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The time of building again in the woods was at hand. Sporadically throughout the week, she’d been dropping by the place where she and Holly had decided to make their nest of plots and trickery atop a towering treetop. Latching onto a shoulder of Levi who was carrying a bucket of nails was Critter.

The newest addition to her minis was still in the works of being trained, but it was found following her the day she’d come out of the woods after leaving Holly. Truly, Critter had known the area well and must’ve lived somewhere among the brush before taking an interest in following Levi back to the dorms. As part of its training, the tatzel had been bringing Critter back to the treehouse’s base with her whenever she was able to sneak through past other wandering students and the shed to get supplies through to the spot.

It was only in the basic stage of development, but proudly Levi had started off the floorboards and ladder mechanism so building with Holly could be made easier. On the designated day at the written down time, the two ghouls were set to meet back at the base of operations.

Levi zipped past the threshold of trees just past breck’s shed and sped onward with the tentacled cat glued to her shoulder via wrapped tendrils. Trying to keep the bucket as steady as possible, she came to the base of the tree and gave it a rounding once over looking in specific points of the canopy just to see that nothing had been tampered with. Good. Everything was as she’d left it.

The cat mewed far more cleanly than when Levi had first met with it. The tatzel had obviously cleaned out her fur and tended to the scratches, which were nearly completely healed at this point. Tickling the cat under its chin, Levi stood with her back to the trunk, waiting for the ghost ghoul so they could start with the real work. Most of the tools she’d previously used were already up above. All that was needed now was the structure.

Pulling out a piece of paper, Levi smiled to herself triumphantly; she’d made some layout plans.

Fuzzy ears twitched to the sound of Holly's arrival and the ghoul smiled to see the ghost fox ghoul. With her was a large eyed critter that had a pretty mischievous grin to it. This wouldn't be the first mini she'd met that had a sort of tricky smirk to it- Mitsu's Ziggy was one to watch out for as well. If Holly's cat was just as energetic, it would make one heck of a guard to the treehouse.

Well aye there! Nice timin', just got 'ere maself. Realizing she still had the paper in hand, Levi offered Holly up a view of the scratched out graphite image. Yep! Ready ta get started on somethin' like this? Whadda'ya think? That thar I already made- She poked at the right side of the paper where the separate sketch was. ...- it's tha ladder bit. So- if we climb up just'a bit, there's an invisible ropin' wire hooked ta the trunk that ya just need ta yoink down if ya ever wanna come on up on yer own. She looked up to the secretive spot on the tree and grinned with some pride at her handy work.

Ohhhh. This 'ere 's Critter...on 'account I don't really know what it is, but followed me outta tha woods that time, actually. Figured if I could train it up a'bit it could be good knowin' the area n' all. Levi nudged her shoulder forward as she spoke and the octopussy gave a squeaky mew, staring with little beady eyes and wriggling tentacles. Taking note of the bucket of nails clanking at her side again when she moved that arm, Levi pocketed her sketched plan and nodded to Holly's proposal of getting to work. Alrighty- let's git to it!

Peering around the outstretched forest area, She let her arm down so the tentacled cat could slide down and onto the ground, which it did with a patter on it's tentacle tips. Levi watched the cat wriggle to the base of the tree and begin crawling up on its own. This was, of course, one of the things she was keeping it trained on- hiding within the tree to keep watch.

Taking the handle of the bucket in a tighter clench, the tatzel picked out the first available branch and hopped onto it in a crouch. She wanted to climb alongside Holly so she could get a feel for Holly's climibing capabilities and see how the ladder functioned just in case any fine tuning needed to be done. The ghoul waited for Holly to make her way into the tree so they'd keep at a similar pace.

Wasn't as pretty looking' when I found it. Yeah, seemed ta me that it'd been livin' in the brush few quite awhile. Used ta getting' out gunk ferm furr but dang- was pretty roughed up! Took some time before the creature would allow her to groom and touch the scrapes, but Critter came to calming around the tatzel and her minis eventually. It had been a learning experience to watch Critter swim in the tub; became quite the slippery little sucker once under the surface...

Smiling at Kusuri's swift movements up the tree, Levi nodded with approval. Holly had a good eye too for picking a guard, it seemed. Oh? gotta whole 'lot more of 'em, do ya? When Holly got up to her point, she looked around with glaring eyes before settling onto her perch again to speak low to Holly. No worries, got the way up right 'ere...er- Alright- the invisible line was a little further up than she probably should've placed it. dangit.Well~... that we can fix no problem. Fer now, I can git ya up these last few bits. It was true; the spacing out of the branches became an issue Levi had overseen given she usually just jumped up this part of the tree. Levi held out her arms like she intended for Holly to give her a hug. We'll jump it.

