The clinic lobby was deserted, with the exception of Azizi, the clinic’s six-eyed receptionist. It had a homey, yet sterile feel to it. Instead of your typical hospital chairs, there were big sofas that you’d find at your grandparents house. There was a bookshelf, atop it a fake fish tank nightlight and some knickknacks. The coffee table had some magazines from the cities to the south and the ones to the north. And of course there were pictures of the ridge behind the town hung up on the wall and some stars. Though the doors were a bit wider and taller, and the lights maybe a bit softer even if the sun was dying outside. The radio was turned to a station that almost exclusively played music reminiscent of the kind played on the local weather channel, with occasional weather update thrown in every now and then.

Sat at the front desk was Azizi, his ice blue eyes scanning the pages of a well-loved, emerald green hardcover book with gold eyes decorating it. His posture was relaxed, his form half-curled into the oddly shaped black swivel chair with his legs propped up on a stool underneath the desk. Azizi took a moment to scratch his rose red goatee, moving the same hand to tuck one of his stray locs that hadn’t made it into the messy bun atop his head behind his ear. He was dressed in a pair of black slip-on tennis shoes, an ivory scrub top with the Woeridge Clinic’s logo embroidered onto the top left part of the chest, a pair of forest green sweatpants, and a baby blue undershirt. There was a braided, silver ring on his left hand that he couldn’t help but fidget with as he continued to read.

The man sighed, glancing up at the clock next to him with his top two eyes while keeping the other four trained on his book. It was somewhere around 6:30 PM. Despite the clinic not being busy outside of tourist season, since there were a little over a dozen residents in Woeridge who came into the clinic maybe once every week or two, they didn’t close until 8:00 PM. Azizi didn’t mind it, but sometimes he wished something exciting would happen every once in a while. Not an emergency exactly, but just something to spice up his slightly boring shifts other than his books and the radio.

So when Mark, Eggie, and Reraik suddenly burst through the front doors of the clinic and immediately collapsed on the nearest couch in what Azizi could only describe as a “gay little pile of chaos” (with the only exception being the fact that Mark took a moment to set a basket on the coffee table before collapsing into a little ball on the couch), he couldn’t help but snort out a laugh. Though Azizi’s amusement was short lived, noticing that the group’s breathing was ragged, each of them attempting to gulp down lungs of air as fast as they could. Azizi frowned. He could only assume they had been running from somewhere farther away from the clinic than the residential district. The man sighed, turning his head to the back of the clinic.

“Hey! Lottie!” Azizi said, his voice not quite a yell but definitely loud enough to be heard by whoever was in the back, “You might want to bring a couple of those sports drinks we have in the fridge out to the lobby.”

Lottie popped her head out from the door that led to the desk, her head tilted in confusion.

“What do you mean by-”

Azizi jabbed a thumb at the three who were still catching their breath, but lazily waved at the nurse.

“Oh!” Lottie said, then quickly scrambled out from behind the front desk. Azizi rolled his eyes, then looked back down at his book. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the trio on the couch, which he did, it’s just that he wasn’t good at keeping conversations and figured he’d let them relax rather than talking to them.

Lottie practically ran out into the lobby through the patient entrance not a moment later, carrying three big bottles of Perspire Restore. A clear, vaguely citrus flavored sports drink popular in v̴̧̨̛̹̥̗̜͚̟̳̦̰̺͔̼̤̜͂̉͗̓̎̄̒̊̃̍̕̚͝ȯ̴̡̨̱̙͓͕͚̓̍i̴̡̲̙͙͎͓̟̜̹̼͔̊̀̃d̷̢͔̱̱̥͔̗̭̝̲̀́̔̋͌̏̍͊.  with a blue and white label that was easier to find in the warmer cities of v̴̧̨̛̹̥̗̜͚̟̳̦̰̺͔̼̤̜͂̉͗̓̎̄̒̊̃̍̕̚͝ȯ̴̡̨̱̙͓͕͚̓̍i̴̡̲̙͙͎͓̟̜̹̼͔̊̀̃d̷̢͔̱̱̥͔̗̭̝̲̀́̔̋͌̏̍͊.  than the colder ones.

“Here, drink, now.” Lottie demanded, opening each bottle before handing one to each of the three strung on the couch.

Lottie was the clinic’s nurse, donning a scrub top similar to Azizi alongside a pair of black slacks, pink and white sneakers, a black undershirt, and a black and white frilly choker. She looked much like an axolotl, with pink skin and a set of six antennae that looked much similar to an axolotl’s external gills. Her inky black eyes were rather large, round and shiny like the bead eyes of a stuffed animal. 

Lottie’s four, partially webbed fingers flexed as her short tail flicked from side to side behind her as she studied the group. Reraik dry heaved for a moment, then took a large swig of his drink. Eggie practically chugged hers, and Mark shakily started taking a few sips while being half slumped against the arm of the couch. The axolotl shook her head, sighing.

“Doc is in the back talking with Boh’ in the back right now.” Lottie explained, crossing her arms as she swayed from side to side, “But she did want to talk with you three before you left, so I advise drinking those and staying a bit.”

Azizi glanced back up at the group, noting that they were trembling slightly, “Do you three want some like, saltines or graham crackers? Fruit snacks?”

“IthinkI’llvomitifIeatanythingbutthankyou’zizi.” Mark said, his knees drawn up to his chest as he shakily held his sports drink against him.

“Yes please.” Reraik said in between light pants.

“I will literally devour anything you give me right now.” Eggie said, coughing as she lowered her drink.

Azizi hummed, pulling open a drawer and rummaging through it for a moment before tossing a few things to Lottie, “Catch.”

