Green Canyon Magic - Ch.7 - Choices & Challenges (Patreon)

"This really has turned into the vacation of a lifetime," I commented with a smile. "I mean, I always knew it was going to be fun, but all the upgrades were amazing. From a river-side tent to a comfy cottage with a lake-view was pretty nice."

Stef rolled their eyes, "The new accommodations are lovely my little star, you did an amazing job making the cave into a perfect vacation home. And no disrespect to your stone-bending magic skills, but honestly I'm much more excited about the affirming transformations we both received. Getting our own magic ontop of that was the icing on the cake."

I giggled, "I was working my way up to that. You're right though. If I had to choose between them, hands down I'd give up our cottage-cave in a heartbeat and keep my new foxy body!"

"It's a good body," they commented appreciatively. "Although it must be all wrinkly by now? How much longer were you planning to stay in there?"

"Hey!" I protested with a laugh as I splashed some water towards Stef and Theo. "I might be a bit water-logged, but I'm not all wrinkly!"

The two of them were well out of range of my splash, relaxing safely on the shore while I floated and swam a bit. We'd found a lovely picturesque little cove a short distance to the west of our temporary home. It was part of the new lake, but felt safer than swimming out into the main body of water. In fact it seemed like the ideal swimming hole, about fifteen meters across and twenty-five to thirty meters long.

Stef just grinned at me as they commented, "Hard to believe it was only a few days ago you were worried about even touching that water. I seem to recall you wanted to catch rain-water instead? Now look at you, swimming around like you're part fish instead of part fox."

"It wouldn't have made a difference anyways," Theo reminded us. "The rain is changed too, just like the lake."

I added, "And we know it's safe. It's probably what transformed us, and gave us our magic."

My enbyfriend rolled their eyes again then pointed out, "It's getting late Stella, and I'm getting hungry."

"All right cutie," I relented as I made my way over to the shore. "Sorry I got carried away. I haven't been swimming in so long I'd forgotten how much fun it is."

Stef gave me a sad smile, "I know love, swimming used to cause me a lot of dysphoria as well. I'm glad you're happy, and that neither of us have to worry about that anymore."

I nodded quietly as I emerged from the water. Neither of us brought swimsuits so I'd been skinny-dipping, but it was just the three of us out here and my new body was still a huge source of euphoria for me. The only downside was how heavy and sad my waterlogged tail looked and felt.

As I stood naked and dripping on the shore I asked, "Hey cutie? Can I get a little help drying off?"

"Of course," they replied with a smile. 

I closed my eyes and held my breath as a tiny cyclone of wind sprang up and whirled around me. I could feel my hair whipping around in the wind, along with my floof. Then something unusual happened, as Stef's magic tapered off I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and a wave of dizziness made me stumble. 

"Ow!" I yelped as I dropped to my knees on the ground and reached back behind me with both hands.

Stef was with me in an instant, crouching down in front of me as they asked "What's wrong love? What happened, are you ok?"

For a moment I thought my tail had been broken or sprained somehow by the magical blow-dryer, except the pain was already gone. I continued feeling around behind me though, and my eyes widened as I discovered something new and unexpected.

"I'm ok," I replied as I slowly got to my feet again. Then I swished one tail to the left and the second tail to the right as I laughed, "I think maybe I just levelled-up?"

Their eyes widened, "You grew another tail?!"

"Yes!" I giggled. I kept both tails swishing around playfully and announced, "I'm not a foxgirl after all, I'm a kitsune!"

A moment later I added with excitement, "Oh! What if I soak in the water for another couple hours? Maybe I'll get a third tail!"

"Or what if we all went back to our den and had dinner instead?" Theo commented. 

I pouted at him while Stef suppressed a giggle. 

Unfortunately my enbyfriend took the wildcat's side, "He's got a point love. Let's go have dinner. We can come back here and swim more tomorrow if you like, ok?"

"Fine," I continued to pout as I finally pulled on the shorts and t-shirt I had waiting for me nearby. 

Both Stef and I gathered some firewood on the short hike back to our little vacation home. The place was almost perfect now, I'd been making more little adjustments and changes over the last few days. It was still made of stone and set into the side of the canyon wall, but aside from that it was more home and much less cave now.

