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Description
Overboard

Written by Nitrinoxus, Jonas Belford and Throne Zwei
Edited and Formatted by Nitrinoxus

Chapter 3

Dwight trudged along. He could feel his spongy innards slosh about with each creaky step. What was going on inside him? Were his insides just... liquefying? Or turning into pulp? Trees didn't have any direct organ parallels after all. What if he lost his mobility? What if tomorrow he'd wake up and find that his legs had rooted themselves into the ground? Dwight was already losing his sense of smell and hearing... was he just going to be trapped on the island, stuck in one place unable to interact with the world?

He shuddered at the thought.

Eventually, the transforming trio emerged from the shade of the jungle and stepped onto the sunny expanses of the beach; the signal fire was still smoldering and letting off a generous amount of smoke, though it looked low on fresh fuel. Harry slid Nate's sled down the sandy incline, stopping once the thin wood was half-submerged in the salty water; the shark-to-be would've protested, but the waves lapping at his tail and the remains of his legs felt stunningly good.

"I should probably get some more wood to throw on the fire... might be a good idea to stand back from it, Dwight." The soon-to-be orca nodded as he looked at the signal fire - no sign of rescue yet, but they couldn't give up.

Dwight could feel the hairs on his feet wriggling in search of water as he stepped onto the sand. The sunlight beat down and felt soothing against his viney hair. The two effects were remarkably relaxing, and the idea terrified him. He rolled his eyes at Harry's suggestion. "Duh," he wrote in the sand.

Unwilling to go near the signal fire, Dwight creakily trudged through the sand searching for more fuel. It was slow progress due to his ropey feet being weighed down. Still, he persevered. Strong as his fears were, he wasn't about to give up on their only shot at rescue.

He returned to where Harry had dropped off Nate an hour later, effortlessly hauling several bundles of driftwood and sticks. His creaking body announced his presence.

Harry tended to the fire, putting some of the pieces brought to him on, stacking others nearby in a little hole he'd dug out for protection from the ocean spray. Even with what they'd found there, he had a feeling they couldn't last on the island forever. Physically, maybe, but mentally, it was probably better to get back to civilization, regardless of what form they were in. "Thanks for the supplies, Dwight. This oughta keep things going for a while."

Dwight looked around before tracing "Nate?" into the sand.

"Last I saw, he'd gone swimming to test out his new body."

A splash from the ocean nearby drew the pair's attention. Nate was bobbing up and down among the tropical waves, a goofy grin on his face; seeing the two looking his direction, he waved, water dripping from the webbing stretched between the fingers of his hand. "Swimming with a tail and unusable legs feels weird," he chuckled, paddling to shore and hauling his long, almost eel-like body onto the sand. "Still, the water's incredible."

A sudden thought occurred to Dwight. "Swim for help?" he wrote out.

"It'd help if we knew where we were - striking out at random wouldn't go too well."

"Scout for boats?" Dwight wrote quickly in reply.

"I can probably give that a shot, once my gills come in," Nate said. "I doubt I'd last long trying to swim with human lungs."

"Fair."

Nate looked up at Harry, the jagged grin still plastered to his face. "Hey Harry, you want to give the water a shot? I'm sure it'll feel just as good to you as it does to me."

"I don't see why not - probably be a little awkward swimming with my tail still growing in, but hey, sure!" He'd been wondering what it'd feel like, swimming with his body becoming more adapted to spending long periods of time in it. Still, with a gusto he hadn't shown in days, Harry plunged into the water, smiling at the sensation of it against his skin.

Dwight watched the two swimming through the ocean. He'd love to be able to do something like that, just forget about his warping body and enjoy some aspect of his change. But other than his hair feeling comforting in the sun, he didn't have anything close. On a lark he carefully dipped a ropey foot into the ocean. A brief rushing sensation filled him as his root hairs drew in water quickly gave way to a strong sting at the saltwater. He withdrew quickly.

The two aquatic castaways swam about for some time, coming up for air as needed as they tested their new bodies. After a while, Nate came up, though his mouth was a little too preoccupied to take in air. "'Ey!" he called out, grinning wide as he gestured to the flopping lump of flesh and scales clamped between his jaws. "Rrrk! A hish! I crrt a hish!"

Dwight gave an awkward thumbs-up from the shore. At least those two were having fun...

"Get the feeling that in a day or two, we won't even need to think about building a fishing rod." Harry grinned a little at the sight, having found swimming to be incredibly fun with his changed body. The fish had looked rather tempting too.

"I rrow, ri'?" Nate said giddily, swimming back to shore to drop off his catch; removing the fish from his mouth, he flopped down on the sand, catching his breath. "Hoo boy, that was exhausting... can't wait for those gills to get here, so I won't have to keep coming up for air all the time."

As he emerged from the water, Harry nodded and sighed. "Hopefully you can still breathe air."

Dwight trudged over and wrote, "Looked fun." in the sand

The happy expression on Harry's face vanished when he read what Dwight had written. It wasn't fair to him, having fun while he felt so miserable. "How about we just bed down for the night now?"

Nate's expression followed suit, and he looked down at his catch guiltily. "...Yeah... good idea..."

Dwight gestured to the beds he had made around the signal fire while Harry and Nate had been swimming. Two were made of leaves and in indents in the sand. The third was better described as a small pool dug out to the ocean.

"Night." he wrote before trudging off to the spot furthest from the fire. With a loud creaking he lay down. The bedding was almost unnecessary considering how tough his bark was, but Dwight wasn't going to give up on anything that still meant he had a bit of human left.

