Green Canyon Magic - Ch.15 - Home Deliveries (Patreon)

The smell of coffee roused me from a deep sleep, and as I sat up in bed I realized I could also smell bacon cooking.

The coffee wasn't a surprise, we'd scored a bunch of instant coffee powder from the soldiers' supplies, along with powdered whitener and various other dry or dehydrated goods. The bacon was unexpected though, and that got all my tails wagging. Needless to say we still hadn't managed to make that trip out to Hardegg, even though nearly a full week had passed since Gaia's last visit.

I stifled a yawn as I got up out of bed, then padded barefoot out of our big bedroom. That was part of the reason I'd been so tired the last few days, we'd all been following Gaia's advice about practicing our magic. And for me, that meant enlarging and improving our home.

What started off as a simple cave and became a cosy one-room cottage was now a full-sized house. It was still built into the side of the mountain, but our original single-room was now a big comfortable living-dining-room area, with a separate kitchen off to one side. The bedroom and kitchen were both on opposite sides of the main living area, with all three rooms connected by a short hallway that ran on the inner-side of the space. Each room had a couple windows on the outside walls, that gave us plenty of fresh air and lovely views of the woods and canyon.

Following some suggestions from Stef I added a few more ventilation shafts leading both up and down, that the cat-kin planned to use for warmth in the winter. Between their air magic and Theo's fire magic it would be like having a free zero-emission furnace heating our new home.

We also added a new bathroom, across the hall from our bedroom. Running water was still a work in process though. I'd created a large reservoir space a little higher up the mountain, but it was going to take a while to fill if we had to wait for rain to do the trick. It meant we'd eventually have running water, and not just cold. I'd created the water conduits in pairs, and a second smaller reservoir would supply water that was heated courtesy of Theo's magic.

And finally I added a basement underneath the kitchen, for long-term storage. It was basically a natural cold cellar, and we figured it'd work for storing whatever food and supplies Gaia eventually provided us with.

All that new space meant removing several dozen cubic meters of rock, and it all had to go somewhere. So I used it to create a nice patio area outside the entrance to our home, along with a path and staircase down to the little inlet where we liked to swim. I even had enough stone to make us a small dock down there.

I suppressed another yawn as I wandered into the kitchen, where I found Stef standing over the military camp stove. Sure enough they had a pan full of fresh bacon sizzling over the burner, while Theo sat on the counter toasting slices of bread with his magic. After blinking the last of the sleep from my eyes I spotted the full mug of coffee waiting for me, and couldn't help smiling as I picked it up.

"Mmm," I sighed after a good long sip. Then I frowned, "How's this taste so good? It's almost like you used real cream in it, instead of the powdered stuff. And where'd the bacon come from?"

Stef giggled, "Yes it's real cream, my little star! When Theo and I woke up this morning we found a surprise waiting for us on the table. Go and see for yourself!"

"Oh?" I responded.

I turned and wandered back out of our kitchen and into the big living-room. Sure enough there was a large wicker basket sitting atop our stone dining table. It was lined with what seemed like a large cotton sheet, and contained all manner of goodies. Although it was clear Stef had already gone through it, and the cat-kin had taken a few things into the kitchen with them when they started fixing breakfast.

There were glass bottles of milk and cream, glass jars of coffee and tea and other staples, such as sugar and salt. There were bags of flour and rice, and loads of fresh local produce. There was even meat, some fresh and some cured and preserved, all of which was wrapped in waxed butcher paper.

The selection made it seem like someone did the grocery shopping at a farmers' market, but the lack of modern packaging made me think of some historical setting. The basket looked hand-made, and was obviously reusable, same with the bottles and jars. Even the cotton sheet that kept the glass from rattling could be reused or repurposed. And the few things that weren't reusable were made of natural renewable stuff, like the paper sacks for the flour and rice or the waxed butchers paper.

