"...rel, wake up!" Apricot drags me from sleep's embrace with a shake to my shoulder. "Finally! Someone is messing around with the workshop." That blows away the lasts bits of drowsiness.

"How many?" Stretching out my magic, I can only feel one unknown person within my range.

"Just the one." She answers, her voice low so as not to wake Amelia. "He got here a few minutes ago by boat and has been trying to get inside the lab ever since." The pixie, nude save for a pair of black stocking, follows me out of bed and slips into a robe and some fuzzy slippers.

"That's not going to happen anytime soon." I reply while pulling on some pants on my way to the stairs. "Would you mind alerting the guards at the gate while I detain him?"

"Already done." She must have used her ventriloquism spell to contact them. "Just... be careful, please." After the stunt I pulled with the gang, she has every right to be worried.

"Don't worry, I learned my lesson yesterday." I take her hand and head for the front door. "I'm just going to encase them in wood and wait for the guards." Reaching out with my magic, I do just that.

The window shutter that he's trying to pry open suddenly comes to life and wraps around his hand. The would-be burglar lets out a high-pitched shriek when this happens, eliciting a round of soft chuckles from Apricot and myself.

"Come on, let's go wait for the guards to collect the daring thief." I open the front door and cast a light spell to illuminate our uninvited guest. A pair of bobbing lights can also be seen running towards us from the gate. "Ugh, why did he have to pick tonight? Between the wine and what you two did to me after the girls left, I need all the rest I can get."

"Oh, you poor baby." She laughs merrily as we walk towards the front of the property. "But, it's not like you weren't asking for that rough treatment all day."

"Mister Sorrel, is everything alright?" I don't recognize either of the guards, but the older one steps towards us while his partner heads for the now gagged and fully immobilized prisoner.

"Just a burglar." I reply with a yawn. "He came by boat a few minutes ago."

"Not just a burglar." The younger guard speaks up. "He's the alchemist responsible for the fire."

"He's supposed to be locked up still." The guard near us snarls. "Little shit paid off most of his debt, but the magistrate was rather upset when he saw the pictures of what happened to little Myra. So, this bastard was ordered to clean the sewers for the next month."

"Get him out of here before I do something I'll regret in the morning." The rage is radiating off of me with visible waves of magic and I have to hold out with every fiber of my being not to just squish the fucking bug where he stands.

"Yes, Sir!" The guard slams his fist into his chest in a salute before grabbing the scumbag with his partner and dragging it away at a speed just shy of a full run.

"Breathe, Sorrel. Just breathe." Apricot locks eyes with me and puts her hand over my heart. "He's not worth it."

"I-I'm fine." A shuddering breath escapes from my lungs when I finally get myself under control. "I just... need to go exercise or something." What I really want to do is just hit something until my hands bleed.

"I can think of a couple exercises that might help you relax." She breathes out while tracing her hand over my bare chest.

"Sweetie, I love you, but not right now." I have to shake my head. "Not when I feel like this."

"Nnh. This is revenge for last night isn't it?" She pouts and her body gives out a little involuntary shudder. "First you put on a show like that and now, you're going to make me just sit and watch as you flex those muscles of yours?"

"Oh, come on, you little pervert." Her robe slips open when I lift her into my arms. "Mmm, maybe we can work something out." I say as she presses her naked body against my bare chest. "But, I don't trust myself right now, so you're going to have to do all the work."

"Ooh, just like our first time." Her mouth latches onto my neck and I rush us back inside the house.

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Amelia joins us in the guest bedroom a few minutes later. She doesn't ask any questions, just starts helping us to relieve some stress.

"Thank you." I breathe out when they both collapse next to me a short while later. "And, I'm sorry we woke you." I smooth the hair out of Amelia's face.

"It's okay, Baby. Apricot told me what happened." She nuzzles into her favorite little spoon. "And, you know I don't mind being woken up like that."

"Well, you two try to get some more rest." I kiss each of them on the forehead before covering them up with the blanket. "The sun won't be up for a couple hours yet."

"M'kay, Baby." Amelia is already half asleep, but Apricot raises a questioning eyebrow at me.

"Just stay here and be a good little spoon, I'm only going to go lift some weights." She doesn't look happy about my words, but doesn't try to stop me either.

"I love you, Sorrel." Her voice is barely audible.

"I love you, Apricot." I lean in for one more kiss before climbing gently off of the bed.

***

"I'm behind the hedge in the back." I have the clover out front speak to the group of beastkin that just arrived for our morning run. "I just need to finish out this set and I'll be right with you."

