Island of Change: Marice's Quest to Survive.

Marice awoke with a jerk, knocking her head into the rough wood of the ship's hull. She swore and stood up, rubbing her head as she looked around. The ship was still surrounded by kraken tentacles, but they had changed. They were smooth and golden now, their surfaces shimmering in the light of the sun.

She didn't waste any time standing around though; she hopped over the rail and swam towards the beach. Once she reached it, she pulled herself up onto dry sand and made her way towards the jungle trees.

The island hadn't changed in that time. There was still an eerie mist hovering over everything that made it impossible to say where one tree ended and another began, or whether there was something else lurking just out of sight in the mist. The air was muggy and oppressive, and Marice felt like she could barely move through it without breaking out into a sweat. She tried to push onward though; there was no telling how long it would be before the tentacles changed back to normal.

As she approached the clearing where she'd found the eggs, her heart began to beat faster in her chest. This is it, she thought to herself. This is where I find my secret weapon for getting off this island. She quickened her step until she was almost running across the sand, and skidded to a stop outside the clearing. She stared at it for a few seconds, as if something would suddenly appear out of thin air to tell her what to do next.

She knew where it should be; all of those dinosaur bones piled together on top of each other should have been pointing at it from across the clearing...but they weren't there anymore. In fact, none of them were there anymore. All that remained were a few scattered pieces here and there; nothing had been left intact enough to identify what type of dinosaur they belonged to, let alone what kind of dinosaur they'd originally belonged to when they were attached to whatever unfortunate creature had died that way.

Marice groaned in frustration and banged her fist against a nearby tree trunk, using all of her strength so that the tree shuddered under her touch before resuming its position as if nothing had happened at all. Her hand throbbed painfully as she lowered it back down against her side and clenched her fingers tightly into a fist, then turned away from the clearing with determination in every step until she reached a fork in the path not too far from where she'd broken down earlier.

She paused momentarily to look both ways before making a choice about which way she should go this time...and then froze as something caught her eye on either side of the path not too far ahead of where she stood now. Hanging upside down from branches high above on either side was what looked like a pile of large bones hanging loosely together on chains; some parts appeared more intact than others, but there was definitely something familiar about them...as if Marice might recognize them if only they weren't quite so mangled or deformed from whatever had killed them originally...or whatever those things dangling from chains were supposed to be doing with them anyway.

She took a few hesitant steps forward along the trail and stared at them for another moment before turning away again, trying not to think about what those things were designed for, or who made them or why anyone would ever want such things in their lives...or indeed why anyone would ever choose to design them and leave them lying around in public places for anyone who happened across these paths through the forest to stumble upon accidentally...or otherwise...find somewhere even worse than this place full of dangerous creatures that seemed hell bent on killing anything that wandered into their territory without warning first...if they even got warning at all....

The further Marice went down either path through the forest after reaching another fork in the road further ahead, however--the more certain she became that one or both of those things hanging up ahead could very well be used as weapons against some sort or another--if only she knew how best to utilize them....