So as it turns out, I can look through my animals eyes. I spent all night just watching through the hawks' eyes as they flew around. Whenever they swooped down to catch something I switched to a different one so I wouldn't have to watch. They are scarily efficient. From that and Acci's reports, I've learned some important things. One, everything west of here for as far as even the hawks can see is just endless forest. There are a few other buildings but they're pretty far and the hawks haven't looked too closely at any of them. Two, there's a large river about ten minutes from me that flows all the way to number three, there's a town a few miles east of here that Aulos and Lyre confirmed to be Evenwall, their hometown. Most of the buildings are run down. if not for the smoke coming from the open holes in the roofs, I'd assume that they were abandoned. I consider sending someone to try to trade with the townsfolk but I'm not sending the kids and they say that my animals would probably be seen as a threat so they're out of the question. Maybe I could make something more humanoid to send…

I look at my sculpture with pride, I don't have a mirror but I'd say the resemblance is uncanny. I can't help but admire my own figure cast in stone, but I cant wait any longer to test if this will work. I phase into it so that everything is lined up and try to solidify myself so it will move when I do. It takes more mana than I think moving this much stone should rightly take but it does move. The stone doesn't feel like my actual body, more like operating a puppet, which I guess I am. I walk my form inside to see what the kids think, they've been watching me sculpt for a while so they aren't surprised to see me.

"Ooh you're beautiful, miss Wica!" Lyre quickly exclaims

I try to thank her but even with the stone body I still can't freely talk. I have lots of mana since it's been saving up all night, so I force mana into my words as I speak.

"Thank you, Lyre!"

"Hey, I heard you! You're kinda quiet, but your voice is really pretty!"

Hmm, that was a lot of mana and I'm still quiet? Maybe just pushing mana is the wrong move. Speakers use vibration, maybe if I do that with the stone, it'll cost less? I focus on my throat, feeling the vibrations as I talk and translating them into the stone, but as soon as I start, a high pitch screech rings out, making everyone in the cottage grab their ears. I immediately stop and use some mana to apologize. That didn't use much mana, and it did make noise so I can't be too far off. I try again with much less mana, vibrating the air directly this time. I focus on my voice, translating it directly into the mana waves.

"Hello hello, testing one two three. Yes! Second try!" My voice starts pretty rough but after a few words it sounds almost perfect

"That's much better, less painful to hear." Lyre says as she relaxes her hands from her head.

"I'm glad to no longer be your voice. But how does this help you get out of your domain?" Salem asks, hopping down from a shelf and walking around my stone form.

"Well I- uhh… didnt think about that. I guess trade will have to wait, but now I can do things like this!" I yell as I grab salem and pat his belly

"Release me you witch!" He screachily meows

"Your claws do nothing against my stone!" I cackle

The kids giggle as they watch my dastardly deeds and I turn to them "don't think you're safe from my hugs!" Their little feet are just nimble enough to outrun my heavy stone legs, but they get tired, and I don't. After a chase through the cottage and the garden, they try to escape up the tower. Little do they know they've cornered themselves as I ascend the staircase. The children are no match for my power and quickly fall my tickles. They're so exhausted after our chase that I have to carry them back down and put them to bed. I tuck them in with the thick wool quilt and curl up in front of the fire, ready to rest after a very eventful day.

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I wake up early with the kids still in bed and Salem curled up in my stone lap. I leave it behind as I get up so as to not disturb him, and get started on an oven and stove. I've always loved those old timey cast iron stoves so I pop over to my iron ore and quickly smelt it all. I feel amazing as I now have more mana than I really know what to do with. Speaking of, I send a mental message to the animals to start bringing back their kills to stockpile. Back to the stove and oven, I know cast iron has a high carbon content so I summon some firewood from the shed and burn it to charcoal by heating it while focusing on keeping oxygen out, then I merge the iron with the charcoal. The iron doesn't visually look much different but it's definitely more brittle. I'm not sure how that helps but it seems right and it doesn't make it any harder for me to work with.

