We did not crash, even though Apricot did her damnedest to distract me, but a few of those tips I picked up helped me turn the tables on her. I kinda feel bad for Gwynne though, Amelia clearly still has some anger pent up and was not shy about letting it out.

Almost everyone was already asleep by the time we arrived, so we just stayed on the busses for the night. I was one of the first up; knowing that a couple hundred women wouldn't be happy with the dozen tiny toilets on the busses. The first thing I did was build proper facilities and a large bath house for everyone in a big clearing. It wasn't anything fancy since it's only temporary, but the villagers where quite happy to see it.

Breakfast came next; we still haven't stocked back up on meat since Hedgecoast, and I haven't played around with faux meat since I mastered the chicken. So, the meal was mostly fresh fruits and pastries, but no one complained. Well, almost no one.

"Why didn't we get more than a few days worth of meat before heading up to Newlake?" Amelia whines cutely.

"I can run over to the dungeon and pick you up some rat steaks if you want." I laugh when she makes fake gaging noises. "Heheheh. Okay, how about I promise to work on some more of those fake meats, like that chicken I made? Now that I have Mastery it shouldn't be a problem, and you won't be able to tell the difference."

"I'll hold you to that." She mumbles around a mouthfull of muffin.

"I don't suppose you can just stay and cook for us everyday." Gwynne says and the rest of the villagers swiftly murmur their agreements.

"Mhm sorry, too busy for that. But, I'm happy to leave you plenty of supplies and all of my recipies." I project images of hundreds of cookbooks and thousands of recipies. "I also have plenty of ideas for Runes to help with growing and processing food, let alone just cooking it."

"Even chocolate?" The villagers perk up when Clara asks this.

"Hmm? It's normally time consuming, but not all that dificult to make." I think it over. "The Rune to speed up the fermentation would be the most difficult, but if I can figure that out it should be possible, and even if I can't then it'll just add a week or two of waiting to the process."

"You can speed up fermentation?" Lana asks with a thirsty look.

"Yeah, I can make some decent wines too." I admit. "But, I mostly cheat by tweaking the flavors with magic. I'm guessing you're the village brewer."

"I dabble." The prideful smile on her face, and the laughs of the women tell me that she does more than just dabble.

"Well, I'll work on it." This gets a smile from her and most everyone else. "And, I have been wanting to explore magical plants some more, maybe I can make a magical yeast. Use it to brew potions... Hmm, there's an idea."

I transform my zinc necklace into a small barrel and fill it with Healing Sap before adding a bit of yeast and start brewing while focusing on the yeast integrating the healing qualities of the sap as they grow and multiply.

A minute later and they do seem a bit more magical, so I collect a sample for later. But, my first attempt at Healing Mead seems to be a failure. "Tastes alright, even if it did lose the healing effect." I pour it out into some glasses after Lana and a few others give it an inquisitive look.

"I've had worse." Lana smacks her lips after taking a drink. "But why did you use your necklace to brew it?"

"Zinc essence." I answer while turning it into an armband, I've been using too much vitality on the scans for the stump to have grown much, and I'm hoping that moving the zinc closer might help. "It promotes healing, and has a synergistic effect with my spell."

"Oh!" Georgia, the aspiring glassblower exclaims. "I read about that stuff, what you have there is worth a fortune."

"Eh." I shrug my shoulders. "We already have several fortunes, what's one more." My casual treatment of wealth makes Amelia grumble.

"Everytime I think I'm turning you into a proper merchant you go and say something like that." She gives me a dissapointed look while sighing melodramatically.

"Don't you know that the only fortune he cares about is you two?" Elle whispers into her ear, earning a blush from Amelia and a round of titters from the villagers.

"Nnh." She mumbles, suddenly shy. "Don't you have a mountain to build?"

"That I do, but..." I say with a smile before singing along with some Marvin Gaye. "Listen baby, ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough baby..." She blushes even deeper as I pull her into a dance.

"Nice one Sorrel." Apricot slaps me on the back when the song finishes. "But, don't forget about our rule. 'No more themed playlists.'"

"It was just one song." I hold my hand and vines up in surrender. "I only know a couple other good 'mountain' songs anyways." I add when she squints at me.

"Alright, you go build your mountain." She pulls a still blushing Amelia away. "We're going to go check out that bath house."

