The next week or so went smoothly. Isabelle missed going into town and even working her boring job, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that. To alleviate the boredom, she decided to spend the extra time helping her mother work the farm so they’d have enough food for winter.

Wow. This is so much easier, she thought to herself as she worked the field. I really am stronger. She easily tilled the soil with her brute strength and pulled out weeds with her brute strength.

Susy visited nearly every day and would sometimes bring her 7 year old son Isaac. Isaac was scared of her at first since she was so different, but he warmed up quickly. So much so that he was running towards her while she stood in the field, while Susy stood behind him watching.

“Hi Izzy!!” Isaac said right before stopping in front of Isabelle.

“Hey there, Isaac! How’ve you been?” she asked.

“Good!” he exclaimed.

“He’s been begging to see you,” Susy said as she stood behind her son. After spending the rest of the day together with Isabelle and her son, she decided to spend the night. Her and Isaac slept in the living room, while Isabelle slept in her room as usual.

During the night, everyone but Isabelle was sleeping. As hard as she tried, she couldn't fall asleep. There was a tightness in her abdomen that was getting more intense by the minute. It was uncomfortable and unlike anything she’d felt before.

What's happening with my body? she asked herself while clutching the tight feeling spot on her body.

She found out soon enough when the contractions started. Isabelle pushed through it—quite literally—and 30 minutes later there was an egg the size of her forearm on the bed.

What? she thought to herself. WHAT? No way. Nope. Nope nope nope. She panicked for a bit then regained her composure. Okay, think about this rationally Isabelle, you just laid an egg, which is weird as fuck, but it can't actually hatch. Right? Right? What if it does? Will it try to kill me? Well, probably not, plus I am about 100x bigger so I should be fine. It'll be fine. Yeah, I'll be fine.

"No way I'm telling anyone about this, I'd die of embarrassment," she murmured out loud, then hid the egg under the sheets next to her and went back to sleep. Morning came and she inspected the egg again. It had a hard black shell and looked like a massive chicken egg.

I guess I'm a chicken now, she thought to herself. She placed the egg in a bundle of blankets on top of her bed and hoped her siblings wouldn’t find it, considering how they liked to get into her things.

A few hours later she was outside tending the field again, this time with her mother. Susy and Isaac had woken up and left. They still had a long way to go, only a quarter of it was tilled and planted. She had thrown off her heavy cloak, which she used to disguise herself in the unlikely event someone came by, opting for comfort under the hot sun. She looked over at her mother who was working on the soil a good distance away from her and felt a tinge of sadness.

I guess she’s still not very comfortable around me, Isabelle thought. But it’s not like I can blame her…

When Isabelle was done tending the fields she went back inside and laid down for a few hours.

Ugh, I’m so bored. I’m tired of farming. Mom doesn’t even talk to me. Why’d this have to happen to meeeeeeeeeeeeee? she thought to herself. I’ll just go for a walk in the forest.

The waning sunlight was beaming through the thick trees as Isabelle waded between them in her cloak. She was happy, it meant the heat of the day was finally gone. The light breeze rustled through the leaves of the calm forest. Isabelle felt cool as it gently brushed by her. She stopped walking and stood in place amid the trees, exhaling. This feeling was nice.

The sudden shrieking tore her out of her short-lived peaceful state. She instinctively turned her head in the direction the loud noise came from. She debated whether or not she should check it out, and hesitatenly decided she should at least take a look. She quickly dashed off in that direction and within less than a minute found the source. Between the trees, a young boy was lying unmoving on the ground with a huge gash across his leg. Blood seeped out of it, painting his leg the color red.

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Isabelle was confused.

What’s he doing out here? she thought to herself. Should I ask him if he needs help? She peeked at the gash on his leg. Without help, the lone boy wouldn’t be able to make it back.

“Hey, do you need help?” Isabelle asked out of eyesight so he couldn’t see her. She waited a bit but he didn’t say anything.

“Hey! Do you need help?” she asked again, a little louder this time. Still nothing.

