Green Canyon Magic - Ch.5 - Home Away From Home (Patreon)

The three of us were all pretty quiet during the hike back to our cave. Our little wildcat friend led the way, while Stef and I followed a couple paces behind. I was mostly lost in thought. Between the near-death experience of falling into the lake and the impossible staircase that appeared so we could climb back out to safety I had a lot on my mind.

Stef was the same, my enbyfriend had a quiet thoughtful expression on their face for most of the hike. I was positive they were thinking about the same things I was. The mountain, the lake, the way our bodies changed, and the elemental magic we both seemed to have gained.

The long walk back also gave me plenty of opportunity to focus on my new sixth sense. Like before, I was able to feel things through the ground beneath my bare feet. It seemed like the more I used it the easier it got, and the more accurate it became. By the time we were halfway back to our cave I could easily pinpoint all sorts of wildlife in about a fifty meter radius around me, as long as it was on or in the ground.

I was even able to locate our cave that way, when we were still more than fifteen minutes away from it. In fact as we got nearer to our new camp I could make out plenty of tiny details, all the little contours in the stone from the entrance all the way back to where it ended, a few meters into the rocky hillside.

We were nearly there when an idea came to me. I still wasn't entirely sure how I made those stairs appear in the cliff, but if I had the power to shape stone then maybe I could use that power to make our cave more comfortable. At the very least if I could smooth out the floor then we wouldn't have to worry about sitting or sleeping on the lumpy uneven rocky ground.

"When we get back to the cave I want to try something before we all go inside and get comfortable," I announced to my companions. By that point I was excited about my idea, and I could feel my tail wagging back and forth behind me while my ears were perked up standing tall and proud ontop of my head.

Stef looked at me and they obviously noticed my excitement. There was a faint smile on their face as they glanced back at my tail before asking, "What do you want to try, my little star? What are you thinking about that's got your tail going like that?"

I blushed but smiled as I told them about my idea to make the place more comfortable for the three of us. It took a few minutes to explain what I was thinking and what I wanted to try. 

As I got to the end I added, "I'm still not quite sure how it works, but if I have magic that can change stone then it feels silly not to use it to fix up our new campsite, right?"

"Right," my enbyfriend agreed. Their ears were standing up straight and their tail was slowly swishing back and forth as they seemed to share my excitement at the prospect. 

After a few moments they added, "I think we should get all our stuff out of the cave first though, just in case."

"Good thinking," I nodded. "Definitely a good idea to play it safe, until we understand these powers better."

When we reached the cave everything was the way we'd left it. Not that I was too worried, I figured if anyone else had been in the area either Stef or I or our wildcat friend would have sensed them one way or another.

It only took us a minute or so to pull our packs and sleeping bags and things out of the cave, since we weren't packing everything up. We just dragged it all out and left it a safe distance away. Theo seemed to decide it was his job to guard our things. 

Or at least that's what I thought at first, when he climbed ontop of the sleeping bags and made himself comfortable. When he curled up and closed his eyes while his tail wrapped around in front of his face I realized he was actually going to have a nap while Stef and I moved back to the cave.

I reached out and rested my hand on the rock in front of me, at the top of the entrance. That contact along with the ground beneath my feet was more than enough for me to properly sense the entire cave and all the rock and ground around it, in fine detail.

"What's the plan?" Stef asked before I got started. "Do you have something in mind, for how you want it to look when you're done?"

I shrugged, "I don't know exactly? I was just thinking a flat level floor would make it a lot more comfortable."

Their ears tilted forward as they frowned and made a thoughtful noise, while their tail swished back and forth behind them. 

"Hmm," they said as they stared into our cave. "That's definitely a good start my little star. But you created an entire staircase from nothing, in a sheer cliff face. I think you're capable of doing much more than just a smooth floor."

"I don't even know if I can do it at all," I reminded them with a grimace. "That was all instinct and panic when I made the stairs happen. But ok, what are you thinking about?"

Stef smiled, "If you can make stairs then you should be able to make chairs. They don't have to be fancy, but either some smooth raised blocks of stone we could sit on, or even a large raised flat rectangle? That could serve as a bed as well as a place to sit."

"And if that goes well," they continued with an even wider smile, "Maybe you can make the entrance a little nicer? Instead of this ragged opening, you could square it off and make it more like a doorway? And maybe this is too much, but if you could raise the inside of the cave up so it's higher than the entrance that'll ensure we don't have to worry about it flooding when it rains."

I started to respond but my enbyfriend seemed to be getting carried away with their ideas.

They kept going, "Oh, and maybe you can improve the cave's ventilation? I could probably figure out the best spot for it, then you could add another opening so there's better air-flow inside? Ooh! What if you could make us a proper fire-pit? Or a fire place? Or maybe you could even make it more like a wood stove or an old oven? With a chimney of course! Then we could have campfires and cooking fires and keep the place warm without filling it up with smoke!"

"Then it would be even better than a tent or a cave, it'll be like a cabin made of stone! Our little vacation get-away, a home away from home!" they announced with a wide happy grin.

"Ok enough!" I finally exclaimed when I was able to get a word in edgewise. I gave them a hug as I smiled, "You have a lot of excellent ideas, but we don't even know yet if I can do this. So let me give it a try, ok? I'm going to start small and simple, then if that works maybe we can do the rest of your ideas."