Instead of entering through a meter-thick hallway I'd reshaped the front of the cave into a flat wall that was about twenty centimeters thick. We had a little stone porch outside with stone seats, a normal rectangular doorway led to the one cosy room inside, and there was a square window-hole on either side of the door to let the light in. A meter or so of rock stuck out above our entrance and porch to provide shade in the daytime and kept most of the rain out when the weather turned unpleasant.

The interior was almost perfect too, we had lots of little shelves and cubbyholes for storing things, places to sit, and our combination fireplace and oven worked great. It wasn't all just stone either, we'd been figuring out how to make things out of wood. I could manipulate stone into tools, and Stef got really good at making air move like the blade of a power-tool.

Actual wood furniture was still a work in progress since neither of us were carpenters, and our place lacked a proper door or glass windows or even shutters, but so far we hadn't needed any of that. We did have a reasonably comfy mattress on our bed though, Stef made it using pine boughs. 

In fact there were only four things we really missed. Running water and indoor plumbing were the top two, while electricity and internet weren't far behind. The first two things we could probably come up with on our own, given enough time and effort. The last two things were unlikely to ever happen, unfortunately.

Stef and I piled up the firewood in a cubbyhole near the fireplace, then set up some wood in the fireplace itself so we could make a hot meal. When they were ready they asked, "Theo? Would you do the honours?"

Our cat friend obliged, and a moment later there was a nice little fire burning. 

That was another discovery we'd made a few days back, the first time we tried to get a fire started in our new fireplace. Where my magic worked with the earth and Stef could manipulate the air, Theo was able to control heat and fire. Together we mastered three of the four classical elements, which seemed an interesting coincidence.

It gave me some exciting ideas of what we might be capable of if we all worked together. 

I was no expert, but I'd already figured out that my ability to sense through the ground let me identify minerals. I was pretty sure I could selectively extract those minerals from the rest of the rock. Then with Theo managing the heat and Stef controlling the flow of air, or more specifically oxygen, I figured it might be possible for us to refine and forge our own metal using nothing but magic.

The only reason I hadn't suggested we try it out yet is we didn't actually have any need for a supply of home-made metal. 

Another possibility I was seriously considering was trying to make glass. If we could find a supply of the right kind of sand then maybe between my and Theo's magic we could try and melt it into glass to form actual windows.

While I was thinking about all that stuff my enbyfriend set a pot full of water to heat up over the fire. Then they grabbed my brush from a shelf next to the bed as they sat down there and said, "Come here my little star, let me sort out some of that unruly floof of yours."

"Thank you cutie!" I grinned as I sat next to them with both my tails wagging happily.

Stef rolled their eyes as they grabbed hold of one tail and started brushing, "I wonder if we can figure out some magical way to do this? Suddenly it's twice as much work as it was yesterday."

"Sorry," I tried to pout, but it didn't work with the way I was smiling.

Unfortunately the good floof-brushing vibes didn't last long. They kept brushing, but as they did so they brought up a topic we'd both been avoiding the past few days.

"I hate to mention this," Stef commented, "But unless I've miscounted we've only got two days left on our vacation. Tomorrow is the last full day, then the day after should be Wednesday?"

I sighed as a sad frown settled on my expression, while my ears drooped, as did my free tail. The other one remained firmly in my enbyfriend's clutches. 

"Yeah," I nodded slowly. "You're right. I'm due back at work on Thursday, except they might not want me anymore? Big floofy tails are perfect in every setting, except maybe a kitchen."

Stef looked at the state of my brush and agreed, "I think Health and Safety would probably get involved if someone found a thirty centimeter long strand of your floof in their burger."

"Seriously though," they added as they switched to brushing my second tail. "I don't know about you, but I don't really want to go back? I mean, what's waiting for us? I have a soul-crushing job in retail, you have a soul-crushing job in fast food. We do all that work for what? Barely enough money to survive, just so we can keep on working."

"You don't have to remind me of the evils of capitalism cutie," I sighed. 

Stef gestured around, "This place is almost perfect, you know? And with your magic I know it wouldn't take more than a day or two for you to turn it from a cottage into a full proper home."

"Maybe?" I shrugged. "I have some thoughts on how to get running water in here. Although we'd have to rely on rain to fill a holding chamber above us, further up the cliff. Unless one of us figures out how to manipulate water that's always going to be an issue."

