Shadow retrieved her bucket and set off toward the river, swapping to two-legged walking for a bit so she could gesture her plan to Annie as they moved, bucket dangling from her mouth.

Shadow had figured, given her low to the ground stature, that it’d make sense for her to be the one to fill buckets in the river and run them up to give to Annie, who could pass them on to one of the lines. The villagers might be less inclined to take a bucket from her directly, considering recent events…

Once she got her plan across though, Annie had stopped her. She was delicately reminded that she was, in fact, quite small and weak compared to most humans, and would be exhausted in no time given the weight of a full bucket.

Just the two trips back and forth for her demonstration had been enough to get her panting.

Shadow supposed Annie had a point.

Annie had Shadow hand her bucket over to her, and then passed it to the nearest villager who was yelling for one. The man had seemed a little torn about accepting it. Annie’s reputation hadn’t exactly made it through the kerfuffle untouched either.

The man had still taken it after only a bit of hesitation. The sawmill was more important for the moment.

Their group was still gathering quite a few stares. The townsfolk were far warier of her than they had been back when she was playing at being a dog. Hopefully, they would get more comfortable around her again if she kept helping and being friendly.

Bucket successfully handed off, there was a cough from behind them.

It was Jonas and the beastkin, the bound form of Willit between them. Shadow wasn’t surprised, having seen them coming with her ear-sight.

“So, uhh, folk seem a bit… distracted. What should we do with him?” Jonas asked, slapping Willit on the shoulder.

She locked her gaze on the man in question. Apparently, he’d tried to sneak into Annie or Jonas’s room?

Annie glanced back at them, frowning. “Hmm. Perhaps… How about you three go help in the bucket brigades. Will you help if we unbind you, Mr. Willit?” Annie asked, giving the man a smile.

Willit seemed surprised.

“You’re letting me go?” he asked, sounding hopeful.

“Not quite, I’m letting you help fight this fire. We’ll still be talking to the headman about this even though…” She glanced down at Shadow, giving her a complicated look.

“I suppose it was a bit hasty to call you a kidnapper.” She conceded.

“I told ya I didn’t know what ye was talkin’ ‘bout! The beastie’s not kidnapped at all! We should jus’ put this behind us!” the man stated, sounding indignant.

“You still attempted to sneak into Jonas’s room through the window. Will you help with the fire or not?” Annie stated, giving the man a level stare.

“Fine, fine…” Willit muttered, presenting his bound hands to Jonas.

Jonas unbound the man, and gave Annie a nod. The group of three headed off to help hauling buckets.

Shadow spared a glance at the beastkin. She wasn't really sure what to think of him. He’d aimed an arrow at Annie, but appeared to be listening to her now? She’d missed what exactly had happened there to turn things around so completely. She’d need to ask Annie about it later, when there was less fire.

With that thought, she patted Annie’s leg, gesturing toward the fire and looking up for guidance.

What should we do to help?

Annie seemed to get her meaning.

“We can help in other ways. See that woman?” Annie said, pointing at a woman who was gasping for breath, hands on her knees, with a large washbasin filled with water sitting in front of her.

It’s the lady from earlier!

“Did you happen to notice her, and how strong she was?”

Yes, yes she had.

She'd also seen her at one of the demonstrations earlier. The lady had been one of the ones that had come forward and interacted with her. She'd been nice. Shadow had no idea the woman was so special then.

She’d been lifting that whole basin by herself like it hardly weighed anything.

Shadow nodded to Annie in affirmation.

“She’s what we call Empowered. She’s what happens when a human has a mana font, but decides not to become a mage. We’re going to help her out.”

Shadow blinked, staring at the woman as they approached. Annie had told her a little bit about mana fonts before. They were what generated the mana in your body. No one knew why some people had mana fonts and others didn’t, but they were apparently very rare.

It worked the same for most animals, with a few exceptions. Magical beasts, for example, would always have a mana font. When a mundane beast had a mana font it was generally called a ‘variant’ and would usually grow to be much more physically capable, but could sometimes develop other small abilities too.

Shadow was definitely a variant shadeling (She was generating mana, after all. She must have a mana font), but the ‘extra’ abilities she had were way beyond what any variant should have, and she appeared to be lacking the physical boosts a variant would normally get.

The fact that she had dark-attuned mana almost certainly had something to do with that, according to Annie, but Shadow hadn’t gotten the attunements explained to her in detail yet.

Annie hadn’t wanted to speculate further until she could do more research at her workshop, so Shadow was left to wonder about it for now.

