While I'm finishing up with the dyes, I bring out some of the wood that used to be a water tower and start shaping it into some gym equipment. I start simple with some platforms, benches, and bars for pushups, pull-ups, and legs lifts. Next comes a leg press and a weighted sled, the modified wood is heavy, but I'll need to add the dumbbells to these to make them usable without being enormous.

A three-story set of stairs then builds itself off to one side. The tallest vertical side has a climbing wall with an overhang near the top that a rope hangs down from for rope-climbing, or just a quick way down.

"You don't know how to do things by half, do you?" Amelia laughs and gets up out of my lap to go inspect the equipment.

I just smile and follow after her while thinking about how I could have made some crazy 'Ninja Warrior' style obstacle course. "It could be worse." I say with a smile and start changing into a tank top and gym shorts.

"Sorrel!" She squawks when I shuck off my pants.

"What? No one is watching and I still have my underwear on." The extra trees I grew this morning have added quite a bit of privacy to the yard. "I've got some gym clothes for you too."

I was able to make a pseudo-spandex yesterday by mixing very thin elastic strands with cotton to make a stretchy thread. That thread was then knitted into two pairs of gym shorts and sports bras.

"I am not wearing that... not in public at, least." Her expression makes me laugh. Meanwhile, Apricot has already ditched her dress and slipped into the new clothes.

"You need to wear these, Amelia." The pixie purrs while checking out her own ass.

"You can wear one of my tank tops over it." I offer, wanting to see her tight behind in the elastic shorts just as much as Apricot does.

"Fine..." I think she's more commenting on the pixie's ass than agreeing, but its close enough for me. I magic her current outfit away and replace them with the gym clothes before she can do more than squeak. "Ack! You jackass, I didn't say yes." She complains, but without any heat in her voice.

"Oh, come on." I make puppy dog eyes at her. "The best part about exercising is getting to stare at beautiful women while you do so."

"I think he has a point, Amelia." Apricot is practically panting. "You need to let me down now, I see someone else I need to go and climb all over. And, don't wear yourself out too much either. This isn't the only workout you're going to get tonight." She slaps me on the ass before stalking after the blonde.

"Eeek! Sorrel help." She runs away from Apricot.

"Sorry, Babe." I just laugh. "I've got muscles to build. But, if it helps." I wave a hand and a wall of greenery springs up around my little gym. "There, now you don't have to worry about your modesty, or your screams bothering the neighbors."

"Gee, thanks." She deadpans before dodging behind me and slapping the same butt cheek Apricot hit a second ago.

I soon learned that it is very hard to focus on your form when two hotties are doing their best to distract you. They wouldn't even let me join in either. Every time I tried, they would just waggle their fingers at me.

...

"You two are evil." I pant out over an hour later.

Despite their distractions; I found a good routine where I would isolate and push each muscle group in turn. I'm trying to bulk up right now, so I'm using high weight, low rep sets and it's already starting to show. But, even when you can heal in between sets, pushing your muscles that much just hurts.

"We know." Apricot sticks her tongue out at me.

"Are you doing okay?" Amelia is still worried that I'm overdoing it.

"I'm good." I smile to reassure her. "But, I think I'm going to switch to more toning and cardio exercises tomorrow. Overloading to bulk up just hurts too much to do it every day. That, and I think I need more sugar in the smoothies."

The drinks have more than enough nutrients, but I felt my blood sugar dip pretty hard a couple times. Fortunately, now that I have done so much work on the draw matter spell, refining sugar from beets is simplicity itself. I take it one step further, though.

"What are you doing?" Apricot looks at me funny when I start drawing co2 from the air into the mushed up beet soup.

"Increasing the acidity of the mixture to aid in the hydrolysis of sucrose into glucose." I answer truthfully and in a way I know will annoy her. Just my small bit of payback.

"I think he's annoyed with us." Amelia laughs at the look of consternation on her lover's face. "Baby, could you please explain why you're doing that, and what it means." She bats her eyelashes at me.

"Pure sugar has two parts." I sigh and explain myself. "Our bodies only use one of them and have to waste time and a little energy converting the other. I'm just extracting the one I need."

"Why didn't you just say that?" The pixie whines.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to exercise with a steel rod in your shorts?" I drop my shorts with a growl to reveal my still throbbing hard erection. "I think making you two those outfits might have been a mistake."

"Oh, my." Her eyes go wide and she gasps involuntarily.

I got my second workout in that night and made them pay for every bit of torture they put me through.

...

"You're wrong." Amelia groans the next morning. "We're just mischievous. What you did to us last night, now that was evil."

"No, evil would be making you join me on my run this morning." I chuckle wickedly and sit up in bed after kissing her.

