Maxine was very annoyed. For the past three days, several women had approached her and her clones about the beauty products. A few of them even tried to seduce Kai to get them, and that was after their group implied that he was married to Emily. God, if I knew that this would happen, I would've told mom to hold off until we were a day out. If she had, it would've made it a lot easier to formulate decent beauty products with the local herbs. As it stands, I've only come up with three different recipes. But I havn't been able to concoct and test them yet since these ladies won't leave me a moment of peace. At least, I managed to gather a few hundred gold coins and a large collection of silver and copper coins from those bandits and freed a bunch of poor girls that were being as playthings by those bastards. Although, I may have inadvertently created a myth about a wolf-riding, mute wolfkin girl that saves those in trouble from bandits. I just didn't see any other way to convince them to ride on the backs of my shadow wolves without someone to encourage them to get on. I couldn't just leave them there in that situation.
"It looks like we'll be arriving to the city today," Hellen remarked since the city was less than a quarter of a mile away and added via spiritual sense, [How's your progress?]
"That it does," Maxine said in agreement, [I assume your talking about those beauty products. I've got three recipes and their respective herbs collected. But I havn't had the chance to make it so none of them have been tested. So, I don't know which one will perform the best.]
[Then make a supply of all three,] Hellen countered, [The locals will figure out which one works the best and gravitate towards that one after a few weeks.]
[Makes sense,] Maxine agreed.
Maxine's attention was diverted when she noticed the refugees were beginning to slow down. She sent her spiritual sense out ahead and saw that the refugees were being inspected at the city gates one or two families at a time. Well, at least, these guys are not being careless. And it looks like they're recording out each family groups information. That's rather smart. And with the twenty foot tall wall surrounding the city proper, there is no easy way for the refugees to sneak in.
Hellen took the lead of their group as they got closer to the gate and motioned for Maxine and the others women in their group to remove their face coverings. When it was finally their turn to enter, the guardsman was dazed for a moment before he regained his senses and directly asked, "Do any of you practice a craft?" Maxine took this moment to examine him. He was wearing metallic armor, but had a semi-automatic rifle strapped over his shoulder. Uhm, that's an odd mix of technology.
"My twin daughters are healers, my son is a hunter and this young lady here is a seamstress," Hellen stated and gestured towards Silkie.
The guardsman nodded his head approvingly as he asked, "Some of the others mentioned a family of silver-haired shifters. Is that your group?"
"Yes, but it only applies to my children. I'm not a shifter myself," Hellen answered, honestly, "My daughter, Maxine, has the best control out of all of my children, if you need a demonstration."
"That won't be necessary at this time," the guardsman said, "Just tell us what type they are for future reference."
"Something with reptilian scales and quills," Hellen answered.
"That's... unique," the guardsman said, "Now, your names please."
"Maxine, Thera, Kai, Emily, Lucas, Reena, Lanitherine, Silke and I'm Hellen," Hellen said while gesturing to each of them when she said their names. It took them a few moments to finish writing out all of the details about their appearances.
"Alright, here are your immigration papers. DO NOT loose them. Go to the administration office in the main square to be assigned some housing. Just follow the main road and you'll find it after walking for a few minutes," the guardsman said as he handed them a stack of paper and glanced at Maxine, "Although, I don't imagine you'll be using that housing for long considering you have two healers in your family. Now, move along. I've got other refugees to see to."
Hellen nodded to the guardsman before walking ahead and once they were out of ear shot of him, Hellen said with a smirk, "That guardsman put in a good word for us based off of these documents. Perhaps, he was mesmerized by our collective beauty."
"That and the fact that this city is clearly lacking healers of any kind," Maxine commented, "In fact, there are less than twenty healers in this city of over twenty thousand. We'll be swamped with patients, even if we only treat the simplest of ailments." Although, I think it's somewhat odd that they use the term healer, instead of doctor. It's probably just a cultural thing.
"True, but we may have it worse than you realize," Emily pointed out, "They don't seem to have a standardized form of education here. So, once word gets out on how good you are, people will come to you first rather than anyone else. It's not like I can help out much either in my current state."
After a quick sweep with her spiritual sense, Maxine said, "I have to agree with you. It seems most of the healers around town make their own medicine and they can only treat the simplest of illnesses and injuries with them. And they don't even know how to use stitches on large cuts." Their use of medicine is practically at the level of a tribal society. Still, it's better than nothing at all.
"Girls, we can discuss this at length after we get a roof over our shoulders," Hellen pointed out.
