Shadow lay sprawled and panting, straddling the branch. Her whole body felt like jelly (not that she’d ever actually felt jelly... yet.) but she still managed to keep her eyes on the dirt-snake, just in case it did something and she needed to move again. She knew she was torn up, but she was so exhausted the pain was more a dull background throb. Her heart was beating so hard, it felt like it was going to explode out of her chest.

“Is it dead!?” She heard Jonas yell from behind her. She could sense it as he scrambled down the tree as fast as he could.

“No… just sleeping… can’t hold it for long,” Annie forced out. Shadow could see the golden light shining from the spellcasting behind her. Shadow wished she could see Annie at the same time she was keeping an eye on the dirt-snake. She was glad that her mom was okay.

She saw Jonas run up to the giant creature, his sword drawn. He ran around its crumpled body and quickly found its head.

He glanced up at Annie.

“Sorry, but… I've gotta kill it!” He readied his sword, pointing it at one of the creature’s closed eyes.

“I… I know,” Annie forced out. Shadow sensed her turn her head away.

“Just do it,” she said. Shadow could hear the grimace in her voice.

Jonas made it as quick as he could, but still ended up having to plunge his sword into its eye socket multiple times before the creature stopped shuddering.

Shadow sensed Annie drop her hands, and start to make her way toward her.

Shadow shifted her head so she could see her mom with her actual eyes, now that the dirt-snake wasn’t going to be an issue anymore. Annie looked very concerned.

“Shadow, are you okay?!” she asked urgently.

Shadow nodded with a small grin and gave a tired wave of her hanging forepaw. She was beaten up and exhausted, but she was alright. She was hurting, but none of her injuries felt overly serious. She didn’t want Annie to worry.

“Here, let me look,” Annie said after she made one final hop over to the branch Shadow was resting on. She steadied herself and crouched down, laying her now-glowing hands on Shadow.

Shadow felt a pulse of warmth flow over her body.

“You’re okay.” Annie said, with a relieved sigh. She closed her eyes for a moment as her whole posture relaxed.

Annie looked back down at Shadow.

“You’re cut up pretty bad, but it’s mostly superficial,” Annie explained.

Shadow gave a huffing chuckle and stuck her tongue out a bit.

I know!

She’d said she was okay!

Annie raised an eyebrow at her as she started to heal some of the deeper gashes. Shadow realized she was feeling oddly giddy. She blamed the exhaustion.

“Is she alright!?” Jonas yelled up from the ground.

“She’ll be fine! Her injuries are mostly superficial!” Annie yelled back down.

“Might want to patch up Kirrik first then, he’s banged up pretty bad!” Jonas advised, sounding worried.

Annie’s head shot up, looking around.

“Where is he?!” she asked, not able to spot him from their location.

“That way!” Jonas shouted, pointing somewhere behind the trees to their right.

“I’m over here.” Kirrik grunted from behind the trees indicated. He sounded like he was in a good deal of pain.

Annie looked back down at Shadow. “You’re okay?”

Shadow gave her another grin and a floppy nod.

“Alright. See if you can make your way to the ground. It’ll be easier to patch you up down there. Please be careful.” Annie said in a soft tone.

Annie leaned over and kissed her on the top of the head, and whispered “you did a great job, my brave little girl,” before she took off clambering towards Kirrik.

Shadow watched her leave, sitting still for a few moments, letting the warm, fuzzy feeling wash over her.

She let out her noiseless equivalent of a giggle, the action more movement than sound. She looked back down at the ground and sighed. It was time to get up. She cringed as she pushed herself to her feet. Her muscles were still screaming, and the gashes and cuts stung something fierce, but she was actually feeling better than she had. Just the small amount of healing Annie gave her helped a lot.

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Shadow carefully worked herself down the tree, doing her best not to stretch any of her wounds too much. She noticed she wasn’t nearly as scared as she had been. She supposed the lack of a giant dirt-snake bearing down on her as she made her descent certainly helped.

Just as she reached the ground, she finally noticed the state of her clothing. She made a small whining sound as she realized how mangled they were. She had just gotten them!

Her face fell as she examined the extent of the damage. She couldn’t see everything without bending in ways she rather wouldn’t, given her condition, but she could tell it was bad. She was covered in little cuts, scrapes, and gashes, which naturally translated to cuts and tears in the fabric that would have covered the injuries. Everything was soaked in blood, although most of her cuts had stopped bleeding at this point. She was less worried about the injuries than she was about the clothes. Annie could heal her injuries, but she was less sure about the fabric.

She really wanted to take them off so she could give them a thorough inspection, but the thought of managing that in her current state made her wince.

