by Eric Vall
“Yes, it… must be,” I responded. “Your powers are definitely growing stronger, Penelope. I’m very proud of you. This is one of the coolest things I’ve--”
It wouldn’t make sense for me to talk about cool things I’d seen if I’d been the one to create the miracle, so I cut myself off.
“We’ll have to see how they continue to grow,” Penelope said as she gazed down at the plants. “Thank you, master, for providing for us in this way. I wish to kneel down and pray to you now--”
“Good morning, everyone,” Aleia interrupted in a sleepy voice as she stumbled barefoot into the garden. The fairy rubbed her face and yawned, and when she finally focused on the other two priestesses, she walked over to where they were standing. “What’s everyone looking at?”
“Sister, it’s truly unbelievable!” Penelope cried out. “The seeds I just planted have already sprouted so much. We’re going to have so much food soon!”
“How did that happen?” The fairy’s eyes were gigantic and fully awake as she stared at the garden.
“I-It must have been the water!” Penelope replied in a trembling voice. “Our lord has given me the power to perform this miracle. This is the first body of water I’ve ever blessed, but it’s powerful beyond what I ever imagined.”
I did have something to do with it, but I couldn’t exactly explain the leveling-up system to the naiad.
“Well, this is a very exciting day,” Aleia said as she smiled at the blue woman. “Penelope, please don’t cry.”
“It’s j-j-just so miraculous,” the naiad sobbed. “I love our lord and master so much.”
“I love you, too, Penelope,” I told the cerulean priestess. “And I’m proud of your talents.”
“Th-Thank you, my lord,” the naiad sniffled, “All this talk of crops is making me hungry, though.”
“Do you want to eat?” Nicola asked. “I’m really hungry, too, and I can’t wait to cook the rabbit. Speaking of the stream, it might be nice to clean off that pan we found in the kitchen ruins. I also want to set up a really, really nice fire pit this time with a large, green wood grate.”
“We should set up logs around our fire like the gnomes have,” Penelope suggested. “Then they will be even more comfortable the next time they come visit--”
“That sounds nice,” Aleia said.
“Do you want to dig the fire pit?” Nicola asked with a hopeful grin. “I know you like to dig.”
“Do I?” the fairy laughed. “But yes, I’m happy to make the pit.”
The strawberry-blonde walked over to grab the shovel from the garden, and I decided to talk to her for a minute.
“Hi, Aleia, how are you today?” I asked the fairy.
“You’re talking to just me, right?” the strawberry-blonde asked.
“Yeah, just you,” I confirmed.
“Well, then, to be honest, I’m horny,” the fairy giggled. “When are you going to come visit me again?”
“How about tonight?” I asked. “Do you already have dream plans, fairy princess? I was hoping for a second date.”
“I think I’m available,” the strawberry-blonde purred. “I’d always make time for you, master. Do you want to pretend we’re in a tavern again? Maybe this time I could talk to you first. I could touch you on your leg, and run my hand up the inside of your thigh, and--”
“Okay, we need to stop this,” I laughed. “You’re starting to drive me crazy. Just… go get the shovel.”
“You don’t want to talk about fucking me?” Aleia asked with an innocent expression on her face. “I don’t understand why.”
“I think you do,” I snorted. “No more sex talk until I can actually touch you.”
“Fine, master,” the fairy groaned as she picked up the large shovel and started to head back to the kitchen. “I was just trying to be honest with you. I don’t know why I want it sooo bad right now.”
“Probably all that god cock,” I semi-joked. “Don’t worry, I’ll come see you soon because I need to get my hands on those pretty purple wings again.”
“Master!” Aleia blushed. “I don’t know why I haven’t told my sisters yet about that. I do love to share everything with them.”
“You’re so funny,” I laughed. “I know they would love it. They could touch them for you while I watched, and…”
“Oh, my goodness.” The fairy put her hands to her bright red face. “I can’t even imagine.”
