The Key

Weeks had passed since our ordeal with the shapeshifter and the man who had betrayed us. Life had returned to a sense of normalcy, but I knew that things would never be the same again.

One day, as I was cleaning up around the house, I noticed something glinting on the floor. It was a key, the very same key that had been around the shapeshifter's neck when we had first met her.

I picked up the key, and a wave of memories flooded my mind. I remembered the day we had first seen the shapeshifter, how desperate we had been to win her hand in marriage. And I remembered the day we had finally realized that the cat was the key, that we needed to befriend her to win her trust.

As I held the key in my hand, I knew that I had to return it to the shapeshifter. It was her key, after all, and she deserved to have it back.

So I went to her room and knocked on the door. "Hey," I said softly. "I found something that I think belongs to you."

The shapeshifter opened the door and saw the key in my hand. A look of surprise and gratitude crossed her face. "Thank you," she said. "I thought I had lost this forever."

I handed her the key, and as she took it, I could feel the weight of the past lifting off of me. It was as if, with the return of the key, we were closing a chapter of our lives, putting the past behind us, and moving forward into the future.

As the shapeshifter held the key in her hand, I knew that we had truly become a team, that we had overcome our past and were ready to face whatever lay ahead of us. For we had each other, and that was all that mattered.