Shadow took a moment to think about the situation.

She needed to somehow reassure the kids that she didn’t want to hurt them. She couldn’t do anything about the grisly scene surrounding them right now, but she could try to be… less threatening?

Shadow still had trouble thinking of herself as very threatening, but... well... considering what had happened, she had to admit she certainly came across that way.

She considered all the things she found intimidating, as well as what she’d been told was scary or intimidating by her family. She dropped back down to all fours and lay down on her belly, keeping her ears down and trying her best to look small. She made sure to keep her mouth shut and didn't stare at the kids. She slowly scooted back, putting a little distance between them. Liar was out of her line of sight, but she was keeping an eye on him with her ear-sight. He seemed busy trying to hold his wounds closed now that the acid had run its course. At least it made him less likely to try anything.

She was a little nervous about his continued health as well. He wasn’t bleeding nearly as much as the rope-man had, but he definitely needed a healer. She really didn’t want to have everyone end up dying. The thought of having to explain how all four kidnappers had wound up dead despite her best efforts filled her with dread. Even having to explain about three seemed terrible.

She really hoped Annie and Jonas would understand. Her imagination started filling all the ways they might not, and she forced herself to stop thinking about it. She had to focus on the task at hand. At paw. She felt a small burble of amusement at the thought. Every little bit helped.

She focused back on the kids.

‘I’m sorry I scared you. I promise I won’t hurt you. I really am rescuing you.’ she wrote for them, trying to keep the text far enough back not to scare the children.

Seeing her shrinking back and acting non-threatening, seemed to give the kids enough courage to actually look at the text she’d written. She could tell the boy was reading it, but the girl was just looking between her and the text, clearly not gleaning any information from it.

He can read, but she can’t.

Shadow was pretty sure the boy was the older of the pair, so that made sense. She still had trouble figuring out people's age, but he was bigger, so she figured he was older. She really needed to go around pointing at people and asking Annie how old they looked so she could start building up a baseline.

Shadow watched without moving as he struggled his way through reading her message. It took the boy a lot longer than she’d thought it would. He must still be learning. Still, he eventually finished and looked back at her. He still seemed nervous, but it was much better than the terror he’d been displaying before.

The girl also seemed to have calmed down some, although not as much as the boy. She must have been reassured somewhat just by Shadow’s inaction.

Shadow changed up the text, eliciting a flinch from the girl, as her eyes shot to the movement. Shadow felt a little bad, but wasn’t sure what else to do. She had to be able to talk.

‘I have to untie you, is it okay if I come over and undo those ropes?’ she asked, trusting that the boy could nod or shake his head.

After he finished reading, the boy looked like he was thinking, glancing between her and the bodies. Shadow wasn’t really sure what she’d do if he said no. Would she need to just untie him anyway, even if he didn't want her to? Perhaps she should run and get help. She wasn’t really comfortable leaving liar here alone with the tied up kids, though. It was a dilemma.

Thankfully, the boy started nodding. Shadow nodded back and started to scoot toward him on her belly.

The girl squeaked and tried to bury herself even further into the corner, but Shadow would swear the boy actually started giggling a bit after a moment of shock. It wasn’t as obvious with the gag in his mouth, but she could still tell from his expression. Shadow supposed she must look pretty silly scooching herself across the floor like this, but she’d take that as a victory. She wanted to grin at him but kept the impulse on lockdown. No showing teeth right now.

She felt bad that she was scaring the girl, but she didn’t have much of a choice. Hopefully, the boy could explain things to her once his mouth was free.

She made it to him after some seconds of wiggling her way forward. The boy had started his own wiggle toward her. He seemed distinctly less scared, after her antics, which she was glad of.

‘Can you turn over so I can get to the knots?’ she asked once they closed the distance.

After some time reading, he nodded and turned himself over on his belly.

Shadow considered using her teeth to just cut through the ropes (it wasn’t like she cared about damaging them), but a discrete lick of the ground saw that her spit wasn’t quite back to normal yet. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally burn the child.

She’d turned off her acid spit after everyone had been subdued. Looking back on it, having it on in the first place had probably been a little extreme. She’d been hesitant to leave it off though, considering the activation time. If the kidnappers had been more competent fighters, her spit could have made the difference between life and death.

She settled for teasing the knots apart using her claws. It was harder than biting through them would have been, but it wasn’t like she had many other options. Still, it only took a minute to get his arms free, and he rid himself of the rest of his bindings shortly after.

“Thank you.” he said, giving her a small smile as he got up, rubbing his wrists.

“Are… are you an Inquisitor?” he asked in a small voice. Despite the moment of levity her scooching antics brought, the boy was still clearly upset. He was mostly staring at the ground, but he kept shooting nervous glances at her and the bodies lying around the room.

Shadow shook her head.

‘I’m just me. I don’t have a job yet. My name is Shadow.’ She offered. ‘And I’m a girl!’ she added as an afterthought.

“Oh… that’s…” He glanced between her and the text she had written out. “Your name really… uh... fits.” He said with a little smile, before going back to staring at the floor. “I’m Ander,” he said. ”And, um… I’m a boy?” he stated like he wasn’t sure he should be doing so. He was starting to squirm a bit, looking somewhat out of his depth.