Oh yeah? Rough forest, ya say... She chuckled as well and took Holly into her arms in a tight hug. Levi put one hand between Holly's shoulder blades at the back and looked up, hoping Holly would follow suit again. Just keep looking up n' follow me. Here we go! She bent her knees slightly, waiting for Holly to do the same, before coiling the very tip of her tail against the branch they stood on. Like a spring, pushing off with her legs, the two ghouls jolted upward into the tree.

A few twigs and small branches scraped against them on the way up, but for the most part, they didn't hurt. She'd jumped through this part of the tree before, so it wasn't much of a hassle at this point. Levi released Holly once the ghost fox had regained her footing and grinned widely.

That was fun, aye? It wasn't typical for her to jump around with a whole other being that wasn't a mini, so the act was pretty exciting for the country ghoul.

On this new branch now, a glittery sort of line was visible against the light and, when followed, left to a tiny hook on the trunk of the tree. Levi unraveled the tightly linked line, and tugged on it. This caused a rattling from above and Levi jumped when the rope ladder came down right in front of her face. She hadn't counted on the positioning of the ladder at that time.

Once her ears came out of attention-mode, she laughed at the situation before carefully coming around to the proper side of the ladder where Holly was. Well- aside from tha startling' - looks ta be working' fine! Let's give 'er a shot, aye? Levi took one of the first rows of wooden stairs in her hand and followed up with a foot. She looked back to holly before continuing upward till they were at the top/ at ground zero of the treehouse floor. Critter and Kusuri already seemed to be up and ready for instructing, but Levi kept watch on Holly, offering her a hand up.

So- whaddaya think so far? Ladder n' floor?

Well- Putting down the bucket of nails, Levi pulled out the drawing again briefly. Squinting with a thoughtful expression, she mapped out what should be done next. Seems ta me like gettin' the sides put together is best. With that up, n' tha back n' front, we can git the roof up! She folded the crinkled sheet back up and crouched down by her pail.

That's where this'll come 'in. Think I hand me 'nother hammer 'round 'ere. With a little peering about, it was easy to spot the hammer laying atop one of the piles of wooden planks. There wasn't much to miss on the blank platform.

Yep! there it is! Right by tha wood we'll be needin' ta put together ta make tha sides. She pointed over to where the hammer was so Holly would be able to put some nails to wood as well.

It took her a moment to register the joke, but chuckled as soon as she got it. kekeke~ ya got it, ghoul. Jab that wood good! With a slightly pouted underlip, she nodded to this and carried on with the plan. If all tha buildin' goes well, hoping' ta have tha side all put up at tha least. Can 'always continue tha roof 'bother day, I 'figure.

Things could always go wrong- what if a piece of wood split randomly due to one bad nail or someone got injured during the build? Just in case, i was best to keep to a doable workload for now and not rush the structural quality of the treehouse. A good strong base 'a things'll be tha key ta us keeping' it up if there's ever a storm brewin'

While she spoke, the ghoul had gone over to the pile of wood planks and picked up a few, lugging them over her shoulder. Her tail propped up the back end of the planks as Levi turned and laid them down on the floor in a vertical sheet, leveled at the tops to form an even unassembled wall. Alrighty- so what we're gonna need ta do is nail in some new wood 'cross tha other way. That'll be tha outside. Going back and taking up another pile, she carefully laid them across the first sheet only horizontal this time. Taking up her hammer, she picked out a few nails and laid them out on the floor in a little pile for easier access to her while she worked.

It's hammer time! The first one went in with a good whack and Levi chuckled. It felt good to do some simple laboring as she would at home.

Looking over their work, the tatzel nodded proudly. Sure made a good wall so far. Whipping through one wall after another, they'd nailed themselves four completed treehouse walls, standing them upright and nailing them all together inside and out to create that familiar boxed shape. She smiled, placing her hands at her hips after wiping at her forehead with her untied scarf.

Seems ta look pretty sturdy so far, but ain't no way 'a knowin' till we see it all done up inna stormy weather 'er somethin'. Indeed, the house would need to prove that it would be able to stand the test of time and not collapse on them while they were making use of it. So long as we can git a roof up on 'ere within' tha next few days, should be able ta see some result within' tha next few weeks. If nothin's fallin', we can talk 'bout... She spoke a bit lower as if to mention it only secretly to Holly despite them being alone anyways. ...tha trappin' She winked playfully to the ghost fox ghoul.

A good laboring had been had, but she'd need that trickery fulfillment; she was sure Holly did too. Ah yes... trickery...