Once we're done, I spot Apricot flying somewhat unsteadily, and occasionally holding her belly like she has a stomach ache from eating too much. She's been taking samples from each tree and bush, carrying them one at a time to the dungeon hole. Before flying back for the next.

"Good, that should distract them for a while. Let's have that talk." I say to Amelia as we return to the vardo.

I toss up a Soundproof barrier around us. This spell has become part of my nightly routine, whether we need it or not, so it shouldn't draw any undue attention from the dungeon or Apricot. At worst, she'll just think we're having sex.

"This where you tell me everything?" She asks plainly.

"Yeah, I just hope you have an open mind."

"Oh, I think you know I do.. Especially after losing that bet." She smirks at me.

"I love you." I tell her seriously. "Please remember that, and know that I have never once lied to you." She just nods, so I continue. "Well, it all started when I died..."

To her credit she stays quiet and listens to my whole story. Only saying two words once I finish. "Show me."

I release my Shape-shift and my body stretches back out to 190cm. I'm still skinny. But, the mass I've put on in the weeks of travel translates over, keeping me from looking like a willowy sprout. I hold the transformation of my face and head for last, afraid of what her reaction will be.

Thankfully her eyes only widen slightly before she reaches out to play with my petal-like hair. "I was wondering why your hair never seemed to grow." She speaks mostly to herself. "So, skinny.. and those cheekbones look like they could poke someone's eye out. But, it's still you."

"Ah, I tried to tone that down, but this is just how Plantkin look." Thankfully my voice remains the same. "I tried to make my face as human as possible since I still think of myself as one."

"Can you show me what you used to look like?" Her hands have moved on from my face to examine the tendrils growing from my arms.

"Ugh! Do, I have too? I was so chubby." I whine. "Oh fine, but I'm not Shapeshifitng into it, you can just deal with a picture. Light!" The face that forms is not too far off from the one I've been walking around with for the past few weeks. A little older, a bit dumpier, with more blemishes and other smaller imperfections. But, aside from the muddy brown eyes, we're clearly the same person.

"It's too close to even call you brothers." Amelia muses while examining the image. "More like you just let yourself go for a few years."

"I had no drive back then, no reason to take care of myself." I slump, just thinking of my old existence. "If I hadn't met you on that horrible day... I'd likely just be wandering the woods, slowly making my way to the capital. Probably would have gotten myself eaten by wolves again after getting distracted by an interesting plant."

"Did all that really happen? With the wolves and all the... everything." She seems afraid to even say 'dying'.

"Yeah, I-I grew numb to it after a while, and have done my best to block it out since. But System-chan can vouch for it. I'm sure she watched the compilation too."

An abashed *Ding* rings out.

"Temmie!" Amelia admonishes her.

"Don't be too harsh on her; plenty of humans from my old world would have gotten a laugh out of it too."

"Still though." She huffs. Then reaches back up and cups my face. "And would you get rid of that fearful look, it's killing me. I'm not going to leave you just because you didn't want to talk about something painful from your past."

I collapse into her in relief, and just hug her tight while tears leak down my face.

"It's alright Sorrel, I'm not going anywhere." She holds me until I can get control of my emotions again. "That's better. Now, I just have one question."

"Only the one?"

She chuckles. "The others can wait. Right now." She quickly reaches her hand into my now, very loose pants. "Did you really not change anything down here?" My eyes widen when she grabs hold.

"Ah! Are you sure? With me..? like this?"

"You're still you, silly." She squeezes to confirm her words.

"Uhn. No. I figured I could just Shapeshift it. if I ever needed to."

"Oh, that has possibilities." Her eyes widen this time. "But, for right now, for tonight. I just want you."

***

The next day has us lazing in bed well past our usual wake up time. Eventually, though, the calls of nature drag us out. I start shifting back to human when Amelia puts her hand on my chest.

"You don't have to hide, you know?" She tells me.

"I know, and you're too good to me." I take her hand and kiss it. "When it's just the two of us I won't, if you don't want me too. But, we're not alone here, and I'm used to walking around like this." I finish my transformation.

"Ugh, you had to remind me."

"Heh, kinda hard to forget when there's a pixie popping over the wall every five minutes to see if we're up yet."

