“What was that?” Penelope asked.

“Let’s save the questions for after I get you guys back home,” Thomas said before he plopped down at the back edge of the rubble, sending a few loose pieces of metal tumbling down. He didn’t care. He was immune to physical pain, but not mental pain. ‘Finally, it’s over.’

Penelope stepped away from him. “W-we’re really going home?” she asked as she glanced at his father’s wound.

Thomas scratched the back of his head: “I am sorry, for whatever it’s worth. I had to eat. I don’t expect understanding or forgiveness.”

Junior jabbed a finger at the Shadox: “You cut off my father’s arm and ate it in front of us!” He barked. He had inherited his father’s stubbornness. “How do we know that you weren’t fighting the monster just so you could eat us later?”

“I guess an apology isn’t going to change things,” Thomas said under his breath. Still, he was glad that the kids still had some fight left in them. He was less glad, however, when Junior presented his father’s necklace like a shield.

Thomas frowned as an annoying pain gripped his forehead. “Can you quit that,” he asked.

“No!” Junior rebuked, then he stepped closer.

Thomas winced away from the growing annoyance, as if sunlight had slapped his open eyes. “Where did your father get that thing? I vaguely recall that he said it was an heirloom but it smells similar to Shay…”

Junior shook his head. “I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew!”

Thomas rolled his eyes. He reeled a hand back, then slapped the ground as hard as he could, scaring the boy back a few steps. “You should be focused on stopping the bleeding, remember?”

“R-right!” Junior said. His stubbornness finally gave into fear. He knelt next to his father.

“Doevm,” Thomas called out to the Lich through their shared, mental link. “You should make your way over. I left markers for you to follow. Are you done with the villagers yet?”

“With Elero’s help, we came to an agreement,” Doevm responded.

Thomas raised an eyebrow. “Elero?”

“Despite the many, many times I’ve been victim to mob mentality, I’ve never used my words to finish things. I swear, you can be a legendary hero, but people will force you into a pyre if they assume that there’s something wrong with you. Fucking humans… Anyway, what happened? Did you beat the lycanthrope?”

“Yup, all by myself. Feel free to congratulate me when you get here.”

“Where’s the lycanthrope’s body?”

Thomas tapped his foot on a piece of rubble. “It’s buried under a few tons of metal. It’s big but it’s not fast, not as fast as I am. I had a plan and everything-“

“What do you mean?” Doevm asked, a hint of caution in his voice.

Thomas shrugged: “I blew up a bridge with blackpowder and dropped it on the lycanthrope while-“

“No, not that part,” Doevm interrupted, again. “You said that, because the lycanthrope was big and slow, you were able to drop a bridge on it. Is that correct?”

“…Yes.”

“Are you sure you can’t find a body?”

Thomas crossed his arms. “I am sure as the sky is blue! What part of ‘buried under a bridge’ do you not get? I barely got away and I was further from the point of collapse. There is no chance the lycanthrope survived. It’s too slow.”

“It’s a lycanthrope!”

“I know that! Why am I getting yelled at?”

Junior suddenly turned to face Thomas and clutched his father’s necklace. “Stay back!”

Thomas sighed and said aloud, “How many times do I have to tell you kids, I’m not going to eat-“

A metallic, ear-piercing shriek rang out. Thomas’s hair stood on end as a large chunk of debris tumbled past him. Emerging from the destruction was a bulky man in his thirties, covered in a thick coat of scraggly, blood-soaked hair. His bloodshot eyes, yellow with hate, narrowed on Thomas. It was impossible, but that human could only be Shay.

Within his own human skin Shay was another beast entirely. He flew across the rubble faster than Thomas could react, and drilled a fist into his gut. Thomas lurched forward as the contents of his stomach spilled from his lips.

Shay tried to pull his arm back but Thomas grabbed his fist tight and rolled to the side. Metal stabbed into both their backs as they hit the ground. Thomas didn’t care. He threw his legs across Shay’s neck and chest to keep the lycanthrope down, then arched his back to trap Shay’s arm with an armlock, a move Doevm had taught him. He could feel the increasing tension of muscle and bone as he extended the arm more and more, like stretching an old piece of rubber.

Shay cursed and kicked and pulled. Thomas’s grip nearly slipped on Shay’s blood. He twisted his hands around the flesh. “I dropped a bridge on you!” He yelled out through gritted teeth. “How aren’t you dead?”

“I knew you were up to something from the second I entered the garden,” Shay said. “The bridge had the same scent as your little toy but much stronger. I knew what that smell could do. I put two and two together.” His eyes flashed red and he began to force his way out of the arm lock with increasing strength.

Thomas held strong, gambling on the little time he had left to break Shay’s arm. His life essence flared. Just a bit more. A few more seconds. He cursed. “Why not surrender?” he asked.

Shay let out a high-pitched laugh. It was more like a collection of barks and whines as his human façade crumbled away. “You’re the most naïve monster I’ve ever met!” he exclaimed. “There is no jail for us! Those townsfolk will kill me given the chance, and they’ll do the same to you if they find out what you really are. When that happens, you’ll have to fight back! You’ll have to kill them!” 

“You’re going to bleed out if you keep fighting like this,” Thomas yelled out. “You should have stayed down, then waited for us to leave. Why do you seem so determined to kill me, even at the cost of your own life?” With a last, desperate tug, a snapping of bone reached Thomas’s ears.

Shay let out a pained whine. His transformation was complete. He brought his broken arm up, lifting the annoying flea with it, and shook him off.

The throw was weak. Thomas landed on his feet. Drawing his spear, his first instinct was to protect the Fisher family, but the lycanthrope was locked onto Thomas.

Thomas’s stomach rumbled. His eyes widened. ‘Did he intentionally aim for my stomach?’ he the. The scent of the blood that Shay had smeared onto his body drifted into his nose. It called for him.

Shay coughed, still suffering from the toxins’ lingering effects. Madness sparked within his gaze. “You don’t get it…little mouse,” he said in between labored breaths. “Humans fight to win. Monsters fight to eat. I will die to a true monster, not your human parlor tricks!”

He was dying to fight.