The living room was indeed considerably larger now. A mismatched sofa and loveseat in paisley and plaid, respectively, formed an L in front of the fire. The armchair was off to one side, also angled to face the fire. All three seats were covered in throw pillows of various shapes and sizes. A plague of doilies covered almost every available surface.

In the corner formed by the front wall and the wall with the fireplace, there was an arched doorway. Through the partially open door, she could just see a hallway.

Picker looked at the hallway, to the front wall, then stepped out the front door. Moments later, he returned, mouth agape. He pointed from the new doorway to out front, speechless. There was nothing beyond the front wall from the outside, so the hallway shouldn't be possible.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get used to that. Lark says the cottage is just 'efficient' with its space usage." she said as she peeked through the arch.

The hallway was about twenty feet long, with two doors leading off of it on each side, and ending at another doorway. Tuuka was just stepping out of the far door on the left.

"Soft looking bed! You guys weren't kidding about having room!"

"Umm, I guess not! I thought you'd have to camp in the yard, or see if Briar had space for you. But look! Bedrooms! Yay! What a good cottage!" she patted the wall affectionately.

"Caretaker--while this is amazing as always, perhaps you could ask the cottage for help with Alder?"

"Ooops! Of course! Sorry!"

Amelia cleared her throat.

"Oh wonderful cottage who is so cool and helpful! Would you squash those shadowy feeler things? Thanks!"

"Caretaker, I suspect you might need to take a different tack with this request. Remember how I taught you? A formal request of this nature should be given in the language of magic, so no mistakes are made."

"Oh, okay. Give me a moment, I need to warm up and think how to whistle this!"

She grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen, then wiggled and pursed her lips, whistling a few bars.

"Okay, here goes!"

She planted her feet and leaned in, whistling with intent, as Lark had instructed her. Her lungs swelled and strained as she blew with all her might, contorting her face to make the sounds just right.

The air grew hazy for a moment, and she felt the energy drain. Somehow she knew that the cottage understood her intent.

[Request Received. Processing]

Amelia wasn't sure where those words came from, they seemed to appear in her head without hearing them.

[Processing Complete. Suppression of foreign core activated.]

"Wow! I think the cottage just spoke to me! And I think it worked!"

She didn't even wait for the others to follow, charging out of the door and running towards the grove.

When she reached the glade, having virtually surfed down the slope from the house, the shadows were gone.

"Salutations, Caretaker! Ahoom! I am free!" rumbled the deep voice of the oak.

"Alder! You're all right!" she yelled, glomping onto the gnarled trunk of the oak.

"I am, young one, I am! I feel as if the very bark has been stripped from by wood, but I live. Do I have you to thank for freeing me?"

"All of us! We all helped! And this is Picker, Tyni and Tuuka! They're gonna dig up the old bad thing that did this to you so it'll never happen again!" her voice was muffled as she pressed herself against the tree, but she waved back towards where everybody was standing at the edge of the glade.

The shadowy arms were gone, but the glade was devastated. Only Alder had been spared its withering power, and even he had lost leaves and twigs. Some of his branches also were shriveled, and he looked older than his already prodigious years.

"Dig up? Ahoom hoom! I think you need to explain things before we do anything rash like that!"

----------------------------------------

The group settled in on the new seats in the living room as the fireplace modulated to a perfect heat. Amelia brewed a new pot of tea since they had left the old one steeping when they went to speak with Alder, so she had to toss it out.

There were many sighs and other general sounds of comfort as they relaxed on the soft furniture, each in their own nest of pillows. Briar and Tyni sat next to each other on the loveseat, deep in conversation about herbs and their uses in cooking various meats. Picker and Tuuka sprawled out on the huge sofa until Amelia returned with the mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits she had found in one of the cupboards.

"Ahhh!" she exclaimed as she sank down into the couch next to Tuuka, steaming mug of tea in one hand, custard cream in the other. Crunches and slurps joined the other noises of intense relaxation around the room.

After finding that Alder was free from the shadow binding and generally okay, they had spent some time explaining the events of the last few days, and what they had found out about the realm seed he guarded.

When they informed him of the plan to dig it up and move it, he had been concerned. He needed time to consider before assenting to the plan. So they had all bade him take his time, and retreated back to the cottage for a rest and a snack. All except Lark, who stayed to discuss the issue with him.

