Confined With a Goddess

Jake sat down on the sand and looked out over the ocean. He'd become sedentary again, and had spent all of his time lately at home. Rather, building the house, but once it was constructed, it was going to be home. Any time not spent at home was at work; either gathering lumber or coconuts (though Celestia usually gathered the lumber), or washing clothes, as well as himself. He was on a tropical island. He was in a committed relationship, even if he wasn't the initiator of most of the activities. Anyone else in his scenario would be having sex on the beach; both the activity and the drink.

But not Jake. Jake wasn't indulging in anything. The closest he'd come to letting loose and having the fates do with him what they would was that he'd had a daydream that'd ended with him being pissed on. And he wasn't dreaming of a vacation destination, but a work scenario. He was dreaming of working, at a job he knew nothing about. And he was dreaming about that while living many people's dream vacation. What was wrong with him?

The crashing of the ocean waves was louder than he imagined. Celestia had given him permission to come out here, of course. He was a bit mopey after such a long day. It was a pretty hard one, too. After such an effort, with how difficult the day had been, despite his short break in the middle, she'd told him to go take a break while she put dinner together. She'd pulled out a clay pot, so she was clearly doing something soup-like.

His mind went back to that clay pot, actually. Most notably, it was made from clay. It wasn't like the spectral metal tools she kept summoning. It was ceramic. That meant that it was either a gift from Luna, which he doubted because of the bad blood between Celestia and her sister, or she made it herself. Given how resourceful Celestia was, that seemed more likely.

A small crab scuttled over his hand, skittering back to the sea. Or maybe to a hole. He wasn't sure which crabs lived where, and his thoughts were merely a guess. But he did watch it for a moment, seeing it move across the clay deposit. Celestia had a fireplace in her hut. It was small, but she had one. If she could build a fireplace from the clay sitting here on this beach, she could probably make a deep, round bowl with three legs, even without a potter's wheel. She was smart enough to build a house; she was probably smart enough to make pottery.

Pottery. It had never occurred to him, but now, he was thinking. Usually, when pottery and making ceramics came up, it was vases and decorative cups and stuff like that. But he recalled seeing ceramic cookware and knives, and he'd attended his history classes, so the thought that people used to use ceramic was not entirely foreign to him. He'd even heard that porcelain was a ceramic, and that's what toilets were made from. They were pretty sturdy, and so were porcelain plates, which were for eating. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to have food cooked in something that used to be dirt. After all, steel used to be rocks.

A whistle brought him back to the encampment. Celestia had finished making fish stew, and there was plenty of it. "Hungry?"

Jake nodded and scooped out a bowl of soup. There was no ladle; she'd cooked it with a wooden spatula. Dipping the bowl into the soup and then pulling it out was the way to serve it.

"Weather looks like it's going to be clear tonight," mentioned Celestia. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Probably not," answered Jake, swallowing a small chunk of what he thought was potato.

"Let's check."

"Hm?" Jake had never heard that in response before.

"What are you thinking about right now?"

Jake was silent for a moment. In truth, he had a lot on his mind. But if he had to pick a recent thought, it might as well be something useful. "I was wondering if it might be a good idea to put in a fireplace in the new house, and that thought was being cast aside with the understanding that I don't know how to make one."

"Is that all?" scoffed Celestia. "Jake, you don't even have to worry about that. I know how to make one, and I'm going to assist you. You're so very lucky to have me!"

Jake nodded. "So, how do we go about that, exactly?"

"Well, first, we're going to need the grating. That's for the ashes to fall through. Then you start at the base, and just start working your way up. In this case, we'll put a small opening outside so we can shovel out the ashes. Then another opening on the inside, a bit wider and taller, to let the heat through. The grate will sit at the bottom of that. Then a hollow tube going up to let the smoke out, and at the top, a cap so as not to let the rain in. It's as simple as that. I can't believe you didn't think of that, silly!"

Jake nodded. "I guess I hadn't really considered the steps to "how." I suppose I was solely focused on going from nothing to the finished product."

"That's the great thing about learning; you see the steps taken, and before too long, you find your road."

There was a pause as Jake considered her words. Just about any process could be broken down into steps. "So, what about you?"

"Oh, I know how to build a fireplace. I built the one in there." She thumbed over her left shoulder to the small hut behind her. "Don't even worry about my ability to construct a fireplace."

"Not what I was asking. What was it you were thinking when you asked what I was thinking?"

"Oh. Yeah, you were right, I wasn't thinking the same thing."

"So what were you thinking?"

Celestia shrugged. "I forgot."

"Well, it had something to do with the weather..."

"Oh, yeah! I was going to ask if you wanted to just sleep out here tonight. Under the stars, you know?"

Jake took a deep breath and pushed his shoulder-length brown hair back over his head as he looked up. "That sounds nice. We moving the bed out?"

"Nope." Celestia picked up some palm fronds that had been tossed aside and spread them over the floor. "Right there's fine. And hey, I have something else, too." She reached behind the log she'd been sitting on and pulled out a large green bottle. "Abyssinian Absinthe..."