"Agreed," Emily said before Maxine could and not a moment too soon as they arrived at the administration building.
After entering, they saw an already lengthy line leading up to an immigration desk. Maxine internally sighed as her group got into the que. Thankfully, the immigration process was rather swift, which surprised Maxine. She even saw a camera taking individual pictures, but it was rather large and unwieldly. Oh? I didn't think they had cameras. It must be that they're relatively uncommon and are only used to take photos for identification purposes.
"Your papers, please," a very tired clerk said when it was finally their turn.
"Here you go," Hellen said, "I hope they relieve you soon. You look absolutely exhausted."
"You and me both," the clerk said as she looked at the documents, "Oh? You're a family of shifters? That's rare. We may need one of your children to transform to document what they look like in their shifted state. We have a special room for that in case you can't control yourselves in your shifted state."
"That's alright," Hellen said calmly as she gestured towards Maxine, "Maxine is quite sane in her shifted state, but she requires food immediately after. Most shifters loose their mind due to extreme hunger brought on by their transformation."
"I didn't know that," the clerk said.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Most people don't," Hellen said, "Now, what do we need to do?"
"Well, for now, I just need to make a copy of all of these documents and take each of your pictures," the clerk said, "The photographer will call for you when it's your turn. This shouldn't take too long."
Almost immediately, the photographer started to call their names one by one. When it was Maxine's turn, the photographer looked nervous as he asked, "Could you walk into that room over there?"
"Is that the special room for shifters?" Maxine asked as she did as he asked.
"Yes," the photographer said, "I'll take your picture in your normal state first and your shifted state after that. We'll be adding your shifted state to our records in case your a new type of shifter."
"Got it," Maxine said as she stood in the middle of the room. There was a lot of damage to the walls of this room from shifters trying to escape it and a moment after she got into position she heard the sound of the door locking.
"Just face me for a moment," the photographer said through a small opening in the wall, "There. Got it. Now could you transform and if you can, don't move." Maxine swiftly transformed into her battle form and lowered herself into a fighting stance while facing the opening to give him a better picture. She heard him audibly gulp before she heard a distinct click of his camera.
"Do you need a side-view picture?" Maxine asked.
"Uh, yes," the photographer said in a combination of caution and surprise. Maxine turned her body to the right and a moment later, she heard another click of his camera.
"Am I done?" Maxine asked.
"Yes," the photographer said nervously, "You can change back or we can wait until your transformation wears off."
"Oh, alright," Maxine replied as she reverted back to her base form, "As my mother said, I have the best control amongst my siblings. I can consciously control my transformations, but it always leaves me very hungry. Is there any chance I can get a meal out of this?"
"You could ask the clerk," the photographer replied, "You can exit the room now. The door is unlocked, now."
"Alright," Maxine said as she exited the room and saw the clerk talking to Hellen. The poor woman was in a state of shock.
"You mean to tell me that your children can 'eat' toxic waste through their skin?" the clerk asked.
"Yes, but only in their shifted state. And they are quite docile while they are 'eating,'" Hellen replied calmly.
"I need to talk to my manager about this," the clerk said before rushing off.
"I see you've found us another job," Maxine commented as she joined Hellen.
"Yes, I have," Hellen said, "It seems that they store their toxic waste while the local wizards try to figure out how to cleanse or dispose of it safely without harming the environment. They don't want to anger any of the druids."
"So, our arrival is quite fortuitous for them then," Maxine commented.
"Yes, it is," Hellen agreed.
"Excuse me. I couldn't help but overhear that you're children are shifters and that they can absorb toxins as a form of sustanance through their scales. Is that right?" a robed man asked. Maxine glared at him with hostility once she realized he was a wizard.
"Yes, that's right," Hellen said with a frown, "What of it?"
"I would like to examine them," the robed man said bluntly, "They'll be properly compensated for their time." So, we've attracted the attention of a local wizard.
"No," Maxine said bluntly and with no small measure of hostility. I can't let him examine us closely. As soon as he discovers our cores, he'll realize we don't belong on this world. That'll cause problems we do not need.
"May I ask why?" the wizard asked.
"Wizards, such as yourself, were responsible for my husband's death," Hellen said coldly before Maxine could say anything, "So, I hope that you'll forgive us if we want nothing to do with you." Holy shit. I didn't think mom say that. It's way better than what I was going to come up with.
"I see," the wizard said softly while giving them a sympathetic look and regained some of his vigor before saying, "If you change your mind, you can find me here most days. Just ask for Melvin Temmil."
