Sothing that my grove hadn’t ntioned to when I’d spoken to it was a certain consequence of expanding. When Esra had been complaining about how many buns I had, she wasn’t joking. The bun population of Rynland had grown by… well, a whole lot.
For the next two days I spent my ti working as hard as possible to get everyone sorted, all while eting each new bun. I needed to spend ti with my little friends — they were precious to , and to the functioning of this wonderful ho I’d been given by Esra and her fruit.
Two days later, and the university people, my friends, the obrec, and everyone else had all been dealt with. I’d focused so hard on settling all of that, because I needed a solid week to myself in order to prepare the huge valley for my fellow knights of Eleos.
I began by creating a cave up near the ridge that led to my personal area of the grove. Originally I began to dig with my magic, but pretty soon an army of buns appeared to help , and the job got done in record ti.
Unlike last ti, I’d purposefully chosen the composition of the soil and ground below. There was plenty of rich soil on the uppermost layer, but below that you’d begin to run into large hunks of rock until you eventually reached bedrock. I had the buns dig all the way to this layer in a network of branching paths, many too small for to get into.
Within the tunnels I created a type of moss that would draw in magical energy and convert it into water, thus providing the main source of water for my river-to-be.
My buns helped spread the newly created moss once there was enough of it, and before long I had to evacuate them from the tunnels for fear of them drowning. There was quite a lot of water being produced… perhaps more than I needed… ah well. The river would just flow faster, I guess?
With the valley sloping gently down towards the end opposite the cave, the water began to find its own way through the terrain, sloshing and surging all the way.
It was fascinating to watch really, wondering which way the water would take as it raced for the ready made depression in the ground where the lake would be.
Grace ca and found as Cream and I watched the show from up on the top of the crater’s rim.
With a weary groan and a long sigh, she settled down next to . “I’ve been talking to Claih.”
“What about?” I asked, shifting sideways so I could lean my head on her shoulder.
Arm shifting to hold against her side, I heard the smile in her voice as she explained, “Talking about getting so magitech stuff going for . She wants to start with the hand cannons that I tried out earlier. Insists that I help her build them, with Bray as well, obviously. I just… I’m no good with making things, you know? I don’t want her efforts to be in vain.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” I told her with a little laugh, kneading at her arm with my fingers idly. “You know exactly how to get a hairstyle out of soone’s ssy mop, and you’ve got that sort of insightful intelligence that picks out problems before they arise. You should give it a real shot.”
“There’s also Bray… I don’t want to steal his thunder or anything,” she hesitated, sounding very unsure of herself. “I an… he’s already kinda pissed at for dating you.”
“He is?” I asked, sitting up to look at her properly. Within her pretty green eyes I found a lot of self doubt and more than a little worry. At her nod of confirmation, I frowned, “Well he’s a bloody moron then. I’m a girl, he’s not into girls… I’m also a lesbian, so that’s like double the roadblocks. Plus, I just don’t think he’d make a good partner for anyway.”
“Why not?” she asked, curiosity replacing the anxiety across her face.
“He wouldn’t give what I need in a relationship,” I smiled, leaning forward to kiss her on the nose. “You do though, you give the soft, gentle love that I need after the fucked up life I’ve lived. You care for when I forget to do basic shit like eating, you listen to when I’m frustrated about things but don’t want to let anyone else know. You’re strong too, strong enough for to lean on when I need it, but also vulnerable, you let take care of you in turn. I an, I could go on and on about what I need in a relationship, but… all I really have to do is point to you. You are what I need.”
As I spoke, her bottom lip pursed and her eyes turned watery, until I finished and she was dragging into a tight hug. “Oh Ryn, I love you so much. Thank you, thank you… thank you for… for being…”
“Hey, whoa… it’s okay,” I murmured gently, wrapping her up tight in return. “I love you too, I love you.”
Before she could reply, a fluffy nose inserted itself into the hug, and I felt little paws wrap around the both of us. Cream had joined the hug.
