with the normal folks of this fair city, so I guess your mutation is less severe then others if you can pass yourself off as one of them and buy supplies.” He browsed at a fruit store picking up an apple as if he’d never seen one before and put it back in disgust. “I don’t suppose you know of a pizza place near here?”

Growing a tail? Ryan chuckled at the thought that obviously this guy has grown a tail and was feeling the need to vent, how can you not prepare if someone convinced you that tail growing will become a fact of life?

“Was that a growl?” He looked at Cecil over his sunshades with a look that clearly said; are you seriously growling? He pushed them back up his nose “Anyway, a sharp knife or scissors would be a start, I guess.” He shrugged and watched the villagers going about their business while he spoke. “Well, you didn’t answer my first question so I’ll ask it again; do you know where to buy camping stuff? Oh and an anvil. Also, donno if this is a stupid question in your opinion, but are you actually talking under that scarf, because your voice… sounds odd.”

He looked around for any city guards, Chris had mentioned about them looking for him, so by all reasoning the guards would also be on the lookout for other human turned animal, for now he couldn’t see any.