Stef blushed but hugged me back as they apologized, "Sorry Stella, I got a bit carried away. I'm confident you can do it though. I believe in you, my little star."

"Thanks cutie," I said as I gave them a little squeeze. 

We exchanged a few kisses before finally letting go of each other, then they took a couple steps back so they wouldn't be in my way. They stayed close enough to have a good view of the action though. 

I reached out and put my hand on the rock above the entrance again, then took a deep breath then closed my eyes. My focus shifted almost entirely to that sixth sense I was getting through my contact with the stone while my other senses become somewhat muted. Then like before, I began to examine the structure of our cave and the rock that surrounded it in minute detail. 

My magical survey of the cave structure took a few minutes, and it revealed to me some cracks and weaknesses that were all but invisible to the naked eye. I didn't want the roof to cave in on us after all, so I needed to ensure that whatever I did wouldn't compromise the cave's structure or integrity.

Then with that out of the way I started to think again about what changes I wanted to make, and how best to implement them. Even before actually trying to change anything I recognized one potential limitation I'd have to be wary of. 

I somehow understood that the magic couldn't create new rock out of nothing, nor could it make existing rock just disappear. I chalked it up to some kind of intuition, and what it told me was I could reshape the existing material so long as the total mass remained the same. 

With this knowledge in mind I focused once more on the uneven rocky surface of the cave interior, and tried to make it flow. I pictured the roof and walls and floor of the cave all becoming smooth, so the interior of the cave was more like the inside of a bubble. And I wanted to move that bubble slightly, rather than keep it in its current location. Then finally I wanted to keep the walls and ceiling smooth and rounded, while the floor would level out and become flat. 

I kept myself focused on those goals, but I really didn't know how to make any of that happen. I had no idea how to turn the desire and the images in my mind into reality. I wasn't even entirely sure it was possible, but based on what happened at the lake I knew there was at least a chance.

After what felt like several minutes I was getting both tired and frustrated, but I pushed myself to keep trying. I even started to feel a little desperate, but I forced myself not to give up, despite the dwindling hope that I could actually do this.

A couple minutes later I was close enough to quitting that when something finally happened I was so startled and excited that I nearly lost focus. It was a strange sensation, even stranger than discovering I could sense things through the ground.

The best way I could think to describe it was suddenly discovering another limb, like a new arm or an extra tail. I was suddenly aware of a new appendage and it came equipped with its own selection of new muscles. Despite being completely alien to everything I was used to, it only took me a few moments to figure out how to move and control that new extension of myself. 

It was almost as if my mind had temporarily detatched from my own body and connected to the earth instead, and the form I was manipulating was made of rock and stone. As I flexed and shifted those new muscles I noticed a slight rumble through the ground, and a sound in the air like stone scraping against stone. Meanwhile in my mind's eye I could see the solid rock in our cave begin to soften and flow. 

Just like I'd envisioned, all the rough rugged lumps and sharp edges seemed to melt, until the jagged rocky interior became smooth and rounded like a slightly oblong bubble. It began to rise slowly upwards through the rock, and at the same time I shifted it a little deeper back into the rocky hillside. As it moved I also mended all the small cracks and faults in the surrounding stone, to eliminate any weaknesses. 

When the bubble reached the position I desired its movement slowed then stopped. It was now about thirty centimeters higher and a full meter further back from the entrance than before. Then the rounded floor levelled itself out to become a flat smooth surface. There was just the slightest slope downwards towards the entrance, so if any water did make its way into the cave it would drain out the door rather than pool inside. 

Next I reformed the entrance, from the wide angled opening into more of a door shape at the end of a meter-long hall that connected to the cave itself. The entrance had a flat floor and straight sides, but a rounded ceiling. There was now a rather large step up from the outside ground level to the floor of the cave, so I reshaped that abrupt threshold into a couple small shallow steps so it'd be easier getting in and out. Then a moment later I changed my mind, the steps blended together into a smooth ramp. There was no reason for our cave not to be accessible, after all.

For a final touch I focused on the left side of the cave, and had the wall and floor there shift and change slightly. I created a rectangular platform about the length and width of our combined sleeping bags, and raised it up about forty-five centimeters above the surrounding floor. I wasn't sure what we'd do for a mattress, but it would make for a passable bed as well as a convenient place to sit.

There was still plenty more I wanted to do, especially if I was to make all of Stef's suggestions into reality, but I figured that was good enough for now. I let out a sigh as I relaxed whatever 'magic muscle' I'd been using, then opened my eyes to get a look at what I'd done. And that's when the exhaustion hit me.

"Woah!" Stef gasped as they leaped forward. 

My enbyfriend managed to catch me before I fully collapsed, then gently lowered me to the ground so we were sitting together with me in their arms. 

My head lolled over to rest against their shoulder and I could feel my ears drooping, while my tail weakly flopped back and forth behind me.

I gave them a weak smile as I apologized, "Sorry Stef, that took a lot more out of me than I thought."

"It was very impressive my little star," they whispered as they held me. "I think you did more in fifteen minutes than a team of stone masons could have achieved in a month."

I tried to respond but ended up yawning instead, while my ears tilted forward and my tail stretched out behind me. Then I cuddled a little closer to my enbyfriend and mumbled, "I'm just going to take a little break here, ok? Then I'll work on some more of your ideas."

"Take all the time you need love," Stef replied as they continued to hold me. 

Anything else they might have said was lost as I drifted off to sleep in their warm gentle embrace.

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