[i]Wake up, please...wake up...[/i]

Ripley groaned as someone called to her and shook her shoulder gently. She mumbled with her eyes still closed, "Five more minutes..." She then tried to roll over and go back to sleep, with her hands clutching towards the sheets. 

The only problem was that there were no sheets to clutch. Instead, there was only rock. Ripley groaned when she slowly realized this, and she slowly lifted her head, confused by her senses. As she opened her eyes, she found that at first they stung and were blurry, but as she blinked, her vision grew clearer and clearer. 

"Wh-Wha...?" She whispered as she looked towards the source of the voice, and she asked quietly, "Who are you...?" She then tried to lift herself up, finding that she was quite sore. She hissed in slight pain, and she looked at the ground. She commented out loud, her confusion growing clearer along with her own voice, "...This isn't the hotel. Where am I?" 

Then she noticed her own hands, and she lifted one of them closer for inspection. There, she saw it: How her hand was not how it should be. It was now webbed between the fingers, and her nails seemed...sharper? She also that there seemed to be a slight sheen of blue in her skin. She then asked out loud, her confusion slowly bordering towards fright, "What...What happened to my hands?" She then tried to move her legs. 

But she felt like they were stuck together. After failing to move one leg away from the other, she whimpered "What?!" before trying again. Her attempts resulted with her flipping onto her back and her tail curled upwards so that it was dangling over her, for her to see. Instead of her legs, there was a blue fish tail. 

[i]No...! This....This can't be right![/i] 

Ripley couldn't help but think to herself. As though to test and see if the tail was really hers, she moved the tail back and forth and it moved according to her will. 

She sat herself up as she stared at the tail, and after a couple of deep breaths that turned into wheezes, she screamed. 

The scream was filled with confusion, shock, and fright. Kassandra can be pretty darn sure that anyone outside of the grotto would be able to hear the scream....especially if they were far from the grotto. 

She'd also noticed that Ripley had seaweed around her arm like a bandage. 

[hr]

Zack didn't seem to have any reaction to Brendan's cheerful question, except an aloof and calm, "Just a table for three. Hoping to get breakfast before we head out," 

Before Brendan could lead Zack to the table however, the third friend, Richard, came running back and he said to Zack, "Zack! Wait!" He stopped and bent down so that his hands rested on his knees, while panting to catch his breath. Zack quietly waited for Richard to catch his breath before the brown haired boy straightened back up and told Zack, "Zack....Ripley hasn't answered me at all," 

Zack shrugged and asked "Maybe she's still asleep?" Brendan shook his head and answered "Even if that was the case, she would have given a mumble or [i]something![/i] It's not like her to not answer," Zack sighed and he tried to reassure Richard, "Calm down, Rich. There's no reason to panic. Maybe she went out ahead of us?" Richard pointed out, "She hasn't even told us anything. Normally she would have let us know," 

Zack carefully considered his words, before checking his phone. Sure enough, there was nothing from Ripley. No text message, no email, no nothing. Zack pocketed his phone, and he answered Richard, "....We're going to look for her," 

Richard nodded, and told Zack, "I'll ask the hotel staff. Maybe they've seen her," He then hurried off to the front desk.

Zack then turned his attention back to Brendan and apologized, "Sorry man. Looks like we're gonna have to cancel that table for now,"