"Mhm." I pull them both back for a kiss. "Wish I could join you, but Elle's gonna have to take a nap if I want to finish this today." My alter-ego gets her own kisses before fading away with a wave.

I start by making a nice park for the women to relax in, again it's only temporary, so I don't go all out. Just a few trees, some soft grass, and several pavilions. You know, just what I could throw together in a minute.

"Quit showing off, and go show off for real." Apricot laughs at the astonished looks of the women that just watched packed dirt turn into lush grass right under their feet.

"For you, anything." I tap my necklace and Blackthorne expands to full-size as I rise up into the air. Sweeping my staff out in front of me, a rough circle of grass over ten kilometers wide decomposes in its wake.

Seeds taken from the woods around Newlake spread out to fill that circle with life once more. Playing around with Elle has really improved my multi-tasking, and the entire forest grows up as one. The whole thing takes me a good half hour, but that's mainly because I had to drive the roots down deep to reach the ground water.

Once the background is in place I turn around and wave up at the sky where the focal point of the spell Amelia is using to project my progress to the villagers is located. "It's going to be a bit boring from here, call me in when it's time for lunch."

I point Blackthorne at the center of the forest, the plants where the lake will go start decomposing as the ground on the other side rises up. I then go sit crosslegged in the middle, close my eyes, and focus on moving stone around.

***

"Baby, it's past noon." Amelia lands in front of me. She's gotten better about heights now that she can fly herself, but still doesn't like to go very high. "The girls all decided to cook for us this time."

"M'kay." I come back to myself, and stretch out while levitating myself to my feet. "Wow, got more done than I thought, I totaly zoned out there and just sank into the magic."

"Yeah, it's looking good." She smiles and pulls me into the air. "Rea even called, said you can see it easily from town. But, let's get back before Apricot eats everything, they really out did themselves." She laughs and guides us around the deep pit where the lake will go.

"Mmm, that smells good." I make myself heard as we land. "I may have to steal a few of you girls' recipies."

"A hundred years of cooking experience adds up." Madeline, the chief cook of the village beams with pride. "We may not usually have a lot of variety, but we learned to make the most out of what we do have, and if any day calls for a celebration, today certainly counts."

We join Gwynne and Apricot at the table we used this morning, and swiftly fill our plates. All of us too focused on the good food to really chat, but it's not long before Clara asks a question. "It's really amazing, but how are you going to fill the lake?"

I wash down a mouthful of food with some very good fruit wine that Lana must have made before answering. "Oh, there's actually a very large aquifer deep under the ground. But, we're talking about billions of liters, and since I'm already showing off..." I turn my wine into a small cloud before having it rain back into my glass. "I thought I'd borrow a bit of the Janwick, that is if my girls and Gwynne will help me."

"Y-you're going to make a storm, and move it five-hundred kilometers even though all the water you need is already right under our feet?" The dragon gapes at me.

"Yeah, I thought it'd be fun." I say after swallowing another bite. "Blackthorne and I can handle the heavy lifting while you three help rein the storm in. If we take the motorcycles it'll take us less than two hours to get there, and maybe twice that to get back. I practiced a bit last night after dinner and before... we got distracted." She blushes at the look I give her.

"I'm in." Amelia says with a grin at the bashful dragon. "Sounds like good practice for my air magic."

"I'm always down to watch Sorrel play with his staff." Apricot licks her lips suggestively while giving Gwynne a look of her own.

Temmie lets out a few *Dings* as the table laughs, more at Gwynne's reaction than the pixie's wordplay. Poor Clara looked confused for a moment until Kacey whispered something in her ear, then she just blushed and started giggling.

Gwynne mumbled her agreement after downing a glass of wine. The rest of the meal passed in good humor as the villagers teased their matriarch. Afterwards, it only took me three more hours to finish up the mountain. And then, one more to build the village, it's fields and animal pens, and set up the hotsprings in the dragon's mouth.

"Alright everyone." I speak to the crowd after ferrying them over. "Pick a house, and I'll move your stuff in. I've added some basic furniture, but they're still a bit empty. So, make a list of what you want and I'll fill them up when I add the enchantments tomorrow."

"Maybe give them a few minutes to just take it all in first." Amelia says with a laugh. "Hells, even though we're used to you pulling of the impossible, this is still amazing."

