Chapter 153. Lake size

It's going to have to be big.I thought to myself, looking at the current stream of water coming into the property. It was nowhere near enough, considering Tarakona could only submerge half her head in the deepest part. The only problem is where I wanted it to go...

I looked around the farm trying to figure out the best location.We had the house almost in the center, and while that had been good to start with, it now limited where everything could go. The other house and barn were both more rubble than buildings, so they could be completely removed, and we wouldn't care. That left only the farm the Dryads were making as the only other thing we couldn't move.

"Hey Dríade!" I called out, wanting her opinion as the de facto plant farmer.

Dríade stood up from her hunched-over posture as her tentacles floated angrily behind her. She'd been using her combat body to break through the scorched ground to try and find the good soil underneath. It gave me some happiness, or I guess pride? That she was working with her Grove instead of making them do everything.That, however, did not stop her huffing in annoyance as she made her way over to us.

[What do you want Dríade for my love?]

"To make sure wherever we build this lake won't interfere with her farm. The last thing I want is to ruin her hard work, and the best way I can think of is to get her involved." I replied, reaching down to pat her tail.

Voras had made a gap for the extra limb, and I found myself liking to stroke the cool scales there. And cop a feel every now and then, of course, not that she minded. We were just going to skip over the fact that both reptilian girls were the friskiest of my harem.

"Whatcha want?" Dríade demanded when she was close enough to not need to shout.

"We want to build a lake for Tarakona's egg," I answered, realizing I should have said our egg. "We want your opinion on where it should go so that it doesn't impact your farm."

Dríade seemed to lose some of her grouchiness at that. Like she thought I just wanted her to come to me when I called."That... That makes sense." She mumbled before calling her Dryads over.

"What did you expect?" I asked as we waited for them to join. I still couldn't tell the three sisters apart, and I really hoped they would have different colored hair or something when they made their proper bodies.

"I thought you were doing some dominance thing." She shrugged back. "Make me do something in front of my Grove to prove you're in charge."

I was a bit stunned by that.

[When has he ever done anything to make you think he would do that?]

Again, Dríade shrugged. "Didn't know why else he would call me over."

[He has promised you a world tree, Dríade. He does not wish to undermine your progress with trifling things like making you beg, something you have already offered to do yourself I might add.]

"Yeah. What she said." I added slightly unhelpfully.

Dríade shrugged again without speaking as the Dryads all approached.

"What is it, Grove mother?" The lead one asked.

"Clovek wants to build a lake. We're going to assist with its location and dimensions so that it doesn't negatively affect our farm. Do not stay quiet if you have any suggestions or you think of any problems that might arise; is that clear?" Dríade explained, getting a nod from each of them before she turned back to us. "What do you have in mind right now?"

I was surprised that she didn't immediately tell them to just sit tight and keep quiet. It was a little different to her brash personality she had with us.

[We want to expand the waterway that is already coming in but also add a water stone to it.]

Dríade nodded along. "Yeah, I remember the Drow having that. Thought you'd forgotten about it."

"Wasn't a need for it until now," I responded. "Not like any of you girls were aquatic, so it's just stayed in storage until now."

"Makes sense. So how deep do you want it?" Dríade asked, then looked down at her tentacles. "And if you want me and my Grove to dig it, it's going to take a while."

[No. I will be primarily doing the digging, as my size will give me an advantage. Hopefully Clovek will have his own Dragon form to help me, but you guys will not be tasked with this. As for its size? Well, very deep. I want it to be comfortable for our child to grow up in.]

"We could still help." One of the Dryads jumped in. "If you truly are going to do something on this scale, then having a portion of it leading down to our farms would boost productivity. The stream is too small now and too far away to make a difference, but if you are expanding it." She let her sentence quieten down as we were all listening in.

"A good idea." Dríade continued. "There are also some aquatic plants I would love to cultivate, so we will be offering some assistance if there is a possibility of us using it as well. That does include making sure when the egg hatches it doesn't chew my plants."

Who knew she had such a green thumb? Well, she is a Dryad, so I really should have seen that coming.

[Then where would best suit everyone? I would like to get started as soon as possible.]

We could all feel Tarakona's impatience, though it was more visible because the bladed tip of her tail was being dragged across the ground behind her. If she were trying to threaten any of us, it would definitely work.

"Realistically, we want it over by where the current stream is so that it can feed it. I know we'll have the water stone, but that should increase its longevity and give us some fresh water constantly." I said as we all made our way over in that direction. "We also want it to have a run off and using the one that already exists will be easier."

"Agreed. And you'll want to keep some kind of path from the gate to the house for traders and such." Dríade hummed while looking at the shabby gate. "So it can't run past that."

It was on my list of things to do, I swear.

[So we make the whole right side of the house a lake.]

"That might be too much." I almost balked. "First of all, you wouldn't have much room to stand in because Dríade is farming on the other side, and that would take us weeks to actually accomplish."

[We have until the egg hatches.]

That wasn't really a timeframe, though I didn't say that out loud.

"What if we start with something twice the length of Tarakona?" Dríade asked as if trying to meditate. "If this really is just for the egg, then that size should be fine. It's a water Dragon but it's not completely aquatic."

Tarakona gave off a growl that only stopped when I started to rub her horns.

"We can also make it bigger," I said to placate her. "For now it's a good start, and we can finally bathe you properly."

That turned her growl into something that almost resembled a purr.

"He leads our Grove mother and has tamed a Dragon." The Dryads tried to speak quietly but utterly failed.We all pretended to not hear them, though I did catch myself smiling. Tarakona just hugged me tighter.

[Tamed? Maybe. Would you like to have a go at taming me later, my love?]

The Dryads didn't react, so I could only assume Tarakona had made sure I was the only one receiving that message. That made it hard to respond verbally. I let my hand that was scratching her horns drop down to apply pressure to the back of her neck.Her purr got a little deeper in response.

Not paying attention to that, Dríade responded to her Grove. "He has power beyond our understanding. I'm not surprised he has tamed the frost one."

"Will he be the one to breed the Grove when the time comes?" Another of the Dryads asked.

Dríade blushed but hid it well. The only way I knew what to look for was my experience with the girls, and her tentacles all flinched like Zeldi's ears or Tarakonas tail.

"That's not something we need to decide right now," Dríade said in an even tone. "You three still need to grow your trees a lot more, and I'd like to have a few more of you in the Grove before we think about expanding our species."

I didn't hear a denial in that.

"We will have to start cutting some of those trees down to make room for the lake." Dríade changed the topic as she started pointing towards the treeline on the side the stream came from. "Once that's all removed, we should have the base for the size, and you can increase it later."

[I will accept that.]

I rolled my eyes at that."Come on then, Miss Picky. We can use your size to start removing trees. Unless you have something else to do?" I said, poking her in the side.

[Not unless you are free?]

"We'll finish up with the farm before we join you." Dríade waved her hand before turning around. We didn't miss the sigh she let out.

[We should probably go get Zeldi as well. Partly to tell her what we're doing and partly because I can hear Abelha getting frustrated with her.]

That would be a good idea. Especially with how persistent she could get.