[Gift] Gina's First Visit To The Capital

“Maybe that other corcei was right,” Gina whispered to herself outside the door of the modification spell shop, “Maybe I need to pay more attention to my looks rather than how smart I am.”

She swung the door open. Many potions could be seen on the shelves, and a reddish-brown corcei stood a short length away, helping out two other corceis that seemed a bit younger than Gina, but were clearly still adults. The reddish-brown one kept shooting glances at Gina, before she mumbled something to the other two corceis and started trotting over to her. 

“Oh! A New face! Do you need any help?” she questioned Gina, “I’m Clementine, by the way. You can just call me Clem, though.”

“Oh, uh, hi Clem,” she responded, “I’m really only here because I was told it might be of some help.”

The two corceis that she was helping before were suddenly standing behind Clem, asking questions.

“Where could I find some contact lenses?” asked the gray and blue one.

“Just a second, Tsunami,” Clem replied.

The gray and red one chimed in next, “I need a potion for a smoke trail!”

“Give me just a moment, Gamble,” Clem said, trying not to get annoyed.

“No it’s okay, help them,” Gina looked away sadly, “I don’t know why I wasted your time.” She began to walk out, but Clem dashed to get in front of her and blocked the door.

“You’re not going anywhere,” the corcei stared right through Gina, “Not before you tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s nothing,” Gina lied.

“You look gorgeous, so I’m unsure on why you decided to come in here, but you have to tell me what’s wrong before you leave,” she stood blocking the door for a good minute until Gina finally decided to speak.

“A young corcei I teach is absolutely brilliant,” she started, “but her parents are not. I went to tell them about how smart their daughter is and, well, her mother relentlessly insulted me.”

“Oh dear, that wasn’t very kind of her,” Clem sat down now, listening intently.

“So, I came here, hoping I could gain an ounce of beauty,” she took a deep breath, “And thank you for the compliment before, but it doesn’t help.”

“Well, I know I’m not good with all this sentimental stuff,” she replied. 

“Yeah, I don’t know why I told you all that,” she looked up at Clem, “I came here for a new look but instead I’ve wasted both of our times by ranting about how terrible that little girl’s parents were.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I’m not wrong.”

Clem got up and began to walk around the store, eventually grabbing a slip of paper and writing something on it. She left it on the counter before getting up to help the two corceis that had been in the store before Gina.

Gina walked over to the counter and looked at the note. It read “I may not be able to help, but I know some corceis that can. Gio, at the mutation laboratory, Lillian, at the petshop, and Adrian, at the emerald market. Go there.”

Gina got up and started trotting towards the door again. Clem immediately followed after her, but Gina stopped dead in her tracks. “Thank you,” she whispered to the other corcei before walking out of the shop.

“The mutation laboratory, the petshop, and the emerald market,” she reminded herself, “Thank you, Clem. I shall speak to them as soon as possible.”

She continued to walk, speaking to many strangers about where she could find these places, as she’d never been to the capital. Eventually the corceis from the shop found her.

“I’m Tsunami, and this is my brother, Gamble,” she told her, “We heard you were looking for the mutation laboratory!”

“Yeah, why?” Gina asked.

Gamble gestured with a paw in one direction, “Walk that way until you see the big blue crystal, then take a left and keep walking. It’ll be obvious which building it is because there’s fake skeleton displays outside,” he told her.

“Oh! Thank you, you’re very kind.”

“No problem!”