Dylan was having a pretty rough time. He knew as soon as the sun rose he would forced back to change back into a hideous wolf-man. The fact he had just humiliated himself in front of people who he would probably have get to know in order to be socially acceptable was frustrating. He respected Theo though, that guy was obviously knew what he was doing, he appreciated the fact that he didn't ask questions when Dylan was trying to spare himself more misery.

    He slipped out of the tent quietly, and let himself out of the wooden fortress. He walked around the edge of the island for a bit, before finding a rock to sit on and ponder what exactly had just gone down in the last few hours.

Genny was trying to be nice to him. He could tell, he could also tell she cared very deeply about Will, who could barely walk thanks to him. He laugh dryly as he remembered an old fairy tale his mother used to tell to him. Swan Lake, the story of Odette, a girl who was in love with a prince, but she was cursed to become a swan by day, only human by night. He wondered if Genny could ever grow to love a boy who was a wolf by day. He heart ached every time he saw her. Hurting Will had made it almost impossible for anyone to like him though, all because of his stupid uncle.

    He remembered the guy. His uncle was working with whoever these Lab people were. It had taken a few minutes for Dylan to recognize him, his uncle had only showed up at his last birthday. He hadn't even known his fatherhood a brother until then. Not that he cared particularly, but something had creeped him out about the man showing up to a seventeen year-old's birthday party, and his father had been rather reluctant to introduce him until Dylan asked. He also learned the he was a biologist, and studied genetic diseases in canines, which made sense now of course. Dylan scowled bitterly at the thought.

    He still had no idea if his father would have taken him back or not. He remembered the deal, take your freakish son back for free or sell him into genetic research. He knew this was actually legal, seeing how none of the people in this entire camp were humans. It was sick and twisted, but legal in these times.

    "Hey there." Someone spoke up behind him, softly and quietly.

    Dylan jumped and turned around to see Iceland, her dark black eyes staring at him intently.

"Hey." He replied awkwardly, scooting over on the rock as she sat down next to him. "What are doing out here this early?"

"Waiting for Azmus to show up, you?" She took off her boots and trailed her feet in the water.

"I don't know, just thinking about my family." He answered. "Don't big fish live in rivers? Like ones that will bite toes?"

She laughed. "Not since Azmus joined us, you'll see, he'll be here in a few minutes."

He decided to just wait and trust here. There were a lot of strange kids here. They kind of sat there together awkwardly in peaceful silence. It was starting to get a little lighter on the horizon, he wanted to leave soon.

"Do you think about your family often?" Icie asked, trying to make small talk.

"Yeah, kinda."

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "What's it like?"

"What's what like?" He asked.

She looked down at the water. "A family, what's your dad like?"

Dylan's skin prickled uneasily. "Yeah, he's a bit strict. I don't see him very often. He's not really the lovey dovey type." He doesn't pay attention to me at all.

"What about your mom?"

Dylan's heart clenched as he suddenly relived memories he had desperately tried to suppress, the smell of antibiotics, hospital sheets, blood. "She was very nice."

She heard his voice crack and glanced up at him. He took a deep breath and continued staring off into the distance.

    "Was?" Icie questioned quietly, almost in a whisper as she shuffled a little closer to him.

    "She died of a brain cancer when I was twelve." He chocked out, that was all he was going to say. Even then it surprised him how much he had already told her about his pitiful life.

    Icie was quite for a bit, her fuzzy white ears drooped with some sympathy. "I don't have a mom either. I grew up in the Lab. I've never been to a house or a city, but I've heard so it's very pretty."

    "Sometimes." He explained, glad they had switched topics. "At night it's like looking into a galaxy of multicolored stars, some of them move when people are walking or biking or driving. The noises are more peaceful, in the daytime it's really bright and noisy and everything looks dirty."

    "That's sounds nice, it's always really quiet here anyway." She replied.

    He shrugged. "Well maybe I can take you there one day."

    Dylan stared at her, and for a second all they did was gaze into eachother's eyes while he smiled nervously. Then all of a sudden the water stated talking to them.

    "If you guys are done...?" It was Azmus, his face was poking up out of the dark water, his black hair slicked back against his head.

    It took Dylan a few moments to realize he had a glowing orb sticking out of his forehead, and the side of his face were covered in scales.

    "Come on out and I'll hand you your towel." Icie suggested, brandishing the folded cloth Dylan hadn't realized she held until now.

    Azmus swam over to the left of Dylan's rock, flopping up onto the shore. Dylan could see his hands were webbed and there were more scales running down his arms. There was a large fin on his back and his toes were webbed as well, that's why he was tripping. There was also a thin rod protruding from his forehead, with a small glowing orb onto the end of it. He started drying himself off with the towel Icie had just thrown at him as he pulled his shorts up, the only thing he was wearing.

    "You're part angler fish?" Dylan realized.

    The fish parts starting sinking into his skin as he dried off. "Yeah, what about you?"

    "What about me? Oh." Dylan realized there was an arguably large amount of fur starting to grow everywhere on his body. His face had begun to feel tingly and as he slid a hand to the side of his face, he felt his ears getting longer.

    "It's what happens in bright light." He blushed, embarrassed, and stood up. "I'm leaving, don't worry."

    "Wait!" Icie barked suddenly. "Why? Are you coming back?"

    Dylan stopped and stared at her. "I don't want to hurt anyone, I'm not safe to be around like this."

Azmus frowned. "Who told you that?"

Dylan winced. "I hurt someone, I'm a monster."

Icie walked towards him, share grabbed his hand and put it on her arm. "You feel that? I had the DNA of a polar bear forced into me when I was a baby. Not only am I the hairiest woman in the world, but I have these strange ears, and really bad mood swings, it sucks. Azmus here is a freaking fish every time he's in the water, Hiyami can kill people with her hair. Anakin can lift anything with his mind. Chespin in only eight years old and he knows more about weapons than most people on the planet."

Dylan blinked at her, trying to pull away but she had a death grip on his hand, he noticed with growing concern just how scary she could be.

"We're all monsters Dylan, and monsters got to stick together." She nearly growled in his face.

"But I..." He grasped for words as he glanced up as Azmus, who was waiting for his answer intently. "Can you promise that I won't hurt anyone?"

Icie glared him again. "Of course. First sign of bloodlust I'll knock you out myself."

The sun rose over the horizon and Dylan winced as his body finished the transformation. It wasn't a nice feeling. He blinked rapidly, his pupils focusing in on Icie, who was still waiting for an answer.

He sighed at her hopeful face and whined pathetically, now that his vocabulary was reduced to only dog noises.

"Yay!" Icie said, patting his head, which felt better that Dylan would have liked.

Maybe making friends wouldn't be that bad.

__________________________
Well that was adorable

Look how much Dylan's changed since the beginning of the book oh my.