The appetite Nate had worked up disappeared nearly as fast as his exhausted grin; suddenly, it felt like a stone had been dropped in the pit of his stomach. With a mixture of shame and regret, he tossed the punctured fish into the fire, flopping dejectedly into the 'bed' Dwight had dug while he'd been busy frolicking and falling asleep before the smell of freshly-grilled fish could reach his nostrils.

"G'night..." The orca-to-be yawned loudly before closing his eyes, wondering what the next day would bring for all of them. Today had been... eventful, and not always in a good way.

XXX

Sleep hadn't come easily to Harry that night - concerns about Dwight turning into a tree and Nate being unable to live on land had kept him from restful sleep for a while. But ultimately, the sandman had beaten his concerns in the match occurring in his head. This time, it was the tropical sun hitting his eyelids that woke the man up. He grunted uncomfortably upon realizing his tail was now longer - it hung to about the back of his knees now and was starting to scale with the rest of his still-larger body. A quick check of his skin revealed it had gone completely black and white. As he ran his tongue over his teeth, he realized that his face had started to change, pushing out and getting broader, while his ears had started to wither. "Hngg... my neck is killing me..." Something had felt like it was stuck on his neck, and a moment later after a bit of huffing and puffing, the pressure left - a wad of sand had gotten lodged in his new blowhole. The projectile flew off and hit Nate in the side of his arm, though the orca-to-be didn't really seem to notice.

The shark-man grunted at the impact, but didn't move to glare at his cetacean friend. Nate's tail had grown substantially longer, which of course meant that his legs had shriveled further still, now little more than fleshy stumps against the long, sandy tube that was his body; his skin's changes had finally finished, having grown slightly tougher during the night. His eyes fluttered open, a broad shark-like muzzle the first thing their gaze fell upon; his entire head had restructured, broader and longer and lacking either ears or the hair that lay in a wet clump around his head. Nate would've sat up to further examine his body's latest changes, if not for the unpleasant fizzing queasiness running through his body. "...Mrrph... Morning..." he muttered from his pool of a bed.

"Good morning... oh wow... looks like you'll need that sled now more than ever... unless you want to swim around." Harry got up, the changing man probably clocking in at least seven feet tall and several hundred pounds by now. "I'm going to go check on Dwight - call if you need anything."

Dwight had slept like a log—an unfortunate phrase considering that's what he now resembled more than anything else. His skin had finished solidifying into bark and his remaining hair had completed its transition to vines. Dwight stirred as Harry neared. The creaking sounds his body made as he rose were more pronounced to the others, but barely audible to himself. The fading sense of hearing was not lost on Dwight. His hands—now barely identifiable as such from how ropey and long the fingers had become—flung to his face. The results were not inspiring. Dwight's head had thickened and had merged with his torso. Only his arms, legs, and eyes identified him as something other than a tree trunk.

Harry's expression fell upon seeing his friend's appearance - this really wasn't looking good. After helping the wooden man up, the orca handed him a stick to write with. "You... still in there?"

It was difficult, but Dwight managed to grasp the stick and clumsily wrote out, "Yes. Hard to hear / smell. Sight blurry." He paused before adding "Scared."

"Anything I can do for you? I want to help, but... I'm scared too."

Dwight paused. Whatever had been happening to his organs the previous day had apparently finished. Without a heart, lungs, or stomach, a silent calm had settled over his body. It was scary, but it let him think clearly. He knew what he wanted. "Don't want to be tree. Don't want to be lost. Want a face."

The cetacean-to-be nodded, then stroked his hairless chin for a moment. He'd been fond of whittling while he was in the scouts, but he hadn't needed to worry about killing his work back then. Still, he needed to do something. "It's... a bit of a gamble, but I could try and... ah... carve you a new face."

It was hard to see behind the bark, but Dwight's eyes lit up. "Do it," he wrote. "Any face. Please. Need sharp rock. Will help look." Dwight wrote before beginning a slow trudge along the beach towards where Nate lay in his pool. His root-feet slowed him down as they dragged through the sand.

Standing back up, Harry began combing the beach for a suitable instrument to help give his friend a new face. "I'll help as well... we really need to get off this island soon."

Nate's eyes flicked towards Dwight as he approached, though his altered head stayed where it was. "And I thought I was having troubles," he said, eyebrows raising as he examined his fellow castaway. "Can't say I've got any rocks, but..." With some effort, the shark spat out one of his jagged, cusped teeth onto his chest. "Think this'll do the trick? I'd help more, but..." He grunted in discomfort, wincing as another wave of the fizzing sensation rolled through him. "...Not really in any condition to."

A creaky nod. Dwight waved his stick in the air to draw Harry's attention and call the orca-man over to them.

The waving caught his attention, and soon enough, Harry had rejoined the other two. It seemed that Nate was down for the count, at least for the foreseeable future. "Whatcha got?"

"Tooth," Dwight wrote, drawing an arrow towards where the tooth lay.

"That... could work. Nice and sharp, easy to hold onto... yeah. I can work with this. Just sit back, try to relax, and tell me if you want me to stop." Sitting down cross-legged, Harry grabbed onto the tooth and motioned for Dwight to sit down facing him. He was nervous, but at this point, he just wanted to help.

Crossing his legs was a physical impossibility for Dwight. He knelt down awkwardly in front of Harry and motioned for him to begin.

Harry got to work, finding it impossible to really picture a human face, or at least one that didn't look like a circle with eyes and a mouth on it, so he licked his chops and elected to try something else. Making sure to avoid the tree-man's eyes, he carved and chiseled, the shape soon taking on the visage of something slightly more lupine. Long, pointed ears, a canine nose and snout, even some 'fur' soon started to take shape. After ten or so minutes, he stopped for a moment. "Almost done - decided to go a bit lupine for you... sorry, I'm not really good with human faces."

