It was well into afternoon, and fatigue was making it difficult for Iktchi-Chi to maintain her human guise. They were still some distance from the village, but not all together that far. Perhaps another quarter hour at their snail’s pace.

Chi was struggling to come up with some sort of excuse to shuffle off into the nearby wood to shed her current form before she lost her ability to hold it. She just needed to catch a few winks and she’d be alright. It was while struggling with the tantalizing allure of sleep that her muzzy brain brought forth the image of Sam’s terrified face as it had appeared the previous night. She stumbled to an abrupt halt, breath catching.

“Lady Chi?” Able Norley hastened to her side. “Is something amiss?”

“No,” she grated. “Yes. I... Give me a moment, please.” stabbing the jagged backed sword into the ground and burying her face in both hands.

She couldn’t face the villagers in this condition. Nor could she postpone the meeting. She’d not be able to cling to this form much longer without rest, and the longer she tarried, the more likely she’d revert at an inopportune moment. Even leaving aside what a mess she’d make if her wings sprouted inside the coat.

“Able Norley,” she whispered from beneath her hands. “Is there any possible way I could convince you to go on without me?”

“Now why would we do anything like that?” he wondered in a troubled voice. “If you’re too tired, we’ll stay here with you. We may not be much of a threat to the monsters, but we could at least wake you up if any of them show.”

About what she’d expected. And the last thing she wanted. “And if I promised you I’d be fine?” she cajoled. “After all, I am a... whatever fifty-six, am I not?” She removed one hand from her face. And peered blearily at him from one eye. “Who was it saved whom up there, hmm?”

His face had fallen from concerned to crestfallen, and now to nervousness.

She heaved a great sigh and waved her free hand, palm down with an upward flick. “Shoo!”

He stared openmouthed at her for a dozen heartbeats before his shoulders slumped and he turned away. “C’mon, boys,” he ordered his sons. "The lady wants some privacy and we need to get back to let folks know we ain’t dead.”

She watched them out of sight without moving. The moment they’d rounded a bend in the trail, however, she hauled off her coat and let the spell drop, letting go a long moan of relief. She plopped down right where she stood. Rolling up the coat to use as a pillow, she wrapped her wings about her, and lay down in the warm sunshine to take the edge off of her exhaustion.

She thought she’d have at least an hour to herself. More probably. She couldn’t see anyone coming out to investigate once the Norleys arrived at Tumblebrook and were let in on her true identity.

For the second time in twenty-four hours, Chi came awake to the sound of a wagon. This one was traveling at a more leisurely pace, but had nonetheless gotten altogether closer than she felt comfortable with. How weary had she been?

She lunged up from the ground, beginning the incantation, but stopped before the first of the effects manifested. It was Able Norley, and he was far too close to have missed seeing her. Flushing, she grabbed at her coat and brought it up to cover her nakedness.

“So,” he remarked casually. “They weren’t lying.”

“No,” she looked up, face neutral. “I don’t suppose they were. Why aren’t you frightened?”

“Me?” he laughed. “I was plenty frightened. Last night when me and my boys was treed by them scarlet swine. But then you came along and saved our lives. And healed Jeeb from what I’m pretty sure was a fatal wound, knowing what I know of boars.

“After that?” he shrugged broadly. “Ain’t no fear in me towards you, no matter what you really are.” he paused for a moment, before, “which is what, exactly? If you don’t mind me askin’.”

She smiled up at him, a truly heartfelt smile, almost unable to believe what he was saying. “Your people would call me a demon,” she said matter-of-factly. "Or, perhaps a devil.”

“My people, huh?” he wondered back as he climbed down from the wagon and made his way around to the rear of the bed. “And your people?”

Slightly taken aback, she gave him a shrug of her own. “At home, back when there was one,” she said slowly. “When it came up, I was considered a devil girl, although the term didn’t mean what it means here. Back home, we were the regular people, and the humans were the... the dangerous, murdering savages.”

He was coming back now, a basket dangling from one hand. “Long ways off?”

“Another world,” she sighed, still holding the coat against herself. “One that no longer exists.

“Another world,” he repeated. "So, you are a hero after all?”

Her eyes went wide. “I sincerely doubt that” she demurred. “I merely arrived on the coattails of one.”

He set the basket down near her and wandered back to the wagon, giving her space. Not, she understood, out of fear, but out of respect.

