Puck's house

Puck had found the shop with all the farm animals for sale, especially those fyrefowl, so now he needed to find somewhere that he could call home. The trickster decided to look for something that would be more than just a camp. Luckily for him there was an empty building nearby that nobody had claimed for their own, but it would need some repairs to use all of it. It was big enough to use as a house but this building also might be useful later as a shop. He had plans for a shop later, so hopefully his plans came to fruition for him.

For the moment, Puck was going to have to focus on trying to get the building repaired. He could set up a camp inside the structure by using a tent for now, but there was a lot more to do than that if he wanted to utilize this building. The kitsu had a lot to do to get this new home livable and ready. If he had picked a smaller building, there wouldn't be as much work to do, but it also wouldn't be as useful in the future. He would rather do more work up front, than have to repair another building later because he was lazy now.

Puck would need the help of others at some point, but for now he had to try to assess the work required on his own. Once he had an idea what had to be done, he could then look for help on doing it. It would be easier if he had his family to help, but it would also be easier if he even knew that his family was in this world. For now he had to make it on his own and that meant getting things prepared. Maybe he could find some of his family to help him with that if they existed, but he couldn't go looking for them specifically. He would have to hope he found them in the process of doing other things

As much as Puck would like to go hunting for his family, he had to see to his own survival and well-being first. As he looked over the building, he saw several windows broken, several missing, and cracks in one wall. The roof was half there and half gone, but even so, the place could be put back together. It was constructed mostly of stone, and that material weathered well over the years. There was wood inside the structure which looked worn and rotted, and in other places, there was wood that looked solid and just a little dirty. Some rooms had floors that were covered in more stone and they would need nothing done to them at this time.

Puck had acquired some writing materials as he explored earlier, and so he made a list of things that needed done eventually and another of what needed done soon. The roof would be an immediate repair, even if that meant finding heavy cloth to cover it. The rotted floors would be done as he needed rooms, but for now he could use the stone floored rooms. He would need to fix the cracks in the walls to keep them from getting worse, but he should be able to do that repair with a little morter. He just had to find a way to get his paws on some. Then again he had to get his paws on the cloth for the roof as well. He might have to liberate some things from other kitsus that were hoarding the materials he needed.

Puck had never been above liberating things as long as the kitsu that he was liberating them from had extra beyond what they needed. There were a lot of kitsu around here camping like him. He was certain he could find something that would work for the roof, and maybe he could find mortar or the things to mix it up while he was out liberating things. He would have to keep his eyes open for things he needed. Even wood was something he would need, but he hated chopping trees himself if he could avoid it. Puck would work, but he really tried not to work harder than he absolutely had to on some tasks.

Wood cutting was not one of the things Puck enjoyed. Building things was rewarding, but he hated having to chop and split wood. Sawing wood was a little better to do in his opinion, but even that was something to avoid when he could. The trickster would rather be playing pranks than doing any of the hard labor that came with construction, but he also liked feeling that sense of accomplishment. He would not shy away from this project even if he found others to help him with it. There was something to be said for using your own paws to do what needed done.

His list made and tasks prioritized, Puck went for a walk around the town to see what he could find for the project. He did not plan to take anything just yet but scoping out where things were kept was a good start. Puck made sure to say hello to anyone he met and talk to them for a short time before moving onward up or down a "street" of the camp town. This small talk would help him get a feel for who was hoarding what they didn't need and who would miss materials that disappeared from their stash.

Puck was a clever kitsu in many ways. He had a sharp mind and an unwavering focus when he set his mind to a task. He made mental notes of the colors of houses and tents as he walked, using them as landmarks on the map he was forming in his head. He saw several stacks of lumber here or there and made note of each. A piece or two from a pile would not be as quickly missed as a whole stack, and it was far easier and more discreet to transport from one site to another.  Most of the cloth he saw was already in use as clothing, tents, tarps or blankets, so he was a bit  about finding some to liberate.

