It’s just as chaotic outside as Jubilee had said it would be. The festival, still in full swing, seems to have embraced this anarchy rather than being disturbed by it however. The merchants were all apparently prepared for this to happen and had come with an arrangement of protection wards and sigils to stop their tents and stalls from burning down. Though the streets themselves are practically a war-zone, as the fairies, eager and naive as they are, begin to discover their own innate, magical abilities.

So much so that the town-guard seems to be out in numbers, to Fresh’s surprise. The robed and hooded figures run around, chasing after particularly troublesome fairies with nets in order to put them in confinement until they settle down. Though, the bigger surprise for her is actually seeing them at all. Somehow the guards in the cities only ever showed up when they were needed. On one hand, this makes sense to her, on the other, she doesn’t really get where they stay all day, when they’re not needed. Another great mystery of life.

But none of that is important. What’s important is this.

Fresh stands down in the basement, the rings laid out before herself in a small, hand-made jewelry stand that she had crafted. Then, after getting the design down right, she had made a second one and gifted it to Basil for her own personal wardrobe.

The priestess, Jubilee and Shamrock now stand down here behind her, waiting for her to show them her latest idea. She had beckoned them all down here to do it.

“So?” asks Jubilee impatiently, crossing their arms. Fresh looks back at them and holds out a sheep towards them all.

“Sheep,” she says, explaining the obvious.

“Yeah? What about it?” asks Jubilee.

Fresh gestures for them to wait and grabs a ring from the table. “Ring,” says Fresh plainly, holding the sheep in one hand and the ring in the other. Basil and Jubilee look at each other and shrug in confusion, though she still has Shamrock’s undivided attention. Fresh slips the ring around one of the sheep’s legs and holds it out towards her friends. She lets go, dropping her hands to the side of her body.

But the sheep stays in place, floating in the air where she left it. She gestures towards it. “Magic sheep.”

“I’d be impressed, if I wasn’t so very disappointed,” says Jubilee in an emotionless tone.

“That’s really cute!” says Basil, smiling. “But what does it do?”

“It floats,” explains Fresh, holding her hands out before herself, to frame the floating sheep that is slowly starting to drift over at a tilted angle.

“Yes,” nods Basil. “But… why does it float?”

Fresh blinks. “Because of the crystal-drakonium and the ring.”

“No, I mean… for what purpose?” explains the priestess. “Why does it float? What does the floating achieve?”

Fresh stares at her for a moment, then down to the sheep and then back to Basil. “It beats walking?” To her surprise, Basil doesn’t laugh at this. But she can hear Jubilee catch their laugh in their throat, shortly before it can leave their mouth.

“Hmm…” Fresh thinks, feeling a little disappointed in her friend’s lack of enthusiasm. She thinks it’s super neat. “Maybe we can tie them to strings and people can carry them behind themselves?”

Jubilee lifts a finger. “But why?”

“Uh…” Fresh looks around for an answer, her eyes landing on Shamrock who stands behind the other two. But the best that he can offer is a shrug. Her eyes continue wandering, until they eventually land on the cauldron of rebirth. “Ah!” She grabs the sheep, setting it onto the table and then grabs a bottle of moonwater from the side. Popping it open, she pours some over the sheep, soaking some of its body.

[Enchanted-Sheep]{Holy}(High) This fluffy enchanted-sheep protects its shepherd while in their presence. A magical aura radiates from its squishy body over a distance of 8m

(Owner) While inside:

+1 to ALL resistances

Absorbs 1 negative STATUS-EFFECT per day

Quality Effect: Prevents bad dreams

Weight: ??? Value: ???

“Ta-da!” she says, lifting the sheep back up. Giving it a small push, she watches as it floats lazily towards Jubilee, spinning as it flies through the air with its wide, goofy smile and button eyes glistening in the light of the fire. It bops against Jubilee’s mask and starts slowly floating back the other way.

“Well. Fuck,” sighs Jubilee, looking at the item window.

“For something you don’t have to carry, these are strong bonuses,” mentions Basil, sounding somewhat worried, oddly enough. “What’s with the bad dream thing?”

Fresh shrugs. “Dunno. Moonwater stuff.”

“Huh…” mutters Basil, perplexed. “Is it possible to get these bonuses on something less… goofy?” she asks, looking at the sheep that hovers past her face, upside down.