Tuuka brushed crumbs from his long black beard. "This is a fine house you have, missy! Snug and warm, and magic to boot! How do you get it to change itself like that? That was amazing!"

Amelia shrugged. "I really don't know. I think out loud sometimes. It must hear what I need, or just figure it out by itself. I've never really tried communicating with it properly until the shadow thing just now. I swear it spoke to me, but I didn't hear anything, the words just popped in my head."

"That was some fancy whistling you did! Sounded like a songbird warbling more than any song I'm familiar with. Did that bird teach you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, so I probably sound a bit like her. She's a good teacher."

"Anyone want to tour the garden with us? I need to do some watering and make sure the weeds haven't taken over, and Tyni wanted to see some of my seasoning herbs--the more the merrier!" proclaimed Briar as she stood up and headed for the door, Tyni right behind her.

"That reminds me! I need to go get supplies from the store so we have something to eat for dinner! Go check out the garden. Or pick a bedroom and get settled, or hang out or whatever, I'll be back!" Amelia said.

She went to grab her backpack from the door where it usually hung, before remembering it was still full from their trip.

"Just gotta dump my stuff somewhere first ..." She hefted the bag and wandered down the new hallway, and on a whim went through the door at the very end. It opened onto a large circular room, at least thirty feet in diameter. The room was furnished as a workroom of some sort, with benches, cabinets, and tables around its circumference, and a fireplace against one wall. Amelia couldn't identify most of the equipment she saw, but what little she did made her think this would be a great place to practice potion-making.

On the far side was a staircase that curved to follow the arc of the wall. It led both down to a floor below and up to a floor above, with a short landing servicing this room.

"Huh! Neat!" she headed up the stairs, which continued up at least another floor. She stopped, though, and emptied her bag on the bed on the second floor, dirty laundry and camping supplies spilling across its quilted duvet. There was a dark wood armoire that would be perfect for her stuff, once she got the chance to explore and do some sorting.

Several vertical slit-shaped windows looked out from the room, and let light in. She peeked out and could see into the forest surrounding the yard.

"D'oh! No time for sightseeing! Gotta get food!" she reminded herself and rushed back downstairs with the newly empty rucksack.

To her surprise, Picker volunteered to go with her. The taciturn goblin had kept to himself since she had met him. She thought he was nice, just not very extroverted. She was happy to have him along, though, and waved to the others as they passed the garden on their way to the front gate.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"We'll be back with stuff for dinner! Don't get too dirty over there!" she called. Briar waved in acknowledgment, then went back to pointing something out to the two dwarves.

"It's only a very short walk. Just to the gate and out onto the road, then a few minutes into the village."

Picker nodded. "Convenient."

The rest of the trip was uneventful, except for when the goblin stopped just outside the entrance gate of the woods, sniffing the air for a moment.

"Realm boundary." he said, but didn't elaborate.

Sandy was happy to see Amelia, as always, but had a hard time remembering the goblin was there. She didn't even say goodbye to the man as they left, uncharacteristically. Considering they had purchased every meat or meat-containing item the market carried, that was certainly odd.

Luckily for Amelia, the miner, though only half her height, was many times stronger than she was. He carried the heavily laden rucksack with no complaint. She huffed and puffed with the bags of flour, salt, and other, lighter groceries.

They were back to the cottage so quickly, in fact, that Briar was only just wrapping up her detailed tour of the garden. Tyni was loaded down with herbs and vegetables, headed towards the kitchen, just as they walked into the yard.

"Hiya! We got food! Anyone ready for lunch?" Amelia called out.

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Groceries stored in the pantry, lunch eaten and cleaned up from, it was time to explore the new areas of the cottage. Briar had gone back to her chores, while the miners had each picked a bedroom and were busy relaxing--it had been an extremely long time since they had slept on actual beds, and they were beside themselves with joy.

So it was up to Amelia, Whisper, and Fern to do the exploration. They started in the workroom that was at the ground level of the round tower. Every cupboard was peeked into, every device poked at. There were vats, vials, barrels, and racks of glassware. Shelves of jars with tidy paper labels that she couldn't read. Drawers and cupboards of tools and apparatuses.

Fern and Whisper found the assorted breakables a great place to play tag, much to Amelia's consternation.

"Please don't break anything, you two! We could probably make candy in here, but not if you trash it!" She warned, coming up with a consequence the tiny barnstormers might actually care about.

It was hard to categorize what this place was for since it had so much equipment one would use for all sorts of liquid handling.