Dwight hadn't been paying too much attention during the carving. While his initial hunch about his sense of pain being dulled through his bark was correct, having someone chisel into your face still hurt, though thankfully not anywhere near as much as it could have. Dwight's focus had been on blocking and distracting himself from the pain and staying still. It wasn't until Harry addressed him directly that he realized the orca had paused. A wolf head wasn't what he had expected, but it was better than a tree trunk.

"Wolf > Wood" he wrote, "Please finish."

"Alright. I hope this hasn't hurt you too badly." He resumed his work, chiseling out some sharp teeth, a few more tufts of fur and then, with a flourish, he blew the wood dust off of Dwight, the head now looking more lupine than anything else. "Et Voila... you are done!"

Dwight tried to feel along his new head. All he could tell from his ropey hands was that it was indeed wolf-shaped. He creakily leaned over to Nate's pool and looked at his reflection. The image was... interesting. The muzzle Harry had carved jutted out like someone had stuck a tube onto the front of his face, though the teeth and nose were relatively well done. The brow sloped awkwardly and the 'fur' resembled random scribbles more than anything else. A pair of lopsided ears finished up the image. Still, it was unmistakably wolf-like, and most importantly it was an identifiable face.

"Thank you," he wrote.

"No problem. I'm glad I could help... even if I'm not really what you'd call a master with carving."

Dwight drew a smiley face sticking its tongue out before writing, "You haven't moved, Nate. Ok?"

With some difficulty, Nate read Dwight's message. "I'm not dying," he said, "but I'm not sure if I'm okay."

"What do you think is wrong? You seem to be breathing normally... then again, I'm not a doctor."

"It's my skeleton," Nate said. "Sharks don't have bones; their entire skeleton's made up of cartilage, like the stuff our noses and ears used to be made of..." He paused again for another wave of queasiness. "It feels like it's halfway through changing, somewhere between stiff cartilage and a framework of wet noodles. Like I said, I'm not dying, but I don't think it's a good idea for me to move until it's done."

"Be here all day?" Dwight wrote.

"Want one of us to stick close to you?"

"Doubt I'll be here all day," the shark replied. "Probably another few hours, give or take. If you want to stick around, I wouldn't complain... I could use some company."

Dwight drew up a crude hangman game. He planted his legs in the sand and felt his root-feet wriggle out into the soil under the beachhead. "Will stay," he wrote.

A nod from the orca-man as he sat down and grabbed a piece of driftwood. Carving someone a new face had given him something to do, and with a game of hangman on, he wouldn't be bored. "I'll be here - except when I go to grab lunch or dinner."

Nate grinned. "Thanks, guys... you're good friends."

If he could, Dwight would have blushed. Admittedly, he'd been focusing more on himself this entire time. Nate had been an afterthought. But as the day wore on and they played hangman, tic-tac-toe, and one failed attempt at chess, Dwight realized how glad he was to have Nate and Harry with him. If it weren't for Harry, Dwight would've probably gotten himself drowned on the first day with some half-assed escape attempt. But he was alive, and he had a face again. Sure, he was still scared, but at least he wasn't in this alone.

XXX

The next day's sun was warm against Dwight's back. Leaves had grown across his hair-vines and were eagerly soaking up the rays. His tongue lolled out of his month at the feeling of blissful contentment.

...tongue?

Eyes of solid amber flared to life as Dwight stood up. The creaks of his body were as loud as they had ever been—his hearing was back!

"G-guys!" he shouted, an unfamiliar earthy voice coming from his mouth. "I c-can hear! And talk! And—ooof!"

His hands and feet had finished turning into roots during the night and had burrowed into the sand as Dwight slept. He fell over himself as they were unceremoniously uprooted.

"Awesome news, man! And holy crap... I had no idea the job I did on your face would do that..." Harry had already been up, and had been emerging from the ocean the moment that Dwight had awoken. The wooden lupine face had once been somewhat shoddy in appearance, but now it looked like it had been done by a master. The orca-man himself had undergone more changes. His face looked more like a proper orca snout, and his tail had almost grown to full size, the appendage dragging through the sand. His hands and feet seemed to also have grown webbing between the fingers and toes.

"I know!" Dwight exclaimed. From the feel of it against the roof of his mouth, he guessed that a leaf had grown in and was serving as a tongue. It felt very strange and light, like it could flutter out of his mouth at any moment, but was held secure nonetheless.

"Now, where did Nate go? He seemed to be sleeping when we broke our game off... yesterday... holy shit! Nate!" The orca quickly bent down after noticing that the shark-man's entire body seemed to be submerged in the pool of water that had been serving as his bed. He gently prodded the man's shoulder, as at the moment, he was afraid that shaking Nate would do more harm than good.

The shark's eyes flicked open, spotting his orca friend through the ripples of the water over his head; he gave a cheerful nod and closed his eyes again, resting there for a few moments as the fact that he'd been sleeping with his head completely underwater slowly sank in. The moment it hit home, Nate's eyes snapped open again, and he bolted upright, gasping for breath.

"I take it the gills came in?" Dwight asked. His leafy tongue hung out in the closest his wooden muzzle could come to a grin.

"Sure looks like it. Guessing your skeleton finished changing too... you're a lot more animated now."

Nate's eyes widened, and his webbed hand flew to his side. Sure enough, between the ridges of his cartilaginous ribs sat five slits in his flesh, gently moving in time with his slowly slowing breaths. "Woah..." was all he could manage.

"Do you still have your lungs? Also, I was thinking... we should see more of this island. Maybe there's something here." Harry let out a low whistle at the sight of the gills, obviously pleased to see both of his friends doing well.

"I... I think I do," Nate nodded, giving a sigh of relief at not losing his lungs. "I'm breathing air just fine right now... man, thank goodness for that."

