Chapter 18: 17 – Making a Home

Returning from defeating the hydra again, we soak and get ready for tomorrow.

"Any idea where you want your garden to be, Navi?" I lightly spin the bucket floating in our tub with a relaxing fairy inside.

"Hmm," She leans back in the bucket with her arms to the side, enjoying the soothing motion. "I was thinking about using the section on the south side of the castle, connected to it. That way, we can have a secret door connected to the garden! I'd love a secret door. It would be so mysterious! We could do the whole candlestick lever schtick and everything!"

I place an arm around Ailine sitting next to me. "Not sure how that would work, but go for it. I think that would be a good spot. Want to just take the whole fucking side of the castle and wall your garden in?"

"Yeah! That’ll give my future fairies plenty of space for their flowers."

"What about the wall?" I question. "No matter how large it is, it'll be a big job."

Navi sinks into the water in the bucket, blowing bubbles while pondering before she raises her head with an idea. "I'm thinking we build it ten feet tall and four feet thick. It might suck and take a long time, but if it could have drainage under it, I'd appreciate it. That way if we ever get a downpour, the wall doesn't act like a big cup and drown the flowers."

"That should be good. Still probably take over a month or so, even if you work on it while we sleep." I gently stroke Ailine's hair. "Are you fine clearing the area, Ailine? At least until we're done?"

"Sure am!" She replies cheerfully. "It's been a long time since I last saw the villagers clear trees and prepare them to become beams or planks, but I should be able to do it. It'll just take a while."

"This entire project will just take a lot of time. If we're going to stay in the castle, the first thing we need is to find a room where we can magic out a door leading to the garden area. We need to eventually build doors for the castle too." I lean my head back in the tub. This project just keeps getting bigger.

Ailine leans against me with her head on my shoulder. "I can show you how we cleaned the trees we cut in the village to use for doors and other building parts. We have all the tools we need from the big-bag, and with Navi's magic it might be even easier."

"Then let's get to bed so we can get started tomorrow night." We stand or fly out of the water before drying ourselves.

Laying in bed, I can't help but think about how daunting of a task this has become. I feel like my original estimate is way off for all of these projects. I guess we'll just have to see. Closing my eyes, I drift off to sleep.

The next evening, we had our bags full of the tools we needed, but still kept armor and a weapon on us just in case. Exiting the cave, we looked at the results of our forest fire.

It was a complete success.

"Navi, want to fly around the town and see if any monsters are still alive, and just check that the fire didn't jump outside the wall?" I ask the most mobile of our party.

"You betcha!" she says in a terrible and fake Alaskan accent before she zips off, much faster than we could ever run.

"Now then, let's head to the castle, Ailine."

"Right behind you, Lia!"

We made our way through the blackened and charred forest. Looking around at the surroundings as we walked, it looks identical to pictures I saw on Earth of a forest after a wildfire. All the small brush is gone. The trees all have their outer layer, limbs, and leaves burned away. To say the least, our line of sight was much clearer with everything gone.

Finally arriving at the castle, there were two dying orks and a few goblins inside. The goblins were relatively healthy, but the orks were severely burned. It makes sense that anything left alive would have made their way here, to the one part of the area that was probably not on fire at the time. 

Cleaning up the trash and storing the bodies and blood after enjoying a fresh breakfast, we start looking at the rooms along the south side. One room jostled something in my memory.

I stand in the doorway looking at the empty space. "I think this is the room I first stayed in when I came here."

"Really?" Ailine asks with genuine curiosity. "Should we use it for our new home then?"

"Yeah, let's do it." I say as we step inside and begin our preparations.

Seeing the room after so long made me smile a bit. The room was large, but not the size of the parlor rooms of the castle. It looks to maybe have been a guest room if I had to guess. 

Ailine cleaned up the floor, just pushing everything outside the room for now. I went along the walls, fixing any cracks, and making sure the room was somewhat structurally sound. Once done with that, I went over to the southern wall. Selecting a spot as good as any, I focused my magic. Separating a large rectangle out of a thick castle wall was going to be a tall order. 

Imagining as thin of a seam as I could all the way around, which for me was about a quarter inch with my current capabilities, I worked on slowly infusing the image and wall with mana so that the seam of stone disappeared. It took a while, and definitely can't be used as a quick assault entry or something similar. Eventually, there was a giant block of stone blocking the new hole in the wall.

