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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 27, 2021 14:04:19 GMT -6
"Do you uh... not MIND me doing this, then?" Fiera said, gesturing at the bush. Aspen didn't respond and simply stared some more, as if waiting for Fiera to continue. "Okay then, I guess I'll... keep going... and not find that creepy at all." She said with an awkward smile, and raised the shears once more. The next branch fell to the ground just as easily, and Fiera found herself trying not to jump again as Aspen reached out for it. They didn't bend down like a normal person however, instead branching out and extending their treelike fingers to wrap around the fallen branch and pulling it back again, setting it next to the other branch in the crook of their other arm. "Oh! Are you... trying to help? Picking up the sticks for me? That's awfully sweet of you." Fiera said, starting to relax. She could feel the fur on her tail settling back down. It might have been an odd response, but Fiera couldn't really blame Aspen for having a reaction to her pruning the bushes. She was only glad that they simply felt the need to claim the branches for themself, as opposed to letting Fiera have them.
Fiera 20 Rachei 6.0/6.0 Aspen 3.0/3.0 25
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 27, 2021 14:15:50 GMT -6
After all, it wasn't like Fiera was going to do much else with the branches except for maybe composting the smaller ones or dumping the whole lot in someone else's "free firewood" pile. (She didn't want anyone skulking around her OWN garden for firewood, after all. She have their tails before she let anyone just take her stuff.) So Aspen could keep it, if it made them feel better. It also made this a lot easier on Fiera. She didn't have to pick up her own wood, after all- she had a little helper! She could figure out how to make Aspen let go of it all somewhere else down the line. From there, it didn't take long for Fiera to clean up the whole bush. She only ever needed to pause so Aspen could get around her to pick up the twigs that had fallen. Fiera wasn't sure what would happen if she stepped on those rootlike fingers, but she certainly didn't want to find out. Most of the time though the humanish could simply rotate around the plant, letting Aspen follow along behind her to clean it all up. Within a few minutes the bush was fully trimmed.
Fiera 1 Rachei 6.1/6.1 Aspen 3.1/3.1 26
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 27, 2021 14:19:25 GMT -6
Aspen stood there proudly with a little bundle of sticks to show for their efforts. "Ah, let me show you a trick." Fiera said, holding a finger up. She scampered back to her bag, with Aspen following along behind slowly, as if unsure of what Fiera was going to show them, if anything. They had no way of knowing what she was saying, after all. Fiera rustled through the outer pockets until her ears perked up. "Aha!" She said, pulling out the object from her bag- a ball of twine. "Here we go! Instead of having to hold all those twigs at once..." She said as she pulled off a thread of it, snipping it off with the garden shears. Then, she gently lifted one end of the bundle that Aspen was holding, wrapping the string around it and tying it tight. "...You can just combine them into one big bundle of twigs! It's a lot easier to carry! Here, now you try the other side." She continued, cutting off another length of string. She gently pressed on Aspen's shoulders, urging them to sit down and set the bundle down as well, laying it out on the ground in front of them.
Fiera 2 Rachei 6.2/6.2 Aspen 3.2/3.2 27
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 27, 2021 14:54:11 GMT -6
"Here, go on!" Fiera said, pressing the string into one of Aspen's hands- thankfully, they were rather human shaped right now. They looked between the string and the bundle, and for a moment Fiera was worried that they wouldn't get it. After a moment however, they looped the string under the wood and a smile crept across Fiera's face. They were getting the hang of this! They then crossed the strings over each other... and stopped. Ah, that made sense, Fiera thought. They wouldn't really know how to tie a knot, and Fiera went a bit fast for them to pick it up by watching. "Here, like this." Fiera said before reaching out and gently grasping their fingers. Fiera used their digits like tools, pushing the string under and around itself twice before gripping Aspen's hands around either end of the string, pulling the knot tight. The humanish looked up at their face, but whatever she was about to say died on her tongue as she realized they looked different now. Aspen was smiling, running their fingers over the rough texture of the twine, enjoying the fruits of their labor. Fiera smiled. "...See? Not that hard." She decided to say.
