Shortly after sunrise, Raymond unlocked the apartment door and shuffled inside. He felt the tang of a clean house that happened every time Savannah came, and internally sighed. He hated tracking mud on the floor when she had just cleaned.

He tried to sneak to his room, but Savannah caught his attention from the common room. "What happened?" she whispered.

"Eh," he said hoarsely. "Some idiot thought I was getting too close to his mate. Just a scuffle."

"Really? Looks like he almost tore your ear off." Savannah pulled on his arm, making him lower the stained cloth he held against his ear.

"No, he just bit it. I'm fine."

"Sit, and I'll bandage it up. Siobhan has enough on her shoulders without seeing all that blood."

Ray grimaced, but did sink down to sit on the wooden floor. He was fond of Siobhan; she was better than the average roommate, she actually cared - even about his friends. He didn't know her full story, but he knew enough to understand that she forced herself to carry a heavy burden. As Savannah gently cleaned the side of his head, she told him about their discussion the previous evening. By the time she finished talking, she had bandaged his ear with goblin medicine, as healing charms were expensive.

"If you do it right, you could probably use one or both of those holes as piercings," Savannah said, wiping her hands off.

"Nah, too much bother. Besides, silver doesn't look good on me."

Savannah grinned. "Feeling more like yourself now?"

"Oh, yes. I hate the full moon day. I feel like I'm not myself." Raymond slowly stood up and stretched, and winced as he saw a muddy imprint where he had been sitting.

"Don't worry about it. Go and take a nap. You have today off, right?"

"Today and tomorrow. Thankfully. I'm gonna sleep like a log."

“Kay, I’m heading out now. Mom and I are having breakfast with Yeye, then I’m going home for bed. Send a message if you need me.”

Raymond nodded and walked her to the door, commenting, “Tell your grandfather that I’m gonna beat him at chess next time.”

Savannah snorted, then left. Raymond locked the door, then made his way to his bedroom. He stripped off his muddy clothes, dropped onto his bed, and was soon lost to slumber.

An hour or so after Raymond had gone to sleep, Siobhan woke up in her room to the sound of rain on the roof. She squinted at the pile of papers and books piled up by her bed, and groaned. Rubbing the sleep out of her bleary eyes, she pulled out a bag of magic crystals from under her pillow, and could tell from the faint glow coming through the mesh fabric that they were fully recharged. That would at least be a paycheck for today.

She got up and went to the window, where she just held out a washcloth in the rain and let it get wet. Better than going to the kitchen sink for water and being reminded of how pathetic her life was right now. She scrubbed her face, trying to dispel her thoughts of her friend having to clean her apartment and her roommate eating all of her food. Her hair fell around her face, and she inspected her dreadlocks. She had been putting it off long enough- there was a dramatic need to tighten the dreadlocks or just do a different hairstyle. Maybe she should just cut it. Maybe she could find someone who could do it cheap.

“Just calm down,” she muttered. “I don’t need a crappy morning to get worse.” When her emotions got out of control, so did her magic, despite the bracelets. She had tried using her magic to do things, like every other over-charged magician in history, so she could use it up and have less to deal with. However, that only resulted in exploding or draining any spell or charm she used. Around the time she had moved out from Evie’s family home, she had discovered that by having magic crystals around her for a few hours, she could easily recharge them. Other magicians could do it consciously, and made a living visiting high-class establishments and recharging the crystals then and there. Unfortunately, Siobhan couldn’t do this; the best compromise she could find was to take stall owners’ crystals home and recharge them while she slept. The stall owners didn’t want to leave valuable crystals out in the open overnight, so a couple nights a week, Siobhan took them home with her and charged them while she slept. It was better than nothing, but still limited.

Siobhan pulled on a pair of already mud-stained pants, and her last somewhat clean sweater. At least today’s paycheck could buy some laundry soap. When she finally left her room, she was awestruck by how clean it was after Savannah’s visit. She let out a deep breath and forced herself to let go of her self-pity and instead be thankful for Savannah. If she had enough money, she definitely needed to stop by a Centaur grocer and get some kimchi to make a kimchi pizza.