The orca clapped his hands together - things were starting to look up for them. Dwight wasn't panicking anymore, and Nate could move once more, and they didn't need to worry about him suffocating on land. "Awesome!"

"Indeed!" Dwight nodded. "And yea, I'm all for poking around. Anything to get moving good and proper again." He seemed invigorated by the trio's physical developments.

"Sounds good," Nate agreed, sliding from his pool into the ocean. "So, how do we do this? I mean, I can circle the island, see if I spot anything from the water, but that's about it."

"That sounds like a plan... you and I look from the water, and Dwight looks from the shore or something?"

A creaky shrug. "Works for me. Maybe there'll be an inlet."

Dwight began trudging off through the sand, but his roots continued to slow him down. "Blasted roots... I almost lost my face, not letting this stop me," he muttered. As he eyed his roots, an odd idea occurred. "Nate, can you form a pile of mud at the edge of your pool real quick? Just a small one."

The shark nodded, dredging up some of the sediment from the bottom of his 'bed' and placing it on the edge. "Might be a little salty, I'm afraid."

Harry just looked on with a curious look on his face - he wasn't quite sure what Dwight had in mind here.

Dwight concentrated, mustering the full mobility of his roots into folding and curling together into a vague rounded oval-shape. Carefully and creakily, he dabbed some of the mud onto his writing stick and padded it onto the sole of the foot, forming a sticky pad.

"Ok, little stingy," he admitted, "but it'll pass once the water is sucked out. Point is the mud'll hold the roots in place."

He did the same to his other foot and had Harry help him with his hands. The end result was that each bundle of roots had been wrapped up into vague round shapes held together with mud. Dwight creaked heavily as he bent down onto all fours. With his weight evenly distributed along his 'paws', the wooden wolf didn't sink into the sand.

"Clever... making paws out of mud and using your roots." Harry chuckled as he dove into the water with an audible splash, making sure to jump in away from where Dwight had been standing. With his fins and tail almost fully grown in, and the webbing, swimming was practically second nature to him.

"Looks like you're getting the hang of that body of yours," Nate nodded, following Harry into the water; before he dived, a thought struck him. "Oh! Which way should we start looking in?" he asked, looking up and down the beach.

"North?" Dwight offered from the shore as he set off. The sand felt odd against his 'paws', but it was better than trying to trudge through on his roots. His limbs, obviously, were not designed for moving on all fours, but with a loud creaking he bent his joints just as one would break in the spine of a hardcover book. "That, uh, sounded way worse than it actually was," he said sheepishly to Harry and Nate.

"I believe it," Nate said. "Okay, north it is!" With that, the shark-man dove beneath the waves.

"Someone needs to oil your joints or... something. But North sounds good!"

XXX

The transformed trio swam and walked northwards, with Harry delighting in every sensation in the water. It just felt so good against his smooth skin, and the webbing and his tail made it far easier than it had been while he'd been human. And if it felt this good now, he could only imagine what it would be like once the changes finally finished. While he wasn't sure how long the trip took, eventually the friends arrived at an inlet at what they assumed was the north end of the island. It was well-hidden from view from the ocean - Harry could only imagine pirates or smugglers loving this island for a hideout.

Dwight padded along, moving from sand to soil as the beach gave way to jungle. The soil was damp and inviting. When combined with the sun beating down on his leafy mane, it was tempting to just stay still and relax. But there'd be time for that later. He and the others followed the inlet curiously to see where it led. "My money's on a magic spring at the centre of the island," he joked.

"At this rate, that wouldn't surprise me." Harry chuckled a little as he went ashore, smiling.

The scent of saltwater wafted off of Harry. It was still muffled to Dwight's wooden nose, but stronger than yesterday.

Nate chuckled. "Yeah, 'impossible' suddenly seems a lot different than it did a week ago..." He paused for a moment. "...Hard to believe it hasn't even been a week. A lot's happened in not a lot of time, huh?"

Dwight nodded. "I never thought I'd be happy to be turning into a wolf, let alone a wooden one, but now I'm just glad I'm not becoming a tree anymore."

"That makes two of us. But yeah... it's been less than a week since we got here, hasn't it?"

"Six days, five nights," Dwight said. "And who knows how many... more..."

His voice trailed off as the trio reached the mouth of the inlet. Harry and Nate followed the arboreal wolf's gaze to a sight none of them had expected. There was a boat beached along the inlet. It was likely decades old. Thick vines had grown along the vessel and what few parts of the metal hull could be seen were almost completely rusted through.

"Huh... boat's been here for a while. Wonder who left it here?" Harry started to move closer to the boat - it was obvious that the boat wasn't operable, but still - who had used it?

Dwight approached the boat curiously and pulled away some of the vines. "Paint's gone. Doesn't look like any supplies were left behind if there were any to begin with," he reported.

Upon seeing the boat more clearly, Nate's eyes widened. "Wait, wait... That boat looks like one of the old patrol boats used by the Japanese around World War II! Maybe there's an old base here someplace!"

"Seriously? How can you be sure?"

"They did make a lot of bunkers on islands like this - not all of them were found."

"Wait, if you're right, Nate, then wouldn't they have brought a radio with them?"

"My dad was a maritime nut," Nate said, hauling himself onto the shore. "He's got a collection of photos and models of old ships, including one just like this one." The shark's eyes scanned the surrounding foliage. "But if there's a bunker near here, there's a good chance there's a radio."

"Let's just hope it's functional. I can read Japanese, if it helps any."

"Ah, the benefits of the anime nerd..."

The orca rolled his eyes. "I learned it for other reasons."

"If you say so. How about you peel off some bark from one of these trees so Nate can get a new sled?"

The shark nodded. "Okay, let's get looking."

