How tall are you? Wow! Look at your arms! Oh you were in line for lunch. You should stay away from the Beef Stroganoff that stuff is nasty. Have the s...uffed shells and the chicken. They taste sooo goo-" she stopped rapid fire speech when she noticed the smile on his face. "What?" she asked while she twirled her fiery gold hair between her fingers. Mason smiled as he spoke, "Mandie... Yes, it's me. Yeah I've been working out for the past few years. Yeah I'm okay. No you didn't hurt me. Thank. It had to be obvious, but not too obvious. I wasn’t sure how experienced these guys were in tracking or bushcraft. I hoped that they were clueless, but I wasn’t going to count on it. If any of them had experience, they may get suspicious and not follow my game plan.I knew when they were starting to get close. The birds and insects got quiet, and I started to hear human type sounds. But I hung around long enough to get a good idea of just how close. I was waiting at a sharp bend in the trail. To my right I saw a cargo bag and a back pack. They both had a camouflage pattern, though the cargo bag was a heavy canvas material and the pack was a lighter material – ripstop nylon, it looked like to me – parachute cloth with a liner on the inside. They looked like the ones I remembered seeing the soldiers carrying on TV coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Along with the sound of birds and dogs, I realized after a moment, I could hear laughter – little kid's laughing, actually.. "I looked at the mirror in horror. I gave a small cry and my hand went tomy mouth as I saw my transformed face for the first time. It was red andblotchy, as if I with some terrible disease. It was a girl's face, butpuffy, dirty and stained. Yet, as I scrutinized it, I saw regularfeatures, intelligent eyes, high cheekbones, long lashes and full lips.She had my dark hair and brown eyes.The Frau saw my expression. "Yes, as a woman you should be concernedwith your appearance, but have no fear, it.