She hadn't even undone her sheets, and was sprawled out on top of her bed. Cowrie had been more tired than she had thought, and tried - in vain - to get some rest. And she almost had it, too...until she heard various noises from outside, ones loud enough to wake her. She twitched an ear in slight annoyance. What was going on, she wondered, to make everybody else so noisy? A strange feeling passed over her, and she shivered a bit. It was one of those that were hard to describe, and it passed over in a few seconds. Cowrie opened her eyes. Nothing seemed different, she thought. She went over to turn on the light, then sat down on her bed and put her hands nearby....and then she felt something crawling over her left hand. She brought her hand closer to her face, as she couldn't see it clearly through her blurry-eyed state. Staring at the thing for a moment, she finally realized what it was...and was brought fully to attention. Ugh! Gross! She yelped a bit and shook her hand violently when she saw that it was a worm she had been holding. NORMAL earthworms and her usually didn't go together...but this one looked as though someone had put it through several stages of mutation. Cowrie tried edging away from it a bit, but stopped when she felt more things behind her. "Gaah!" She jumped off the bed, which had started swarming with the horrible worms. The floor was starting to fill with them also, she noticed in horrified distaste. Stepping backwards, hopefully towards the door, she felt something squish beneath her feet. Double gross! Cowrie closed her eyes and shuddered, wiping her feet off on something that wasn't worm-infested. Making a mental note to actually see about getting some shoes one day, Cowrie tried again to make her way toward the door, this time not daring to open her eyes. It was bad enough to think about these worms....but it was even worse to look at them...or maybe both were equally bad. Cowrie squinched her eyes even tighter as she slammed her back against the wall. Almost, almost to the door...but with these freaky annelids in the way, it seemed almost nigh impossible. A tug on her pants leg made Cowrie inadvertantly open her eyes. Looking down, almost fearfully, she saw one of the blasted things crawling up her eyes. Suppressing a scream, she kicked that leg out, sending the worm flying. She shivered in revulsion. "Ick" and several other words were coming to mind right now, along with the mental command of "get to the door!" But her body wouldn't quite respond to her terrified mind. After a few seconds of feeling glued to the floor, Cowrie managed to "unglue" herself, and bolted for the doorway, squishing a few more worms in the process. She shuddered. She would be soaking her feet for a while after this! If this ever stopped..... She hadn't taken her gaze from the middle of the room, and couldn't see anything behind her. As she put her hand on the opposite side of the door, she felt something sharp graze it. Surprised by the pain, she quickly turned around, holding onto the doorjamb for balance. She wished she hadn't looked. This thing was even worse than the other worms. It was also a worm, but much bigger...and about a couple times worse. It looked like none that Cowrie had ever seen before, with watery, crimson-red eyes and a ring of sharp teeth around its mouth. The giant worm reared itself back, and Cowrie noticed that it stood nearly her height - a frightening concept for the poor furret. Frozen with shock and fear, she didn't realize that it was coming towards her, until it stood close enough for her to get an unwanted close-up view of it. It smelled bad - worse than bad. Horrible. Cowrie's stomach jumped around a bit, and she was thankful that she hadn't had much for dinner. The giant worm lunged forward, and Cowrie, gaining enough sense for a few precious seconds, rolled out of its way - and out of the room. Well, finally.....but what now? The worm, seeing that its prey had escaped from it, turned itself around in an almost fascinating motion. Cowrie backed up, in little steps, edging away, until she bumped into something else. Another large worm, though not as big as the other one. -What now?- she wondered, and a sound ffrom in front of her made her realize she had maken a mistake. The giant worm had lunged again, taking advantage of Cowrie's moment of inattentiveness. She did the first thing that came to her mind, and raised up her right arm to block the worm. Taking note of where her arm was, she realized that it had been aiming for her heart. Well, now it wasn't. She hissed in pain as the gruesome thing's teeth dug into her arm. A burning sensation flared up through the rest of her arm, and up into her shoulder. Nearly wrestling with the thing, Cowrie finally managed to unhook it from her arm, and she fell backwards onto the floor. Tears started to mist over her eyes. The pain from the wound was excrutiating, and her right arm was near useless now. The blood from it dripped onto the floor, and had Cowrie not been in such a rush to not be HERE, she would have taken the time to clean it. The giant worm, moving faster than it appeared to be able to, grabbed Cowrie again in a vile hug. She beat at its slimy hide with her good hand, her mind suddenly exploding in panic. ~ All of Cowrie's efforts were...not working, it seemed. The worm constricted itself tighter and tighter, forcing Cowrie to take short gasps to be able to breathe. If nothing happened soon....she was worm food. Simple enough. The coils loosened, and she felt herself able to breathe properly again - though they weren't loose enough for her to escape from yet. A stinging sensation on her ear made her jerk her head forward. She cursed a bit, and twisted herself around to face the worm's head. As it dipped its head towards her again, possibly to try and nibble on her a bit, she swung out with her left hand - and hit it in the eye. The worm's entire body shuddered violently, and Cowrie found herself suddenly making impact with the nearest wall. Tasting something metallic, she spat out what was in her mouth, and saw blood mixed in with saliva. She had bitten her tongue, but that was nothing compared to what the worm would do. Standing up quickly, she reeled as her head began to spin and lights danced in front of her eyes. Her wound throbbed a bit, and the thought came to her that perhaps that worm's bite may have been poisoned.... -Great. That's the last thing I would nneed right now....