Green Canyon Magic - Ch.27 - Big Plans (Patreon)

"Aww," Charlotte pouted as she floated in the water a few meters away from the end of our stone dock. "Do I have to?"

Flora rolled her eyes as she picked up her towel, "No cutie, you don't 'have' to. But Gaia's coming to meet us, and I think it might be rude to keep her waiting."

I hoisted myself out of the water then looked back to the mink-girl and smirked, "We can always swim again afterwards, but right now Flora's right. It's been about an hour, according to Theo she should be here any time."

The deer-girl's ears flicked as she glanced around and frowned, "Speaking of, where'd the little guy go? I know he was sleeping on the dock here when we first got in the water."

"He probably got bored and went off hunting," Stef replied. "Or he might be patrolling our territory. Either way I'm sure he'll be there for Gaia's visit."

Then my enbyfriend smiled and swished their tail as they offered, "Would anyone like a magical blow-dry? It's much faster than a towel, especially when it comes to hair and fur."

"Yes please!" I responded immediately. "Four tails are great, but they're so much heavier when my floof is all full of water!"

Stef laughed, "Of course my little star. Here it comes!"

I closed my eyes as I felt the air start swirling around me. It only lasted a couple seconds, then the miniature wind-storm faded away just as quickly. I opened my eyes and glanced over my shoulder as I swished my tails around.

"Thank you cutie!" I grinned. "You keep getting better and better at that. My floof looks like it'll only need a few minutes of brushing."

They just smiled before turning their attention to our friends. "Flora, Charlotte, can I dry you two off as well?"

The deer-girl was still busy with her towel, while our little mink friend had only just pulled herself up out of the water. Charlotte seemed to hesitate at that point, with a distant and slightly confused expression on her face.

"Everything ok there cutie?" Flora asked her girlfriend.

The mink girl nodded slowly, "Yeah. It's just, I can sort of feel something? Hold on a sec."

We all watched as she closed her eyes, then her brow furrowed slightly with a look of intense concentration. Which honestly looked absolutely adorable on her. That lasted about fifteen or twenty seconds, before her eyes sprang open and her eyebrows shot upwards.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Oh my gosh!"

"What is it? What's wrong?" Flora asked, while her ears twitched in concern.

Except I already knew nothing was wrong, and I was positive Stef had figured it out as well. I couldn't exactly see the magic, but I knew what to look for. And sure enough I could see the results. All the water beaded up on Charlotte's skin was rapidly evaporating away. It was happening to her hair and fur as well, as though the water was simply fading away to nothing.

When our other friend finally noticed it she gasped, "Wait what just happened?! How'd you do that?!"

"Ha!" Charlotte exclaimed. She was grinning ear to ear as she spelled it out for her girlfriend, "I can control water! This is so cool!"

She continued happily, "I felt it just as I was getting out of the lake. It's like there was another sense that had been asleep all my life, and only just woke up? Suddenly I was aware of the water on my body like it was part of me but at the same time separate? So I just kind of focused on it, and forced it to transform from liquid to vapour."

"So you got your wish," Flora smiled. "You wanted water magic, and now you have it. That's so cool!"

Charlotte nodded, "Yeah! What about you? Do you feel anything new or different?"

"Oh and can I dry you off too?" she added with another wide grin.

"Sure," the deer-girl replied with another smile. Then she glanced at my enbyfriend and apologized, "Sorry Stef. Thanks for the offer, but I have to go with the girlfriend option."

"Of course," the catkin nodded as they pulled me into a side-hug. "I understand completely."

I just grinned as the two of us continued watching our friends. The little mink-girl had that adorable look of concentration on her face again, and sure enough a few seconds later the water began evaporating off her tall girlfriend's body.

"Wow! Thank you love, that's amazing!" Flora said once the process was finished.

With everyone fully dried off we all quickly got dressed, but magic remained the topic of conversation as the four of us headed back up the hill towards home.

Flora shook her head, "Like I said, I don't feel anything new or different. I don't even know what I should be looking for?"