Puck was getting discouraged when he remembered the shops near his home. One was a clothing shop. It was a perfect place to check for extra cloth to use as a roof covering.  He remembered the shopkeeper being very busy and a nice enough gal. She ignored his compliments when he tried to chat her up earlier, so there was that. Charming her out of the cloth he wanted was probably not an option, so he was going to have to look for what he needed and come back for it later.

He would do best, he assumed, to take it after she went to bed, rather than when she was quite busy in the front of the shop.  It was always harder to get things at night. You had to worry about noise waking kitsu, and then there was the lack of light to see. A trip and fall was far more likely when trying to maneuver in a dark building.  But the darkness was also good at hiding what one was doing, so there were times like this when it was the better option. Puck tried to be smart with even his liberating of objects.

Puck had his plan as he walked away from surveying the shop. He would move when she went to bed. Lumber and cloth located, he only had to figure out mortar or ingredients to make it. Mortar would require lime, sand, fine stone and water. Puck had seen a beach somewhere, he was sure. He went off to find that again and add it to his mental map. He found the beach and nodded to himself, he would need to transport some of this sand back to the building as soon as he located the other materials.

The next thing would be a type of stone that he could break up or was already broken up into small pieces. He didn't need it to be dust, but he did need it to be small. Now he would need to locate the right stone. Shale seemed the logical choice if he could find it, but he knew he could also break up shells if he couldn't get the right stone. He might have to use the beach for more than just sand, but he would still look around for the stone and see if there was any lime to be had.

It took some time to locate lime. There was a kitsu that had it but was not sharing. Apparently he had traveled some way to get the lime he had. Puck felt for him, but there was no way the other kitsu needed as much as he had carted back to Silverlight. It made Puck think that the other might be thinking about setting up a shop to sell it. It was not a bad idea, honestly, but Puck was not going to wait for such a shop. He would liberate some of the lime when he got a chance.

Puck had located all but the stone he wanted, and was just about to give up on it, when he saw a large pile of shells that had been discarded.  These were not pretty or fancy, just the kind that would come off a run of the mill muscle. They would be perfect to break into pieces for his construction project.  That gave him locations on everything he needed.

Now it was time to start gathering items.  He managed to borrow a cart from a kitsu that he charmed a bit. He had been granted use of it for three days before the other wished it returned. That gave him plenty of time to get everything back to the building he was going to repair! Of course most of this day was already gone just in searching for materials, but still it gave Puck two full days and what was left of this day to complete the transportation of materials.

Puck was not going to waste any time and proceeded to take the cart down to the beach. He filled it with sand, using a shovel that was left unattended on the beach.  Waste not want not and all that, right? After the cart was full, he took the load back to the building he had claimed and dumped the sand onto a pile. He looked at the pike and decided it was going to need to be much bigger. He returned to the beach for another load and went back to filling the cart.

The sand took four trips with the cart, but it was worth taking the time to make sure he had enough for the repairs he had to do. The sand gathering was completed at dusk, so  the rest of his daylight had been used that day. This did not mean that Puck was finished working for the day, not by any stretch of the imagination. He had more tasks at paw to get moving. Night was a good time for some of the liberating to be done.

Before he went to his night work, Puck would need to rest and eat.  He made himself a fire with some wood he had gathered from around his new home and cooked a quick meal. It was simple food, but that was all he really needed.  There was no sense in cooking something elaborate when he had so many other things to do with that energy. Working smarter not harder was a good rule.  

The kitsu watched others turn in for the night and ate his food as if he was too tired to do even that.  He did not need someone suspecting what he had planned.  Puck had done this type of thing so many times in his old life. He could not remember DOING it, but he knew he had and remembered how to do it. He should probably worry about the kind of kitsu he had been, but honestly, he could not think of a reason why he should change who he was in this life. It was not like he was ashamed of himself or his actions.

