Confined With a Goddess

After yet another bath and laundry day, Celestia, rather than resting, went out to collect some rocks. Big ones. Rocks so large and heavy that Jake couldn't carry them. So he was left alone in the grove, cooking the food she'd selected for dinner.

The thought occurred to him that he should be doing something else besides waiting, so he started thinking up plans that he could actually do. Then he spotted the cutoffs from making the bed and walls. A lot of them would be used as firewood, but there was still a lot left. He could do something with it. Besides, they'd probably want more furniture than just the bed.

When Celestia came back with her first batch of rocks, which Jake actually could lift, by the by, he waved her over.

"That fish should only be about half done," noted Celestia. "It can't be ready yet."

"Oh, it's not," answered Jake. "Nor the tomatoes. I was just thinking of something, and I wanted to ask you, first."

"Oh, okay. Shoot."

"I was thinking of taking some of this wood and making some furniture."

Celestia looked over the scraps and snorted. "You're not going to be making much from this. There's not a lot here. What are you trying to make?"

"It's a surprise," he muttered. He didn't want to spoil it for her, as she was the intended recipient. "I'd much rather just show you when it's done."

"Celestia paused for a moment, then chuckled. "Okay, I'll make you a deal. I'm going to be building the fireplace and chimney along this wall." She indicated the wall that was still missing a vertical strip. "As such, you can't build in there and keep it a secret. However, I don't plan on using the small hut right away, unless it starts raining again. You can build in there. Whatever it is, it's going to be small enough to fit through the door. Right?"

Jake nodded. "I'm pretty sure."

"So the deal is this: As long as you don't run out of wood, you don't have to tell me what it is."

Jake nodded. "Deal."

Over the next few days, they were kept separate for the most part. Celestia was not keeping her end of the construction secret, mostly just stacking rocks on top pf each other and sealing them with clay from the deposit near the beach. The bottom was just slabs stacked on top of each other a few centimetres up. Above that, it was mostly circular. Celestia had shoved some cutoff boards into the mix to hold up the stones while she was building the archway at the base, from which they would pull the ashes. From there until she reached the floor, it was just a tube. On the first day of building, she'd finished by building a frame of sticks and coating it rather generously in clay. This was placed over the fire to harden into a ceramic grate.

Meanwhile, Jake had been concentrating on cutting the pieces and measuring them out. He'd used his knowledge from the bed to make sure all of his cuts were accurate to their length. He also had some knowledge from previous experience, and Celestia confirmed, that any tall furniture should have its legs banded together at the bottom to keep the legs straight. He would deal with that when the time came, but for the first day, the only construction was the frame.

On the second day, Celestia did much the same as she had the first day, except instead of starting with the ground and flat slabs, she started with the grate, now hardened, and built up from there. She made it about halfway up the wall before running out of rocks, and she had to spend the afternoon collecting new ones. And some clay, too, why not?

Jake's second day was complicated, but doable once he realised that he could use the wall as a guide. The problem was that the legs in the front were short, stopping at the edge of the frame, and could be done against the floor, but the legs in the back were far longer, extending far above the frame. They were bent, too, but that was okay. Better than okay, in fact. He worked it into the design. And of course, they were banded at the bottom to keep them from fanning outward and breaking.

On the third day, Celestia finished the chimney, going up fifteen centimetres from the roof before setting up four pillars that were capped with a large, flat stone, then lit a fire in the bottom to cook off the clay. She even smeared some clay around the interior of the house around the opening, just to ensure that no embers leapt out and caught the house on fire. In doing so, she was also checking for leaks where smoke might escape. There were a few small cracks, but they were tiny and easy to fix with just a quick patch.

Jake, on the other hand, spent his third day working on the intricacies of the design. Aside from two arms, the only thing left was the top and back plate. The top plate was simple, just a few slabs laid out properly and secured down to the frame. The back plate wasn't so much a plate as much as a grate of flexible sticks, bound together with grass rope taken from Celestia's stash. The only thing missing was a cushion, and Jake didn't know how to make one of those.

Finally, it was laundry day again, and after washing their clothes and themselves, Jake asked Celestia to stay by the pond while he brought the furniture over to the new house. She didn't need to comply, but she did, anyway, waiting in the water until he returned to pick up the basket of clothes. She even helped him hang them on the line before going in to see it.

Her jaw dropped upon seeing what he'd made. It was a chair, and a big one at that. He'd put it near to the fireplace, but not so near that it could catch alight. It wasn't big enough for both of them, but it was definitely big enough for her, and sat about as tall as the bed.

"Jake, it's beautiful! But why?"

He shrugged. "You're a princess. Princesses need thrones to sit on. And you didn't have one. So, I decided to correct that error."