311 311 Deliveries
That night proved to be more mellow than the first night once the locals learned the truth behind the potency of the Witch Wines. So, it wasn’t surprising when the scout was ready first thing in the morning and had brought along a group of friends to help load the barge.
Today’s goal was to ship out one full barge, making six plane loads to six different villages before dark. If all went well, that should be an easy goal, but Wolfe knew that the first day with the plane would not go that smoothly.
He had studied the controls, and he was reasonably sure he knew what he was doing, but landing and taking off would still be tricky until he got some practice. He had considered letting Ella do the job, but it would be easier for him to load and unload the plane, so she had decided to spend the day working with the Festival shows while he did the deliveries.
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“I thought you didn’t like to get dirty?” Wolfe teased the finely dressed little witch when she came out in her frilly skirts.
“I don’t have to. That’s the joy of an armour spell. The dirt just slides right off. But someone should stay behind with the boat in case these guys want to return to the Festival instead of wasting a day at the edge of the Forest just waiting for you to finish your deliveries.”
Wolfe strongly suspected that she simply wanted a change of pace from her usual routine of studying and helping teach the other Witches. Not many of their residents had finished the third year at the Academy, so Mary got to field a lot of the questions about advanced magic and potions.
They took their time bringing the loaded boat down the river so that they didn’t damage anything or lose product overboard from the overloaded barge, but they still made it to the edge of the forest just as the twins were finishing breakfast.
“Those breakfast burritos look familiar.” Mary laughed as the twins came into view.
They waved happily back at the boat and waited for them to get tied off before answering. “We found a solution to cooking for ourselves. The Trolls can pass between intersections in the Fae Forest, so they just go straight from here to the village by stepping into a tree and out of another.
It’s a really cool bit of magic and a shame that they can’t bring anyone with them, but they can get food and bring it back. Yesterday Jenna flew back on her staff, which was like an hour-long round trip down the river. That was way too long just for food.
This way takes under fifteen minutes, with the walk down into the Den’s kitchen to get the food and back out to the trees.”
The twins still had food in their packs and likely more stored away in the welcome building, plus they had fresh fish roasting to go with their breakfast burritos, but there was always an appeal to meals fresh from the kitchen instead of cooking for yourself.
They had set up a nice shack of their own, like the one built at the original entrance to the den, so they had a stove and all the kitchen amenities, but fish over a campfire was a perpetual favourite of theirs.
The plane was hidden under a layer of netting behind the shack, and its leafy green surface helped it blend in until it was all the way out in the open, ready to be loaded for the first trip of the day.
“The load is easy. You need to take ten of these bags, two each of the others, and then one crate full of potions to each stop. The rest you can distribute as you want. We didn’t really count it. We just tossed it on top when we realized we had extra space.” Mary explained to the scouts who had volunteered to help out today.
“Got it. We will load everything up for the villages. We know what each of them really needs since we’ve gone trading with them all winter long.” The scouts agreed.
Wolfe hadn’t considered that. He was only thinking of what they had grown in their gardens, but each village should have at least a little bit of their own production, and they would have different things stockpiled, so they would have run out of some foods faster than others.
It only took a few minutes, and the plane was fully loaded, ready for a test flight at maximum cargo capacity. Well, maximum cargo volume anyhow, since Wolfe could enhance the spells on the plane to give it the ability to carry more than nature would allow.
“Alright, see you all soon.” He called as he got into the seat and began the pre-trip checklist Ella had left attached to the dashboard.
“Trim is set where she left it. Flaps are down, crystals are charged, spells are active, and no damage was found. That’s the list.” Wolfe informed his copilot for the day, who was looking back dubiously at the fully loaded rear compartment of the plane.
“Don’t worry. The designer assured me that’s why the wing is so wide. It helps with the balance.” Wolfe assured him, then powered up the motor.
It wasn’t as fast to get into the air as it had been yesterday, but it was still a short takeoff with the overpowered magical motor, and the simple plane lifted smoothly into the air.
It was actually flying with very little input on his part, other than an adjustment of the elevator trim to keep it level, and they roared toward the furthest stop on their route, getting the long leg out of the way first, in case they started to run out of time.
There was a welcoming committee waiting for them, and Wolfe realized just how small their territory actually was. Before the forest was in place, they felt somewhat stretched trying to keep trade active with villages forty and fifty kilometres from the Den.
Now, that was only twenty kilometres from the forest, and the plane could make it all the way across to the villages on the far eastern side of their route in barely over half an hour.
“Alright, the moment of truth is here. Time to set this plane down and get the food unloaded for the villagers. Make sure you’re ready for the moment they discover the crate of healing potions. That’s always priceless.” Wolfe reminded the scout, who was both completely silent and dead still, holding onto the handle in the plane for dear life.
Wolfe ruffled his hair and laughed. “Relax. I’ve enchanted the plane. It’s impossible to crash hard enough to break anything, much less hurt the people inside.”
The squirrel man nodded stiffly and turned toward Wolfe. “Yes, I know that. But knowing that and convincing my body that I’m not about to die from falling are two very different things.”