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Post by Briar on Nov 20, 2021 23:38:16 GMT -6
Then Yeo-reum tossed his head at Briar one more time, and signed Briar’s name as Briar had taught him. He had a good memory. He didn’t make any of the mistakes he had made before. But then, so far he did only know two things, both of which were names.
It didn’t stay that way for long. Having established that this was what they were doing, Yeo-reum wasted no time in pointing at other things. Here, a tree; there a flower; a leaf, the grass, the house. Briar taught him the sign for each thing in turn. There were occasions where it was a little difficult to figure out what word, exactly, Yeo-reum wanted to learn -- was he pointing at trees in general or this variety? Did he mean the brick or the wall? But they muddled through it together with a lot of pantomime back and forth.
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Post by Briar on Nov 20, 2021 23:38:55 GMT -6
It wasn’t really any worse than they had been doing up until now, with Briar missing his tongue and Yeo-reum unable to speak the language Briar had spoken to him when he was younger.
Of course, Briar still had work to do, and after a while he left off paying quite so much attention to Yeo-reum so he could tend to the plants. Yeo-reum busied himself with practicing the signs that Briar had shown him, which by this point was quite a sizeable list for their first time doing any signing at all. Briar hoped he would remember them all correctly, and not become set in his ways signing a certain word incorrectly, but if it happened they could just correct it the next time. Yeo-reum’s memory was probably better than Briar’s own, and he certainly picked things up faster, being gifted with such quick wits as he had.
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Post by Briar on Nov 20, 2021 23:39:44 GMT -6
Briar remembered struggling quite a bit when he was first learning, and his teachers weren’t as kind about his mistakes as he was being to Yeo-reum now. But it wasn't as if getting angry with Yeo-reum would have done either of them much good -- not that there was much to criticize, at this point.
It gave the Tat-lung something to do, and Briar was actually kind of glad to see Yeo-reum settled and concentrating on something else. It was hard, seeing Yeo-reum being angry all the time, and the more restless and on edge Yeo-reum was, the more it got to Briar too. He didn’t chastise Yeo-reum for the Tat’s anger -- not that he had an avenue to, but he could probably have found a way if he was really determined -- since he knew exactly where it came from. And it wasn’t as if Yeo-reum didn’t have reason to be angry either.
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Post by Briar on Nov 20, 2021 23:39:55 GMT -6
But the fact that it seemed to be a constant thing within him couldn’t have been healthy, and it wasn’t really helpful either. It made him rash and impulsive, and Briar was worried that one day it would get him killed.
In a more practical sense though, having Yeo-reum occupied also let Briar concentrate on his work. He did have to earn his keep here, after all.
Noa wasn’t actually a terribly strict task master. As long as the garden was in good shape, he didn’t seem to care when Briar did his work… Well, to a point. If he wanted Briar to do something else, then Briar was expected to drop everything and prioritize that. If he had a lot of demands in a short span of time, Briar would be left to pick up the slack in the gardens whenever he could find snatches of time.
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Post by Briar on Nov 20, 2021 23:40:08 GMT -6
And there was no way to predict his workload; Noa was of an unpredictable and capricious nature, liable to demand Briar’s presence every day one week and not at all the next.
There had been a lull lately, but Briar didn’t want to count on it. He didn’t know what Noa was planning, or when he would next make more demands. So he got to work pulling out the weeds that he could find. Surprisingly, Noa didn’t use much in the way of herbicides, so there were a lot of weeds to deal with sometimes. Briar wondered how he kept it maintained before Briar came on. He’d seen the TROD out and about, and it was possible that its workload had increased now that Briar tended the garden, but he also didn’t know if he believed that it had the time to do this much weeding before he came along.
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Post by Briar on Nov 20, 2021 23:40:48 GMT -6
… Maybe he had some sort of magical solution for it. Briar had seen him doing all kinds of strange and terrible things. Briar didn’t know enough of magic to make heads or tails of most of it, but he did understand that Noa was a mage of not insignificant power, and it wouldn’t have surprised him to learn that there was some charm or spell for preventing weeds, which Noa now no longer used because he had no need to.
The other possibility that occurred to Briar was that Noa needed these plants to remain as organic and pure as they could be for his purposes, but… No, that didn’t seem right either, since he didn’t really make much use of his garden these days. He couldn't have been so concerned about the quality of the plants here if he never even checked on them that closely.
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Post by Briar on Nov 20, 2021 23:40:58 GMT -6
Weeding wasn’t a terribly fun or interesting job, but there was something soothing about settling into a rhythm of locating a weed, grasping it firmly, and pulling out so the whole thing came out cleanly. He had enough practice at it by now that he was quite deft at it, and hardly ever needed to use a spade to dig out the remaining roots.
It was easy to get lost in the rhythm of it, and with Yeo-reum so thoroughly occupied, Briar didn’t even look up every so often to check on the Tat-lung. He actually had meant to do this, but after a while it slipped from his mind. He was lost in his own thoughts, going through the motions of weeding. There was a lot to think about lately, even if his efforts in finding out anything more about the house and any of its other potential inhabitants had mostly been stymied.
