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  The hatch shudders open. The alien planets' winds flood the ship. Dagnit stands alone in the hangar bay.

  “Is this what you want? It's the next planet.” She scowls.

  Zelda had already zipped herself past the hatch. She was in free fall, the webbing in her wings slowing her descent. She hears a bit of hiss before the hatch closes.

  There is no one here. No civilization at least. Stranded. But free. Guess I just wait till I become what I hate. Gravity feels earth-like at least. She touches down and starts wandering off. The trees were green with purple leaves. Zelda takes a deep breath, and then promptly sneezes. Damn it. It’s a few more sneezes before it's under control. Real smart Zelda, just breath in all the foreign pollen possible. Her stomach rumbles. Speaking of doing something foolish.

  She picks a direction and proceeds forward. The ground is fairly soft. She looks down to see it covered in a purple moss. She shrugs and trundles along. First, find water. There are trees and vegetation, so there has to be water. She walks around a tree to find a yellow fuzzy critter that was rather boxy in shape, six legs. It looks at her then goes back to nibbling on the moss. So is it too stupid to run or it has a defense mechanism that makes attacking it a bad idea. Or am I convincing myself not to attack out of an over abundance of caution. Or because it looks kinda cute. Water first. She continues on, hoping to hear a babbling brook or something.

  What she finds is the forest edge. A large plain of flowing grass of a vibrant blue. Still no water, perhaps I should… She zips into the air and looks around. It's far but if she follows the forest edge she will reach a decent sized river. She zips back down. Not really trusting the webbing on her wings just yet. Good enough to parachute in, but to glide on it? Not yet, she deemed.

  -----

  The sun has started to set. Zelda still hadn't reached the river. Should have just zipped till I arrived. No, that would leave me vulnerable. She was rather worn and worse being alone she had no one to watch her back. Her predicament increases her anxiety. She spends the night glaring at every random unknown sound. There were a lot of them.

  -----

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  Thirsty. She gets up with a groan. Tired. She zips up and back down, making sure her destination was in fact getting closer. If I get into a fight, all I have is kicks and teeth. Zelda does not like her odds. Should have eaten the cute thing. She trundles on, the edge of the woods to her left, the sweeping plains on her right.

  She catches sight of another of the six legged fuzzy. She gives it a long stare. If I starve I'll return to the closest return port. That could be the ship, or it could be civilization. I don't want to go back to the ship and who can say if whoever mans the return equipment won't decide to harvest me. Decision made, Zelda zips the creature into the air. It had a bit of resistance to the magic but in the end gravity was going to do the work for her. There is a splat and walks to the dead thing. It bled blue. Can't cook it, can't even hold it. She bends down and bites it. Her teeth cut but she has issues tearing the flesh. Until she steps on it with her left foot. Now with leverage, she rips a piece that sadly is mostly fur. Bleh. She continues her efforts finding it to be coppery in taste. Not the greatest. Hunger slightly mollified she continues her trek towards the river. Her insides roil at the raw meat. Not quite the Dragon stomach yet.

  -----

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  She can finally hear the water. She doesn't have the ability to run anymore. Thirsty. Not much ability to think anymore. She shifts her view to herself and zips forward. She reaches the river edge and plops her face straight into the water. A moment later she lifts her head gasping. Zelda, Zelda, let's not drown today, Zelda. She takes it slower and gets water into herself.

  She lays on her side and hopes she isn't about to die. She is not far from the river's edge. It's an hour before she moves again. She drinks more and finds herself of sounder mind. Water secured. Food, need food. She assesses her body. The colostomy bag had ripped off at some point. Just an open port to her guts. Not good. She squeezes her eyes before biting at the outlet. Her flesh tears, but she rips it out. Collapsing after. She flexes her stomach to try to keep the wound closed but it was a bad choice where no good options were available. She loses consciousness.

  -----

  Her eyes open to something trying to lap up her blood. It quickly stops, finding the toxic mix to not be palatable. It punctuates that by vomiting. It's another six legged furred animal, this one had longer legs and would be up Zelda's waist if she was standing. She, of course, was still on her side and afraid to move. Are they all six legged or just the furry ones? An idle thought. The animal is in the air after a moment. Another crack and it is dead.

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  She zips the corpse to her. Finding it far easier after it is dead. She bites down again. My nose isn't in the way this time. She shudders at the realization. Of course, I'm changing. Her neck was longer. Couldn't bite out a port on her stomach without those extra vertebrae after all. She does her best to eat her latest meal. Her stomach hurts worse for it. She lays her head back down. She doesn't bother trying to check over her body. She just closes her eyes.

  -----

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  The next time time Zelda opens her eyes she sees the green bunny fussing over her. Beyond the two ears she can see the sky.

  “Pamulur.” She says in a hiss. Not intentionally, only her mouth no longer worked as she remembered.

  “Smith?” What followed was a string of sound that made no sense to Zelda.

