Homesteading III

"Hold it steady, Jouane!" Lokir shouts as a solid timber floats up from a pile and is placed into position where Vladimar and Stenvar sit high up on the other beams, hammering it into place.

Leaving me quite impressed with the versatility and adaptability of the old man's magic.

"Good job! You ready for the next one?" Lokir asks Jouane who seems to be slightly out of breath.

"One moment! It's not as easy as it looks to get it up at my age." Jouane shouts which elicits a quiet chuckle from me and Sofia before I call up to Lokir.

"Hey, Brother! What jobs can I help with?" I shout up to Lokir, who's also on the main house's support beams.

"Boss, everyone else is currently working on clearing the ground for the other houses' basements. Think ya can lend'em a hand?" Lokir shouts down to me.

"Sure thing!" I shout back as I see another timber floating up into place.

I walk down the hill towards the lake where I see most of the company hard at work with shovels, picks, and hand carts, clearing out dirt and rocks to make way for the basements of several houses.

The girls go off to work with Atris and Sinding who are hauling boulders out of the work site.

"Remember, heave down like you're splitting your enemy's head in half!" I hear Gringar shout at a group, with Erik already breaking into a sweat.

"Com'on boy! Put your back into it! Like this!" Gringar shouts at Erik before taking his pick from him and smashing it down at the stone Erik had been stuck on, completely splitting it in two.

"Yes, Sir!" Erik shouts taking back his pick and doing his best to break apart the stones in his section.

I see everyone toiling away and I think, 'Why can't I do what Jouane does with his telekinesis?'

So I pick a spot away from everyone and cast my raise wall spell... But a few moments after I stop concentrating the wall of stone crumbles back into the earth.

"Shit..." I say before trying again, this time instead of just letting the spell activate I tried to direct the magic flowing through me like how I did with my weapons.

This time, the wall of stone rises and I'm able to push it a few feet forward and when it crumbles instead of sinking into the earth, a small mound of stone is pilled up with the dirt I had risen it from leaving a divet in the earth.

"Better... Come on!" I say trying one more time but the magika drain was too much and the wall collapsed before I could even move it a foot.

"Fuck! Almost had it!" I shout in exhaustion as if I had just run a marathon despite my stamina bar not depleting.

I down a couple of the magika potions I've been hoarding since the start of my time here in Skyrim, and it goes down like liquid jolly ranchers, sickeningly sweet but the exhaustion I had felt quickly disappears and I start trying to cast that spell again... And again... And again...

It takes a few hours, but by the end, I've cleared out most of the basement space for one house all by myself and even started outlining a series of tunnels to connect the basements with the main house in case of an emergency.

I had to use about a quarter of all the potions from my loot goblin horde, but it was worth it.

And up on the hill, with Jouane's help, the entire structure of the main house was finished and it was easily twice if not even three times the size of the base game house.

Though, it was mainly due to its length and not its height.

While admiring the house I see everyone else calling it a quits and heading to bathe off in the lake or to have a quick meal at the tent city.

I decide to join the ones grabbing a meal when I see the kids all running around before they notice me and come running over.

"Papa! Papa! Come tell us a story!" Lucia asks giddily dragging me over to one of the campfires.

"Okay, okay, calm down." I tell her quickly grabbing a bowl of soup from the cooking pot and taking a sip before sitting down.

"Alright, what kind of story do you want to hear?" I ask them.

"Action!" Lucia shouts.

"It has to have a big battle!" Aventus adds.

"Something with romance!" Agni cheers.

"We want romance too." Sophie says while standing beside Sissel.

"Whatever." Britte says with a roll of her eyes.

"Okay... I think I know the perfect story. Everyone, gather round for storytime!" I shout, drawing the attention of my crew and waving them to join us.

"Storytime? Are you a skald, Chain-breaker?" Atris asks with interest before sitting down beside Sinding.

"Hmph, stories are a waste of training time." Gringar says.

"I don't know, I quite like listening to tales, I hope this is a good one, my friend." Inigo says sitting beside Lydia with his hand in hers.

"She cannot wait to hear Fluffy's story!" M'rissi exclaims excitedly sitting beside the kids, holding Aventus in her lap.

"Yes, though I prefer stories with dancing. Like that horizontal dance, though I don't actually know how to do that one." Sophia says with Sophie in her lap, completely forgetting her unease around kids.

And Kasia is left with Lucia, who fidgets and wiggles constantly in her lap.

Lokir is sitting with his newly adopted kids, though he's more of a wall to keep the two separated.

Agni is over with Joanne and Falion listening intently. As the rest of the company find their own seats and settle in for my tale.

"Alright... Hmmm, this one should do nicely." I say before coughing and clearing my throat.

"A long time ago, in a land far, far away..." I say beginning my tale.