Shadow sauntered into the room on two feet, wearing her blue shirt and light red pants. Annie, Jonas and Kirrik were gathered, talking to each other, but broke off when they saw her approaching.

She waved at them, a grin on her face, keeping her gait nice and steady.

Annie beamed back at her and Jonas smirked, chuckling. Kirrik just raised his eye ridge.

“You look great!” Annie complimented her, crouching down to get a better look.

“Spin around so we can see your whole outfit,” Annie said, twirling her finger.

Shadow obliged, doing a slow spin so they could see. She finished, facing Annie again, literally trembling with excitement.

“They look good on you! Do you like them?” Annie asked, as she started an inspection. Annie reached out to press on Shadow in different spots to indicate she should move or twist.

Shadow nodded vigorously in affirmation. She let the inspection continue for a bit, moving her limbs around or dropping to all fours, before she couldn’t take it anymore.

She had so much energy! She took off dashing around the room and jumping about, nimbly dodging all the clothes and fabrics. Everyone was laughing by the time she trotted back up to the group, panting a little from the exertion.

She looked herself over again. The clothes really did change her whole feel, even if she wasn’t walking upright. She looked way more person-like, if she did say so herself.

Thank you for the clothes! Shadow thought as she went over to nuzzle Annie, before pausing.

Oh. Right, that’s not… hmm.

She hopped up on two legs and gave Annie’s hips a big hug instead, pressing the side of her face into Annie’s stomach. Annie seemed surprised.

“Oh! Well, thank you, Shadow!” Annie smiled, bending over a little to return the gesture.

After the hug finished, she broke off to go grab her tablet and pouches. Shadow had left them in the other room in her excitement. She didn’t make it far before she spotted them laying on the floor in front of the counter.

Clarissa had taken a seat behind it again. She must have grabbed them when she’d come out of the backroom. Shadow waved to thank her. Clarissa nodded back, but Shadow noticed she looked… confused. She was glancing back and forth between Shadow and Annie, looking like she was trying to figure something out.

Annie and the rest had followed her over, with Annie approaching the counter while taking out her money pouch.

Shadow laid out her belt to start putting it back on, but paused as she was about to start the process, remembering what Clarissa said. She always used her tongue for this, but apparently, that was disgusting? She was fairly sure she could manage it with her teeth, but that would definitely end up leaving tooth marks on her belt if she did it regularly. Even being careful, it was basically guaranteed. Her teeth were very sharp.

She liked her belt and would rather not damage it if she didn’t have to. Sometimes, leaving tooth marks was unavoidable, because her mouth really was her best option for grabbing stuff, but this was definitely not one of those times.

Do I really have to not use my tongue?

She decided to ask Annie about it, but opted to wait until she was done talking to Clarissa about paying. Shadow was pretty interested in that, too. Hopping up on her back legs, she tried to peek over the top of the tall table. Her eyes were just barely able to see over it if she stretched. It was harder to balance like this, and she had to plant her tail on the ground to keep from toppling over backward.

“—want 40 silver coins and I’ll not go a bit lower. The pants an’ underwear were adult size and I had ta modify ‘em quite a bit ta make ‘em work. I even added copper clasps. Ya saw the work, ya know it’s good, and I did it fast. 40 or I’ll take ‘em back!” Clarissa demanded, her face hard.

Shadow looked at Clarissa in surprise and horror.

She wouldn’t really do that, would she?

The woman winced a bit when she noticed Shadow’s attention, but didn’t say anything.

Annie just sighed and shook her head, before she started to count out coins.

“Fine. You’re ripping me off, but fine. Thank you for making her clothes.” Annie stated in resignation. 

Shadow blinked a couple of times. She’d heard that term before. It meant that someone was asking for more coins than they should for something. It was a very mean thing to do.

She felt anger surge up in her chest and shot a glare at Clarissa as best she could over the top of the counter, before dropping down and grabbing her tablet, scribbling her indignation.

‘Don’t rip her off! I thought we were friends!’ she wrote, before picking the tablets up and slipping them over the edge of the counter, going back to glaring at Clarissa again.

Clarissa read what she wrote, looking a little conflicted, before her face became hard again.

“It’s tha correct price fer her.” She said, turning her hard gaze on Annie.

Shadow let out a hiss, startling the woman before she snatched her tablets back off the counter.

‘You can’t rip off my Mom! Stop being so mean! If you keep being mean I…‘ She paused in her writing, trying to come up with some sort of idea. What could she actually do? As far as she understood it, Clarissa still owned the clothes until Annie paid her. She was allowed to take them back by the law.

Maybe Shadow could run away with them, but that would just make her a criminal, which meant she would get locked up by people or punished later for it. She bet it would also get Annie in trouble too.

But she finally came to a realization about what she could do, even though it almost physically hurt to write it down.

‘You can’t rip off my Mom! Stop being so mean to her! If you keep being mean, I don’t want the clothes! You can keep them!’ she finished.

She really wanted the clothes.

Please work.

She forcefully slid her ultimatum on the table, giving a menacing look. She'd realized the same threat could work both ways.

