Why does it hurt so much?! I wasn't even that close to him. Maxine's mind was in chaos as she wept with her mother. She wasn't certain how long she had been in this state until she felt Reena's head landing onto her lap just before she heard the faint sound of Reena's snores. Enough. I can't just sit here and wallow in misery. I need to occupy my mind.
Maxine took a deep breath and released it to calm herself long enough to pull out her communication disk and read the messages on it. She recalled that her dimensional ring vibrated at least four times while she was mourning with Hellen.
'Alert: The battle has concluded and both combatant have been either severely injured or killed. This has rendered long distance scans useless. Scouts are being sent to confirm the victor,' was the first message. The second had confirmed the scouts arrival. The third was the confirmation of the deity's severely burned remains and oddly, the one scout that approached his body died in seconds from a very dispersed, but potent, poison. However, it was the forth message that made her frown, 'Alert: Remains of deity located. Deity is covered in severe burns and is surrounded by a lethal miasma. Unable to locate Poison Emperor Guan's remains. Continuing search.' So, that prick didn't even leave us anything to bury. At least, daddy killed the fucker. Wait, a second. His lifeforce just got really weak for a long time before it winked out. So, there SHOULD be a body and that deity's remains are burned. Daddy uses poison to fight, not fire AND even if he did use fire, it wouldn't be strong enough to severely burn a deity. What the hell is going on?!
Maxine was about to put her communication disk back into her dimensional ring out of pure frustration when it vibrated once more indicating it just received a message and it was from Grandma Victoria, 'Maxine DO NOT come out of hiding or even reply to this message. You might be tracked by doing so. Many unscrupulous alchemists are heading for Earth to look for you. Guan was a powerful enough of a deterrent that they wouldn't risk his wrath, but now that he's gone, those vultures will come to take your inheritance by force. Be safe and take care of your mother. She needs you. Maker knows that I would be there if I could, but as it stands, I have no idea where you ran off to. Neither does the rest of the Alliance.' Of course. You can always count on the greed of the Alchemist Association. I wonder if they forgot that I still have a few constructs conveniently hidden away at their headquarters and on planets where they grow medicinal ingredients. I did warn them about that. It seems I need to remind them why they shouldn't consider me to be a non-threat without daddy to protect me.
She sighed and looked at the others. They were still grieving. I hate myself for doing this, but it has to be done now. "We need to leave and join a refugee group heading for a neutral city," Maxine said.
"Maxine!" Emily said in a reprimanding tone, "You picked the worst timing!"
"No, she's right," Hellen said with a hoarse voice, "A large number of refugees will be in a similar state as our own. It will make blending in with them proceed far more smoothly. Have you decided which city to go to?"
"Not yet," Maxine admitted as she sent out her spiritual sense to scan the cities accepting refugees, "But I will in at most half an hour."
"Very well," Hellen said and she looked towards Lanitherin, "I trust you will act as our protector along with Maxine's male clone."
"I will," Lanitherin said calmly.
"Huh?" Maxine said out loud when she witnessed someone shapeshifting into a werewolf, "I think I may have found a solution to Lucas and Reena's inability to maintain their humanization technique. Give me a few more minutes to see if this isn't a singular event." She looked for more werewolves and found handful of werebears, weretigers and various other shifters. Next, she tried to determine if they were socially accepted and frowned when only one city allowed people that were publicly acknowledged as shifters to live there. Thankfully, that city is in a neutral territory bordering the two countries at war and there is a large group of refugees heading towards it.
"So, are you going to tell us where we are going yet?" Emily asked.
"It's a medium-sized industrial city called Izkar to our southwest," Maxine explained, "It houses beastkin, humans and shifters. And before you ask, shifters are a broad term that covers any being that can transform into a were-type creature."
"Oh! So that means that you, Reena, Lucas and Silke can all pass off as exotic shifters?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, so whenever you guys are ready I can open up a portal," Maxine said, "If not, it'll take us at least a week of walking to catch up."
"How about you only send us half a day's travel away from the refugee group," Silkie pointed out, "That way you can teach us the local language before we encounter them." Oh, shit. I forgot to do that. Better late than never.
"Alright, but I'll start with mom and end with the Reena and Lucas," Maxine said calmly, "It'll take longer for me to bestow the language to them since their cultivation is still quite low and neither of them talk much anyways."
"Very well," Hellen said, "We should move as soon as possible and be sure to create the portal in such a way that it appears that we are fleeing from a ravaged village."
"Of course," Maxine said as she waved her hand and created a portal on the wall, "Just walk through it one at a time. I'll follow behind you guys." After they walked through, Maxine walked with her clones through the portal. Hmm, what names should my clones use? I can at least continue using my name since they have the name Maxine or rather it's equivalent in the local language. I'll have to talk with my mother about this later.
[Mom, what names should I use for my clones?] Maxine asked without preamble while leading their group towards the refugee group.
