Temate awoke with a grin. Chtis had left after making absolutely certain Temate was satisfied with his service for the evening. And boy had he. But of course he would, it’d been a painful nine months since he’d st indulged directly in his vice. Toni enjoyed spirits, Temate enjoyed bodies. Memories of the evening before filled his mind.

  Sparing the details Temate’s evening had been life altering, who knew cloth could be so warm and enticing. So alive. The most important thing Temate had learned is that everything here was deceptive. At least appearance wise, Chtis was the perfect example to make him think that way. She looked like she would have the texture of a potato sack. A very brightly colored potato sack but still. Temate had expected canvas, what he got was silk and felt. Soft, warm, smooth.

  Temate shook his head to clear his mind. That was the evening, this was the next twilight. He looked out into what was a surprisingly brighter twilight than had been when he’d gone to bed. He stretched, then rolled slowly out of bed and groaned at the soreness in his back. Beds, god he wished he’d had a hammock, should have asked for one honestly. Would have made a nice impromptu swing as well. Stop.

  Temate shook his head to clear his mind as he prepared for the day. He folded his sweatpants, cleaned courtesy of Chtis while he slept, and pced them back at the top of his camping bag. He zipped it up then put the bag with the hammock tent back on top. He checked the straps on the water brick he’d used as a makeshift shield and the condition of the bag's exterior. Good shape, straps in good form, some minor damage to outside edges but usable still.

  Temate began to get dressed back up in his hiking outfit from the day before. It too had been cleaned and even had the minor scratches stitched up by Chtis.

  Boxer briefs, check.

  Sturdy jeans, check.

  Two pairs of socks, one water slicking the other warm, check and check. Yes, he wore both to be thorough.

  Base yer shirt, check.

  Zip up sweater midyer, check.

  Kuia Marama’s poncho, che-. Wait, where was his poncho! Temate froze looking around. He took a deep breath quenching a rising panic in his chest. There were only a few options so breathe.

  In.2.3.4.5.

  Out.2.3.4.5.

  There, rexed. A quick scan of the room confirmed it wasn’t in here. The room was sparsely adorned. A low coffee table for four which looked freshly cleaned, one couch set ft to the ground, unused. Across from that a hearth, warm bzing fire still perfectly heating the room nicely adorned with various harvest symbols on it. Finally, the bed set low to the ground as well, in fact the table was an outlier. No poncho.

  Temate did a quick double check in a manual search of each area. The ‘check out before the check out’ as his mother would put it. Still no poncho. Temate took a deep breath again, grabbed his bag and got ready to leave. There was only one other possibility, Chtis had not returned the poncho for some reason. He’d make sure she did before they left, it was special to him.

  He’d only brought one set of camping clothes, expecting only a weekend trip and not wanting to bring too much extra weight. He had plenty of ponchos, shemaghs and various other types of head and shoulder wear back home, his kuia had been obsessed with that stuff but he wasn’t going back there. That meant he only had one poncho, one reminder of the one family member he still really talked with. Temate grimaced at another realization.

  It also meant that both Toni and Temate had only one set of clothes each. So that would be a priority, after finding civilization, in their new world. He didn’t know where that was yet, obviously, but he was already pnning. Had been st night before his… distraction. Temate hoisted the bag onto his back, strapped the machete into its sheath at his hip, and left his room.

  Chtis and Toni were already waiting for him in the hall down by Toni’s room. As Temate approached he noticed a few things. The first thing he noticed made him rex significantly, he hadn’t even realized he’d tensed up so much.

  Folded neatly atop Chtis’ arms, which were folded carefully in front of her stomach, was a bundle of orange and red fabric. His poncho. He took another slow breath. The second thing he noticed was Toni was wearing a fur jacket. Where had she got that from? He wondered. The third thing he noticed made him grimace

  Toni was bright red and Chtis was grinning. The two had been talking quietly as he approached but stopped before he could hear them. Temate’s imagination was already running wild at the idea of what they could be discussing. Surprisingly Toni’s blush lessened as he came close and she smiled brightly raising one hand and calling to him.

  “Twilight Temate! Pip’s already ready and waiting in the ‘wall of ways’” she said those st words in a deep, dramatic tone then shrugged and ughed. “Whatever that is, Chtis insisted we wait for you, apparently she has a gift for some reason, go on Chtis, show him! It’s SO cool you’re gonna love big T!”

  “First failing light shine on you Mister Temate, I hope your evening was pleasant.” Chtis bowed and gave him a knowing grin, he cleared his throat.

  “Thank you, and you Miss Chtis.” Temate looked down at the poncho folded over her arms, about to ask about it, but apparently the single second of dead air was too big a gap.