I tried to explain, "For me I'd describe it almost like discovering a new limb or muscle? Like you know how your arm or leg can go to sleep if you're sitting or leaning on it wrong? It's kind of like that, but in reverse."

"Then once you find it you need to learn how to use it," Stef took over. "That means practice, and exercise. It was almost instinct at first for Stella and I, but we gradually learned how to consciously control it."

"Right," I nodded in agreement, while my tails all swished around behind me.

The deer girl frowned for a second or two, then shrugged. "I'm sure trying to force it isn't going to help any. I'll just wait, and let things happen when they happen."

Charlotte pouted, "I hope you find your magic soon. It doesn't feel fair that I got mine but you haven't got yours yet."

Flora opened her mouth to reply just as the front of our home came into view. Then instead of responding the deer-girl stopped in her tracks and stared. Her girlfriend froze a half-step later, while Stef and I just smiled.

Our boss was there waiting for us, relaxing on the semi-circular stone seating I'd created next to the fire pit. Our wildcat friend was there too, curled up next to her. And finally I noticed a couple large woven baskets on the ground by Gaia's feet. Meanwhile she seemed to be inspecting my handiwork, and from her expression I had a feeling she approved. Which got my tails wagging a little quicker.

A moment later she looked towards the four of us and smiled, "Hello again Stef, Stella. And hello Charlotte and Flora, it's nice to meet you. Theo's told me a little about you both."

"H-hello ma'am," Charlotte replied nervously. Then she glanced at me and whispered, "Should we bow? Or curtsey or something?"

Gaia laughed, "Please don't. I'm no goddess, and I'm not royalty either."

Flora looked and sounded just as nervous when she pointed out, "You're bigger and more important than either of those. You're like... You're the whole world. Gods and royalty wouldn't exist without you."

"Maybe," our teenage boss shrugged. "I'm just the planet's avatar. I could have chosen a shape that looked powerful or impressive, but I don't want people to treat me like that. I don't want to be feared or respected because folks think I look big and strong, or rich and powerful. I'd rather people loved and respected me because they love and respect all nature."

She continued, "Anyways come and sit, make yourselves comfortable! Like I said, Theo's already told me a little about you. And more to the point, he said you have a long list of things you need. Or at least, things that would make you all more comfortable."

"Like clothes?" Stef responded as the two of us moved forward to join our boss by the fire pit.

I added, "And new phones for our friends?"

"More wine?" Charlotte blurted out, then immediately blushed brightly. She added in a quiet mumble, "And Flora really wants a boat."

Gaia laughed, "Yes, yes, and sure why not."

"My R&D team finished perfecting their designs and solved the last of their manufacturing hurdles," she continued, "So I'm able to provide magic-powered phones for all my people now. Which brings us to another thing I want to discuss."

She looked to Stef and I specifically as she explained, "Do continue negotiating with the humans, but there's something else I'd like you to work on in the meantime. It wasn't even my idea to be honest, a few other teams came up with this on their own. I'm embracing it and encouraging it because I think they're onto something."

"What's is it?" my enbyfriend asked. "What do you want us to do?"

"I want you to start building a new civilization right now," Gaia replied as if it was no big deal.

She actually sounded excited as she elaborated, "Rather than wait for humanity to make up its collective mind about whether or not they want to save themselves, there's already a handful of new communities coming together as we speak. Groups such as yours are taking the gifts I've provided and sharing them with like-minded friends. "

She gestured towards our friends as she went on, "Charlotte and Flora are a good start. If you have more like-minded friends I'd encourage you to invite them too. And by like-minded I mean, people who love and appreciate nature. People who would welcome a lifestyle that brought them closer to nature. And of course, people who wouldn't mind becoming part of nature themselves, like the four of you."

"You mean folks who wouldn't mind becoming part animal?" Stef asked as their tail slowly swished from side to side. "Actually when you say like-minded people, do you mean just trans people? Or queer people?"

Our boss smiled and shook her head, "I don't exclude cis or het people, I already have a few in my employment. Having said that, I feel like there's a greater overlap in terms of people who are trans and people who actively wish for some sort of physical transformation."