After another sip of my coffee I picked up the basket and moved it off the table, so it wasn't in the way when breakfast was ready. And that's when I noticed the note. It was hand-written on a scrap of paper, and I wasn't surprised to see Gaia's name at the bottom.

Her message was short and to the point, "Just leave the basket and any empty bottles or jars outside your door at night and it'll be refilled by morning."

"Oh good you found the note," Stef said as they carried a couple plates over to the table.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Free overnight grocery delivery is pretty handy, although she doesn't say whether or not we can order anything specific."

The cat-kin made a thoughtful sound as they went back to the kitchen to get their coffee and Theo's food, before returning to join me at the table. Our little wildcat friend hopped up and sat at his usual spot at the end, where my enbyfriend place his dish of finely chopped bacon. And for the two of us they'd prepared toasted bacon sandwiches.

"I'm sure we could leave her a note when we put the basket out," they commented. "But looking at everything she provided, almost all of seems like locally-produced goods? In fact you could count on one hand the stuff you couldn't grow around here. Coffee, tea, sugar, and pepper."

After a bite of my sandwich I let out a little happy sigh, while my ears stood up tall and my tails all started wagging again. "This is delicious cutie, thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," they grinned, while their ears and tail all stood up tall and proud.

I enjoyed another bite of my breakfast before adding, "Also I'm positive you don't have to go overseas for sugar anymore. They can make it from sugar beats I think? So it could be a local product after all. That just leaves coffee tea and pepper as the exotic imports."

Stef nodded, "Good point. I wonder if Gaia would bring us some chocolate or vanilla? Those are definitely exotic treats. Then again even something as mundane as an orange or a banana would have been exotic a few hundred years ago."

The fresh food and our new 'grocery service' remained the topic of conversation through breakfast. Then after we were all finished eating Stef and Theo kept me company while I did the washing-up, and we continued our conversation in the kitchen.

"I still have to pinch myself now and then to be sure all this is real," the cat-kin commented. "Between the instant transitions, amazing new bodies, magical powers, new high-paying jobs, our own home with loads of land, and now the fresh produce delivered to our door whenever we need it? It's like a dream come true."

I nodded, "Same. Although I have to admit I miss talking with our online friends. I hope Gaia comes through with electricity and internet soon."

"And some way to reliably fill up our water reservoir would be nice too," I added as I rinsed off the frying pan. "If we can keep that topped up we'll have enough water pressure for a good hot shower."

Stef agreed, "Me too my little star, I miss our online friends. In fact I was thinking, wouldn't it be great if we could invite some of them to come and join us here? Gaia gave us all this land, we have so much space here it's almost wasted on the three of us."

"Huh," I frowned as I started thinking about that. "You're right. With our magic we could build more cave-houses like ours. Or maybe our friends would get magic too, if they went swimming in the lake and started drinking the water and everything?"

Theo reminded us, "It might make some of them sick instead. You heard what Gaia said in that big night-time announcement, some people are already getting sick."

"I'd like to think that the sort of people Stella and I are friends with are the kind of folks that Gaia would like," the cat-kin replied. "I'm sure you'd like them too Theo."

I pointed out, "If you didn't like them we wouldn't invite them to stay anyways."

"Exactly," Stef nodded. Then they frowned, "Although Theo makes a good point. Without electricity and internet, we have no idea what's going on out in the rest of the world. That's going to make it hard for us to act as ambassadors, if we're completely sheltered and clueless."

"Maybe we really do need to start making regular trips out to Hardegg," I sighed. "Not for groceries, but for news and information? Maybe stop at a cafe and use their internet, to catch up with our friends?"

My enbyfriend grimaced, "It's not a bad idea. And we could buy anything else we need, like tools and building supplies that our magic can't easily replace."

For the next few seconds we all just stared at each other. Then I pointed out, "It's still early, if we leave now we'll have plenty of time to get there and back before it gets dark out."

