Chapter 188. Home of the Brave and Invincible Pixies!
Seeing that Duncan's magic had succeeded and nothing had gone wrong, the two Thunderbirds promptly wheeled around and chased one another away, one before the other.
Duncan restored the practice ground to its original state, put away his wand, clapped his hands, and, in good spirits, walked into the forest with the Unicorns and pixies who had stayed behind.
"Nofi, I hear you're building a home of your own."
"How's it going—has it been finished?"
"Mm…" Nofi looked troubled and scratched its head.
"We've run into a bit of a problem, so the progress is slow."
"Oh? What problem?" Duncan asked.
"Do you need my help?"
"If you can help, that would be wonderful!" Nofi said with delight.
"As for what the problem is, come and have a look with us and you'll see."
"It's not difficult for you, but for us it's like ascending to the heavens!"
Duncan nodded and followed the pixie as they threaded through the trees.
They ducked beneath a sweep of low-hanging branches and arrived in the pixies' territory.
On the root-tangled, shrub-choked ground lay many round logs of various sizes, which seemed to have been carried out of Duncan's work shed.
Under one of the trees lay several sharp axes, and there were uneven chopping marks on a few of the logs, clearly the work of very unskilled hands.
"This is the trouble we've run into," Nofi said, pointing at the timber.
Then, with a helpless wave, several pixies immediately darted forward.
They divided into pairs.
One pair strained to raise a log from the ground and set it upright, holding it true.
Another two zipped up; one narrowed its eyes and gestured, directing the work, while the other used black twigs and leaves to smear a perfectly straight, fine line across the cut face.
After that, the last two flew to the tree where the axes had been left.
Working together, they hauled an axe up off the ground and wobbled through the air to the upright log.
Faces taut, they mustered all their strength, hoisted the axe, and brought it down hard.
"Careful!" Duncan couldn't help taking a step forward and hastily called out.
The pixies couldn't control the aim of the axe at all, and they nearly chopped into another pixie's head—turning it into a pixie guillotine.
Nofi shrugged.
"Our strength is too small."
"Just lifting that axe is exhausting, never mind using it to chop wood."
[Optional Quest: The insecure pixies urgently need a home of their own—they need your help!]
[Quest Reward: Virtual Coins ×100]
"Mm, quite."
"That's really asking too much of you," Duncan said with a smile.
"How large do you need the planks to be?"
At his words, the pixies immediately crowded forward, all scrambling to be first.
They chirped at once and gestured all over the logs on the ground, afraid Duncan might forget them.
Duncan felt as if a swarm of mosquitoes were buzzing in his ears.
He raised his hand and gave a vigorous wave, trying to quiet them down.
"Form a queue."
"Drag your logs over one by one, and I promise I'll cut them all to size for you!" Duncan said, pointing to a spot ahead.
Nofi also flew over to the chattering pixies and, lifting its hand, delivered a fierce forehead flick.
The pixies pouted and fell reluctantly silent, shoving and jostling as they arranged themselves into a snaking line in front of Duncan.
Duncan swished his wand, and several dead twigs on the ground rose into the air and turned into iron saws, settling across the faces of the upright logs.
Then, following the pixies' specifications, Duncan directed the saws to move.
As sawdust drifted down, neat planks quickly appeared on the ground.
"All done," Duncan said, clapping his hands in satisfaction.
"Well then, do you need me to assemble them for you as well?"
"Duncan, you're brilliant!" Nofi cheered.
"But we can handle the rest ourselves—no need to trouble you."
"Nofi said it already—we're going to build our home with our own hands!" one pixie declared.
"We've been preparing for this for ages!"
"That's right!" another pixie said loudly, head held high and chest puffed out.
"I've been practising hammering nails."
"I can definitely handle this job!"
Pleased with itself, it directed the other pixies to fly down, working together to move the planks into the fork of a tree they had chosen.
Once the planks were set firm, other pixies—some swinging little hammers, some holding nails—flew over and went bang, bang, bang, fastening the boards to the trunk.
With the pixies working in concert, the first tiny wooden house was soon finished.
It looked like a rectangle whose four corners had been tugged at random.
No two lines were parallel.
No two corners matched.
The overall look could be summed up as "doing as one pleases."
In any case, to the pixies it didn't matter how it looked, so long as two planks were joined together.
"Brilliant."
"This is the most beautiful house I've ever seen!" a pixie said, shouldering its little hammer and full of admiration.
Another pixie nodded in agreement.
"That's right—at least it looks much nicer than Duncan's work shed!"
A question mark practically popped up over Duncan's head.
Mate, say that and you're insulting Newt!
Although the houses he built were indeed miles off the mark and looked somewhat "too weak to withstand even a gentle breeze," at least they were habitable.
The bang-bang of hammers on nails echoed through the forest, like a call to press on.
But then there came an "ow!"
A pixie had accidentally brought the hammer down on the hand of the pixie holding the nail.
The situation immediately shifted.
A few pixies' eyes rolled, and a mischievous idea rose in their hearts.
They "accidentally" let their hammers fall onto their companions' hands, then, stifling their laughter, hurried to shout apologies with faces full of contrition.
Their little ruse was quickly seen through.
The pixies who had been hit struck back indignantly, and the once-harmonious scene turned chaotic.
Watching the scuffling pixies, Duncan shook his head helplessly.
He had known these little troublemakers wouldn't stay well-behaved for long.
Cheeks puffed with anger, Nofi flew up to perch on a high branch, planted its fists on its hips, and let out a lion's roar like a landlady.
"Stop it, all of you!"
"There are still a few pits over there that haven't been filled."
"If anyone disobeys and keeps fighting, I'll bury you in one!"
"Nofi, you've got it wrong."
"We're not fighting—we're bonding!"
At Nofi's roar, the naughty pixies hunched their shoulders and instantly turned meek, linking arms and smiling with perfect harmony.
"I'm not an idiot like Pro!" Nofi glared at them.
"Get back to work, and try to finish today!"
"Got it…" the pixies drawled lazily, then resumed swinging their hammers with diligence.
One by one, crooked little houses took shape on the trunks—barely recognisable as houses at all.
When they were all finished, Duncan raised his wand and painted patterns over the exterior of each house, letting them blend perfectly into the forest.
Then, in the central clearing, he raised a flag that fluttered in the breeze, with a lively pixie painted upon it.
At the pixies' request, he also wrote several large words upon it: "Home of the Brave and Invincible Pixies!"
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