"Are you sure we have to rush to pick up your brother?" I ask after a very lovely diversion from clothes making. "I'm sure he'll be fine walking for a few more days."

"I almost want to delay." She sighs. "But, I know I'd feel bad if we did."

"It's alright." I pull her into a hug. "I'll just have to carry you off into the woods whenever I want to have my way with you."

"Heheh." She laughs. "I think he might start to wonder why we spend more time in the woods than riding in the wagon. But, don't worry. We won't be spending the whole day on the road anymore, which means more time in the tent." She blushes a little, but it's over-written by a sly smile.

"Well, when you put it that way." I chuckle. "Now, to make some support for Apricot's poor wounded soldiers." I use some satin to copy Amelia's bra, but in a slightly larger cup size. "This'll hold you for now, and I'll try my hands at some other forms of support later -puns intended-."

"Nng." Amelia groans. "Two bra puns in one sentence? Really?"

""Heheheh."" We just laugh. "We'll pull you over to Temmie sooner or later." Apricot tells her.

"I'll stick with Marten the god of merchants, thank you very much."

"Keep telling yourself that." Apricot smirks. "And, you. Where's the rest of my clothes? I still want a bicycle."

"Alright, alright." I hold up my hands in surrender. "I was just about to get started on your top." Using some slightly thicker thread, I knit her up a baby doll tank top with a scoop neck. I was going to make her a cross front top with spaghetti straps, but her new bra means I needed something that covers a bit more skin.

"This is all right." Apricot tries to downplay her interest, but I can still tell she likes the top.

I want to make her a denim jacket and pants next. The twill weave is similar to denim, but it's not quite the same. So, I start experimenting and quickly realize that denim goes two over, one under with a diagonal stagger. Whereas the twill I have is two and two.

I take the small sample and try dyeing it blue, but it doesn't look right. I think denim only dyes the warp or weft threads, leaving the other white. A quick test confirms that the warp threads are the only ones dyed.

I want some jeans for myself too, so I take a chunk of firewood and rip it apart into sawdust. I was trying to reverse the process I use to compress the wood, but it just tore itself apart instead of expanding. Luckily, I tried it on a small section first, and only had a small mess to clean up.

I then moisten and inoculate the sawdust with the best of the blue dye mushrooms. A bit of magic later and I've got all the blue dye I should need for a while. I want her pants to be black though, so I repeat the process with a different mushroom. Finally done, I decompose the leftovers, and cast cleanse on the whole wagon in case some spores took root somewhere.

"You know, I would have been happy with all white." Apricot looks up from her checkers game. They've been playing all the games I showed them, but keep coming back to that one.

"It's not just for you, and besides, the black pants, white shirt, blue jacket combo always looks good." I picture it in my mind. "Though, I should add some embroidery to your shirt to spice it up a bit."

"Okay." Amelia states. "You are making me clothes next."

"How about I replenish my dyes first, then I can draw you a bunch of outfits that I remember." I'll actually just be copying them from the movies and tv shows stored in my head, but whatever.

"Okay, that works." She nods and takes three of Apricots pieces in one move, forcing the pixie to crown her piece. "Now, finish up her clothes, so you can get started on mine."

"Yes, Ma'am." I start on the jacket first, mainly just so that Apricot's legs stay bare for that much longer. She looks really cute wearing just a tank top and panties.

I make enough denim for her fitted jacket and a pair of jeans for me. I almost forgot the orange stitching, they won't have copper buttons or rivets, but they still need orange stitching.

Jacket and jeans done, and no grumbling from Amelia about working on something else. Not after I put them on that is. As loathe as I am to cover up Apricot's legs, I've delayed long enough and finally make her a pair of black jeans.

"Yeah, these will work." She nods after twisting around to check out her own ass. "They're a bit hard to move in though."

"Oh, you just need to break them in." I start running my hands up and down her legs, gently loosening the fibers. "But, a bit of magic should take care of that."

"Couldn't you have done that before she put them on?" Amelia says with a trace of humor in her voice.

"Sure, but where's the fun in that." I counter with a lascivious grin.

"Much, much better." She has a dopey look on her face by the time I'm done. "Now where's my bicycle."

"Coming right up." Now, that I've made one, the second bike comes together much faster. "Stormie feels like he could use a drink, so let's stop at the next brook. That way Amelia can watch you fall over."

"I'll watch whatever she wants to do, just so long as she's wearing those pants." Amelia's eyes are glued to the pixie's behind.

"We call these jeans where I'm from, and the fabric denim, even though it's just a variation of twill." I explain, but she's not listening.

I got bored one day and, while wondering why jeans have rivets, I learned that the names come from the French city Nimes, where the fabric was made. And, Genoa in Italy, where it was dyed blue and traded to India under the French name 'bleu de Gênes'. I found that much more interesting than the rivets just being used to strengthen the seams.