- -Of course, you did just slam your headd against the wall, silly furret. That alone might cause it...- Cowrie's brief inner monologue was interrupted as she turned her attention back to the current situation. The worm that had grabbed her earlier was lying low on the ground, several scratches across the right side of its head.. -That must be from what I did to it-...and while it didn't look as though it were anywhere near incapacitated, it also didn't seem willing to attack again. There was still the other worm, though...the one that Cowrie had nearly forgotten about. She groaned and closed her eyes. Just let it come, something said in the back of her mind. No use in fighting something off when you're technically half-eaten anyways.... As it slithered closer, though, and Cowrie could see its face more clearly - not as gruesome as its larger partner's had been, but gruesome enough - something flared up in her, some kind of anger at her present weakness, anger at the thing that was coming toward her, sudden anger at...everything, as far as she was concerned. She kicked at it, making it slide across the floor a few inches, and before it could do anything more, Cowrie jumped on it. "Surprise!" she yelled. "The prey is fighting back!" Almost gleefully, she knocked the worm on the head, enjoying watching it pull back its head in pain. She pulled back her right arm, ignoring the pain from it, and then scratched the worm horizontally across what would have been its neck region. The worm wasn't a pushover. It got its bearings straight and fought back, slashing and biting with its teeth, whipping with the end of its tail. After a moment, it managed to grab Cowrie around the neck with a part of its body. Grabbing the offending coil with both of her hands, Cowrie tightened her grip until she felt something drip over her fingers. The worm squealed, and loosened its hold a bit, but not all the way. Not able to dig her fingers into the worm's flesh any tighter, Cowrie, still in her slight frenzy, did something she normally wouldn't have done - she bit the worm, going for the nearest part of the coil she could reach. She suddenly wished she hadn't. Though the coil was lifted from around her, the vile taste of the worm's slimy hide made her stagger back. Taking a moment's break, she vomited, attempting to get that most horrible of tastes out of her mouth. Nothing but bile came up, and she wiped her mouth with a sleeve. The will she had had for battling a couple minutes ago was now gone. The worm had moved off a little ways, alternating between looking at some fresh wounds and glaring at Cowrie. Looking down at her hands, Cowrie noticed that all of her fingers were covered in some black substance, which she guessed was the worm's blood. "God....I need a break," Cowrie sighed, pulling herself up to a wall and lying her back against it. The thing she wanted most right now was just some peace and quiet, but she wasn't about to get it with the worms still hanging around. ~ Cowrie found herself waking up out of a shallow sleep. She couldn't remember falling asleep, but with all the excitement of the previous night (or early morning, Cowrie thought), she would have been amazed if she HADN'T dozed off. She turned her head to the side, to see.....nothing. Doing a double-take, she realized (though it took a moment for the thought to sink in fully) that the two giant worms that had been gnawing on her before were gone. Cowrie didn't know where the worms had gone (perhaps someone had taken them away while she had slept? The thought of a janitor sweeping away the two worms with just a broom came to Cowrie's mind, and she giggled at the silly thought), nor she did care to find out. They were gone, at least. Standing up, Cowrie's sense of balance decided to desert her for a moment, and she grabbed for the wall, steadying herself until she could stand up at least semi-straight. A warm flush spread itself over her face, and pain flared up in her arm, reminding her that while the worms may be gone....the injuries didn't seem to be. "Man..." She tried waggling the fingers of her right hand a bit, but couldn't manage it. The movement from them caused even more pain to fire up in her arm. "So much for that idea..," she grunted, and held her arm close to her chest, using her other arm to help immobilize it. Cowrie wondered if she had another shirt in her pack - she probably did, but she would have liked to be more sure -, for this one's sleeve was torn beyond minor repairs. And another wonder: I'm worried about my clothing at a time like this? The flush came over her again, and Cowrie knew (well, was guessing, actually) that she had a slight fever. The jagged wounds on her arm, too, were feeling hot under her touch. "Crap....just my luck," she muttered. "As if those worms weren't enough, now I'm getting sick from one." She had to get to the nurse's office sometime soon...preferably sometime in the immediate future...or else hope she had a nice penchant for healing. -I think...I'll take the nurse's officee,- she thought with a humorless grin. -It would be a lot less painful than healing the hard way.- A few steps forward she went, and stopped before the floor decided to come up and greet her. Closing her eyes for a few moments, and taking a few deep breaths, she started walking again....hoping she could remember WHERE the nurse's office was. If her head wasn't so clouded up at the moment, then maybe she could have an easier time remembering. Oh well. It had to be down somewhere this way, if she was correct...though Cowrie didn't trust any bit of her memory right now.