Chandra was waiting for them outside the mall when they arrived. She was sitting on a bench, fidgeting with her phone. Archie smirked when he noticed she was already in her wolf form, and dressed remarkably different from her normal attire. She wore knee-high stockings with red and black stripes, torn at the feet to allow her lupine paws out. A black denim vest covered her white croptop and a pair of matching black shorts hugged her waist. She had a red and black purse slung over her shoulder, where she stuffed her phone as she noticed the two boys approaching. Archie couldn't help but stare at her as they walked up.

"Archie, you look… different," Chandra said, sitting up in surprise as she finally recognized him. She gave his attire an approving once over, before nodding. "It's not the best look for you, but it works."

"I'll admit it's not my usual style, but I can make just about anything look this good," Archie teased, striking a pose. Chandra snorted a giggle and rose from the bench. "Ravishing as always, my dear."

Alex made a gagging noise and looked away. "Alright, you two go do whatever it is you think counts as fun. I've got my own stuff to deal with."

"What could you possibly have to deal with?" Chandra demanded.

Alex raised his left hand and tapped the blank spot where his status tattoo used to be. "There's a goblin who owes me a new one." With that, he turned on his heel and strode away, leaving the two animal people alone together.

"He never learns his lesson, does he?" Chandra asked, narrowing her eyes as she watched him go. "Twice he's gotten one of those stupid tattoos, and twice it ended badly for him."

"He's a lot like Zack in that regard. Both are headstrong to a fault, and once they get it in their head to do something, they won't change their mind." Archie sighed and rubbed at his neck. "But that's neither here nor there. The point is that we need to see if there are any strange side-effects of being away from the dungeon."

"And also to have some fun," Chandra added.

"God yes. Please. Desperately. All I do is work." Archie laughed and hooked his arm through Chandra's, pulling her close to his side. "Did you have anything interesting you might like to do?"

The insides of Chandra's ears turned a bright shade of red as she blushed. "Well, there's this shop I like to frequent…"

"Then lead on, my dear!"

Chandra took a moment to collect her bearings, then nodded towards the mall doors. Still linked at the elbow, the two strode towards the sliding doors, which parted to allow them entrance. The first thing that struck Archie was the smell of the place. There was the typical scent of humans—body odor and sweat that he had come to associate with the basic day to day activities of life. There was also the sharp tang of cleaning chemicals and a faint ozonated stench of magic. The bright fluorescent lights overhead buzzed loudly, making his ears twitch uncomfortably beneath his beanie.

As they walked down the corridor to the main floor, no small few people stared at them. Chandra hugged herself closer to Archie's side, her grip tightening on his arm.

"Something the matter?" Archie asked her, keeping his voice hushed.

"I don't normally wolf out in public," she admitted, looking down in shame. "I made an exception, though, since you can't exactly shapeshift."

"Do the stares bother you that much?"

Chandra didn't answer. As they passed through a threshold and into the busier first floor, the stares grew less intense and became more like passing glances. She immediately relaxed. They didn't exactly blend into the crowd, but people were more than happy to go about their business and focus on their own matters rather than looking at the pair of furry people holding arms in the corner.

"It's not so much the stares that bother me, it's the thoughts behind them," Chandra finally said. She paused in front of a store, with brightly coloured advertisements showing off large scoops of ice cream covered in chocolate and sprinkles. Wordlessly, she guided Archie in, and they got in line.

Archie sniffed at the air, a heavenly sweet aroma dancing across his nostrils as they approached the cash register. A couple patrons eyed them worriedly, but the acne-scarred teenager behind the counter didn't even give them two looks.

"What'll it be?" they asked.

"I'll have lemon sorbet in a cup. Archie, what would you like?" Chandra asked.

"Oh, uh. I don't have any money on me…" Archie said shyly.

"Nonsense, I didn't ask if you had money. I asked what you wanted."

Archie's face pinched in embarassment, and he quickly scanned the glass counter for the various flavours. "Oh, I'll have the carrot cake ice cream, thanks."

"Cone or cup?" The teenager asked.

"Um… Cone, thanks," Archie decided, staring at a picture on the menu.

Chandra giggled as the teen quickly got to work scooping their order and handing them over the counter. Chandra's was a simple pale yellow sphere of frozen juice, which she slowly spooned into her mouth. Archie's by comparison, was a stubby waffle cone loaded with white ice cream dappled with orange flakes. He licked at it once, just to test, and was not disappointed. There was the obvious hint of carrot, combined with a sweet yet tangy flavour that reminded him almost of cheesecake. He was even surprised to find nuts in the ice cream, further enhancing the various flavours.

