It didn’t take much longer to reach the village gate. It felt a little bit surreal to be leaving. She’d only really been there for a day and a morning, but so much had happened, it felt like longer.

“Shadow!” she heard someone call her name from behind her.

Shadow spun around, spotting Maggie running towards her, followed closely by her mom and a man she recognised from the fire. He’d been one of the people in the thick of things, heading the bucket brigades and risking himself to get good throws. She could see the patches of absent hair. He was even missing a full eyebrow. The only reason he currently lacked burns was because Annie had gone around healing them the night before.

“Ya got clothes!” Maggie shouted as she closed the distance.

Shadow grinned and ran toward her as well.  Shadow noticed Maggie’s mom tense, but the woman didn’t do anything. They met and Maggie wrapped her in a hug. Shadow returned the favor. 

“They’re good lookin’! Let me see ‘em!” Maggie requested, breaking up the hug and backing up so she could get a better look.

Shadow stood upright, and gave her a slow spin.

“They’re very nice! But why trousers?” Maggie asked.

Shadow gave her a bit of a helpless look.

“Oh right ya can’t talk.” Maggie remembered.

At about that time, Annie, Jonas, and Kirrik caught up. Maggie’s mom and the other man were already there, content to just watch.

Shadow felt a burst of excitement as she had a realization. She hurried to pull out her wax tablets.

‘Clarissa said my spines would mess up a dress, and trousers would be better! Annie, please tell her!’ she wrote, then showed it to Annie, pointing at Maggie.

Annie gave her a nod and turned to Maggie.

“Shadow wanted to let you know that Clarissa, the tailor, said her spines would mess up a dress, which made trousers the better choice.” Annie explained for her.

Shadow turned and pointed at the spines on her lower back.

“Oh. Yea. Those’d be bad fer a dress.” Maggie said, sounding a little nervous suddenly. She seemed to have only really noticed Annie once she’d started talking to her. Maggie still went over to examine the spines in question, and the way the pants fit around them. 

Shadow was happy to let her, pointing out all the little modifications that’d been made.

In the meantime, the man introduced himself to Annie.

“Good ta meet ya properly. I’m Albert, Maggie’s father. I…  hear I have Shadow here ta thank fer savin’ ma daughter’s life.” Albert said, offering a hand, looking a little bit uncertain about how to continue.

“It’s… nice to meet you Albert. I’m very glad no one was seriously hurt in the fire.” Annie said while taking the proffered hand, not to certain what to say herself.

“I’m ‘er ma, Marsha. I hear she’s really a Beastman, not a shady at all.” Her tone was significantly colder. She didn’t offer up a hand.

“That’s true.” Annie answered tentatively.

Marsha left it at that, crossing her arms and looking away, concluding their short exchange.

“Um.. do ya mind if I.. uh.. talk to ‘er?” Albert asked.

“Oh, of course.” Annie said, motioning to Shadow.

Shadow had been trying to listen to their conversation on the side, while the spine and pants inspection had been going on. She turned towards Maggie’s father when she heard her cue. 

“I wanted ta thank ya. Fer usin’ yer... magic... ta save ma daughter. When that coulda gone bad fer ya. Given what people thought.” His gaze flicked from Shadow, to Annie, then Kirrik, where it lingered for a second, before moving back to Shadow. He looked… questioning, before he shook his head a bit and put on a smile.

“It’s great ta meet such a fine young beastman that’d risk ‘er life ta save folk like that.” Albert stated, reaching out his hand toward her, before suddenly looking a little flustered, his hand dropping a bit.

“Oh... uhh…”

She quickly hopped back upright and brushed off a paw, slapping it in his hand and giving him a smile before he’d managed to withdraw it. She’d recognized the gesture, even if she’d never actually used it before. His smile lit back up as they shook hand and paw.

After, she dropped back down and hesitated for a second, before scribbling some words on her tablet.

‘I’m sorry we were in danger. We shouldn’t have been sneaking around.’  She wrote, giving him a sad look. She went to hand it to Annie, but the man stopped her, and read it himself.

He snorted.