Lottie’s antennae perked up and she quickly caught a pack of orange energy jelly, a pack of brownie energy bites, and a pack of car shaped fruit snacks. She distributed the snacks, giving Reraik the jelly, Eggie the brownie bites, and, despite Mark saying he didn’t want a snack, he took the fruit snacks anyway with a little ‘thank you’.

Lottie looked over to Azizi, opening her mouth to say something, and nearly jumped seeing Dr. Lishani standing next to the desk. Azizi seemed unbothered, merely holding up a hand as the Doctor handed him a clipboard. The woman looked toward the group with a raised brow.

“Goose?” Lishani asked.

“Goose.” The trio confirmed in unison, nodding once in sync as they sunk deeper into the couch.

Dr. Lishani was about a head or so taller than Reraik. With deep brown curls that were barely a few centimeters long, tightly coiled against her head and angled sharply alongside an ash brown stripe that shot through the top left part of her hair. Her emerald eyes were narrow, sharp and focused. To those meeting her for the first time, one would assume that she was angry, or perhaps disappointed, based on her almost permanent frown and knitted brows. Her uniform was different than Lottie and Azizi’s, though not by much. Lishani wore a long-sleeved, high collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the clinic’s logo on her left breast. Her shirt was tucked into a pair of black slacks, which were themselves tucked into a pair of tall, deep grey work boots. 

Lishani sighed heavily, but didn’t say anymore as she made her way over. She looked over the three, tilting her head curiously, making sure none of them had any injuries. Once satisfied that they were uninjured, she turned her attention to the basket, gently picking it up.

“I take that you managed to gather all 45?”

Reraik looked up to his mother, nodding as he took a sip of his drink, “Mhm, made sure they were genuine and everything too.”

“I got the last one!” Eggie suddenly shouted, then pinned her ears down in embarrassment, “It’s uh, the one on top of the stack.”

Mark gave Lishani a thumb’s up, backing up the claims of his cohorts silently as he continued munching on his snacks.

Lishani nodded, letting out a hum of approval as she lifted the basket up, “Good.” The giantess glanced between Lottie and Azizi, “Updates?”

Lottie cleared her throat, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly as she looked up at her, “Beeboh’s vitals were normal last I checked. Their Ketorolac IV took a while too kick in, but I gave them a couple of warm blankets to ease the pain and they’re currently sleeping.”

Azizi glanced up at the giantess with his top set of eyes, the other two sets focused on the clipboard and computer in front of him, “Teshalu said they’d be here as soon as they can to help Beeboh home, apparently they got swamped with some visitors at the Bistro last minute.”

Lishani nodded again, digesting the information silently as she inspected the contents of the eye daisy basket. The group watched as the giantess lifted up the electric blue eye daisy, rubbing a thumb gently on its petals. There was a glint of something in her eyes that they couldn’t read.

“Mother?” Reraik asked, his voice tinged with slight worry, “Is there something wrong?”

Lishani let out a hum, “This one is blue.”

“Uh… are eye daisies not supposed to be blue?” Lottie asked, tilting her head.

The giantess glanced down at the younger woman, a brow raised, “You tell me.”

The group seemed taken aback by the doctor’s answer, looking at one another in confusion. 

“Well, eye daisies have been known to come in almost every natural eye color.” Reraik started, his words slow as he thought about the question, “Though they seem to most commonly have brown eyes, which are the most common eye color in people.”

Lottie knitted her brows together, “So…?”

“Blue eyes are rare.”

The group jolted at the sound of Azizi’s voice, quickly turning their attention to him. The six eyed man had two eyes trained on the clipboard Lishani had handed him, two on his laptop, and two on the scene in the lobby. The man cleared his throat, pausing his work briefly to give the group his full attention.

“Blue eyes are, statistically speaking, very rare in people.” Azizi repeated, glancing to the side, “It would only make sense for it to be the same in eye daisies.”

“But eye daisies aren’t like regular eyes?” Mark said, his head tilted and a rather confused look on his face as Azizi went back to his work, “People eyes are based on like, genetics people get from their parents and stuff. Eye daisies are plants. They’re based on… uh...”

“Actually, the color of a plant is determined by their genetics.” Reraik clarified, looking over at the monitor, “With flowers, it’s based on their various flavonoids. But that can be influenced by other parts of the plant’s DNA, like-”

“Like Eugenol?” Mark asked.

“Yes- like Eugenol- which when extracted from eye daisies has an electric blue… pigment…” Reraik trailed off, eyes widening as it suddenly clicked, “That’s an eye daisy with high levels of Eugenol.”

The group let out a collective “oh” of sudden understanding, while Lishani’s let out an affirmative grunt.

“Correct.” She said, gently setting the eye daisy back in the basket, “Though Eugenol is typically a pale yellow, other properties within the eye daisy make it blue.”

Lottie bounced up and down next to the doctor, trying to peer into the basket, “Do you want me to extract the Eugenol from it and make notes before we prepare it for Boh’s meds with the rest of the daisies?”

Lishani knitted her brows, studying the basket a moment longer before turning her attention to the shorter woman. She seemed to hesitate, then let out a affirming grunt as a response, handing the basket to the axolotl carefully.

“Prepare it, but do not start the process.” The doctor said, setting a hand on Lottie’s head, “I would like to extract it with you.” 

Lottie nodded, grinning up at Lishani before looking over at Eggie, Mark, and Reraik as she turned to leave, “I’ll see you guys later!”

The trio gave Lottie a thumbs up, watching her nearly rush out of the room, her tail wagging in excitement. Lishani sighed, rolling her shoulders and glancing over to the group on the couch.

“You did… good.” Lishani said, nodding in approval as she turned to follow the nurse, “Rest as you need. Each of your compensations will arrive by mail tomorrow morning.”

The group nodded wearily, melting deeper into the couch with a sigh.