Chapter 155. Wood chopping

The Kitsune left almost as quickly as she arrived. She just abruptly turned invisible and was gone. Tarakona followed her with her eyes even after the rest of us couldn't, and only turned around when she was sure she was gone.

[So, my love. Would you like to get started on removing the trees?]

None of us moved. We all just stared back at Tarakona as she stood there naked and trying to cover herself with her hands.

[It's a little awkward being stared at like that.]

"We're not going to let her just ignore the giant hole in the web. Right?" Voras asked as she broke her stance and looked between Zeldi and me. "Because if she's another Livestock why did Tarakona just let her go like that?"

"I'd make any of you explain yourselves if you let some stranger touch our children without warning me," I said back. "But I think she wants to be a bit more private about this. Don't worry, though. I have no intention of not telling you guys what I find out."

That placated them for the most part, so I made my way outside after grabbing the axe we'd brought from the Drow.I finally had a reason for using it.Voras and Madu both vanished into their rooms, and I gave Zeldi a quick kiss on my way out.

"Go tell Dríade she can come out now," I told my little mare. "Wouldn't want the field she's working on to go to waste."

"I will. But you have to promise that whatever Tarakona says to you, you'll repeat back to me." She replied a little stubbornly.

"Of course," I answered.

With that, Zeldi stole another kiss before she vanished as well, leaving me with Tarakona, who had transformed back into her Dragon form.I made my way over, though I tried to hide my amusement at watching a Dragon try to avoid the obvious unspoken question.

[We should start with the trees around the stream. Hopefully we can enlarge it enough to increase the water flow.]

Tarakona didn't bother waiting as she moved over to the treeline and began digging around the base of a tree to remove the roots. We would need a place for all this wood, but before that, I got in front of her.

"Tarakona. You are going to tell me who that was. Right?" I tried to be gentle, but there might have been a bit of a demand in my words.

Tarakona's response was the biggest Dragon version of puppy dog eyes I had ever seen. It didn't change my stance, but it was cute.

[She is a friend.]

"Just a friend?" I pushed.

[She is. Well was. My personal maid growing up.]

Images of a Kitsune in a maid outfit came to my mind, and I suddenly lost the ability to talk. Thankfully, Tarakona continued without noticing my distraction.

[Her name is Kettu, and my mother saved her from slave traders and taught her magic so that she could be the bridge between us during my hatchling days.]

"So a maid?" I repeated as my mind went further into the gutter. Would it be worth the silk to get Voras to make the girls all something similar? Realistically no. But emotionally? Yes.

[Yes, my love. My mother couldn't touch me, so she needed someone to actually interact with me. Kettu was that someone.]

"Okay." I nodded, somewhat understanding. I turned to the tree with my axe and began to swing. "And what is she doing here? She can't have been staying with your mother ever since you left the nest, right?"I held back on the whole livestock part, hoping she would volunteer that information without me having to pry.

[She was attempting to get me to return. Unsuccessfully, I might add, but my mother was hoping she would be able to change my mind where she herself could not.]

"Hmmmm." I nodded along in understanding. "And how was she able to get onto the farm?"I watched Tarakona flinch at that.

[Well actually, that was something I wish to speak with you about.]

"Go on." I prompted, felling my first tree. It conveniently went into my inventory as one item.

[Would there be room here if she were a Livestock?]

"If?" I prompted again.

Tarakona let out a breath of frost.

[You already know she is, don't you.]

It wasn't a question. Thankfully, the Deeds had already informed me of this fact.

"It might have been a bit obvious considering the requirements of my trespassing ability. Though to be fair, she was refused the first time, so we were unsure until the Deeds gave us an answer." I responded, picking a different tree to start on.

[Ah yes. That actually explains why my mother made her one now. She couldn't enter without it.]

That sentence stopped me in my tracks, and I wasn't the only one.Creating Livestock? How is that possible? For her to be able to make someone one, they would have to change their entire bodies while at the same time bridging a gap to us that should only ever be available at birth. It would be like...

"Someone physically rebuilding you guys," I said aloud, realizing Tithalia was a little bit more impressive than I first thought.

There was no response from any of the Deeds as they digested that information. It brought up a lot of different possibilities if we could just manufacture Livestock to a degree. There was also how much control Tithalia had over them in the process.Could she choose their resource? Or even better, choose the buff that came along with it? Could she potentially make a single Livestock produce two resources?

[My love?]

Tarakona looked over at me, and I realized I'd stopped cutting the tree down in my confusion.

"I'm okay. Just trying to figure out exactly what that means if your mother can just make people Livestock." I replied, returning to my task.

[She can also remove someone from being a Livestock according to Kettu.]

This time I noticed that I'd stopped swinging.

"What do you mean by that?" I said slowly, even though I fully understood the words.

[Kettu said that my mother would only stop Kettu from being a Livestock if I agreed to come back with her. She also mentioned that she could do the same to me. I refused, of course.]

The refusal wasn't the issue.

*Deeds. Is that even possible?*

We would have said creating Livestock would have been impossible before today.

My body jerked at the thought before I actually started to think about it fully.If Tithalia was willing to share this information, then the girls could be free. Sure, it would suck for me as the Deed owner, but the girls could have normal lives.Well, normal to an extent.

Abelha didn't really have what I would call a normal life, no matter how much she said otherwise, and Voras would still be a silk weaver. Madu would become a normal Gorgon I guess and Zeldi?

Zeldi. My little mare. She would be able to stay with her family and spend time around other Centaurs. I could still visit with teleportation as I didn't want to give up our relationship, but she didn't have to be here anymore.I couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing for me.

Distracting myself, I was actually surprised when I thought of Dríade. She was easily the most stubborn one out of them all, but she was honestly the one I thought was most likely to stay if given a choice. Not like she could have her personal room or my promise to make her a world tree if she left, and even then she wasn't stuck on the farm like everyone else with her multitude of bodies.

Her entire, I guess, evolution, you could say, from Dryad to Grove mother was because of her Livestock status. Losing that meant she lost everything along with it.

That thought made me laugh. Not out of malice or anything, but because of all the girls, the one who didn't like me the most was actually the only one that had a proper reason to stay.

Tarakona bumped me with her nose to bring me back to the present.

[Don't worry, my love. Even if she comes here herself, I will not accept it. I enjoy my life with you too much.]

"But would you want to go free?" I asked, turning to face her. "I don't mean that we should break up or anything, but would you like to go free for more than an hour each day? You could if you weren't a Livestock."

[My love, I would lose too much. You have provided me with a room that will withstand much more than the test of time, a mate who does everything I ask for and a family that supports me with everything. All I have to deal with is a small location to live in that is rapidly getting bigger. Tell me. If I asked you to spend enough points to let me leave for longer, would you?]

"Without hesitation," I replied quickly. "Well. When I get the points to do so of course."

Tarakona hummed.[And that is why I never want to leave. There's also the small matter of you needing me to be your Livestock to actually be able to turn into a Dragon. I don't want to lose out on that just because I don't want to have to lay eggs anymore.]

The second tree fell away and joined the first in my inventory.

"If you're sure," I said with some reluctance. "If you ever do change your mind, I'm still going to be here for you."

[Everything I will ever need is right here, my love. Who knows. Maybe my mother would like to experience this herself?]