It only took a few minutes before Shadow was fixed up, then Annie went over to work on Jonas.

Shadow spent a few minutes stretching and flexing her newly healed body to make sure everything was in working order.

Kirrik had recovered somewhat and had gone to collect everyone’s backpacks from where they’d been abandoned. Thankfully, both Annie and Jonas’s packs had managed to stay intact through the general destruction the tatzelwurm had caused. They'd just been covered in dirt.

Considering the state of her clothes, Shadow decided she should change into intact ones. Before doing so, she got Kirrik to help pour some water in her mouth to rinse out any remaining acid and to have a drink. She was quite thirsty after that whole ordeal.

Acid-free, she went over and dug another set of clothing out of Annie’s pack. Thankfully, they were right on top, so it didn’t take much digging. She decided on her red shirt this time, and brown pants. She only had brown pants left, so the choice was pretty simple.

After she laid them out, Shadow went to strip off her torn up (but hopefully salvageable) clothes, but stopped when Annie called over to her.

“Oh, Shadow!” Annie said, pausing for a second, looking like she was forming her thoughts. “Um… before you change, it’s considered normal to do so in private. You... want to avoid letting anyone see you without clothes on, as a general rule.”

Shadow stiffened for a second.

Right. I can handle that.

She hadn't realized things were quite that strict. But thinking back on it, she realized she had never seen a villager that wasn't wearing some sort of clothing. The closest they'd come was when they'd come out of their houses at night to fight the fire, but even then everyone was at least wearing undergarments.

She shrunk down a little, feeling embarrassed. She should have been able to figure that out on her own. Keeping this kind of thing in mind would take a bit of getting used to. She gave a small nod to her mom and used her mouth to gently pile up the outfit she'd laid out.

Kirrik started laughing at her.

She turned to glare at him.

It’s not funny!

Annie and Jonas turned glares on him too.

Kirrik’s laughing quickly turned to coughing and he raised his hands in surrender.

“Sorry! Sorry. Just uh… really reminded me of a beastkin kid’s first visit to human lands. Same stuff happens. It’s… uh… surprisingly appropriate, considering.” He explained, looking a little sheepish.

Everyone kept looking at him, but now they just seemed confused.

“I’m… not sure I understand?” Annie prompted.

“Oh, yea, it’s just, clothing is pretty optional in beastkin society. Kid’s are always forgetting that’s no longer the case once you’re on the other side of the mountains. Back when I was still living near the border, it wasn’t uncommon to see some beastkin kid running out into the street buck naked, only to run right back inside when all the other kids started to point and laugh.” Kirrik was grinning again. “They learned quick.” He finished with another chuckle.

Shadow frowned at him again.

Kirrik definitely had a bit of a mean streak.

“I… did not realize clothing was optional in beastkin lands,” Annie stated, looking surprised.

“I wouldn’t expect you to. Glossa’s pretty far north. Everyone wears clothes up here. Even after the war, that part of your culture stayed strong,” Kirrik explained.

Annie nodded.

“I suppose so.”

Shadow found the whole exchange very interesting, despite still being a little mad at Kirrik. She hadn’t really realized that there might be different rules society followed in different places. Well, it didn’t really matter. Being clothed was definitely the way to go with humans.

She gathered the pile up with her forelegs and stood up to carry her outfit behind a big tree. She didn’t trust herself not to damage them if she tried to carry everything at once with her teeth.

This should be private enough.

She set down the outfit, and got to work undressing herself. It ended up not being too difficult. The shirt came off pretty easily with some help from her back legs, and unclasping her pants and underwear was a lot less difficult than clasping them had been.

Putting on her fresh outfit, however, was just about as hard as the first time. She did think she had gotten a little faster, but it still took her a few minutes. Her belt went on fast, as usual, given her experience with it.

She looked herself over and nodded. She was satisfied that it was all on right. She picked up her damaged clothes, took a step to head back—and realized she had to pee. She squeezed her eyes shut, letting out an exasperated sigh.

She really didn’t want to have to go through all that again.

There had to be some easier way to go about this.

Thankfully, after a little experimentation, there turned out to be one. She realized just slipping her pants off her tail and pulling them forward was sufficient if she only needed them out of the way, rather than completely off.

It was way easier to get them back on right when she didn’t have to deal with working them up her legs or clasping them again. She didn’t even need to take off her belt!

Excited about her new discovery, she grabbed the tattered remains of her other clothes and headed back to the group.

‘Annie! Jonas! Guess what!’

Shadow started explaining about what she’d figured out, and how practical and handy it was, but trailed off when she noticed Kirrik removing himself from the conversation with barely contained laughter.

Jonas wasn’t doing much better, and Annie was just smiling at her, her eyes filled with warmth.

Shadow’s face fell a bit.

‘…did I say something weird?’ she asked.

Annie broke off from healing Jonas and scooted over to her. She took Shadow by the sides of the face, planted a kiss on her forehead, then wrapped her in a hug.

