'What have I done?!'

The question rang in my head like a never-ending echo of my worst nightmares, gripping my heart with dread. Instead of showing the scalehoofs that they had nothing to fear from me, the beast me just bared its fangs at them, suppressing them with its might.

'How was that even possible? I haven't changed, have I?'

Startled, I looked down at my hands and scanned my domain for signs of me shifting, but found none. Unlike in that accursed cellar, and the back alley, I was still me - the weird human chick.

"G-girl? W-what... what was that?" Scoresby asked me, his voice shaking, his eyes wide, his forehead covered with sweat.

'The beast has screwed me. NO! I blew it.'

If I had just not given in to the neighing of the scalehoofs none of this would have happened. Sure, I wouldn't have gotten the job - which I didn't see getting now anyway - but I wouldn't make the only people in the city who gave a damn about me scared shitless. Scoresby would have to be crazy to want someone like me under his roof, and even though hidden behind the old man where I couldn't see her, it wasn't hard to imagine Ria shaking with fear. After all, my might gave even someone like that mind bitch pause and made the deranged asshole piss himself.

'Huh?'

Despite what I did, the pungent smell of piss didn't hit my nose, nor did I see anyone trembling with fear. Building number two of the stables was silent, everyone inside, be it human, Terr'den, or animal, wore a look of shock, but none of them seemed outright afraid of me.

»L-Lady?« one of the scalehoofs asked right after Scoresby voiced his question, and others followed as if awakened from a dream.

»You are Lady?«

»Lady here?«

'That thing again.'

Once more, I felt like living through deja vu. Only instead of the squirrels just a moment ago hell-bent on biting me to death, it was the scalehoofs whose approach to me took a complete turn with them having a taste of my might.

»B-beast, Lady?« Lyl'ra stuttered, confused.

»You were Lady?« Sylph'ra asked, confused no less, horrified at the way she had treated me. »Why not tell? Why hid it?«

'Because I had no bloody idea what it meant. I still haven't.' Though the truth and what I wanted to reply to Sylph'ra, it was not what left my lips. "I didn't know I was one."

»You not know you Lady?« Scoresby's mare asked, finding it unthinkable.

'Was that so weird?'

Even here on Eleaden there must have been a lot of people, and not just them, who grew up without knowing who they really were, without their parents, one or both of them. And while I knew mine, I had no idea what that deranged asshole had made me into. Did he use squirrels and scalehoofs in his experiments on me?

'I don't think so.'

When I fully shifted, I had fangs and not the massive front teeth of squirrels. Instead of the urge to bite into nuts, I was driven by the urge to bite into meat and piss on tree, not to find one to defend. Similarly, my feet turned into paws and not hooves, not to mention Sage. My tail was unlike any of those animals.

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'So, no.'

Whatever Dungreen tried to make me into, he didn't use animals like squirrels and scalehoofs to do it. He used animals, beasts to be precise - that much I could tell - which were rare to find, were proud and bowed to none.

'Wait! That sounds like...Was that what he tried to make me into? This lady - whatever that meant?'

"N-no, I didn't know," I growled my words in Standard at Sylph'ra. "How could I when I don't know what it means?"

As with the squirrels, behind the word "lady" even scalehoofs expressed their respect for me, but that was it. There was nothing to tell me what being the Lady actually meant to them.

»She not know?«

»Dumb?«

»Stupid?«

Despite how it might appear at first hearing, there was no malice or mockery in their neighing, only wonder and concern.

»Too young, maybe?«

»Or too weak.«

»Yes, too young and weak.«

»Grow stronger.«

'Huh?'

Were the scalehoofs really now telling me to get stronger? I had to hold myself back from laughing or growling at the absurdity of them daring to call me weak. For the respect they suddenly had for me, they weren't afraid to insult my pride - and it did hurt, especially because it was true.

'I was weak.'

[Scalehoof: 34 sigils]

Maybe not compared to the mares and stallions in the stables whose sigils ranged from 15 to almost 50, but compared to the people who had the right to call me out on it, like Rayden or Marcus - compared to the ones who tried to get my ass.

"D-don't worry. I'm planning to do just that. I want to get stronger."

I really did; it just wasn't something you could do overnight.

»Good.«

»Lady, should be stronger.«

'So they knew what a Lady was?'

"Why? Why are you calling me Lady? What does it mean?"

»Lady, is Lady.«

»Lady just is.«

As with the squirrels, much to my frustration, I couldn't get a straight answer out of them. Either they didn't really know themselves, or it was as obvious as they made it out to be, and I just didn't see it. Not that odd. I wasn't an animal like them. I wasn't even a beast - I just had one inside me.

'Perhaps I should ask my inner self, then.' A thought I immediately banished. It reeked of a split personality. No. Instead, another question came to my mind, one stemming from my conversation with Rayden and Marcus.

"Am I expected to do anything?"

Either my fear of taking on the expectations of others, even if they were just animals, was so strong it seeped into my voice, or the Lady thing wasn't as complicated as I thought.

»No.«

»Just be Lady.«

»... and listen.«

'That was it?' That didn't sound bad; with my big ears, it was something I was already doing anyway.

»Speak to others.«

'Huh?'

"What do you mean?"

»On our behalf.«

»To humans.«

»To that old grumpy dog.«

»He always barking at us.«

»Because you stupid, too slow.« growled back the dog in question from his master's feet where he stood. And that was when it clicked - sort of. 'Was the Lady something like a mediator? Between the species?' The question I didn't get to ask as the growling of the dog brought Stable Master Hale out of his stupor.

"Damn, Grey. You're more than meets the eye. I'll give you that. Almost pissed my pants, when..." he said and paused, not really knowing how to describe what happened. "We'll talk later about what that was."

"Y-you're not - you know - pissed off? Not afraid of me?" I asked, doing my best to suppress the beast when talking to him.

"Oh, you certainly scared the shit out of me, but more importantly - look around you. I've never seen a scalehoofs be so excited to talk to anyone."

"They are...?"

'Damn, how come I didn't see that?' Looking back at the animals, I couldn't help but feel like I had been blind until now. All scalehoofs but Lyl'ra stood pressed against their stall doors, looking at me, full of excitement and expectation.