Chapter 17

Shadow looked at the start of the building behind Dallmund.

"Can I help with anything? I kind of feel bad about making your job so hard this time around." Shadow smiled apologetically.

"You look so skinny. I'm afraid you might just get in the way. But if you really want to help, you could be the delivery guy and go pick up the magic-sealing stone you ordered. I'll send Vistrian to help you out a bit." Dallmund said. "Vistrian! Shadow wants you to help him carry up the magic-sealing stone!"

"Who?" A woman came flying over.

"This is Shadow, the to-be owner of the to-be house." Dallmund introduced.

"So you're the pain in the neck that gave us this annoying house to build." she frowned before pinching his cheek. "You know you gave us one hell of a job to do!" she complained.

"That's why I want to help out."

"You? Help us? But you're so scrawny, not to mention missing a wing. What are you going to do, walk up here with the magic-sealing stone? Why do you want a house made of magic-sealing stone anyway when you only have a single wing?" Vistrian pulled harder on his cheek.

"I have my reasons, none of which concern you." Shadow argued, slapping Vistrian's hand away from his cheek. "Let's just get going." Shadow turned and flew away towards the square below them.

"Since when could you fly?" Vistrian exclaimed as she flew after him.

"Since I was born, idiot." he scolded. "Do you even understand how demon flight works?"

"If you're using levitation magic, don't expect me to carry you and the stone up the mountain." Vistrian warned.

"Like I'd ask for help on such a trivial matter. Stop looking down on me." After flying for a while, they had still yet to see the City's square.

"How slow are you going to go?" Shadow complained.

"I was doing this out of consideration for your missing wing." Vistrian grumbled.

"Well go faster!"

"Don't blame me if you get left behind." Vistrian put on a burst of speed and veered to the right. Shadow followed closely behind.

"So where is the stone anyway?" Shadow asked. Vistrian looked back with mild surprise, then looked back forward.

"It's near the end of Section five. They mine int-"

"'K, thanks!" Shadow interrupted, zooming past Vistrian before she finished her sentence.

"What, hey!" she called after him. Not long after, Shadow spotted Section five and landed in the furthest part from the square near a shady looking shop. He looked back to see Vistrian, out of breath, landing next to him.

"I thought you were supposed to be strong. Can't you keep up?" Shadow complained.

"You won't be saying such words when we have to carry the magic-sealing stone." she wheezed. After Vistrian caught her breath, she led Shadow towards the small shop. When Vistrian walked up to the shopkeeper, she put a slip of paper on the counter and waited. The shopkeeper glanced at the piece of paper and immediately left. A bulky, muscular man came back, dragging huge blocks of plain looking stone.

"Here's the magic-sealing stone you ordered." he said in a deep voice, pushing the stone out of the shop. "The rest will come later." Vistrian nodded and Shadow bent down to pick up the stone.

"You're going to want help with that..." Vistrian commented.

"No, I don't think I will." Shadow easily picked up the stone and carried it on his shoulder. When he did, he felt his magic flow slow down a little. He turned to look at Vistrian. Her jaws dropped. Shadow looked at her indifferently. 

"So we go back up the mountain now?" Vistrian just nodded blankly. Shadow turned, pulled out his first wing and took off. The stone was lighter than he thought it would be. He easily flew back up the mountain. Dallmund was shocked to see Shadow flying back up the mountain towards him.

"Here's the first load of magic-sealing stone." Shadow put the stone down right next to Dallmund, who stared at it with his mouth open. He then looked back and forth, from the stone to Shadow and back again. 

"What?" Shadow put his hands on his hips and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You really carried this all the way up by yourself?" Dallmund exclaimed with disbelief.

"Vistrian was being slow so I came straight here instead of waiting for her. Why, is there a problem?" Shadow asked. Dallmund shook his head, slowly.

"You can put it over there." he instructed, pointing over to the left of the building. Shadow nodded and lifted the stone up onto his shoulder, carrying it over to the spot Dallmund pointed to. Shadow then walked back over to Dallmund.

"Is that really magic-sealing tone? It didn't do as much as I had hoped."

"Yes, it was just on the lowest setting."

"You can do that?"

"That's how magic-sealing stuff works."

"Cool! Should I get the next load of stone?"

"You can get the rest of the loads that Vistrian doesn't get first."

"Great!" Shadow cheered. He flew down the mountain as fast as he could, like a little kid helping his dad with a big project. For the rest of the day, Shadow flew up and down the mountain, carrying the stone to Dallmund. In the end, he was able to get all of the stone up the mountain that day.

Shadow stretched his wing as much as he could and yawned. It was nighttime now and he was laying on the grass in front of the unfinished house. The workers had left for night, leaving the hardly filled in frame looking ghostly but too clean to be haunted. He sat up and turned around. Despite all the heavy lifting he had done, he wasn't that tired, so he decided to travel higher up the mountain. He went a short ways before stopping to stare at the stars. It was peaceful. The beautiful view and the day's work had washed his nightmare out of his mind, though he still felt uncomfortable at the thought of walking through those streets. He accidentally dozed off.

When he woke up again, it was already morning. He yawned and stretched. He unfolded all three pairs of wings and gave them a good stretch before putting away his last two pairs and making his way back down the mountain. When he reached the unfinished house, the workers weren't there yet, so Shadow decided to look around the parts that had already been started. The parts of his house that were going into the side of the mountain were already dug out and the frame for the first floor was already finished.

