I plan to tweak the recipe for the fructose and fig yeast batch later, but I thought I should work on these fruit wines first. Along with Delilah's suggestions for the recipes, I try each one with a mix of the yeasts already present on them along with the top handful of yeasts that Apricot picked out.

"This wood you're using isn't likely to affect the wine over such a short amount of time." Delilah comments. "But, I can't help but wonder how some of these might handle a proper aging in an oak barrel."

"Hmm, the wood I'm using has been compressed so it won't breathe nearly as much, but some of the flavors might still leach out if it were properly toasted." I say while thinking about the possibilities. "Hard to say which wines would benefit from that or a regular barrel though. I like a decent wine now and then, but I was always more of a beer person. And, aside from a few tries at home brewing, this is all somewhat outside my skill set."

"Well, you seem to be doing alright so far." She chuckles in reply.

"Mhm." I shrug. "This is just trial and error, really. If it weren't for a certain pixie's perfect nose everything would have taken much longer."

"Well, if you're serious about pursuing winemaking." Helen interjects. "Then you should speak with Mistress Pru. She knows just about everything there is to know about wine, and after what you did for her, I know she'd be glad to help."

"I may just get in touch with her." I nod. "Accelerating the fermentation is easy enough with my nature magic, but I don't know anything that could even remotely begin to speed up the aging process."

"What about the charcoal filtering you were going to try?"

"Oh, that's only going to remove some of the stronger flavors." I explain. "It's basically just a cheat to make poor quality spirits more palatable. I was kinda hoping it would give me an approximation of how they might mellow with age so I can see which ones might be worth setting aside for later. But, I'm probably just going to go with Apricot's nose, something tells me that she's snuck into more than a few vineyards in her time."

"Nobody saw me and they couldn't prove a thing even if they did." She sticks her tongue out at me.

"Hmpf." I snort in reply. "Well, these are almost done. Do you want to put your nose to good use? I'm eager to get started on that spell."

"Yeah, go ahead and pour them out for me." She hops out of her basket swing with a laugh and brushes her fingers along Amelia's arm on her way over to the brewing setup. "I can already pick out a few that should be good enough to drink now, along with some that might be more than decent given enough time to age."

Much like before, Apricot picked out her favorite, a strawberry wine, along several other good ones. She then pointed out several more that might be good if given enough time to mellow and, of course, the handful that just didn't turn out well at all.

"A shame none of the apples turned out as more than middling." Lauren comments after a round of samples. "I wouldn't mind a decent cider."

"I plan to crossbreed what I have now and grow some more varieties from seed." I say, just as disappointed. "Luckily, each apple seed tends to grow into a brand new variety, so it shouldn't be too hard to find some that will make a decent cider."

"I'm just upset you didn't have more honey, I would have loved some good mead." Delilah adds with a cute pout.

"I want to get into beekeeping too." I nod. "I should be able to speed up the production of honey, and can't wait to experiment with different flowers to see what kind of flavors I can get."

After saying that, I grab all the ciders, aside from one particularly foul-smelling one, and mix them together before lowering the temperature. I figure that even if the cider is only so-so that it might still make decent applejack.

"Ooh, apple brandy. Yes, please." Lianna closes in when I start pouring out the runoff while leaving the ice behind.

"This... this one might need a run through the charcoal." I choke out in between coughs after taking a sip.

"Yeah, just a little." She concurs with a raspy voice after trying it for herself.

"Yay, magic time." Apricot bounces on the balls of her feet just like an over-excited kid.

"Yes, magic time." I can't help but smile at her enthusiasm. "Let's go over closer to the water so I can use the clay to cover up the wood." She takes the hand I hold out for her and dances along next to me.

Once there, I build a large pile of firewood after breaking it down into pieces no more than a few centimeters thick. Making everything this thin isn't really necessary, but it should help speed things along. Thick river mud then flows over the pile of sticks to form an air-tight shell, with a bit extra piling up next to it.

"What's that second mound of mud for?" Delilah seems to be the most interested in magic, as she's the only one to follow us away from the alcohol.

"Well, normally you light the wood on fire and then smother it so all the charcoal doesn't burn away. I plan to do things a bit differently." I explain while pointing out the one hole I left in mud covering, a hole that leads directly underneath the extra mud. "I plan to bake the wood directly with magic. All the wood gas will then pour out of that hole and burn to heat the mud. I'll then be able to transfer that heat back into the wood and save myself a lot of magic in the process."

"All while trying to invent a new spell?" She raises an incredulous eyebrow.

"Oh, this isn't just about making a new spell, I could have done that with almost any substance." I say with a smile for Apricot. "This is about showing off for my girl, she does love her magic." My smile grows wider when said girl blushes a bit. "Now, I've been mulling it over so I think I know where to start, but this is going to take some concentration to get right."

"Don't mind me." Delilah laughs. "I just want to watch; I've always been more interested in magic than the rest of them. Well, until Amelia met you two, that is."

I just chuckle and get started heating the wood. Soon a bright jet of flame is shooting out of the large mound and into a tube snaking its way through the smaller one. I'm quickly able to get all of the heat needed to char the wood just from this.

Once I have a good handle on that process, I can focus on inverting the draw matter spell. Keeping the image of solid carbon in mind, I then will everything else away from a small piece of newly formed char.

This really is just like inverting the previous spell, even the mana flows feel like they're inside-out for lack of a better term. But, it works. Slowly at first, but with a rapidly increasing pace as I get used to the new spell.