“I hope you’ll pardon me, ma’am,” he said over his shoulder as he walked. “But I think me and my boys are gonna keep thinking of you as a hero. With all due respect, ma’am.”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she shifted to Chi the adventurer, if only so that she could put the coat on properly.

It was strange, she thought as she shrugged the coat around her shoulders and buttoned it up. She’d spent the bulk of her life naked, or as near as, and it hadn’t ever bothered her before arriving on this world. Her former self, in fact, wouldn’t have bothered with a covering. She’d have been far more likely to use her nudity as a tool. She knew that humans found her alluring, even as they feared her otherworldly form.

And yet, just now, when Mister Norley’s eyes had widened at her nakedness and his face had flushed, what she’d felt hadn’t been power. It had been embarrassment. She wondered why, though with no great effort. Just another thing to separate this life from that.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

There was food in the basket. Thick chunks of red meat, sandwiched between heavy slabs of bread. And a jug of apple cider that must have been somewhere cold until very recently.

She ate in silence, head down, her mind racing. It was clear that Mister Norley wouldn’t denounce her for what she was. The simple act of his returning for her after he’d obviously been informed of the truth spoke volumes, and made her happier than she wanted to admit.

He’d come alone, though. What did that mean? “So, uhm...” she looked up at him once her meal was done, over there leaning back against a wagon wheel, waggling a grass stem in his teeth. “What’s happening in the village?”

“Oh,” he chuckled. “Quite a ruckus goin’ on back there.

“See, little Samus was in quite a state when she got back from your place, I guess. Couldn’t rightly explain to anybody just what she’d seen. Had the whole bunch of ‘em in quite the tizzy.”

“And...?” her voice was hesitant.

He shrugged and raised his hands up. “No idea,” he told her. “They was all still in the village square arguin’ when we got there. I listened for awhile, but I eventually figured I’d better git before I said somethin’ I’d regret. So I went home, had the missus fix up a lunch for you, borrowed a wagon, and came out here.”

She thought that over for a few moments before, “Before you said something?”

He snorted, turning his head away and spitting the grass stem out along with a glob of spit. “After all you’ve done for them? For all of us?” he demanded. “I don’t think I could name a single soul in Tumblebrook you ain’t helped one time or another if I worked at it for the rest of the day!

“Them’s the times you wanna keep quiet,” he added. “Not start things won’t go away once everybody’s calmed down.

“Listen, Lady Chi,” he leaned forward earnestly. “They’s surprised and scared. They don’t know what to expect, ner what they’re dealin’ with, and they ain’t actin’ themselves. I’m askin’ ya, please don’t give up on us.”

Give up on them? Was she hearing right? “You... you think they’ll still want me around knowing I’m a monster?”

“Monster?” he reared his head back. “Didn’t you just tell me where you’re from you’re just regular folks?”

“There,” she said. “I’m not there.”

“Just give us a chance,” he pleaded.

“Who was it who was talking about persistence just a few hours ago?” she chided.

“Well, I never said it was a bad trait, now did I?” he shot back with a wide grin.

Chi was still in her adventurer form when they rounded a bend and the village walls came into view. She tensed.

If Able Norley noticed, he didn’t comment. He drove the wagon right up short of the north gate and stopped in the middle of the road. Then he gave the traces a couple of winds around the brake handle and stood up. “Oi!” he called in a loud voice. “Mayor! We’re back!”

Chi flinched as what could almost be called a rumble came from the village wall as seemingly the entire population raced up the stairways to the parapet. Within minutes, the wall was lined with villagers, mostly male, entirely adult.

Chi’s heart fell at the realization that they’d kept the children away. She couldn’t really blame them, she supposed, but it still hurt.

Centermost among them, and directly above the closed gate, stood the mayor, his face equal parts anger and sorrow. She could imagine how he felt. He’d been the one who’d originally allowed her in.

“Show yourself, Lady Chi,” he called down, his voice harsh. It would have sounded odd in other circumstances given she was in plain sight, but she took his meaning.

“I can’t,” she called back. “I can’t change over while I’m in this coat, and I’m naked underneath.”

Norley suppressed a chuckle, but the mayor didn’t seem at all amused.

Chi climbed down from the wagon and turned to face the gate. “You’d better go on, Able,” she said out the side of her mouth.

