Donovan, gallant as ever, volunteered to take the first watch. Aza, indolent as ever, intended to make the most of that. After nibbling at her portion of what passed for supper, she swept herself a shallow depression into the top layer of sand, right up against the cooler side of the biggest boulder, and prepared to at least doze. Sleeping outdoors was generally unacceptable to her. She felt like some sort of feral animal.<br/><br/>The fox managed to smirk, still gnawing on a hunk of dried meat.<em>You aren't human,</em>it reminded her.<br/><br/>"Or you," she snapped at it. "Or... them." She made a vague gesture towards weird glory-knight Don and possibly demon-possessed Ravishing, whose hands-on healing session was at that very moment devolving into, well, ravishing.<br/><br/><em>That <strong>is </strong>rather animalistic behavior,</em>the fox admitted, staring openly at the scene.<em>Downright pornographic, really.</em><br/><br/>Aza, who had earlier in their adventure already been witness to Donovan's sexual indiscretions, sighed and yanked her hood down before closing her eyes. She'd been on the receiving end of a lot of adrenaline-fueled survivor lust before, but even to her this seemed neither the time nor place to indulge. Don obviously had a type, and it was for women who were likely to either kill him or get him killed. Whatever currently had hold of Methuseld's body was a scorpion: pretty and pointy and poisonous. And Don was letting it sit in his hand. Metaphorically.<br/><br/><em>It's the duality of his nature,</em>was the fox's opinion, its 'voice' dropping as it sidled over to her.<em>Remember?</em>And it reached out to draw the heavy material back from her face.<br/><br/>"Remember, yes," she replied with a snort. "That he..."<br/><br/>She blinked, realizing it was not a fox that was crouching over her. "You are<em>not </em>Dean," she protested weakly, gazing up at what definitely<em>looked </em>like Dean. Tall, broad-shouldered, fiendishly handsome and wickedly smiling, long-haired and dark-eyed Dean, the version from the ship. And from the giant four-poster bed.<br/><br/>"Not a fox either," he agreed, and his rich, low tone sure<em>sounded </em>like Dean too. Aza bit her bottom lip, trying to peer around him at the others, but Dean's hunkering form filled her view as effectively as it also trapped her against the curve of the rock. Besides, from the loud throaty sounds of it, Rav's and Don's attentions were still firmly fixed elsewhere, on something about 'claiming' and 'bitches' and 'thick swords.'<br/><br/>"Eh, I've heard better," faux-Dean said, reaching out to the foxgirl's chin. "Remember, on the ship? When you told that poor Shadow you were going to... what was it..."<br/><br/>The Dean-shape blurred, flashing into three smaller shapes that were all identical Azas.<br/><br/><em>"'Make you come so hard you never will again without thinking of me as you do it,'"</em>the foxgirls quoted in chorus, in the voices of an accurately accented and exceptionally sultry Aza.<br/><br/>"Um," said the real Aza, as her shadowy copies surrounded her. "Yes, but..."<br/><br/>"Well," said one of the other Azas. "We helped with that," said the second. "Didn't we?" finished the third.<br/><br/>"I think," said the original Aza, "Your 'help' anymore, I do not need." And she shoved the middle her aside, enough to push between the other girls as she rose. With her head up like she wasn't rattled, she strode away from all the dopplegangers and the copulation, dragging her cloak along through the sand behind her.<br/><br/>It was a single fox again that caught up to her as she circled to the backside of the boulder, the desert stretching out in twilight silence before them.<em>Don't think you can ignore me,</em>the animal warned her, its ears back and its tail puffed, blue eyes glinting and narrowed.<em>I am here now, and I will... oh hell, what's <strong>that?</strong></em><br/><br/>Aza stopped too, staring off at the flat, darkening line of the horizon and the clouds that smudged it. Faroff, something rumbled. The fox gave a little bark and pivoted just as Aza spun in a swish of pale blue hair, both taking off in a scramble back towards the campsite.