With a stroke of inspiration, she thought for a moment and whistled her question in the language Lark was teaching her.

[Liquids Laboratory. Suitable for Alchemy, Brewing, Poison and Potion Making.]

As before, the words appeared in her head without passing through her ears.

"Huh. I'll bet Briar will like that!" she said to Whisper, who bobbed in agreement.

She leaned out the door into the hallway, and yelled, "HEY! We got a Brewery in here! Go tell Briar!".

"Brewery? Let me see!" came the instant response, and moments later Tuuka burst through the door.

"Spirits above! I'll say you do!" he immediately started examining the equipment with interest.

"You know anything about this stuff?

"Aye! I trained as a spirit maker. Family business. I never thought I'd see the like again! This is a fine facility!"

"Help yourself! I don't know the first thing about this stuff, but the shelves are stocked, so have fun!"

She went upstairs to continue exploring, leaving the dwarf cackling and rubbing his hands together with glee.

In the bedroom upstairs, she wasn't too surprised that the gear she had dumped on the bed had been cleaned and put away neatly in the armoire.

The two rapscallions took the opportunity to use the bed as a trampoline, reaching considerable heights as they frolicked.

Amelia watched for a few moments, lost in thought wondering how the cottage managed to clean up after her so well.

D'oh! She could just ask!

Her vocabulary was still pretty limited, and it took time to compose her question, but she finally whistled her request. It was getting a bit easier each time she tried.

[Automatic Housekeeping: Active]

Okay. That was an answer, but not exactly helpful. The cottage was as taciturn as Picker!

She thought for a bit more but decided she didn't need to know the details. But the implication of the cottage's answer was intriguing, so she worked up and whistled another query.

Her head was flooded with an extremely long list of terms, most of which made little to no sense. 'Status Update' and 'Security Mode' she got, but what the heck was 'Automatic Respawn' or 'Random Floor Restock' supposed to mean???

But one in particular caught her attention, and she whistled a request to activate it.

[Confirmed. Consumable Restock set to active.]

She had just parsed the words when she heard surprised shouting from down below. She darted partly back down the staircase to see Tuuka peering up from the stairs to the basement.

"What did you just do?!? This room was empty, and now it's filled with barrels and bottles! Nearly shocked the beard right off my face!"

"Awesome! Consumable Restock! And I'll bet that's Tyni yelling from the kitchen--if the cellar is full of barrels, I know what he's excited about!" she said with a mischievous grin.

"Missy, I don't know what you're up to, but I like it!"

They dashed down the hallway to find Tyni gabbling at the pantry. In addition to the groceries she had just stocked and the remaining preserves and berries, it was packed with foodstuffs of all sorts. Strings of sausages hung from the ceiling next to ropes of garlic, onions, net bags of mushrooms, and several drying hams. The shelves were filled to groaning with canisters and sacks of flour, sugar, coffee, and other dry goods. The cold store was jammed with fresh meat and produce, and several stoneware jugs.

Amelia snatched Whisper out of the air as the wisp tried to swan dive into a bin of toffees. She wasn't fast enough to catch the wisp's partner in crime as Fern wormed her way into a bag of sugar. The errant sprite was extracted via her toes, her eyes wide and jittering as she chewed, absolutely frosted in the stuff.

"Hey! Remember just the other day? How bad you felt? Don't you guys learn?" she scolded the two, who looked suitably chastened.

"I've died and gone to heaven!" proclaimed Tyni. "How did this happen? I'm not complaining, mind you, but ..."

"I, uh, turned on the Consumable Restock function. There are dozens of functions, but most are turned off. It's kinda complex. But I took a gamble on this one, and it paid off!"

Picker poked his head into the room and surveyed all the food. He sniffed derisively. "Coulda saved work if you planned ahead." he said sourly but caught Amelia's eye and winked to show he was just joking.

"You think it will refill as we use it?" asked Tyni, as he fondled a slab of bacon larger than he was.

"I think so. I'll have to spend some time trying to understand all this, but as long as the cottage has the energy, it should."

Picker and the dwarves shared a look of understanding, then the goblin and Tuuka pointed at Tyni, who frowned.

"Look, missy, you can trust us, but probably best not to tell anyone else about this. Particularly somebody like Reginald. He's a good ol' pig, but this place is valuable. Like, you have no idea. And without guards, I hate to think what would happen if the word got out ..." he said uncomfortably.

