It takes me a good hour to find a bowstring that could handle the strain that Blackthorne would put on it, and then some. I made a thread from four single strands of linen and fused that together with magic. Then I used four of those to make an even larger thread, and so on until I had the right thickness for the bowstring.

"Alright, bud." I pat the staff. "Try eating this and see if you can recreate it when you shift into bow mode." It takes him longer to eat than the arrows I made, but after a minute he shifts into a pre-strung bow. "Well, done Blackthorne. Well done."

I walk over to the edge of the road to fire off a couple test shots, and I swear the bow is that much more powerful now. Walking over to retrieve the arrows proves this to be true, as they've sunk in even farther than they would have before.

Returning Blackthorne to a staff with a thought, I return to camp with a wide smile plastered on my face.

"I see that it went well." Amelia smiles back at me. "Are you going to make your guitar now?"

"Yeah, I want to see what this compressed wood will sound like." I start making the neck, back, and sides from it. "Normally you want a nice dense hardwood for the back. Rosewood and mahogany are probably the most popular, though maple isn't without its fans, and would probably be easier to find around here. Now, I just need a bit of spruce for the top."

I leave the unfinished guitar with her and dance back across the road to where a mid-sized red spruce is growing. I first pluck out one of Apricot's stray arrows, and then fell the tree with a pulse of magic.

Stripping the bark and branches off, I re-attach the largest one to the base and decompose the rest. After dragging my prize back to camp, I sit down to make the strings while using my draw water spell to dry out the log.

"Why didn’t you just do that when we needed firewood before?" Apricot asks.

"Habit, I suppose." I shrug. "I'm not used to using a lot of magic. We may have had a lot of fancy devices where I came from, but magic was not common." Now, there's an understatement. "That, and it's just easier to collect wood that's already dry."

"For someone who's strong enough to carry a whole tree back, sure." Amelia laughs.

I've got a few dozen different gauges of strings ready by the time the tree is dry enough. I used various two, three, and four-strand combinations to get the right sizes. Setting those to one side, I piece together the guitar top. Adding compressed wood for the bridge and pickguard before magically gluing everything together.

Adding the strings I think will fit best; I start tuning it, only to remove the smallest string and shift the others over. This sounds right, so I go into a few warm-ups.

"Okay." I say after a minute. "The guitar sounds great, but I am rustier than I thought." I wasn't horrible, but I definitely need to practice.

"It wasn't bad." Amelia tries to cheer me up. "And, if it comes back to you like the bow did, then you'll have it down in no time."

"Hopefully." Though, I'm kinda wishing that I had brought mine to school with me. I just didn't want to be 'that' guy. "But, practice can wait, right now I'm hungry. Who wants lunch?"

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"You don't even have to ask me." Apricot perks up at the mention of food.

"I could eat." Amelia nods.

"Pasta salad good?" I start making everything when they agree. "I wish I had some chicken or a dry sausage or something to go with it, but it's still good without." Once everything is ready, I serve it up in bread bowls with some Italian dressing.

"Mmm." Amelia moans around a bite of the fresh bread. "I am so glad I met you."

"I'm happy to have met you too." I chuckle. "So, I got a good look at Ferne's wagon when I was fixing it up this morning. I don't know how Stormie will feel about being hitched up, but I'd much rather sit in a wagon for the rest of the trip."

"Mhm, it's not the first time he's had to pull a load." She says between bites. "And, it would be a lot quicker, especially once we meet up with Roddy."

"Speaking of." I ask a question that's been bugging me a little bit. "I know he gave his tacit approval, but is he going to be okay with us having sex in the same camp? Or, are we gonna have to sneak off every time we want to fuck?"

"Uhh..." She drags the word out. "I don't know. But, we're going to need a tent at the very least. And." She gestures down at her nude form. "No more walking around naked all day long. Yes, I'm looking at you Apricot. No teasing my brother, and definitely no fucking him."

"Yeah." I speak up. "We should probably set some ground rules. No having sex with family members is probably a good start. Especially considering the bond you two share."

"Oh!" Apricot's eyes widen before her whole face twists up in disgust. "Yeah, eww. Pixie's may be more open about sex than most of you lunkers, but even we have lines that just aren't crossed."

"Umm... about o-others." Amelia stammers as a blush creeps across her face.

"I don't cheat." I tell her flat out. "So, I won't pursue anyone else while we're together, but I'm certainly not going to say no if you want to bring in more partners. And, this may be selfish of me, but I would prefer if they were women. I can deal with it if they aren't, but it would be easier if they are."

"That works for me." Apricot nods. "I usually prefer girls anyways, so you're all the man I need." She turns to the blushing blonde with a serious look on her face. "And, I really don't want to break this bond. So, I won't do anything you're not comfortable with, Amelia."

"I can tell through the bond that this important to you." Amelia fights past her discomfort to speak openly about this. "So, I'll try. But, they'll have to be someone I like. I just can't... not with some stranger."

"You two are connected, so I'll leave all that up to you." I brush back the hair she's trying to hide her face behind, and give her a gentle kiss. "That's the big one, but are there any other rules we need to lay out?"

"No anal." Apricot raises her finger and has a deadly serious look on her face. "You haven't tried anything, so I didn't bring it up. But yeah, I do not like it. But, that's just me." She adds after seeing something in Amelia's face. "If you like it, or just want to try, then go ahead."

"I... uh... Nnh." She lets out the cutest frustrated groan ever. "It's really hard to just talk about this stuff."

"It's alright Amelia." I squeeze her knee. "We can explore that later. But, before we go exploring. We should probably have some safe words. That's a special word that when you use it, everything stops." I explain to her questioning gaze.

"It's for stuff like when you were tickling me earlier." Apricot adds. "I was saying no, and stop even though I didn't want you to."

"Oh, okay." Amelia nods. "That's probably a good idea. But, uh how do we pick one."

"There's a lot of enchanted vehicles where I'm from." I start with what sounds like a non sequitur. "So, we created a set of traffic signals where green means go, yellow means slow or caution, and red means stop. So, I'm used to using 'Red Stop', but food names and other colors are popular too. It just needs to be easy to remember and say."

"R-red works." Her face blushes a deep red when she says that.

"I think I can remember that." Apricot smirks. "Oh, she is just so precious."

"I know, right." Amelia is now squirming under our focused attention. "But, we shouldn't tease her too much, she is still kinda new to all this after all. And, Amelia." I lift her chin until she's looking me in the eyes. "If anything ever makes you uncomfortable, just say so."

"I'm okay. Thank you." She smiles at me, and ducks behind her curtain of hair again.

"So precious." Apricot gloms onto her. Their hug soon turns to kissing, and then a lot more.

***