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A Walk Back to Camp and one flop later.
Clay is curled up atop his sleeping bag on his side, deer legs folded up against his... her... chest, as he struggles with the intrusive thoughts filling his head, sobbing quietly.
Nithya peeks in, or rather out of, the hallway coming up from the temple. For a moment, she looks like an actually lost feral deer.
Seeing Clay, her expression breaks. "Clay..." She whispers. "I'm so sorry..."
Clay 's ears perk up at the sound of Nithya's voice. After a moment, he rolls over to sit up, tears staining the fur along his face. "...it's... it's not your fault."
Nithya walks slowly next to Clay, sitting on her own sleeping bag. "I should have thought... Well, anything, before I said stuff." She looks at her own body with a conflicting set of emotions.
Clay sighs, taking a moment to stop sobbing and wipe his eyes, "...when have we ever held anything back between one another? I just... I wasn't ready for that."
Nithya nods somberly: "And I should have noticed that. I'm sorry." She sighs, looking at her legs: "Guess this is it, for now."
Clay sighs, shaking slightly as she tries to sit comfortably, "Y-yeah... this is it..." He swallows, "...I'm... I'm so confused, Nithya. I need help... but... not yet. Right now, it just... hurts. N-not like... physically, just..."
Nithya looks at Clay with sympathy. "Yeah. Must just mess with your head more than just this... Deer thing." She considers saying something, but instead just offers her hand and a cervine smile to her friend.
Clay takes her hand, feeling the strangeness of its texture in his own. "...I can't explain why, but somehow... it is. Or maybe it's this change on top of that change..." He pauses, staring at Nithya, "Are... are you okay? Less changes... d-doesn't mean it's not hitting you hard too..."
Nithya shrugs. "I feel more or less fine now. Will probably cry myself to sleep once the permanence of this hits me." She sighs a bit, giving Clay a lopsided smile.
Clay chuckles sadly, "Y-yeah, well, me too. But at l-least we'll have one another to cry with? W-worrying about you at least takes my mind off... m-me..."
Nithya blinks, then gives Clay a small smile. "Well... We agree on that. It makes me feel better to try and help you."
She looks at her hands for a bit. "I feel like I want to put this new body through some paces. And see if my new schnoz is good for anything. What do say if I head up and find us some food, and you get our campfire going?"
Clay stands up from his sleeping bag and nods, "Y-yeah... yeah, keeping myself busy will be good. And heh, trust me, finding food is a lot easier with that nose." He taps the side of his snout, his nose wriggling a little.
Nithya smiles: "At least as long as we are out here, there's certainly some advantages." She looks at her backpack and considers more clothes, but ends up shrugging as she's covered in pretty tough fur anyway now. "Like not really needing clothes to keep warm."
Clay looks down at himself, thinking to cover his chest again, "I... keep forgetting about clothes... I don't know if that's something I should worry about."
Nithya hums: "Clothes, or the fact that you keep forgetting?"
Clay chuckles, "First one... then the other. ...I'm a little worried we'll be going around uh, buck naked?" He grins, but slowly his expression drops with a sigh, "I worry about how much this is changing me... changing us. It keeps coming back to me just how... wrong this all is... or how wrong it should feel..."
Nithya sighs. "I know. I keep doubting that everything I do, or don't do, is because of this change." She winces a bit: "That feeling might not be going away anytime soon either."
Clay nods, "I suppose... I'm afraid of getting used to it... but I'm not sure we have much choice anymore..."
Nithya offers a small smile: "I imagine we will learn, like.... Which parts of 'getting used to it' feel awkward and which don't. And we can still wear clothes, anyway, even if we can't turn back to human right this moment."
Clay nods, "For now... fire. I can deal with starting a fire. And food. We... we deal with the basics... we talk through the rest. Or... in time. We talk it through in time." He gives Nithya a tired smile, "Thanks for tolerating me."
Nithya smirks, her left ear moving with her expression. "Hey. You tolerate me despite what happened in Giza."
Clay considers a moment, "Well... then this will make us even for Giza. You couldn't have known it was poisonous, after all."
Nithya nods and hums: "For that matter, I'm glad this didn't happen in that desert or we'd be currently rocking even more extra humps."
Clay blinks, "Uh... I... never considered that..." He runs a hand through his hair, "Deer... isn't so bad considering other options."
Nithya has a thousand-yard stare for a second, before shaking her head. "Probably best not to think about it. Although might be worth seeing if anything in Egyptology similar to this has happened, and just brushed under the rug..."
Clay chuckles, "An entire pantheon of animal people... it does seem mighty suspicious now, doesn't it? Well, we have a reason, and Egypt was a good trip, not counting the night I spent getting my stomach pumped. Let's make a plan of it."
He grins, shrugging awkwardly, "A ways off from... now. But long term plans sorta help me think... we'll get around to them."
Nithya nods: "Isn't that how we usually operate anyway? You figure out the big picture and I just worry about the practical details." She smiles: "You're still you, Clay, no matter what your body looks like. We may have taken a sudden decision to grow a lot longer hair-do in the last five days or so, and we have more armpit hair than is probably legal in at least five states, but we're still us."
Clay 's smile grows wider. "...yeah... I guess so, eh? That is a classic Clay plan. I just... it's more than just how the body looks... but we'll get through it. I'll... try to get through it."
Nithya nods, this time choosing her words a bit more carefully. "...I figured it might be more than that, but I promise I will not push you on it again. Stick to the deer side of things for now."
Clay 's smile fades only a little, "G-give me time on that bit, Nithya. ...and thanks."
Nithya smiles warmly: "I will. Now, maybe it's the... kinda everything we've been through this morning, but I'm starving. So I'm going to make good of that plan to go forage with the help of my new senses."
Clay nods, "Be careful out there, and I'll have a fire ready for your return."
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