“I…” Nasha gestured towards the feline and dropped her gaze. “This is Penelope. I like to call her Pen.”

  I was not amused, to say the least.

  “I see. And can I ask why you are meeting her out here, all on your own?” I looked pointedly around the clearing, only to pause.

  I’d been understandably preoccupied by the sight of the feline, but now I realized I had missed something significant. At the other end of the clearing stood something I refused to call a structure, though it was clearly doing its best to imitate one.

  Someone had carefully propped large branches against a relatively straight tree limb, providing a semblance of shelter. The inside, which I could easily peek into, was lined with blankets. The branches that composed the ‘walls’ were also covered in moss and large leaves, but they probably failed to keep out the elements. That was to say nothing of the large opening at the front, which the duo clearly hadn’t found a way to block yet.

  “Uhhhh…” Nasha floundered, her eyes darting wildly around.

  “Is… is she living out here?” I squinted at the feline, who hissed again, and addressed her directly. “Well, are you?”

  She flicked her ears at me dismissively and uttered some kind of ‘mrow’ sound.

  I sighed. “Nasha, please tell me ‘Pen’ can communicate.”

  “She can!” the beagle protested. “She just can’t speak our language fully yet!”

  Nasha pulled the feline up to her feet. These feet were fully digitigrade, I noted. This wasn’t exactly rare, but the way her paws flared and her claws kept poking out hinted that she was accustomed to using all her limbs as weapons.

  “This is the creature that attacked you, isn’t she? You got her those clothes too, I assume.” I sighed again. “Nasha, you can’t just adopt a feral —”

  Another hiss, this one much more aggressive. The livid look on the feline’s face made my fingers twitch as I considered going for a weapon.

  Nasha’s voice rose in a squeal. “She is not feral! And don’t talk about her like she’s stupid! She just didn’t grow up speaking our language. The two of us are able to communicate just fine! We’ve been teaching each other how to speak our different languages. She can understand everything in ours already.”

  “Not… stupid…” the feline growled, mangling the words just a little as she glared at me.

  I admit that gave me pause.

  “All right… so…” I looked back and forth between the two. “She can learn quickly, and she is quite intelligent. Got it.”

  Sighing for the third time, I gave into the urge to massage my forehead. I had been reluctant to let the feline out of my sight, but it felt incredibly nice to close my eyes against the headache that had started building up behind them.

  Of course, the pain intensified again when I opened my eyes to see ‘Pen’ pressing herself against Nasha’s side. The feline was eyeing me aggressively like I was going to steal the beagle away. Said beagle, meanwhile, was sporting a silly grin.

  Right, I thought wearily as Nasha caught my eye and immediately looked away, flushing crimson. At least I don’t need to wonder about Nasha’s motives anymore. Not that I think she wouldn’t do all of this just to be nice and helpful… Honestly, why did I allow myself to get so paranoid about her? What was I thinking?

  I could only consider it as a bout of temporary madness. Clearly, every thought I’d ever had about Nasha as a secret mastermind who hid behind bumbling innocence was false.

  A feline person had almost killed her, and she was now hiding that same person in the woods near Swiftband… over a crush.

  “Um…” Nasha fidgeted, her voice small. “Y-you won’t tell the elders, right?”

  I thought for a moment. “Let me ask you this. What are your plans? Long-term, I mean. From what I overheard, you’ve been bringing food to Pen for a while now. Since you came back to town wounded, I guess? Or shortly after that? Teaching her our language, too. What happens when she can speak it fully?”

  “Um…”

  That noise was starting to get a little repetitive. Still, as Nasha dropped her gaze dejectedly once again, I couldn’t help feeling a bit sympathetic.

  In a much gentler tone, I said, “Nasha, you can’t hide her forever. She can’t just stay out here while you live your life.” Then, suddenly, something occurred to me. “Kiri knows, doesn’t she?”

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  The beagle’s ears flopped aggressively as she looked at me with wide, worried eyes. “Don’t blame her! I begged her not to tell anyone! I just… I needed a little more time! Then Pen will know how to say everything she wants to say, and I can… I can, um, introduce her to the elders! Yes, and she’ll join the town properly…”

  She trailed off. I noted that she wasn’t the only one to look doubtful about her newly announced plan. Pen was churning the ground with her claws and shooting Nasha some hesitant glances.

  Frankly, the entire situation was a mess. I had no idea what to say.

  I did, however, know that the current situation wasn’t sustainable.

  “Why are you here?” I asked the feline. “I don’t want to be rude, but you must have come from some kind of a community, correct?”

  Nasha glared at me. She was about to say something when Pen cut in herself.

  “All… gone… wyrm… kill…” she hissed slowly, staring me defiantly in the eye.

  I winced. I probably could have guessed that, if I’d given myself a moment to think. Regardless, that left me with another pertinent question.