"Good work, Lia!" Ailine says while handing me a blood bag.

"You too, Ailine," I said as I looked around at the room before taking a drink. "Since we decided to use the stone from this to make the temporary doors until we get wood planks cut, could you render some ork fat for us to use on the hinges?"

"Sure. That shouldn't take too long. This room is pretty nice now that all the loose rubble, bones, dust, and dirt is gone"

"You're right. That did a lot to make this feel like more like a home." 

I turned my attention back to the wall while she butchered the ork. Using more earth magic to essentially slice the face of the block, I made a four inch thick slab. This'll be the door for this hole once complete. I cut another section just as thick and dragged the heavy ass slab of rock over to the doorway leading into the castle interior. 

Placing it at the doorway, I shaped it so it'll fit as the door there. Then I took out some massive steel hinges Navi and I made in preparation for this. With the smell of pseudo-bacon in the background, I used earth magic to securely fuse bolts from the hinges directly into the stone of the wall and the door. 

To reduce strain slightly, since stone is heavy as fuck, I also hollowed out a square hole on the bottom of the door, a few inches from the handle side of it. I then fused in a small steel wheel on a bar. The wheel will roll on the ground and support a little bit of the door's weight. It doesn't have ball bearings or anything, but it may help to slightly reduce the stress on the hinges. Who the fuck knows. It seemed like a good idea that at least couldn't hurt.

With the fat done rendering and the door attached, complete with handle, we drizzled a bit on the hinges and the wheel. It'll work for now, is all I have to say about it. There's a reason a heavy ass piece of stone isn't used for doors.

(Honey! I'm home!)

As I was working on the hinges to the door leading outside, we got a telepathic message from our favorite little fairy. 

Pushing the door open, Ailine lets her into the room.

"Smells like bacon!" she said, flying inside.

"We rendered some ork fat for the hinges." I replied.

"Nice! I just got done checking out the area. Fire stayed inside the walls, so it's really cool to look at from an aerial view! I also got a pouch full of crispy goblins and orks! They made my job easy by all being at the eastern wall, as far away from where we lit up as possible. Girl, we really hotboxed this place! But nothing else survived around here, so we're in the clear."

"Good job." I say as I continue to work on the second door. "Looking from above, were you able to get a good idea of the area you want to make a wall? Also, I already did the walls but could you fly up to the ceiling and make sure the arches and stone are all safe for us to live in here?"

"Sure, sure." She flies to the ceiling. "And yeah, I got a good idea. This garden is going to be so fetch!"

After that, Navi and I teamed up to finish the door that would lead outside to the future garden, and installed it. Ailine had been taking out our bed and bathtub, therefore, the first day of reclaiming the area came to a close. This'll be a hard project, but it's nice to be making a home on the surface.

After breakfast the next evening, we got started on clearing trees needed for the wall. I don't care what level we are. Pulling a tree out of the ground, roots and all, isn't going to happen. Since Navi was able to get an aerial view, she flew up and down and marked the trees that needed to go that were in the path of the construction.

Eventually, the vast majority of all these trees would need to go, but we had to start somewhere. As she marked the trees, I went around and cut them with wind magic. Some of the larger trees needed multiple hits to get through. It became good practice for me. Ailine was going behind and storing the cut trees in a big-bag for us to process later.

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Once my magic was getting low, we would take a tree out and clear off branches before storing everything when my magic came back sufficiently. Navi would come down and begin her next part in the cleared areas. Using earth magic, she essentially dug a four feet deep and six feet wide trench. Using her earth magic, she removed the dirt from the trench areas, leaving the root system of the trees, and piled up the dirt on the sides of the trench. Moving this amount of dirt did take some time to do.

Taking advantage of the cleared ditch with stumps held up by a mass of roots, we began using the trench as a brush pile that Navi would then light at the end of each night to clear out the stumps and roots. It was surreal since it was night time, seeing a little fairy cackling while flying around like she's dancing, and starting a massive fire.

Yeah... Never piss off fairies.

Taking drinks from our blood bags throughout the night, this became our routine. We would switch up which part we worked on sometimes, but those were all the pieces. Clearing trees, and burning stumps from a trench to build a wall. When we got up a bit early, we would use our shadow cloaks to be outside before sunset. Heavy machinery would be so useful right now. Thankfully, the land around the town is pretty flat, helping us to avoid needing to do any leveling.

