"Or maybe they'd do more to you…" Bea did in fact trip over one of the roots, but caught themselves before falling. "You didn't deserve that. Actually, I've only known you for a few hours, but you seem like a best friend, sorta." At this point, the sky wasn't even visible, so Bea couldn't tell if it was day or night. They guessed it had to be close to sunset. "Damn, it's dark."
"A best friend?" Flick repeated, flushing lightly. "I've never had a best friend before." He smiled brightly and picked up the pace a little, their hooves thudding on the ground. "We should be almost to the building. And if we get enough people to come, we can protect ourselves, right?"
Bea smiled, nervously chuckling a bit. "Yup, uh, me neither." When Flick picks up pace, Bea does also, not exactly looking where they're going. "Hopefully we're not gonna need to. With how secluded this place is, I doubt even Scruffy could find us…"
"Yeah, hopefully you're right. He doesn't seem like he likes going out into the forest very much anyway." Flick looked around, paused for a moment, and then continued on in a slightly different direction. Eventually, he pushed through some very overgrown foliage, catching their antlers a couple times, and a barn was visible. It was clearly abandoned, and there was nothing else nearby, but it didn't look too derelict.
Bea looked at the barn for a moment. The gray paint was peeled in places, but other than that, it seemed intact. They stepped over a few thick ferns and grasses, and was now standing directly in front of the barn. They looked back at Flick, a hint of uncertainty in their eyes. "We going in?"
"Yeah, we should go in and check it out. Make sure it's safe and all." Flick led the way inside, gently touching the barn doors as they entered. The floor of the barn was overgrown, but that could be dealt with. There were a couple of old crates in the corner that appeared to be empty, and mice were skittering in the shadows.
Bea looked down at the mice, gently kicking any away that dared get to close to their feet. "It seems fine, if we clean it up a bit. I think I can do something…." They walked through the thick overgrowth, sat on a crate, and held their hands out. They began to glow a bright blue color, and let a monsoon of water pour from them. They flooded the whole barn, and eventually, it was up to ankle-length.
Flick watched Bea curiously, pretty much just ignoring the mice for the time being. He wasn't really bothered by them, after all. They yelped when Bea suddenly flooded the barn, lifting up one hoof as though he expected it to help. They soon jumped up onto a crate as well and shook the water off of their feet. "So, what's that going to do?"
"Drown out rats and uproot plants. Easy cleaning." Slowly, as Bea's magic tired out, the water drained out of the barn, almost seeming to latch on to whatever it had removed. Bea sighed, holding their hands, and looked over at Flick, giving a tired, but genuine smile. "I forgot how tiring this shit was. I've not done it in a while."
"Ah. Interesting." Flick watched the process, flicking his hoof again. The hair on their legs was still pretty soaked with water. He smiled softly in return and jumped back off the crate when the water had drained out. "It looks good, though! It's definitely a good start. I guess we'll need to figure out how to make it a place that people could actually spend time in."
Bea stepped off the crate as well, and looked around, putting their hand up to their mouth. "We've not got a whole lot of space, so we needa go compact. I think there should be a meeting table in the middle, for, y'know, meeting…tables are expensive, though, and I'm broke." Bea sighed, pulling a wallet from their pocket and looking through it, counting out a twenty and two fives. "thirty bucks."
"I don't have any money either." Flick chuckled awkwardly. "We could always build a table. I've got some naturey magic that I don't utilize much… it's possible that that's something I could do. We really just need to make it more or less liveable." He looked around, trying to figure out what needed to go in the space.
Bea scanned the empty barn, then darted their eyes back at the door they came in. "I can gather up materials tomorrow. Whether from the forest, the city, or even some smaller shops that are, er, easier to break in. Just gimme a list." Bea laughed. "It's crazy how much someone's life can change in one day, hehe."
"Well, I don't know exactly what we'll need… do you have any ideas?" Flick asked, looking over to Bea. "I think I can make the table. We might need flooring since this is open, but I may be able to do that too. Insulation possibly? But I don't know how to install insulation. Maybe another table to put stuff on…"
"We could make hammocks out of straw…less we wanna sleep on the floor." They pulled a few tall, yellowed, rye-looking plants up from the ground, holding them out towards Flick. "Won't this work? Or can you make that too?" They yawned, pulling their head back. "After this, I'm gonna go to bed. Ain't it the middle of the night or something?"
"I might be able to make them out of straw… I'll probably work on other stuff tomorrow." Flick accepted the straw from Bea and sat on the floor with his eyes closed, trying to concentrate. It took him a few minutes, but they did eventuality manage to weave together some hammocks using magic. He looked exhausted afterwards, but they were proud of their work.
Bea put their hand up to their mouth in awe when they saw the hammocks. "I didn't even know magic could do that. All I can do is splash some puddles around, haha." They hauled them both over their shoulders, and fastened them on some stray pieces of wood hanging from the walls of the barn. "Don't come crying to me if yours falls in the middle of the night. I doubt we can make metal clasps." They haul themselves up onto their little hammock, and look back over to Flick. "I'm layin' down early. If you wanna do something before you go to bed, that's fine by me."
"Me either, honestly." Flick laughed tiredly. "I haven't done complicated stuff like this before. Hopefully they work well enough…" He watched Bea fasten the hammocks, still sitting on the ground to catch their breath. "I may do a couple more things, but I'll sleep soon." He got to his feet and looked around, eventually leaving the barn to fetch wood. Once they'd brought it back, he busied himself with trying to create a table out of it. They managed it late into the night, but using magic expended all of their energy and he passed out on the floor. He was still unconscious in the morning.
When Bea woke up in the morning, they were quite shocked by the fact that their hammock held up, especially when it was hooked up so sloppily. Bea's hammock back at the shack seemed to fall every night, and it had clasps. They glanced over at Flick's hammock, which was empty, before darting their eyes around looking for him. Bea immediately hopped down when they saw them asleep on the floor with a half-built wood table next to him. They watched for a moment, to make sure they were breathing, before dumping a good amount cold water from their hand to Flick's face. "Rise and shine"
Flick yelped and jolted awake when Bea poured water on them, his soaked curls falling into his face. They looked around to determine where they were and what had happened before turning their eyes back up to Bea. "Ah, I must've passed out… my bad. I guess I didn't finish the table yet either." He sighed softly and got to his feet, still looking a bit unsteady and drained.
Bea shook their head. "No need to be. Your work ethic's admirable" They bustled from Flick and the table, and to the door. "Wanna come pick fruits with me? I'm starved." Bea chuckled, smiling at Flick. "We don't need to gather much. Just enough for breakfast. Aren't there lots of berries in Spring?"
"Yeah, sure." Flick shook his head to dry himself off a bit and then followed Bea, yawning. They rubbed at their eyes with a soft hum. "Yeah, there's lots of berries this time of year. We shouldn't have any trouble finding enough to eat." He picked up the pace to take the lead since he was more familiar with the forest.
"Cool." The forest seemed even more wondrous than it did the previous day, with the morning sun shimmering down on the dewdrops, everything felt so much more calm than it ever did back at the shack. They walked for a bit longer, before turning back over to Flick, picking a delicate blue flower. "It's so intricate here, ain't it?"
Flick looked over his shoulder when Bea spoke and smiled softly. "Yeah, it's pretty big and complicated. You get used to it after a while, though." They shrugged and kept walking. Eventually, he led them into a clearing with fruit trees and bushes encircling it. "Everything here is safe to eat. I've checked all of it, so feel free to grab anything that looks nice."
(Bump)