"Ah, Mister Sorrel." The young-looking guardsman was sitting on one of the benches looking nervous. As soon as he sees me he hops up and rushes closer.

"Oh, hello, uh... I'm sorry, I never got your name. I meant to stay behind and chat with everyone, but if you'd ever met a hungry pixie you'd know why I moved to get her fed."

"Hey!" The pixie in question bops me on the head, earning herself a kiss in return.

"It's Mark, Sir." The catkin guard clears his throat with an embarrassed flush. "And, it's alright, we all did stop by unannounced after all. But, the reason I stayed behind was to apologize for my earlier remark. What I said was out of line."

"Mhm. Well, I won't say it's alright, but it is understandable." I reply. "Honestly, I've taken poor care of my body for years now and when I learned shapeshifting, I chose to use that instead of properly shaping my body. The words of a lizardkin made me realize that I need to be comfortable showing my real face. Well, that and Amelia really likes tall guys... not to mention Apricot's giant fetish."

"Snerk." Apricot nearly chokes on the snort of a laugh that erupts from her unexpectedly. "Says the guy with a mini-girl fetish." She shrinks down.

The tiny woman disappears inside her tracksuit just long enough to pull on a dress before flying back out to land on my head. Her heels drum on my forehead as Mark stares with a look of shock, intrigue, and even more embarrassment filling his face.

"..." His mouth flops open for a moment before he snaps it closed and shakes his head to clear the errant thoughts away. "Thank you for understanding, but I still shouldn't have said that. Every beastkin knows how difficult it can be to keep your body in decent shape."

"Don't worry about it." I smile and step forward to clap him on the shoulder. "Say, if you're free for a bit, I could use some help." I bring out the resistance bands I made. "See, I made these but I never really used resistance bands back home. I'm especially interested in finding a better way to work my core than adding weights while doing abdominal and back exercises."

"You aren't the only one." He nods. "The battle ropes are okay if you use the right stance, but I always feel like I'm being crushed when working my abs. And, yeah. I'm free until noon."

"Well, alright then." I hand over the over-sized rubber bands and start walking over to the alchemy lab. "I just need to go check in on Melanie and see how her new helper is working out, and if they need anything."

"These are amazing." Mark starts playing around with the elastic. "How did you make them?"

"Follow me and find out." I laugh when he eagerly falls into step.

...

"Hello, Melanie." I greet the alchemist after knocking on the door to the lab. "How's it going?"

"Morning Sorrel." She looks up from showing her new helper how to work one of the magical apparatuses that I didn't understand. "Allow me to introduce my new apprentice, Catherine."

The girl, for that's what she clearly is -now that I can see more than just a hunched over form- turns around and offers me a shy smile. She looks to be around twelve, a tall twelve, but still twelve. Though, I could be off, if the slightly pointed ears that I just spotted in her curly, shoulder-length, brown hair are indicative of an elven ancestry.

"Just Cat, please." She ducks her head.

"Welcome aboard, Cat." I send a smile at the shy feline. "This is Apricot." I try to look straight up without tilting my head too far and spilling the pixie off of her perch. "And, Mark, a guardsman who is helping me test the best way to exercise with the resistance bands. Mark, this is Melanie, the alchemist who's doing all the hard work so I don't have to."

"Actually, Cat will be doing most of it now." Melanie lets out a soft laugh. "Well, once I get her trained up on the basics, that is."

"I suppose that is what apprentices are for." I return her laugh with one of my own. "But, I thought you were just going to find a helper."

"That was the plan." She nods. "But, Cat just turned thirteen and has been trying to get an apprenticeship for a while now. And, well, Delainey and Elliot talked me into it."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Nice to meet you, Ma'am, Miss." Mark bows stiffly earning a titter from the pixie sitting on my head.

"Hi, Cat." It feels like she's waving her arm exaggeratedly. "Welcome to Apricot rubbers. As you can see, I'm the one on top here."

"Oh, really?" I rebut. "I seem to recall that you prefer 'working' underneath me."

Apricot and Temmie laugh when Mark and Cat blush matching shades of pink. Melanie just rolls her eyes though, seemingly already inured to my nonsense.

"Well, I can see you're busy here." I motion to whatever it was they were doing. "But, I just wanted to introduce myself and see if you needed anything."

"Now that you mention it." Melanie gestures to the rubber mixer. "You said you were going to work on enchanting this, or setting up a water wheel, or something. We've both tried and can barely manage ten minutes on it before our legs feel like they're going to fall off."