"Can you at least heal us before you go?" She pleads. "We are so sore. Good sore, but still sore."

"Weren't you worried about that not being safe?" I tease. "It's probably for the best that you just take a hot bath. I'm sure the soreness will be gone by the time I get back."

"Evil." Apricot cracks open an eye just enough to glare at me and utter that one word.

"Love you too, Sweetie." I lean back down to kiss her before climbing out of bed to get dressed in my spiffy new chainmaille jogging suit.

The getup is made up of several different layers, each with a bunch of straps and buckles to cinch it tight, but I just use the fabric of the padded undersuit to grip the links tight, making the whole thing fit me like a second skin.

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Heading downstairs to escape their accusing glare, I step out the front door to find Myra and willow playing around on the new gym equipment.

"Hello, girls." I laugh when they jump a little at the sound of my voice.

"Uncle Sorrel." Willow turns on the charm, likely afraid that they're going to be in trouble for playing where they shouldn't be. "What is all this stuff?"

"It's to help me exercise." I smile at the little girl. "I feel like I'm too skinny and want to put on some muscle. But, it's not very safe for you girls to be playing on. Just give me a minute and I'll make you two something better." I quickly add before their faces fall any lower.

Walking over to the side of the property closest to their house, I build them the playground set I wish I had when I was their age. A meter-high platform that can be reached via a climbing wall, a ramp with a knotted rope, or two ladders, one rope, one wooden. There's a slide, of course, along with swings, a see-saw, and monkey bars.

"Oh, they've already got you wrapped around their little fingers." Sophie laughs just as I'm covering the ground with an extra thick layer of clover.

"How can anyone resist faces like those?" I chuckle ruefully. "Now, you girls be good and listen to your mother, alright. I need to go for a run, I'll be back in an hour or so."

"Yes, Uncle Sorrel." - "Thank you." They barely pause in their exploration to say that.

Waving to them, I head for the front of the property. I'm just loosening up at the road when Flicker whinnies from her pen.

"Hey, girl." I walk over and scratch the mare behind her ears. "You want to get some exercise too?"

After freeing her from the enclosure, we head north up the road. I let her set the pace while I fiddle around with the music player in my head. At first, I tried [Run Forest, Run] my usual go-to playlist for running, but none of the songs were doing it for me.

Looking through my old exercise playlists, I settle on [Get Pumped - Epic Soundtracks] and start it off with the Violin Orchestra from 300 by Jorge Quintero. That does the trick and soon I'm outpacing the horse. Even with all this extra weight, it seems I'm just built for speed.

I don't want to overwork Flicker though, so I add a parachute to the back of my suit, expanding it until I have trouble keeping up with her. I get a few odd looks from the farmers in their fields and the few people on the road, but the low burn in my legs is worth it.

"Damn, Flicker. You can run." I set the playlist to switch to [Get Pumped - Metal] with Thunderstruck by AC/DC after the half-hour mark. "Damn, I can run." Looking back, I see that we've gone almost fifteen kilometers. "At this pace, I could cut half an hour off the world record for the marathon."

Wheeling Flicker around, we head back for home. I've been cheating with magic to keep my muscles fresh, but she's still good to go. I haven't even had to cool her down thanks to the slight breeze coming off the river.

It took us only slightly longer to return home, but that was only because I slowed us down for the last leg of the trip to give Flicker a chance to cool down. She seemed really happy for the run, so this will probably be part of our morning routine from now on.

After we get back, I give her a quick brush down before feeding and watering her. Leaving Flicker to her oats; I check in on the lab, sensing that Melanie arrived sometime during our run.

"Good, morning." I'm still riding that runner's high, so I'm a bit peppy.

"Hi, Sorrel... what are you wearing?" She goggles at my copper jogging suit.

"I borrowed it from the guard." I give her a little twirl to show it off. "I'm as strong as a beastkin, so it takes a bit of extra work for me to add on muscle. I should probably add another layer or two since I was still able to outpace Flicker, but it's my first time wearing it and I didn't want to overdo things."

"Okay, then." She just shakes her head with a laugh. "Speaking of clothing, the spinnerets that Edsel made are working great, but I'm going to need an assistant or two."

"So, go ahead and hire some. Or, have you already spent all that money Amelia forked over?" I tease.

"Heh. Not likely." She snorts. "I'm just not sure how to go about it, I'm used to being the help, or just working on my own."

"Well, I can't help you there." My brows pull into a slight frown. "I'm sure Amelia has experience hiring people but, since you're working with dangerous chemicals, maybe you could ask Delainey or someone else in the guild to recommend someone."

"I didn't even think of that." She laughs at herself this time. "Are you sure you want me running all this? I'm beyond grateful for the opportunity, but there are a dozen better candidates in the guild."