We find water and the waypoint after just a few minutes. Amelia gives me a pleading look, so I create another living latrine. Meanwhile, Apricot keeps trying and failing to ride her bicycle.

"Here, let me hold the seat until you get used to balancing." I walk over and help her stay upright. "Just pedal and try to keep the bars straight. I'll be right here until you get the hang of it."

"You made this look a lot easier than it is." She grumbles, but now that she isn't tipping over every few seconds, she quickly figures out how to ride. "It's a bit like flying, I just have to remember that my wings don't do anything when I'm this size."

"You're doing good." I tell her as she slows enough to turn around. She got a little wobbly during the turn, but recovered on her own.

"Mhm, my legs are already sore though." The complaint doesn't slow her down, and we're soon back at the clearing. "You want to give it a try Amelia? I need to sit down."

"I'll try it when we stop for the night."

"You'll get used to it." I say while helping Apricot into the wagon. "And, I'll try to find a blacksmith, or some metalworking spells when we reach the city. It'll be a lot smoother with proper moving parts." I then lay Apricot down in back and peel her out of her jeans, so I can massage her legs.

"Mmm, that's good." She melts as I work on her calves. "But, you seem distracted."

"Sorry, thinking about clothes." I was actually skimming through my media collection for outfits. "I didn't really pay much attention to fashion before, so I'm trying to sort it all out in my head."

"Oh, okay." She yawns. "Nnh, too much exercise for this pixie, I'm going to take a nap. Can you keep working my legs until I fall asleep?"

"Heh, sure." She only lasts a few more minutes under my hands before she's snoozing away.

Climbing out onto the driver's seat next to Amelia, I lift her up and set her in my lap. "I'm glad I met you two." I tell her while massaging more than just her legs. "I doubt I would have even tried half this stuff without your impetus."

"I'm -ahn- very glad I met -nng- you too." She twists around to kiss me, so I lift her up again and turn her around so she straddling me. "Mmm, much better." She starts unbuttoning my jeans.

A half-hour later and Amelia is snuggling up against Apricot for her own nap. I'm happy to sit back and enjoy the scenery for a bit. But, I want to surprise them with that book of clothes, so I get down to replenishing my pigment supply.

Instead of wasting all my firewood growing mushrooms, I try using some of the almost literal ton of cotton seeds sitting in my storage. Ripping them apart the same way I made the sawdust, I then run the resulting pulp through the oil press before hydrating it.

A quick cast of cleanse is needed to sterilize the growth medium before it gets inoculated, and used to grow all the dye mushrooms I should need for a while. Some fungi can be particular about what they grow on, but all the ones I have seem to like this stuff. That, or the magic is making up for whatever they don't like.

Once the dyes are ready, I fuse some cotton into sheets of paper. Going through my media collection; I'm more glad than ever that I was a digital hoarder, and that VeeGee let me take it all with me.

As a guy whose closet was mostly jeans and t-shirts, the sheer amount of style choices in women's clothing is just staggering. I try grouping them into categories with a large illustration of what I consider the basic design per page, along with several different variations. But, I quickly end up with several pages that just cover all the different necklines.

A few more pages are devoted to commonly seen combos, then I start going through rom-coms and period films looking for evening gowns. It isn't long before I've got a whole book's worth of (technically) otherworldly fashion.

"These are beautiful." Amelia says after I stop, she's holding up the drawing of Julie Christie's red dress from Dr. Zhivago. I felt her and Apricot wake up a while ago but, aside from a thread of attention making sure that the horse kept moving, I've been focused almost solely on this project.

"I don't deserve the credit for any of this." I stretch out and get myself a cup of water from storage. "I'm just copying stuff that other people made. Oof, I didn't think I was at it for that long." I just spotted the sun and saw that there's only about an hour of daylight left.

"Even so..." She traces a finger along the lines of the dress. "I have absolutely zero need for a ball gown, but I want this."

"Well, as soon as I figure out how to make velvet, it's yours." I laugh. I made something similar for the tent, so it shouldn't be too hard.

"I'll take anything that my butt look good in." Apricot says while thumbing through the stack of bottoms. "That, and I'd like to try out all those different undies."

"I think you'd look cute in this." Amelia holds up the drawing of a short off-the-shoulder summer dress.

While they're going through the outfits to choose their favorites, I get started on dinner. I'm feeling lazy though, so I just make a simple venison stew and some biscuits.

We reach the waypoint just before the sun goes down, only to find that Rodrick left his sister a message scrawled in the dirt. 'Please hurry up Amelia, I'm tired of walking. P.S. Sorrel better be taking good care of you.'

"Well, have I been..." I leer at Amelia. "Taking 'good' care of you?"

"Oh, shut up and go make the outhouse." Her cheeks flame red, and she dashes out the message from her brother.