"That, and Amelia and I were watching you build, but they didn't want see the village until it was done." Apricot explains while running her hands over the engraved walls of the nearest home. "Why don't we go make dinner and let them explore."

"Alright, the big meeting hall can hold everyone. We can all meet up there after they look around." I guide my wives into the center of town, and start up one of the sets of stairs. The start to say something as we pass the meeting hall, but I just smile and keep walking.

The buildings are fairly simple in design, if not execution. Stone boxes with large windows and slanted roofs. About half are on the ground at the base of the mountain, with the rest going up in tiers along the side of the dragon's belly.

The walls though are where they shine, rather literally as the rays of the setting sun pass through the trees to glint off of the polished carvings. I used the various minerals to 'paint' the engravings, including quite a lot of colored quartz.

Every wall is filled with waterscapes, and underwater scapes. Sirens, Moura, Mermaids, Selkies, etc. gambol about, sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden, but always there. Amelia and Apricot marvel at the scenes; Amelia is happy to just look, but Apricot has to run her hands over every woman she finds, and she makes sure to find them all.

It's not until we turn a corner on the highest tier that they stop dead in their tracks. A very familiar carving adorning its walls with one minor change. Tears start flowing from Amelia's eyes as she walks up to trace her hands over the same carving that once adorned the vardo.

The other houses were good, but this is as realistic as I could make it, and now includes the three of us. Amelia and I sit nude on the edge of the brook, dipping our toes in the water. And Apricot, also naked, flies over the water raising a small wake as she trails an arm through it.

"Oh, baby..." Amelia strokes my face on the wall before turning around and wrapping me in a tight hug.

"Not bad." Apricot also strokes my carving, though it's not my face that she touches. "I may not have been there, but we did make some good memories in that wagon."

"We were watching the whole time, how did you hide this?" Amelia questions once she finds her voice again.

"Kept it underground until you dropped the scry when I came to get you guys." I thumb away a tear from Amelia's face and pull Apricot into our hug. "I figure we'd be here often enough that we should have our own place and, like you, I miss our little wagon."

"It's perfect." She smiles at me and starts to lean in for a kiss when her stomach rumbles. "Hahaha. Okay we can break it in later, lets go make dinner."

I smile and finish the kiss she started before flying us down to the meeting hall. A few of the hungrier ladies have shown up already, but most are still exploring. I set out my snack box, and get started making dinner.

I was trying things out while building and figured out how to make a roast 'chicken' that is indistinguishable from the real thing. So, I make a few dozen of those, and plenty of sides. Roasted veggies, fettuccine alfredo, garlic rice, scalloped potatoes, three types of salad from potato, to greens, to corn. And, last but not least, good old fashioned southern biscuits.

The scents have Amelia and Apricot drooling, so I spread them out through the village with Air magic to draw everyone in. It works like a charm, and soon the villagers are digging in. Since this is something of a celebration, I also provide plenty of alcohol. Red and white burgundies, chardonnay, pinot noir, along with cider, and a couple golden ales.

"This chicken is fantastic." Gwynne moans after her first bite. "I thought you said you were out of meat, and I know we didn't bring this many with us."

"It's not really meat." If it can fool a dragon then the effort I put into it was definitely worth it. "Well, it is, and it isn't. I can change things from their very basic elements, so I changed plants into meat. Took me a good chunk of the afternoon to get it just right."

"I can't tell the difference." She forks a slice and looks at it before shrugging and popping it in her mouth. "If anything it's even better than any chicken I've ever had."

"You got that right." Madeline looks like she wants to be jealous, but is enjoying the food too much. "You're still going to give us copies of your recipies, right?" she pleads.

"Please include the one for the beer too." Lana says after taking a big draught from her mug.

"Yes. Heheheh, but just wait until I bring out dessert." It's just a simple pudding pie, but everyone in the village seems to love chocolate.

"Nnh, you're going to spoil us." Gwynne says around another bite of chicken.

"So? It's a celebration." I say while sipping on my cider. "Call it Founding Day and roll it into a harvest celebration next year."

"Now, that is the best idea I've heard in a while." She clinks her glass against mine before upending it. Refilling the cup quickly, she then raises to the air with a shout. "To Founding Day!"

""To Founding Day!"" The rest of the room shouts back.

***