She just grunts and heads out. Once we finish our morning ablutions, and get started on breakfast. I sense a certain orange haired pest quit hovering by the wall, and fly closer.

"Morning, Apricot." I wave.

"For you maybe. I was up half the night trying to explain sex to a dungeon." She grumbles. "He was convinced you had four arms, took me hours trying to..."

Amelia starts cracking up; cutting Apricot's rant off before it can get started. I just stand there for a moment before waving. Which just makes Amelia laugh all the harder. Probably because I don't use either of my 'arm' arms.

"Wha, buh, huh..." The pixie seems to freeze in mid air.

"I tend to keep them out of the way unless I'm using them." A hint of of a wicked smile appears on my face after I glance at Amelia. "I got them at the same time as my magic."

Hearing the same half-truth I told her after our first night together causes Amelia to lose it again. Right as she was taking a sip of water too, making for a very epic spit take.

The tiny woman floats there stunned for another moment before she cocks her head like she's listening to something. "I'm sorry. You were right, he does have four arms." ... "Well, I thought he was just... Uh, never mind." Apricot seems to realize she still has an audience.

"You just thought..?" I tease.

"Oh, I know what she was thinking." Amelia laughs again, using magic to dry off her shirt.

"Lunkers." The embarrassed pixie shouts before flying off.

"Well, no breakfast rolls for her." I quip. "So, what are your plans for today?"

"I want to finish that Sensoryfog spell." She says. Taking a big bite out of her own roll. "The winged pest may be good for a laugh, but I still don't trust that dungeon. That, and I need to catch up to a certain someone with a growth cheat."

"You sure didn't seem to mind my 'growth' last night." I get her to blush a bit with that one. "I agree with you, though. Apricot seems more pitiable than anything else. But, I'm still going to be laying out tripwires and alarms all over the place."

The short-lived light mood ruined by the reality of our situation. We finish breakfast in silence before moving onto our respective tasks. The day passes quickly and we both finish what we set out to do. The grass around our fort and the cave entrance now sports several miles worth of alarm wires, and an nearly invisible coating of fog.

Apricot inevitably returns around supper time, and we let her antics lighten the mood. I know she's supposed to be pure magic, but I still don't know how she can put away as much food as Amelia or myself.

The days settle into a routine. We practice our magics, Amelia driven to beat out my cheat skill, at least where Water magic is concerned. I spend an inordinate amount of time making wipes for Charlie. And when that gets too boring, I try my hand at making a few outfits for Apricot. Working with threads only microns thick is very difficult, but the rewards are very worth it. But, through it all, even when we're doing something else. We still keep an eye on the dungeon.

The three of us are getting along better. Amelia even warmed up to her a bit when the pixie helped out with a particularly tricky spell. Our magics are in no ways similar, but being a creature of pure magic gives Apricot a lot of insight into how spells come together.

Then, one day, a bit over a week and a half later. Said pixie comes flying up to us around lunch time.

"Hey, Apricot." I greet her, and cast the Magnify spell out of habit. "Lunch'll be done soon. Though, you're gonna have to settle for my cooking. Amelia's focused on that new spell of hers. We think she's close to hitting Level four."

"Oh, that's fine. But, you should know there's a dust trail heading this way." She points to the west.

"Oh. From Riverton? Farsight!" My eyes go distant as a vision of the road comes to me. "Hmm. Looks like a carriage and four riders, probably guards. At the pace they're going they should be here an hour, hour and a half before sunset."

"Hmm? We're getting visitors?" Amelia pipes in. Her focus broken. "A single carriage and four guards means they're rich, whoever they are. But, if they're headed to the Capital, that doesn't really mean much. Can you see any insignia on the coach, or riders?"

"Sorry, no. They're still too far out for that." I shake my head. "Even my cheat-like powers have their limits." I quip.

"You two are going to have to explain that one of these days." Apricot says. She's been wondering how I'm so good at so many different magics.

"Eh, inside joke." I equivocate. "So, what do we do? Think they'll be a problem?"

"Charlie should only be a week out from the Capital by now. So, there's no way they can steal the claim." Amelia Strokes her chin. "I doubt it's another Awakened, but even if it is. Between the two of us, and all the preparations we've made here... We should be able to handle them, if it comes down to that."