Laughing, I gave her a scratch behind her ears. “Thanks, Cream.”
Grace let out a little laugh along with , pulling back again to grin while saring tears across her face in a failed attempt to clean herself with a sleeve. “It’s just… I an you give purpose in this new world, you know? I’m so scared of losing you.”
“I’m not leaving you, silly,” I said with a roll of my eyes for emphasis.
“Yeah — and you said all that, but… I’m just , you know? But you, you’re so kind, intelligent, beautiful, and so good at what you do… I an look at that,” she told earnestly, gesturing to the lake that was now filling. “You’re a goddess, how do I match up to that?”
“I don’t want or need you to match up to and my silly lake,” I told her seriously, taking her head in both hands so she had to et my eyes. “I’m all of those things, I guess… but there’s also a lot of things that I am not. Like, for example, I am not a functional adult. That, to , is far harder than creating miniature worlds and silly moss that makes water. We haven’t really talked about it, but I’ve noticed how you do my laundry.”
“You have more important things to do than your laundry,” she mumbled bashfully, trying to turn away.
“Hey,” I said, pulling her back. “Thank you. Thank you for being my girlfriend, for being there for . You’re absolutely the only person for , and plus… you’re a bit of a goddess yourself now, or at least attached to one.”
“I know… but it’s not like I can do anything with it, other than banishing our enemies to so sort of eternal nightmare,” she sighed dejectedly, pouting a little.
“And that is why your topic change isn’t going to work,” I said with a knowing smirk. “You’re going to give this magitecht thing a real try, okay? I think you’ll be good at it, and since your own judgent of yourself is hot garbage, we’ll go with mine instead.”
That had her smiling, her arms coming up to encircle my neck. “I am going to kiss you.”
Shifting a hand to her chest to stall her, I glared at her suspiciously. “Not until you agree that you’ll give it a real try.”
“Fine,” she chuckled shyly, rolling her eyes. “I will be a good student and try my best to learn how to make deadly magic guns.”
“Good girl,” I smiled. removing my hand and allowing myself to be pulled closer.
“. Cloth. Wash,” Cream said suddenly, breaking the mont as Grace looked down sharply at the bunny. “Lady Lady groom Lady.”
“Did… she just talk?” Grace asked in wide eyed surprise.
“Try,” the small bun shrugged. “Mouth bad.”
As they interacted, I was grinning widely at the whole thing. Cream was one of my favourite beings in the universe, and here she was blowing my poor Grace’s mind with her newfound powers of speech.
“She’s been talking a little since the grove expanded,” I explained to my girlfriend. “It seems like the more people that visit my grove, the smarter it and the buns beco.”
“That is fucking aweso,” Grace exclaid, letting go to give the bun dual ear scritches.
Cream’s little face scrunched up into a frown. “Yes but… groom now. later.”
“Uh, I didn’t understand that,” Grace admitted sheepishly, turning to for explanation. For my part, I began to laugh, ruffling Cream’s little fuzzy side affectionately.
“She ans that she interrupted us as we were about to make out, and that we should get back to that before we talk about her,” I explained as I tried to get control of myself. The way that Cream kept referring to kissing as grooming was too funny.
“Well, if the little bun says so,” Grace chuckled, gently cupping my cheek so I’d turn to face her.
Goodness, her eyes were always so entrancing when she got all romantic like this, as though their depth increased sevenfold while their clarity was that of polished diamond. With a thumb grazing the skin just beneath my eye, she pulled slowly in towards her soft lips.
In the distance, the telltale boom of an explosion shook the air, causing the dust around us to jump slightly in place. Both of us groaned at the sa ti, our foreheads connecting with a slight bump as we broke off the kiss before it had even started.
“What was that?” I asked with a long, weary sigh.
“I’m pretty sure that whatever experint Claih was running just detonated on her,” my girlfriend replied.
I let out another groan. “Lovely.”
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