Clarissa looked at the note and her eyes widened, before turning a searching gaze on Annie.

“Yer her Mom?” she asked, sounding like she didn’t believe it.

That… hadn’t been the part Shadow thought was important.

“I… yes. Yes I am,” Annie said, still getting used to the idea herself. She gave Shadow a warm look.

Shadow softened her expression for a moment and glanced back at Annie, before turning a glare back on Clarissa. Shadow sidled over and leaned against Annie’s hip.

She’s my mom. Stop being mean.

The tailor looked lost.

“… 32 silvers. I can live with 32 silvers.”

Yes!

Shadow’s expression instantly shifted to excitement again, looking over at Annie for confirmation.

32 was a lower number than 40, so that was probably fairer?

“But…“ Clarissa continued,  looking like she was steeling herself, “I don’ understand it. Why would ya do such a thing to ‘er?  It’s… ya clearly love ‘er, and she clearly loves ya back, but ya had ‘er walk around town with no clothes, collared, pretendin’ she were just an animal.” She said, building up steam.

“And what have ya been teachin’ ‘er? She was tryin’ ta rub me like some cat, ‘n were about ta use ‘er tongue ta help put ‘er clothes on. And she ain’t got no shame! Like ya never taught her no modesty! Though I guess that makes sense if yer makin’ ‘er walk around like ya are!” A moment of hesitation passed over her face. “Or, well, were, at least.”  Clarissa’s glare locked back on Annie, though it was mixed with a good deal of uncertainty. “It just… it don’t make no sense. Why would ya do that ta someone ya consider yer own daughter?”

With that, her momentum ran out, and she stopped, waiting for some sort of an answer.

Annie looked half miserable, but seemed to be thinking. Jonas and Kirrik just stood aside, looking unsure about what they should do.

Annie took a deep breath, giving Shadow a regretful glance before fixing her gaze on the woman.

“I made… a mistake. When we first found her, she had been… abandoned in the woods. We mistook her for a shadeling at first, before we learned better when she wasn’t acting at all like one. We’d never heard of beastmen like her before. I’ve been… caught up in the idea that someone would mistake her for a shadeling again, and do something to her before we could react. I thought it would be safer to come up with some story about how… you know the story. It was stupid and demeaning. I never should have done it. I should have just explained matters and brought her here. As for the rest... I... we've been too... busy with other things.” Annie finished, sounding disgusted with herself.

For her part, Clarissa looked shocked that she’d gotten a serious answer.

“Well, ya should make time ta teach her. And yeah, ya should’a just taken her here. I suppose…” Clarissa glanced over at Shadow for a moment. “I suppose I can see why ya might fear people bein' stupid, she does look rather… bestial.” She took a moment to address Shadow. “No offense meant, dear.”  

Shadow nodded back at her and filed away the fact that calling someone bestial was probably something to be offended about normally.

Clarissa sighed and turned back to Annie, eyes a lot softer than before. “But yer… Yer gonna treat this child right from now on? Teach ‘er manners, decency an’ such?” she asked, seeming a lot less hostile than before.

“I… I will. I know I’ve not been doing a very good job of it. I’ll treat her like a mother should treat her child. I’ll make sure to teach her what she needs to know." Annie promised, her voice sounding a little wavery. "Although... I will say that her tongue is important for her autonomy. She has limited grasping ability as is, and her tongue is a supplement to that,” she said in a small voice.

Clarissa seemed shocked to see Annie's eyes starting to water.

Annie crouched down and turned to Shadow.

“I'm so sorry. Can you forgive me for how I’ve been treating you?” She implored in a choked up tone, rubbing at her eyes with a hand.

Shadow looked at her in surprise. She thought they’d already been over this!

Of course I forgive you! she thought, nodding urgently.

She started scribbling.

'Yes! You're great and I love you and you're my Mom now! You haven't done anything so bad! You were just trying to protect me!'

'Please don't be sad.'

Annie smiled and drew her into a hug, but started quietly crying anyway. Shadow could hear her sniffles.

Shadow did her best to hug her back, pressing her face up against Annie’s. Now was not the time to be stingy with nuzzles, socially acceptable or not.

She honestly felt a bit lost.

She really didn’t have a firm grasp on what exactly everyone was so upset about. She knew Annie had her run around without clothes, but it's not like she'd had them anyway. She would have been clothesless, Annie or not. The pretending to be a dog thing was very annoying and probably demeaning.  She’d been a little bit mad that Annie had made her do that , but… it had been because Annie loved her, and was trying to keep her safe! She didn’t understand why people seemed so… horrified about the whole thing.

Was it all really that bad?

It’s not like Annie had tried to eat her or something.

Eventually, Annie gathered herself again and the hug broke up. Shadow took Annie's earlier explanation as permission to use her tongue to put her belt on, so she went and did that. Nobody stopped her. Shadow would definitely be having a talk with Annie about the tongue thing later though. She would rather not be unintentionally disgusting if she could help it. She really hoped Clarissa was wrong on that point because losing her tongue as something she could grasp things with was a big problem.

The group bid farewell to Clarissa and her clothing shop, stepping out into the village again.