  “What? Don't understand.” She replied.

  Pamulur looks annoyed then starts tapping on her tablet. She speaks again and in a moment there is sound coming from the tablet.

  “Don't move, I'm treating the wound on your stomach.”

  Wasn't planning on it. Before she can ask anything a second set of boots enter her vision. Zelda pans her vision up to see Dagnit. Her eyes narrow. Before she can offer a rebuke, the cat woman points to the side. Zelda's eyes travel over to a pile of boxes. Leaning against the box was her shield.

  “Thought you said it was a piece of shit.” Zelda hisses.

  The cat smiles. And says some words. The tablet translates, “It totally is a piece of shit, you should get something better and hang that piece of shit in your room.”

  Zelda rolls her eyes and flops her head. It caused some annoyed noises to come out of Pamulur.

  “I said don't move.” Translated from the tablet.

  “I thought we had parted ways, Dagnit.” Zelda grouses.

  The cat looks away for a moment before staring at Zelda.

  “I didn't expect you to actually jump out. I was trying to call you out on your stubbornness.”

  Zelda's eyes narrow at the cat. Pamulur also looks annoyed.

  “Stubborn is an apt description for you, I told you to retrieve her immediately.” The doctor growls.

  “I couldn't very well approach her without some token of contrition.” The cat replied back.

  “Seems you’re misunderstanding, why would I go back? I'm grateful for my shield but the issue remains. If it's between my life and money, you're going to choose money.”

  A bit of glare off commences. Dagnit huffs out.

  “Why do I have to choose, can't I have both?”

  Gods, she is infuriating. “Well you made yourself perfectly clear when the choice came up.”

  “The hell you say, I didn't get to choose, you simply decided to do it.”

  Pamular interrupted, “I told you it was instincts.”

  The cat rolls her eyes at the bunny. The doctor had moved behind Zelda to examine her back. Dagnit sat next to the tablet. “If given the choice, I would have likely denied you the heart. Even if I had known it was a cure. This is about more than you.”

  “Well then Dagnit, I'm right here prone and weak. Drain my blood, rip out my eyes, snap my horns, claim my teeth and carve out my heart. Claim your prize and split it amongst your real crew.”

  Zelda zips the tablet into the distance and puts her head down. Pamulur exclaims her name followed by more annoyed words. An exchange of sound commences between the bunny and cat while Zelda closes her eyes. Will I wake up next with Dagnit's sword in my chest?

  -----

  There was no sword in her chest when her eyes opened again. Dagnit was still sitting where she was before staring at Zelda. A tablet was again next to her.

  “Think it unfair to say I would murder you for your parts.” She glares.

  “No, you just would watch me die for two hundred and fifty thousand exp.”

  The cat screams, its impact lessened by the waiting for the tablet to translate.

  “You are not my sole concern on my crew.”

  The Dragon rolls her eyes, “I'm not a concern of your crew at all.”

  Zelda gets up and walks to the river.

  “Pamulur said it was unsafe to drink that. Heavy metals.” Dagnit translated words pauses Zelda. She flops onto her back with her back to Dagnit. “Do you plan to just ignore me then?” Zelda attempts to zip the tablet again but finds Dagnit keeping a firm grip on it this time. “I felt that, don't be throwing away other people's things.”

  Zelda gets up again and starts walking away. Dagnit gets up to follow. Zelda swings her back, facing towards the cat, “What do you want from me?” She roars at Dagnit.

  “You're being foolishly stubborn. Even if you hate me, don't you still have goals? You're stranded on an uninhabited planet, I thought your aim was to slaughter Dragons.” The tablet in Dagnit hands chirps out.

  “You already said you don't want to do that so why the hell…” Zelda pauses. “Are you kidding me, you're being paid to be here, is that it? Just another pay day from Grant who wants his science experiment back.”

  Before Dagnit can answer Zelda zips into the air and holds her wings out. There is a loud hiss that issues from the ground. Zelda ignores it and catches the air. It's unsteady but she begins to glide. A few head swivels and sees a plateau in the distance. She zips herself in that direction and glides towards the location. Anytime she starts to fall low she zips again for height. Not yet trusting her wings to have the strength to gain height. Doing just gliding was exhausting enough.

  Zelda looks down. I only have one more zip in me. Finding only tree cover. It's blocking my view of the ground. She attempts to expand her vision past it but finds herself crashing into the forest canopy. She closes her eyes as she crashes through. The various branches whipping her face and tearing her wings. In the end it's a tree trunk that knocks her to the ground. She groans a bit, surprised she was still alive.

  They probably put a tracker into me while I slept. I'm being dumb. Why would they need to, the leg implant is still there. Zelda looks to her inner thigh to see the assumed suppressor doser was no longer there. Did she remove it because there was no point or because Grant decided I am more interesting fully changed.

  She lays there hurt, annoyed and morose. Why couldn't you just apologize, Dagnit. It's just me wishing you weren't who you really are.