"Yeah," Stef sighed. "I suppose we should -"

Their voice cut off suddenly as their ears twitched. Theo's ears did as well, and his tail puffed out slightly. Meanwhile my ears drooped, along with my tail. We'd all just sensed the same thing, people intruding onto our land. The feeling came from the same direction as before, like they were approaching from somewhere near Retz.

"They're back," our little wildcat grumbled.

I frowned as I slowly shook my head, "This group feels different."

"This group has horses," Stef stated.

It took me another few seconds before I realized they were right. It was my first time feeling horse's hooves through the ground like that, but the sensation was very distinct.

"You're right," I nodded. "It feels like they're heading towards the impossible mountain again. I guess we should go out and monitor them?"

Theo sounded like he was smiling as he asked, "So we're not going to visit Hardegg after all?"

Stef grinned, "Someday Theo, but not today. Let's go find a hiding spot and wait to see what the humans are up to this time."

Before heading out we quickly put away all the supplies Gaia sent us, meat and milk went down into the cellar while everything else was stored on shelves or in cubbyholes in our little kitchen. Then the three of us set off for the impossible mountain. The trees had all their pretty autumn colours on display which made for a beautiful hike, although it was also a reminder that winter wasn't that far away.

As we walked we all speculated about the approaching humans. By that point we'd determined there were a dozen horses, and Stef somehow established that at least some of the people were carrying weapons. Probably thanks to their air affinity, they could boost their hearing or maybe they used it to pick up distant scents. Either way we could assume that meant there were some soldiers in the group.

On the other hand the cat-kin didn't think there were any scientists this time, which worried us. I couldn't help thinking they'd sent demolition experts to try and blow up the natural dam and drain our lake, since we heard a couple guys discussing that when the other group of humans came six days earlier.

Despite being on horses the humans weren't actually moving that fast, so we reached the area overlooking the dam and the base of the mountain with plenty of time to spare. We ended up settling into the same spot we used last time, where we could watch them from some cover.

It took them over an hour, but eventually the group came into view. They'd been following the same path they took the week before, and it turned out that was probably because they had the same guide leading the way. He was the one Theo said Gaia would like, the guy who dove into the lake to save the injured scientist. He wasn't the only familiar face either, the photographer was back as well. And like last time, he had his antique cameras loaded with film.

Those were the only two we'd seen before though, the other humans were all new. There were a half dozen soldiers, and this time none of them were young conscripts. These were all older men, presumably career military, and they seemed to be armed with some fancy modern assault rifles. The last four men were harder to guess. They were unarmed, and all four were dressed in civilian clothes. Two of them appeared to be in their fifties and looked really out of place, while the other two were probably mid- to late-thirties. One of them was looking around uneasily, the other seemed pretty calm.

The whole group came to a halt more or less where the military set up their camp last time, and for a moment I thought they were about to do the same thing now. Then I realized none of them had big heavy packs.

Once they stopped most of them dismounted. The guide and one of the soldiers seemed to be more interested in looking after the horses, while four of the soldiers took up positions with their weapons ready like they were on guard duty. Then the last soldier and the confident-looking civilian helped the two older guys and the awkward-looking guy down off their rides.

"One of the soldiers just addressed the older guy as 'minister'. I think they might be from the government?" Stef whispered.

Like before the photographer was busy snapping pictures, and he seemed to be mostly interested in the civilians rather than the scenery this time. Which made sense, assuming they really were from the government.

My eyebrows crept up and I whispered back, "That's hard to believe, after we scared the first group off. I wonder what they want?"

We got the answer to that question a moment later, when one of the soldiers and the confident civilian guy both raised up binoculars and started scanning the tree-line. My heart skipped a beat as they seemed to find us immediately, one of them even pointed right at us.

Then the older man called out, "Greetings, to the two young women hiding in the woods! I've come from parliament, the chancellor sent me to speak with you. Will you please show yourselves?"

Stef and Theo and I all exchanged a worried look and my enbyfriend asked, "What should we do?"

** This chapter is brought to you courtesy of Lucy who commissioned it! **