Chapter 23: 23: Lessons in Log Construction

When the others arrived in Pellan we really got stuck into the construction of the cabin. Liam, Col and Amra were sent off to find suitable nearby fallen trees, while Karen and I continued to collect rocks. Dana had the important task of locating a suitable source of lime. It was pretty important to the foundation of the structure, I was not aware of a different method I could use otherwise. The reason we are using fallen trees is because we need aged wood to build the cabin. Fallen trees have probably reached moisture equilibrium with the air around them and therefore will not warp or shrink like fresh wood as it ages.

We faced another problem soon, bringing the logs up the hill to be used in the cabin. We had to first clear a path up onto the top of the hill, then drag the logs up. It was slow going for the wood collection team. They tied rope around the logs and basically harnessed themselves to it, dragging each log up the hill with brute strength. If I’m totally honest, I think Liam did most of the work, he had heavily dumped points into his strength stat, so he was already on the stronger side of what human men were capable of. It wasn’t until Colourless realised we could use a crane to lift the logs up a cliff that their progress became somewhat more reasonable for our timeline. They created a very crude crane at the top of a sheer portion of the cliff face and used a large rock as a counterweight.

With the log team working as fast as they could using their inhuman stats and abilities, it was up to Dana to find a source of lime. She was out for most of a day before she came back with news. We gathered for a party meeting when she arrived at the construction site.

“So, I don’t think there’s any lime directly around here, at least from the description you gave,” she told me apologetically.

“Damn, I don’t know how we’re going to get the foundation done the way I’d like without it,” I said despondently.

We all stood there for several moments staring at the pile of rocks that we had collected in thought. It was Col who came up with the solution.

“Syl… do you know the melting temperature of stone?” he asked in an altogether too casual tone.

“I don’t know, it’s different for every type of stone, but with granite I’m going to estimate at least a thousand degrees celsius, probably much more though. Why…?” I asked in suspicion.

Col didn’t answer, he went over to our rock pile and picked up a medium sized stone. He walked a reasonable distance away and placed it on the ground.

Walking back over to us he said, “I got a new ability I’ve been wanting to test.”

“What does it do?” asked Dana with just as much suspicion as me.

“Let’s find out!” he exclaimed happily, leveling his staff at the rock.

With a rising hum that set my teeth on edge, the area before the head of his staff began to shimmer with waves of heat. A few moments later and we could see little crackling bolts of flame wisping around before his staff. Then all at once with a hum that was almost a roar, a beam of blisteringly bright energy shot out from his staff, striking the stone he had placed. It wasn’t over in a moment like you’d expect either, instead he was able to play his staff around for a second or two, partially melting the stone in two.

We stood in shock at the power he had just displayed, Col included.

“What the hell kind of ability was that?” asked Liam in awe.

“I don’t know, I just got offered it from a level up,” Col replied in a daze.

“What on earth… I want something like that!” I pouted.

“Can’t do that if you’re a healer,” he said with a huge grin.

“Well that’s just fuckin’ badass!” Liam said enthusiastically.

“That’s great! I’ll have to change how we put the cabin together a little bit but we can turn the rocks into some really strange mix between a padstone foundation and a stone wall foundation,” I said with relief.

“I’m going to pretend to know what those are while nodding sagely,” Amra said, nodding sagely.

I blew a raspberry at her.

We split to continue our tasks, but Col stayed with me while Dana and Karen left to help collect fallen trees. The two of us began work on the foundations, constructing small walls of rock and then fusing it all together with Col’s spell. It was slow going, as the charge time was several seconds long and took up a significant chunk of his mana pool. We had all the rocks piled on top of each other and lined up flat in a relatively short space of time, which left us with a lot of downtime while we waited for Col’s mana.

During one such time of inactivity, Col broached a sensitive subject, “So. It really was you I met that time in the woods right?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah… it was,” I said hesitantly.

“I mean, I guess I kind of understand why you didn’t say anything, but it was still a bit of a dick move. You’ve always like, been super anxious about things like that… but we were best friends,” he said sadly.

“Were?” I asked with a lump in my throat.

“I… don’t know anymore. Are we still best friends? You’ve barely talked to me since this all happened,” he said with a tone of slight accusation.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times while we gazed at each other, trying to figure out what to say.

After a long moment I spoke up in a whisper, “It’s been really crazy for me, it’s all happened so fast. You know I have moments where my mind hiccups when it sees my new body in a reflection? I’m still not settled in. I guess that’s not really an excuse. I should have come to you first. I would have… except you got a crush on me. I didn’t know how to handle it.”

“I don’t have a crush on you!” he exclaimed with eyes wide.

