That Billie doesn’t shift back to a more human form... Daud doesn’t dwell on it. It makes it easier to travel with her body, but he doesn’t think about that either, mechanically going through the motions of pulling himself through the space between the shadows, over and over again, until he reaches their destination.

He isn’t surprised to hear the dragonet moving around, but he ignores him for now. Billie’s blood has seeped into his clothes, but so has a quantity of water from her fur, something which he notices as he shakes out the worn canvas sheet on the threadbare couch to lay her out on.

Odd, he thinks, but it isn’t the only odd thing he observes as he sets about examining her more closely. Fur damp, but not with the red water from the river, wounds oddly reminiscent of burns...