With this routine, three weeks passed as we worked. Navi really helped Ailine and I by going out during the day and killing animals and monsters in the forest outside the walls. She can fly much faster and see things from above, allowing her to spot animals and monsters to get for us. Since she couldn't hold them up to drain, she would put the bodies in her storage and bring them back for us.

It was also my first time having deer and actual rabbit blood. I still prefer jackalope to rabbit, but both had better flavor than goblin. Too bad, because animals don't possess a core. Their blood doesn't fill us hardly at all. Like drinking water instead of eating a meal. I always liked animals, and had an idea. I think that once we're done with this wall and working on the outer perimeter, I might like to capture harmless animals, deer, rabbits, squirrels, and such, and let them live inside the walls.

We really just burned the forest inside the walls to make sure all monsters were killed. We want to clear the courtyard eventually, but the rest of the town area will regrow naturally. Having animals there would be nice. Things for us to think about in the future. For now, it's time to start the wall.

Ailine will be working on turning the fallen trees into squared off timber that we can split into planks. She said she saw the villagers do this years ago, and it certainly seems like she remembers it well. Taking a string for a guide, and an axe, she gets the tree rolled across two others so it's a bit off the ground. Then goes around marking, chopping, and roughly squaring it off. Navi will help finish them up once the wall is done. Not a fast process, but with her strength, stamina, and dexterity, she manages it well. Smaller trees and other pieces she just makes a brush pile for. 

Meanwhile, Navi and I will be working on the drainage layer and foundation for the wall. Using the piled up dirt from the trench, I used earth magic to turn it into rough gravel that I then filled the trench part of the way with. Navi went around behind me and used her magic on the remaining piled dirt to create large stone slabs. When placed on the drainage, they should serve as a solid foundation for the wall.

This took another week to complete. By now, our original estimate for this project is long gone. That's not an issue, though. We're building this in a way that it'll last, and that we'll not have to redo it in a decade.

Finally, after so long building the foundation, we could get started on the wall. Even with the couple small rain showers we had, construction has been going smoothly. As Ailine continues making thick wooden beams, Navi and I got to work on making large cinder block sized stone bricks.

We decided on bricks as a way to  consistently keep the height and thickness of the wall, as well as to have easy places to start and stop each night. After creating a couple molds, Navi began cranking out brick after brick while I piled and then fused them. Because this wall didn't need anything along the top, we just built it up so it was capped flat and square. 

This is mostly to keep animals or monsters out, in the off chance a monster ever snuck in. When we're gone, nothing but a constant guard will be acceptable with her flower, since people can always just use ladders to get over walls. I'd thought sunlight was a scary weakness to have, but having your life tied to something immobile, with no defenses, that needs to be visible outside, is terrifying. 

Her insane control over magic, and ability to fly and attack from the air, certainly is a massive advantage. It's just questionable if it balances evenly.

Between grabbing and stacking stones, I would also shoot off some wind blades, further clearing the area around the garden wall. Around these stumps, Ailine would make more brush piles that we would light, burning the stumps to ground level. It was about another month before the wall was finally complete. We all celebrated for a major part of the project finally being completed. 

Now, the next step for us is to finish clearing all of the trees in the garden area. Navi wants this space to be a field of flowers. If that's what she wants, then that's what we'll do. As Navi cut trees, I cut limbs, and Ailine would store everything after cutting some limbs herself. We continued to burn stumps through the day. We also built a door through the back of the castle to access the dungeon without having to go through the front. Walking around became annoying.

Another couple weeks of this, and we had large piles of trees stored in a big-bag along with a pile of large beams from Ailine's work. Finally, our work was met with a wide open flower garden that looked more like a hellscape after all the fires. Even so, Navi was happy. She said that during the day, she would start to use earth magic to turn up the dirt, loosening it and mixing in the ash from the forest fire. I knew nothing about gardening. Even on Earth I'm sure I couldn't grow a dandelion successfully. I'm always out of the loop when it comes to her flower, and since she knows what it needs, we just leave that to her and help when she asks for something. One of her requests was for us to dig a shallow pond next to where her flower will be. 

After that was done, we went down into the core room to bring out her flower. She had an area picked out towards the center of the space that she wanted it to be planted. She took the dirt from the pond to make a small hill that her flower will be on top of. Taking the pot out of the core room, we spent some time clearing rubble from the dungeon entrance, making room for the pot to get through. 