"I can't imagine why you went with something so basic when there were all those other tastes to sample," Archie finally said, licking his cone again.

"Honestly? Sugar doesn't agree with me in wolf form," Chandra admitted, slipping another small spoonful of sorbet into her mouth. "I can't even eat chocolate without getting sick, a side effect of my beast form being a wolf."

Archie frowned but didn't stop licking at his ice cream. As a mana construct, he didn't have any sort of biological faults that made things like sugar difficult for him to digest. From his connection to Zack, he knew that chocolate was lethal for dogs, but he didn't understand why letalone how such a weakness could extend to werewolves.

"Do you mind if I ask how you became a werewolf?" Archie asked, as they paused in front of a shop that sold hand crafted soaps. The scents wafting from the doorway were heavenly, and he desperately wanted to go in and get a nice shampoo for his fur.

Sensing his desire, Chandra led him into the shop to browse. "That's a very personal question," she admitted, as Archie picked up a bar of dry shampoo and sniffed at it. "I'm not sure it's something I'm entirely comfortable sharing, if I'm honest."

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Archie wrinkled his nose at the extremely flowery scented bar and set it back on the shelf before grabbing another. This one had a much more subtle, fruity scent to it. "Do you think Zack could reproduce these if I brought him a few?" he asked, deciding to change the subject rather than continue to prod at a subject Chandra was clearly hesitant to expand on.

"Easily. I can't imagine the patterns are too hard for him, not to mention he'd certainly be grateful to have some new materials to work with."

"Quite right. In that case…" Archie picked out three bars, each with a different scent: one lemon, one eucalyptus, and finally one coconut. They were small, and he made sure to check with Chandra that it was okay for him to spend her money this way.

Not only did she willingly pay for them, she even threw in a conditioner bar for good measure. "If you're going to use shampoo on your fur, you'll want to condition to make sure it stays silky smooth," she explained.

"Ah, freshly turned werebeast?" The clerk behind the counter asked. They were an elf with coppery hair and dark skin, their gender unidentifiable. They nodded at Archie, as though to direct the question his way.

"Yes. He was attacked by a dire rabbit a week ago, and he's been adjusting ever since," Chandra said, jumping in with an explanation to cover for Archie's lapine appearance.

"Sorry to hear that, man. I hope you have an easy time adjusting to it. I hear the first change is always the hardest," the clerk chuckled, carefully loading the purchases into paper pouches and finally a reusable fabric bag. "My cousin's ex-boyfriend turned into a were-beaver. It was a nightmare getting him to reign in his dam building instincts, and when he decided he wanted to move out to the woods they had to break up. You know, if you want to save some money, you could always get pet shampoo. Our stuff's a bit expensive when you have so much fur to wash…"

Archie frowned at the unsolicited anecdote and advice, silently accepting the bag of shampoo when offered to him. Chandra quietly paid for their purchases with a tap from her phone, then hastily guided him out of the store. Once they were out of earshot, she let out a frustrated sigh and hugged herself closer to him again.

"I see why you might not enjoy wolfing out in public," Archie finally admitted. At some point, he had mindlessly finished off his ice cream, and popped the last remains of the cone into his mouth casually. "People don't seem to have the highest opinion."

"Whatever gave you that impression?" Chandra grumbled.

"The pet shampoo. Even I found that offensive."

Chandra snorted a laugh and stood up straighter. "People like that, who don't have first hand experience with being a were, think they're being helpful. They never are."

"I'd like to be helpful, but I don't really understand what it means to be were. You mentioned I was attacked by a dire rabbit, but I thought my story was that I am a were-dire-rabbit."

Chandra quietly stewed for a moment, before tugging Archie around a corner toward the food court. There, she led him to an empty table and sat him down, then quickly took the empty chair across from him. She rested her arms on the table, staring at the pads on her otherwise fur-covered hands.

Archie looked at his own hands. Unlike Chandra, he didn't have obvious paw pads. He understood that this was because rabbits didn't technically have them. Where Chandra's fur was thick and warm, his own was sleek and thin. It was one of the many differences between them.

"Chandra…" Archie finally said, breaking the silence.

"In the stories, back before magic, in order to become a werewolf you had to be bitten by another werewolf," Chandra explained. "Or any other werebeast. That's not actually how it works, but a lot of people still hold on to that illusion because it's the story they're used to."

"How does it work, then?"

