Shadow woke to the sounds of bustling villagers outside. She slowly cracked her eyes, noticing it was already light out. She must have been pretty worn out after yesterday’s fiasco.

She also noticed she was very comfy, curled up in her little divot on the bed. She’d been using the floor back when she’d been mad at Annie, before her excursion with the kids. Shadow hadn’t been willing to sleep next to her, despite the allure of the comfortable piece of furniture.

She almost wanted to go back to sleep rather than move. Perhaps this also played a role in her late wakeup.

But the day was waiting! She uncurled herself and stretched, straightening out her legs and tail as far as they’d go, arching her back and neck before relaxing with a shiver, feeling limber and awake. She blinked a few more times before settling on a moderate squint. It was a little rough waking up with the sun already blaring, rather than having some time in twilight to get used to the light first.

Someday this won't bother me... I hope.

Shaking off the thought, she had a look around and noticed Annie wasn’t in the bed next to her anymore. She actually wasn’t in the room at all.

That seemed… odd. She hopped off the bed and quickly noticed something on the ground next to the door. It was in two parts, wooden frames linked together with some twine. They smelled like… bees? She remembered her first encounter with the smell. She’d learned really quickly that bee nests were not to be trifled with, despite the interesting aromas they produced. Stings did not feel good, and it was awfully hard to outmaneuver a swarm of bees. Not a fun time.

She went over to them and realized they were some sort of… writing surfaces? In the middle of the frames was a soft substance. It wasn’t paper but it must serve the same purpose because it had writing on it. The writing was actually carved into it. She sniffed at it again.

The substance was definitely the source of the bee smell.

She thought for a bit and realized it had to be wax. She’d only heard it mentioned, but this seemed to fit what she'd heard about it. She assumed wax must come from bees. She didn’t know how else to explain the smell.

Interesting!

She finally decided to actually read the writing.

‘Dear Shadow, I didn’t want to wake you. I’ve gone with the Headman to help him with his address. There is food for you on the table. These are your wax tablets now. I hope you like the small gift. You should be able to use them with just your claws, and they can be cleared by rubbing. I’ll show you when I get back. Please stay in the room. Jonas is next door if there's an emergency.’

She blinked, and stared at the tablets some more, before tentatively reaching out a claw. She was hungry, and could smell the meat on the table, but it could wait. This was way more interesting. Her claw cut through the wax with relative ease. It was pretty soft. She tested it out some more and found scratching at the wax to write letters was actually far quicker than writing with ink.

It was significantly more forgiving of how much pressure she used. She didn’t have to be nearly as gentle for fear of tearing the paper. She also didn’t have to stop every couple of seconds to get more ink on her claw. The letters actually came out looking better too, much less blotchy. They were a bit harder to see though, being indents rather than a separate color.

She found herself grinning at the thing. This would have been amazing to have earlier! But she was still glad to have it now.

She had run out of space for her scribbling, as Annie’s message had used up most of it up.

Clear it with rubbing, huh?

She first tried to just rub at it with a paw, but it quickly just got waxy and the made the surface all messy. Her paws were too grippy and not flat enough to smooth it out. She needed smooth and flat like… She blinked and looked herself over, she was covered in smooth relatively flat things!

A big scale would probably work!

After a moment of thinking, she brought her tail through her legs, and angled it sideways so one of her scale plates lined up flat to a tablet. She braced both her paws on her tail and pushed. Her tail slid across the tablet and where it passed, the wax was smooth and the letters were gone!

Well, not quite. She did end up having to make a few passes, but by the time she finished, she was very satisfied with how clear the two tablets were, and how smooth the wax was.

She started to pull her tail back through her legs when she noticed it gleam out of the corner of her eye. She paused, and brought it back forward, flipping it over. The plate she’d used to rub the wax was now shiny. Very shiny.

Apparently, the wax had... made it gleam? It.. was really pretty actually. Her scales were normally black, with a bit of purple iridescence to them in the sunlight. Now this scale (or at least the part she'd been rubbing with) shimmered in the light, the iridescence much more noticeable against the black.

She briefly considered repeating the treatment with her whole body, but decided not to when she thought about it for a second.

It would take forever, and be extremely difficult for her to manage. She had no idea how she’d do her back. She also didn’t want to mess up her new tablets by haphazardly rubbing her body against them.

It made much more sense to ask Annie if she’d be willing to help later.

With that decided, she folded the tablets together (It was pretty easy to figure out, the twine linking them reminded her of the binding for her notebook), and walked them over to her pouches on the floor by the bed. These definitely made the cut for permanent additions. She normally couldn’t just keep the paper and ink because Annie used it too. These were all hers! She could take them out and write whenever she felt like it! No more having to bug Annie to stop and take out the ink and paper.

They just barely fit in a pouch. She couldn’t quite close it, but they were in there snuggly enough that she didn’t think they’d fall out just walking around. It was fine for now, she could ask for some help making them fit better later.

She spread out the belt and laid toward one end, pinning it to her side with a paw, before performing a well-practiced roll, wrapping the rest of the belt around herself. After pinning down the other side with her other paw, she rolled back to center, lying directly on her back, using both paws and her tongue to secure the buckle across her belly. Then she rolled forward over her tail to get back to her feet (because it was more fun that way) and looked over to check the tablet. It was still securely in place.