"Sounds like we only need to worry if the dungeon does something stupid." I send Apricot a pointed look, but she just rolls her eyes. "That, or they try to steal the core. In which case, if the dungeon doesn't kill them, I might. I will not have wasted weeks here for nothing."

"I wouldn't say it was for nothing." Amelia says with a glint in her eye.

"Ugh! Not again." Apricot groans. "You two go at it like horned rabbits."

"Heh. Horny rabbits, more like." Amelia smirks. She seems to get a perverse pleasure in rubbing our sex life in Apricots face.

"Uh.. Moving on." I try to get us back on track. "Apricot, I assume you'll be hiding." She nods. "Well, then I suppose we should plan for a big dinner. I need to restock some things anyways. Might as well make a bit extra. Yes, you can take samples. Do they even do anything for the dungeon?" I tell the pixie so she'll stop making puppy dog eyes at me.

"Not directly. He might be able to use some of them as low tier loot. But mostly, it's just that every pattern a dungeon gets helps them to grow. And every little bit counts when they're this young."

"Whatever, lunch is ready. We'll deal with the visitors when they get here."

***

"They're here." I say, looking up from my latest stack of butt wipes, as soon as they cross onto the grass. I've taken to quilting different images onto them to break up the monotony. This batch has different little critters chasing each other around a tree in a flip-book style animation.

"Finally, I haven't been able to focus on my spellwork all afternoon. Let's go say hi."

"Ye... Oh, that's interesting."

"What is it." Amelia asks.

"They're not a mage, but they have potential."

"That's the first one you've come across, and it's out in the middle of nowhere. Hah!"

"Here's hoping they aren't assholes." I say fervently. The world, any world, doesn't need any more assholes with power.

We walk out to the open gate and wait for our guests to arrive. They all stop when they see the two of us walk out. Then, after a brief conversation with whoever's in the carriage. One of the riders comes forward.

"Hello there?" The rider says hesitantly. He's a young man in his early twenties, wearing slightly travel stained clothing, and riding a brown mare.

"Hello." I call back. "Welcome to the Circle Orchard Dungeon."

"Name pending." Amelia adds. She's not thrilled with my choice, but hasn't been able to come up with anything better.

"Name pending." I humor her. "You might as well call your party up. It's just us two here, we got stuck on babysitting duty until out claim goes through."

"A dungeon? Did it do all this?" He asks, more than a little awed.

"Oh no, it's a hole in the ground behind those thorn bushes." I point at the opening. "I did all this." I stress the first word.

"Uh, let me go tell them." His awe turned a bit to fear.

He rides back and Amelia leans close to me. "Don't you think you were laying it on a bit thick?"

"Heh." I chuckle and give her a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'm no merchant. But, even I know it's better to deal with people from a position of power."

"Just don't overdo it." She warns me.

"I won't. I just want to make sure they don't do anything stupid."

The carriage and riders come forward a minute later. An older man with salt and pepper hair, in the lead.

"Hello, Ser Mage." He nods his head respectfully. "The lad says you found yourselves a dungeon."

"Welcome. And, it's more like it found us." I nod back, slightly shallower. "Riding into the capital with a family friend of Amelia's, here. When it tried to ambush us with a bunch of over-sized mice. We took care of them, and have been watching it ever since. Name's Sorrel, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Ser, Ma'am. Names Keegan, the lads are Kayden, Andre, And Cas. The driver's named Carl, he don't speak much." He points them out in turn. Cas being the one who came forward first. "Our employers in the carriage are Mistress Marta Adeen, and her niece Abigail."

Amelia gives me a short shake of her head to indicate she doesn't know the name. "You're all welcome to join us." The man, Keegan glances south for a second. "Don't worry about the dungeon, it's as safe as we can make it, and it'd be nice to have some fresh faces around for a change."

"Thank you, Ser. Even camping next to a dungeon has to be better than more of that never ending grass."

"For a night maybe. For weeks? Not so much. But never mind that. Come on in, I've set up stables for the horses, and we'll be getting started on supper soon. Just let me know if you need anything."