Siobhan avoided the kitchen, knowing there would be little left to actually make a meal with, after Raymond’s binge-eating. Truthfully, she was angry, but had long since given up. A werewolf’s metabolism accelerated on the day of the full moon, preparing for the energy needed to transform for the first time in a month.  After that, their bodies stabilized, and they became more normal. Raymond had explained how werewolf attacks in the past centuries usually happened because the werewolf was hungry and stressed, and not given some space to load up. As she slipped her clogs on, Siobhan reminded herself of all the ways Raymond was a great roommate, and tried to focus on the positives. She pulled on her hooded poncho, frowning a bit. It was heavy sailcloth and looked ugly, but it was her best option, since she couldn’t afford a water repelling charm or waterproof cloak.

Tucking the bag of crystals into her messenger bag, she headed out. Their apartment building was one of many in a quieter neighborhood of Bulldog Town. The warped wooden stairs on the side of the building would never be replaced until the building was condemned or fell down. From there, it was two blocks until the beginning of the Market Stall area of Bulldog Town. The early morning traffic was light enough that she made good time to Phia’s Bakery Stall.

It was located near the side entrance, near enough to the main thoroughfare that people would be tempted in for the baked goods of every imaginable sort that crowded the table. The large sailcloth awning stretched over the whole stall, except for the stone oven just behind the tables, which billowed smoke and scents out into the air. Phia the Minotaur (rather small in comparison to other of his species) had to stoop ever so slightly to keep his horns from tearing the awning, and the years of doing so showed in his shoulders. When Siobhan arrived, he was pulling out a tray of spiced fruit rolls. He saw her, smiled, and held out his hand. Siobhan handed over two dallas and a clean handkerchief, and he loaded two small fruit and walnut loaves in it, then sheepishly added a sausage roll.

“You don’t need…” Siobhan shut her mouth and smiled instead. “Thank you.” She had learned that the Minotaur possessed a heart bigger than himself. He smiled a toothy grin and turned to his next customer, a transformed tanuki woman with three cubs romping around her feet.

One of the cubs stared up at Siobhan, its whiskers twitching inquisitively. She smiled back at it, then stepped around the tables to load a chunk of wood into the fire tray underneath the oven. The coals there glowed red and orange, camouflaging the small red dragon sitting there. It lazily used its tail to push coals over to a cooling part of the tray, then reached out its claws to pull in the wood from Siobhan. Quotes from Sinead’s research had described modern dragons as “merely glorified lizards,” but Siobhan could still see a cat-like elegance and attitude from the small dragons that, according to legend, had been a trait of ancient dragons. Still, she could almost see why some women in the North had, for a time, worn small dragons around their necks like living scarves to ward off the winter cold. The dragon in front of her laid down on top of the new wood, and closed its eyes.

Siobhan went on her way to the first of her clients. The back wall of a pub had a wooden plank nailed to a window frame. A fairy stood on the platform, her translucent wings bent to cover her from rain drops, her bare foot tapping the wood impatiently. “It’s about time!” she snapped.

“I’m sorry, Gwyneth, I overslept.” Siobhan pulled a magic crystal from her bag that was no bigger than her thumbnail and slid it into a small silver sconce by the window, where it lit up with a soft glow. Now it served as both light and advertisement for the small cafe.

“It’s bad enough that people don’t see us on a regular day, but a gloomy day like this is worse.” Gwyneth scowled as she passed over a 5-dallas coin.

“I’m sorry. May I make a trade with you?” Siobhan held up one of the fruit and walnut loaves. “This for warm milk?”

The Welsh fairy swallowed hard, and her internal debate was evident. “Fine.” She disappeared inside the window and hissing sounds emanated. She reappeared with a tankard of warm milk that she carried easily, despite it being almost twice her size in all dimensions.

“Thank you.” Siobhan set the loaf on the platform and took the tankard. “I’ll return it in a couple hours.”

“You better,” Gwyneth grumbled, then took an enormous (for her) bite out of the loaf. “Be on your way, country-kin.”

Siobhan smiled politely and quickly walked away. Privately, she thought that few customers was due to a lack of customer service, rather than a lack of lighting.