There were so many stares. It never took the people of Rodehills long to wake up and get started on the things that needed to be done- a level of dedication to the well-being of the community that Madeline was not able to appreciate as she, Arin, and Anya made their way to the other side of town. It was only last night that she had hidden next to the houses along this same path. Now she walked openly, passed right by the owners of those homes, and they would not stop staring!

Madeline’s eyes met with those of Smith, one of the village’s oldest shepherds. His eyes snapped away from Madeline, only to settle on Anya, who Madeline was cradling in her arms.  He turned away and kept walking past them. What was his deal? Had he been there last night? Was he surprised Madeline had returned so soon, or at all? Or maybe this whole thing was news to him. Either way, she reasoned, he wasn’t stopping her from getting where she needed to go. If there was going to be a problem, she’d sort it out later.

Others followed a similar pattern as Smith. Most ignored her entirely. On the entire walk to Eric’s, no one offered her words of support or of condemnation. She wished they would talk to her, regardless if their words were helpful or hurtful. At least then she’d know where she stood.

Eric lived on the opposite side of town, in one of the oldest and largest houses. His and Madeline’s social circles had never intersected much. Even when she and his nephew had been friends he was never really around. But he had a well-established reputation as the best veterinarian in the village. She knocked on the door.

A moment later she heard him coming down the steps. He opened the door. Eric was a very tired-looking man. Large bags hung under his eyes, and his hair was just on the edge of turning entirely grey. He gave Madeline a confused look, but when he noticed Anya, he swung the door open to let them in.

“Doctorin’ table is in the back.” Eric pointed to the far corner of the room. He walked over and started slipping on a white jacket that was hung over a nearby chair.

Madeline carried Anya over to the metal table, Arin following close being her. They set Anya down and cautiously stepped back and sat down in a couple nearby chairs. The little blob of a wolf starting kicking.

Without saying a word, Eric walked over to Anya and began moving their paws. He held his hand against her chest for a while, then stroked the side of her mouth until she opened it up so he could look inside. Anya, for her part, didn’t seem to mind.

He turned to Madeline and Arin. “Looks like she’s pretty healthy. Small, but healthy.”

“We gave her formula for the dog puppies, is that okay to keep doing?” asked Arin.

“Oh yeah, you can keep feeding her that. You’ll know to stop when she bites one of your fingers off.”

“Excuse me?” Madeline sat upright in her chair and glared at Eric.

“Easy,” Eric held up a hand as he sat down in a chair next to the table. “I’m just saying, they can be really dangerous animals.”

“I would know. Your nephew came running to me for years, asking me to scare the wolves away. I never once saw them attack anyone or anything.”

Eric leaned back in his chair. “Fair enough. You do you. But you should know there’s a lot of shepherds in this town. Even if it’s just until it’s old enough to live on its own, I don’t think the village’ll appreciate literally having wolves walking among us.”

“I’m increasingly aware.” Madeline said, placing her hand in Arin’s for support. She hadn’t meant to take the anger and stress building inside her out on Eric. But he was here, he was talking to her, and he was certainly not saying anything that would calm her down.

“This about Chad last night?” Eric asked, the front legs on his chair clopping to the ground as he leaned forward again.
Madeline gave a small nod.
“Your name’s Madeline now, right? Well, Madeline, I’m sorry about Chad. He cares a lot about this town. Worries that we don’t exactly have much keeping it safe. Not a good excuse, but that’s what it is.” Eric pointed at Madeline’s ears. “I don’t know what’s going on with you there, and frankly I ain’t got the time or energy to care. But if I get the chance, I’ll try to talk some sense into the boy.”

“But if you don’t care, why would you bother?” Arin asked, holding Madeline’s hand tight.

Eric shrugged. He picked up Anya and gave her back to Madeline. “I’m at least somewhat a doctor, and I like to think an almost respectable one. I don’t like seeing critters get hurt.”

Madeline stood up, cradling Anya.

“Make sure she gets plenty of food and rest, she’ll be walking in not too long. Couple weeks later she’ll start wanting to chew on everything. When she does, she’ll probably be ready for solid food.” Eric waved. “And good luck being wolf mom, you might need it.”

They took a few steps out the door when Eric shut it behind them. Madeline turned to Arin to talk about what was on her mind. “Did that go well or not?”

Arin held on to her shoulder. “There’s ways in which it could have gone worse, but you still deserve to have it go better than that. I love the light in your eyes when you talk about your changes. It’s a shame that everyone can’t just be excited for you.”

She leaned on Arin as they walked back home. Madeline kept her eyes on Arin and Anya, away from the staring and the awkward glancing away of passer-bys. This wasn’t the time to be dealing with that. The sun was bright and approaching its zenith. Her legs felt weak and her eyes yearned to close and stay shut for a little while. She’d stayed up too late. Or too early? It was difficult to define, especially through the haze of unwillfully encroaching sleep.