“Aleia, you’re the perfect mix of innocent and totally off-the-charts horny,” I told the strawberry-blonde. “You drive me absolutely insane.”
“I-I’m going to dig this pit now,” Aleia said with a small smile on her lips as she walked back to the kitchen. “You… you do the same thing to me, master.”
When Aleia was done digging, the fairy put firewood and tinder in the hole, and then she constructed her grate. The strawberry-blonde put four hooked pieces of wood at the approximate corners of the pit, laid support sticks across them, and then filled in the space with green wood branches.
“Now, we just light the fire,” the fairy said with satisfaction before she used the propane torch, and soon the pit was roaring with flames.
“Nice work, Aleia,” I praised the strawberry-blonde.
“You make everything look so easy, sister,” Penelope said with a smile. “It’s like you already just know how to do everything with your hands.”
“Thanks,” the fairy said as a flush ran up her neck. “I don’t know why I’m getting so much better all the time.”
“Practice, maybe, or maybe it’s Jack and his miracles.” Penelope regarded Aleia with serious eyes for a moment. “Let’s go get logs from the woods for us to sit on.”
“Personally, I’d like to clean this pan now,” Nicola declared as she held the cast iron skillet up in the air. “I think I’m going to go to the stream and see what the water does for it.”
“Remember when you didn’t believe in the creek at all, Nicola?” Penelope giggled.
“It depends on my mood,” the brunette laughed. “Today, I believe in its healing and cleansing powers. Thank you very much.”
“That’s good,” the naiad said with a nod. “I would love to join you, but I also want to set up this fire circle.”
“I don’t mind going by myself,” Nicola told the other priestesses. “That is, if you don’t mind not having my help when you collect logs.”
“No, if you want to be in charge of making food today, that would be wonderful,” Aleia said with a big smile on her face.
The dark-haired woman nodded and headed off to the stream, so I had another chance for a private conversation.
“Hey, Nicola,” I said to the brunette. “What’s new with you?”
“When do I get another dream visit?” the dark-haired woman pouted. “I want you sooo bad right now.”
It seemed to be going around.
“Sadly, I can’t visit you every night,” I told the brunette priestess. “Your sisters need me, too…”
“Not as badly as I do,” the chestnut-haired beauty laughed. “I need you the most.”
“I love you,” I told her. “You never hold back from trying to get what you want.”
“That’s true, I suppose,” Nicola mused as she pursed her lips. “And right now, I want you, Jack.”
“I’ll come see you soon,” I assured her. “Maybe not tonight, but soon.”
“Fine.” The dark-haired woman jutted out her lower lip. “I’m just going to try to clean this pan now, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” I laughed. “You know, this isn’t easy for me, either.”
“What?” Nicola snorted as she dipped the pan into the water. “Being a god isn’t easy?”
“It’s not easy to see you looking so beautiful all the time and not being able to do anything about it,” I told the brunette.
“I’m surprised that as a god you can’t… grant yourself relief,” Nicola said with a smirk on her face.
“I don’t know how
,” I admitted. “I just watch you all day and want to fuck you.”
“I’m not convinced your… life… isn’t easy,” the dark-haired woman responded. “It sounds pretty good to have followers who constantly tell you how wonderful you are and do anything you tell them.”
“You don’t like being my follower?” I joked. “I thought you were into that sort of thing now.”
“From time to time,” the brunette laughed. “You know me. Sometimes I’m devout, and sometimes… I’m just a woman who wants you to hold me. Anyway, Jack, look at this pan. It’s like it’s brand new.”
Nicola held out the cooking utensil, and the stream had washed off centuries, if not millenia, worth of rust and grime.
“That’s amazing,” I said to the dark-haired priestess. “You should go show Aleia and Penelope.”
“How are my sisters doing?” Nicola asked, so I zoomed out to look at the kitchen.
“They already have two big logs in the circle,” I reported. “It’s looking good over there.”
