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Post by Silver on Feb 1, 2020 3:54:25 GMT -6
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Post by Silver on Feb 1, 2020 5:58:46 GMT -6
To wonder and to wander, it seemed like they hardly did anything else these days. In this particular moment, they were having a look around the gardens. One of these plots were theirs, and they had the good fortune of remembering where it was. Surely it was hideously overgrown by now, but that almost seemed like a bonus. Silver brought with them a strange creature they had befriended long ago. He was unique among his kind due to his unusual size. As much as they tried, Silver was never able to figure out why that was the case. Usual Mussimanders were only tiny little things, but this one was enormous. Cepe was big enough for them to sit on the back of, though they would not dare to try while the mushrooms were so plump and ready for harvest. It was this time of year that Mussimander were ready to be plucked. In fact, they seemed to prefer it to carrying the weight of all of those mushrooms around with them everywhere. 1[84.05 - 5.2]
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Post by Silver on Feb 1, 2020 6:17:56 GMT -6
Silver knew there were other types of Mussimander as well. There were some colorful ones, some toxic ones, and some that glowed brightly in the dark. They had owned some once, but they did not know where they got off to. At some point, they decided to downsize their menagerie in order to better care for the ones that were left. It broke Silver’s heart to remember that they were gone, so he chose not to.
Cepe was not exactly what they would call ‘good company.’ He just sort of bumbled about with no particular direction in mind. He often bumped into things and crushed things under his claws. He didn’t really mean to, of course, so Silver couldn’t be mad about it, but it did make for a tough time of keeping flowers alive around him.
“I think this is it,” Silver said aloud to no one in particular. Cepe looked at them as if he was going to say something back, but he didn’t.
2
[84.1 - 5.4]
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Post by Silver on Feb 1, 2020 6:18:09 GMT -6
Silver pushed aside the hugely overgrown fronds of a bird of paradise mixed with something they didn’t recognize and smiled softly. This was it, their old garden plot. It was the place they felt the most comfortable, surpassing even their own bed. A flood of nostalgia hit them so hard that they had to take a physical step back.
Cepe was not a smart creature, but he was sensitive to what Silver was doing. When the sudden rush of surprise and joy hit them, Cepe looked over at them with concern. They weren’t acting like their usual self and it seemed weird. It made him nervous.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” they asked the giant lizard. Again there was no response. They were used to that.
The joke was that it was not, in any way, actually beautiful. Though once many great things had grown here, they had long since been choked out by mysterious weeds and other fast growing plants.
3 [84.15 - 5.6]
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Post by Silver on Feb 1, 2020 6:18:21 GMT -6
Everything that had once been so carefully manicured was now lopsided at best, and often completely missing. There was no room to grow for the delicate, beautiful things, so that which was hardy and weathered the cold took over. Though no snow had fallen recently, the remnants of its heavy weight on the branches was evident.
“If we start now,” Silver said as though Cepe were included in this conversation, “I think it will be back to normal by spring.”
Spring. When was that again? The passage of time had all but been lost to them, but they knew what spring was and how it infected the gardens with its beauty. There was so much to do before spring. There always was. A time of great beauty following the season of dying.
Silver was always surprised that Cepe weathered the cold as well as he did. In fact, he seemed to thrive in it. Lizards, after all, often abhorred the cold, and mushrooms grew mostly in warm, moist environments. How peculiar that the magic of the land created a creature that was so backwards from its kin.
4 [84.2 - 5.8]
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Post by Silver on Feb 1, 2020 6:26:37 GMT -6
“First of all, you have to help me with this huge… leafy thing,” they said.
Silver gestured at the large plant that had grown into his lovely bird of paradise. Come warm weather, it would have a beautiful blue and orange flower poking out of it, but only if they could give it enough space to grow.
“Cepe!” Silver said. Cepe had no formal training, but he did recognize his name. He came a little closer to Silver, careful not to step on them.
“Can you dig here, boy? Dig here,” Silver instructed, pointing at the base of the fern. Cepe didn’t seem to understand. They were really being a bit ambitious with that one. If only they spent more time teaching things and less time... doing whatever it was they usually did. "Can you at least... hold this down or something?" Silver asked. They demonstrated by pushing down on the fern and holding it there, only for it to come flying back up and hit them in the face.
5 [84.25 - 6]
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Post by Renathan on Feb 1, 2020 22:39:21 GMT -6
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Post by Silver on Feb 10, 2020 6:54:58 GMT -6
“Oof,” Silver said, holding their nose with their paw. The amount of times they had been smacked in the face with a plant was considerably more than they wanted to admit.
That fern was surprisingly robust for how sad everything else around there looked. No wonder it survived while most of the other plants were struggling. They would really need some muscle to get it out of the way. Luckily, Cepe was huge and could probably lend a hand or… claw.
“Cepe, push here, you see? Dig up the plant, boy,” Silver said, indicating the base of the leaf where it met the ground. “Dig, can you dig?”
Cepe was not a smart animal, and he looked at the plant for a moment which looked encouraging, but ultimately decided not to do anything. Silver sighed, but they weren’t really surprised. It felt like this was their punishment for all of those times they just played with their pets instead of training them.
6 [86.25 - 6.2]
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Post by Silver on Feb 10, 2020 6:55:34 GMT -6
“Okay if you’re not going to help, I have to do this myself.” Silver said. They weren’t afraid of getting their paws dirty, so they just went straight for it. They reached for the bottom of the largest leaf and wrapped their fingers around it. When they were sure they had a good grip, they gave it a mighty tug.
