Krystal and Sierra's senses were overwhelmed as they entered the shop. The croaking of frogs, the wafting of incense, and the bubbling of pots of eerie brews greeted the hairy girls as they made their way to the counter. Once there, they found a raven-haired with a youthful face and ancient eyes waiting for them.
The woman smiled slightly. "Ah, Krystal Brock and Sierra Belville. Welcome."
Sierra flinched. "You know us?!"
"We have never met," said the woman, "And yet I know you, for I am Circe the Sorceress. I am the daughter the sun god of Helios and the nymph Perse. I am the sometime lover of Odysseus. It was I who transformed Scylla into a sea monster and King Picus into a woodpecker. Foreseeing your arrival in my shop was but a trivial matter."
"Okaaaay..." said Krystal. "Pretty weird."
"Only to a mind too small to comprehend it," said Circe, suppressing a chuckle. She surveyed Krystal's hairy face and Sierra's mane and furry arms. "I would have thought you would be used to miracles by now. It seems Meadow Larkin has been most generous with her gift. Most lovely work. I especially adore your mane, Sierra."
Sierra smiled and blushed. "Thanks, Mrs. Circe."
"Just 'Circe' is fine," said Circe. "The 'Mrs.' part makes me sound like an old lady. I am, but that's beside the point. As far as I'm concerned, you're as old as you feel, and I still have a good few millennia of life left in me."
Krystal cut in. "Anyways, I want–"
"–to turn your dirty blonde hair green and no longer have to resort to dyes. Yes, Krystal, I know all about your purpose for visiting my humble establishment. Yes, I think green hair would suit you, and perhaps violet skin to go with it."
"So you can really fucking do it?" asked Krys, raising her prodigious unibrow.
"Of course," said Circe. "A simple change of pigmentation is almost a parlor trick. I could do such things when I was ten years old. Excuse me, ladies."
Circe vanished into an aisle and returned with a tray filled with colorful jars labeled "Circe's Rainbow Bath Powders." Sierra sniffed the air. Oddly, the contents of the jars smelled like colors. Sierra had no idea how her brain knew what "blue" or "red" smelled like, but it instinctively did.
"Behold my own personal line of pigment reprogrammers!" Circe declared. "They come in all colors of the rainbow, and they can be used for hair..."
Circe held up a jar labeled "Neon Green – for hair."
"... or skin."
She displayed another jar labeled "African Violet – for skin."
"All you have to do is add about a fourth of a cup of powder into a cotton tea bag and allow the bath water to run through it into the bathtub," Circe went on. "I am quite confident your friend Meadow owns a cotton tea bag. She strikes me as a tea drinker, and I can't see her choosing convenience over buying natural. Be sure to completely submerge the part you're coloring in the infused bath water. And yes, you can combine a hair powder with a skin powder. The magic is clever enough to find its way to its target. Oh, and each jar is $4.99 in your modern American money."
"Great!" said Sierra, taking out her checkbook. "We'll take one of each color for hair AND skin." Her mind was flooding with fantasies of herself with skin as red as her mane, as if she were some sort of fire spirit.
"Excellent purchase," Circe smiled. "You won't be sorry. Good thing, too. No refunds, I'm afraid."