“Jeremy, I could see the group chats, I could see you talking about the cute girl you met,” I told him gently.

He stared at me in anger and worry for a while as he processed what I was saying.

“There’s nothing wrong with it dude! If it makes you feel better… ah, nevermind, I just don’t mind okay? I mean... I look really fricken’ cute, I don’t blame you,” I said, my courage failing me halfway through the confession.

“I… Fuck. I guess I was kinda into you,” he deflated in resignation, “but like I don’t know it’s so confusing now that I know you’re my old friend.”

“I understand more than you think,” I sighed, maybe if I hinted there was something he would draw it out of me. I wouldn’t need to gather my courage if he forced me to tell him. I mean I wanted him to know, it was only fair, and he is my friend.

“What do you mean?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh. It’s kinda awkward,” I hedged.

“Go on, I’m listening,” he said.

“You… I mean I... you had. Ugh,” I paused, forcing the words together in my mind, “I had a crush on you before my body was changed, I was gay.”

“Wait what?” he asked in disbelief.

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“Yeah, all these years I had been carrying a little torch,” I said quietly.

“And do you still?” he asked with notes of hesitation and hope in his voice.

“No… after I became Sylanna for real my sexuality just weirdly flipped. I got some wishy washy explanation from my goddess but at the end of the day I have no idea why it happened. All I know is that now, as a girl I don’t like the idea of being with a guy and I’m into girls now, as you can tell,” I said in a rush, embarrassed to be speaking so candidly about my sexuality.

“Yeah… I could see that. This is probably super stereotypical male here, but you guys kissing each other is pretty hot,” he said with a wink.

I reached over with my leg and kicked him. It wasn’t a full kick, but he deserved one for that.

“Ew! You are such a guy. You’re just like Greg only you hide it better!” I exclaimed, “Wait no, Greg is better I think.”

“Wow that’s a bit harsh. Worse than Greg?”

We both laughed a little, thankful the joke had relieved some of the tension of the conversation.

“So… we’re actually okay?” I asked.

“Yeah I guess we are, but you gotta tell me things from now on okay? I’m your friend. Might have been more,” he said with a smile.

“I don’t think it would have worked, but I will! Things are so crazy in my life right now,” I sighed.

“My mana is back to full, let’s do the next one,” he said with a groan as he got to his feet. I got the feeling he was deflecting the conversation. Were we back to the way we had been?

I directed him through the rest of the day, making sure he kept things level as he melted the foundation stones together. We had a good number of logs piled up and ready to go as well. We had probably done several days worth of work all up, using our superhuman abilities to speed things along at a rate that people in our world could only dream of.

When night time began to roll around we made sure everything was going to sit tight and then all logged off to show our faces in the real world for a bit, if only to let our parents know we were still alive. I spent the time eating the breakfast that my parents made during their saturday together time. While we chatted over the food, they interrogated me further about Karen. I assured them that she was the greatest person on two worlds and they calmed down.

I got back in to pellan a few hours later, ready for another day of construction. I wasn’t the first into the game this time, and so we began work on the next phase. The logs had to be prepared, meaning they would be stripped of bark and the branches removed. There’s obviously a lot more involved in all of this than I am describing, but I’ll keep it simple. We laid down the first logs on the supports, nine shorter logs and six very long logs that nestled into the notches we’d melted into the stone supports. Work slowed down as far as visible progress went after the sill logs were laid down, as we took some time to saw the floorboards out of some specially picked logs.

The floorboard sawing took most of the day, with several of us at loose ends while the stronger members used the large saws. I spent the time exploring the top of the hill in more detail, ideas for future buildings blossoming. I found a place where a reservoir for water could be carved out of the rock, as well as a large chunk of stone that thrust up into the sky that might be a potential watchtower spot.

As the night came upon us we made camp in the shadow of that rock, using it to shield us from the wind. I placed my bedroll down next to Karen’s, and she gave me a smile when she saw me do so. My heart was a mass of butterflies about the impending night’s sleep. Nothing too crazy would happen due to being out in the open with our friends, but that fact didn’t seem to register with my heart. I wasn’t even sure I was ready for anything like that. Scratch that, I know I’m not ready for that yet.

All of this was a moot point as far as my rebellious stomach was concerned. We had a meal of bread rations and stew, before settling down for the night. When I laid myself down in my bedroll for sleep, I looked up at Karen as she did the same. Getting into her own, she shimmied herself right up next to me and leaned over. Her face paused before mine, her eyes alight with need. She said nothing, but she didn’t need to, her arm snaked out of her bedroll and made its hesitating way over to my face. Her hand felt so warm and soft, not at all how I’d expect a greatsword wielding warrior’s hand to feel like. Nevertheless I closed my eyes and leaned into it, savouring the contact. My eyes shot open when she closed the last distance between our lips, pulling me against her in a tight embrace.

