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Post by Noa on May 6, 2019 14:45:38 GMT -6
He swung the machete once again--- then twice, then three times, as the first attempts didn't quite manage to hack through a particular piece of foliage.
It was hard, grueling work with little in the way of reward, and even though he was in good shape, he was soon breathing hard. He also soon managed to lose track of the King of Evergreen. Aster only realized it when he took a moment to stop and catch his breath, running one hand over his brow. He had worked up a sweat; it was May, not quite into the full heat of summer, but threatening it more all the time. Not really ideal planting season, and if he had begun his work any later, he might have suffered a good deal more for it.
He took a cursory look around, and found that he couldn't see the King anymore. "Oh, hells," he said, and stuck the machete point down in the dirt.
(14
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Post by Noa on May 6, 2019 14:46:28 GMT -6
With a better blade, he might have taken more care, but this rusty dull old thing wouldn't suffer from the experience any more than it already had, by his reckoning.
It might not have been so imperative that he find the creature quickly if he was better acquainted with it. In the first place that would have meant he could pretty well guess where it might go, and have a much easier time finding it. But then again, it would probably have been less likely to wander off in the first place if that had been the case too. And these Evergreen guys weren't the kind of creature you could get your hands on all that easily now either. As he was given to understand, theirs were the berries that were used in the making of nodes. Since that fact had come out, demand for them had risen quite a bit, only for people to discover that not all that many had been properly… upkept, or what have you.
(15)
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Post by Renathan on May 6, 2019 15:32:08 GMT -6
Oh, what is that? Aww man, that's just a scraggly weed. Thankfully there is only one.
[11-15; nothing happens]
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 16:43:29 GMT -6
Therefore, they were prime targets for a kidnapping, if there were any untoward sorts around. It didn't happen often, but on occasion he did hear about it in the news or as gossip from conversations he overheard. Aster himself generally hadn't run into any trouble, but that was at least as much because he preferred to keep to himself as anything. He sent his TROD out more and more these days to do the shopping and all for him, even though Rabbit couldn't haggle to save her life. He liked the privacy more than he needed the money these days, which was an interesting luxury to have.
But the point was that most of his valuables in the living companion sense were kept safe at home. His mining familiar only came out with him when he was in the mines, and you would have to be pretty crazy to try and steal someone's familiar out there.
(16)
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 16:43:54 GMT -6
In the first place, they probably had gems on them, which were much more convenient to make off with than something that might struggle and leave you with a few new or extra scars… And, of course, there was the small issue of just how many tunnels and all there were. Your odds of lying in wait and just so happening to run into a schmuck you can handle were pretty close to nil.
By that logic, a "garden" that very obviously hadn't ever been tended shouldn't have been prime territory for criminal activity, but the gardens were a bit more concentrated than the mines. There also weren't as many walls tall enough to fully obstruct one's view. He could see a few more well cared for gardens not too far from his own. It gave him some sense of what he was missing out on, and how much more productive the land would be if only he spared some time and effort to tend it.
(17)
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 16:44:40 GMT -6
Truly, it was a pity he wasn't the gardening type. But presently he had other things to worry about.
The one good turn that this afforded him was that he could see whether the Evergreen thing wandered off into someone else's plot. It was plausible that the creature had decided that his was simply too poor a location for it to waste it's time. What Aster could do about that, if it was in fact the case, he didn't know, but… A cursory scan turned up nothing.
Just as he was about to search in earnest, a movement at the edge of his vision caught his attention. He turned to see his companion there again, having returned from wherever it had been in the meantime.
"You little bugger," Aster said. It wasn't entirely a fond exclamation. Just as the Evergreen had no reason to owe him any loyalty, so too did Aster lack the appropriate fondness and familiarity with it to let it off the hook.
(18)
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 16:45:26 GMT -6
Well, in terms of his opinion, anyway. Punishments in training generally didn't work nearly as well as rewards, and often didn't work at all.
The Evergreen didn't look the least bit contrite, but then, Aster supposed it didn't really think anything of doing what it did. There was nothing like rules that they had established together for its conduct, after all. What did it have to feel guilty about? If it could read his moods, there still wasn't any cause for it to care.
But as Aster calmed down and began looking at the Evergreen more closely, he noticed that it was holding something in one of its hands--- its gnarled, unsettling hands. Aster did sort of wish he hadn't had to look at them, but curiosity won out. Peering at it, it seemed to be… some kind of berry? Or a pair of berries, even, in a sort of purplish color.