  “Come ooooooooonnn Chtis, enough with the formalities, evenings done we’re not your bosses or whatever anymore! Show! Show!” Toni was practically buzzing with excitement as she put her hands on the maid Barr’s shoulders. Chtis gred at Toni, then bowed to Temate holding out the poncho. He unfolded it, looking it over, as Chtis straightened her back and expined quietly.

  “I found my service to you two quite enjoyable, uniquely so.” She gave a small smile to Temate who blushed slightly. “As such I wished to offer a gift, however Mayor Bearington had already gifted Miss Toni this morning, so I proffer my gift to you instead, Mister Temate. I apologize, I had to whisk this garment away a few hours ago and only just completed my work.”

  “I thank you Miss Chtis.” Temate paused as he examined it and the next words were out of his lips without, “I don’t see what’s different though…”

  “Temate!” A foot kicked his thigh and he blinked, looking down at Toni who was gring at him. Then he realized what he’d said. He looked at Chtis and was about to apologize when she held up a hand.

  “It only makes sense, the difference would not be so obvious to mortal eyes, at least ones ungifted in magic. I chose this garment as the threads of your life were most closely knitted to it. I have reinforced the garment a bit with the threads of my people.” Chtis held out a hand and a spool of glimmering orange thread, simir to the fabric which made up her head, emerged from it. She held it out to Temate.

  “Thread?” Temate asked, reaching out to take the spool. “I’m not a great hand with sewing so I’m not su- NGH” this time the kick actually hurt and Temate gred at Toni. She gred back then turned to Chtis.

  “Thank you so much Chtis, the gift is wonderful and you’re amazing.” Toni reached out to hug the maid girl who hugged her back as she ughed. When they broke apart she spoke again.

  “That is Barr Thread. Threads infused with raw vital essence, essentially it is alive.” She said, Toni gave the maid Barr a broad smile.

  “That’s really cool!”

  “You don’t even know what that means do you.” Temate said, still looking at Chtis.

  “No! But that doesn’t mean I think it’s a bad gift, do you?” Toni gave Temate a half hearted gre and he sighed.

  “No, but I prefer understanding the full importance of something before giving my reply. I wouldn’t want my thanks to feel disingenuous.” Temate gave Toni a ft look back and her gre faltered.

  “Th-that’s fair…” Toni muttered, one hand came up to run through the fur of her new jacket. It was a very warm looking jacket, thick brown hairs which reminded Temate of a ragamuffin cat.

  “It’s straightforward as can be. So long as the creature they are tied to lives, they will restore themselves over time. I have woven them into your poncho which is already tied closely to you through your love for it. Thus so long as you live the poncho will restore any damage it receives over time. Much like your skin would close from a wound.” Chtis expined in a soft but matter of fact tone.

  Temate’s eyes widened as he examined the cloth, feeling it. It was softer too, warm to the touch. Much like… Memories of the night before flooded his thoughts and he smiled.

  “It’s warm.” He said quietly.

  “Yes, it is.” Chtis replied, they looked at each other, a soft, long look. A cough broke the stare as the two turned to Toni.

  “I suppose that means if we use the thread you gave us to patch something up, it the patch will slowly repair itself?” Toni asked

  “Yes and no. Barr thread is naturally tougher than most normal threads, it can’t compare to a Ridire’s hide or armor, but it should be generally more resilient in general. However the healing comes from the connection of the clothing to the wearer.

  “If it is not an article of importance to the wearer then it will not heal any more than any other cloth would. However if it is important, the thread will not only self repair, but slowly propagate throughout the article. I manually stitched it throughout Mister Temate’s article but it will naturally spread over many days from just a small thread.”

  “Ugggh, sounds like I need to wear an all orange jumpsuit, that’s not very…” Toni threw up her hands in a jazz hands gesture and both Temate and Chtis gave her a quizzical look. “Jazzy!? Cool? Fantastique?”

  “The thread will change to match the color of the surrounding article Miss Toni.” Chtis said, Toni blinked and smacked her face with her hand!

  “Stupid Toni the Talker goin off again! That makes sense now you’ve said it out loud, sorry, it is an awesome gift even if it didn’t do that though, thanks so so much Chtis!” Toni hugged the maid Barr again who, as before, returned it. Temate slowly put down his bag and donned the poncho as they did. When they released each other Temate leaned down and grabbed Chtis up, lifting her wholly off the ground causing her to squeak in surprise.

  “Truly, thank you Miss Chtis.” He set her down and put a hand on her head. “Thank you.” Temate smiled at her and could have sworn the girls orange skin became a slightly deeper hue for a moment.

  “You’re very welcome, Mister Temate.” Chtis turned and crossed her arms in front of her, “Now if you’ll follow me, it is about time the two of you depart before you’re turned into light glimmers.” She began to walk and the two followed after her, Toni leaned and whispered to Temate.