Description
Overboard

Written by Nitrinoxus, Jonas Belford and Throne Zwei
Edited and Formatted by Nitrinoxus

Chapter 3

Dwight trudged along. He could feel his spongy innards slosh about with each creaky step. What was going on inside him? Were his insides just... liquefying? Or turning into pulp? Trees didn't have any direct organ parallels after all. What if he lost his mobility? What if tomorrow he'd wake up and find that his legs had rooted themselves into the ground? Dwight was already losing his sense of smell and hearing... was he just going to be trapped on the island, stuck in one place unable to interact with the world?

He shuddered at the thought.

Eventually, the transforming trio emerged from the shade of the jungle and stepped onto the sunny expanses of the beach; the signal fire was still smoldering and letting off a generous amount of smoke, though it looked low on fresh fuel. Harry slid Nate's sled down the sandy incline, stopping once the thin wood was half-submerged in the salty water; the shark-to-be would've protested, but the waves lapping at his tail and the remains of his legs felt stunningly good.

"I should probably get some more wood to throw on the fire... might be a good idea to stand back from it, Dwight." The soon-to-be orca nodded as he looked at the signal fire - no sign of rescue yet, but they couldn't give up.

Dwight could feel the hairs on his feet wriggling in search of water as he stepped onto the sand. The sunlight beat down and felt soothing against his viney hair. The two effects were remarkably relaxing, and the idea terrified him. He rolled his eyes at Harry's suggestion. "Duh," he wrote in the sand.

Unwilling to go near the signal fire, Dwight creakily trudged through the sand searching for more fuel. It was slow progress due to his ropey feet being weighed down. Still, he persevered. Strong as his fears were, he wasn't about to give up on their only shot at rescue.

He returned to where Harry had dropped off Nate an hour later, effortlessly hauling several bundles of driftwood and sticks. His creaking body announced his presence.

Harry tended to the fire, putting some of the pieces brought to him on, stacking others nearby in a little hole he'd dug out for protection from the ocean spray. Even with what they'd found there, he had a feeling they couldn't last on the island forever. Physically, maybe, but mentally, it was probably better to get back to civilization, regardless of what form they were in. "Thanks for the supplies, Dwight. This oughta keep things going for a while."

Dwight looked around before tracing "Nate?" into the sand.

"Last I saw, he'd gone swimming to test out his new body."

A splash from the ocean nearby drew the pair's attention. Nate was bobbing up and down among the tropical waves, a goofy grin on his face; seeing the two looking his direction, he waved, water dripping from the webbing stretched between the fingers of his hand. "Swimming with a tail and unusable legs feels weird," he chuckled, paddling to shore and hauling his long, almost eel-like body onto the sand. "Still, the water's incredible."

A sudden thought occurred to Dwight. "Swim for help?" he wrote out.

"It'd help if we knew where we were - striking out at random wouldn't go too well."

"Scout for boats?" Dwight wrote quickly in reply.

"I can probably give that a shot, once my gills come in," Nate said. "I doubt I'd last long trying to swim with human lungs."

"Fair."

Nate looked up at Harry, the jagged grin still plastered to his face. "Hey Harry, you want to give the water a shot? I'm sure it'll feel just as good to you as it does to me."

"I don't see why not - probably be a little awkward swimming with my tail still growing in, but hey, sure!" He'd been wondering what it'd feel like, swimming with his body becoming more adapted to spending long periods of time in it. Still, with a gusto he hadn't shown in days, Harry plunged into the water, smiling at the sensation of it against his skin.

Dwight watched the two swimming through the ocean. He'd love to be able to do something like that, just forget about his warping body and enjoy some aspect of his change. But other than his hair feeling comforting in the sun, he didn't have anything close. On a lark he carefully dipped a ropey foot into the ocean. A brief rushing sensation filled him as his root hairs drew in water quickly gave way to a strong sting at the saltwater. He withdrew quickly.

The two aquatic castaways swam about for some time, coming up for air as needed as they tested their new bodies. After a while, Nate came up, though his mouth was a little too preoccupied to take in air. "'Ey!" he called out, grinning wide as he gestured to the flopping lump of flesh and scales clamped between his jaws. "Rrrk! A hish! I crrt a hish!"

Dwight gave an awkward thumbs-up from the shore. At least those two were having fun...

"Get the feeling that in a day or two, we won't even need to think about building a fishing rod." Harry grinned a little at the sight, having found swimming to be incredibly fun with his changed body. The fish had looked rather tempting too.

"I rrow, ri'?" Nate said giddily, swimming back to shore to drop off his catch; removing the fish from his mouth, he flopped down on the sand, catching his breath. "Hoo boy, that was exhausting... can't wait for those gills to get here, so I won't have to keep coming up for air all the time."

As he emerged from the water, Harry nodded and sighed. "Hopefully you can still breathe air."

Dwight trudged over and wrote, "Looked fun." in the sand

The happy expression on Harry's face vanished when he read what Dwight had written. It wasn't fair to him, having fun while he felt so miserable. "How about we just bed down for the night now?"

Nate's expression followed suit, and he looked down at his catch guiltily. "...Yeah... good idea..."

Dwight gestured to the beds he had made around the signal fire while Harry and Nate had been swimming. Two were made of leaves and in indents in the sand. The third was better described as a small pool dug out to the ocean.

"Night." he wrote before trudging off to the spot furthest from the fire. With a loud creaking he lay down. The bedding was almost unnecessary considering how tough his bark was, but Dwight wasn't going to give up on anything that still meant he had a bit of human left.

