Transferring Grace and her flower into my grove after Ollinfer had left went well, I’d been 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… talked 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 knows how long Ollinfer’s deal would have been on offer?

It took several hours for the buns to cart all the soil up while I made a suitably deep hole in the tree for the flower, and when it was done I made sure to water it properly too by planting small water creating flowers around it.

With that task done, I found myself at a loss for what to do. I could work on my grove, sure… but I was also feeling sort of depressed, which severely cut into my motivation to do anything. 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 for me. 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 had me stumbling up and into bed. I wrapped myself up 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 onto 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 working with the wood in storage the same way? I’d need bigger blades than the ones I had now though, 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. Perfect time to test the new shower I guess.

The next morning was spent slowly cutting the logs into usable pieces, although frequent rests in the sun with my leaves out were required. I didn’t have my pet nuke right now to help me out, so it was back to basking in the sun for hours on end. I really needed to get the buns some tools 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 that day, 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 chunks. Yet another thing that boredom had lent me was time to think on the problem, 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 to fit the opening. I briefly considered just growing a big ass slab of wood for the task, but that didn’t fit with the aesthetics I had in mind. I wanted a sort of mix between the organic growth of my magic and the rustic woodworking feel of a hobbit-hole. Eventually I’’d like to use a whole lot of wrought iron around the place 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 was really thanking one late night following the youtube recommended rabbithole for that idea. I even remembered that you needed fresh sap for it to work, and you couldn’t allow the sap to boil.

With the glue ready and the six by six inch 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 had made.

Even with magic to help me, it was slow, messy work that saw my dainty little girl 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, maybe that proclamation was slightly ambitious, but still. Now I just had to get my hands clean somehow… 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?

Wait, what if I just mounted two poles on the sides of the door and then put holes in the floor and doorway to allow it to rotate? It would be tough as hell to push open and closed by hand, but I had telekinesis powerful enough to lift and crush a two story tall rampaging magical beast. With a shrug, I got to work pinning, gluing 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 good mood didn’t last all the way to bed though. Just four days and I missed Grace so fucking much. I’d gotten used to having her next to me, ready to talk and joke with. Now I was aimless and lost without her, 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.

It wasn’t working though, 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… But no, laying there in that bed with her fading scent and the buns for company, I began to cry. I missed her so much. Three days seemed like an eternity.