At this point a good-looking older woman climbs out of the carriage. She looks a little travel worn, but still somewhat fetching. Her long brunette hair pinned up in a loose bun to help with the mid-summer heat. White linen shirt unbuttoned just enough to show a hint of cleavage. 'Give her some glasses and she'd be the perfect "sexy librarian".' I think to myself.

I glance at Amelia, indicating with my eyes that the girl who follows her out is the potential Awakened. There's a definite family resemblance between them. She looks to be a bit younger than Amelia, and also has the same long hair as her aunt, but is wearing it loose. 'Her looks are more cute girl next-door, than sexy librarian.' I think with an inward chuckle.

"Ah, master Sorrel, mistress Amelia. My niece and I thank you for your hospitality." The woman says as she approaches.

"No need to be formal, please." I smile. "Come on in, and make yourselves at home."

"If there's no need to be formal." Her niece speaks up. "Then please tell me you have a bath."

"Abigail! Manners." Her aunt snaps. "Please forgive her, this is her first long journey."

Meanwhile Amelia and I are staring at each other.

"A bath house." - "How did we not think of that?" We speak at the same time.

"I'll build it it you start drawing the water." I say.

"Ahem." A polite cough comes from our, temporarily forgotten guests.

"Ah, Sorry." I say rubbing the back of my head. "We've been using magic to clean, and didn't even think about building a bath. Thank you miss Abigail. You'll have your bath in just a few minutes."

"Really? Can I watch? and just Abby is fine." Her face lights up. I can see a bit of eagerness in the other's as well. Whether for the magic show, or a good bath, is anyone's guess. Couple weeks on a dusty trail and I'd be clamoring for a bath too.

"Sure, I'll set it up in back next to the latrines." I start walking in that direction. My excitement for a real bath ruining my manners somewhat.

Amelia shakes her head at my behavior and apologizes to them. "Ah, sorry about him. When he gets excited about something, he tends to just run ahead and do it. Especially if it gives him a chance to show off."

"I heard that." I call over my shoulder. "I guess you don't want the hot showers I was going to build."

"Hot showers?" She echoes.

I just smile and keep walking. Reaching the back wall, I take out my staff and toss out a few dozen seeds. Instantly sprouting them into large trees. Stripping away the bark and leaves, and returning them to the soil. Next, I cause all the wood to flow like water and crash together like a wave at the beach.

This gets a few appreciative ooh's and ahh's. Then, I flow the wood together, building it up into the spiral shape of a striped fox conch shell. Sticking out of the ground with its spiky spirals pointed to the sky. It's about ten meters around at the base, almost fifteen if you count the opening to one side, and towers over twenty meters high. I even use the wood's natural grain to match the pattern a real shell would have.

I wave my staff to fix the disturbed grass before moving to the door I placed in the shell's opening. Once there, I open it and beckon everyone forward. I've left the inside walls as smooth wood, and added a non-slip floor that slopes to a central drain. There's a large oval hot tub to the left of the doorway, a row of shower stalls along the back wall, and a row of shelves to the right. The roof only spirals up one level before I closed it off to use as the hot water tank.

Instead of decorating the wood, I've decided to play with light instead. Making the entire room look like it's under the sea. Dapples of light play over the walls and floor as schools of bright tropical fish swim about in mid-air.

"Mind filling the tub while I get the water tank?" I say with a smirk to the blonde beside me.

Amelia just mutters "Showoff." Before drawing fresh clean water up through the central floor drain, it's already steaming by the time it reaches the tub..

I can hear Abigail whisper to Amelia "Is he always like this?" as I raise my staff and use Condense to fill the water tank hidden in the roof. That done, I walk over to a shower stall and open the door. A flip of a lever causes water to stream out of a large round showerhead.

I test the temperature before turning to the guards. "Alright gentlemen, let's let the ladies enjoy their bath. I promise it'll still be here once they're done. Oh, I almost forgot." I wave my hand and bale of cotton appears and swiftly forms into a stack of fuzzy towels, wash clothes, a dozen robes, and some fuzzy slippers. These fly onto shelves and hooks just inside the door.

"Oh, and Abby" I call over my shoulder as I'm herding the men out the door. "I'm only like this when she calls me a showoff." I say with a smirk before latching the door behind me.