The appetite Nate had worked up disappeared nearly as fast as his exhausted grin; suddenly, it felt like a stone had been dropped in the pit of his stomach. With a mixture of shame and regret, he tossed the punctured fish into the fire, flopping dejectedly into the 'bed' Dwight had dug while he'd been busy frolicking and falling asleep before the smell of freshly-grilled fish could reach his nostrils.

"G'night..." The orca-to-be yawned loudly before closing his eyes, wondering what the next day would bring for all of them. Today had been... eventful, and not always in a good way.

XXX

Sleep hadn't come easily to Harry that night - concerns about Dwight turning into a tree and Nate being unable to live on land had kept him from restful sleep for a while. But ultimately, the sandman had beaten his concerns in the match occurring in his head. This time, it was the tropical sun hitting his eyelids that woke the man up. He grunted uncomfortably upon realizing his tail was now longer - it hung to about the back of his knees now and was starting to scale with the rest of his still-larger body. A quick check of his skin revealed it had gone completely black and white. As he ran his tongue over his teeth, he realized that his face had started to change, pushing out and getting broader, while his ears had started to wither. "Hngg... my neck is killing me..." Something had felt like it was stuck on his neck, and a moment later after a bit of huffing and puffing, the pressure left - a wad of sand had gotten lodged in his new blowhole. The projectile flew off and hit Nate in the side of his arm, though the orca-to-be didn't really seem to notice.

The shark-man grunted at the impact, but didn't move to glare at his cetacean friend. Nate's tail had grown substantially longer, which of course meant that his legs had shriveled further still, now little more than fleshy stumps against the long, sandy tube that was his body; his skin's changes had finally finished, having grown slightly tougher during the night. His eyes fluttered open, a broad shark-like muzzle the first thing their gaze fell upon; his entire head had restructured, broader and longer and lacking either ears or the hair that lay in a wet clump around his head. Nate would've sat up to further examine his body's latest changes, if not for the unpleasant fizzing queasiness running through his body. "...Mrrph... Morning..." he muttered from his pool of a bed.

"Good morning... oh wow... looks like you'll need that sled now more than ever... unless you want to swim around." Harry got up, the changing man probably clocking in at least seven feet tall and several hundred pounds by now. "I'm going to go check on Dwight - call if you need anything."

Dwight had slept like a log—an unfortunate phrase considering that's what he now resembled more than anything else. His skin had finished solidifying into bark and his remaining hair had completed its transition to vines. Dwight stirred as Harry neared. The creaking sounds his body made as he rose were more pronounced to the others, but barely audible to himself. The fading sense of hearing was not lost on Dwight. His hands—now barely identifiable as such from how ropey and long the fingers had become—flung to his face. The results were not inspiring. Dwight's head had thickened and had merged with his torso. Only his arms, legs, and eyes identified him as something other than a tree trunk.

Harry's expression fell upon seeing his friend's appearance - this really wasn't looking good. After helping the wooden man up, the orca handed him a stick to write with. "You... still in there?"

It was difficult, but Dwight managed to grasp the stick and clumsily wrote out, "Yes. Hard to hear / smell. Sight blurry." He paused before adding "Scared."

"Anything I can do for you? I want to help, but... I'm scared too."

Dwight paused. Whatever had been happening to his organs the previous day had apparently finished. Without a heart, lungs, or stomach, a silent calm had settled over his body. It was scary, but it let him think clearly. He knew what he wanted. "Don't want to be tree. Don't want to be lost. Want a face."

The cetacean-to-be nodded, then stroked his hairless chin for a moment. He'd been fond of whittling while he was in the scouts, but he hadn't needed to worry about killing his work back then. Still, he needed to do something. "It's... a bit of a gamble, but I could try and... ah... carve you a new face."

It was hard to see behind the bark, but Dwight's eyes lit up. "Do it," he wrote. "Any face. Please. Need sharp rock. Will help look." Dwight wrote before beginning a slow trudge along the beach towards where Nate lay in his pool. His root-feet slowed him down as they dragged through the sand.

Standing back up, Harry began combing the beach for a suitable instrument to help give his friend a new face. "I'll help as well... we really need to get off this island soon."

Nate's eyes flicked towards Dwight as he approached, though his altered head stayed where it was. "And I thought I was having troubles," he said, eyebrows raising as he examined his fellow castaway. "Can't say I've got any rocks, but..." With some effort, the shark spat out one of his jagged, cusped teeth onto his chest. "Think this'll do the trick? I'd help more, but..." He grunted in discomfort, wincing as another wave of the fizzing sensation rolled through him. "...Not really in any condition to."

A creaky nod. Dwight waved his stick in the air to draw Harry's attention and call the orca-man over to them.

The waving caught his attention, and soon enough, Harry had rejoined the other two. It seemed that Nate was down for the count, at least for the foreseeable future. "Whatcha got?"

"Tooth," Dwight wrote, drawing an arrow towards where the tooth lay.

"That... could work. Nice and sharp, easy to hold onto... yeah. I can work with this. Just sit back, try to relax, and tell me if you want me to stop." Sitting down cross-legged, Harry grabbed onto the tooth and motioned for Dwight to sit down facing him. He was nervous, but at this point, he just wanted to help.

Crossing his legs was a physical impossibility for Dwight. He knelt down awkwardly in front of Harry and motioned for him to begin.

Harry got to work, finding it impossible to really picture a human face, or at least one that didn't look like a circle with eyes and a mouth on it, so he licked his chops and elected to try something else. Making sure to avoid the tree-man's eyes, he carved and chiseled, the shape soon taking on the visage of something slightly more lupine. Long, pointed ears, a canine nose and snout, even some 'fur' soon started to take shape. After ten or so minutes, he stopped for a moment. "Almost done - decided to go a bit lupine for you... sorry, I'm not really good with human faces."