Then she heard a sound. It came towards them, quickly. Then suddenly stopped.

Madeline looked behind her. She didn’t see anyone, but noticed it would have been easy to duck behind a nearby building. They kept on walking. She was too tired to deal with anyone’s nonsense. 

A bit further down the road the noise came towards them again. Madeline whipped around and caught a glimpse of some movement that ducked behind a large tree. She stopped and handed the puppy to Arin. She said, “Hold Anya.”

“Why?” Arin asked, taking Anya and turning to look where Madeline was.

“Someone’s following us.” 

Madeline ran towards the left side of the tree in order to circle around it. Whoever was there heard her coming, and she heard them start to run. But that didn’t matter. She was faster.

“Chad, if that’s you, save it. I’m not-” She rounded the corner and stopped. It wasn’t any one of the lads. Her pursuer, a small red-headed child, dashed away from the tree and around the corner of the nearest house. 

Madeline walked back towards Arin, while Arin jogged to her. Madeline asked, “Did you recognize that kid?”

“I barely saw them, they kind of ran away from where I was. I’m sure I’ve seen them around though.”

“I wonder why they were following us.” she said, acting as though she didn’t already have a pretty good idea.

Arin had the same one. “The kids probably want to know what all the adults are talking about. Which right now has to be you.”

“Wish the adults would act like adults and talk to me about it.” Madeline sighed. “I suppose I can’t really resent the kid’s curiosity. It’s not like they or their parents often get to be around someone who’s been in contact with magic.”

Arin scratched her ears, and she leaned against them again. She continued. “When Chad was giving his speech I was really hoping that people would just leave me alone. But this doesn’t feel good either. It feels like everyone is scared to interact with me.”

Arin shifted Anya onto one arm, so they could hold Madeline’s hand with the other. She held their hand in hers and softly smiled. “Everyone but you, I mean.”

They made it home, despite the rapid return of Madeline’s exhaustion. It took them a couple minutes to build a little bed for Anya out of pillows, which they decided to keep next to Madeline’s bed. Madeline crawled into bed, while Arin sat on the side and gently stroked her ear. Both of the wolf girls were soon sound asleep.

It felt like an instant later that the sound of someone knocking on the door woke Madeline. But when she opened her eyes, a quick peek out the window revealed that the day had passed. She tried to get out of bed to open the door, but Arin beat her to it.

Florence stood outside, holding some clothes. She said, “Hi Arin, is Madeline-”

She turned her head, saw Madeline, and sprinted over to her- enveloping the girl in a hug while she was still trying to stand up. Madeline quickly sat back down on the bed and leaned over to hold that embrace for a good while.

“Thank goodness you’re back. I was so worried.” Florence backed up to look her in the eye. “I’m so sorry. If that horrible man ever wants his clothes tailored, I’ll throw them in the sheep pen.”

Madeline laughed, not so much at Florence’s statement but at the idea that that was the worst revenge she could think of.

“Oh, I also made you these.” Florence handed the clothes she had brought over to Madeline. She unfolded them, showing off the purple top and black pants. “They’re the lighter versions of that outfit you wanted. I think I can get you a whole wardrobe going based on this as a starting point.”

It was Madeline’s turn to hug her. An act of kindness towards her felt stronger now than ever. “Thank you.”

“No trouble at all.”

From the other side of the bed, Anya made a faint whimper. Madeline rushed over to pick her up. Florence gasped as soon as she saw her.

“A puppy!” Florence’s jaw dropped.

Arin grinned. “She’s a cutie, isn’t she? Madeline, hold on to her and I’ll prep her food.”

Madeline caught Florence’s wide-eyed stare. She said, “Her name’s Anya. When she’s done feeding you can hold her if you want.”

Florence jumped up and down with excitement. After Madeline fed her, Florence held Anya as close as she could. The three of them talked for a bit about where Madeline had gone and how she’d found Anya.

“Gosh, this is so good. You two must be so happy,” Florence said, gently rubbing her face against the little wolf in her hand. Then her eyes widened with worry, and she clarified, “I mean, about the getting back together, transforming, and taking care of cute animals stuff. Not the horrible stuff that happened last night.”

“Yeah, that’s not been fun, to put it lightly.” Madeline sighed, flopping next to Arin on the couch.

Florence winced. “Sorry, that probably wasn’t something you wanted to talk about. I accidently steer conversations to the wrong place sometimes. For what it’s worth I think it’s absolutely fantastic that you were able to return to town so quickly. I don’t think I could have.”

“Well, I didn’t have much of a choice if I wanted to save Anya.” Madeline reached over to pet her. 

“Couldn’t you have just turned around and brought her to the witch’s house?” asked Florence.