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Post by Briar on Nov 20, 2021 23:41:12 GMT -6
For a man who cared so little for others, and who seemed so careless about a great deal of other things, Noa was fairly meticulous about keeping his secrets. There were no documents of any import left lying about, and clues about Noa’s work were few and far between. And his Faeron was almost always near him, but as he was often home working, the Faeron was also often roaming the mansion, such that Briar didn’t feel confident trying to approach the door that led to the tower -- and the basement.
How would he get in? He felt as though the answers he was looking for were definitely past that door, but he also doubted it would be as simple as opening it. There had to be magic wards of some sort, surely, and if there were, he had no idea how he might get past them when he got there.
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Post by Nadia on Nov 21, 2021 11:43:53 GMT -6
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Yang
Flea Market Artist
Posts: 1,001
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Post by Yang on Nov 22, 2021 4:04:46 GMT -6
A lapping of illusionary flames amongst the lower branches, and a faint light spilling between the leaves; if it weren't for these characteristics, the Estharne might've been completely camouflaged with the underbrush and nature that surrounded the area. Because of the light however, it might as well as been a becon for any wandering eyes- luckily for the beast, it wasn't on the prowl for prey at the moment. Rather, its large eyes made a point to stare on towards a sentient being, a curiosity (known by most felines) lingering just under the potentially-predatory stare...
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Post by Briar on Nov 23, 2021 17:22:30 GMT -6
Briar was snapped out of his thoughts by a movement at the periphery of his vision that was definitely not Yeo-reum. The Tat was slower to notice, but by the time Briar turned around, Yeo-reum was also on alert, sizing up the intruder. That he didn’t immediately begin snarling was a good sign, but after Briar realized what he was looking at, he understood.
Just a Koguma. These things weren’t a real threat, though they had been seen as pests in the garden by his previous household.
Briar sighed. The Koguma didn’t seem very happy about what he was doing either, but it wasn’t as if he could capitulate to the demands of this creature. Even if he wasn’t under the thumb of a new master, he couldn’t do it. A garden did have to be maintained, after all. Straightening, he tried to shoo it away with his hands.
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Post by Briar on Nov 23, 2021 17:23:00 GMT -6
It flinched away for a moment, but came right back, peering at his hands with interest and clicking its mandibles. Did it… want to bite him or something? Briar could see Yeo-reum begin to tense, and figured he needed to diffuse the situation if he could.
He shooed the Koguma a second time, with more intensity. -You can’t be here. Go,- he signed, even though there was no way the Koguma could possibly understand. Even if he could still speak properly, the Koguma wasn’t smart enough to comprehend language, and even though it didn’t seem afraid of him, it also didn’t look like someone’s pet. But he used to talk to his plants, and he used to talk to Yeo-reum too, long before he had any inkling that the big fish in the garden pond was actually smart enough to pick up on any languages.
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Post by Briar on Nov 23, 2021 17:23:17 GMT -6
After a while it became more obvious that Yeo-reum had picked up on what he was saying, but he didn’t think this was going to be like that at all.
The Koguma shrank back from his insistent waving, but it circled back around, mandibles clicking. It seemed intent on… what? Did it really want to pick a fight with him?
Briar tried repeatedly to chase off the Koguma, but to no avail. It evaded him and circled back every time, and after a while Briar realized that it was trying to get at something. He stood there, holding off Yeo-reum as well, to see what the Koguma would do when he stopped trying to interfere with it. To his surprise, it went for the pile of weeds he had pulled out. Right before it grabbed them, it looked to Briar, as if half expecting Briar to chase it off again…
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Post by Briar on Nov 23, 2021 17:23:30 GMT -6
Which considering how their encounter had been going so far, wasn’t that surprising, to be honest.
Briar sighed, and waved a hand. He wasn’t going to contest the Koguma if it just wanted to eat some weeds. But then it picked them up and… was it replanting them?
Oh, absolutely not. If the Koguma had just wanted to make off with this stuff, that was fine by Briar, but he wasn’t going to tolerate it undoing his hard work. He hadn’t wanted to do this, but there was a pile of small gourds that hadn’t been deemed big enough for eating, and now Briar grabbed an armful and began throwing them at the Koguma. He tried not to hit it, though he wasn’t sure if he succeeded. At any rate, it fled, though not before grabbing some of the gourds and taking them with it.
Briar sighed, and went back to his gardening.
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Post by Briar on Nov 23, 2021 17:24:37 GMT -6
He honestly thought that would be the end of it, but over the next few days, the Koguma kept coming back to the garden. At first it pestered him until he threw more gourds at it, but then Briar wised up and started just leaving a pile of gourds somewhere out of the way, so that when it turned up, at least it would stay out of trouble. Maybe he shouldn’t have done that, since eventually the Koguma just stopped leaving altogether, but… Surely a creature like this would be beneath Noa’s notice. Maybe if he just didn’t say anything, and left it alone, it would be fine if the Koguma stayed here... After all, there were other free ranging denizens of the gardens that Noa allowed to be there, and if Briar kept it fed, it probably wouldn't cause any trouble anymore, right...?
Well, here was hoping, anyway.
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