“Well, ya have that right. But I reckon it was much more Maggie than you. Not like ya snuck off of yer own accord.” he said, shaking his head at his daughter. Shadow could see the warmth in his eyes regardless. 

“Seein’ ya off’ll be the last fun thing she’ll be doin’ fer months, after that disaster.” he mentioned with a stern tone.

Shadow’s eyes widened, and she looked toward Maggie, but the girl just seemed resigned.

Right. Months… aren’t terribly long, in the grand scheme of things.

She was still coming to terms with exactly how much time there was. She’d only been alive for a little over two and a half months, and she’d been traveling with Annie and Jonas for most of that. She’d literally spent the majority of her life traveling to the city of Glossa with her group, and they still had a few weeks to go.

Shadow came to the sudden realization that she probably wouldn’t be seeing any of her new friends for a while. Possibly a very long while.

She ran over, then jumped up and wrapped Maggie in a hug, squeezing her tight. She wrapped her tail around Maggie’s legs and dropped her neck over Maggie’s shoulder. Shadow was shivering. She felt like she was about to cry.

Maggie must have noticed, because she started rubbing Shadow’s back and talking.

“Hey, it’s ok Shadow… It won’t be so bad. I’ll be ok!” Maggie tried to reassure her.

Shadow unwrapped her and shook her head. It wasn’t about that, although she did feel bad for her friend.

She grabbed her tablets again.

‘It might be a long time until I see you again. Or see Ara. or Roy. or Glenda. Or anybody.’ she wrote, feeling worse as she wrote it down.

‘I’ll miss you.’ she finished.

This time it was Albert who translated. He looked over at Shadow with a small smile as he read out her words. Maggie ran over and hugged her again. Shadow was certainly getting some practice with the gesture.

“Oh, I’ll miss ya too! And so’ll everyone else!” Maggie backed off a bit, putting her hands on Shadow's shoulders. “We’ll definitely see each other again! Ya saved us! Yer like the best person and I only met ya yesterday!”

Shadow found herself squeaking in little aborted keens, as she planted her paws on Maggie’s shoulders in turn, their arms intertwining.  Her insides felt so crazy. She was really happy and really sad at the same time. 

She just nodded at Maggie and did her best to look happy, with mixed success. She was still shivering.  

“Perhaps… it wouldn't be impossible to send a messenger out here, from time to time.” Annie said to no one in particular. 

Annie smiled and turned to Shadow and Maggie, who’d gone back to just squeezing each other. Shadow was nuzzling Maggie’s head. She couldn’t help herself.  

“What would you two think of that?” Annie asked the pair.

“Thinka what?” Maggie asked, apparently missing the statement.

Shadow had heard it but didn’t really understand what a messenger was. 

She tilted her head at Annie.

“A messenger. Shadow could send you messages, and then you and your friends could reply. That way you could keep in touch,” she explained.

Shadow mouth was hanging open as she looked at Annie. It quickly morphed into a grin and she started nodding.

“Really!? A messenger just fer us?” Maggie chimed in, looking thrilled as well.

Maggie’s parents just looked stunned.

“Uh… are ya sure that’s—” Albert started, before Annie cut him off.

“It’s fine. I can handle the cost.” She reassured the man.

He nodded a bit, looking a little more nervous than he had.

A short time later, Shadow and Maggie finally broke apart, and the groups exchanged their final goodbyes.

Shadow watched as her friend headed off back into the village, taking some deep breaths to help calm herself down. That had been both terrible and wonderful. Overall, she was glad she’d gotten to say goodbye to at least one friend before she left.

She found herself contemplating things. 

It was so strange to think that this was all going to be just a small part of her life in the future. People could be tens of years old. Annie had told her she was 38 years old when she'd asked. Shadow couldn’t even fathom how much life could happen in that much time.

She got up on her back legs, and waved goodbye to the village one last time, before taking another deep breath and setting off down the road, looking to the future. Her time in the village had been quite the mixed experience, but she felt so much more prepared for the times ahead. She was eager to see what life had to offer her next.

END VOLUME 1