“Nope,” he said casually. “I don’t believe I will.”

She turned to give him a halfhearted glare, but he wasn’t having it. “And no point in shooing me, neither,” he told her. “Not gonna do it. Not gonna make you stand against this nonsense on your own.”

Fine! “Very well", she called up to the angry mayor. “Just give me a minute.”

Turning her back on the wall, she unbuttoned the coat and winkled her arms out of the sleeves before turning back while holding the coat as steady as she could. Once she’d gotten mostly turned around, she slid her arms into their opposing sleeves. Now she stood straight with the coat on backwards, her naked behind in the breeze.

“You’re sure?” she asked resignedly.

Looking to left and right, the mayor turned back to her and nodded.

Sighing deeply, Chi lowered her head and allowed the guise to fall. Her horns grew out, her skin and hair reddened, her tail slid forth, and her wings sprouted and unfurled. When she looked back up, it was through orange-red lava eyes.

There came a collective gasp from the wall, as everyone there beheld their savior for the first time in her true form. Murmurs grew into a near din as each of them began to whisper to their neighbors, their individual voices indistinct. It was difficult to ascertain any individual opinions, whether friendly or hostile.

Chi’s imagination filled in the details unsolicited, and not to her benefit.

Beside her, Able Norley was growing angry. She hoped he wouldn’t say anything. In some places, her kind were said to be able to bewitch humans, and she wouldn’t want him to have to go through those sorts of accusations.

Atop the wall, Marbry Longhan gazed down at the creature he’d been calling Lady Chi for the past six months. Samus’ description had fallen somewhat short. One thing hit him, though. Square in the chest. The creature he was looking at now was powerful in a sort of way he didn’t really understand. He could feel it, though his gift was fairly weak. It pulsed out from her in waves.

He sighed, shoulders slumping as this realization overwhelmed his anger and even his fear. The goblins had been too much for them. What stood before him now, fidgeting, was orders of magnitude moreso. What was it Able had said? A dozen scarlet swine in the blink of an eye?

“Alright,” he said quietly, his voice barely carrying above the din atop the wall. “Everybody go home. The lot of you.”

There were angry replies, but he ignored them. “Go!” he ordered, deepening his tone. Weak his gift might be, but the command implicit even in the voice of a rank ten was sufficient to quell any disagreement among ungifted.

He stood atop the gate while his citizens shuffled clear of the parapet and the wall. He waited until they’d gathered up their families and started for their individual homes. Then he sighed again, as though pressed down by the weight of the world, and quit the wall himself.

Chi watched the exodus from the wall with some confusion. Shortly thereafter, the gate opened, and Mayor Longhan came out, his pace measured. He came to a halt seven or ten feet shy of where she stood and looked to Able Norley.

“Go home, Able,” he ordered. “Your wife wants to see you.”

After a moment of hesitation and some looking back and forth between Chi and the mayor, Able nodded and resumed the seat of the wagon.

The mayor didn’t say a word for a long time as the two of them stood looking at one another in the roadway. Then, with another deep sigh, he asked her, “you could have killed every single one of us at any moment it pleased you, couldn’t you?”

She gasped. “That’s a terrible thing to say!”

“But true?”

Her face lost all expression, and she didn’t answer immediately. “Yes,” she finally admitted in a dead voice. “It’s true. I’m not saying it would be as easy as all that, but....”

“But you could have,” he bored in.

Now she was looking at her feet, as though she were a child being scolded by an elder. “I could.”

“And yet, you haven’t harmed a single one of us,” he said half aloud, as though to himself.

She looked up abruptly, her eyes sharpening.

He was looking full at her as though she still wore Chi the adventurer, and the fear had all but left his eyes. “You’ve done nothing but help,” he said with a tinge of wonder in his voice. “The village and its people. Why?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. Why? “Why would I hurt any of you?” she asked in her turn. “You’re my neighbors. My friends. Very nearly the only ones I’ve ever had.”

The mayor nodded and squared his shoulders. “And what now?” he asked her. “Will you move on to someplace where people don’t know about you?”

“Will I need to?” she wondered carefully.

He thought about it for awhile before answering, standing there in the roadway before the open gate of his village and facing probably the second most powerful being he’d ever seen in the flesh. “Let’s find out, shall we?” he asked at last.