Four - Tides
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Arriving at a city is always a bit of a mind-blowing event for the girl who had been raised in a tiny village. She always found the tall buildings to be intimidating, and immediately felt lost, even if she hadn't even stepped off the main path, yet.
It wasn't exactly the first time that Blauer had been to Eastre City, of course. She was a prodigy. She'd been here, sometimes to collect awards. Sometimes to give self-congratulatory speeches that were pretending to teach other people.
However, this was the first time she had come to the city as her own person. She was a trainer, and she was dragging her three bickering monchen in toe. She wasn't here to have people grovel at her feet, she was here to grovel at theirs, and hope that she could live up to the horrible legend that had bloomed up in front of her.
There was a chance that Roter could surprise everyone, astonish them. For Blauer, there was a virtual guarantee that she couldn't. The entire world seemed desperate to hold her up as the next genius of monchen lore and magic, but she knew that the annoying boy she cared for, had a better chance at it than she did.
Blauer distracted herself from the building anger and resentment she felt towards Roter, by looking at the city. It wasn't just bigger than the village where she had grown up, there was more to discover here. Always something new to discover, even for someone with her memory.
Even on the outskirts, there was new things.
She was instantly drawn to a large and flat piece of dirt. There was nothing obvious or special about it, but she could tell that it hadn't been pounded flat by machinery. There was the barest hint of footprints, bare toes in the nearly markless ground, here and there.
"Felschen." Blauer said, with a tiny hint of awe.
She felt her excitement collapse, as looking around yielded no hint of the monchen. She'd never seen one before, but she had heard that they often ended up in construction work. They liked it. Especially the more physical aspects.
However, despite the clearly prepared construction site, Blauer couldn't see a single monchen, or human. There was nobody here, and even the site office seemed to be temporarily abandoned. Despite the area being ready for building, no foundation had yet been laid, and there were no workers.
It had always confused her, when she was younger.
In the village, if someone wanted to build an extension or a fishing hut, or whatever, then everyone pitched in and it was done by sundown. She'd once seen a construction site take three years just to build a small single-room flat, in the big city.
When she was little, she'd thought that was laziness. As an adult, she knew it was generally a complicated situation where no one involved was paying their bills, a tiny bit to do with regulations and builders being sued for ignoring them, and a lot to do with making sure no one would get hurt during the construction.
But mostly people being unwilling to pay.
"Three monchen!?" An angry voice announced, "What is it with all you arrogant trainers, today!?"
Blauer turned her eyes from the imposing cityscape, and to a woman in a horribly bright blue uniform, wearing the most disapproving look that she had ever seen on a human, before. Not even her mother gave her that sour an expression, when she'd heard that Blauer wanted to be a trainer.
"Good morning, officer." Blauer tried to nervously smile.
She was immediately undercut by Flare bursting into flames and stepping in front of her. The monchen crossing her arms angrily, and spreading her feet in an arrogant fighting stance, "Who do you think you are?"
"Flare, she's a cop. Douse. The. Fire." Blauer hissed.
Nixie stepped up quickly, "Sorry, sorry. Don't mind my sister. She's just been having a rough day. We got attacked on the road by a couple of jerks from something called... Club... Something?"
"Jakob and Yiska." The police officer's stance relaxed visibly, "Well, I can see why your monchen are a little too riled up, then. Tell you what, why don't I escort you? Then we won't run into any complaints or little incidents."
"Eve also started learning a new spell." Blauer indicated the tired waldchen. Her usually dark skin just a little paler.
"Can I see your license?" The officer asked as they started off, eyeing the three women behind the trainer.
Blauer fished it from her bag, "You're having problems with trainers, today? Jakob and Yiska?"
"Mmm. Those two lost their licences, kidnapped a froschen, and ran away. Less than an hour later, I was dealing with a blitzchen shocking her own trainer!" The officer complained, whilst giving Blauer's license the third degree. Not just looking over the card, but bending it and checking the holograms intently.
"Oh. That'd be Roter and Blissbun." Blauer said, "He was a childhood friend of mine. We both got our permits and monchen from the professor, at the same time. Roter got a bit of a raw deal. He was supposed to get Flare, but she liked me more."
The officer handed the card back, "Don't care. If any of your monchen cause problems in my city, if they so much as swear in front of me, I'll see to it you lose your permit, Miss Blauer. Mercy is not one of my attributes, or I wouldn't be Officer Vanessa."
"Yes, officer." Blauer let out a half-strangled sound.
Nixie skipped to the front, her skin bubbling as it boiled dangerously. The wassechen glared sideways at the officer, and spoke with a faux-friendly tone, "Is every officer in Eastre as racist as you, Officer Vanessa?"
The woman's blue eyes went wide, and she opened and closed her mouth several times in surprise, "I-I'm not a racist!"
"Yeah, you are." Flare sneered from beside Blauer, as she surreptitiously took her trainer's arm, hugging onto it with both arms.
"I'm not!" Vanessa protested, "I'm devoted to peace. I don't care if you're human or monchen. I just want to preserve the peace! As a matter of fact, I'm working towards getting my own trainer's license, so a friend of mine can join me on patrol. She's a wassechen. Squitt."
Nixie responded by bubbling her tongue loudly, disagreeing.
The officer looked crushed, and was staring at her feet as she stopped in front of an unassuming office building. "This is the main monchen research building."
"Sorry." Blauer apologised, before taking her three inside.
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"Oh! Miss Blauer!" The receptionist greeted her by name, "And let me see... Nixie? You must be Flare. And of course, you're Eve. Oh, honey, are you feeling okay?"
