The seasons continue to turn, and now winter is here.

Not that it snowed here in Janiga City, but it did become extremely cold. Adding to that were the gusts of wind that threatened to freeze your eyebrows together. Not really a weather you wanted to be out in.

Yet that’s what Hugh was doing: walking to the greengrocers with a shopping list on hand. Or rather, shoved unceremoniously into his pocket. Well, it was a better option than sending one of the children to do the grocery run. If they got recognised from their pickpocket days it could spell a lot of trouble. So into the cold Hugh went, with Billy’s prayers.

(I don’t think I’ve ever been this cold in my life…) Hugh’s cold-addled brain thought.

It was as he was about to pass the Medicine Guild that he saw his classmate Alon being pushed out of the doors.

The Reptillian fell onto his side and before he could get a complaint in, was further knocked over by a staff with various leather straps hanging off them. The doors closed firmly behind him.

Hugh immediately went to help him up. “Alon, are you all right?”

“Hugh…?” He nodded, then pulled the Reptillian up. As basic for a Reptillian, Alon towered over Hugh.

“What was that all about?” Hugh asked while he picked up the staff and turned it over to Alon. The Reptillian was silent for awhile, then began to cry.

Hugh quickly led him into a secluded alley. “Hey, it’s okay to cry, and I think sharing your problems will help too,” he encouraged.

It took a moment for Alon to gather himself. Then he began to spill everything to Hugh.

“It’ss thosse sstupid Mediccine Guild people. Ssaying that Reptillianss aren’t sskillful enough with their handss to be able to do the delicate work doctorss and nurssess have to do daily. Well I proved them wrong! But then today, ass ssoon ass my sshift wass over, my ‘colleaguess’ threw me out of the guild.”

“Gosh, that sounds horrible.” Hugh patted Alon’s shoulders. Then he hit on an idea. “Hey, you have anywhere to go to after this?”

“No, I wass jusst thinking of heading back to my room. The one besside the dockss.”

“Sounds cold!” Hugh gave a small laugh. “Well I’m doing a grocery run, but do you want to follow me back to the Gawain mansion? We can have some hot drinks there.” Plus the walk would help Alon calm down further.

While Hugh did his grocery run, the two boys continued to chat about various nothings. Truthfully Hugh wasn’t close to Alon - acquaintances at best - but everyone in class knew how dedicated Alon was to the medical field. It was common to find his nose buried in a book about anatomy or biology, even during classes.

That was something Hugh shared with Alon, so the content of their various nothings was on the medical texts they both have read.

When Hugh returned from the grocery run, he introduced Alon to Billy and vice versa.

“Bringing in a new person again, Hugh?” Billy joked. Hugh smiled, embarrassed, then quickly helped Billy with the tea.

Setting the teacups on the table, Hugh became perplexed when Alon wouldn’t touch his tea. “Is something wrong with the tea, Alon? Do I need to change it?”

“It’ss not the tea… it’ss the cupss.” Alon demonstrated by trying to fit his large clawed fingers into the tiny handle of the cups. It couldn’t fit through it.

“Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t think about that at all! Here, let me change the cups,” Hugh quickly grabbed the more oriental style cups - the ones without handles - and poured a new batch of tea.

“It’ss okay. I know you didn’t mean to do that.”

“It still wasn’t okay for me to do that. So, thank you for being patient with me,” Hugh apologised.

Alon waved it away and drank his tea. The cups this time fit his large clawed hands properly.

“I guesss I’m jusst ussed to it,” Alon said with a shrug. “It’ss been difficult living as a Reptillian in this world.”

“Would you like to talk more about that?” Hugh prompted. Alon thought about it, then nodded.

“It iss obviouss that life here in Janiga Ccity doess not take into account a Reptillan’ss needss. For exxample, the ssalty ssea air here often driess out our sscaless pretty quickly. We need to usse a lot of lotion to keep our sskin hydrated. And the lotion iss not cheap.” Alon took a sip of his tea.

“Another thing iss door handless. Our clawss can’t open the round oness, which iss ussed in many sshops here in the city. Thankfully it is not a problem at the Academy - ccertainly that place payss careful attention to the needss of all the ten racess.”

Alon looked down with a frown. “Unfortunately, that is the casse with the Medical Guild. I alwayss need ssomeone to help me open the doorss. I’ve assked them many timess to change the door handless, but…” an angry sigh blew through his teeth.

“That sounds really rough,” Hugh sympathised.

“You don’t know the half of it Hugh,” Alon shook his head. Then he pointed a claw at Hugh. “From my persspective, you’re lucky. You get to sshapesshift into whatever you want whenever you want. I am a proud member of the River Reptillianss, but some dayss it’ss hard to remember that.”

Alon left shortly after, but not without thanking Hugh. “I feel better after being able to talk it out with you. Thankss for lisstening.”

Hugh however didn’t really feel like he’d done anything. However he did feel like he had learnt something.

Indeed, he had purposefully chose this form as a pale human. Sure it was at first just his default self, but over time he noticed that pale humans faced the least amount of friction in terms of race, especially in the North. Janiga City, although touting itself as a place where the ten races of Izgaea could gather, was still a city in Northern Izgaea. Furthermore, because it’s doors are open to everyone, that means there’s a lot of different characters in the city. Especially those who have been raised all their lives in the North.

Hugh gave it some thought. Was there something he could do to help Alon?

Probably not. Hugh was only one person - someone without influence or charisma. Sure, he was the aide of a member of the Gawain family, but he knew that only the people themselves could choose to change. No one, even the king, could change the mind of people who stick stubbornly to their beliefs.

Still, that didn’t sit well with Hugh.

After cleaning up the tea set, Hugh decided that maybe he could talk it out with someone.