  “Do you want to join the town? I don’t know what the community you came from was like, but you must know that joining our community would come with certain responsibilities and expectations.”

  I wasn’t sure how much she really understood. In spite of Nasha’s claims, I doubted the beagle had managed to teach Pen the full scope of our language and vocabulary in the short span of time since our battle with the horrid draconic eel.

  Pen was looking at me rather intently, though. She seemed to mull over the question for a few very tense moments as Nasha stood rigidly at attention.

  Then, finally, a single word of reply: “Yes.”

  I let out a long breath, rubbed my forehead again, and nodded. “Very well. Nasha?”

  “Yes?!” She jumped, squeezing her hands together.

  “I would like you and your… friend… to accompany us back to town. I have some sway with the elders. And you’ve been a part of the town since the beginning, right?”

  “Yes…”

  “Then we are going back, and we will plead your case together. Alys might back you up as well. We can ask. This way, we can probably convince the elders to give Penelope here a chance. Do understand, though, that you’ll be expected to take responsibility for her, and maybe even contribute to the town more until she can do so on her own.”

  It wasn’t like I had made any solid promises to her, but the way Nasha’s face lit up made me groan inside. I knew I was now going to be deeply invested in making sure Penelope got a place in our little community, just because it clearly meant a great deal to the silly beagle!

  “Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Nasha squealed. I could tell from her frantically gesturing arms that she would have squashed me in one of her hugs if the feline didn’t have a solid grip on her.

  Said feline was now staring at me with a look of caution that bordered on suspicion. She occasionally glanced at Nasha, then back at me, as if trying to gauge our relationship.

  I found that funnier than I should have, while also wondering if Nasha knew her crush was at least somewhat reciprocated.

  “You are welcome,” I replied. “Honestly, I don’t know why you didn’t try to approach the elders with this sooner. I understand not doing so immediately after everything that happened, especially if I’m right about who inflicted those injuries on you, but the elders aren’t cruel.”

  To her credit, Pen’s entire demeanor shifted at the mention of Nasha’s injuries. She started to pull away, but Nasha grabbed her hands and held on.

  “I just… I wanted to, but…”

  The beagle trailed off once more, tracing little circles on the backs of the feline’s hands. Pen practically melted against Nasha at the gesture, her cheek fur ruffling up in what I assumed was embarrassment as a purring sound escaped her.

  “You didn’t know how, and then the longer you put it off, the harder it got?” I guessed, receiving a sheepish nod from Nasha in return.

  I couldn’t blame her for that. I had spent far too much time trying to convince myself to leave my home in the first place. If it weren’t for the definitive deadline I’d had to face in the end, I might have taken longer still.

  “Well, you can practice introducing your friend to Alys first. Ritsu too, I suppose,” I mused. This time, Nasha’s nod was determined. “Shall we make our way back?”

  “Yes!” The beagle gave a tiny cheer to bolster her courage, then paused and looked shyly at the feline. “If that’s alright?”

  Pen smiled and briefly nuzzled her head into Nasha’s shoulder before scampering away to her ‘home.’ I watched with some amusement as she extracted the pile of blankets and carried them over to us with determination.

  They were incredibly clean for having been out in the woods so long. Furthermore, the way Pen carefully folded them and then pressed them to her chest was adorable. Also adorable was Nasha’s goofy smile in response to the feline’s actions.

  “I assume you gave her those?” I asked Nasha, recognizing the quality of the blankets.

  “Mrrr… soft…” The lynx purred happily, looking proud of both her blankets and Nasha.

  “Yes…” Nasha blushed. “I didn’t want her to be cold…”

  “She seems to like them, so I’d say your gift was well received. Shall we move?”

  Both nodded, Nasha hurriedly and with flushed cheeks, and Pen in approval of both my statement and my request.

  The journey back was somewhat awkward. Two of us had no clue what to say, and the third lacked the ability to talk much. Not that Pen seemed affected by the silence at all. If anything, the feline was positively glowing as she walked beside Nasha, one hand clutching her blankets protectively and the other arm wound around the beagle’s.

  Correction, I realized. I don’t know what to say. I think Nasha’s just too lost in her own world to even think of starting a conversation.

  This was hilarious, considering the beagle on a normal day could probably talk even the chattiest of the Autumn Court Nobles into submission.

  Yet overall, seeing the small, contented smile on her face made me feel satisfied with how things had turned out. I might not have followed her for the most praiseworthy of reasons, but I would pay her back for that by supporting her when she faced off with the elders.

  I couldn’t help but wonder what she would have done if I hadn’t given into my suspicions, though. Tried to support Pen however she could while keeping her hidden? That might have worked for a while, but Autumn was fading quickly, and Winter’s grip on the world was strengthening by the hour. If the cold hadn’t gotten to the feline, then the lack of food and deadlier wildlife likely would have.

  Well, no matter. We would just have to make sure the two were properly settled in town by the end of the day!