"As we shift the story back to our mouse girl—"
The voice stopped.
"Oh… sorry. I suppose I should introduce myself. You're probably wondering why you can hear me when this is supposed to be someone else's story."
The speaker gave a small, awkward laugh.
"My name is Shella. I'm a dragon-wolf, and I possess two abilities: The Storyteller and Narration."
The forest remained still beneath her unseen voice.
"The Storyteller allows me to tell the story. Narration allows me to rewrite how the story goes."
A pause.
"But I'm getting off topic."
She cleared her throat.
"A little more about me first. My mother is Vambasta. My mother's mother is Elowen. She once had a thing for Derpy's fa—"
The voice cut out.
It did not fade the way a voice fades.
It stopped, mid-word, the way a voice stops when its owner has heard themselves and gone cold.
Lewd slowed beneath the trees.
She looked over one shoulder and then the other. Nothing followed her. No one stood between the trunks, yet she could have sworn she had heard someone speaking.
"That was odd," she muttered.
Phantasm's book floated away from Lewd's side. Its dark cover opened, and glowing words formed across one of its pages.
You know Whisperfen isn't this way. You have been walking toward Fenward for over an hour — the home of Vambasta and her sister, Vemi the bartender. Why?
Lewd released a long sigh.
"I'm not ready to return to Whisperfen yet."
The book remained open.
Lewd twirled a strand of red hair around one finger. Her cheeks warmed as memories began moving behind her eyes.
"Thinking about going back there still upsets me."
She remembered Derpy.
Lenora.
The dragon girl named Vespera.
She remembered Joker and King attacking them. She remembered standing nearby while Derpy, Lenora, and Vespera fought, unable to do anything that felt useful.
"Back then, I couldn't help anyone," Lewd said. "I couldn't even help myself."
The memories did not stop.
The bullies.
Losing her job.
Being chased into filthy water and carrying its smell afterward.
Then Fenward.
The poison entering Derpy's body.
His form changing while Lewd watched, frightened and unable to understand what was happening to him.
"Watching Derpy become poisoned and begin transforming in Fenward was traumatic for me," she admitted. "I still have nightmares about it."
Lewd sat at the base of a tree. She pulled her knees against her chest, wrapped both arms around her legs, and buried her face in her lap.
Through their connection, Phantasm saw every memory.
She felt Lewd's humiliation. Her fear. The helplessness that remained long after the danger had passed.
Phantasm's voice entered Lewd's mind.
You have been through a great deal.
Lewd's ears lowered.
But that does not mean you must face your fears alone. I respect you for walking this far.
Lewd raised her head slightly.
"Why would you respect someone who is always thinking about everyone else and always—"
Lewd, stop it right now.
Phantasm's words echoed through her mind.
Lewd's tail twitched.
The force behind the command left no room for another excuse.
You will never surpass your rival if you continue putting yourself down and feeling sorry for yourself.
Lewd stared at the book.
You are a very beautiful mouse woman, Phantasm continued. Derpy even created a maid inspired by you.
Lewd's ears stood upright.
"He did what?"
The book's pages turned.
An image formed across them.
A rat maid appeared with short silver-grey hair, pink eyes, pale rat ears, and a long pink tail. She wore a wide black witch hat fitted with brass goggles and green lenses. Her black-and-white maid dress carried green ruffles and a matching apron. A golden bell rested against her choker, while violet-blue magic rose from the spellbook floating near her hand.
Her name is Silette.
Lewd stared at the image.
"Derpy made her after me?"
How you choose to interpret that information is entirely up to you.
Lewd's face became warmer.
Phantasm continued before she could retreat into another argument.
He likes you.
Lewd looked away.
He also likes Lenora, Phantasm admitted. I have been inside his mind. I know many of his likes and dislikes.
"That doesn't sound like much of an advantage."
It is more than Lenora possesses.
Lewd sighed as she released her legs. She pushed herself upright and brushed the dirt from her clothing.
She looked down the path toward Fenward.
Then she turned around.
"Just because I have an advantage doesn't mean Derpy doesn't have one over me."
Phantasm's pages shifted.
"Blight was my Calamity book," Lewd explained, walking back the way she had come. "Blight is with Derpy now. If you learned what Derpy likes while you were inside his mind, then Blight could have told him what I like."
She stopped walking.
A deeply personal thought entered her mind.
Something she liked.
Something she had carefully hidden.
If Blight knew, Derpy might know too.