Maybe he’s dead? she thought, and walked up to him. His eyes were open and looked at her. Nope, not dead. Crap. He saw me. Why isn’t he moving? Is he paralyzed? As she was thinking, she gave him a little kick on his uninjured leg. Still no response except for the movement of his eyes.

“Looks like you’re awake, but I’m guessing you can’t move for some reason. I can’t leave you out here like this. Some wild animal might try to eat you. I’ll… take you back with me,” Isabelle said to him.

Maybe the same thing that got him got me. Oh shit, is he gonna turn into a monster? she wondered.

She bent over and picked him up, cradling him in her arms. He was lighter than she thought he would be. Before leaving, she made sure to grab the longbow lying on the ground. It took her a while to walk him back home. She had to be gentle with him, since he was injured. She made it back and felt good for having carried someone so far. She kicked open the door and brought him inside, laying him down on the straw mat in the main room.

Katharos was working on patching some clothes when she saw her daughter kick open the door, carrying another person. She put down the needles and got up, rushing over to her daughter as she laid the man on the straw mat. She looked at Isabelle with a worried look on her face.

“Isabelle, who’s this? What happened to his leg?” Katharos asked.

“I don’t know, I found him in the woods. Something attacked him. Do you think we can help him? I don’t know what to do” Isabelle asked her mother with a pleading look. Katharos sighed and went to grab some things to help the poor young boy. She came back with a jar of vinegar, linen, honey, and some water.

“We need to use the vinegar on his leg then wash it off with some water,” she said. “It’ll prevent infections, but it might sting a bit.”

“I tried to talk to him, but he’s not responding. All he does is look at me. He’ll probably be fine,” Isabelle said. Her mother gave her a weird look, but then turned to the boy's leg. She doused vinegar on it. The boy didn’t respond in any way other than shooting a glance in Katharos’ direction. She took some water and cleaned off the vinegar, applied some honey, then wrapped the leg up with some linen.

“Alright. That should be good. I don’t think it was as deep as it looked, but this should prevent infection,” Katharos said.

The boy didn’t fully recover until two days had passed. Even then, he wasn’t able to move very well, but it was enough to get around. It was afternoon and Isabelle was feeding him some soup with one or two curious onlookers in the form of her younger siblings. He had just regained the ability to speak.

“It looks like you’re getting your strength back!” Isabelle said.

“Yes, thank you. I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, uh, what was your name?” the boy asked.

“My name’s Isabelle. What’s yours?” she asked.

“I’m Tyler,” he said.

“What were you doing out there all by yourself, Tyler?” she asked.

“I was hunting. I know I’m not very good but I wanted to catch something to prove to my dad that I can do it,” he explained.

“How’d you end up with a gash on your leg?” Isabelle asked.

“Something attacked me. It was the stuff of nightmares,” he stopped for a moment with a worried expression on his face. “But, uh, I’m just glad you found me. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t,” he said.

“It didn’t do anything else to you, did it?” she asked.

“No, it didn’t. Why do you ask?” he wondered.

“Oh, no reason, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” she explained.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly are you?” he said. Isabelle looked a bit shocked at hearing that.

“I may look a little different, but I’m just a person,” she explained.

“...you have a tail, though,” he said. Isabelle nervously laughed, unsure of what to say to that.

“I guess I just got lucky!” she said. An awkward silence followed that lasted for what felt like an eternity.

“Uh huh. Well, anyways, thank you very much. I should probably be getting home now, my father is probably very worried about me,” he said and tried to stand up with extreme difficulty.

“Hold on! I’ll get my brother to help you home, you can’t go in that condition,” Isabelle said. “ALAN! GET IN HERE,” she shouted. A furious cacophony of footsteps could be heard down the hall until they finally reached the room they were in and Alan appeared.

“Yes, what is it?” he said.

“Could you help Tyler home? I don’t think he’ll be able to make it on his own,” Isabelle explained.

“Sure!” Alan replied and walked over to Tyler, helping him up and letting him lean on him.

“My stuff,” Tyler said.

“Oh yes! Your stuff,” Isabelle said, grabbing his stuff and making sure he had everything.

“Thank you, Isabelle,” Tyler said. Isabelle smiled and watched the two of them walk out the front door.