And so, once I’ve convinced Mallory that I won’t kill the entire colony without a really good reason, we start heading towards the mountains. Teriyaki seems excited at the thought of joining up with the colony, saying that she’s never met another shapeshifter (aside from her mother, of course).

We decide to take the bus to save money. The ride is only about 20 minutes, the bus itself rather empty this morning. It was going in the opposite direction of everyone else’s commute, so that’s probably why.

During the ride, Mallory explains that she has never actually made contact with the shapeshifter colony. She’s not sure if they’ve ever seen her, but she watched them for awhile from inside a tree.

Our information on shapeshifters (on most monsters, actually) is pretty limited—and sometimes risks being outdated. We currently classify them as carnivores, but they’ve been seen eating fruits. It’s also said that they tend not to group up, living very individualistic lifestyles.

But according to Mallory, this colony had a collection of human junk food alongside the meat they hunted. She couldn’t say whether or not the meat they had hanging up was human. Or, if she could, she just didn’t want to admit it. The colony itself was also fairly sizable—she said she spotted six shapeshifters at minimum.

The fact that monsters are just… casually organizing in our town is fairly concerning, but we haven’t gotten complaints about them. Yet.

We arrive at the foot of the mountain, hurrying off the bus. I personally think our “mountains” just barely classify as mountains. They’re more like rocky hills with artificial hiking trails built into them.

“About halfway up the mountain, there’s an unmarked path where the plant-life is kinda thinned out.” Mallory explains, leading the way. “We shouldn’t take the path, but I saw the other shapeshifters using it. If Teriyaki follows the path, she should run into them.”

“Should we… stick around and wait?” I ask, noting as Mallory veers closer.

“If they’re anything like werewolves, they’ll tear her apart if they reject her.” She whispers. “We don’t wanna be anywhere near that.”

“…Ah.”

We chat some more as we make our way up the trail, a slight breeze blowing through the trees. This part of the forest, fortunately, is not part of Suicide Forest. So, there’s no watching eyes or inexplainable patches of pure darkness. The only real risk (besides shapeshifters) is wendigos.

But, not only do they only come out at night, they live much further up in the mountains. Good thing too, those things are a real pain in the ass to deal with. They’re especially more active during Winter.

We finally come across where Mallory thinks the path is. She wanders around a bit, and does eventually find it. The disturbance to the brush is lower down, more at the height of someone crawling around on all fours.

“Well, Teriyaki… I guess this is goodbye.” I smile hopefully, trying not to be too concerned about what might happen if the colony doesn’t accept her.

I suppose it’s not much different to what will happen if we were to throw her back into the forest alone.

“Feel free to say ‘hi’ if you see me in the forest.” Mallory grins, stepping out the way and gesturing to the hidden path.

“Oh… Okay. What about J.L.?” Teriyaki frowns.

Mallory looks to me curiously. I’m quiet for a moment.

“Well, I don’t really come inside the forest, but… I guess if you happen to see me, we can chat for a bit.” I adjust my hair, looking past Teriyaki instead of at her.

Teriyaki seems satisfied with my answer, a wide grin breaking out across her face. She bolts forward and wraps her arms around me. I don’t hug her back, but just give her head a pat. I stick my tongue out at Mallory as she gives me some dumb, smug look.

“Alright, kid. Shoo. And try not to eat any humans.” I crack a small smile.

“Bye J.L.! Bye demon-girl!” She calls back, dropping down onto all fours.

She bounds down the path, and I can’t help but watch until she’s out of sight.

“That hurt. I knew her name.” Mallory scoffs, but still smiles. “Can you believe she thinks I’m a demon?”

“Gee, I can’t possibly imagine why.” I laugh.

As I head back down the mountain trail, I pull out my phone to check the time. It was almost 1 o’clock.

“That killed a decent amount of time. Ready to go deal with the church?” I put my phone away.

“Aren’t I always?”