"Have I said before that I'm really glad I met you two?" I breathe out while soaking in the afterglow.

"Yes, but it's still nice to hear." Amelia says and starts playing her fingers across my chest.

"Oh, no." I catch her hand and bring it to brush my lips against her knuckles when it begins trailing lower and lower. "I can't. I'm sorry, but not again. Not yet, at least."

"Where's all that stamina you had while outrunning a horse yesterday." Apricot teases.

"It got sucked out of me by a demon pixie and her evil apprentice." I laugh at the wicked grin she gets. "I'm serious. It's getting to the point where it hurts. I'll let you abuse me some more later, but I want to get that wagon built before we lose the light." A couple of hours have already passed since our late lunch.

"I'll hold you to that." She says, and slaps me on the ass. "You know, Amelia and I have made our positions clear, butt what about you." You can hear that she stresses the word intentionally.

"Eh." I shrug. "It feels alright I guess, butt..." I stick my tongue out at her. "I rarely feel like doing anything down there."

"Mhm." She nods. "Have you ever been with another guy?" This casual question sets Amelia blushing cherry-red.

"No." I shake my head with a laugh at the blonde's antics. "Sex is sex, but I'm just not attracted to men."

"That's fine with me, but I think Amelia's a bit disappointed." Apricot teases her lover.

"Hmm? I might be willing to put on a show for her, but it would have to be for a special occasion." Amelia gets a dopey look on her face when I say that, but soon tries to stammer out a negation.

"Amelia it's alright." Apricot rolls her eyes. "Like Sorrel said, 'sex is sex'. There's nothing wrong with wanting to see him and another boy together. He seems to enjoy watching us together, after all."

"B-but, I couldn't ask that." She squeaks out just loud enough to be heard before hiding under the covers.

"Don't worry about it, Amelia." I bend over and pat her on the back. "It's fine to have fantasies, it's even fine to want them to come true. If you ever want yours to, then I'll try my best to make it happen." My best will probably involve a lot of alcohol, but these two are already making my fantasies come true. So, I'm willing to try, I just hope it doesn't come up anytime soon.

She doesn't reply, so Apricot and I just share an amused look before I get to work building the wagon. I probably should have started this project while it was fresh in my mind, but I kept getting distracted.

Still, it's a fairly simple design. The part where the axle meets the wheels is just a graduated cylinder. This sits inside the wheel hub which has a couple sets of simple roller bearings. Ferne's was made from iron, but my compressed wood should hold up nearly as well.

I've got the first one all fitted together and give it a test spin when I discover I'm missing one key ingredient. "Hey, Babe. You don't happen to have a pot of tallow on you?"

"Hahahahahah." She just cracks up laughing at my oversight.

"Okay. I guess I'm building an oil press." I've got some bacon grease leftover from breakfast the other day, but I'm saving that to cook with. "Luckily, I've got a bunch of cotton seeds."

"Is that going to be thick enough?" She asks.

"I'll mix it with some soap."

"Do you have soap?"

"Nnnnngggg." I growl through my nose before taking a deep breath. "No, but we have ash. I'll just make some."

"You're a handy guy to have around." She says while her eyes twinkle in mirth.

"If it involves plants, yeah. But, you might be a little handier here." I say as a thought comes to me. "If you dissolve salt in conjured water does it disappear with the water?"

"It gets left behind as a residue. Why?" She asks, suspiciously. I just smile and scoop some ashes into a large cone with a cloth filter at its tip. "You want me to add water to this?"

"Just fill it up with hot water and let it drip into the bucket underneath." I answer. "It would take too long to draw all the water away, which means I'd have to boil it off. And trust me, you don't want that smell stinking up camp."

"Good point." She nods and does as I asked before going back to her book.

While the lye is being extracted, I'm using the mortar and pestle I made before along with a bit of magic to pulp the seeds before adding them to a screw press. It doesn't take long before I've got a couple liters of oil, and the lye is ready to go.

"Well, it's a crappy soap." I added too much oil on purpose. "But, should work great as axle grease."

"I'm surprised you know how to make it from scratch." Apricot peers at the goop with interest. "Between your cleaning spell, and how rich your homeland sounds. I don't see you having a need for it."

