“Shouldn’t we paint?” I asked as Lily, and I surveyed the finished room just before midmorning the next day. We had worked through the night and the pixies had done most of the work which allowed us to finish the room a lot faster than it would have taken otherwise. This had allowed me to take a small nap just before daybreak. “Or maybe stain the wood?”

“Nope. You have a lot to learn about women,” Lily replied. I shrugged my shoulders. “We let Izzy decorate the room, including painting it as she sees fit.”

“Fair enough,” I said. “Do you think she’ll be thrilled with the lights?”

“Yes. Hopefully Izzy will be more mature and not play with them like a certain someone did,” Lily replied winking at me. Lily had insisted that we allow Isabella to have the same type of lights that we did in the rest of the house, so the pixies had done the wiring for it since I didn’t have a clue how to do it.

“I only did that one time…”

“Uh huh,” Lily said.

“Anyway, what about furniture?”

“We do have some stuff left from the lab’s living quarters,” Lily said.

“No bed though,” I replied.

“True. I suppose we could build or buy a bedframe and buy a mattress,” Lily said. “And Gabriela might give us a discount if she has any since it’ll be for her niece!”

“Good idea,” I agreed. “Let’s go into town.”

“Before we go, you should make a small batch of that sap gum,” Lily said.

“Oh? Why should I do that?” I asked.

“Because you can give away samples to drum up interest in your new product,” Lily answered flying around me in circles.

“Plus, give you and the others something new,” I said giving my familiar a smile.

“That too!” Lily happily agreed spinning rapidly in place in front of me. She came out of the spin giggling while almost falling out of the air. I cupped my hands and caught her, which made my silly familiar’ giggle turn into a full-blown laugh. “I love getting dizzy!”

*

“Jase, go eat before you start experimenting with the sap,” Lily said.

“Why?”

“My silly Jase, you’ve already forgotten that Izzy is coming over after lunch to help,” my familiar answered.

“True. Thanks Lily,” I replied.

“That’s what I’m here for!”

“I thought you were here to do pranks,” I said.

“That too!” Lily agreed enthusiastically nodding her head.

“You’re going to get dizzy again doing that.”

“I hope so!” Lily replied giving me a mischievous grin. I shook my head and walked out of the new room.

“You know, I think we should go collect a little sweet gum sap too,” I said as Lily caught up to me.

“Ah. You’ve been reading again,” my familiar said.

“Yep.”

“Alright! Let’s get sticky!”

“The sap will be more of a resin on the trees,” I said.

“D’oh!” Lily exclaimed making me laugh and shake my head. “Still, we can use it as a glue once it’s soft.”

“I read that article too. That was spruce sap, not sweet gum sap,” I replied.

“Oh…”

“We can get some of it if there are any spruce trees near the house,” I offered wanting to cheer my tiny companion up.

“Yay!”

*

“Been waiting long?” I asked Isabella when we returned to the cottage. She was sitting on a rock near the metal door cautiously watching Sara.

“About half an hour if I were to guess,” Izzy answered standing up and stretching. “Where have you been?”

“We were harvesting spruce and sweet gum resin,” I answered.

“Bombs away!” Lily and Willow shouted dropping four sweet gum balls over Izzy’s head.

“What the heck?” Izzy asked just as the balls fell into her hair. She ran a hand through her hair and hit the first spikey ball and screamed, “Ahhhh!”

“Bombs away!” Yam and April shouted a few seconds later over my head. A breeze kicked up and blew the spikey balls away from me and I grinned.

“That trick only works once,” I said as Izzy tried to pull the sweet gum balls from her hair.

“Aww!” Yam and April pouted.

“Ow!” Izzy cried.

“Bombs…” May started to scream but trailed off as Sara looked up at the pixie and chuffed. The pixie tossed the ball she held by its stem away. “Just kidding Sara! I wouldn’t dream of dropping one of those nuisances into your lustrous fur.”

Sara dropped her head and started to clean her paws as the other pixies laughed. May shrugged and then joined them in laughing. Sara’s ears twitched and she looked up. The mountain lion chuffed.

“We have company,” Lily announced as a couple of Stonecroft villagers hesitantly entered the clearing around our cottage.

“May we approach?” one of them asked while both stared at Sara.

“That depends on what you want,” I replied turning to face them.

“Some cough syrup and other supplies,” the other one said.

“Let me unlock the door,” I replied putting action to words.