"Oh, right! Security!" Amelia snapped her fingers. "There's a security function!"

She whistled.

[Error. Lockdown -- Root access only. Active Security -- insufficient MP. Warning Mode -- enabled.]

"Huh. I don't know where the roots are, so I guess I can only set it to warn us. That's something, I guess."

"Sure missy, but still, don't breathe a word of this, okay?"

"I get it, Tyni. Besides, who would I tell?"

----------------------------------------

After everyone settled down from the surprise, she headed back upstairs to continue exploring. The room above her new bedroom was a library, packed floor-to-ceiling with books. There was a reading nook inset into the wall with a large bay window overlooking the forest. The seat was well cushioned and had a convenient shelf nearby for beverages and snacks.

The next room up was probably a guardroom. There were empty racks that could hold weapons and equipment, and quite a few bunk beds and lockers around the circumference. From there, a ladder and hatch led out to the top of the tower.

Amelia emerged through the hatch and looked around. The tower was made of large stones cunningly joined together. Inside the walls were plastered and whitewashed so you couldn't tell, but outside they were bare. She leaned through one of the crenelations at the top of the wall and stared straight down at the garden. With her head outside the tower, all she could see of it was the stones she was directly touching--other than that, it looked like empty air all the way down to the ground, at least fifty feet below.

She quickly stepped back. That was definitely nausea-inducing, fear of heights or not!

As she looked out over the hollow, she could tell that they were at a low point in the valley. Not the lowest--she could see the path of the creek through the gaps in the trees. However, because of the positioning, the rest of the forest looked like it stretched out to the horizon in all directions, instead of the few hundred feet she knew it to be. The whole area of the hollow was only a few dozen acres, after all, and all the surrounding land had been cleared for farming and civilization. But it was very relaxing seeing nature as far as the eye could perceive, and it was very quiet and peaceful. She'd have to see if the cottage could supply a telescope for stargazing in the evenings!

After gazing out at the area for a while, she headed back down to the cellar. It was indeed filled with barrels and casks, as Tuuka had said. They were well provisioned for ale and wine, it looked like, not that Tuuka was at all dissuaded from making full use of the brewery. He was hard at work stirring a huge vat of something that was just starting to steam.

She wandered from there into the kitchen, where Tyni was concocting several dishes for dinner. She offered to help, but he waved her off, stating he was enjoying himself, and she needn't bother if she had other things to do.

So she drifted out to the garden, where Briar was tying some vines up to support poles. The goblin greeted her and told her Picker had borrowed the fishing pole and gone off to the creek.

"How's the garden doing?" she asked as Briar worked, nimble fingers knotting twine.

"Great! There must be something in the air here--the plants are growing like wildfire! I love it, but keeps me on my toes staying ahead of the weeds and such." replied the goblin, who was literally on her toes as she stretched to reach a particularly tall vine.

Amelia watched her work, admiring the goblin's facility with plants. She loved gardening when someone else guided her, but otherwise, she felt rather lost.

"You know, I might be able to get the cottage to automatically remove the weeds and tend everything. I could ask."

Briar frantically shook her head no. "Please don't, Amelia! Even if it could, I love gardening. It's how I relax and feel my place in the world. What would I do if that was gone?" she seemed horrified at the thought.

"I'm sorry! I won't, don't worry! But if you need any help, please ask, okay?"

The gardener nodded, mollified, and resumed her work.

Feeling superfluous, Amelia found her way back to the library and curled up in the window nook. She stared out at the forest below her.

Whisper drifted out of her hair and wafted down to her knee near the window as if also surveying the land.

"It's so pretty, isn't it? It's changed so fast, too! I was afraid I was going to be lonely at first, then I met you, which was great!" she stroked the glowing ball, who changed colors to her happiest green glow.

"Now I know Lark and Alder, Briar, Picker, the dwarves, the people in the village. It certainly isn't lonely! And the cottage! It was dirty and cramped, now look at it! Huge! And automated! I really need to work through all its options, but it's so nice just to sit and veg out sometimes."

Whisper vibrated in agreement, already starting to melt into a flat puddle with contentment from the attention.

"I wonder what Alder and Lark are talking about. I can't imagine he'd want that nasty tentacle thing near him if he doesn't have to, especially since his family is all gone. That's so sad to think about!" she sniffled a bit, vowing to visit him even more and give him extra hugs.