[Thera and Kai,] Hellen said to Maxine via spiritual sense and Maxine gave her a confused look before Hellen added, [Those were the names that me and your father decided to use depending on the gender of our first child. But neither of us were able to name you after Guan's left you with strangers and with him dead, I will no longer have the chance to give those names to our future children.] Maxine spotted fresh tears running down Hellen's cheeks and she immediately felt bad for asking.
[I'll start transferring local language now,] Maxine said to change the subject before transferring over her knowledge of the local language. It went relatively quickly since Hellen possessed the highest cultivation out of anyone present. In merely a handful of minutes, Hellen had absorbed all of the information. Next, Maxine sent the knowledge of the local language to the rest of the group simultaneously and adjusted the speed of that transfer based on how quickly they could absorb it to avoid overloading their minds. Silkie, Lanitherin and Emily assimilated the knowledge after roughly twenty minutes. Lucas and Reena, however, took nearly fourteen hours to assimilate the knowledge and that was not including the time spent while camping.
As they finally neared the refugee group, Maxine glanced at Hellen and she became worried. She looked like she had aged over a decade. Maxine had heard of someone rapidly aging after the loss of a loved one, but never actually witnessed it in person.
Maxine wrapped one of her arms around Hellen's shoulders to comfort her as they walked. Hellen smiled as she looked at Maxine out of the corner of her eye and patted on Maxine's hand. "You shouldn't be that worried, Maxine," Hellen said gently, "If you're going to refer to me as your mother while we are on this world, I might as well look the part." Maxine was confused and sent her spiritual sense to scan Hellen's face to find that it was a very cleverly crafted illusion.
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"That makes sense, I suppose," Maxine admitted and spotted movement ahead of them, "It seems like we've caught up with the refugee group."
"Indeed," Hellen said in the local language as she started to walk as if the bag slung over her shoulder weighed a lot more than it did. Why is she doing that? Wait, they use hard currency on this world, specifically gold, silver and copper. Why does she want them to think she has money on her?
As they approached, the refugees gave Maxine's group an odd look. Maxine shrugged it off. She knew why they were staring at her and her clones. She was wearing her usual fighting outfit with a small alteration. There was a flap of leather that was held up by a pair of magnetic clasps. It allowed her back to remain covered while she wasn't in her full hybrid form and made it easy for her extra snake-like limbs to form out of her back without destroying whatever was in the way. It only took her a little while to make a set of them for her male clone, but she didn't make more than one spare since she didn't have enough time.
"I see some more weary travelers have joined our group," a muscular woman said as she approached, "You ladies best cover your faces. While the menfolk in our group probably won't bother you, the bandits will."
"You heard her, girls. Cover up," Hellen said calmly as she wrapped a shawl over her head and tied it closed to obscure her face enough that it was not easily seen. Maxine shrugged as she pulled out a ratty scarf and wrapped it around her head. She controlled Thera to do the same. Emily, however, put on a wooden mask.
"It's so nice to meet others with a bit of giant's blood in them," the muscular woman said and reached out to shake Hellen's hand, "I'm Mina, by the way." Hellen shook her hand and replied, "Hellen and these are my children. Kai, would you be a dear and take up the rear guard?"
"Certainly," Kai said as Maxine controlled him to move to the rear of the refugee group.
"Your children?" Mina asked, "Gods, you don't look old enough to have full grown children. I thought you were the mother of those two little ones clinging to your hip."
"They're mine as well," Hellen said with a small smile.
"Beg your pardon, but you don't look like a woman that's birthed five children," Mina commented.
"Thank you," Hellen said with a smirk, "It was thanks to my late husband's knowledge as a healer. The ointments that he provided kept me looking youthful and quite devoid of stretch marks."
"You're quite the lucky lady," Mina commented, "You wouldn't happen to have the recipe for those ointments, would you?" Maxine's eyes locked onto Mina at that question. She could sense, but not see, a momentary pulse of greed from her.
"Sorry, but no," Hellen said sadly, "He took that knowledge with him to the grave."
"A shame. A lot of women would pay a hefty sum to retain their beauty as well as you have," Mina said, "Now follow me. Just don't be surprise when folks give you weird looks." Ugh, why did mom have to do that?
"I'm used to it," Hellen said as they got closer to the refugee group. At this time, Maxine saw that the majority of the people here were significantly shorter than her. The tallest man's head barely reached up to her eyes and the women were almost a head shorter than her. No wonder Mina thought we have some 'giant's blood' in us. Everyone here is tiny. I really should've paid more attention to everyone's height.
[I tell Mina about those 'ointments' without a reason,] Hellen said to Maxine via spiritual sense, [I'm counting on her selling us out. This way we get an easy access to a wealthy merchant or a criminal enterprise. Either way, we will have a means to sell such ointments for some easy coin to live off of.]
[That's actually... kind of smart,] Maxine said, [Although, we will need an alternative source of income to not be out of place. Otherwise, it'll look suspicious if we don't, eventually, run out of money. How about we open up a tavern? I could easily figure out how to make various alcoholic drinks and I already know how to cook.] I don't like that I will need to make those sorts of drinks, but that kind of stuff always sells well regardless of the planet that I'm on.