I just chuckle and do as she commands while she un-hitches the wagon. "Hey, buddy." I walk up to Stormie and give him some apple slices coated with healing sap to wash away his fatigue. "You've been doing great, and tomorrow should be the last day you have to push yourself. So, I'm gonna make you another one of those oatmeal pies for dessert."

"I want pie too." Apricot whines.

"Did you already forget about the cinnamon rolls?" I cock an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, yeah." She smacks herself lightly on the forehead. "But, can we have pie too?"

"I guess..." I pause for a moment and then smack myself on the forehead several times harder than she did. "We completely forgot to get the nuts when we were in Southwood."

"No. You completely forgot after getting caught up with Lacey." Amelia says with an imperious tone. "I, on the other hand, went out and got a branch from each one, along with a few other out of season things." She takes out a basket full of different branches.

"Babe!" I pull her into a hug and spin her around. "You're the best. Even if you only did it so I'd make you pecan pie."

"Shut up." She swats my shoulder but doesn't deny the accusation.

"Alright, let me add the veggies and put the stew by the fire to finish cooking." I start doing just that. "I should have just enough magic to grow the pecans and bake the pie, you're lucky I made the biscuits beforehand."

Grabbing the branch from the pecan tree, I stick it into the wooden pot I made earlier. Using Blackthorne, I then trickle just enough magic into it for it to take root and grow up a couple feet. After that, I force it to bloom and create just enough nuts for the pie.

"Damn." Apricot exclaims. "I thought you were good before, but that was some of the tightest magic I've ever seen."

"It's all the practice, making clothes and painting." I say, and then sigh after a beat. "I just wish I was that efficient with my other spells, baking this pie is going drain me."

"Oh, poor baby." Amelia says condescendingly. "Can only hold a fire spell for an hour after the sun goes down, and your recharge quits working."

"Hahah. Okay, I deserve that." I finish rolling out the pie crust and use her skillet as a pie pan. "But, I'm not the only one with cheat-like powers."

"That's Apricot's power, I'm... just borrowing it."

"I'd say it's a pretty fair trade." The pixie pulls Amelia into a hug from behind. "Being big is fun, and even discounting the sex. Just having you snuggle me like you were earlier is more than worth it. What do you call it Sorrel? Spooning?"

"Yeah, being little spoon is awesome." I nod absentmindedly while focusing on the fire spell. "It must be so fun to fly, but those wings have got to be a pain to sleep with. Do you all sleep on your bellies, or what?"

"Pretty much." She shrugs. "Well, I knew a couple fairies that carved grooves in their beds to sleep on their back, but fairy wings fold up like a grasshopper's. Pixies all have moth or butterfly wings, and wisps are more like dragonflies."

"Well, I like your wings, I always thought Luna Moths were pretty." I shoot her a quick smile. "My family went east for a vacation one summer when I was younger, and they were all over the place."

"Really? I always thought they were kind of drab." She pulls one around and traces her finger around the eyespot. "The tails are nice, but I've only got the four spots and the rest is all the same color."

"They're beautiful, and so are you." I trap her in a hug between Amelia and myself. "And, if anyone says different, they can answer to me." That last part comes out as a near growl that makes her shiver in my arms.

"Nng, if you weren't cooking dessert, I'd be on top of you right now." She breathes out a small laugh.

"You'll have to get in line. I remember Amelia saying she'd suck me off if I made her pecan pie." The blonde blushes when I recall her words from the other day. "But, that's going to have to wait, I need to focus on this if I want to have enough mana to cook it through."

"Speaking of." Amelia looks over to the campfire. "I should stir the stew while you're working on dessert."

"You should use your magic." I say, unwilling to end our hug just yet. "You've gotten a lot better, but haven't been practicing as much as you should be."

"Oh, umm..." She pauses to look at her lover. "I didn't want to annoy my sweetie by pulling magic through her all the time."

"You silly." Apricot flicks her on the forehead lightly. "It was only startling the first time because I didn't know what was going on. You can practice all you want and it won't bother me at all. And, you really should practice more..." This time Apricot is the one to pause. "I don't want to say that your magic is sloppy, but it's probably the best word to describe your casting."

"..." Amelia purses her lips for a moment giving me the feeling that she just took that as a challenge. "Okay, I'll practice. But, since you can see and feel mana, I want you to help me until I'm at least as good as Sorrel."

"Looks like someone has a competitive streak." I tease.

"I'll do my best." Apricot says emphatically. "But, stir that stew first, I don't want dinner to burn."

I can feel when Amelia reaches out to do just that. I don't know if it's her 'sloppiness' or if my sensitivity to magic has increased as I've gotten more used to it, likely a bit of both. But, I plan to use her practice to hone my senses even more. Apricot can literally see magic, and I'd very much like to be able to do the same.

The night went well after that. Amelia dove into her magic practice with a single-minded focus, and by the time dinner was ready I could sense a definite improvement in her casting. I had enough mana to finish the pie, if only just. Stormie had to settle for plain oats and applesauce, but he seemed happy enough.

***