Eric couldn't quite believe what had happened to her. That some kid claiming to be her daughter would be the least weird part of her day...yeesh. She was, apparently, stuck in the past for (apparently) a week, out in the woods that her hometown hadn't yet expanded into, with a little girl who (at least allegedly) actually knew how to survive out here. And "Samuel will help you?" Who the hell was Samuel!?
For a while she just stood there, staring blankly at the woods surrounding her. This was all so crazy, every bit of it. It was the kind of thing that ought to be a dream, but she knew it wasn't - her dreams weren't this linear, or quite this coherent. This had to be a hoax, then! She'd walk over back into the town from wherever it was she was, and everybody and everything would be as it was this morning.
But...if it was for real, and she did that...what would people of the late 19th century think of an anthropomorphic skunk? How would they react? If they valued her fur more than her...no, she couldn't take that risk. But what, then? She sighed; she didn't know. "So," she said, "uh, what now?"
Nikki got that cute little "thinking" look again. "Mm, I think we gotta find a place to make a den!" she said.
"A...a den? Huh?"
"You know," the little girl said, "t' sleep in! An' then we can go find some food..."
Somehow Eric had a sneaking suspicion that nothing as simple as a frozen pizza was on the menu. "Like, what can we eat out here?" she asked, not sure she wanted the answer.
"Oh, lotsa things," the skunk-child said, as she started looking around for a place to dig out a den. "Fruit an' stuff, and maybe we can even catch some birds!"
Eric felt her stomach churn. This...this was going to be a long week.
"Riley, honey?" Terri asked, sitting on the floor next to his daughter. "How are you feeling?"
"Mm, tired..." she replied. "Happy it went okay...wish it went better...wanna go to bed." She didn't for a moment regret taking action, but it would've been nice to know just what kind of hard work it was joining two places across worlds...
Terri nodded. "I think you should. Toby, hon, we'd probably better get going..."
Toby turned to her husband. She didn't really want to leave yet...this was still an ongoing event, wasn't it? But she could see how tired Riley looked, and it was pretty late. "...okay," she said. "Jay, Peter, we're going to go home. Call me if you can't get a ride out to the station van by the roadblock, okay?"
The fox-woman grinned. "Will do. Drive carefully, all right? No telling what things are like out there now."
The anime girl smiled. "We will, thanks." She gently hoisted Riley to her feet, and the three of them went out to the van.