"I didn't always have this spell. And, while my family wasn't rich, we could afford soap." I laugh. "I learned this because it has to do with plants. Same as with the mushroom dyes, and a lot of other things. I may not have had a need, but I still tried out as many things as I could."

"Well, I'm glad you did." She smiles over at Amelia. "Her boobs are comfy, but there's just something about lazing around at this size. So, thank you for building me a big rolling bed."

"Hahahah." I can't help but laugh at the look of indignation that crosses Amelia's face.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

It doesn't take long to finish building the rest of the wagon's undercarriage. I only used the modified wood for the wheels and axles, everything else is made from regular wood to save on weight.

"I know a few wainwrights that would be extremely jealous of you right now." Amelia jokes after I finish adding the bed to the wagon. It is a bed too, I used the mattress I made for Ferne since it was sized to fit hers if she wanted to keep it.

"It'll do for now." I shrug nonchalantly. "We've got plenty of padding, but I'd like to add some sort of suspension. That can wait for later though. I should get started on the tent while I still have the light."

"It's a tent." Amelia tilts her head in confusion. "They aren't that difficult to make."

"Do you know a soundproofing spell?" Her mouth opens up in a big 'O' when I ask that.

"Good idea." Her lips morph from that 'O' into a sly smile.

Now, living in a noisy dorm, I learned a few tricks about sound management. One, mass is your friend when you're on a budget, but any air gap is an opportunity for sound to get in or out. That's where things like open-cell foam come in handy because they absorb sound instead of just blocking it.

I don't have any foam, but I can duplicate the same effect by creating short fibers tuned to specific frequencies. To test, I make a pixie sized tent and ask apricot to go inside and start shouting.

It's a simple cabin style tent, that when scaled up will fit around our oversized mattress. The door and mesh windows have double flaps that open in opposite directions. The walls themselves are basically just a canvas quilt with a fuzzy inner layer that looks almost like velvet.

Apricot gives it her all and we can barely hear anything from right outside. So, if Rodrick sleeps on the other side of the camp we can still fuck our brains out without worrying.

"It's perfect." Amelia says once Apricot rejoins us. "But, won't it get a bit hot? It is summer, after all."

"That's where your ice magic comes in." I pull out the makeshift icebox I used to make the cinnamon rolls. "The tent's insulation will keep the cool inside just like this box."

"Oh, yeah." She laughs. "I'm still not used to being able to do much more with magic than keep myself clean. You should add a tarp to the wagon too, that way Roddy can sleep in it."

"Are you sure it's not so you two can nap while I guide the wagon?" I chuckle at the guilty look that fills her face. "You're so cute." I kiss her on the forehead before pulling out a giant bale of cotton, it's not the only one I have either. "Luckily, I think I might have just barely enough to make everything."

"Yeah, just barely." She smiles at me before sitting back down with her book. "Don't forget to save enough magic for dinner."

"Am I going to be stuck cooking every meal now?" I raise an amused eyebrow at her.

"Unless you want the same stew, over and over again." She counters.

"Fine, but we really do need to stock up when we hit Southwood." The fabric making is more time consuming than anything, so I decide to get started on some stuff that will take a while even with magic. "And since we'll be there tomorrow, I might as well use up the last of my dairy. Don't worry, Apricot. I'll save enough for breakfast."

"You'd better." She throws a mock glare at me.

I doubt they've ever had pizza, so I figure I'll try my hand at that. Kneading the dough, and setting it aside to rise first. I then grow some thistle and get interrupted by a curious pixie.

"What are the flowers for?" She looks skeptical.

"This is for dinner." I grin back at her. "Bread and thistles. It's a very famous dish where I'm from."

"Somehow I doubt that." She shakes her head at me. "What are they really for?"

"Substitute for baby cow stomachs." She wrinkles her nose at that, but Amelia perks up.

"You're making cheese? With weeds?"

"Yeah, I need a soft white cheese for this recipe." I explain. "So, I’m harvesting the stamens for rennet. Nettle leaves work too, but you need a lot more, and they need to be boiled for a long time. I just wish I had some citric acid or lemon juice. Vinegar will work in a pinch, but it's not ideal."

