The night passed peacefully after that, the only interruption was from Ferne stirring up the fire slightly in the wee hours so she would have enough light to find the latrine. I've seen a moon in the skies before, but it must like to go to bed early because the middle of the night gets dark.

The next morning, it's Amelia's call of nature that drags us from sleep. "Sorry, but I really gotta pee." She apologizes in a whisper after her attempt at extricating her limbs draws us from slumber.

"S'alright." I smile up at her. "The sun's almost up anyways. How's cinnamon rolls for breakfast sound?"

"Just perfect." Apricot stretches like a cat before cocooning herself in the blanket. I pat her on the head and get up to check on the rolls. They look fine, so I start baking them, and make a mortar and pestle out of compressed firewood to grind up some powdered sugar for the icing.

"Mmm, that smells delicious." Ferne says after blinking the sleep from her eyes. "Sorry if I woke you last night."

"That's alright." I wave her concern away and check the rolls with a toothpick. "These go great with a cream cheese frosting, but I don't have any so we'll have to settle for sugar icing."

"Tully must have loved it when you two entered his store." Amelia laughs and sits down next to me.

"Yeah." I nod. "Between that and everything else, I'm pretty much broke now. Fortunately, I know a rather skilled merchant who can help me sell some wares."

"Anything to keep you stocked with baking supplies." She moans around a bite of her gooey cinnamon roll. "Oh, these are even better than the ones in Riverton."

"That's it!" Ferne snaps her fingers. "I've been trying to figure out what this flavor was since last night. It's the same as those rolls from that one fancy restaurant, and you're right. These are better."

"Maybe I'll sell a cookbook in the future." I laugh. "I'll call it 'A Thousand and One Confections', or something like that."

Luckily when I asked VeeGee for my media collection, he didn't limit it to music, movies, and tv shows. So, I've got my entire library all in my head now, including hundreds of cookbooks, thousands of saved recipes, and tens of thousands of fictions.

I may have been something of a digital hoarder, but hard drives are cheap. So, why not save everything? You never know when your favorite show is going to get pulled from Netflix, after all.

"I'd buy that." Ferne says right away. "I don't even bake, and I'd still buy that."

"That would definitely sell." Amelia agrees. "But, if you need some quick cash, you could probably sell the recipe for those dyes to Lacey. I know she'd love to be able to make her own."

"They can be pretty variable." I hedge. "Collecting them at different times of the year, even different growth stages can vary the colors widely. But... most don't need expensive fixatives, although stuff like alum and coppernas can brighten or change some colors."

"Are you a dyer?" Ferne asks with a surprised look on her face.

"I asked him the same thing." Amelia laughs.

"I was going to university to study plants, but I've always been interested in them. And, spent much of my childhood learning everything I could about them and their uses." I explain.

"Your home has a school just for learning about plants?" Apricot says skeptically.

"It wasn't just for plants." I laugh. "They taught a lot of subjects, I just cared most about plants... obviously." I waggle my tendrils about.

"Well, I'm glad you cared almost as much about cooking." She laughs back and takes a big bite out of her roll.

"Same here." - "And, here." Amelia and Ferne copy her, and we all settle in for our breakfast of sweets.

"Hnn." Ferne sighs after the last of the rolls are gone. "I really should be getting up to Northwood."

"Oh, let us help." Amelia offers. "Sorrel, you handle Honey."

"Hey girl, you want an apple? Yes, you can have one too Stormie." I hold one out for him after he nuzzles my arm. "But, I'm going to have to take your new friend away, she has work to do." I walk Honey over to the wagon where Ferne is waiting.

"Are you sure you guys aren't heading back up to Northwood?" Ferne asks with a laugh. "The pastries are great, but someone who can handle this stubborn beast? That's priceless."

"Oh, you're not so bad, are you Honey?" I give the horse a scratch behind the ears while Amelia helps Ferne get her hitched up. Once they're done I go over to re-open the exit, or I start to. But, the side panel falling off of the wagon has me change my direction. "Okay, I'm fixing up this thing whether you want me to or not."

Ferne just blushes and nods, so I get started by examining it. "Did you know your axle was cracked? It's not bad now, but if you hit a bump after it was fully loaded..." I fuse that back together, then go about tightening and smoothing everything else out.

"If it weren't for the weathering, I'd swear this was a brand new wagon." Ferne says while running her hand across the boards.

"I'm happy to help." I smile at her after taking care of one last splinter. "Are you sure you don't want to keep the mattress?"

"Oh, I couldn't." She holds her hands up and shakes her head. "You've already been too kind. I'll feel bad if I take any more advantage of you."