My ears flicked as I pointed out, "If most of your staff are queer to begin with then these new communities are going to be mostly queer for a while. Since we tend to be friends with other queers, that's who we're going to be reaching out to first."

"Queer magnetism," Flora nodded slowly.

That put a sly smile on my enbyfriend's face. "That's perfect. While the old capitalist cis het NT civilization crumbles we'll be building a new fair friendly society that's queer-positive and neurodivergent friendly. And thanks to Gaia and her magic and everything, we can do it without having to worry about the old guard trying to stop us or take it away from us."

"Exactly," Mother Earth agreed. "I'd like you to keep these plans secret for now, while you continue working with the humans. I don't want to cause undue panic among them, as I'm sure they'll react badly if they believe our ultimate goal is to replace them entirely."

She elaborated, "Which it's not, by the way. I don't want to wipe them out, if that was my goal I'd have done it already. Perhaps we'll end up with a future where human civilization and our new society can co-exist? I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunity for trade and cooperation. But I will not allow them to continue polluting the world and killing my other children with impunity. They can work with us and the new society we're going to build, or they can fade away into obscurity."

"My sentiments exactly," Stef stated with a grim smile. "So you want us to invite more friends to come join us here?"

I added, "The more people we have here the more basic necessities we're going to need. Clothes and food obviously. And I can make more cave-homes in the cliffs, but depending how many people we're talking about we're going to run out of space eventually. And I'm not sure how willing people will be to give up some other modern conveniences? Like plumbing and electricity and stuff. Lights, air conditioning, heating in the winter, all that stuff."

"I know that Stella," Gaia replied. She gestured towards those baskets, "And I've brought everything Theo mentioned earlier. Help yourselves. There's magic phones for Charlotte and Flora, and new clothes for all four of you. I even brought a few outfits for Theo, in case he ever decides to try being human-shaped."

My eyes widened and my ears perked up at that. I looked at the little wildcat and grinned, "Can you do that?! Can you actually make yourself human? I had no idea!"

Instead of lifting his head the little furball just curled up tighter and mumbled, "I suppose. Why would I want to though? I'm already perfect as I am."

"You sure are," Stef grinned as they reached over and gave him some pets and scritches.

Meanwhile our boss continued, "As for space, we can simply expand on what I've already given you. Everything covered by the tech-shadow of my mountain is now available to you, on both sides of the river. The only exception being any residences or farms still occupied by humans. Please don't evict anyone from their homes. But any structures already abandoned are yours, to do with as you wish."

"That includes the contents," she added. Then she gave our mink-girl a knowing smile and added, "Which means you now have a couple fully-stocked wineries at your disposal, little one."

Charlotte's eyes widened while her cheeks heated up, "T-thank you ma'am. That's really generous of you."

Gaia smiled back, before becoming serious yet again. "Ultimately of course I'll want your new community to become self-sufficient. You now have a little over thirteen thousand hectares, about half of which is already farmland. Another two fifths is woodland and the Thaya. The remaining tenth is developed, including a few villages. And parts of Retz and Znojmo of course."

"Holy shit," Flora mumbled.

"You can say that again," I nodded slowly. Because sure enough I could feel all our new territory.

My ears stood up and my tails all dipped down behind me as my senses spread out from my bare feet through the ground all around us. I became aware of a few hundred Austrian soldiers, camping and patrolling in and around our parts of Retz. I was just as aware of the hundreds of Czech soldiers camped west of Znojmo. I could even feel the little handfuls of people who still lived around Niederfladnitz, and Mašovice, and a few other villages inside Gaia's no-tech zone.

"The new civilization we're building will be based on both nature and magic," Mother Earth stated softly. "How that plays out is still up in the air, but you and Stef and Theo have already done some great things with the magic you have at hand. Instead of just three of you, imagine what could be achieved with a whole village? There's many more varieties of magic beyond fire and air and stone. Water, ice, light, metal, lightning, plants, animals, shape-shifting, gravity, the list goes on. And this is only the beginning."

She looked at each of us before adding, "Less than a full month has passed since I revealed myself to humanity. The next few years are going to be very exciting."

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