Ryn of Avonside

Transferring Grace and her flower into my grove after Ollinfer had left went well. I was somewhat worried about it going wrong. Within my grove I had her floating in midair with me as I ordered the buns to use some of the now dried out gourds to carry a ton of dirt up and into one of the greenhouses. I had no idea how long she could stay out of the ground for, and my bunnies picked up on that urgency, rushing up and down the stairs tirelessly.

I wanted to put Grace in the greenhouse rather than outside because I didn’t want her to get damaged by any weather that might hit. I had no idea how frequent those big storms were, or how they would effect Grace’s flower as she grew and changed within it.

I was already missing her too, we’d been constant companions for weeks now, and I was feeling that hole beside me keenly. I wished that she’d stopped for two seconds during that whole encounter and just… listened to me.

My subconscious mind hadn’t even really figured out that she was totally gone yet, that I’d have to wait a week or more until I could see her again. There hadn’t been a proper goodbye, just… this.

Still, I couldn’t find it in my heart to be upset with her, even though I probably had more than enough reason to be. She’d moved fast to take advantage of an opportunity, and she’d done it for me… for us. Who knew how long Ollinfer’s deal would’ve been on offer?

It took several hours for the buns to cart all the spoil up, but while they did that, I shaped a divot into the wood where two large branches met. The hole had to be deep enough for the roots to spread out, but not too big, or it would weaken the branches.

Around the new planter, I created raised flowerbeds, where I planted water-creating flowers. The water would then flow down special channels and into the main hole — but only at a trickle.

Then, it was time to carefully lower Grace's flower into its new home, being careful to pack soil in with it as I went. No fertiliser was needed, since grove soil was always absolutely perfect for every plant. There was a reason I kept talking about the quality of the loam in my grove.

With the task of planting Grace done, I found myself at a loss for what to do next. I could work on my grove, sure… but I was also feeling kinda depressed, which severely cut into my motivation. Perhaps a bath, then bed? I was dead tired after all — we’d been planning to go to sleep when we tried to get into my grove the first time. Deciding on that course of action, I wandered down to the bath.

Taking my clothes off would never cease to be an almost divine experience, given my previous battles with dysphoria.

My pants came off first, revealing my long, elegant legs, the skin perfect and smooth with a slight shine on my shins. Next was my top, leaving me standing in just my underwear, wide hips and thin waist on display. I looked down at myself and smiled, feeling that familiar little jolt of rightness. This was how I was meant to be.

My bath was a long one, the warmth lulling me into a doze that eventually forced me to stumble up and into bed, or risk sleeping there in the bath. I wrapped myself in Grace’s blanket instead of mine, because it smelled like her and that gave me comfort. Then I invited the buns up to sleep on the bed with me, which they happily did, encircling me in warm fluffy bodies that helped just a little to alleviate the loneliness that was already settling into me.

The next day saw me working on the greenhouse that Grace was in, because it felt good to be in proximity to her, even if she was inside the flower. I planted tomatoes, bananas, oranges and various other fruits and veges that liked the warmth of a greenhouse.

I also decided to work on the house tree some more. My stint in the bath last night had me realising that if I moved the water outlet just a meter and a half higher on the wall, I’d basically have a shower. I just had to make a few slight adjustments…

Down in the bathroom, I edited the plans of the tree to move the outlet up, using my own growth energy to move it, since it was a relatively small task. I went further though and completely covered the hole with a layer of wood. With that done, I carefully summoned one of my spells. It was the one I’d made with my own colours in mind.

Six small magenta blades of light swirled into being before me, hovering in midair. They were barely larger than a throwing knife, but with one important distinction, I could move them with my mind. So that’s what I did, testing my control, I swung them this way and that, twirling them about myself as gracefully as I could manage.

It was fun watching them dart about the room under my direction, and pretty soon I was having little dogfights with the things. They swooped at each other, dodging and twisting and flickering through the air at speed. Oh yeah, this spell was going to be incredible. For now though, they were going to be used as a tool.

With playtime over, I directed them up to the covered water outlet and proceeded to spin them. I used the spinning blades to drill holes in the wood, until I had water pouring out in a spray, just like a shower. When I was done, I stood there and grinned, feeling pretty damn pleased with myself.

I went through and did all the baths this way, finishing the task with a huge chunk of the day still to go. What the hell else could I do? Wait, why not try turning the wood downstairs into something usable with my blades? I’d need a bigger blade, which meant I needed a new spell.

I spent the afternoon working on a spell that would allow me to cut the logs into usable planks and beams. It was harder than I thought, because I needed a lot of heft and weight behind the blades in order to cut through the logs.

Eventually I got something that might work as the sun dipped below the horizon and I quickly tested it on one of the logs from storage. It worked pretty well, although the amount of mental effort it took to drive the blade all the way down a log had me panting and covered in sweat. I really should've made a saw.