Shadow got back on her hind legs as delicately as she could now that the boy was standing, and offered him a paw. He was just a bit taller than she was.

‘Nice to meet you, Ander.’ She wrote giving him her friendliest look that didn’t involve teeth.

He started to reach out to her paw but stopped, staring at it. Shadow looked at herself and noticed it was still covered in blood, although it was starting to dry.

She hastily withdrew the limb, and started rubbing it off on her clothes after a moment’s hesitation. Her clothes were already covered in the stuff. A bit more wasn’t going to really matter.

‘Sorry…’ she wrote, giving him an apologetic look.

Ander just gave her a small, nervous nod before looking back at the floor.

Shadow looked over at the girl. They still needed to free her.

She motioned to get Ander’s attention again.

‘I don’t think she can read.’ Shadow wrote, pointing at the girl. ‘Can you please ask if we can untie her, tell her I’m not going to hurt her?’ she asked.

After working his way through the message, Ander nodded, turning toward the nervous girl.

“Um… this is Shadow, and I’m Ander! She’s trying to rescue us! And.. and won’t hurt us,” he stated, taking another quick glance at a body. “Um.. can we come over and untie you?” he asked.

The little girl was still tucked in the corner, but she’d calmed down a little bit watching as Shadow and the boy interacted. Ander’s words calmed her down more, but she still looked conflicted for a second before agreeing to their help.

When Shadow started to move toward her though, the girl still shrunk back, so Shadow stopped. Her posture sunk, and she looked away. It… hurt… to have the little girl still be scared of her, despite her best efforts. Fears of her friends being just as scared of her after they found out about... all this... shot through her mind, but she forced them to the side.

Not the time.

Ander kept moving forward and started untying the girl. He could handle it on his own. No need for Shadow to get close and… be scary. She just stayed back and kept an eye on the liar.

“Thanks…” said a small voice. Shadow looked up. The girl was thanking Ander. Shadow felt a moment’s despairing indignation, but the girl quickly glanced up at her too, whispering another wavering 'Thanks' in her direction. Shadow was struck by the girl’s expression. She looked so… lost. She was clutching at Ander and starting to shake.

“Can I go back to my Mommy now?” She hiccupped out, before breaking into full-blown sobbing, burying her face in his chest. Ander, for his part, tried to put up a strong front, but when he looked up at Shadow, tears were running down his face, too.

“Can we go?” he asked.

Shadow felt a well of emotions boil up in herself. She wanted to run over and hug them both but she couldn’t because she knew that would just scare the girl, and maybe Ander too. She was still covered in blood.

She also wanted to screech and hiss at the liar for doing this to these children! She wanted to tear him apart! The kids were just so… defenseless! It had been bad enough for her, but at least she could fight! How could anyone do this to another person!? This was terrible! She could imagine it. She could imagine how they must feel. If she didn’t have her magic… had no claws or effective teeth… If she was all tied up and… so very vulnerable being held by these… evil… evil people!

But at the same time she wanted to hurt them more, she also wished she could somehow just take back all the harm she had caused. She wished she could have somehow subdued them without... doing... this.

She didn't want to terrify the people she was trying to help.

She couldn’t vent the mixed emotions she was feeling. That would also scare the kids. Instead, she just shot another baleful glare at the liar, before forcing herself to calm down again. She was almost vibrating with the effort of containing herself. She really wanted to do something, but had no idea what. With some deep breaths, she finally got herself back under control. She needed to keep herself together. She gave an apologetic glance to Ander, who’d started giving her a worried look again.

‘Sorry. I’m just mad at the kidnappers. Give me a second to think, please.’ She explained.

He nodded and went back to simply hugging the smaller girl.

She gave some thought to his question.

Could they leave?

Shadow wasn’t sure that was a good idea. Was it safe for them to go out without her? She wasn't sure if she should just leave the liar here. Maybe she could—

Her head snapped to the door as she heard movement from outside.

She made a sharp huff to get the kids’ attention, pointing at them and motioning them to the back wall, before dropping back to all fours and positioning herself between them and the door. The kids listened and quickly hustled to where she indicated.

Shadow bristled as her heart rate spiked back up. She plunged the room back into darkness. Scary for the kids or not, she wasn’t taking any chances.

There was a moment’s pause, and then the door exploded inward, a person rushed forward and…

Her magic winked out as she staggered back, staring wide-eyed at the figure. It was Jonas.

He moved forward, taking in the room in a moment, before stopping, and fixing her with a look that told her he had some idea about what had occurred.

Shouts and cursing followed as more armored men rushed through the doorway behind him, fanning out and taking in the scene themselves.

Shadow was still tense, backing up, staring at her uncle and then around at the bodies. A terrible anxiety was building up in her chest.

Would… would he—

Jonas dropped to his knees and opened his arms.

“Oh, Shadow… come here.” He beckoned, grief and kindness suffusing his tone.

Shadow felt her walls crumble, the horrible mix of emotions she’d been holding back ever since the fight came crashing to the forefront.

She surged forward and crashed into his arms, an overwhelmed keen already tearing its way out of her throat.

“It’s alright. I’ve gotcha. It’s gonna be okay.” He whispered into her ear as she sobbed in her own way.

He rocked her back and forth, and she finally felt like things might be alright again.