Shadow was sitting down between Annie and Glenda, the latter of whom was busy petting her. The woman seemed to be entirely at ease with her now, despite her earlier misgivings. She wondered if it was because the woman could probably kill her with ease. She figured being enhanced like she was would make someone feel safer in general. Whatever the reason, Shadow certainly wasn’t complaining.

They had gone around as a group for a bit, healing those with burns or other minor injuries. Overall, people seemed a lot better disposed toward the pair of them now, despite all the drama earlier.

Shadow imagined it was kind of like how she had felt when Annie had healed her that first time.

She’d had no idea what Annie was or if she was dangerous, but it was hard to mistrust something that was miraculously curing all of your injuries (and also giving you food, although she didn’t go that far with the villagers).

Now they were all just sitting down, looking at the sawmill.

The building was… saved?

Half of it had collapsed, and the other half was certainly… singed.

The whole thing was burnt to some extent, but there were areas that looked better off than others. Maybe the humans could fix it? She didn’t know enough about how it was built to be sure.

She knew the basics, of course; She’d asked Annie about them. She knew of boards, nails, and hammers, and how you used them to build... well… almost anything.

She’d even managed to work out how buildings were generally put together from her inspections, but not necessarily why they were put together in the ways they were. It was possible the sawmill was damaged to the point where it would make more sense to make a whole new building than fixing whatever was broken.

How do you even fix burnt wood?

She didn’t even know if that was possible.

Shadow had managed to snag her collar again after things calmed down a little. She’d struggled over whether she should put it back on for now, but had decided not to. She had it safely secured in one of her pouches.

Annie had accepted her decision without a fight, which surprised Shadow a bit. Shadow noticed she seemed rather down after the incident was over, clearly lost in thought. She occasionally gave her a nuzzle in hopes of cheering her up a bit, but only met with limited success. She let it be for now. It’s not like she was feeling completely fine after all that had happened, either. She was still trying to work out her emotions.

On the one hand (or, paw? It was a human saying. She supposed it didn’t really matter), a bunch of somewhat terrible things had happened. She’d run off in the middle of the night, gotten caught by a villager, gotten involved in a fire (although that really hadn’t been her fault), had people see her using dark magic, and had been completely outed as not, in fact, being some sort of magic dog implanted in a shadeling. Well, technically, the villagers thought she was all kinds of stuff now, and they certainly knew Annie had been lying.

But on the other paw (she could use whatever phrases she wanted to in her own head), she’d made four (maybe five, if Mr. Clive counted.) new friends tonight. People were tolerating her despite the fact that she wasn’t really hiding anything anymore, and she’d had a wonderful time learning everything about the sawmill before it had burned down...

The point was the night almost felt like a victory despite all the bad stuff that happened. The only things she was really, truly upset about was the sawmill being destroyed and the fact that she’d gone and done something kind of stupid, and made Annie think she’d been kidnapped.

She knew they’d have to have a conversation about all that later, but for now, they were just relaxing after all the action.

It seemed like their relaxation wasn’t to last though. She saw a group of people moving toward them.

There were quite a few people in the group, but she knew, or had at least seen, most of them.

There was Jonas, the beastkin, Willit (who was unbound, but still flanked by the previously mentioned pair) the lady that had called her a demon, Maggie and her mom, Mr. Clive, and one last man whose clothes looked different from most of the other villagers (the ones that they’d had on earlier at least, most of the villagers were currently half dressed or in their nightclothes). They had a lot more bits to them and looked less durable. She thought they may be more colorful too but it was hard to tell in the dim light. He was the one leading them over.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

All three of them got to their feet as the group of people approached.

The interestingly dressed man stopped and looked them all over.

“So, it seems I’ve finally found the source of tonight’s kerfuffle.” He said in an even tone.

Shadow wasn’t quite sure what to make of him. He didn’t seem angry. He did have a stern expression, but Shadow could tell there wasn’t any real fire behind it.

The man turned to Annie, extending a hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Clarke. I wish it could have happened under less… strenuous circumstances. I’ve heard about your work. My name is Willmot Adcock, headman of the village,” he stated.

Annie took his hand and shook it, looking surprised.

“You’ve heard of my work?” she asked.

“Yes! I have. I like to keep abreast of what’s going on in the kingdom at large. It’s important for a man in my position,” he said.

Annie looked a bit uncomfortable.

“Surely my name isn’t so important to be coming up in news about the kingdom,” she demurred, breaking eye contact.