I've been going at it as hard as I can since I left the Apricot and Amelia, and I'm still in a shitty mood. But, I did figure out that Blackthorne is strong enough to serve as a barbell even when dealing with the amount of weight I can lift. Good thing too since I've somewhat been neglecting my arms and chest.

"Hey, man. We heard about what happened. Are you alright?" Bruce steps around the corner of the hedge just as I'm setting Barbellthorne into the holder on the bench press. "Dude, you shouldn't be doing that without a spot."

"Blackie is my spot." My staff flexes and all the weights slide off of the ends. I went for another quick swim earlier and collected several hundred kilos of stone from the riverbed to use as plates. "Now, I hope you guys are ready for a run. I'm still in kind of a shitty mood and since I'm helping the healers, I won't be able to join you guys tomorrow."

"That's alright; most of us will be on duty to help with the crowd anyways." Cobb steps up next to Bruce. "Leon sends his regards, by the way. Heh, between that slime last night and those street rats yesterday, you've been doing all our work for us."

"Earning a reputation as someone not to fuck with either." One of the newcomers says from the back of the crowd.

"Remind me to make it up to the gate guards later; I shouldn't have let my temper get the best of me." I start getting dressed in my chainmaille jogging suit. "Oh, and if anyone was hurt when that scum escaped, I'll be happy to heal them."

"No, Kenny is fine, just embarrassed that the little shit hit him some sort of sleeping draught." Bruce waves my concern away. "And, don't worry about the guys on the gate either, they were just as upset at that piece of crap as you were."

"Even so, I should still drop off some cookies or something for them." I roll my shoulders to settle the suit. "Alright, Amelia's friends borrowed Flicker to get home last night, so I was hoping we could pick up the pace today." A round of whimpers goes up from the handful that ran with me yesterday.

"Oh, suck it up." Bruce jeers at them. "Will your passenger be joining us today?" He adds with a chuckle.

"Nah, she's snuggled up in bed still." Apricot sticks her tongue out at me when I cast farsight to check in on her and Amelia. "Now, who wants to see how fast we can reach the woods?"

"Oh, gods." Cobb groans but he and the rest all fall in line with me.

I start us off with "We Will Rock You" by Queen to get us in the mood. The newbies look startled at first, but quickly get into it.

"You all warmed up?" I ask when the song ends. "Good, now let's run for real." I'm still in the mood for some classic rock, so I switch to AC/DC's Thunderstruck and slowly increase the pace from there.

It's not until we were nearly back to the farm that I let them cool down with another Queen song, though I did change one of the lines to better suit the audience. "I consider it a challenge before the whole beastkin race." I'm sure it would have gotten a laugh if any of them had the breath left to do so.

"Heheheh. What's the matter, guys? You aren't tired already are you?" I can't help but laugh when the lot of them collapse as soon as we're back at the farm.

""..."" Those that can still hold their heads up just glare at me.

"Oh, my. If looks could kill." I chuckle and start handing out smoothies.

"What happened to them?" Edsel steps out of the workshop with a bewildered expression on his face.

"I don't know, I was pushing myself twice as hard and I'm fine." I shrug and receive another round of glares from all but one of the guards.

"Gods, I thought they were exaggerating when they told me about the run yesterday." The one who didn't glare speaks up. "I'm Sergeant Bardac, the one who is usually responsible for getting these slobs to run."

"Oh, it wasn't quite that bad yesterday." I reply with a smile. "I just had a bit of extra aggression to run off today. It worked too, I feel great now."

"Crazy godsdamned Plantkin." Cobb grumbles but is soon laughing when he climbs back to his feet to find all of the pain and soreness already washed away. "Oh, I wish you could teach us that trick." The other runners start getting off the ground too, only the newbies looking truly surprised.

"I know magic and beastkin don't usually go together." I say, remembering what I once read about their race. "But, if you have any skill at all, then between Apricot and me we can probably show you the basics."

"Nope, Lev is probably the most skilled in that area out of all of us." He points to one of the runners that was here yesterday. "But he's lucky to light a candle one in three times."

"Hmm, maybe I could show one of the army medics and you can carry them on your back like I do Apricot." This gets a laugh out of the crowd.

"Heheheh." The sergeant laughs the loudest. "I might just try that. Alright, you lot. It looks like the man has business to attend to, let's leave him to it." His men, a couple of whom are women, start heading back into town at their commander's word.