Slowly, the man backed up a couple more steps and Mathew almost called out for him to stop. But, not wanting to scare the man anymore than he appeared to be, the twenty-five-year held his peace. Instead, he reiterated, "I'm not going to hurt you," before saying in what he hoped was a calm, soothing voice, "My name is Mathew," as he touched his chest as he did so, then asking, "What is yours?"
Linus, his mind unable to make the connection of what was expected of him, hooted as he tried to recall what the sister, the mother or even the father said he should do in such a situation. Thinking it was to go to one of them, he clutched his plush tight and looked wildly about. Not seeing any of them, only the cabin room, he tried to find the link he was missing. After a moment, he held up a free hand and made a motion like he was writing. As he did this, he hooted out, "Circles in the sand, round and round, never ending."
Confused by this, Mathew stared at the man, certain that he heard the words the man was uttering somewhere. Drawing a blank as to where, he watched the man moving his hand about in the air. And, as if something clicked in placed, Mathew snapped his fingers, causing the man to jump back and look wildly about. Trying not to smile, Mathew made the same motion, inquiring, "You want to write something?" as he did so.
Linus, hooting in excitement, stopped his hand motions. Grasping his plush, he thrust it forward and exclaimed, "Pretty unicorn pony."
"Oh, man. Probably shouldn't have said that," Mathew stated, heavy layers of worry lacing his voice as he did so.
The man giving him a puzzled look, Mathew wondered how he should explain. Unable to come up with a reasonable explanation, he sighed and made a motion to follow after him. Behind him, the man hooted something that sounded like, "Honey suckle and summer wine," before cautiously following after, clutching his plush even tighter. Leading the man to the office he'd discovered, Mathew scrounged a bit before finding a pencil and a legal note pad. Handing them to the man, unsure what the point would be, Mathew tried to come up with something appropriate to say, but in the end commented, "I'm going to get breakfast," before leaving the room.
Alone, Linus looked at the items he'd been given and scowled. They weren't the normal stuff he produced stories with and it bothered him. Thinking, wondering if what he produced would be altered in any way, he stood there, slowly rocking back and forth. After a couple seconds, he hooted and plodded cautiously toward the desk. Sitting down, he set his plush on the desk, spun the chair around a circle, then, after abruptly stopping, put pencil to paper, but didn't write anything. Instead, he reached down and pulled forward on his pyjama pants. The thing that made water was rock hard and, for reasons Linus couldn't comprehend, felt insistent that he touch it in a specific manner. Having felt it grow this way before, but never had these feelings, he'd always been able to ignore it, as he didn't understand why it changed forms and was content when it returned to its limp state.
But now, it was disruptive. Hooting in an annoyed tone, he tried to pull forward on his pyjama bottoms again. But feeling the fabric of his underwear brushing against the tip of the organ, it only seemed to make the sensation worse. Uttering more hooting noises, some conveying the distress he was experiencing, others more of the annoyance, Linus reached for the plush unicorn. Squeezing his eyes shut, he hugged the plush animal close and began rocking back and forth.
Desperate to push past the feelings threatening to overwhelm him, Linus tried to sort out why what was happening was happening. His mind making fragmented leaps and bounds, but no connection, he thought about the father, the sister and the mother, tried to recall if they had ever said anything about the thing that made water and what he should do if it did what it was doing now. Failing that, he instead tried to push what he was viewing as an over simulation away and focusing on the stories he wrote, some of them published, Linus began hooting out an odd music tune as he rocked back and forth.
Out in the kitchen, Mathew wondered briefly what the strange man would want for breakfast as he prepared himself a bowl of cereal. Sitting down to eat, he found himself worrying about what the man had said and whether what was happening to him would eventually happen to the newest guest of the cabin. Thinking, "He's kind of sweet, in a child-like way," Mathew found it disturbing that, if he was guessing correctly, that he was turning into a girl because he'd called Tobias one and that something similar could happen to this other person.
"Only, instead, he becomes an animal. A mindless beast," Mathew thought and wondering how he could warn the man, he found himself at a loss, as the man didn't seem to be right and the stuff he uttered seemed, to Mathew, nonsense.
Still trying to figure out the dilemma before him as he finished his breakfast, he was surprised when the man suddenly appeared, still clutching the purple unicorn plush Mathew was certain was a girl's toy. Watching as the man shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, he was taken aback when the man suddenly thrust out the legal pad Mathew had handed him. Taking it, he saw that the first page was now filled with a tiny, immaculate writing. Flipping through, he saw that the man had filled the first eight pages, front and back, with what he thought was a story. Looking at the man, he said, "Would you like breakfast whilst I read this? Then, afterward, we can maybe try and figure out who you are and where you came from?" to which the man simply hooted in response.