“Huh?! The sheep is the most important part!” argues Fresh. “It wouldn’t work if it wasn’t a sheep.”

“What do you mean?” asks Basil.

Fresh scratches her cheek. “A lot of the things I make get their magic from my intent for them.” She points to the sheep. “I bet if I had made a mush-mush, it wouldn’t have had the bad dream ability.”

“Please don’t make those anymore,” laughs Basil, somewhat nervously.

“Wait,” asks Jubilee. “So what happens if you put a ring around one of the mattresses?” Basil’s, very nervous, laughing stops rather abruptly.

“Huh? Jubileee~” laughs Fresh. “The rings are too small for that!”

Jubilee rolls their eyes. “I meant if you made a bigger one, dumb-ass.”

“Uh…” Fresh taps her chin. “I guess it would float? The ring bonus seems to be just enough to get them into the air. So if I make a big one, like an iron band, it would… float more? Maybe… hmm…”

“Would it hold a person?” asks Jubilee, getting to the point. Basil, already pale, tenses up at this question.

“What?”

“If it floated, would it hold a person up in the air?”

Fresh thinks for a second, staring up towards the ceiling. “Maybe? I bet I could make it do that!” When she looks down, excited about this new possibility, she sees that Jubilee and Basil are exchanging, what she assumes, are nervous looks. Without saying anything, the two of them nod to each other and then look back at her. Whatever exchange they were having, Shamrock seems to have no part in it.

“We can sell the sheep. But you listen to me, goo-brain,” says Jubilee, pointing at her.

“What? Is there something wr-” starts Fresh.

Jubilee interrupts her. “No, stop. You need to listen to what I’m about to say.”

“I will,” says Fresh, nodding, leaning down to hear what Jubilee has to say, since it’s apparently important. To her surprise, Jubilee grabs the sides of her face.

“No. You need to LISTEN,” warns Jubilee in a tone that she hasn’t heard from them since their early days together. “Never -” Jubilee’s eyes grow a little larger. “NEVER,” they say louder and clearer. “- Tell anyone about this. NEVER make anything bigger than a ring for someone’s finger with these properties.”

“Huh? What’s wrong, Jubilee?”

“Promise.”

Fresh, confused, tries to argue. “But -”

“Promise!” repeats Jubilee, stopping her and narrowing their eyes which carry a very serious expression.

Fresh purses her lips, her face still being squished together. Her eyes wander up towards Basil who stands there with an equally grim look. Not really understanding what’s going on, she nods to her friends. Did she do something wrong? Were they mad at her? Did she mess up? Maybe the sheep was a bad idea after all?

She nods, looking down to the ground. “Okay, I promise…”

Basil sighs in relief. Jubilee lets go of her and she stands back upright, rubbing her arm. “Why? Don’t you guys like the sheep?”

“The sheep are good,” says Shamrock. She looks up at him, seeing that he has caught the sheep out of the air and now holds the fluffy thing in his hands.

Basil walks over to her, patting her on her shoulder and then dabbing Fresh’s wet eyes once with a sleeve of her robe. “It’s dangerous,” she explains. “Flight magic.”

“Huh? Why? Because people fall?” asks Fresh.

“No, dumb-ass. There are only a few classes here that get anything like levitation or flight,” explains Jubilee. “And they’re all in the center. Fucking fantasy-land over there.” They shake their head. “I hate that place.”

Basil nods. “Scholars and some wind-caster classes can do things like that. But the abilities themselves are old secrets that the powerful families keep under lock and key. By any means necessary.”

“The nobles, you mean?” asks Fresh.

“Listen. We’ve pissed off a lot of people so far,” says Jubilee. “Merchants, adventurers, the church,” they list. “But all of them are fucking level-one slimes compared to the nobles. If word of anything like this reaches them, we’re fucked.”

“Are they that bad?”

“You don’t get it,” says Jubilee. “Those people are demons,” they say, swiping a hand through the air. “If one of them even smells a whiff of this fuckery, there won’t be a single head left on a warm body by this time next month, up here on the mountain.”

“Assuming there’s a mountain left to begin with,” agrees Basil with a solemn nod.

Fresh’s terrified eyes wander over to Shamrock, who looks back at her worried face. Perhaps seeing that she is having a small crisis, Shamrock lifts the sheep up and holds it out towards her.

“Bleh~” is all that he says.