Puck got up from his seat and cleaned up from his meal.  He put out his fire when he was sure none of those camped around him were still watching. There might be some stargazers and nocturnal kitsu about, but they would not likely be watching him at this point. He just seemed like another kitsu going to sleep for the night. That was too boring and normal to draw much attention.  Puck even made it look like his blanket had someone under it, just in case anyone WAS interested in his whereabouts.

The trickster stretched, cracked his neck, and he sorted his thoughts to get his mind in the right frame for sneaking. Now it was time for the fun to begin and he needed to stay sharp. This night would be the first of his hard work, but it certainly would not be the last.  He was going to be doing a lot of this night time creeping, so he better not screw it up early in the game. It was always easier if nobody suspected what was going to happen before it happened.  He needed to avoid getting a reputation for being a thief if he wanted to make being one a lucrative line of work..

He took the cart out and parked it not far from where the clothing shop was located. He made sure to creep the rest of the way to the shop very quietly. He had to be quick, but he also knew better than to risk stumbling for the sake of speed. A wrong step could make noise that gave away what he was doing. He needed to be a shadow in the night to get this task completed safely. The shadow that slipped in the back and away with its target before anyone was wiser.

Puck creeps through the shadows.  He finds a back door to the shop where fabric and such are taken in for the clothing maker to work on the outfits she sells.  The silent creeper gets the door open without a sound and slides into the building.  The back room is full of fabric, thread, and in progress clothing, but it is all kept in an orderly fashion.  This made Puck’s job much easier as he could find what he needed without digging through the entire stock room.   He was careful about where he was stepping as he moved through the fabrics, looking for the one he needed.

After only a few minutes of searching, Puck came to the fabric he would need.  It was heavy stuff that he could use to cover the roof of his house until he got the walls rebuilt to hold a proper roof in place again. Now he just needed to get the fabric out of the shop and to the cart so he could take it home.  It weighed more than he would like, which would make carrying it a challenge. He had to get it outside first, then he could worry about the cart and then he could worry about the trip home with the fabric. He would have to grab two bolts of it just to be sure he had enough, so this task would be that much harder.

He took one bolt of fabric out, set it by the door and went back inside for the second one. He paused and listened for movement in the building, just in case. He could not be too careful with a job like this. He moved again once he was certain he had heard nothing and grabbed the second bolt of fabric. He almost hit the wall with this bolt and set it down gently to avoid the thunk and clatter that would come from hitting the wall or dropping the bolt. He grabbed it at a different spot and continued outside with it.  He was happy to set it down outside the door and take a moment to breathe again.  

Since he had what he needed, Puck resecured the door to the shop before doing anything else. Sure he had to transport these bolts to the cart, one at a time, but he also knew better than to leave the unsecured door to give away that something was happening of a suspicious nature. A restless kitsu walking around was always a possibility, and THIS close to being in the clear was not the point to make a mistake that led such a kitsu to give the situation a second glance or thought.  If they got up and saw the door closed, it would take a lot more noise outside to draw their attention than if the door was hanging open.

Puck put one of the bolts onto his shoulder now that he had more room to maneuver and set off for the cart. He did not have to go too far to get to the cart, but he still wanted to get there quickly. Sneaking with a bolt of fabric was a lot harder than without one, so the trip back to the cart seemed to drag out forever in Puck's mind.  Once he got the first bolt into the cart, he made a much faster trip back to the shop for the second one and started the process of sneaking with the bolt all over again. It was no easier the second time, honestly, but at least he knew the way a little better having done it once already.

Puck took a deep breath as he set the second bolt of fabric into the cart, and he let it out slowly to help unwind his nerves. This night was nowhere near over and he had much left to accomplish before it was finished.  He needed to keep alert but also not stress if he was going to get through the job at paw.  Now that his head was back in the game, Puck set to transporting the fabric back to his house and finding a good hiding spot for it, until he was ready to put it to use.