Lewd's face turned bright red. Her breathing became heavier while her imagination moved somewhere Phantasm did not need it to go.
Get ahold of yourself.
Lewd shook her head.
"Yes. Right."
She resumed walking.
A heavy mist began forming between the trees. It rolled across the path, covering roots and swallowing the forest floor beneath a pale blanket.
Then Lewd heard her own voice.
"Derpy, wait!"
She stopped.
The forest disappeared.
For a moment, Lewd stood inside the memory of the hotel where they had stayed in Fenward.
Derpy ran toward an open window.
Ice spread across the glass and frame, crawling outward in sharp white patterns.
"Derpy!"
He jumped.
The memory followed him through the window and into the woods.
Derpy ran between the trees while violently scratching his body. His nails tore across his arms, shoulders, and back as pieces of him began falling away.
Flakes first.
Then strips.
Blood welled through the exposed skin and dripped onto the ground behind him.
"They're all beautiful girls," Derpy muttered as he ran. "Why they took an interest in me is strange."
He scratched harder.
"I'm disgusting."
Another piece tore free.
"I'm worthless."
His breathing broke between the words.
"I'm sure they only want Celica's Embers."
Derpy gathered the largest pieces of discarded skin and threw them into a hole in the ground. Smaller bloody flakes followed, settling together in the darkness.
He did not bury them.
He simply continued running.
The transformation gradually ended. Derpy's body returned to normal, leaving the newly exposed skin beneath raw and painfully sensitive.
He stopped and took one unsteady breath.
Small hands struck his back.
Derpy hissed in pain and pulled away.
Lewd stood behind him.
Her tiny mouse hands remained raised, still carrying traces of blood from touching the newly shed skin.
She had only wanted to stop him.
To comfort him.
She had not known how much touching him would hurt.
Derpy ran deeper into the woods.
The memory did not follow him.
It remained beside the hole.
His voice continued repeating within it.
I'm worthless.
The discarded skin glowed.
I'm disgusting.
The bloody pieces pulled toward one another.
Worthless.
Flesh, fur, scales, and magic folded together inside the hole.
Disgusting.
Something began climbing out.
It wore a stitched purple-and-dark-red rabbit outfit with an enormous hood. Two long rabbit ears hung from it, drooping almost to the ground. Curved black dragon horns rose above its pale, mask-like face.
Its eyes were empty circles.
Its mouth stretched into a grin filled with far too many teeth.
Long skeletal hands ended in black claws. Thick wolf fur covered its legs, while a scaled black-purple dragon tail dragged behind it, armored with spikes from its base to its pointed end.
Some parts resembled Derpy.
Other parts belonged to something older.
The horns.
The tail.
Pieces of Lunara.
The creature tilted its head.
"Weird…"
It pulled itself completely free.
"Disgusting…"
Its empty eyes turned toward Whisperfen.
"Hungry…"
Then it began walking.
Lewd and Phantasm spoke together.
"What is that?"
The memory faded.
The forest returned around Lewd, but the mist remained.
Phantasm's book hovered close to her.
Derpy's discarded skin grew into a magical being.
The pages trembled.
Some parts of its body resemble Lunara — particularly the horns and tail. Remain on guard, Lewd. That creature has been wandering these lands, and there is no telling where it is now.
Lewd remembered its pale face.
For one moment, the thing's features had shifted into a warped imitation of Derpy.
One of Lewd's pale ears turned red.
"It wears his face."
Her hands tightened.
"That isn't him. I know it isn't."
The anger inside her continued growing.
"But seeing something else wear his face…"
Lewd stared into the mist.
"It pisses me off."
Shella's narration returned.
"After seeing the memory from Derpy's perspective, our mouse girl began reconsidering what she believed."
Lewd's ears twitched.
"He had not fled because he wanted to abandon them. He fled because his body was transforming."
Lewd tilted her head.
"And when Derpy shed his skin, he also shed the emotions consuming him."
Lewd turned toward the trees.
"Who's talking?" she called into the mist. "Hello?"
No one answered.
Phantasm's voice entered her mind.
There is no one around us. However, I can sense an extremely powerful presence somewhere nearby. Remain on your guard.
Lewd searched the fog but found nothing.
Her thoughts returned to the being born from Derpy's discarded skin.
It carried his feelings of worthlessness.
His disgust.
His fear that no one truly wanted him.
It possessed pieces of his magic and parts resembling Lunara.
It even wore his face.
One thing was certain.
Lewd did not like it.