  “We wouldn’t actually turn into whatever that is would we?”

  “Pip did say it was dangerous for us.” Temate returned, and then he ughed at the wide eyed look Toni got.

  Several minutes ter, after walking through winding corridors and stairways, Chtis stopped before a set of ornate double doors. Not quite as rge as the ones on the Harvest Hall, but close, Chtis motioned to the doors and they opened.

  “Farewell humans. I will remember your time here fondly.” Chtis bowed, and walked back down the hallway, Toni didn’t miss the soft touch of a hand on Temate’s upper arm as she did. Toni didn’t miss much of their interactions, but she ignored them. To Toni it was confusing, frustrating, and made her jealous so she just ignored it and pretended it wasn’t real. After all, soon they’d be leaving here so it didn’t matter. It’s not like they were together anyways, so what did it matter what he did. It’s just… No, it didn’t matter.

  Toni followed Temate through the double doors as they opened looking around the wide room they entered. It was empty for the most part, three walls of simple carved wood and stucco and one opposite the door was… Trees. So many trees grown so thick together they were practically one entity. No furniture adorned the room and the only other things in the room were the pumpkin headed form of the Righ and-

  “Failin lights you two took your time didn’ ya!” A shockingly deep voice emanated from a small, childlike figure standing in the center of the room. Toni blinked, Temate blinked.

  Toni spoke, “Pip?” she asked.

  “Nooooo, I’m the bleedin ‘arvest ‘alvlin! Course it’s me!” they walked right up to Toni and she ughed. Pip glowered at her, “what’s so funny ss?”

  “You’re different.” Temate said ftly, that only made Toni ugh harder as she fell on her ass. Pip crossed their arms and growled and Toni broke into tears as she rolled on the ground, her camping bag fallen off.

  “What’d you do te ‘er? Did ya break ‘er?” Pip asked. Temate didn’t know how to expin, he felt like ughing as well, not really, it was mostly Toni ughing that made him smile. He understood why she was though. Pipuck was indeed different, much taller about the size of a child of 9 or 10 years old. They were retively androgynous, slim and not glowing like a small lightbulb. They just looked like a little kid, that wasn’t what really did Toni in though, it was the outfit, Temate knew.

  Pip was wearing a pair of bright orange knee length overalls, atop a cotton yellow undershirt. Long brown socks stretched above their knees patterned with leaves, roots, stems and various gourds up the sides. Brown leather boots, almost comically rge in proportion to Pip, were on his feet. Overall not bad but it was the st two pieces that really did it.

  A bright blue bowtie, with two crescent moons at the tips adorned Pips chest and on their head. What was that type of hat called again? Right! A Tyrolean hat. If you’ve ever seen the old Disney Pinocchio movies it looked exactly like the hat he wore in that. Yellow, blue band around the middle, the only difference is that instead of a red feather, there was a maple leaf sat in it. It was comical and certainly stood out. Temate said as much.

  “You look like a depiction of a storybook character from our world is all.”

  “What? That’s it? Why’s that so funny to ‘er?” Pip asked, scratching their head.

  Temate shrugged, “it’s probably as much the shock of the outfit, as finding the outfit funny. It also seems a strange choice to me. Is that what the people wear where we’re going?”

  “I ‘unno.” Pip shrugged. “It’s magic, I can change how it looks once I know what it is people wear.”

  “Hmm, why that outfit?”

  “I saw a kid wearin it once, long time ago, thought it seemed coooool, why?” Pip asked.

  Temate grinned at Pip, “in our world it’s worn by a doll which wishes to be a real person.” Pip blinked and looked confused for a minute, then shrugged and ughed as well.

  “Well as long as it ‘elps bring a smile to faces, I don’t mind if you find it strange.”

  “Hey, hey, hey Pipnocchio, can I ask you a question?” Toni slowly pulled herself off the ground as she calmed her ughter. Pip blinked at her, then answered.

  “Of course!” Pip bowed and Toni had to stop herself from ughing again, she failed. Pip and Temate both waited, watching as she struggled to pull herself together for nearly a minute before she took a deep breath and asked.

  “How big does your nose get?” Toni exploded in raucous ughter, Temate grunted in amusement, trying to stop the smile creeping onto his face. It wasn’t that funny but Pips bemused face was.

  “I ‘unno, big as any nose I imagine?” Pip looked at Temate.

  “The character was named Pinocchio, and their nose grew when they lied.” Temate answered the unspoken question. Pip blinked, then they were ughing. Temate shook his head and walked over to the Righ, bowing politely, offering a greeting, and waiting. The two waited in silence for several more minutes.