"Alright." I don't try to convince her. "Well, you have a safe trip. And, you be a good horse, okay Honey?" The horse shakes her head until I hold up another apple, then she gives a quick nod. "Good girl." I pat her on the withers.

"Thank you again." The enchanter bows her head to me. "And, safe travels to you three as well." She heads up the road after I clear away the hedges.

"So, what are our plans for today?" I ask after she's on her way.

"Seeing as someone's education was interrupted yesterday." Apricot grins. "I think there's only one thing we can do." She grabs us by the hands and tows us to the bed.

"I know we made a bet." I say after the pixie pushes me down onto the mattress. "But, she doesn't really have to suck me off all day long." I say that, but an erection is already straining my pants.

"Oh, shut up and take your pants off." Amelia says before dropping to her knees.

"Hahahahah. Yes, Ma'am." I comply.

***

"No more, please." I beg after having thoroughly reached my limit.

"Alright, you can ease up on him now." Apricot says, and Amelia finally relents. "I suppose our little training dummy deserves a break after that." That being an hour of teasing followed by having two orgasms sucked out of me, one right after the other. "But, it looks like Amelia is not the only one that needs a bit of training."

"I'll do better next time, if I know what to expect beforehand." I say, somewhat affronted.

"Ah, but where's the fun in that?" She smirks at me.

"Whatever." I'm not going to be able to win this fight. "You doing alright there Amelia?"

"Mhm. A little sore, but it's not that bad." She says while rubbing her jaw lightly. "I'm just using muscles I'm not used to, you don't need to heal me."

"Maybe not, but I do need to give you a reward. Two actually, since we were interrupted last time." I lick my lips and swap places with her.

"We should have just asked her to join in." Apricot grumbles. "She wasn't bad looking."

"I'm not sure Amelia's ready for another partner." I start turning the tables on the blonde, teasing her like she did to me.

"I couldn't." She pants out under my tender ministrations. "I'm still amazed I went -ah ahh- t-to your room that night. Very, very, glad that I did, but still amazed."

"You're not the only one that's glad." Apricot, apparently satisfied with my technique, lies next to Amelia and starts kissing her.

...

"I think you broke her." Apricot laughs at the quivering mess that I turned Amelia into. "Well done. And, I noticed a few tricks that I didn't show you."

"Mhm. I'll admit to being a little out of practice, at first." I chuckle and wipe my lower lip clean with a finger before licking it clean. "It's starting to come back to me now."

"I'm surprised you know what you're doing." She starts helping me clean up. "Most boys, even pixie boys, only bother learning enough to not embarrass themselves."

"Ah, that goes back to my first girlfriend and my first blowjob. It was... disastrous." I laugh at the shocked look on her face, I bet she thought I was gonna go in a different direction. "It was so bad that we both decided right then and there to learn what the hells we were doing. And, we did... after I healed that is."

"No?!" She covers her mouth to keep from laughing.

"Yes." I nod, and then shake my head at the memory with a rueful laugh.

"How did you learn then?" Amelia lifts her head to ask "Did you have a trainer like Apricot?" She blushes even thinking of it.

"No, this is my first time with more than one partner." I admit. "We were too young and shy to do anything like that, anyways. But, my land had an abundance of... let's call it educational material."

"Books on sex? Really?" She looks interested.

"Those too, yes." I nod. "But we also had devices that could record moving pictures, and share them to anyone else with a similar device." That's the simplest description I could think of.

"Really?" Apricot purrs. "Now, I want to visit your country."

"I'd love to take both of you." My smile turns a bit sad. "But, I don't think that's going to be possible."

"I'm sorry." Amelia pulls me into a hug.

"Don't be." I stroke her back. "My mom and sister are safe, and I'm happy to be here. Even if the road I took to get here was less than pleasant."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Her brilliant blue eyes meet my emerald green orbs.

"Someday." I kiss her. "It's still a bit raw right now."

"So, tell me more about these devices of yours." Apricot changes the subject in the best way she knows how.

I spent the next hour trying to explain cell phones, the internet, movies, tv shows, and the like to them. Apricot was mostly interested in the porn, but got a kick out of it when I told her that pictures of cats were just as popular.

I swear Amelia started drooling when I told her that I'd downloaded tens of thousands of books. She was interested in the 'magical plays' aka movies, but the books are what really got her attention. I decided then and there that if and when I tell them the truth about me, I'm going to open with a stack of translated books.

"I've never even heard of a land as rich as yours." Amelia says. "To have so many wonders in the hands of so many people."