“On the contrary, your tracking project is garnering significant attention, given His Majesty’s interest in it. But that is neither here nor there. Let’s talk about what’s happened tonight.” He took a deep breath and sighed.

“I believe I’ve gotten most of the story from this lot already, but I would like to confirm some things from the source.”

With that, he turned to Shadow.

“From what I understand you are an intelligent… being… capable of understanding me. Is this true?

Shadow was nervous, suddenly everyone was looking at her. She wasn’t sure what she should do. Was she supposed to answer this man? She looked over at Annie.

Annie nodded to her.

She looked at the man and nodded.

He gave her a curt nod back.

“Good. Can you speak?”

She shook her head.

“Unfortunate. Let me confirm what I believe happened tonight.“

She was going to gesture that she could write but the man didn't really give her a chance.

He proceeded to recount the night's events, asking her yes or no questions about the various happenings and reconfirming details with the others. He was curt but respectful in his questioning. She felt… respected? It was a nice feeling, like he was taking her seriously.

Eventually, the facts had been covered, and he moved on to different questions.

“Did you plan to cause harm to this village or anyone in it?” He asked seriously.

Shadow’s eyes widened.

No of course not!

She shook her head vigorously.

The headman gave her a nod, before shifting to look at both her and Annie.

“Do either of you plan to leave the village tonight?”

She tilted her head.

I... uhh… don’t think so?

She looked over at Annie.

“We won’t be fleeing in the night.” Annie stated in a strained voice. She looked somewhat mortified.

“And you, creature. Are you planning to leave?”

“Shadow! ‘er name’s Shadow, not creature!” Maggie piped in from the side, before being shushed by her mother.

“Of course, my apologies, Shadow. This situation is somewhat out of the ordinary for me. Are you planning to leave in the night?”

Shadow shook her head in answer to his question. She wouldn’t run unless Annie wanted to.

The lady who called her a demon looked thunderous. She’d been getting angrier and angrier as the questioning had continued.

Mr. Willmot nodded back again, and the lady finally burst.

“It ain’t a person! It’s a demon! Ya can’t trust it! Why are ya even askin’ it anythin’?!” the woman yelled.

A few in the crowd shot her dirty looks. Maggie looked like she was going to pipe up again but settled for a scowl after a warning look from her mother.

“Mrs. Petra, I’ve entertained your... assertions… but as far as I’ve been able to determine Shadow has done nothing to warrant the accusation. She’s been perfectly behaved and saved four people from a fire. She may be guilty of trespassing, but it seems that was… youthful indiscretion.” He said, shooting a glance at Maggie, who looked away guiltily.

“But it were usin’ evil magic! It even admitted it!” Petra said, looking exasperated.

“So you’ve said, but as I’ve already explained, use of dark magic is not against the law, only performing illegal acts with it is.”

”It ain’t no mage! It’s a monster!” She exploded, looking around at everyone like they were crazy.

“Mrs. Petra. I would ask you to refrain from insulting my companion to her face.” Annie stated. Her smile was strained at this point. Petra shot an angry glare at her, but it was tinged with fear as well. She held her tongue.

Shadow was just happy that Mr. Willmot seemed to be on her side, even never having met her. She was pretty sure things would be ok for them if he remained that way.

“Well, given you’ll be staying the night, I think we can deal with other matters in the morning. I don’t see any reason to believe Shadow is a danger to the town. I did want to thank you for your assistance during the fire, Ms. Clarke.”

Annie nodded. “It was no trouble at all.”

“I would inquire if you would be willing to assist me tomorrow with a public statement? We can talk about it more in the morning.” He asked with a smile.

“Oh, of course, that should be fine,” Annie replied, seeming slightly confused, but willing.

“Oh! And as for Mr. Willit here, I can assure you he will receive an appropriate punishment for breaking into your rooms.” He said, glaring at the man in question.

“Would you mind having your men release him for now? He may be a moron but he’ll behave. Won’t you, Mr. Willit?”

“Yessir, Headman Willmot, sir. I won’t do nothin’ else…” Willit said, staring at the ground, looking cowed.

“Yes, that should be fine, as long as you’re also okay with it, Jonas?” Annie asked, looking over at him.

“No skin off my back.” He responded, giving Willit a shove forward before breaking off to go stand beside Annie.

“Thank you. Well, I believe that’s enough talking for the middle of the night. I’ll see you in the morning,” Headman Willmot said, nodding at Annie.

With that, the group broke up, and they all headed their different ways.

Shadow waved goodbye to Maggie and Glenda, joining Annie and Jonas as they headed back to the inn.

She was ready to sleep now.