“No sweetie. It’s just... exactly the kind of thing you'd expect a child to tell you about.” Annie moved Shadow back to arm’s length. “Just so you know, it’s generally considered polite to keep talk of your bowel movements to a minimum. It’s one of those ‘gross’ things.”

Shadow slumped again.

‘So it was weird…’ she wrote, feeling dejected.

Annie looked thoughtful for a second.

“Honestly? No. No, it really wasn’t. What you're experiencing are things all children learn about. It’s not uncommon at all for a toddler to try to run around without clothes, without a care in the world, or for kids to talk about things that adults find distasteful. It’s just that most children aren’t nearly as competent as you in other areas. You can already read and write, and you understand so much so easily. Not to mention your ability to fight… although I dearly wish you wouldn’t have to. It’s incredibly hard to remember you’re as young as you are.” Annie explained.

She gave Shadow a soft smile.

“It’s just, occasionally you do things that remind us, and it can be surprising. None of this is weird or wrong, you just need time to learn. It certainly hasn’t helped that we’ve been doing such a poor job of teaching you up until now. Don’t you worry, you’ll have this all figured out before you know it,” Annie reassured her.

Shadow looked at Annie and nodded, swallowing a bit. She realized she felt like crying. It was weird that happiness could do that.

Shadow went in to nuzzle her but paused, remembering, and turned it into a hug instead.

Annie noticed the switch up, and frowned at her, looking a little puzzled.

“You know, there’s nothing strange about nuzzling. I know it’s not something humans normally do, but it’s common among beastkin.”

Shadow blinked at her, quirking her head a bit.

Why hadn’t Annie said anything?

‘I thought it was bad! You didn’t say anything when Clarissa said the stuff about me rubbing her like a cat, so I figured she was right,’ she wrote.

“She said that? I’m so sorry, I must have missed it. It really isn't strange for a beastkin.”

Shadow grinned, and nuzzled her while hugging for good measure, eliciting a small laugh from her mom.

She broke off, and Annie scooted back over to Jonas to continue his healing.

Well, while we’re on the topic of things Clarissa told me…

‘What about me using my tongue to pick stuff up? I know you said It was important for me, but… is that gross too?’ she asked.

Annie looked back over and her face took on a complicated expression.

“Well, to some people, yes, it probably will be,” she said.

Shadow drooped, giving her mom a dejected look.

“But Shadow, really, you shouldn’t worry about that. Your tongue is one of the few ways you can grasp things, and it’s not right to deny yourself that just because some people will find it distasteful. It makes sense to avoid social faux pas where you can, but essentially denying yourself the use of a limb is going too far.

Shadow mulled that over for a bit, but when she looked back up at Annie, her eyes were still sad.

‘But I don’t want people to think I’m gross,’ she whined despondently.

Annie gave her a sad smile.

“I know. But…” Annie paused, mulling something over. “How about this. If you’re in front of a new person, and you feel uncomfortable about using your tongue, try explaining the situation to them, and ask them if they mind. Something simple, such as ‘excuse me, just so you know, I use my tongue to pick things up sometimes, because I have trouble grasping things with my paws. Are you okay with that?’ should suffice. I can’t imagine many people would say no, or find the situation gross once you’ve explained it.” Annie said, seemingly satisfied with her solution.

Shadow perked up with the idea. She liked the sound of that solution too, but she wanted to clarify something.

‘So, something that was gross can become not gross because of an explanation?’ she asked.

Annie thought about it for a second.

“Well, yes, I suppose so. The context in which something is done is always important.” Annie explained, then broke into a wry smile. “Although, there are some things I imagine would stay disgusting regardless of any given explanation.”

Shadow blinked at her.

‘Like what?’

Annie shook her head.

“Nothing I’m going to talk about.”

Shadow scowled at her mom. Her displeasure was ignored.

“There we are, the bruising should all be taken care of,” Annie informed Jonas.

“Thanks.” Jonas replied, patting his previously damaged side. He’d been content just listening to the pair of them converse.

Annie stood up and looked around at the group, before her eyes fell back on the tatzelwurm, her posture becoming serious again.

“Alright. We need to gather samples, and I’d like to perform an autopsy. There should not be a tatzelwurm out here. I have a feeling this could be related to my research. And... I hate to ask this of you, but, Kirrik, could you head back to the village and inform them of the corpse and the damage to their road? If they send people out soon enough, at least someone can benefit from all this meat and hide. I’d hate to see it rot on top of everything else.”

“Yeah, I can manage that,” Kirrik nodded.

“We’ll keep a slow pace; you should be able to catch back up without much trouble,” Annie stated.

Kirrik gave her another nod and took off at a jog back toward the village.

Annie glanced over at Jonas. “Would you give me a hand? This will be easier with help.”

Jonas nodded, and the pair set off toward the big creature.

Shadow followed close behind, curious to see how this would go.