“Great.” The dark haired-woman nodded as she began to walk up the hill. “Well, I suppose I’m back to the kitchen. I still can’t believe how well this pan turned out.”
“Looking good,” I praised Penelope and Aleia as they carried their third log over to the fire. “That may be enough for now.”
“It does make a nice little place to sit,” the fairy agreed with a proud smile.
“Nicola is coming back with a surprise,” I told the two priestesses, and just then, the dark-haired priestess walked into the kitchen with the clean pan in hand.
“Look, sisters!” Nicola said as her voice rose excitedly. “I cleaned the pan!”
“Oh, wow!” Penelope enthused as she ran toward the brunette. “Can I see?”
The dark-haired woman handed the cooking utensil to the naiad, who examined it closely.
“What do you think?” the brunette asked. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
“Oh, it’s fantastic,” the naiad said with shining eyes. “It feels like we’ve been waiting for so long to eat something good.”
“Well, then, let me just dress the rabbit, and cook it up,” Nicola said in an excited voice. “I’m starving!”
The women were soon sitting on their new tree trunks around the fire, and they were mostly quiet as they enjoyed their food.
“This is sooo good,” Penelope moaned as she scraped the last piece of rabbit off her plate. “And I’m so happy the crops will be ready soon. I hope Elowise still has some other seeds left from earlier in the season, now that we know the water from the stream helps them grow.”
“Are you going to tell the gnomes the secret of the water?” Aleia asked the naiad.
“I don’t know,” Penelope replied with a shrug. “What do you think?”
“Of course I would,” the fairy answered. “But I don’t know if the stream at their camp works the same way.”
“We never found out if it healed their muscles,” Nicola reminded the other two women. “If the stream didn’t heal them, then it probably won’t make crops grow.”
“I have no idea if it’s just blessed down here or not,” the naiad said with another shrug. “It would be hard for them to carry water from our camp--”
“Hey, we have your metal bar, Jack! Do you think we can try to open the trap door now?” Nicola asked. “Sorry to interrupt, Penelope. I just remembered.”
“Yes!” Aleia said as she clapped her hands together, and then she picked up the large crowbar. “That’s what I want to do. Let’s walk over to the trap door. Wow, this is heavy. It might actually be strong enough to lift that huge piece of wood.”
“Get some strong branches, Penelope and Nicola,” I advised the women. “While Aleia tries to use the crowbar to pry it open, you can use sticks.”
“Got it,” Nicola said with a nod. “Let’s go solve this mystery, sisters!”
The dark-haired woman and the naiad gathered sturdy oak branches from the pile of firewood, and then the three priestesses headed over toward the kitchen. When they reached the trap door, they each stood on one side of the square with Aleia opposite the hinges.
“I want you to use a rock as a fulcrum,” I told Aleia. “Let’s see, how can I explain this? Take one of those large rocks and set it next to the trap door. Then you’re going to stick the flat end of the crowbar in the space between the trap door and the frame. Leverage the bar against the rock so you can lift the door higher, and then the other two of you can come in with your branches and lift it up even further.”
“That makes sense,” the fairy said with a nod. “Will this stone work, Jack?”
The large, round rock the strawberry-blonde selected came all the way up to her thighs, but that wasn’t very tall on the petite woman.
“That looks perfect,” I replied.
“Alright, let’s try this,” Aleia said to the other priestesses. “When I say go, you lodge your branches underneath.”
“We’re ready, sister,” Penelope said with a smile. “Ooh, this is so fun!”
The fairy wedged the crowbar into the gap and put the bar up against the rock. Then she grabbed the hooked end of the metal and began to push downward, and when she couldn’t get enough force, she put one of her feet on the bar and pushed down with her super strong legs.
The heavy door began to open with a horrible creaking sound, and a bead of sweat ran down the fairy’s face as she struggled to hold it.
“Go!” Aleia cried out when the door was about six inches open, and Nicola and Penelope wedged their sticks under the wood to help the fairy push the trap door, which had to be ten inches thick.