"I doubt that we'll ever do that," Hellen said.
"Regardless, my offer remains," Melvin Temmil stated before walking away.
After he left, Maxine looked around for the clerk, but she was no where in sight. What's taking so long? She was just fetching her manager. She should've returned by now.
As if summoned, the clerk returned with a stern-looking older man. "I heard that you can absorb toxic waste as nourishment through your skin. I require a demonstration," the stern man said as he gestured for them to follow him, "If you can genuinely do as you say, your housing will be place as close as humanly possible to the toxic waste storage facility and your family will be given papers to allow supervised access. Now if you'll follow me, we have one such barrel prepared for you."
"Lead on," Maxine said confidently, "I'm quite famished after transforming without anything to eat."
"Understood," the stern-looking man said as he started to navigate the halls of the building, "A wizard will be present to verify your claims."
"He better keep his magic sight where it's supposed to be," Maxine growled.
"He will," he said while opening a door to a rather large space. However, she spotted Melvin Temmil within the room standing a few feet away from an unopened steel barrel.
"We meet again," Melvin Temmil said while smiling.
"Keep your magic sight were it's supposed to be and we won't have problems," Maxine said coldly.
"And how will you know if I do or not," Melvin Temmil said calmly and immediately paled when Maxine pressured him with her spiritual sense, "I see. I didn't know shifters possessed magic sight."
"It's an uncommon trait, but still one that I have," Maxine said calmly, "Now, if you'll open up that barrel, we can get this over with."
"Kraus, it might be a good idea for you to stand as far away from us as you can," Melvin Temmil said calmly and waited for him to move before opening the barrel, "If you would be so kind."
"Alright," Maxine said as she walked up to the barrel and transformed just her left arm before submerging it into the toxic waste. She had to stop herself from groaning in pleasure from the sensation from her left arm. I didn't know that absorbing toxic waste through my scales could feel this ... good. It never felt like this when I was just absorbing sulfur and a few other toxic elements in water. Perhaps, this only happens when I'm dealing with concentrated chemicals.
"Fascinating," Melvin Temmil said as she felt his spiritual sense scanning her scales and the liquid around her arm, "She's spoken the truth. Her scales can absorb toxic elements and quite quickly at that."
"Excellent," Kraus said as he jotted down some notes, "I'll turn in this paper work and Maxine will receive her papers once she's done 'feeding.'"
"Alright," Melvin Temmil said in a daze, "If we could figure out how to do this, we could purify the toxic waste and turn it into something beneficial."
"My father tried to figure it out too, but it requires too many biological processes for any kind of machinery to do it," Maxine commented. Hmm, maybe there's a process beyond a chemical one going on here. I sense some mana in this toxic waste.
"Oh, that's unfortunate, but he didn't have a dozen colleagues helping him," Melvin Temmil replied, "Oh, by the way, how long do you need before you've replenished yourself?"
"Another fifteen minutes or so," Maxine replied calmly as she noticed that her scales were absorbing the mana in the toxic waste along with the toxic elements. Passive cultivation? I thought I could only do that when I eat beast meat. It would explain why I'm finding this process so pleasant. Although, this technically counts as eating. It's too bad that it's so slow that I would need at least seventy to eighty years to bring my cultivation up a single rank.
"Alright, just try not to take much longer than that," Melvin Temmil said calmly, "Although, I would like to get to know you on a more personal level." Oh, god damn it.
"Not going to happen," Maxine said bluntly.
"That was harsh," Melvin Temmil said directly, "But not unexpected. Still, if you ever want a free meal, I'd be more than happy to take you to the best restaurant in the city."
"No, thank you," Maxine said.
"Are you certain that you won't reconsider?" Melvin Temmil asked, "I only offered since it's clear you don't appear to enjoy attention from the opposite sex and very few in this city would even attempt to flirt with you while it appears that you're in a relationship with myself."
"They can try to court me at their own peril," Maxine said calmly and gave Melvin Temmil a glare while she hinted, "I'm not afraid of beating them half to death to discourage such attempts. Fear not, I'll treat their injuries for free since I'll be the one that caused them. Although, my treatment might not be the most pleasant of things." Melvin Temmil certainly got the hint and stopped bothering her. Finally, he's leaving me alone. Although, I need to look up the local laws to see if I can do that. I wouldn't want to give them a reason to throw me in jail. It's too bad that I can't do that to the women that'll be hounding me day and night once my beauty products become known. Who knows what they might try to pull to get some 'free' samples and that's if someone doesn't try to outright steal some.