The next morning was spent slowly cutting the logs into usable pieces, although without my pet nuke, frequent rests in the sun were required. I really needed to get some tools for the buns so that I didn’t have to do this myself. They would probably be far better at it too, as I was really messing up some of the cuts I was making.

Deciding that cutting logs up all day would suck, I swapped to making spells for the rest of the day, in between snacking on fruit and checking on Grace’s flower. My boredom and loneliness produced many spells, from one to warm up a cup of liquid, to creating a little floating light, and I even tried my hand at making a spell that would play music. That last one went horribly wrong and had my ears ringing for like ten minutes afterwards. I shelved the idea for later.

Day three saw me back with the logs, but this time with a purpose in mind. I’d decided that I needed a front door, and that required me to cut some logs up into big beams. Originally, the plan was to wait until we could get some big, sturdy metal hinges. However, the boredom had lent me time to think, and I’d figured out a way to construct the huge door without needing to resort to the use of metal.

The doorway itself was arched, so first I needed to create the two halves of the door with solid rectangles of wood that I would then cut a curve into, to fit the arch. Briefly, I considered being lazy and growing a big ass slab of wood for each half, but that didn’t fit with the aesthetics I had in mind. I wanted a mix between the organic growth of my magic and the rustic woodworking feel of a hobbit-hole. In the future, I’d also like to add a whole lot of wrought iron around the tree to complete the aesthetic.

First, I needed some glue, which I achieved by collecting some pine sap from a few trees I grew for the purpose. Then I melted it in a bowl we’d yoinked from the lab and mixed it with some charcoal. I had to thank past-me for one fateful night of YouTube procrastination for this idea. I even remembered that the video recommended fresh sap for it to work properly, and that you couldn’t allow the sap to boil or the glue would be ruined.

With the glue ready and the chunky beams of wood all cut and ready, I bored holes in them at regular intervals up their lengths, then pinned them together with wooden pegs and the glue I made.

Even with magic to help me, it was slow, messy work that saw my dainty little hands covered in gross black goop, but in the end I was looking proudly down at a pair of big-ass doors. I was a city girl no longer! Okay, so maybe that proclamation was slightly ambitious, but still.

Now, I just had to somehow get all this glue off my hands… Damn.

I raided Grace’s pack for soap that allowed me to wash all the gunk off my hands, then went off to check on her while the doors dried. I wandered about my greenhouse with a frown. Maybe I could plant some flowers and stuff up here, pretty things for Grace to find when she popped out of her flower.

I planted a bunch of different spell flowers, I had quite a few silly little mundane spells now, including a small fire starting one that I’d used earlier. Finally having the time to fuck around with magic had led to me actually building a nice little repertiore of cantrips. Day three ended with me back in bed and surrounded by buns.

The next morning I mucked around with spells again until a full twenty four hours had passed since I’d worked on the door so the glue had time to set a little. The whole door would probably need reinforcing or even replacing with something sturdier later on, but for now it would work.

Using my telekinesis to float the still rectangular doors up into position, I then summoned just a single hard light blade to score them along where I needed to cut. With the marks done, I carefully carved at my big doors with the larger blade until they would fit neatly into their doorframe. Which left one rather important problem to solve. How in the hell was I going to make a hinge?

Well, standing on the backs of countless carpenters before me, I went simple — a pole mounted on the side of each door and then holes in the floor and upper doorway. Together, the poles and holes would form a very rudimentary hinge, allowing it to rotate. It would be tough as hell to push open and closed by hand. However, if I could turn a two storey tall monster to paste with my mind, a heavy gate shouldn't be a stretch. With a shrug, I got to work pinning, glueing and locking a pole into place on each half of the door.

I carefully carved the poles and door to slot together in a way that would keep the door from just breaking off the hinge, adding supports widthways across the doors in the process. The whole thing was enormous, bulky and not altogether what I’d wanted when I set out to do this, but it had been fun to figure out. Of course, actually mounting the doors would have to wait until the next morning when the second round of glue had dried.

My satisfied mood — gained after a day of hard work and successful problem solving — didn’t last all the way to bed. Just four days into the week-long wait, and I was missing Grace desperately. I’d gotten used to having her next to me — ready to talk and joke with. Now that she was gone, I was aimless and lost — drifting from task to task like a wraith, trying to fill the hole in my heart with busywork. How had Esra spent years alone in her grove like that? I’d have gone crazy.

Keeping busy was only good so long as I was busy, and when each day came to an end and my mind was free to wander, the loneliness came crashing back in. To make matters worse, her blanket was already starting to lose her smell, which had me pining for her that much more. Three days, I could make it through just three more days…

My resolve crumbled, as days spent living in my own head finally crushed me. Laying there in that bed with her scent fading from the blanket, I began to cry. I missed her so much. Three days seemed like an eternity.