"Do you like what you see?" a voice spoke behind him, startling him. Dallmund was walking up behind him with all his gear.

"It looks like it's going the way I imagined it." Shadow smiled, turning towards Dallmund.

"How'd you get here before me? I live right next to the mountain and the closest hotel is at least a mile away from here. Did you really wake up that early?" Dallmund questioned.

"No, I only woke up a few minutes ago." Shadow mentioned. He pointed up the mountain and smiled. "You see, I accidentally fell asleep up the mountain."

"You slept on the mountain? Why?" Dallmund burst.

"Didn't I just say I 'accidentally' fell asleep on the mountain?" Spirus reminded. "I was stargazing and just dozed off."

"If you say so." Dallmund shrugged. "Are you going to help us out again today?" 

"I was planning to. I can start as soon as you like. Just tell me what to do." 

"Alright! First you need to..."

~ * ~

"It's finally done!" Shadow sighed, flopping onto the ground behind him. Dallmund sat down next to him, exhausted. A week passed and Shadow's house was finally finished. It was almost dusk when they finished.

"Indeed it is... with so few workers it took longer than expected but with you here we did it before the month ended. You're insanely strong, even though you don't look it." Dallmund praised.

"You can thank my dad for that!" Shadow cheered.

"Where is he now? He would do great in this city." Dallmund smiled. Shadow pointed up at the sky.

"Up there." An edgy silence followed. Vistrian and the other worker walked over to the two.

"Oh, right. You guys can go now. The house is finished and we all hope to never get a house up here again." Dallmund joked.

"I said I was sorry! Like, 500 times, too." Shadow grumbled. Everyone else started laughing. "Well, if you ever get an outrageous request again, call me and I'll come help again! Assuming I'm not busy." Shadow smiled.

"Sure thing! I'm gonna head to the hot springs to soak and recharge before the next house. Feel free to join after you explore the house." Dallmund invited with a cheery smile.

"What's there to explore? I helped build it and designed it."

"You're not wrong."

"I think I'll go show it to my friends. I just hope they don't pass out on the flight up." Shadow pointed back towards the general direction of Jay's house.

"It's always a pleasure to work with you. You know where to find me when you have free time to waste." They shook hands before they went their separate ways. Shadow flew towards Jay's house and knocked on the door. No one answered. Shadow tried opening the door next to find it unlocked. He simply teleported inside. Locks were no match for him. He wandered around the house but no one was home. Thinking nothing of it, he rummaged through the kitchen, looking for food. When he was building his house, Dallmund had always bought the workers their food and Shadow had always bought his own lunch, not wanting to spend more of their kindness that he owed them. But he was out of the savings given to him when he first arrived, so he decided to leech off Jay until he had his own money to buy food. In the fridge, there were a few apples, some frozen ground beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and a liter bottle of rootbeer. In the cupboard there was a pack of hamburger buns and a bag of potato chips. As Shadow continued to look, he realized there weren't any cooking utensils. Not pots, not pans, not lids for said not pots and not pans. No cutting boards, no knives, no silverware, no plates, no cups. Nothing to cook nor eat with. He sighed and took an apple before sitting down on the living room couch. He had just finished his apple when he heard the front door click, then open. He looked over to see Jay and Emperion walking through the doorway with lots of grocery bags in hand.

"I thought you knew how to cook!" Jay exclaimed.

"What made you think I could cook? I just asked for hamburgers!" Emperion growled.

"We've been living off of junk food for the past week! I just thought we could at least make it ourselves for once and I tried to tell you but you just ignored me."

"I can cook for you." Shadow suggested. Jay and Emperion just stared at him for a moment.

"Where the hell have you been the last week?" Emperion growled, stomping forward.

"Yeah, Emperion was worried about you." 

"WHA-? I WAS NOT!!" Emperion whipped his head to glare at Jay.

"Sure you weren't." 

"Back to the cooking issue-." Shadow offered.

"No. The last time I let you cook for me, you burned the food." Jay objected.

"That was the only time I burned our food! And it was over an open fire. Wouldn't you have burned the food too?"

"Of course not!"

"Well what other choice do you have? Neither of you know how to cook."

"You don't know how to cook?" Emperion gave Jay a weird look.

"You expect a slave to know how to cook?"

"I just thought you would've learned to cook for your 'Masters'." Emperion stated.

"Well I didn't. And Ko- I mean, Shadow, I don't trust you'd keep the food safe." Jay gave a suspicious look.

"If you don't want to eat the food, it's not my place to decide. But if you won't have it yourself, at least let me have it." Shadow insisted.

"Why not go buy your own food?"

"No money." Jay stared at him skeptically.

"Ugh, fine, whatever. Have at the stuff in the fridge but I'm going back to the store to buy me a sandwich." Jay dropped the bags on the floor and turned back towards the door.

"Hold on, is this guy's cooking that bad?" Emperion asked with a worried expression. "If that's the case, get me a sandwich too!"

"Get your own sandwich." Jay slammed the door shut, leaving Emperion standing there with the rest of the bags. Shadow looked up at Emperion.

"So what'd you buy?" 

"Cooking stuff."

"Do you have a griddle, spatula, salt and pepper, cutting board and knife?" Shadow pointed at Emperion. Emperion stared back for a moment.

"What the hell is a 'griddle'? And stop pointing at me!" Shadow facepalmed and sighed.