We kissed each other fervently at first, our lips pressed together with bruising need. I caught her upper lip between my own, or was it her that caught my lower lip between hers? I heard a small whimper escape my throat as her hand trailed down to my neck, her thumb lovingly stroking my jawline. I wanted to feel more of her, but bedrolls were basically sleeping bags made out of fabric and furs, thus hampering my access to the rest of her body. I knew we couldn’t go further, both due to our friends and my own reticence around the subject. That didn’t stop my excited and aroused mind from wanting it all the same.

We broke the kiss fairly quickly and she rolled onto her back with a sigh. I followed her, nestling myself against her side and placing my head under her chin. One of her arms escaped out of her own bag and slipped into mine, taking hold of me and pressing me closer against her. It felt so perfect and my mind partially lost the ability to form full thoughts under the assault of elated emotions I was feeling. It took a while, the feeling of being with her was too distracting to allow me to fall asleep easily, but eventually the days work weighed my mind down enough for sleep to take me.

The next morning when I woke, our position was pretty much the same, except I had a leg thrown over her and her other hand was holding my head to her chest. Dana stood over us with a smug grin spread across her face. I twisted my body to look up at her properly, my face forming into a pout.

“What?” I asked in a grumpy morning voice.

“Time to work lovers, we have a cabin to build, then you’ll have all the privacy in the world!” She laughed.

I felt Karen shift under me and I looked up at her to find a full blush attacking her face. It was super cute.

“Alright,” I said, suddenly quite keen to get this cabin built.

We had a light breakfast and then got on with the flooring. We used the nails we had brought along to lay out the flooring. It was actually pretty fast going, as all of us were capable of bashing a nail with a hammer, or lifting a board into place for the bashers. We completed the full flooring of the cabin as lunch rolled around and we took a break for a while. Lunch was more of the bread and stew, we hadn’t had time to get creative.

The second half of the day was spent moving the logs from where they were stacked near the crane and cliff, carving a notch in them, and then lifting them into position. Currently there were small gaps between the logs in some places, but we would fill those gaps in with clay after the walls were complete. The afternoon was edging out when I heard Liam shout over to me from where the logs were piled.

“There’s a person down on the plain!” he called over.

“Wait really?” I called back, dropping what I was doing to rush over.

Sure enough, a figure could be seen about a kilometer away, wading through the grass of the plain. From this distance it was very hard to tell anything about them, other than that they were perhaps a bit on the shorter side.

“I’m going to go down and scout them out,” I told Liam, already stepping towards the edge of the cliff.

“Be careful!” He said quickly.

I gave him a little two fingered salute before I activated my light skimmer ability, my feet beginning to slide through the air on a trail of golden light. I dropped down the cliff a few meters like I was dropping into a bowl before I leveled out a bit. As I angled myself into a gentle incline towards the figure, I tried to strain my eyes for more information.

It wasn’t until I was much closer that I could discern that the figure was female, with long hair that was some mix of green and blond. She’d stopped to watch my approach, her staff raised defensively before her. I’d figured who this was by now, so I circled her a few times to bleed out my speed, then came in slowly to rest a few meters in front of her.

She was a few inches taller than me, her hair was long, straight and a sort of mossy blond-green that was somehow both normal and alien. Her eyes were large and expressive, with a golden hazel colour. Her skin was pale, but in the darkened areas like around the fingernails or eyes it turned a subtle dark green colour. In fact there was evidence of green everywhere about her. Her robes were a dark earthy green that would blend in perfectly with the colours of any pine tree around here. Her staff was a knotted branch of living wood, the top of it sprouting a few vibrant green leaves.

She gazed at me with an expression so full of different conflicting emotions that I could barely parse one from another. She opened and closed her mouth a few times as though considering and discarding any number of greetings. I allowed her time to compose herself, she looked like she needed it.

When she finally spoke, it was with a small squeaky croak, “You told the truth? I thought maybe you might be messing with me like some other people have before, but you’re actually here… You’re not still going to like tell me to go away or anything right?”

The emotions that had filled her eyes now coloured her tone and I felt my own emotions surge in compassion for this poor lonely girl. I rushed forward, bringing her with a tender hug, drawing her head to my shoulder with one hand while I pressed her shoulders to mine with the other.

“None of us will ever do that to you Isabelle, ever. I promise! I’m here to be your friend,” I said softly into her ear, my breath shifting her green-blond hair slightly as I spoke.

Her body shook as she began to sob into the crook of my neck and I gently rubbed her shoulder blade with my thumb in comfort.

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