"Don't be silly." I chide her. "You're perfect for the job, don't worry about getting everything perfect and just go at your own pace. I've already told you that this is just a side-project for me, so I don't really care if it's successful or not."

"You are so strange." The alchemist sighs but looks relieved.

"So, I've been told." I smile at her. "But, anyway, here are the dyes I made yesterday. I included a list of instructions with each one, but those are what we worked out for cotton and linen. So, they may need to be adjusted."

"Oh, thank you." She starts sorting through the wooden jars. "I was able to acquire several commonly used mordants as well, so they may help out. Mhm, I think I may need that helper sooner rather than later."

"Heh." A soft laugh slips loose from me. "We were planning to go shopping later, you're welcome to catch a ride with us."

"Yeah." She nods. "Let me know when you plan to leave and I'll tag along."

With a nod, I turn and leave her to it. Myra and Willow are still playing in their jungle gym and happily wave to me as I walk to the house.

"Hey, girls." I greet the two lovelies that look to be just finishing up breakfast. "Are you still alive?"

"No thanks to you." Apricot sticks her tongue out at me. "We're still sore, even after the bath."

"You're welcome." I lick a bead of syrup from the corner of her lips before kissing her properly. "You up for another round before we go shopping?"

"How can you be so chipper after running for an hour?" Amelia smiles at the pixie who's now squirming as I kiss my way down her neck.

"Because I just outran a horse even with all this stuff on." Over a hundred kilos of chainmaille starts falling away from me as I manipulate the underlying padding. "You picked a great one by the way. We covered a good thirty kilometers in just over an hour and I didn't even have to help her."

"Mmmnh." A soft moan escapes from Apricot's lips when I switch from her neck to suckling on her earlobe. "Would you stop that? I'm trying to be angry with you right now."

"Oh?" I breathe, ever-so-softly into her ear. "Is that why your hand is wrapped around my cock right now? To punish me for being a bad Plantkin?"

"Fuck!" Her head snaps around to see what her hand has been doing without her knowledge. "Amelia, help."

"Sorry, Sweetie." The blonde smirks at her. "You got yourself into that one all on your own."

"Fine, just make it quick." She pants out when I start sucking on her ear again.

I didn't. I didn't tarry, but I didn't rush myself either.

Spoiler: Spoiler

+++

Apricot's hand is still stroking me, so I decide to return the favor. Lifting up her skirt, I pull aside her white cotton panties and tease her already damp lips with a vine.

"Nnh, please fuck me." Her grip on my shaft tightens when I teasingly probe her depths.

"Are you sure?" I ask through teeth lightly clamped onto her earlobe. "I thought you were still sore."

"I don't care." A sudden shiver rocks through her slender frame. "I need you inside me, now!"

Lifting her tight body out of the chair, I take her seat and move her to straddle me. The very tip of myself only just poking at her wetness. She struggles to lower herself onto me, but I easily hold her in place.

"Beg me." I order, my voice little more than an animalistic growl. "Beg me to fuck you as hard and fast as I want. And, then heal you so I can do it all over again."

"Nnh. Nng. Fuuck!" Another orgasm rips away whatever she was going to say when I plunge into her as soon as she opens her mouth.

"Oh, fucking hell, Sorrel." Amelia gasps and starts to giggle as the feedback from their connection hits her, almost causing her to fall from the chair. "Do it! Please, fuck her brains out. Fuck our brains out."

Grabbing Amelia, I manhandle her onto the kitchen island. Scattering the remains of their breakfast in the process. After ripping her clothes out of the way, I spin Apricot around. Bending her forward, she instantly latches onto the blonde's dripping wet slit.

Pistoning into the pixie as she licks her lover's pussy, I'm able to bring her over the edge for a third and fourth time before succumbing to my own climax. Burying myself as deeply inside of her as I can before filling her with my seed.

"Your turn." I stand and lock eyes with Amelia before laying the quivering mess of a pixie on her belly.

She sucks me straight in when I shift from Apricot's opening to hers. I can't let the pixie off the hook so easily though, so I send my vines to tease between her legs as my hands knead her luscious breasts.

Unfortunately, I don't last long inside of Amelia. The first time she tightens around my still sensitive member is enough to drive me over the edge again. My wicked little water mage doesn't seem to mind though, not if the dopey smile and aftershocks running through her body are any indicator.

+++

"You..." My pixie rolls over and points at me with a shaky finger. "You are fucking evil."

"You're welcome." I bend forward and slip my tongue between her lips to trickle some healing sap directly into her mouth, Amelia gets the same a moment later. "Also, I think I need to pull the rest of the caffeine from the smoothies. I forgot how horny I get when I drink too much tea." I laugh darkly when she just glares at me.

***