Chandra breathed deeply through her nose, her nostrils flaring. "There are two known ways for monsters to come into being. The first is through aetheric manifestation—when there's too much raw magic in an area. That's when you get spontaneous spawns, stuff like spirits and elementals. They're rarer than you might think, but they tend to pop up in places after a large battle against the more common type of monster: monstrous beasts.

"When an animal is exposed to too much magic, they start to change. They adapt, they mutate and grow. That's how you get things like dire rabbits, stooltoads, or witchwolves."

Archie blinked and frowned. "I'm not familiar with witchwolves."

"I can't see why you would. They're not exactly the most common creatures on the planet. I digress, though. We're not talking about witchwolves, we're talking about werebeasts and how we come into being. It's just necessary for you to understand how the various types of monsters come into being."

Archie nodded, and gestured with a hand for her to continue.

"Level one humans have no magic of any kind. They don't know any spells, or have any elemental affinities. If they aren't empowered, they don't even have the ability to use mana—it takes a push over the edge to really unlock their magical potential. While in that state, a person's magic is a feeble, fragile thing." Chandra clasped her hands together on the table, squeezing her thumbs hard enough to crack her knuckles.

Archie reached across the table and rested a hand reassuringly on hers, earning him a glance up. "You don't have to tell me," he said quietly.

"No. I want to. I… It's just been a while since I last spoke about how I became were." She took several deep breaths to steel herself before continuing. "Only NPCs can become were, because once a person knows a single spell, has a single elemental affinity, or even becomes one of the other races, their magic fundamentally changes forever. While unchanged, though, they're vulnerable to magical influences. That is what makes a person become were: exposure to a magical beast essentially infects them with that beast's aether."

Archie frowned as he considered the implication. As a part of Zack, he understood better than most the fundamental nature of aether and mana. Both were technically the same thing, a form magical energy, but where they differed was in how they could be used. Mana was solid and easy to grasp, while aether was chaotic and destructive.

Even without Chandra delving deeper into her explanation, Archie understood the theory behind it. A magical beast lashed out with their own aether, and a person with no magical defenses would be unable to protect their internal mana. Exposure to such powers would irrevocably change a person from the inside out.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea," Archie said.

Chandra shrugged. "It's not your fault. Most people don't care to find out the real reason behind werebeasts. Most are satisfied to believe getting bit by one changes you, when that couldn't be further from the truth. It's not a viral infection, it's a magical assault on our very souls." Her gaze turned down to her hands again. "Bhediya isn't even my original last name. After I was attacked and changed, my parents couldn't accept what I had become… They thought I was a demon, a monster…"

"Chandra?"

Tears were welling up in her eyes now. Gently, Archie reached across the table and lifted her chin until she was looking into his eyes. He wiped away a tear running down her cheek with his thumb.

"Sorry," she said, quickly wiping her eyes and pulling away from her touch. "It still hurts, even after almost three years. I haven't spoken to them since they kicked me out."

"You're beautiful," Archie said, his voice soft and gentle.

Chandra froze and looked up at him. "Pardon?"

"You're beautiful. I just want you to know that."

The werewolf's ears turned a deeper shade of red again, and she looked pointedly away. "I wish I could see it, but it's hard. I look in the mirror when I'm like this and see a monster looking back at me."

"In case you've forgot, I'm not actually a were-rabbit. I'm a monster. And as a monster, I think I should be the expert on monster beauty. You're beautiful, whether you see it in yourself or not."

Chandra slowly panned her gaze over to Archie and looked into his eyes. Her blush deepened all the more, and the faintest hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."

Archie smiled and leaned back in his chair. "We can change the subject, if you like? I get the feeling discussion of werebeast origin might be getting a bit awkward."

"Just a little bit," Chandra giggled. "Though, if I can be frank for a moment, it felt good to talk about it again. I haven't discussed my turning since leaving group therapy. I feel like you understand me better than they did, since you're a monster and all."

Archie smirked and tapped his horn. "Having one of these jutting from my forehead makes me a bit more sympathetic to anyone who thinks of themselves as monstrous."

Chandra's giggle turned into a full blown laugh, and she fumbled her phone out of her purse. "It's only been half an hour? It feels like we've been here longer."

"Well, in that case, would you like to browse more shops? Someone seems to think I'm in need of a better wardrobe."

The werewolf grinned as she rose from her seat. "I can't exactly fund an entire change of attire for you, but at the very least we can get you some jeans that fit better than those. In fact, there should be a store that caters to people with tails not too far from here."

Archie rose from his seat and once again hooked her arm with his. "By all means, lead the way my dear."