I added, "I've been thinking of other things we might be able to do, if the three of us combine our magic? We can probably refine our own metal if I can find the right kind of minerals in the ground. And if we find some sand we might be able to make our own glass? Then we could have proper windows."

"Really? That'd be amazing!" Stef exclaimed with a grin, while their tail twitched around in excitement.

"I said maybe, so don't get your hopes up too high!" I cautioned. "I'm no expert on any of these things cutie."

Stef finished brushing my second tail just as the water started to boil. From there it wasn't long before we were eating our reconstituted dehydrated food and drinking some tea. We'd run out of bread though, so we didn't have toast anymore. And we were almost out of powdered whitener for the tea.

Which led me to another concern, "I'd love to settle down and make this place our new home cutie, but what'll we do for food? I don't know anything about how to live off the land. I know we could hike back to visit the shops in Hardegg, or it's probably not that far to Retz? But I don't have a lot of money in my bank account, it'll only take a few shopping trips before it's all gone."

"Yeah," my enbyfriend sighed as a thoughtful frown settled on their face.

For the next minute or two we all just quietly ate dinner together. It wasn't until we were almost finished when Stef spoke up again. 

"You're right," they admitted with another sigh. "I'd like to stay here, but I don't know anything about foraging or farming or even fishing? Except I can't see either of us going back to what we were doing before?"

I remained quiet for another minute or so as I thought about that. And I had to admit I agreed with them. 

I smiled, "You're right. Fuck capitalism, fuck credit scores, fuck landlords and fuck rent. I don't know how we'll do it yet, but between the three of us we have to be able to pull this off. We're magical, all three of us! We just have to put our heads together and I know we can figure this out."

"Yeah!" Stef agreed with a wide grin. 

A moment later I suddenly laughed, "Hey maybe we just need to spend more time in the lake! The water gave us all magic right? And I got a second tail today! Maybe if we soak in there another day we'll get more magic? Something that will help us figure out food and stuff."

My enbyfriend giggled, "Maybe? We'll keep it in mind anyways."

After dinner the three of us went back down to the water's edge so we could rinse out the dishes and things. It was already getting dark out, but rather than turn in for the night Stef wanted to do something else first.

"C'mon," they said. "Let's go up top? I want to see something."

"Ok," I agreed. 

Theo followed along quietly as the three of us made our way up above our cave. It didn't take long to reach the peak of the hilltop. Technically it was considered a low mountain, but with the canyon half-full of water now and the magic mountain towering over the whole area it didn't feel so mountainous.

It grew darker out as the sun began to set, except for the faint glow of that impossible spire sticking up into the sky. And there were still the 'northern lights' going on above us, radiating outwards from the magic mountain when that lightning crawled up it then dissipated into the air.

"What did you want to see?" I asked as the three of us looked around.

There was a frown on Stef's face as they seemed to looking for something off to the south. Their ears pointed forward and their tail hung down low, with just the tip twitching a little.

It was another half minute before they finally answered, "I can't see Retz. There should be lights, you know? Street lights, buildings, traffic even? I might be looking in the wrong direction, but we know Retz is south of us and the sun sets in the west, right? So it should be in that direction, but I don't see any lights."

"Niederfladnitz and Mitterretzbach should be even closer? They should be south-west and south-east of us. But I don't see any lights out there at all," they added quietly.

I frowned, "What does that mean?"

My enbyfriend sighed, "I've been wondering why we haven't seen anyone else? It's been five days now my little star, and nobody's come to investigate that new mountain or the new lake. This place should have been swarming with helicopters since the very first day. News people, scientists, search and rescue teams, even the military? Both Austrian and Czech." 

"Something made our phones and flashlights stop working right?" they said as they turned to face me. "What if that's not just here? What if it's everywhere? Or if not everywhere, it might reach far enough away that Retz has no power. Same thing on the Czech side, I can't see Znojmo from here. It might be too far away though, or maybe the mountain's blocking our view of it."

I continued to frown as I stared at them for a few long quiet seconds. Then I finally shook my head, "I don't know cutie. Let's just go back home for now, ok? We can worry about all this tomorrow."

"All right my little star," Stef gave me a sad smile. "Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday we can go on a longer hike. If not to Retz then one of the closer villages, just to see if things are ok."

"Maybe," I replied as the three of us began making our way back down towards our cliffside cottage.

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