“Looks like I was right about the wine,” Nicola grunted as the three women gave a final shove, and the door swung all the way backward.
Then the hefty slab of wood landed with a boom on the grass, and the dark-haired woman crouched down to inspect the cellar’s contents. Unfortunately, all that could be seen were the tops of large circular containers, and they came almost all the way up to the opening to the kitchen.
“It’s just barrels,” Penelope pouted as she poked the top of one of the wooden cylinders with her stick. “Nothing fun.”
“Can you move them?” I suggested. “Try pushing them to the side.”
“They’re packed in there pretty tight,” Aleia said with a grimace on her face as she tried to shift the barrels.
“Try to move one with the crowbar,” Penelope suggested. “If it worked on the door, it might work on one of the barrels.”
“These things are pretty big,” the fairy said with doubt in her sea-green eyes. “I don’t think the crowbar is what we’re looking for.”
“Just try!” the naiad insisted. “We have to do something, there must be more than this.”
“Okay,” Aleia said before she jammed the flat end of the long bar in between two barrels, but it wouldn’t budge.
Suddenly, there was a loud cracking noise, and one of the barrels split down its side. A stream of thick, dark red liquid started to stream out, and the women all held their noses.
“It smells really strong,” Nicola said as she waved her other hand in front of her face. “If it’s been aged, it’s… really aged.”
“I’m not sure it smells good to drink,” Aleia agreed. “That’s too bad.”
“Do you want to drink more alcohol, sister?” Penelope giggled. “The gnome tea wasn’t enough for you?”
“It was kind of fun,” the fairy admitted as her cheeks flushed. “But I’m definitely not trying this.”
“I’ll sample it for you the next time I come down there,” I told the women, even though I was no wine connoisseur myself.
“You’ll taste it for us?” Aleia laughed. “Maybe it can’t hurt a god.”
“It depends how it smells,” I replied. “Maybe it’s just really strong. You haven’t been around much wine, have you?”
“My parents used to brew acorn wine,” the fairy informed me. “But that never smelled good to me either
.”
“Acorn wine?” I marveled. “That’s cute. Did you crush the nuts with your feet?”
“My feet?” Aleia laughed. “No, fairies use acorn hammers for this work.”
“I don’t know what an acorn hammer is,” I told the fairy, “but I love the sound of all of this.”
“Well, I don’t know what feet would have to do with--”
“Excuse me!” Nicola waved her hands in the air. “You’re all ignoring the most important thing. The trapdoor we were so excited to open is completely blocked by wine barrels. Aleia, give me the crowbar.”
“Of course, sister,” the fairy said as she handed the brunette the thick piece of metal.
“If I could just… ughhhh…” the dark-haired woman grunted as she pushed against one of the barrels. “If you lay your head against the top of the wood, you can see there’s an open space off to the left. But I don’t think I’m strong enough to move this. Aleia, you try one more time.”
“Okay,” the strawberry-blonde sighed. She took the end of the crowbar from the brunette and attempted to wedge it against the wood barrel, but after a full minute of fussing with the stack, nothing budged.
“Aleia, you’re the strongest little fairy we know,” Penelope pressed. “You can do this, I know you can!”
“I just can’t get a good angle,” Aleia muttered through clenched teeth, and she gave it a few more stubborn tries. “Whoever packed these barrels in was a fool to think they’d ever be able to get them out through this door.”
“Well… perhaps there’s another way in,” Penelope mused. “There must be, if you can’t access the cellar this way. What’s the point of having barrels of wine you can’t get to?”
“That’s true,” I agreed. “Maybe you can roll them out from the other side.”
There had to be more to the hole in the ground than this. My interface had told me to actually explore the cellar, and busting one barrel open hardly counted. I hadn’t leveled up yet, either, and personally, my curiosity wasn’t even close to satisfied.
“But I wonder where it could be…” the naiad pondered as she tugged on her long, golden hair.