"Done!" he shouts excitedly. Sakura turns around after hearing him shout.
"Oh my god, Josh. I love it." She runs her hand through the smooth wood and the several engravings between the legs. There are cherry blossoms laced throughout the underside of the chair and two large blossoms at its ears.
"I'm glad you like it." Josh smiles brightly at her reaction. I've never seen him smile like that before.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but how will we get that back to town?"
Sakura thinks for a second. "Why don't we just leave it here? Josh can make a chair for each of us and a table to sit at."
"I guess I could-"
"Great. Then we'll just leave it here." Sakura excitedly interrupts Josh and sits down in the chair.
"I'm glad we settled that," I say sarcastically. "It's getting late. We need to head back."
""Okay."" We gather up our spoils for the day and head back to town. I go over the designs I want for the workout equipment with Josh on the way. I detail how we need several strong bars to hold the weights that can slide on and off. To make sure the plates are balanced, Josh and I discuss how to make a scale. Lastly, I describe a rack and how it needs to be able to hold the bar at different levels. Josh stares at the ground intently while listening to me, and before we know it, we're back in the town.
We stop by the guild to sell our goods. Each of the twelve Suffigo goes for ten Denarii, the eighteen Musculus orbs go for five Denarii each, and the Slime core goes for twenty. The total comes to two hundred thirty Denarii. I spread the coins out on a table, doing some quick math to determine how they should be divided.
"So we each get seventy-six, and there are two extra Denarii. I'll let each of you have an extra one because you worked so hard today."
"Thanks, Nick!"
"Okay." Josh nods.
The kids grab their share of the coins and head for the exit. I am so excited about the money that I forgot to ask for Ashley. I turn to Catherine, the receptionist who gave us the money, and ask her.
"Hey, have you heard from Ashley? I don't see her here."
"No, she was supposed to go to Shelly's house, but neither of them works today, so I don't know anything."
"Okay, do you know when class starts again?"
"It should be on the thirtieth. Travis isn't feeling well, so the guild master will be filling in for him."
"Okay, thanks for the update." I grab my share of the loot and walk outside. Just down the street, I see the newlyweds chattering giddily while holding their money as they trot home. It's nice to see that they're so excited. I plan to give them any leftover money after our shares are divided to avoid disputes.
On my way home, I stop by a clothes shop. There are some things I want to pick up for tomorrow. The transaction is quick, and I'm home shortly thereafter. When I walk through the door to my house, I lay thirty-eight Denarii on the kitchen table.
"Oh, thank you, sweety." Carroll collects the coins and replaces them with a very generous portion of dinner. I remember the kid really likes pasta, and a huge plate of it is piled up before me.
"Thanks, mom." I see her smile out of the corner of my eye as I dig in. After I finish, I make my way up to my room. Once the door is shut behind me, I pull out the gloves, scissors, and sewing supplies I bought at the clothing shop earlier. I take one of the gloves and cut off the wrist and thumb from the four fingers. Then, I cut the four fingers in half, so there are two pairs of two fingers. The tips of the fingers are removed and then the open sides are sewn back up. What remains is two small tubes that connect to a single larger one. The two small holes are at the tips of the fingers, and one big hole opens up on the opposite side. I take the first of the two pairs of finger gloves and cut a slit in the fabric. I finish the first pair of makeshift pants by running a spare piece of string through the slits to act as a belt. I move on to the top, which will be a bit more difficult. To make room for a head, I cut a hole in the middle where the webbing of the fingers would be. Then, simply moving the sleeves down, I can make it look like a shirt. I notice the fabric bunches around the armpit area, so I cut out the excess cloth and sew it back up. It's going to be a midriff-bearing top based on how I cut it but I'm satisfied with how it looks either way. I cut the sleeves down so she can use her hands and call it for the night.
The next day, I wake up and start my routine. We speed through our morning exercise to the forest that much faster. I add in a few extra exercises to really push us after giving it our all earlier. We all lie down to catch our breath. While looking up at the sky, I see snakes with wings swirling in and out of a large cloud.
"Wow, do you guys see those things?"
"Yeah," I respond to Sakura.
"What are they?" Josh is staring up at the sky while spread eagle.
"I don't know. I haven't seen those creatures in any of the books I've read." I reply.
We watch them dance with each other for a while before moving to the forest. The path to the den has become familiar, but I remind everyone not to get complacent as these woods are still dangerous. We arrive at the fort and gather some materials to bring to the basement. I head back out and start looking for more fungus to sell. After wandering around for an hour or so, I realize that Woohee isn't around.
"Woohee?" I call her name a few times but get no response.
[Maybe she's busy? I hope she's okay.]
I walk about and try to find any fungus worth money, but it's much more difficult without Woohee's help.
"Sleep." My consciousness is stolen away while rounding a tree trunk without the slightest resistance.
I wake up surrounded by fairies. The whole area is filled with light from the fungi and several shining orbs. It feels like daytime, but the sun is rainbow colored. I'm having trouble taking in all the information from the chaos of my new surroundings. The fairies are all different colors with many different hair colors and various skin shades. Some have what looks like flower petals for clothes. While I'm still trying to figure out my surroundings, one of the fairies comes up to me. She has dark skin, purple hair, and yellow flower petals for clothes. Unlike most of the fairies, it seems she has some sense of what colors go well together.
"What do you want with Woohee?"
[I need to take control of the situation if I'm going to make it out of here. Hopefully, they behave similarly to Woohee.]
"Nothing." I try to move my arm, but I notice I'm wrapped up in vines.
[It looks like they tied me up. Makes sense.]
"Then why are you talking to her?"
"She's the one following me."
"But you told her to meet with you today."
"That's because I wanted to give her something."
"What did you want to give her."
"How am I supposed to give her something when I'm tied up?" The purple haired fairy glares at me and crosses her arms.
"Take off his restraints." They start removing the vines when another fairy chimes in.
"Wait, he's trying to trick us into freeing him!"
"Oh, very sneaky human." The purple folds her arms and looks down her nose at me. Her snide tone would be annoying if her behavior wasn't so adorable. They stop in the middle of removing my restraints, but the vines loosen a little. The dark-skinned fairy flies up to my face. "You better tell us what's really going on, or we'll eat you."
She points to a large cauldron sitting above a fire.
[Well, I see where Woohee gets it from.]
"How are you going to eat me?"
"What?"
"How are you going to eat me?"