True to her list of priorities, one of the first things that Demi did on her path to becoming the greatest goddess of all time was work to discover how she could change her clothes in the way that Hollyhope had, with all of the flourish and convenient style of a magical girl. She still only had two sets of clothing to alternate between: her pajamas and her charming alpine dress, but she was bound to get more in the future, she reasoned. Besides, two outfits were enough outfits to change between. She might as well enjoy the changing.
Although she had not yet advanced far enough to produce her own lovely clothes, her investigation of the system menus attached to her status screen revealed a configurable list of outfits. Once she set her daily dress as one listing, and her pajamas as another, she was able to trigger a very satisfying changing sequence, complete with sparkles, twinkles, chimes, and flower petals.
Demi never got tired of experiencing it, and when she was on her own sometimes delighted in switching back and forth just for the thrill of doing it.
More responsibly, one of the second things that Demi did was plant a garden.
As Foreman Oakroot had said, the front of the house got excellent light exposure, so it was a good place to begin her cultivation, especially as she was learning.
And Dollop was more than willing to help her, although Glimmer, being ornamental, generally assisted by...being ornamental and observing their progress from a comfortable perch on the porch, shielded by the canopy of honeysuckle and wisteria that was already quite gloriously arrayed atop the pergola.
“We don’t need a big expanse of finely manicured lawn,” Demi declared to Dollop as she looked over the prospect from the front of the house. “I’d rather have a garden filled with color and interest and lots of tasty things to eat!”
“Pii pi pi!” agreed Dollop, bouncing up and down.
At first, Demi considered dividing her gardening space into three general sections: an herb garden, which contained both cooking and medicinal herbs; a vegetable garden; and a flower garden. That was how most of the gardens had been managed at the great estate house Forest Home: dozens of walled gardens—the practical, like kitchen gardens, herb gardens, fruit orchards, formal hedge mazes, rose gardens, water gardens, and walking gardens, and even the private, the little spills of color right outside of sitting rooms or secreted away at the end of snaking stone paths.
Demi loved green growing things and had always taken special delight in the secret gardens of her youth, the ones that seemed especially hidden away and private. Being in such a place was both calming and thrilling at once, peaceful and invigorating. As a girl, she had always played pretend that those gardens were hers especially.
Of course, being the sole surviving heir to her family’s seat and fortune meant that all of the gardens were technically hers, or at least, that they would be hers someday, but as a girl she had had little say in what was done with any of them. The most influence she had had was to ask very nicely if something that she liked could be planted or to beg for her own little corner, a bit of earth of her own to poke about in.
So as silly as it might have otherwise seemed, Demi was very excited at the prospect of growing whatever she wanted in just the way that she wanted. This was a freedom she had never really enjoyed, not to this extent.
Although she had wheedled her way into possession of a few corners at the estate, almost all of the gardening, even of those little corners, had been managed by the very competent professional gardening staff. Particularly as time went on, she had had so much work and so many lessons that she had never really had time to properly consider even those little corners her own, although she had always gotten a great deal of pleasure and happiness from visiting them, regardless.
So much had happened so quickly that Demi still felt her head reeling from it, honestly. She had landed on her bottom in a field of noxious grass, and had thrown herself wholeheartedly into survival, putting together a camp to keep her safe at night. Then she had turned around to find herself the sole mistress of a huge home in the midst of sunny, flower-filled meadows, and the president of an organization that was committed to completing and then managing a major public works project that was soon to be underway nearby.
Now that she was no longer sleeping in a house of sticks and fretting over whether she would be able to find water, she had time to reflect on her situation.
She could do what she wanted.
Of course, she still had responsibilities, and she had already committed to helping with the canal and the weirs and water locks, but this was really more freedom than she had ever had in her life.
Even deciding what flowers to plant in her garden, that felt like an incredible treasure, something that ought never to be taken for granted. There was no one watching her, no one to correct her, or forbid her, or rein her in.
She could do what she wanted.
And she would.
She would do exactly what she wanted.
Beyond the practicality of growing food, beyond the sensibility of doing “Harvest-Goddess-related things” because she was a Harvest Goddess, Demi wanted to plant a garden. She wanted to see what she could grow.
And of course, it did not escape her that by growing her own vegetables and fruits she would have more exciting ingredients to cook with. It would be fun to experiment to see how her new powers affected the food that she grew. If she grew the ingredients herself and then used them in recipes, would the result become more potent? It was an interesting question. It was possible that she might be able to make the most powerful potato soup that the world had ever seen. That was fun to think about purely from an intellectual perspective, but additionally, such a powerful soup would surely also be powerfully delicious. Demi wasn’t a glutton, but she was a sensualist and she loved food. She wanted the chance to share such a delicious treat with her friends (as well as herself).