She took a deep breath and calmed herself down. The clothes were less important than the fact that they were all okay. Well, okay enough. Annie would hopefully be able to heal everyone. She was grateful the clothes hadn’t gotten in the way during the fight. She had honestly completely forgotten she was wearing them.

Shadow walked over to where Jonas was staring up into a tree. Once she got beside him, she could see Annie healing Kirrik above them. Kirrik was sitting on a branch with his back against the tree trunk, as Annie balanced on the branch, with her glowing hands resting on his chest.

Shadow made an attempt at the darkness spell, and just barely managed to cast it. The range was terrible currently, but it was good enough to talk.

‘Are you hurt?’ she spelled out in the air in front of Jonas.

Jonas jumped back at seeing the text pop up in front of him, but quickly relaxed, putting a hand to his chest and letting out a chuckle as he looked down to find her.

“You scared me half to death. I didn’t notice you’d come down,” he said, reaching over and rubbing her head.

She grinned at him a little, and breathed out a laugh.

‘Sorry about that!’ she wrote out for him.

“Heh. Should have been paying more attention,” he assured her, but his look turned concerned.

“You’re really okay? You look pretty torn up.”

She sighed and nodded at him.

‘I’m fine, just tired and cut up. I… do you think Annie will be able to patch up my clothes? They’re ruined and I just got them…’ she asked, sagging again at the thought.

He crouched down in front of her, and lightly bopped her on the nose with a finger.

“Don’t you worry about the clothes. They can be replaced if need be. I care a heck of a lot more about you getting torn up than your clothes; healing or not.”

She looked at him in surprise and laughed again. He’d essentially just reiterated what she'd told herself earlier. She knew she was more important than the clothes. But she was still sad they’d been wrecked.

The comment did make her feel better, though. She thought about hugging him, but decided that could wait until she had fewer open wounds.

“When did you start laughing like that, anyway? You used to make this chittering sound.” He asked, looking mildly curious.

Shadow blinked at him and furrowed her brow. She… did used to chitter, didn’t she? She’d stopped at some point on their journey, using her current breathy laugh instead when something funny tickled her.

She chittered out a laugh right then, just to do it. She felt weird making the noise. It didn't feel right anymore.

She liked her breathy laugh now.

Maybe… maybe it was because it sounded more human. It was basically just little pulses of forceful breathing, but it definitely sounded like a soft laugh if you heard it. There were precious few sounds she could make that were actually person-like, and this was one of them, like sighing. She must have picked it up from Jonas. His laugh was a little bit breathy.

Not that she had even really thought about adopting it at a conscious level. She’d just sort of started doing it.

‘I think I wanted to sound like you. Like people.’ She answered, looking up at him.

The man slumped a bit. “Aww, you don’t have to do that. The chittering wasn’t bad.” He assured her, looking a little concerned.

She shrugged and grinned up at him, hiding a small wince of pain at the movement. She must have had a cut on her shoulder.

‘I like my new laugh.’ She explained.

“Well… long as you don’t feel like you have to.” He said, smiling back at her, before looking up to check on Annie again.

Wait.

Somehow, he’d managed not to answer her question.

‘So… are you hurt?’ she asked again.

“Oh, right. It’s nothin’ bad. I'd just have a nasty bruise where it clipped me, but Annie should be able to fix it right up. I’ll be fine.” He reassured her.

Shadow nodded at him, accepting the answer.

“Okay! We’re headed down! Please keep an eye on Kirrik, just in case!” Annie yelled to them from up in the tree.

“Will do!” Jonas yelled back.

Shadow heard a grumbled “I can handle it…” from Kirrik at the edge of her hearing.

Jonas positioned himself so that he might be able to break someone’s fall if they slipped, and Shadow took up a position beside him.

Jonas raised an eyebrow at her, and she backed off sheepishly after a moment of thought.

She was more liable to get herself crushed rather than help anything if the beastkin did fall. Better to leave it to Jonas.

Annie and Kirrik made their way down with no issues, however.

Kirrik settled himself down, laying against the tree, taking deep breaths, while Annie went over to Shadow, starting to work on healing her.

“Still feeling okay?” Annie asked, and Shadow nodded.

‘I feel a lot better with you healing me!’ she wrote with a grin.

“I’m sure you do,” Annie said with warmth.

Annie looked over at the dead dirt-snake.

“It’s very fortunate no one was hurt worse than they were.” She stated.

Her brow furrowed as she looked at the creature.

“Why in the world is there a Tatzelwurm so far outside of the mountains?” She asked no one in particular.

Shadow assumed this wasn’t a normal occurrence.