"It wasn't all perfect, but it was alright." I forcibly replace the wistful smile on my face with something more cheery. "But, enough talking about the past. I got a good look at Ferne's wagon, and want to try replicating one."

"Did you figure out how to make the wood durable enough for the axles?" Apricot asks, likely excited to watch me throw some mana around.

"Oh, that's right. You were sleeping when I made the arrows yesterday." I take one out and toss it to her.

"Ow." She shakes her hand after catching it. "That's a lot heavier than wood should be."

"Yup, and Blackthorne ate the first one to copy the structure. So, he's that much heavier than before." I reach out for the staff and it flexes before springing to my hand. "You wanna hold it?" I ask suggestively.

"But, it's... so big." She twists shyly and blinks in a kittenish manner. "Are you sure it's okay?"

"Hahaha." - *Ding**Ding**Ding* - "Ugh. Why did I have to fall in with a couple followers of Temmie?" Amelia's groan just makes us laugh all the harder.

"Oh, you love the jokes and you know it." Apricot starts tickling the blonde until she squeals. "See, you even laughed."

"Don't do that!" Amelia huffs and moves away from the pixie to hide behind me. "I do not like being tickled."

"But, you're so cute when you squirm." Apricot creeps closer while moving her fingers in a menacing manner.

"Sorrel, she's picking on me." Amelia sticks her tongue out at the orange-haired terror.

"Oh, no!" I bend forward and clutch my hands together melodramatically. "What's this? Urge... to tickle... rising." I turn slowly around with a wild look in my eyes.

"Eeeek!" She tries to jump away, but I grab her and push her down onto the bed beneath me. Holding her down with my vines and one hand, I hold the other above her belly, my tendrils twitching like they can't wait to attack her tender flesh. And then, I give her a wink that only she can see.

"Yes, get her Sorr-Ack!" Apricot shouts when I turn the tables on her, and now she's the one pressed under me. "Now, wait a minute. We can talk about this. Ahhhhh-hahahahahahh."

...

"Hahahahah." I pant out a few minutes later. "Where was I?"

"Being mean to a poor defenseless pixie." Apricot gives us the stink-eye while wrapped up in blankets to protect herself.

"No." I shake my head with a wicked smile on my face. "Being mean would be me letting you know that this was just a taste of what's in store for you later. I've got plenty of feathers left on those old arrows, and I may know a few rope tricks too."

"You really are mean." Amelia chuckles darkly at the fearful look that Apricot shoots me before she hides her face under the covers. "Hahahah."

"Meanies." I can hear, if not see, Apricot blowing a raspberry at us.

"Yup." I agree. "Now, do you want to see how I made the arrows?"

"Ooh, yeah." She tries extricating herself from the blanket, but quickly gives up and just shrinks down to fly over and land on my knee. "That's a neat little trick, how strong is the wood afterward?"

"Strong enough to go straight through a small tree without a blemish." I give it a spin in my fingers after adding the fletching. "Wanna see?"

"Hells yes!" She agrees, nodding hard enough to more her whole body up and down.

Blackthorne shifts into bow mode as soon as I take out the bowstring. "Hmm, I really need to figure out a way to make a string that can handle this kind of tension. That way you could string yourself, and I wouldn't have to rely on whatever the bowyer comes up with for guitar strings."

"Yeah, yeah. You can do that later." Apricot hurries me on. "I want to see you fire this first. There, go for that big one over there." She points to a large tree about eighty meters back.

"A bit further than I'm used to, but okay." I nock the newly made arrow, line up the target, and raise up only slightly more than I would for a closer tree. *Twang. Swish. Thunk.* "Hah! Hit right where I was aiming too."

"Again." The tiny woman pleads. I just shrug and let a dozen arrows fly, one after the other.

"My grouping is a bit worse than at fifty, but it's not that bad." I would have considered myself lucky to have this tight a circle at seventy back when I was practicing every day, so I'm more than happy to do it at eighty on my first try.

"Make one for me." Apricot commands. "I want to try."

"Oh, this should end well." Amelia laughs and backs away.

"Go collect my arrows, and I'll make you a bow." I want to see if she can even pull them free.

She squeals and flies over to the tree before shifting to human size to try with all her might to yank one free. She gives that up quickly and resorts to cheating by just shifting them into her version of storage. Flying back, she drops thirteen arrows at my feet with a smug smile.

"Okay. I'll give you that." I say reluctantly. "But, I want you to show me how you did that trick. I can't put anything into storage if it's stuck to something else."

"Deal! Now, get to building." She orders me around, so I make her a pixie sized bow. "Very funny. Make one for real, please?"

