The change (I)

Things had quieted down for the past week. The number of items that she had to handle in the Dragon Express Field Operation had declined. She had specifically hired more people to assist her in the management as she couldn't do everything herself. She made a second office inside the Gold Phoenix guild, allowing a larger amount of new traffic of both Players and Natives, asking to join.

It has been a bountiful day as the stream of people came in large numbers. Since yesterday, Snow was able to break herself free from the turbulent workload and actually have time for herself. If it wasn't working one minute, it was practicing to keep her body fit on her own time.

A struggle she battled every day.

With a drink in hand, Snow sat out on the bench outside the new Gold Phoenix building. She was in a small park that was created near the entrance. It was a beautiful little garden as it had a mermaid fountain in the middle, which Snow couldn't help but think it looked a lot like Heather.

She had a feeling someone inside the guild was a secret admirer of Heather, which she didn't mind. Many of the males had gone explicitly in search for Heather, which she had all denied. As far as she knew, there wasn't a single guy in Heather's mind.

As if summoned by just a meer thought, Heather bounded forward. Her red hair trailing behind her like fire and with a goofy smile. In her hands were two ice cream cones as she lapped up one for herself.

"Snooooooowwwww~" Heather came over, handing her one ice cream.

Snow reached out, thanking her.

"You know, I thought the ice cream would have melted if I didn't find you." Heather sat over next to her. She hungrily tore up the ice cream joyfully, leaving Snow a bit taken aback by the ferocious sweet tooth.

When she was done, she eyed Snow's own ice cream with a bit pitiable eyes. Snow barely even took a lick as she just handed it back.

Heather squealed, snatching it out of her hand and gobbling it up like it was water. She smacked her lips a few times, taking it in with a satisfied sigh.

"That was delicious." Heather was leaning back on the bench. She tapped her stomach. "I would have gotten a third one if I could, but I don't have any extra hands."

"You ate mine too, and you want another one?" Snow shook her head at her friend's lust for sweets.

"Yea, why not?"

Snow leaned back, taking a sip of her drink. "Nothing. Just asking."

"If you say so."

For a moment, silence persisted. Snow spoke, "You know, that fountain looks like you." She pointed out, a bit stupified by the way she started the conversation. Usually, they would have hit it off without any problem, but today it was a lot more complicated than before.

"You mean that horrible depiction of a mermaid?" Heather pointed towards the fountain.

"It's not that bad."

Heather scoffed at the work. "Mike had specifically ordered it."

In surprise, Snow snapped her head towards her, baffled in what she just heard. To hear that Mike had a hand in wanting a mermaid for the fountain was something that she didn't see ever. The tension between the two was on and off that one would have thought that they were mortal enemies one day or best friends the other.

"Yea, he said to go model for a personal fountain to put for the garden. I got paid and all, but I think I look better."

"I see….though I got to ask, are there male mermaids?"

It is a known fact that mermaids are all females, and so far, Snow had never seen a male mermaid before. Honestly, she had a speculation that there were no male mermaids at all.

Heather said, "No. Where did you get that crazy idea?"

"Just curious."

"Well," Heather stretched her arms. "Mermaids can actually change the sex on the partners they decide to be with. Just like how some fish or lizards can switch from one gender to the next, we can only change once in our lifetime. All Mermaids are born female, though."

Such information was enlightening.

"Have you found your partner yet?" Snow curiously asked. Even though they have been friends for a very long time, there were certain things that she never fully understood about her.

"Well," Heather's voice trailed off a bit before she cleared it up. "I did in the past, but he left me for some other girl. Now, I'm staying single for a very long time. Plus, I'm in the process of self-improvement, so I have no time for a companion."

Heather didn't seem phased at all. She just blew it off as if it was like any other man she had dated.

"Also, Mike was going to be a few more artwork pieces that he bought as well for the business, which I'm not sure why he didn't put your face instead."