Awesome.

She hopped up on the table, finding the nice smelling hunk of meat right where she expected it, and dug in. It had an interesting taste. Salty.

It was the same meat she had yesterday, but it tasted a lot better now that she was in a good mood.

---

 

She was just finishing up the hunk of meat when she heard someone approaching the door. It was closed, but wasn’t strapped shut. She kept herself ready, just in case it was somebody unexpected, but then she caught a whiff of the approaching person and relaxed.

The door was pushed open and Annie entered the room, looking… harried.

“Oh, good, you're up. I didn’t have the heart to wake you.” Annie gave her a smile, although it seemed tired. “Did you like your present?”

Shadow grinned at her and nodded enthusiastically. She grabbed them out of her pouch and laid them out, starting to write.

I love it!

“I’m glad. I had meant to give them to you yesterday but… I figured it would be better to do after you’d cooled off.” Annie plopped herself down on the bed, leaned over, resting her arms on her legs, giving Shadow a long look. She looked… regretful. She also seemed hesitant, like she wanted to speak but something was holding her back.

Shadow paused, remembering that there was still a lot they needed to talk about in regard to what happened last night.

Well, best get it over with then. She dragged her tablets over in front of Annie where she sat on the bed so she could see better, and started writing.

I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snuck out. It was very dangerous and stupid.

Annie gave her a wry smile.

“Making amends right upfront? Very noble of you. You’re correct, of course. That was a very silly thing to do. You could have easily gotten yourself, or others, killed.” She said in a stern tone, but her glare held no real fire

Shadow nodded glumly.

A moment of silence passed before Annie resumed speaking.

“Would you do it again?”

Shadow blinked, cocking her head at Annie.

What exactly did she mean by that?

“If you could turn back time to the moment the kids came to get you, would you choose not to follow them, because of how dangerous and stupid it was?” she asked, quoting Shadow’s words back at her.

Shadow froze.

Would I choose… not to follow?

She… she supposed… well it had been a bad idea but…

She looked at Annie, hesitating, then looked back at the tablet.

She thought back to the night, and all the fun, and all the hardship. She thought of Maggie and Mr. Clive defending her. Her time running around with Glenda and Annie putting out the fire.

Well… the sawmill probably wouldn’t have burnt down… and it was pretty stupid… and Annie would want her to stay so…

She reached out a hesitant paw to start writing.

“Don’t bother. I can read the answer from your body language, and I’d rather you not lie to me.” Annie said with a small chuckle.

Shadow looked up at her with wide eyes, before starting to scribble.

I wouldn’t have lied!

“Mmm. I’m sure.”

I promise I won’t do it ever again!

“What did I just say about lying?”

Shadow fixed her with an angry glare, letting out an involuntary hiss she quickly strangled.

I’m not lying! She wrote furiously.

Annie gave Shadow a sad smile, and shook her head.

“You might not think you are, but you are. It’s so easy to forget how young you are, or how… you really are an odd duck.”

Shadow paused, her indignation derailed a bit by the odd comparison.

“I find myself constantly forgetting just how young and lacking in experience you are. You have an amazing mind, Shadow. You’re far smarter than any child or... person has a right to be. You pick up on everything I teach you with extreme aptitude. I don’t think I’ve ever had to teach you the same thing twice. You think things through and are great at problem-solving. I find myself thinking of you as an amazingly competent student, who is just lacking knowledge.”

She took a deep breath.

“And while that’s not necessarily wrong, it is unfair. You are also a child. A young child with an incredible mind. It’s unreasonable to expect you to behave perfectly, to… What child wouldn’t be lured out to have fun with a gaggle of potential friends when she’s never had any?”

Shadow looked down at her tablet.

You’re my friend. She wrote, before looking back up at Annie, not entirely sure where this was going.

Annie gave her a big smile, but carried on with her point.

“You weren’t the only one who made mistakes here. I’ve been… this whole plan with the collar was incredibly flimsy. It managed to fail in just about every way it could have. Having to explain myself in front of a bunch of rightfully upset villagers this morning really drove that home.”

Oh, was that what she had to do?

“And I don’t believe I quite fit as one of your friends.”

Shadows ears drooped, eyes widening, staring at Annie.

Wh… what..?!

“I think I fit much better as your mother, even if I’ve been a bad one, lately. After all, what mother makes their child pretend to be a dog?”

Her hurt faded a bit. She knew about mothers. If Annie was her mother, that would make her the child, like Maggie and her Mom. She also know mothers made their kids somehow, but Annie hadn't made her, so she wasn't sure how that worked exactly.

But regardless of her confusion on how, she liked the idea of Annie as her mom. It seemed to fit. 

“I was too quick to reject your beastman idea. We’ll be in danger no matter what we do. At least, as a beastman, you'll be a legally recognized person, and I should be able to adopt you. That should count for something. It’s about time I stop being scared to throw my weight around. It’d take a brave man indeed to kidnap my daughter.” she said, steel working its way into her voice as she spoke.

Shadow blinked, mind whirring, trying to figure what exactly had just been told to her.

"So, I'm sure you have questions. Ask away."

Shadow started writing.