Dwight hadn't been paying too much attention during the carving. While his initial hunch about his sense of pain being dulled through his bark was correct, having someone chisel into your face still hurt, though thankfully not anywhere near as much as it could have. Dwight's focus had been on blocking and distracting himself from the pain and staying still. It wasn't until Harry addressed him directly that he realized the orca had paused. A wolf head wasn't what he had expected, but it was better than a tree trunk.

"Wolf > Wood" he wrote, "Please finish."

"Alright. I hope this hasn't hurt you too badly." He resumed his work, chiseling out some sharp teeth, a few more tufts of fur and then, with a flourish, he blew the wood dust off of Dwight, the head now looking more lupine than anything else. "Et Voila... you are done!"

Dwight tried to feel along his new head. All he could tell from his ropey hands was that it was indeed wolf-shaped. He creakily leaned over to Nate's pool and looked at his reflection. The image was... interesting. The muzzle Harry had carved jutted out like someone had stuck a tube onto the front of his face, though the teeth and nose were relatively well done. The brow sloped awkwardly and the 'fur' resembled random scribbles more than anything else. A pair of lopsided ears finished up the image. Still, it was unmistakably wolf-like, and most importantly it was an identifiable face.

"Thank you," he wrote.

"No problem. I'm glad I could help... even if I'm not really what you'd call a master with carving."

Dwight drew a smiley face sticking its tongue out before writing, "You haven't moved, Nate. Ok?"

With some difficulty, Nate read Dwight's message. "I'm not dying," he said, "but I'm not sure if I'm okay."

"What do you think is wrong? You seem to be breathing normally... then again, I'm not a doctor."

"It's my skeleton," Nate said. "Sharks don't have bones; their entire skeleton's made up of cartilage, like the stuff our noses and ears used to be made of..." He paused again for another wave of queasiness. "It feels like it's halfway through changing, somewhere between stiff cartilage and a framework of wet noodles. Like I said, I'm not dying, but I don't think it's a good idea for me to move until it's done."

"Be here all day?" Dwight wrote.

"Want one of us to stick close to you?"

"Doubt I'll be here all day," the shark replied. "Probably another few hours, give or take. If you want to stick around, I wouldn't complain... I could use some company."

Dwight drew up a crude hangman game. He planted his legs in the sand and felt his root-feet wriggle out into the soil under the beachhead. "Will stay," he wrote.

A nod from the orca-man as he sat down and grabbed a piece of driftwood. Carving someone a new face had given him something to do, and with a game of hangman on, he wouldn't be bored. "I'll be here - except when I go to grab lunch or dinner."

Nate grinned. "Thanks, guys... you're good friends."

If he could, Dwight would have blushed. Admittedly, he'd been focusing more on himself this entire time. Nate had been an afterthought. But as the day wore on and they played hangman, tic-tac-toe, and one failed attempt at chess, Dwight realized how glad he was to have Nate and Harry with him. If it weren't for Harry, Dwight would've probably gotten himself drowned on the first day with some half-assed escape attempt. But he was alive, and he had a face again. Sure, he was still scared, but at least he wasn't in this alone.

XXX

The next day's sun was warm against Dwight's back. Leaves had grown across his hair-vines and were eagerly soaking up the rays. His tongue lolled out of his month at the feeling of blissful contentment.

...tongue?

Eyes of solid amber flared to life as Dwight stood up. The creaks of his body were as loud as they had ever been—his hearing was back!

"G-guys!" he shouted, an unfamiliar earthy voice coming from his mouth. "I c-can hear! And talk! And—ooof!"

His hands and feet had finished turning into roots during the night and had burrowed into the sand as Dwight slept. He fell over himself as they were unceremoniously uprooted.

"Awesome news, man! And holy crap... I had no idea the job I did on your face would do that..." Harry had already been up, and had been emerging from the ocean the moment that Dwight had awoken. The wooden lupine face had once been somewhat shoddy in appearance, but now it looked like it had been done by a master. The orca-man himself had undergone more changes. His face looked more like a proper orca snout, and his tail had almost grown to full size, the appendage dragging through the sand. His hands and feet seemed to also have grown webbing between the fingers and toes.

"I know!" Dwight exclaimed. From the feel of it against the roof of his mouth, he guessed that a leaf had grown in and was serving as a tongue. It felt very strange and light, like it could flutter out of his mouth at any moment, but was held secure nonetheless.

"Now, where did Nate go? He seemed to be sleeping when we broke our game off... yesterday... holy shit! Nate!" The orca quickly bent down after noticing that the shark-man's entire body seemed to be submerged in the pool of water that had been serving as his bed. He gently prodded the man's shoulder, as at the moment, he was afraid that shaking Nate would do more harm than good.

The shark's eyes flicked open, spotting his orca friend through the ripples of the water over his head; he gave a cheerful nod and closed his eyes again, resting there for a few moments as the fact that he'd been sleeping with his head completely underwater slowly sank in. The moment it hit home, Nate's eyes snapped open again, and he bolted upright, gasping for breath.

"I take it the gills came in?" Dwight asked. His leafy tongue hung out in the closest his wooden muzzle could come to a grin.

"Sure looks like it. Guessing your skeleton finished changing too... you're a lot more animated now."

Nate's eyes widened, and his webbed hand flew to his side. Sure enough, between the ridges of his cartilaginous ribs sat five slits in his flesh, gently moving in time with his slowly slowing breaths. "Woah..." was all he could manage.

"Do you still have your lungs? Also, I was thinking... we should see more of this island. Maybe there's something here." Harry let out a low whistle at the sight of the gills, obviously pleased to see both of his friends doing well.

"I... I think I do," Nate nodded, giving a sigh of relief at not losing his lungs. "I'm breathing air just fine right now... man, thank goodness for that."