She was really looking forward to when she could learn a little more on that front. She was extremely curious as to why she was so different from other shadelings.

She looked up at the strong woman as they arrived.

An empowered human. Neat. I wonder why they aren’t just called variant humans? The two things are the same, aren’t they?

She shook her head, smiling a bit. There were always more questions.

The woman noticed them and stood tall, looking at them with surprise and some concern. She was still breathing hard.

“Can I… help ya?” The woman asked, shooting a few worried glances in Shadow's direction. She hadn’t been involved in the mob from earlier but she’d probably managed to hear about some of what had happened.

Shadow also wasn’t wearing the collar anymore. That may have played a bigger role.

She glanced back toward the place she’d thrown it to the ground. She couldn’t see it from here. She should probably go grab that at some point. She’d been a little caught up in the heat of the moment. It was still an awesome glowing magic thing that Annie had made for her, and the last remnants of her magicite crystal. She didn’t want to leave it behind.

Annie spoke up, voicing her proposition.

“No dear, I think I may be able to help you. I couldn’t help but notice you’re empowered. I myself am a mage, and I can heal you of your exhaustion, if you would be amenable to it. That way you could help with the fire more?” Annie proposed.

The woman blinked.

“Oh! Yea, tha’ sounds great! I… uh…” She glanced down at Shadow again.

“Is she… safe? ‘er collar seems ta be uh... missin’.” The woman asked warily.

Shadow nodded at her, sitting herself down in her most dignified position and trying to look friendly.

I’m safe! Don’t worry!

The woman tilted her head and looked at Shadow incredulously.

Perhaps she hadn’t overheard what’d been going on.

“I… It’s hard to explain right now, but I swear you have nothing fear from her, even without the collar. She’s just as friendly as she’s ever been.” Annie said.

“She weren’t noddin’ to respond ta questions before…” The woman said, still sounding a bit uncertain.

Shadow’s posture drooped, and she looked at the ground. She’d thought…

I should just go back to pretending to be a dog for now…

“Aw, now don’… Tha’s jus’ the saddest… I did’n mean nothin’ girl, It’s jus’ weird is all!” The woman said, her voice catching a bit.

Shadow looked up in surprise as the lady dropped to her knees and reached out to pat her on the head.

“There, there, ya don’ have to be sad, I’ll work whit’ ya. The name’s Glenda!” She reassured with a big smile on her face. She glanced back up at Annie.

"Heal me up, Miss Mage."

It was Shadow’s turn to blink. The lady—Glenda—liked her now?

Her face perked back up, and she rubbed her face into the woman’s hand.

Glenda laughed.

“Yup, she’s jus’ as friendly as before, collar er not!”

Shadow saw it in her eyes. The wonder was back.

“’Ell of a lot smarter’n you were lettin’ on, too, arn’tcha?”

Shadow felt a little shy about that, but nodded at her again.

Glenda stood herself back up, and slapped her thigh, letting out a barking laugh, grinning from ear to her.

“Well, I’ll be! Ain’t that the darnedest thing!” she said, before a sudden look of surprise passed over her face.

“Wow! I feel great!” She looked over at Annie, who gave her a nod. She’d been healing Glenda as she’d interacted with Shadow.

“Well, back to haulin’ water! Let’s get this thing put out!”

What followed was the group rushing back and forth between the river and the burning mill. Glenda played a key role in dousing large areas, while the others kept the blaze from growing to take back the reclaimed areas.

Annie kept healing her whenever she became winded and also helped other people who looked exhausted. Her offers of healing were met with mixed acceptance, but more people became willing as time passed, seeing how much it was helping those who did accept.

At some point, Shadow realized she was just sort of following the group around and not actually doing anything to help. She poked at Annie to give her something useful to do, but Annie just told her to stick with them and point out anyone she spotted that looked overly tired. She also mentioned that sticking together was a good idea just in case one of the angrier villagers got any ideas.

Shadow didn't think that was very likely at this point, but Annie probably felt better having her close. She could have argued, but the truth was she couldn’t really think of any good ways to help anyway. With her size, and the fact that she would likely be more distracting than helpful if she tried to do anything that involved assisting other people, she resigned herself to moral support.

Glenda seemed to be delighted to have Shadow following her around as she worked after getting over her initial apprehension. She kept asking questions as they ran, and Shadow did her best to answer, given her limited ability to emote while running.

About half an hour later the fire was out, and they could all finally take a break.