Puck was not very far into the night and already feeling tired as he trudged toward his house. He forced himself to move with purpose and as quietly as the cart would allow, but his body was voting for bed not work. He had been planning a lot more for the night before he slept, but all that sand digging had taken more out of him than he realized. He might have to hold off until the next night for the lime that he planned to pinch.  It was not ideal, but sometimes you had to let your body have a win so you could keep going another time.

Puck was happy to see the house and hid the fabric bolts inside for the moment. He felt better now, as if his energy was restored just by finishing this one mission.  He knew that it was likely a rush of accomplishment that would wear off quickly, but he needed to continue if he could find the energy.  He decided to grab something to eat and sit for a few minutes before he went on with his plans. That should tell him if he was going to be alright or needed to crash under his blanket for the rest of this night. 

He found himself feeling much better, so he put his camp back to the "I am totally here sleeping" disguise and headed off for the other things he planned to steal. The other big item was the lime for making mortar. The wood was not going to be as urgent, since the way he planned to acquire it would be less noticeable than the fabric or the lime.  He would still pick that up at night, but probably not this particular night.  He figured he could get the lime yet tonight and hide it before he slept, but he was already tired.  He would have to be extra careful because he had to keep his wits about him.

Puck went back to the empty cart and headed for where the lime had been stored by the kitsu that carted it back to town.  Puck did not figure he needed a LOT of it, but he definitely wanted at least a cart load to make sure he had enough for fixing the building.  Puck worked as quickly as he could without making too much noise.  This was harder to keep quiet while doing than the fabric moving had been, and he had to bring the cart in close which meant he would make more noise coming and going from the location. He probably should have gotten THIS part first instead of waiting until he was already tired from the last bit of his work.  Oh well, live and learn as they say.  Puck got the cart filled and gave one last look around to make sure nobody had come to check on things.

When he was sure nobody was watching, he headed back to the house with the load of lime.  He had to find a good hiding place for the lime that he could still access easily when he wanted to make mortar.  He decided that he could put it in one of the covered areas with a stone floor and then he could move the sand in with it if he wanted, or not as he decided at a later time.  Right now, this kept the lime hidden from sight and one had to go looking to find this particular area of the house, as it was one of the back rooms.  It also was a room without a window, so that made it even better for hiding things.  No nosy kitsu could just poke their head up and see what was inside from their position on the street.

Puck figured he was looking about midnight at this point, and he had managed to gather two of the materials that he had to liberate.  It was a good night’s work, and he had to get some sleep to appear like a non suspicious normal kitsu.  He took one moment to clean the cart out in the ocean before returning it to the house and flipping it upside down to dry.  Now that the cart didn’t look like it was covered in lime dust, he would sleep.  Morning would come soon enough, and he had more materials to gather when it arrived.  There were shells to gather from that pile he had found, and then he needed water and that lumber that he would have to get at night.  So once he had those last two things to gather during the DAY, he could start working on the house.

Puck was happy with his progress so far, and made his way to his blankets, settling in to get a little sleep before the others camped around the town started moving.  Morning would come far too early for a kitsu that had been up most of the night, but he would be fine.  There was work to be done, and when you were the only one doing it, it was easier to justify breaks and even afternoon naps.  For now, he closed his eyes and dreamed of the vision this house would become when he was done fixing it to its former glory.  It would be a beauty, that was certain, and he would enjoy making it be that beauty again.  As he drifted off to sleep, another image popped into his head of a house that looked like a flower, nestled in the forest.  What a silly thought, but something seemed familiar about it.