The orca clapped his hands together - things were starting to look up for them. Dwight wasn't panicking anymore, and Nate could move once more, and they didn't need to worry about him suffocating on land. "Awesome!"

"Indeed!" Dwight nodded. "And yea, I'm all for poking around. Anything to get moving good and proper again." He seemed invigorated by the trio's physical developments.

"Sounds good," Nate agreed, sliding from his pool into the ocean. "So, how do we do this? I mean, I can circle the island, see if I spot anything from the water, but that's about it."

"That sounds like a plan... you and I look from the water, and Dwight looks from the shore or something?"

A creaky shrug. "Works for me. Maybe there'll be an inlet."

Dwight began trudging off through the sand, but his roots continued to slow him down. "Blasted roots... I almost lost my face, not letting this stop me," he muttered. As he eyed his roots, an odd idea occurred. "Nate, can you form a pile of mud at the edge of your pool real quick? Just a small one."

The shark nodded, dredging up some of the sediment from the bottom of his 'bed' and placing it on the edge. "Might be a little salty, I'm afraid."

Harry just looked on with a curious look on his face - he wasn't quite sure what Dwight had in mind here.

Dwight concentrated, mustering the full mobility of his roots into folding and curling together into a vague rounded oval-shape. Carefully and creakily, he dabbed some of the mud onto his writing stick and padded it onto the sole of the foot, forming a sticky pad.

"Ok, little stingy," he admitted, "but it'll pass once the water is sucked out. Point is the mud'll hold the roots in place."

He did the same to his other foot and had Harry help him with his hands. The end result was that each bundle of roots had been wrapped up into vague round shapes held together with mud. Dwight creaked heavily as he bent down onto all fours. With his weight evenly distributed along his 'paws', the wooden wolf didn't sink into the sand.

"Clever... making paws out of mud and using your roots." Harry chuckled as he dove into the water with an audible splash, making sure to jump in away from where Dwight had been standing. With his fins and tail almost fully grown in, and the webbing, swimming was practically second nature to him.

"Looks like you're getting the hang of that body of yours," Nate nodded, following Harry into the water; before he dived, a thought struck him. "Oh! Which way should we start looking in?" he asked, looking up and down the beach.

"North?" Dwight offered from the shore as he set off. The sand felt odd against his 'paws', but it was better than trying to trudge through on his roots. His limbs, obviously, were not designed for moving on all fours, but with a loud creaking he bent his joints just as one would break in the spine of a hardcover book. "That, uh, sounded way worse than it actually was," he said sheepishly to Harry and Nate.

"I believe it," Nate said. "Okay, north it is!" With that, the shark-man dove beneath the waves.

"Someone needs to oil your joints or... something. But North sounds good!"

XXX

The transformed trio swam and walked northwards, with Harry delighting in every sensation in the water. It just felt so good against his smooth skin, and the webbing and his tail made it far easier than it had been while he'd been human. And if it felt this good now, he could only imagine what it would be like once the changes finally finished. While he wasn't sure how long the trip took, eventually the friends arrived at an inlet at what they assumed was the north end of the island. It was well-hidden from view from the ocean - Harry could only imagine pirates or smugglers loving this island for a hideout.

Dwight padded along, moving from sand to soil as the beach gave way to jungle. The soil was damp and inviting. When combined with the sun beating down on his leafy mane, it was tempting to just stay still and relax. But there'd be time for that later. He and the others followed the inlet curiously to see where it led. "My money's on a magic spring at the centre of the island," he joked.

"At this rate, that wouldn't surprise me." Harry chuckled a little as he went ashore, smiling.

The scent of saltwater wafted off of Harry. It was still muffled to Dwight's wooden nose, but stronger than yesterday.

Nate chuckled. "Yeah, 'impossible' suddenly seems a lot different than it did a week ago..." He paused for a moment. "...Hard to believe it hasn't even been a week. A lot's happened in not a lot of time, huh?"

Dwight nodded. "I never thought I'd be happy to be turning into a wolf, let alone a wooden one, but now I'm just glad I'm not becoming a tree anymore."

"That makes two of us. But yeah... it's been less than a week since we got here, hasn't it?"

"Six days, five nights," Dwight said. "And who knows how many... more..."

His voice trailed off as the trio reached the mouth of the inlet. Harry and Nate followed the arboreal wolf's gaze to a sight none of them had expected. There was a boat beached along the inlet. It was likely decades old. Thick vines had grown along the vessel and what few parts of the metal hull could be seen were almost completely rusted through.

"Huh... boat's been here for a while. Wonder who left it here?" Harry started to move closer to the boat - it was obvious that the boat wasn't operable, but still - who had used it?

Dwight approached the boat curiously and pulled away some of the vines. "Paint's gone. Doesn't look like any supplies were left behind if there were any to begin with," he reported.

Upon seeing the boat more clearly, Nate's eyes widened. "Wait, wait... That boat looks like one of the old patrol boats used by the Japanese around World War II! Maybe there's an old base here someplace!"

"Seriously? How can you be sure?"

"They did make a lot of bunkers on islands like this - not all of them were found."

"Wait, if you're right, Nate, then wouldn't they have brought a radio with them?"

"My dad was a maritime nut," Nate said, hauling himself onto the shore. "He's got a collection of photos and models of old ships, including one just like this one." The shark's eyes scanned the surrounding foliage. "But if there's a bunker near here, there's a good chance there's a radio."

"Let's just hope it's functional. I can read Japanese, if it helps any."

"Ah, the benefits of the anime nerd..."

The orca rolled his eyes. "I learned it for other reasons."

"If you say so. How about you peel off some bark from one of these trees so Nate can get a new sled?"

The shark nodded. "Okay, let's get looking."