Half an hour later the Mozzarella is chilling in the icebox. I then get started on the sauce; since I'm making it from scratch, it's going to take a while to simmer off the extra moisture, but we've still got time before it gets dark.

I obviously don't have a food processor, so it's smashy time. I make a large mortar just for this and quickly mash everything together.

"Okay!" Apricot interrupts again. "What on earth are you making?"

"Tomato sauce. Duh." I laugh when she growls at my flippant answer.

"Sweetie, he's clearly doing this on purpose." She pulls Apricot back down next to her. "Just let him cook."

"It had better be good."

"It's be better if I had some spicy sausage, but I'm sure you'll like it." Setting the sauce on the edge of the campfire to simmer. I take out a bunch of fruit and start making pie filling.

"This one, I know." The pixie smirks at me. "You're making pie for dessert."

"Nope." She growls at me again. If I had some vanilla, I'd make a proper tart, but I don't, and we're camping. So, campfire tarts, aka biscuit dough roasted in a cup shape, then filled with whipped cream and pie filling.

Once the pie fillings are done, it's time to punch down and separate the pizza dough, and take the sauce off the heat to cool down. While waiting for the pizza dough to rest, I get started on the biscuit dough so it'll be ready for dessert. Apricot watching my every move the whole time.

It's almost dark, so I give the pizza dough a little magical push before rolling it out into two large circles. This move gets Amelia's attention, and I can practically hear her shouting at me in her head for messing up her bread.

"Sweetie, he's clearly doing this on purpose." Apricot parrots Amelia's earlier words back at the bread obsessed woman.

I don't have a pizza stone, but I don't have an oven either. So, I transfer the dough onto a couple hardened wood platters, after sprinkling them with some cornmeal. The sauce comes next, followed by the fresh mozzarella, and some herbs.

"Okay, what is that?" Amelia breaks down and asks first, leading Apricot to have a smug smile.

"It's called *pizza*, it's a hot open-faced sandwich." I explain while making a baby greens salad to go with it. "Normally, you cook it on top of a stone that's been heated up in a hot oven, but let's see what magic can do."

I set the weaving aside and open myself up to nature before pushing out as much heat as I can to cook the first one. Even with the influx of mana, I barely have enough to finish it.

"That, that looks good." Apricot licks her lips and moves closer.

"Let me slice it up while I recharge for the second one." I make a pizza cutter out of hardened wood and quickly divide the pie into twelve even slices; a skill that took me many tries to master. "Mmm, that's not bad." I take a slice for myself first, just to annoy Apricot. "Especially for being made from scratch in the middle of the woods, that's not bad at all."

"Nnh, so good." Amelia moans after taking her first bite, gooey cheese stretching from her lips to the slice. "I both love and hate that you can cook better out here than I could back home."

Apricot is too busy devouring hers to say anything. Once the first piece is gone, she orders me to "Cook the second one quick, before the sun goes down."

I laugh, but comply. And, have just enough time to fill my tank again before it slips over the horizon.

"Man, the only thing this meal is missing is a good beer." I eye the crust of the slice in my hand speculatively. "Huh, I can do yeast for bread, I should be able to make alcohol too."

"Some wine would be nice." Amelia agrees.

"I'll have to try tomorrow." I mumble around a bite.

Amelia only had three slices, but Apricot and I polished off all of the first one, and half of the second.

"Oogh!" The pixie pats her full belly. "I didn't think it was possible, but I ate too much."

"No room for dessert then?" I start the storage incantation and make like I'm going to put the stuff for the campfire tarts away. "Hahahahah." I crack up laughing when she jumps up to guard the pie filling.

"I want my biscuit pies, or whatever they are." She stares me down.

"Campfire tarts." I finally tell her what they are. "You roast the biscuit dough, and then fill it with whipped cream and pie filling."

"Ooh, I'm glad I saved room." Amelia says with a smug look at Apricot. "Because that sounds good. And, he made all those fillings too, so we can mix and match."

"Oh, I'm going to pop. I just know it."

***