"Mhm." I frown slightly at the mixer. "I still need to work on my enchanting, but I might be able to manage a waterwheel. We need to hire a proper machinist though." I start playing with some wood, trying to figure out how to build a turbine.

"Uh, I might be able to help." Mark speaks up. "My pa works in a mill, and his friend used to build and maintain all the equipment for the place until he retired to be a clockmaker. But, Old Sinclair was complaining about business the last time he was over for dinner."

"Not surprising." I exhale a stream of air. "I was looking at some yesterday and the prices were... kinda high." I almost said 'fucking insane' before I remembered there was a kid in the room.

"You still bought one though." Apricot bops my forehead. "Amelia loved the haggle, but even she thought it was a waste of money."

"Probably." I shrug one shoulder. "But, Mom always had a clock in her room and that one reminded me of it." I haven't set it up yet, but I plan for it to go on the mantle in the living room.

"Which shop did you buy it from?" The beastkin asks.

"Oh, it was just down the road from Melanie's old shop..." I give him the address.

"That wasn't Sinclair's, but I'm pretty sure he was complaining about them." He chuckles. "I pretty much quit listening after the first rant. But, anyways his shop is further west, just off the main road out of the docks."

"Ah, yeah." I nod. "We passed by there, but I'd already gotten the clock, so we didn't stop in. I'll go talk to him after we drop Amelia off later, but I'll keep working on this in the meantime." I bounce the wood in my hand. "Come on, Mark. Since they're busy, I'll show you the flashy way to make rubber."

"Actually, could you make a couple barrels of the raw latex for us?" Melanie asks. "I still have enough sheets, but I want to try playing around with the liquid."

"No problem, I should restock anyways, I used most of mine making parts for the sprayers." I start heading back outside.

"Can we go watch?" Catherine asks in a quiet voice.

"Oh, we might as well." Her master answers with a laugh. "The sooner you get used to the way Sorrel does thing, the better."

"Hahahaha!" Apricot cracks up and nearly tumbles off of my head from laughing so hard. "Oh, she's already got you pegged."

"..." I don't say anything and just keep walking outside.

Once there, I pull Blackthorne from my waist, where I've taken to wearing him like a sword. The clover in a wide area around us decomposes into the soil as soon as I tap the ground with my cane.

A single potted dandelion is then pulled from storage. It blooms before our eyes, its seeds fly up to circle around Apricot before spreading evenly out over the newly bare field. Those seeds quickly grow and reproduce, soon filling the entire area in a carpet of yellow flowers.

"That reminds me, I still need to make that wine." I go ahead and collect all the petals from all of these too. "I didn't save the fructose the other night, but if the guards are running with me I need to make more smoothies anyways." I get three blanks looks and a titter rings out from on top of my head.

"Don't look to me for help." Apricot laughs even louder when they stare at her. "His explanation just made me even more confused. And, what were you thinking, wasting sugar like that?"

"White sugar is two simple sugars stuck together." I explain while trying not to roll my eyes. "Glucose, which your body uses naturally and fructose-

"Which you threw away." Apricot says that like I threw out a bar of gold.

"Which needs to be processed by your liver first." I continue. "And, which I discarded because it's not good for you to eat a lot of. The yeast should handle it just fine though, but I collected more petals so I could experiment. Now, hush, I'm trying to concentrate here."

What I'm trying to do is pull the latex directly out of the plants. Unfortunately, unlike carbon black which has a simple basic component. Latex is a bit of a mess, so all I'm getting is a headache.

"Want me to go get Amelia?" Apricot teases. "I'm sure she could manage."

"Nng." I grumble before letting out a defeated sigh. "No need to bother her while she's studying, I'll just do it the hard way." I tap the ground again and all the flowers start pulling themselves from the soil.

"Uh, what's going on?" Catherine barely squeaks out her question.

"Sorrel invented an amazing spell." Apricot trills. "But, he can't use it to the fullest because of the way he thinks."

"You were trying to draw the sap directly." Melanie's eyes light up when she works it out.

"Yes." I huff while washing the roots off. "I managed the lampblack and I'll manage this too... eventually." This statement earns me another round of laughter from the pixie sitting in my hair.

"Oh, gods." Breathy laughter escapes from the alchemist's lips. "You have no idea how good it is to hear that you aren't perfect at everything."

"..." I look crosswise at her and shake my head. "Please, I get enough teasing from her and Amelia as it is." I point my thumb at the pest that is holding onto my hair trying not to fall off of my head as she deals with a giggle fit.