Snow chuckled, "I've been going through some photoshoots, meetings, and even came on a couple of commercials, Heather. You can take the rest of the modeling for me as I'm not into such things."

"Really? I thought all humans like fame and fortune." Heather was confused by her friend's words.

"Yea, after dying once, I think there are other things more important to me than being the center of attention. If it comes, it comes." Snow shrugged. "Has there been anything interesting I should know about that isn't work-related?"

Heather thought for a moment, trying to figure out what she could say. In an instant, she clapped her hands together. "Mr. Rogers might partake in the dungeon dive."

"Wait, you serious?" Snow was surprised by her words. Mr. Rogers barely even moved except to party or party some more. The number of debauchery types of parties was his forte with having a feast of blood from the humans at the same time.

"Well, it's just a rumor." Heather shrugged her shoulder, "Plus, I wouldn't really count on that information because it did come from Lily."

Snow went silent. She had wondered what had happened to Lily since the last time she had punched her in the face.

With a bit of hesitation, Snow asked, "Where has Lily been?"

Lily groaned with the question that was asked. She threw a small little tantrum and followed it with a deep sigh that told Snow that she wasn't too pleased with Lily's name. "She somehow escaped her way out of the dungeon and went back to work last month. What is worse is that she took over our old store as a manager."

"Oh, wow…" Snow couldn't believe that the higher up would hire her. "Really?"

"Yea. I know. I wouldn't dare want to step inside that store again." Lily slapped the side of the bench. "I already heard that it has been changed to some form of strip club at how she's running things." She gagged.

Lily was the type to make things a bit too provocative, especially because she was a succubus. It was bound to happen when she was given reign to take over the store.

"What happened to Mr. Jay? I thought he was supposed to be running things there."

"Well, that's the thing, he got fired."

"What?!"

Mr. Jay wasn't a bad manager. He was stingy most of the time, but he was considered the best when it came to managing skills. To hear that he was fired made Snow wonder who or what pulled such a crazy move without a good reason.

"Yea, I know."

"That's crazy. Mr. Jay was the perfect manager even though he gets greedy for money."

"They said he was doing fraudulent activities with the books."

Snow gaped. She couldn't refute anything about that as it was a known fact by everyone that he loves money. But he was a stickler about the money coming in and out of the Dragon Express. Even Snow had seen his calculations and went over quite a few times as he was the type to triple check things.

"Do you really think he did that?" Snow asked, wondering if Heather believed wholeheartedly in the rumors. Something did smell a bit off.

"No," Heather said with confidence.

Snow slowly nodded, agreeing with Heather's thoughts, "He prides himself as a manager of the Dragon Express, not blatantly, of course."

"I agree. He built that store from the ground up, and it has been over a few hundred years as the manager anyways. It would be a bit odd if he started stealing from his store."

Heather raised her eyebrow, "I honestly think there might be more to it than we think. There is no way that Lily gets chosen for a manager without some kind of underhanded tactic. She sucks at managing. You and I know this."

Snow silently agreed with her friend. It was a known fact in their store that when it came to management, Heather was a lousy leader. "Well, why don't we go check it out."

"You mean now?"

"Yea. I want to know how much it has changed."

Heather was speechless as a smile slowly crept up her face. "Let's go, partner." She snapped up, showing her arm for Snow to grab on. "We got some….fun to go too."

Snow smugly got up. She straightened herself, looking straight ahead, she slinked her hand around Heathers. "I'm behind you sister. Let's go see what trouble we can cause." She winked.

"Hey, now, don't get too ahead of yourself." Heather nudged her. "We need to be classy and gentle."

"Right…" Snow rolled her eyes at Heather. The definition of classy and gentle when it came to Heather, and her was thrown out the window when things got nasty. She instead just saw the regular Heather in an excellent civilized manner than the thug-like appearance Heather somehow turned into.

"Don't worry," Heather pulled her forward. "Everything is going to be alright."