We used the wooden beams as a ramp to get over the wall, since the pot was too large to go through the castle side door we use daily. Once over and walking over with the pot, she already had a hole dug for it.

"Put it in! Put it in, Lia!" Navi said.

"If I was still a man you shouldn't be saying that," I retorted.

"I don't care! I'm so excited to have it planted!"

"We're happy for you," Ailine said, smiling at the excited fairy. "You worked hard to get here."

"Thanks to both of you for everything! I know this sucked, but here we are!" She flies swiftly around and over us, constantly in motion.

Placing the giant pot inside the hole, Ailine and I stepped back, giving Navi space to dissolve the pot, water her flower, and do whatever else she needed with it. After some time fussing with it, she flew over and gave us both a large hug. Well, as large of a hug as a fairy can. More of her just latching onto our faces.

She also said that her original estimate was off and with feeding the flower more of her mana, it would sprout a new flower in about six months.

The next plan for Ailine and I will be working on cleaning out the castle. While Ailine clears rooms, I'll go through, strengthening the walls and fixing cracks. While we work on that, Navi will take the roughly squared off logs and work on turning them into planks.

With her water magic, air magic, and insane level of control, Navi will be a fairy sized sawmill for a while. cutting planks for doors or anything else we need. Once she's done with cutting planks, she'll also help make sure the castle is sturdy. Being able to fly certainly makes working on a ceiling a non-issue. 

When it came to the single tower still standing, I took my time to remake and fuse the stairs together while strengthening the wall of it. After over a month of us clearing rooms, strengthening walls and ceilings, even creating wooden doors and attaching them where they were needed, the next project began.

The northern tower and northern portion of the castle was still completely collapsed. It took an entire month to bag all of the rubble. Once out of the way, Navi and I began to rebuild the crumbled rooms, and finally started working on the tower. Using the rubble as base material, since it's there and takes a lot less mana to use than creating from nothing, we began construction.

Like with the wall, brick after brick I laid and we fused. Because the rubble wasn't all uniform in size, I would adjust some, but left a lot up to Navi to fill gaps and keep us even. Building the tower and northern section of the castle was almost as hard of a job as everything we just did. This time, it took us months to complete. We still didn't want to leave Navi's flower without someone to guard it, making it pointless to worry about floor thirty-nine yet. Which meant we had zero work done towards how to fight underwater, but we had more exciting things to think about.

The time when there would be a new fairy was fast approaching. 

Finally, after what had felt like an eternity, we finished the tower and castle repairs. I thought about complaining about how long it took, but when I thought about it, I was kind of amazed. If we had to create all of the material from scratch and didn't have the rubble, it would've taken much longer. Even then, without magic, this would've been a multi-year undertaking at minimum. 

Magic and our increased stats are seriously OP. My top-tier magic power in all elements combined with Navi's top-tier magic control were really put to work. Even Ailine's knowledge from being a villager in this world, mixed with having another set of strong hands, made all the projects that much faster. 

For the next week, we went around placing some of the furniture, decorations, and other things throughout the castle. As we were putting the finishing touches on the castle, including the drapes that were saved for the nonexistent windows, we had a telepathic voice yell in our heads.

(Hey, hey, hey! You two, come out to the flower and check this out!) Navi said.

Not knowing what was going on, we ran out to the garden and saw Navi dancing around through the air. Looking below her, we saw a large, closed flower pod extending eight feet from Navi's flower with an inch thick vine connecting them.

"Damn!" I shout. "Is that your… daughter? Sister? Fellow fairy?"

"Yup! I think daughter would probably be the best word. She did come into existence from my mana after all!" Navi lets out a shrill scream, like a teen at a Justin Bieber concert. "I'm going to be a mother, you two!"

"Congratulations, Navi!" Ailine said.

"Yeah, congratulations," I said, rubbing my ears after her screech. "Any idea how long until she… Hatches? Sprouts? Blooms?"

The fairy giggles. "I reread the letter from Chaos, and it said about a month."

"Well, good thing we planned on sticking around for a while." I think of something we've never discussed. "Any idea on names?"

"Oh, I have so many! There are so many different options! I'm just gonna wait to see her. Oooo this is so exciting! I'm pregnant!" 

We really need to come to a consensus on what terminology to use for the creation of new fairies. For the next month, Ailine and I started to clear the trees in the courtyard in front of the castle, while Navi worked on her garden and hunted for us. 

Then, the day finally came, and a new fairy was born.

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