I have a good fifty pounds of iron from all my digging, so I'm pretty confident that I have enough. I start by making a box about three feet by two feet with an open front. I make the walls pretty thin but still very sturdy and I weld some claw feet to the bottom. I form some hinges and attach a door. I might try making glass later but for now I leave the door solid metal and make a few circular indentations on top to be the stove. Lastly, I make a metal tube which I connect to the oven and move the whole thing upstairs to the cottage. I make some room to the left of the fireplace and place the oven, running the metal tube into the chimney for the smoke to escape.

The animals start showing up with their catches at the perfect time. That hawks each carry at least two rats or brown rabbits l, but the wolves all work together to drag in a massive boar. I quickly separate the meat from the smaller game and pull the water out to make jerky which I store in the basement. As soon as the wolves drag the boar across the barrier, I teleport it to the basement. The boar is probably three hundred pounds at least, so just moving it takes a lot of mana. I start by skinning it, drying the skin to leather and then softening it again. This should be perfect for making some clothes for the kids. Next, I gut and debone it, turning the guts so mana and throwing the bones into the cauldron to make broth. I save the skull since its massive tusks seem useful for something, so I set it aside.

I'm now left with an incredible amount of meat. I dry half of it to keep it fresh but I want to try something. I dig a small room in the basement and use the last board from the dead tree to make a wooden door. I also make some iron fittings and a handle and pop inside. I focus on the heat, trying to move all the heat from both the air and the surrounding stone to the oven. The room is quickly covered in a thin layer of frost as all the water condenses in the cold.

This seems like it'll last a while but I don't want to redo it every so often, so I focus my mana from this room to the oven, trying to make a permanent tie, flowing heat up automatically. I take a step back and inspect the new mana line, I can see as heat gets in, it's immediately pumped up and away. I put all the stored food in here, making some stone spikes to hang the meat from. I also form a very thin stone wall between the meat and everything else so no germs get on anything that will be eaten raw.

Back to the leather, I do the same process to the rabbit pelts. The hawks have already come back with two more, so I dry the meat and tan the hide with those as well. I've got four four rabbit pelts, so I decide to make gloves from them. I cut out some hand shapes to fit each of the kids, and make some thread from the scrap. I sew the gloves fur out and then flip them inside out to hide the seams. The flesh side isn't very pretty so burnish the entire things, making them glossy and smooth.

Next up, the boar pelt should be plenty for a couple jackets and some shoes. The boar fur is very coarse and uncomfortable so I make them double layered, with all the fur inside to make cushy and insulating winter coats. After that there's not a ton left but I should be able to make some shoes. I start by carving the soles from wood, forming them to perfectly fit each child. Next I use the remainder of the boar hide to make the rest, doing the same technique of double layering, and using all the rabbit fur scraps to line the insides, making two pairs of stylish boots. They'll need some more proper clothes, but until I get more supple fabric these accessories will have to do.

Leaving the clothes next to the kids in bed, I get to making some nice breakfast. I fill up the cauldron with water to cover the boar bones, and throw in the spices that Aulos used last time. I throw some new logs on the dying fire and bring it back to a roaring flame. I want to test out the new oven, so i make a quick pie tray out of clay and fire it, next i take some grain and grind it to a loose powder. Mixing the flour with water and salt, I form the dough into a pie crust and pop it into the oven to prebake. For the filling, I take some of the fresh boar meat, chop it to small cubes, and season it heavily. I also mix in a bit of flour, and extract the liquid fat from some of the fattier cuts of boar. With the filling ready, I pop it into the pie shell, and lay another sheet of dough overtop, and cut a few slits. Salem found an egg the other day, so I beat it and brush it on top. After a few minutes, its golden brown and crisp. I put the pie on the tea table to cool and hop back into my stone form and Salem angrily hops out of my lap..

"Kids, heyy wake up. I have presents for you~" I gently shake the children awake

The kids groan before rolling out of bed and standing. "What's that smell?" Aulos sleepily asks

"That would be the pie, but if you rather go back to bed, then-"

"We're up!" Lyre yells, and runs to the tea table.

"Wait, it's still hot! Try on your new clothes first." I warn, and hold up their coats.