(19)
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 16:46:45 GMT -6
"If you ditched me and gave me a heart attack to go and pick fruit," said Aster, but he didn't have it in him to finish the threat. The end of that sentence would probably have gone something like 'I'll turn you into kindling', but what if it did understand him?
It hadn't been easy for him to get ahold of one of these creatures either. He wasn't about to drive it off with his poor choice of words in a fit of pique.
He just hoped this creature was going to be worth the trouble, both in terms of the value of its contributions and in terms of just how much trouble that was going to be. So far… Well, it was a little too early to judge, but Aster didn't trust his own luck with these things either. More often than not, he ended up with something he wouldn't have signed up for if he had known what it would entail from the get-go.
(20)
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Post by Renathan on May 7, 2019 16:56:42 GMT -6
Oh, what pretty little dandies! [16-20]
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 18:50:47 GMT -6
"Ugh," he said. "Keep your berry. If it'll keep you from wandering off again, all the better." He didn't count on it though, so he resolved to keep a closer eye on the creature from now on. He wasn't heartened at the prospect of it. It was already enough of an imposition to be having to whack shrubs with a dull blade in the first place.
Well, look at it another way, maybe he could use it as an excuse to take breaks. Framed in that light, it didn't seem so bad. But the trouble was that he would have to look up much more often than he would have wanted to take breaks in the first place, and then the constant interruption made it hard for him to find any kind of rhythm. Keeping up a rhythm was the only thing that had made the work even kind of bearable thus far.
(21)
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 18:52:14 GMT -6
"Where did you find this anyway?" said Aster. The Evergreen inclined its head, but it didn't offer anything in the way of answer. Aster considered trying to take the berry away from the creature for a moment, but then shook his head and decided to just let it be. No point in trying to upset it, lest it do something even worse. A little wandering off wasn't nearly the most trouble it could have gotten into, in the grand scheme of things. At least it had come back, though this wasn't the sort of thing Aster thought he could count on. He wasn't nearly so optimistic as that.
It was just a little too early in their mutual acquaintance for a collar and chain. Or maybe this was just the right time for it, and he was just too soft to take the appropriate measures, but in the end, the result was the same.
(22)
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 18:52:39 GMT -6
He knew some trainers who preferred to take precautions first, with the idea that the creature could always learn to like them later, but he didn't know those sorts very well. Besides, it sounded like the sort of thing that worked in theory, and didn't work so well in practice. Kind of like punishments. The trainers who were proponents of the former tends also to be proponents of the latter. It must have been working, or more to say, it must not have been NOT working completely for them, since most of them were still alive… But it wasn't the lifestyle for Aster.
This went on for a little while. Aster didn't know if the Evergreen was aware that Aster was monitoring it more closely now, but this particular stretch of time wasn't terribly eventful. It was only remarkable in just how little he managed to get done, but then, he had anticipated that change.
(23)
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 18:53:36 GMT -6
What finally ended it was his own frustration. He was going to have to find a better way to do this. He felt that there must have been one, or even several, though he was hard pressed at the moment to think of what it might be, come to that. Right now he just felt tired, and didn't trust himself to think any useful thoughts.
It wasn't that he was unused to hard work, but he was also no sucker for punishment either. It finally felt like he was throwing in good effort after bad, and having realized it, he really ought to stop.
With perhaps a little more force than he really needed to, he stuck the machete into the dirt again. He was going to throw this rusty old thing away. Restoring it was an option but weapon care wasn't something he was terribly familiar with, and he wasn't sure if that was going to be worth the trouble either.
(24)
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Post by Noa on May 7, 2019 18:54:44 GMT -6
If he wanted a machete, he could buy another one; they weren't hard to come by, nor terribly expensive. And short of having to do this sort of thing again, he couldn't really imagine having a sudden and dire need for one anyway. Besides, wasn't he just thinking that there must have been other ways to accomplish what he wanted here?
Maybe he should just leave the damn thing here as a monument to his own foolishness. That would be fitting enough. If anyone asked, that was what he would tell them, if he didn't make something up about this actually being the grave site of an ancient warrior. Ha, wouldn't that be something? This garden might have been a lot more interesting if that were actually the case. Alas.
No one was, of course, going to ask him. He didn't talk to anyone who would ask him that sort of thing.
(25)
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Post by Jack on May 7, 2019 19:27:34 GMT -6
What a pretty golden flower!
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