Expanding the sphere of influence as I go, I soon feel my mind and body filled with the language of magic. The incantations and somatic gestures for this new spell coming as naturally to me as breathing.

"...Separate!" I conclude the chant on a power-filled word that causes the blowtorch to expand into a flame thrower. "Hahahahahaha!" A deep, dark laugh erupts from my throat as the world bends to my will once again.

"Oh, gods." Apricot pants out when I reach over to steady her. Her knees having found themselves a little weak from watching the display I just put on for her.

"Easy there, Sweetie." I have to grab her hands when she starts pawing at me. "We still have company."

"Let them watch." Apricot replies in a feral growl. "If they had any idea how sexy what you just did was, they be begging to join in."

"Heh. A shame they can't see magic like you then." I shake my head and wrap the horny little thing up with all four of my arms. "But, you know the rule. No having sex with Amelia's friends, or in front of them, for that matter."

"Am I missing something?" Delilah asks while looking more than a little embarrassed. "It was an impressive fire and all, but not..." She just gestures at Apricot, who is trying her best to grind against me.

"You have no idea." The pixie rolls her eyes at the clueless woman and finally wrenches herself to a stop with a shudder that shakes the whole of her tiny frame.

"Well done magic just seems to do the trick for pixies." I try to explain. "You saw a flame, but she experienced, with senses we don't even have, a choreographed dance of the energies of creation."

"A very sexy dance!" Apricot adds with a fierce nod. "A dance that Sorrel let play over my skin because he knows it drives me wild."

"Did I take my teasing too far?" I breathe into her ear, a wicked smile playing on my lips.

"Well, damn!" Lauren interrupts us with a nervous laugh. "If my magic teachers had explained it like that, I would have paid a hell of a lot more attention. That's for sure. Just look what you did to poor Amelia, she's been quivering ever since that flash went off."

"You... you two have to quit doing stuff like that to me when I'm around my friends." The blonde refills her glass before downing it one go. "Otherwise no guardswoman outfit... ever."

"We'll behave." I promise immediately, earning myself a round of heckling from her friends.

"Speaking of clothes..." Lauren prompts after their laughter dies down, only for it to start up again, this time directed solely at her. "Well, you heard them Sorrel. I guess they just aren't interested in you making any outfits for them."

"I think you might just be right." I laugh when the rest of their faces turn pale, the laughter of just moments ago vanishing as if it never was.

"Amelia. He's not playing fair." Lianna clings to her friend, but the blonde just laughs.

"Let him finish playing around with his charcoal." She smirks at all four of them. "And, then I might think about telling him to make you some clothes. But, you four have to wear whatever I pick out for you." Her smirk morphs into a wide grin.

I just shake my head at their antics as they plead with Amelia, and turn my attention back to the charcoal pit. It has completely cooled off by now, so I roll the mud off and back into the river. My control was so tight that the outermost layer is still wet and cool to the touch.

The wood itself has turned completely black and crackles like glass when I break a piece in half. I try out the magnifier spell, but the pores I'm looking for are too small for even that. I'll just have to run some tests with some iodine later to see what kind of surface area it has. If I can remember the formula, that is. At the very least, I'll be able to compare it to regular and activated charcoal.

"Let's see how this works on the applejack." I powder enough to fill a small paper cone and add it to a funnel before pouring the freeze-distilled cider through it. "Damn, it was pretty clear to begin with, but look at that." The alcohol was clear to begin with thanks to my filtering it with nature magic, but it turns a shade lighter after running through the filter

"Smells better too." Apricot nods, so I hold up a sample for Lianna to try first.

The beastkin eyes the glass of pale spirit dubiously for a second before shrugging and knocking it back. "That... is a lot better."

"Hmm?" I smack my lips after taking a sip. "Could probably use a second pass, but I've drunk worse." I go ahead and run it through the filter again. The drink doesn't change color this time, but it does taste a bit smoother afterward.

"Clothes now?" Lauren practically begs Amelia who just smiles and walks over to show me the drawing I made just for the hell of it of a particularly ugly outfit

"Heheheh. Yeah, these will take me a little bit." They all wince at the wicked laugh coming from my lips. "Why don't you all decide what you'd like for dinner while I work on these. It won't be dark for a while yet, but I should probably get started before I drink too much more. Apricot and Amelia and have already picked the appetizers and dessert, so I just need to know what the main course should be."

"You'd better not drink too much." Apricot warns me while Amelia blushes when she remembers the name of the dessert I'll be making. "You still have to pay for teasing us all day."

"Heheheh. Don't worry, I can just speed up my liver, or even draw the alcohol directly out of my blood if it comes to that. And, there's always shapeshifting as a last resort." My words make Amelia blush even harder, but her friends are too afraid to say anything about it. Not too afraid to smile when she's not looking though.

"Can you do anything for hangovers?" Lianna asks, dead serious, which does get them to laugh.

"Water before bed and some juice in the morning, maybe one of my smoothies." I take one out and start sucking on it. "I'd offer some aspirin, but I haven't run across any willow trees yet. Which is a shame because I want to add some next to the river here."

"You can't just magic it away?" Her face droops a little.

"Not really, a hung-over body is just dehydrated and missing some nutrients that were peed out the night before." I suppose I could try to rehydrate someone directly with magic, but water and time would work just as well. "I can tell you some drinks to avoid. Red wine and Brandy along with darker spirits tend to cause worse hangovers because of certain byproducts in them."

"We're always telling you to drink more water." Helen puts her arm around her friend's slumped shoulders. "Not even magic can fix everything."

***