"Fascinating. And those are for racoon transformations, correct? Do non-transformative variants of transformative foods exist?"

"Mhmm, but some of them are a bit rare. Non-transformative figs grow wild in the desert, and whiskerless peaches are pretty easy to come by, but I don't even know what the non-transformative version of a ferret fruit is, and while I've heard there are people who know where to get non-transformative peppers, I can't even say whether that's any more than a rumour. But on the other hand you've had my honey, and you'll notice you're not even slightly a bee right now."

"True. No non-human traits except the usual bizarre mindset!" Her voice has returned to yesterday's bouncier, more playful rhythm and melody, and her posture has shifted slightly to reflect that. She looks around at the finished baskets of turnips. "Anything else I can help you with before lunch and figs?"

"Hmm..." She thinks for a moment. "I'll probably be turning over one of the unused fields and that's something I prefer to do by myself. I think you're on your own until noon."

She grins. "Okay, then! I think I'll sit out and enjoy the nice weather while sketching some designs for a future house I'll build."

"Enjoy!"

She steps back into the barn, grabs her satchel, and steps outside to a nice patch of grass, with either a tree or building at her back, and sits down.

She pulls Neo into her lap mentally, gets out her notebook and pencil, and...

They sketch.

It starts with a few basic aesthetic things, sample facades in a few styles. Gradually she starts working in Gothic Revival elements, a bit of Eastlake as well. It's a big thing, with two stories, a tower going up a third, a balcony or two, and a bay window in one spot. It's just a loose idea, at this point, but it looks lovely.

From there, she starts laying out rooms. The ground floor gets an enormous kitchen with a table, a nice dining room, a lounge, and a workshop. A basement below that has room for all sorts of storage, another workshop, and an empty-ish room for sparring or training or meditating. The upper floor gets an office, another workshop, a master suite with its own bathroom, two guest bedrooms, and another bathroom. The tower gets another workshop. Sizes and arrangements get tweaked a lot. The bay window gets attached to the lounge. One balcony gets put on the master suite, the other gets moved around between the workshop on that floor or the office or one of the guest bedrooms, before finally settling on the office. She vacillates on adding a skylight for a while before deciding against it, and just marking down lots of windows.

Probably at least an hour passes over the course of her sketching and refining.

Lily doesn't reappear until the sun has reached its zenith and started descending over the lake, at which point she finds them where they've settled at the corner of the orange orchard and waves.

"Hey, how's it going?"

She puts her pencil away, hops to her feet, and skips over with a grin, holding out the finished sketches proudly.

"Ooh," she says, studying the drawings. "That's downright lovely. Where would you put it?"

She smiles and tilts her head for a moment...

Before her body language shifts. "Depends on how much I like the city and the people in it, as opposed to relative privacy and distance here in the vicinity of the lake. Also depends on what the process of acquiring land for oneself is in either area. I quite like everyone I've met out here so far. If y'all aren't opposed, I'd certainly love to build in this general vicinity."

"If you want to build a house on the lakeshore, I think the question is whether you get along with me and Palla and to some extent Hazel, and whether you mind running into nymphs and imps and the occasional goblin while you're out of the house. If you want to build a house in the city the question is how fast you can make a whole lot of money."

"Well, I certainly like all three of you well enough," she replies with a grin. "I can... probably make money at a tolerably steady rate, but not fast enough to build something like this quickly unless a few things go more dramatically my way than I expect them to. If y'all like me in return well enough to put up with having me around indefinitely, then that augurs in favor of out here, after I've done my stint in the city and gotten all the tools I'll need for a while."

"I wouldn't mind having another friendly face around. And that house does look like it'll be beautiful."

"Thank you! W—I put a lot of thought into the design," she says. "Guess we'll eventually be neighbors. Or at least as much neighbors as you consider Hazel and Palla."

It's hard to say whether she notices the slip; she definitely doesn't comment.

"Guess so! At least if everything goes well for you, and I hope it does. C'mon, let's make lunch."

She puts her notebook away, washes her hands at the pump, and strolls into the house behind Lily to get to work. "What're we making?", she asks once they're both in the kitchen.

"I'm thinking yams. What do you think about yams? And since I have your help for the afternoon, I can make a bit of a production out of lunch, so maybe I'll cook down some onions into onion jam."

"Oooh," she grins. "That sounds lovely."

"Excellent."

Into the kitchen they go. "Get out, oh, three of those big onions? Onion jam always melts down more than you think. And chop them longways so they make strings instead of bits—should I show you how or do you know what I mean?"

"Big slices like you're making onion rings," she asks as she pulls them out, "and then just cut each big slice in half or maybe quarters and then separate?"

"That'll work fine," she says agreeably, obtaining yams. "Hmm, what do you think for these, roasted or boiled and mashed?"

"Hmmm. Leaning mashed, I think, but not picky."

She chops the very very tip off the ends of each onion, peels the dry outer layer off, and then sets to slicing big discs of onion.