The plant didn’t budge. It was stuck in there good, and if they weren’t wearing gloves, it might have even pulled some of the skin off of their palms. Silver sighed again. This was turning out to be tough work, but they had expected that. They gave it another mighty tug and gave Cepe a dirty look that might just convince him to help.
Cepe liked this game that they were now playing. He grabbed one of the leaves in his mouth and pulled, imitating Silver. “There you go, bud!” Silver cheered him on. He tore the top half of the leaf out and immediately spit it out. Didn’t seem like he liked the way it tasted.
7 [86.3 - 6.4]
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Post by Silver on Feb 10, 2020 6:56:14 GMT -6
“Well I guess that helps a little,” Silver laughed as they said it. Cepe sure was a weird creature, and they often didn’t know what to expect with him around.
Silver wished they had thought to bring a shovel. This seemed way harder without any sort of tools. Surely normal people just brought tools with them, like clippers and shovels. They didn’t even know where they’d keep such a thing, if they even had it. They probably had a lovely set of tools in a shed somewhere that they had long since forgotten.
Cepe was of some help, though, as he kept pulling random leaves out of the ground to taste them. They ate one, then another, and didn’t seem to like any of them. Did he even eat leaves? Silver seemed to recall that Mussimander were bug-eaters, though they supposed finding bugs big enough for Cepe would be hard. Maybe he ate… well, Silver would rather not think about that right now.
8 [86.35 - 6.6]
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Post by Silver on Feb 10, 2020 6:56:30 GMT -6
The ferns that were overgrowing the bird of paradise he wanted to encourage were too tough to take care of right now. They would have to come back with some tools, as soon as they could find or buy some. Maybe if they came back with a more intelligent creature, they could turn it into a game where they dug up all the weeds they wanted to get rid of. That sounded fun, actually!
Cepe went to a part of the garden where the soil was loose and started scratching at it. Silver kneeled down and looked at the soil there. It was turned up as if something disturbed it. That must be why Cepe was interested in it. Silver just shrugged and waited to see if Cepe found anything interesting. It seemed like the best course of action to follow him around and see what was going on.
“What do you think is in there?” Silver asked. They were more musing to themselves than anything, but it felt weird to sit and watch Cepe dig in silence.
9 [86.4 - 6.8]
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Post by Silver on Feb 10, 2020 6:57:28 GMT -6
Cepe continued to ignore Silver and dig at the loose earth. He stuffed his nose into the ground and snorted, shooting up some loose soil. Silver laughed as they watched Cepe fumble around. It was really cute to watch him discover things in the garden. Way more entertaining than having him dig up weeds.
He removed his head from the hole and shook it, spreading the dirt around. Silver thought about the cycle of life, and how every creature doing something like this changed the land around them. Over time, all of those little moments of turning up loose soil, eating leaves, and shaking plants made a big difference. Way more of a difference than they themselves had made after years of careful tending. Just like that, it was all back to the way it used to be, and some day after they were gone, it would change yet again.
That train of thought felt overwhelming, so Silver encouraged Cepe to explore the garden a bit more, hoping that some more of his cute antics would cheer them up.
10 [86.45 - 7]
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Post by Renathan on Feb 10, 2020 7:02:23 GMT -6
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Post by Silver on Mar 11, 2020 6:47:11 GMT -6
It would be spring soon and there was a lot of work to do. Even in the time since they left home, things had started to thaw. The sun was still resting on the horizon when they decided to head out to the garden this morning. They had to start early if they wanted to get anything done. By midday the chances of them getting anything done was pretty low, no matter when they started. This was the better option, surely. The bright orange of the sunrise reminded them of someone in particular, a little Harachiu with tiny wings and blueish green hair. On a whim, they decided to invite her to come with them and see the garden. Harachiu liked flowers, right? There was some connection there, at least. She (seemingly) agreed to come along and off they went. The beginning of spring also meant that Sapling Spritelings were ready to produce their little flowers. Given the right conditions, they could grow and drop the flowers rather efficiently. They looked forward to it. Kigo was curled up under a large leaf in the garden with his paws all tucked away under his body to keep them warm. Even though he had grown a winter coat, he was a bit bored of the cold weather, and could not wait for spring. 11[94.5 - 0.2, 0.2]
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Post by Silver on Mar 11, 2020 6:56:38 GMT -6
True to Silver's prediction, there was the beginning of a little bud on Kigo's tail. If they gave him some attention, maybe they could influence it to grow and drop off. How that happened so quickly and without hurting them, they would never know. It was always an interesting mystery when it came to species that were both part animal and part plant. Silver knew a lot about the anatomy of animals and people from their time as a healer and caretaker of creatures, but there were a few things about the plant-creature hybrids that lived here in the gardens that they never did figure out fully. That's why they were a gardener instead of a scientist, they supposed.
Malin had a big smile on her face as she overlooked the gardens. It was beautiful! The place she lived was also full of flowers, but these ones were different and new! She wanted to explore everything, so much so that she couldn't decide what to look at first. Her eyes darted from one plant to another, from one creature to the next. There was so much to see and do here! She fluttered her wings in excitement, causing them to give off a soft hum.
12 [94.55 - 0.4, 0.4]
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