In the end, Aife decided Sui was taking too long. It had been ten minutes of her pacing before Aife said, she’d pick two more things in the next minute or she’d get nothing. Sui, managed to quickly dash around the house and made her choice. One was a picture of Grandma and her holding up the first outfit she’d ever completed by herself, though it was more a sheet with holes then a dress, the picture meant a lot to Sui. That and the others had been in her sewing cupboard’s photo album.

The second thing she grabbed was a bunch of toiletries. Sui managed to cheese the system a little by wrapping it all up in three different towels and throwing the whole mess into her inventory. Aife made a snide comment about the bundle not including any of Sui’s makeup to which the response was. “Why would I bother owning makeup?”

This of course prompted Aife to chuck Sui back over her shoulder and sprint out the door. Sui didn’t even complain this time and just tried to relax and enjoy the ride. This lasted a whole three seconds before being in contact with Aife’s dress started to annoy her.

She could see all the fraying edges, and all the imperfections she had left the first time. Hmm… should I refrain from fixing up this outfit? I mean, Aife is currently wearing it… Sui ignored her own inner monologue and started fixing what she could. There was only so much available to her without just taking the whole thing apart and Sui had some standards.

These standards may or may not have been because Aife would beat her to a pulp if she disassembled Aife’s clothing while they were outdoors. Or just while she was wearing them in general.

After spending a few minutes fixing what she could, tying off a few loose ends, tightening some threads, and very slightly widening the dress around Aife’s biceps for better movement she decided to leave it there before she needed more thread… or Aife’s dress started getting shorter for no apparent reason.

Unbeknownst to Sui of course, Aife could feel Sui moving the threading around as she ran but simply neglected to comment on it. She was keeping some focus on where Sui was changing things just in case, but was focusing on her running.

And what a run it was. Sui was too absorbed in repairing Aife’s clothing, but the scenery sped past at an inhuman speed. Despite the fact she was carrying Sui, Aife’s speed was steadily approaching 50km/h, and with her freedom to cut through parks and backyards she was making great time.

Sui missed the scenery passing by. Houses with broken walls, or completely collapsed. The roads all had grasses and bushes pushing up through cracked concrete and asphalt as if they’d been left to rot for years.

Houses showed signs of grass growing at accelerated rates, with most lawns looking rather unkempt. The final thing was the very distinct, lack of people. There was utter silence aside from the loud thumping footfalls as Aife made her way towards her house and away from the city centre.

Even considering the larger and larger yards, and the decreased population density not seeing anyone at all was a strange occurrence, but Aife didn’t even bat an eye. Finally, after thirty minutes of travel Sui looked up and around. She had finished with her modifications and awakened from her stupor.

“Woah, we sure are going fast” said Sui.

Aife chuckled, “That’s one way to look at it. Certainly, made getting to you easier, and helped convince Trina to let me go alone… then again, I could have carried her as well, but she insisted it was undignified”

Sui shrugged “Who needs dignity when you can run this fast”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Trina” the pair said in unison.

A few moments of silence past. “So where are we going” asked Sui.

“I already told you, mine and Trina’s place. Were you not listening?” asked Aife

“Well… um hmm. I decline to answer that question” said Sui

Aife snorted “Yeah sure. I’m surprised you made it out so intact to be honest Sui. How did you defeat the pack of giant wolves?”

“Wait what?” asked Sui thinking she’d misheard.

“Which part did you mishear” asked Aife, sighing slightly at her friend’s lack of sleep.

“The PACK part” said Sui

Now it was Aife’s turn to think she’d misheard “Yeah that is what I’d said”

“But there was just one. How is that a pack of anything?” asked Sui

“Ok… apparently we need to have words with Trina” said Aife

Sui tried to tilt her head in confusion, but Aife’s heavy footfalls made it very difficult “Why does it matter what Trina thinks?”

“She seems to be the most on top of things” said Aife “I wouldn’t know where to start”

Sui shrugged. Figuring things out isn’t particularly high up on my list of priorities. I’d love to say getting sleep is, but at the moment it’s figuring out how to fix all of Aife’s outfits and presumably Trina’s as well.

Then I have to find a new gift for Trina because obviously the one I’m stuck wearing won’t work. Oh, and sleep. I suppose I need that at some point as well, but I’ve already got so much to do… maybe I can put it off for a few days? But I don’t want to be tired for the next wave…

Sui was snapped out of her reverie when Aife knocked hard on her house door. Two short knocks, a break, and then three more with a kick at the end. I’m not sure the kick actually makes that different of a sound…

Sui, of course, failed to realise, but she worked out Aife had kicked the door, despite hanging over Aife’s shoulder BACKWARDS. She was so absorbed in her thread control that this didn’t exactly occur to her.

Once Aife heard, and Sui did not, the door unlocking Aife pushed it open careful not to hit Sui on the doorframe as she slipped in. The house they were entering was a smaller house that took up a corner of a larger property.

Sui knew from her previous visit that it had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a basement. The lounge, and kitchen took up the majority of the front of the house with the other rooms taking various places at the back, with the staircase down to the basement hidden way behind the bathroom mirror.

Of course, it wasn’t much of a secret, considering Trina showed EVERYONE who even considered visiting it was there, but it was a nice basement they kept relatively clean so who was to complain.

The yard, was large, unbelievably so, but technically it didn’t belong to Trina or Aife, who were renting the house. The property it sat on was actually owned by an old couple that rarely spent time here anymore. Despite this, they had a large home on the other side of the property.

And it was truly large, it was an easy 15 hectares of land, and the fact it was barely out of city limits showed the couple had some impressive spending power… or perhaps had. Aife strode confidently into the room.

The lounge was a large space, taking up everything either side of the door, with the kitchen in the back right of the space. In front of the kitchen was a dining table fit for six people, with ample space around the area, so much that a second, six person table could be squeezed in with minor issues.

On the left side was a large couch and a tv in the far back, facing away from the door. Directly on the left, next to Aife’s current position was a large collection of beanbags and a larger collection of books. The sun came in through the front windows giving the space some decent lighting, for reading on a quiet afternoon.

Trina herself was currently standing at the dining table with several notebooks spread out near her as she stared at them uncomprehendingly. Sui was turned so she wasn’t able to view.

As she heard the door open, she looked up to greet Sui and Aife… only to see her position.

“Aife! What the heck” said Trina.

Aife shrugged not even bothering to put Sui down, as she seemed content to stare into space, or rather examine Aife’s clothing thoroughly as she planned out new designs she could make.

“She hasn’t complained” said Aife

“That’s not the point, you can’t just carry people the way you carry potatoes” said Trina

“It worked didn’t it? And no complaints from the passenger” said Aife.

Trina glared at Aife, who shrugged and threw Sui onto one of the various beanbags, making her land with a soft pompf. Trina glared angrily at Aife again, but said nothing as she waited for Sui to complain.

Instead, Sui had found a new type of thread. It felt strange to her power, and exploring it was much more important than the fact she was just thrown two metres through the air.