Beneath the Underbite

The smell of clove oil and clean cotton? That was Lena Hanson's favorite perfume, way better than the super sweet or fake floral scents from back home. In her dental office, everything was polished, instruments gleamed, and every little detail showed just how neat and tidy she was. She was a dentist, and the world had, literally, opened up to a totally new, exciting reality for her! Dr. Lena Hanson didn't come to Summerset for the magic, nope. She wasn't here because of cool vampires or powerful witches. She came for the teeth! Her work in the human world had felt like a slow, boring slide for years. Day in, day out, it was the same old routine: fillings, cleanings, maybe a root canal once in a while. It was a well-worn path, and Lena, despite her calm demeanor, was itching for something new. Then, everything changed. The hidden world of magic popped right out into the open, and with it came a chance for a whole new kind of dentistry. She had always heard of werewolves and vampires coming out from the shadows, but she had never met one in person. It wasn’t until she was watching the political debate on TV, where she saw Mayor Kael shift into his half-wolf form at the request of the interviewer, that she realised there was a whole town of supernaturals out and living amongst the humans. While other humans freaked out or just whispered about the new creatures showing up, Lena's mind instantly jumped to their mouths. Did centaurs have human for horse teeth? Did a werewolf have the same teeth that shifted from human to wolf form or was it an entirely separate row of teeth? Did troll's have wild fangs like in her storybooks? The possibilities were endless! For a woman whose biggest passion was the amazing way mouths were built, it was a challenge she just couldn't say no to. Two years ago, after preparing for just over a year, she packed up her whole life in a bunch of neat boxes and moved to Summerset, a town right in the middle of all this new integration. She didn't arrive planning to be some big hero; she just wanted to be the best at what she did. And in a town suddenly full of all sorts of different mouths to check out, she really found her purpose. Her office, "Hanson Dental," was a mix of modern and charmingly old-fashioned. It was a small, quiet place tucked between a gnome's shoe shop and a siren's tea spot. This was where her carefully chosen instruments mixed with her growing pile of rare medical books, and where she truly felt at peace. Her new job was a perfect blend of science both old and new. She quickly became well-known. Her first year in Summerset was a blur of fascinating cases and late nights spent studying. She wrote down every little detail, from the unique jaw bones of a Fae to the surprisingly tough enamel on a werewolf's teeth. Her discoveries were amazing, and she put them all into her first book, a complete guide to the dental anatomy of humanoid species. It was a quiet hit in the academic and medical worlds, even getting her invites to speak at a few human and supernatural medical conferences. Her second book, a deeper dive into the tricky mouth structures of water and bird creatures, really solidified her reputation. It was a very specific field, but she'd made it her own with incredible focus. She'd earned the respect and friendship of some of Summerset's most impressive medical pros. The wise Centaur vet, who'd asked for her help with a really stubborn tooth infection in a young Hippogriff, became a close friend she could trust. The old Goblin medic, a grumpy but brilliant general doctor, shared his rare collection of herbal remedies and magical salves with her, in exchange for her insights on diseases of the mouth. Her office shelves were now overflowing with gifted medical textbooks, some in languages she was still trying to figure out, and each one showed just how much trust and respect she'd earned. Her personal life, though, was pretty much empty, a total blank slate compared to her work. She lived in a small, neat apartment right above her office, where she ate microwaved dinners and listened to medical podcasts while carefully cleaning her tools. Dating? That was a weird idea, a pointless time-waster she just couldn't justify. Her days were pretty much the same cycle: see patients, study, write, sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat! Her ambition burned so brightly, it didn't leave any room for anything else. She had tried dating a bit when she first moved to town—maybe a silly attempt to fit in. There were not as many humans in town as she expected and she quickly realized that complicated inter-species relationships were way harder than understanding a tooth. It was an interesting experiment, but not at all satisfying. For a while, she was so wrapped up in her work that she often went days without seeing anyone besides her patients and her receptionist, Clara, a super cheerful human woman. Clara, bless her heart, was always trying to get Lena to socialize a little. "Dr. Hanson," she'd say, tapping a finger on a shiny brochure for a local singles mixer. "Even the witches take a break to dance under the moonlight!" Lena would just smile, a polite, practiced smile, and go back to noting down her latest case study on a Dryad's unusually root-like tooth structure. The witches could dance, the vampires could hunt, the werewolves could howl. She'd be right here, in her chair, a bright light shining into the open mouth of a fascinating new world! Luckily she had met a surgeon at the local ER named Maya, who quickly became Lena’s best friend. Maya wouldn’t let Lena go more than two or three days without meeting her at the bar of a nightclub. Sometimes they vented about difficult medical cases, but mostly Lena would listen as Maya told her about whatever gossip she could get here ears into.