“Yeah, I was kind of wondering that too.” Arin said, rubbing the back of Madeline’s neck.
“Oh.” The thought of bringing Anya to the witch instead of bringing her home had never even crossed Madeline’s mind. “Umm, well I also had to make sure Arin knew I was okay.”

Arin leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.

“But honestly, I’m not sure how long I can be back.” She looked at Arin while she spoke. “I don’t want to leave Rodehills, but I’m starting to wonder if that might be necessary at some point. I’m not saying I think we should start planning to, but maybe we consider it as an option.”

“I’ve already thought about it too.” Arin said, petting Madeline’s head. “I feel basically the same way. I could stay or go and it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, save for being able to easily visit Florence. What I want most is to be somewhere where both of us feel comfortable.”

“I love you both, but please don’t stay here just for my sake.” Florence added. “Not only would I feel miserable about you feeling unwelcome, but we could still definitely keep in touch. I try to make as many trips outside of town as I can anyway; travel is super useful for my art. It would not be difficult to stop by to visit.”

“If it happens, I think it will be a while before we reach that point.” Madeline reached over to pet Anya while Arin was still petting her. “We’re almost definitely going to need to stay around until Anya is old enough to release back.”

Arin and Florence agreed. Silence hung over the room- Madeline’s mind racing through the possibilities of a very uncertain future. Arin and Florence were likely doing the same, dwelling mentally on a topic that it wouldn’t be fun to talk about after everything that needed to be said had been. Madeline saw Florence’s eyes scan around the room, looking for something to start a new conversation. Then she stopped, and smiled. She’d found one.

“Oh. My. Gosh.”

Madeline started to follow Florence’s gaze, but Florence cut her off.

“Is that ‘Affair Above the Sky’ book seven?” Florence asked.

Madeline’s ears drooped and she scooted herself deeper into the couch. That was bad; she should have put that back in her drawer. No one was supposed to know she read those cheesy stories. Florence was probably gonna make fun-

“I LOVE THOSE!” Florence squeed. She sprinted over and picked it up off nightstand. “Have you finished this one yet?”

Madeline’s ears perked back up. “No, I’m just a little over halfway through.”

“Okay.” She put it back down, raising the question of why she’d even picked it up. She held up a hand toward Madeline. “Okay. No spoilers. But oh my gosh, the ending. Oh my gosh.”

“What are these about?” Arin asked, looking between the two of them for answers.

“It’s a romance series,” said Madeline.

“An amazing romance series. It’s about the relationship between this Sky Rider knight named Ser Cline and a princess named Magdale- OH!” Florence gasped, covering her mouth with one hand while pointing at Madeline with the other. She jumped up and down. “You totally named yourself after princess Magdalene!”

Madeline blushed. “Well, kind of?”

Arin rubbed their forehead against Madeline’s cheek. They said, “Well I guess I definitely have to read these now.”

Madeline thought about how Cline looked so much like Arin, and started blushing even harder.

Florence bounced. “You totally should. There’s this amazing scene in book three where Cline has to fight against a mysterious cloaked assassin, only to find out it’s their twin! Oh my gosh it’s so gripping.”

“I really like how that whole arc ends.” Madeline continued. “It’s possibly the best in the whole series.” 

“Oh, but what about the part with the sky seals?” Florence asked. 

The three of them continued talking about books long into the night. They talked romance novels, horror stories, tales they’d heard as kids. It was fun, relaxing, and - judging from the widening smile on Madeline’s face and the growing feeling of warmth in her heart - needed. Madeline had never really talked too much to Florence, but now found her such an easy person to talk to. When Florence decided to head home, they held each other in a hug for a long time.

Arin and Madeline followed her out the door, and waved goodbye until she moved out of sight.

Arin leaned on Madeline. “I think I’m going to get ready for bed soon, too. Is there anything else we need to do tonight?”

“It may be too much for tonight.” Madeline said, looking back into the house. “But we should move the beds back together sometime.”

“Oh, we’re definitely doing that tonight.” Arin petted the top of her head before heading inside. It took some effort to move the furniture out of the way and push Arin’s bed back to where it used to be- pressed up against Madeline’s.

“One of these days we need to just get a big single bed.” Madeline flopped down on her side.

“We will.” Arin flopped on their side, next to her. They kissed for a moment, then held hands for a long time. She still held on to their hand for a while even after they fell asleep.

Madeline had no urge to do anything productive that night. She’d faced enough backlash for trying to be outside at night. And even though the mystery of the werewolf had been solved, she didn’t feel her efforts would be appreciated. Now wasn’t the time or the mood for work. Madeline held Anya on her lap, lay close enough to her partner to feel their warmth, and spent the night with her book.

She’d gotten really curious about how it would end.