Now that she knew who she was, it was time to find her phone. But, she did not even know what the phones on this world looked like.
"Hey, you." She waved at her hand at the robotic assistant. "Do you know where my phone is? The thing that is used to make phone calls and send messages."
"I know what a phone is, Sienna and yours is just beneath your pillow." It replied.
Sienna moved slowly, because she was yet to gain complete control over this new body. From under the pillows, she retrieved something shaped like an oversized strawberry with two fox ears on top in a sleeping position. It was odd!
She raised it to her face and it scanned automatically. The ears stood up with a pop and the screen came to life. A dozen messages in the shape of seeds were waiting to be read.
She touched the screen with a hesitant finger and it worked just like a smart phone from earth. "At least that is easy," she murmured.
All the texts were entertainment companies, rejecting Sienna. The wording was different but similar, she did not match their preferred image for anything media related.
There was a video message from her mother, talking about her twelve year old brother. He had just taken a gene test and passed with flying colors because he had A rank mental strength.
At the age of twelve, every child on the beast man content was summoned to the Gene Hall for the test. There was only one in every city. This test was both ritual and science, designed to measure the strength of mind and body and most importantly, to reveal whether the child carried the coveted beast gene.
Sienna searched online for the test. The Gene Hall had shared videos of the most outstanding children from the tests in this year. The process was simple: Children step into the glowing chamber, where holographic beasts circled overhead. Their pulse, aura and spirit were scanned, and the results appeared instantly on the great ranking pillar.
Scores ranged from SSS reserved for prodigies who could shake the stars, down through A,B,C,D,E, and finally F, the mark of fragility.
But there was a fate worse than F. Some children emerged with no rank at all. They were born without the beast gene. All of them were like Sienna, born without fangs, claws or furry ears! No beast traits of any kind at all. Most of them were sent to academies in the Lost-born city where they would be offered permanent residence.
Sienna too, despite being the wife of a Fox Lord, was a temporary resident in Clawspire city.
It seemed like her brother Soren Miller was luckier than her. She scrolled through the photo gallery and found pictures of the boy. He had the same curly black hair as her, a bright smile and a spark in his golden eyes which had manifested after the gene test. He was a bird beast man.
"Do you have plans to take a bath today?" The robotic assistant rolled over with a question. "You don't smell very pleasant."
She winced, pulled herself up slowly and then took slow steps, following the machine. A part of the wall slid open, revealing the bath chamber. There was a large tub in the room, a sink, mirror and toilet. All were largely spaced away from each other.
All the instructions that followed came from the machine, as if it knew that her mind was as empty as an infant's. Sienna stepped in the tub, very cautiously. She had never seen water like this before. It glowed with liquid light, a warm pool that shimmered between colors--sometimes silver, sometimes blue.
For the first time since arriving in this confusing world, she felt clean, free, renewed, almost reborn. She tapped the pop up screen. "System, let's talk now. Explain what you are and what you do."
The system's lay out presented. It reminded her of a pet taming and farming game she used to play back on earth. She loved it because she was allergic to fur but greatly in love with all things furry. Cats, dogs, sheep, foxes, monkeys--all things furry! But, her allergy did not allow her to adopt or spend more than five minutes in a zoo.
So, she raised some animals in a game, built a pet shelter and spent more money on her fictional pets than clothes for herself.
"So this is where the cheat came from." she muttered.
[Host, in this world strength is measured mentally or physically. Since you lack a beast gene, I will help you through the shared skills feature.
The more points you make from taming and raising your pets, the more you can use their skills for yourself. Easy peasy.]
Sienna sat up. "Does this mean if I tame and raise Elias, I will have the mental strength equal to an SSS tier rank fox?"
[Yes.]
"And I can raise more than one pet?"
[Yes.]
"So, if I can have both mental and physical strength?" Her eyes bulged.
[Yes.]
Sienna squealed. This was perhaps the first good news she had heard since arriving here.
[Mission One: Obedience protocol.
Objective: Teach your bound pet the simple command: Sit
Reward: Dual-Compatible Nourishment. Food suitable for weight loss and good for beast men too.]
The rewards and benefits were very tempting. So much so that she decided to go downstairs and meet her husband. Going downstairs took her thirty minutes. She avoided using the easy automatic steps which had been put in for her. They worked just like an escalator.
Instead, she used normal stairs, taking one at a time. By the time she reached the dining area, she had worked up a sweat.
The house was still as strange as could be, with technology she could not make sense of. According to the history of this beast continent which she looked up on the phone, most of the technology was the work of non beast men. Through this, they had proven their usefulness in the last century.
As she walked, Sienna could hear the chuckles of some mean maids and she tuned them out. They did not matter more than her goals and her current goal was Elias. He was sitting at the table, with his parents, two brothers, one sister and two children. Other than her mother-in-law who had red fox ears, everyone else had white ones.
The moment Elias' eyes met hers from across the room, Sienna flinched. This did not stop her from reaching the table and pulling out a chair for herself across from him.
Everyone stopped eating immediately. The steaks and potatoes were left to cool off.
"What are you here for?"
Elias's words were like a bullet fired from a gun. His eyes were devoid of warmth.
The others exchanged glances, asking themselves the same question.
"Why can't I be here?" Sienna questioned back. "Today is our wedding anniversary. Have you forgotten?"
She had found the date marked off in the calendar on the phone. The original Sienna had even asked the maids to prepare a grand candlelight dinner but nobody had bothered to do so. In this house, she was not respected at all.
Elias threw the divorce decree at her. "This is your gift, sign it."
Sienna's lips curled upwards, she waved it around, smiling slyly. "I can consider signing it, but you need to do a few things for me."
People sneered, some laughed in contempt. They all expected her to ask for money.
"How much?" Elias asked.
Sienna shook her head. "This is easier than that and it will not cost much, you just need to obey a few of my commands. Let's start with the easiest one. Sit!"