[That should work,] Hellen said cautiously, [But where will you get the coin to buy a building big enough for a tavern?]
[Simple, I'll take it from some bandits,] Maxine said, [The ones that I've seen with my spiritual sense are scum. No one would miss them if a few groups were to suddenly disappear and you've given everyone a good excuse as to where our money for our tavern came from: Daddy's money.]
[I knew you would figure it out,] Hellen said with a smile.
[Although, that idea might be hindered once we reveal that we are a family of shifters,] Maxine reasoned.
[Greed will motivate even the most intelligent of people to take idiotic risks,] Hellen said calmly.
[Fair point,] Maxine said.
"Mommy, look at the giants," a little boy said excitedly while pointing at Maxine's group as they merged within the mass of walking refugees. She heard a few more excited children as they pointed at her and the others as they were led towards the center of the group where most of the women and children were congregated. She even spotted a few injured men wrapped up in bandages. She almost moved to heal them with her energies, but stopped herself. Magic users were seen as useful by the ruling powers during wars between nations, but the common folk saw them as extremely dangerous people. They were almost universally chased out of town as soon as they were discovered. Shifters, on the other hand, were often relegated to the outskirts of town and watched like hawks. Very few were gutsy enough to start problems with someone that could literately transform into a massive bipedal beast that could quite literately rip them limb from limb. That reminds me. I might as well let them believe that we are a family of shifters.
"Mom, shouldn't we tell Mina about our family's circumstances?" Maxine asked, "It'll only complicate things later when Reena or Lucas have an accident."
"I suppose I should," Hellen said in a reluctant tone.
"What are you on about?" Mina asked while raising an eyebrow.
"My children, all of my children, are shifters," Hellen said and Maxine saw everyone around them immediately start distancing themselves, "Lucas and Reena are still learning to control their abilities and involuntarily change once or twice a day into their beastly forms. Thankfully, they retain their sense of self while in those states."
Mina gulped before she cautiously asked, "What kind of shifters are your children?"
"I'm not exactly sure what kind they are myself. Neither did my husband, even though he was a shifter himself. Although, I'm certain they're some kind of scaled beast," Hellen admitted, "But I have an idea on what their purpose is. It's to cleanse the environment of toxic elements."
"Uh, what?" Mina asked in confusion.
"It's easier to explain with a visual aide. Do you have any water?" Maxine asked as she reached into a small backpack and pulled out a glass cup. Mina's eyes widened slightly as she looked at the cup and she proceeded to pull out a water skin. Maxine took it from her and slowly poured in the water. The water was somewhat cloudy. A clear sign that it was polluted. She could literately smell faint traces of sulfur in it. Ugh, it's barely within the tolerance for human consumption. Although, only the most desperate would actually drink it.
"Now, hold these for a moment and try not to scream. I'm going to transform," Maxine said as she handed both the water skin and the cup to Mina before Maxine slowly transformed into her battle form to retain her relative humanoid shape since most shifters did not have four arms like her full-hybrid state did. But she forgot to take off the scarf and poked a few holes in it when her quills formed.
Mina, to her credit, only started trembling slightly at the sight as Maxine slowly lifted up her tail and dipped it into the cloudy water. Within seconds the water started to become clearer and after a minute, it was completely clear before Maxine withdrew her tail.
"Try drinking it," Hellen suggested.
Cautiously, Mina took a sip and swished it around in her mouth. But she swiftly swallowed it down after only a couple seconds. "Incredible," Mina said, "This is the best water I've ever had."
"It should be," Maxine said as she slowly changed back to her base form, "In my shifted state, I literately eat toxic or poisonous elements through my skin, but it does not work with sewage. I don't know why. However, if there is some industrial run off going into the rivers or into a lake, me and my siblings can go swim in it to satisfy our hunger rather than eat massive stores of food like other shifters." I've already checked and they do have some industrial run off that drains into a rather large lake. Thankfully, it breaks down fast enough that it hasn't caused any lasting damage to the environment, but if they ramp up production, it will be a problem in a few years to decades.
"Ah, shifters always have a larger appetite than us normal folk," Mina commented while clearly not fully understanding Maxine's explanation, "But you'll have to manage your own food. Not many of these folks will be willing to share theirs with your kin, especially after seeing your beastly form."
"It doesn't matter," Maxine answered, "We have enough food on us to last until we reach the city."
"Good," Mina said, "Now, I need to go look after my own. Maybe, we'll talk later."
"Perhaps," Maxine said just as Mina started walking away, but judging from the woman's pace, Maxine doubted that she would ever come back for that chat. Maxine had spooked her too badly. It doesn't matter. Mom's already mingling with a few other women and judging by the envious glares she's getting, she telling them all about the 'beauty products' daddy made for her. She's definitely leaving nothing to chance. Now, I need to start hunting down some bandit groups for their gold using normal constructs and scan the local flora for anything that could be used to make a beauty product. This should at least keep my mind occupied.