After they were all past the exhaustion point and ready for some food, everyone climbed out of the lake, laughing and chattering excitedly.

Alastor the Fish swam around for a moment, finally flopping on shore. Once there, he immediately turned back into his fox form. He shook his fur and walked towards Alex with dignity, clambering on top of his shoulder.

“You amazing fox,” Alex said affectionately, stroking Alastor’s head. “I can’t believe you had the power to shapeshift this entire time.”

“Well, we don’t know approximately if it is real shapeshifting,” Sapphire said knowingly, pushing her glasses up her nose. She'd taken them off temporarily to swim in the lake. “It could just be a variation that allows Alastor to change into certain forms of a genus of species, specifically—”

“It’s real shapeshifting if I SAY it is,” Alex interrupted. “Alastor just may have to get the hang of it.”

“Talk about it,” Alastor muttered from his perch on Alex’s shoulder. His fluffy tail waved back and forth slowly.

“Here, Sapphire,” Pyrite said, holding out her hand. “I’ll take your shirt and hang it up to dry along with our other clothes.” Thay had made a makeshift clothesline out of some braided vines and hung up their jackets and other clothes.

For some reason, Sapphire hesitated. “I’m okay,” she said. “I can do it by myself.”

Pyrite was slightly taken aback. Why would Sapphire refuse? Everyone exchanged looks.

“It’s just...” Sapphire sighed. “I-I—”

“I won’t do anything to it,” Pyrite said, feeling slightly hurt that her friend was refusing her kindness. “Unless you think that I’ll just dump it in the next hole?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“No! It’s not that,” Sapphire cried. “I just—I just—I don’t want to, um...”

Now Pyrite was confused. What was Sapphire hiding?

“Come on,” Razortail said grumpily. “It’s just a shirt.”

Sapphire reluctantly took it off.

Pyrite gasped. Everyone else’s eyes widened.

“W-wha—” Turquoise was lost for words.

Sapphire bit her lip and hung her head, like she knew what they were looking at.

“Sapphire, what happened to you?” Pyrite asked gently. It was the question that all of them were wondering. Clearly defined on Sapphire’s back were many deep scars. Some of them looked like burn marks, and others looked like—were those whip marks? Pyrite also saw several nicks, scratches, and bruises on her back. There was even an angry red hand mark that looked like someone had hit her hard enough for the mark to stay.

“Who did this?” Turquoise asked, her expression growing angry. While they were all distracted, Sapphire put her shirt back on and hugged herself.

“I-it’s nothing,” she stuttered. “It was all a long time ago, guys. It doesn’t matter now.”

Pyrite suddenly realized something. The marks...the raggedy look to her clothes...how Sapphire was never found in her house...the way she talked about her family...all of it was starting to add up.

“Your family was abusive, weren’t they?” Pyrite whispered. She pulled Sapphire into a hug. “Oh, no...”

“It’s okay,” Sapphire reassured her. “We came to an agreement. I won’t have to see them ever again.”

Pyrite pulled away gently, immersing into silence for a moment. Now, looking at Sapphire, Pyrite’s own mother didn’t seem all that bad. Sure, Onyx was stern and mostly ignored Pyrite’s existence, but at least she’d never actually done anything to harm Pyrite. And there were times that Pyrite felt her mother actually cared about her, even if they were rare.

“I can see why you hid it from us,” Turquoise said sadly. She was stroking the top of her helmet and wincing. Pyrite wondered if it was talking to her.

“And I can see why you hid the satchel from us,” Jade said. “You thought we might be like your family and take it away from you. It’s okay that you didn’t trust us completely, I wouldn’t have either.”

“Thank you.” Sapphire exhaled. Tanzanite walked up to her and nosed her, and Sapphire hugged her neck.

“I assume that Tanzanite knew?” Andy asked. He looked quite stunned.

Sapphire nodded. Everyone gathered around her and they all did a group hug.

“You’re safe with us now,” Alex told Sapphire. “Even when we do go back, we’ll keep you protected.”

When. It felt good to hear that word. Pyrite could feel her throat choking up.

And that was when Sapphire burst into tears.