"Since you asked nicely." I nod to her and fashion a proper size bow using one of my spare bowstrings. Two dozen arrows come next; they're modeled after the ones I created yesterday but made from regular wood. "Here you go. Try not to shoot us... or yourself."

She copies my stance and even tries aiming for the same tree. She hits a tree. Sure, it was only about half the distance from, and maybe fifteen degrees off of the one she was aiming at. But, she did hit something.

I look back for Amelia and find her hiding so that I'm directly between her and Apricot. I just shake my head and step closer to the pixie after her next shot goes awry.

"Your stance is good, but your grip is too tight." I hold my bow up mirroring her. "You don't want to curl your fingers, just hook the tips on the line and draw back. Yeah, that's it."

"Argh, I still missed." She growls.

"You did better, you just need to work on your release a little." I re-assure her. "Instead of popping your fingers off the string, just let them open up as you draw back past your chin."

"I hit it." She did, just barely. "And, oww." She shakes out her hand. "That's a lot harder on the fingers than it looks."

"Hmm? Try these finger savers." I compress some wood into two beads over her string, a small one for the forefinger, and a larger one for the middle and ring fingers. "If that doesn't work, I can try making you a leather finger guard from the leftover hide. Or, maybe work out some sort of release aid."

"No, this... this is good." She tries and hits the same tree again, a bit closer to the center this time too. "Yes!" She crows after hitting three in a row.

"Good, job." I congratulate her. "A few weeks of daily practice and we'll make a real archer out of you.

"Weeks?" The look she gives me makes me have to fight not to laugh. "Hey, Amelia. You want a bow?"

"No, thank you." She does laugh.

"Just think of it as a way to kill time." I offer. "And, if you get good enough maybe I'll make you a crossbow, or something bigger."

"Something bigger?" Her eyes light up in excitement.

"There's not much difference between a crossbow and a ballista, after all." I grin at the dreamy look that fills her face. "But, you need to practice. Try hitting the same tree with the rest of your arrows."

While Apricot practices her shooting, I try my hand at string making again. But, Amelia stops me almost immediately. "Is that how you tried making strings before? Ugh, no wonder you couldn't get it to hold any tension. Try doing it like this." She takes two strands of yarn, twists them and folds them over each other. Twist, fold, twist, fold... until she's got a short length of sturdy looking twine.

"That's much better, thank you." I test it, and her rope is not only stronger than the one I made, but it doesn't stretch out like mine did. "I thought you were a merchant, not a rope maker."

"A good merchant tries to learn a bit about everything she sells." She says, and pulls out the book that she stole from her aunt. "You can do three or four strands too, but that usually needs a jig to spin the lines at one end while a grooved ball keeps them separate at the other."

"So, like four cogs around a central gear?" I make a quick model to see if I have the right idea.

"Yeah, just like that." She looks up from her book and nods. "Add hooks to the center of those, and tie yarn from those to a central hook however far away you want the string to be. Then use a separator, and twist everything up. When you move the separator down the line, the individual bits will come together into one rope."

She goes back to her book, and I start experimenting. Apricot comes back a few minutes later saying that her arms hurt and that she lost all of her arrows. "Can you put on some music?"

"Of course." I set aside the string making to give her a massage and start-up my [Lazy Day] playlist. Bruno Mars' "The Lazy Song" is first up, naturally. "I'm surprised you lasted that long, I guess flying around gives you strong shoulder muscles."

"Mhm-hm." She nods. "Now, less talking, more rubbing."

She doesn't want me to talk, so I don't talk. I just lay her down on the mattress, take out some oil and warm it up with magic. I then straddle her butt and drizzle some over her back. Focusing on her upper back and shoulders with my strong hands, I let my vines handle her lower back and spread more oil as needed.

"Umm, me next. Please." Amelia begs in a quiet voice.

"I guess you can have him now." Apricot says dreamily. "Any more and I'm likely to melt."

"Lie down." Those two words are all I have to say before Amelia's stretched out on her belly. Switching saddles; I start working over the blonde's back, her moans guiding my hands as much as experience. "Hmm, your neck is tight. Is that from this earlier? Oh, you should have told me sooner."

"Nnh." She grunts as I work on a particularly tight spot. "I would have... if I knew you could do thi-is. Ahn, right there."

After turning her muscles into liquid bliss, I go back to string making... Well, I try to, but Apricot decides that it's my turn for a massage. And, I must admit that she's quite skilled at that too, even if... or perhaps because she only focused on one area.

Using cleanse to take care of the oily mess we made, I finally get back to work. It's just so hard to get anything done when you're constantly being distracted. Not that I'm complaining.

***