Puck blinked awake at the should of Fyreroos crowing and sighed.  He had dreamed of a city in the forest, a place that the buildings looked like part of the forest.  It was so weird, so impossible… and so familiar.  He got up and went to clean up.  He got fresh clothes on and started cooking, and the whole time, he was haunted by the images of his dream.  What did it mean?  Was it a memory rather than a fantasy of his mind?  It would be silly to think it actually existed, but he just could not shake the notion.  Having tea and some food in him, he pushed the images of his dream to the back of his mind and set to work on another of his tasks.  He had shells to gather and crush, and then he would need water.  He might leave off on the water until he was ready to make the mortar, and just work on putting that fabric up on the roof when he had the shells.  He was going to need to have a dry work area to repair the structure inside and keep materials dry when he was not working.

Puck finished his food and cleaned up the campsite.  He had work to do!  He flipped the cart upright and set off for the pile of shells on the beach.  That shovel he had found came in handy yet again.  He was glad he had chosen to keep it instead of abandoning it like the last kitsu had done.  He got to work digging shells off the pile and into the cart.  When the cart was full, he headed back to the house and made a pile beside the sand pile he had.  These things didn’t have to be dry as they would be added to water to make the mortar and would only get hard once the lime was added to them.  This meant he could put these piles outside and not have to worry too much about what would happen to them.

He makes four trips for shells before he decides he has enough of them at the house.  He might not need as much as he had gathered, but he figured shells could be useful for other things and the same could be said for the extra sand.  If he wanted, he could make himself a nice sand and shell patch in front of the house for decoration if he had enough left over.  It would be a nice feature if he decided to go that route, but he had to have extra materials to do that.  He would not know if he had any excess materials until the work was completed on the house, and the work would take some time to complete with only one kitsu to do the job.

Puck dumped the last of the shells out of the cart onto his pile, and took a moment to rub his face.  Oh yeah, he was feeling the work and the lack of sleep.  He needed to keep going onto another task, but oh man did he want to sleep!  He decided to get onto crushing the shells so that he had them in fine pieces.  That would take some time but it was something he could do without walking so much.  The walking back and forth from the beach had really taken all his energy out of him this morning.  So he found himself a very large stone that he could lift, and used it to drop onto little piles of shells to crush them, making a new pile of the crushed shells.  He only crushed about a cart load of the shells before he decided to quit, but that task took him the rest of the morning and even into the afternoon to complete.

Puck was now very tired, and he had to concede that it was time to take a nap. He would grab something to eat after he slept because he was just too tired to even worry about the fact that he had skipped the noon meal while crushing shells.  The trickster kitsu was working far too hard today, and after the work he had put in yesterday and last night, he needed a nap.  He crawled into his blankets and snuggled down for a little shut eye and figured that when he got up, he would work on putting the pilfered fabric onto his roof to keep everything dry should it decide to rain.  That would be the first major step in getting things repaired, but he could not even think of going up on the roof to do that when he was almost dropping on his paws.

Puck does not have the same dream as before, but at least he gets some restful sleep during his nap.  When he wakes, the kitsu gets something to eat and heads for his house to get the fabric bolts and start on the roof.  He had a hammer and nails that he had borrowed from another kitsu along with a ladder.  He takes the bolt up as far as he can, climbs up on the roof, and starts securing fabric over the roof to keep the rain out.  Puck barely has the fabric tacked into place when he notices the sun sinking behind the horizon.  If he did not finish this shortly, he was going to be working in the dark.  He goes over the fabric edges with a few more nails, hoping that he does not lose the light before he can get them hammered into place.  

Puck gets the last nail into the edge and climbs down from the roof, stashing the remaining fabric away again in case he would need it for something later.  He was cleaning up the last of his work tools in the dark.  Puck thought perhaps he should rest tonight instead of going after the lumber he needed.  He had the cart for another day, so he could hold off on the night lumber picking for a little.  He grabbed a bit more to eat and crawled into his blankets once more.  It was time the kitsu got some rest after working so hard for two days and a night.  He needed to take it easier, but there was too much to do yet.  The kitsu had a feeling this was not going to be changing any time soon, and he would do best to become accustomed to being exhausted at least for the near future.