Fiera 3 Rachei 6.3/6.3 Aspen 3.3/3.3 28
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 27, 2021 14:59:46 GMT -6
The little smile stayed on Aspen's face as they picked up the now secure bundle of sticks again, holding it like a baby against one arm. Fiera could sympathize in a way- it was the most delicate craftwork they had produced thus far, after all. Fiera herslef had to get back to pruning the bushes however. Having just one be trimmed wasn't going to cut it at this rate- literally. She picked up her shears again and made her way back to the line of bushes, glancing at Rachei as she passed. To her relief, the leaf scatter hadn't managed to get into trouble in all this time. Instead, she was curled up under the bench, snoozing happily as Fiera worked. One less thing to worry about, she supposed. With both of her pets happy and accounted for, Fiera got back to work on trimming the bushes, trying to shape them back into their original oval shapes, somewhere around her chin in height. It was the perfect height for her to be able to see over them, but to still give her some privacy sitting down. At least, it would if she ever had to worry about other people entering her garden.
Fiera 4 Rachei 6.4/6.4 Aspen 3.4/3.4 29
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Dec 27, 2021 15:04:07 GMT -6
It took somewhere between half an hour and forty five minutes to finish trimming her bushes down to size- Fiera didn't really have a clock on her to keep time, but the sun was still moving steadily overhead, providing only the barest bit of warmth in the winter day. Aspen followed behind Fiera readily, picking up the sticks as the humanish dropped them from the bushes, the pair of them acting as a well oiled machine together now that they had gotten to know each other a little bit better. Fiera was sure that Aspen would end up dropping some of the sticks on accident, but as it turns out they could simply lengthen and branch their fingers to hold increasingly large volumes of wood. Fiera had to admit, she was a little jealous. Soon however, the work was done and all they could do was stand and observe their work proudly. Now that Aspen had an armful of wood though, Fiera figured it would be best if they both moved on for the day. After all, that was a decent amount of work Fiera had gotten done there, and even if Aspen didn't show it, they were probably tired too.
Fiera 5 Rachei 7.0/7.0 Aspen 4.0/4.0 30
(Fiera takes Aspen and leaves the garden for now.)
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Post by Ashe on Jan 4, 2022 22:15:13 GMT -6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 11, 2022 14:45:06 GMT -6
Fiera had brought Langley to the gardens this time around, though apparently they had little interest in helping her out in any. When the brownie heard that Fiera was going to go work on the gardens, they insisted on coming along. Well, insisted by their standards. In reality, they waited shyly in a hallway for the better part of twenty minutes, not saying anything and just staring at Fiera instead before the humanish finally noticed them standing there and asked what was wrong... after which they stared at their feet for about ten seconds before mumbling out the request to come along. Fiera was happy to have them, but they really needed to learn how to assert themself better... if just to avoid wasting their own time. Still, Fiera decided that she would appreciate the company and easily found room in her traveling party for them to come along with her. Fiera 6 Langley 10.1/10.1 1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 14, 2022 15:45:10 GMT -6
Unfortunately, Fiera was pretty sure they wouldn't be working on the garden with her, based on what they brought. They had a small notebook, the kind with a spiral along the top that fits in the palm of your hand... except with a creature Langley's size, it was about the length of their whole torso, making it a fantastic sketchbook. They also had one of the pencil stubs Fiera had given them with a thankfully still intact eraser clenched in their fist. Before leaving, they had mentioned something about wanting to practice drawing trees in the winter, learning their structure. Langley was far more artistic than Fiera, but she was more than willing to encourage that... even if she didn't really get it. She couldn't imagine wanting to draw some awful, dead looking tree, let alone to "study its structure". Though admittedly, that's what she was here to mess with today.
Fiera 7 Langley 10.2/10.2 2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 14, 2022 15:47:53 GMT -6
Some of the trees in the front pathway of her garden had gotten quite spindly over the summer, and her job right now was to cut them back. This wasn't supposed to hurt them... in theory. Instead, it was supposed to make them grow back nice and bushy over the spring, giving the pathway some delightful cover from the sun instead of reedy twigs everywhere. She had the clippers already, she just needed to go through and chop some things off. "I hope you don't mind Langley, but I'm going to be doing some work on your subjects today." She said, her eyes scanning the trees. Langley looked up and blinked silently. "Oh uhm... that should be ok! Though would you mind maybe... leaving one of them until the very end?" They said, their gaze jerking over to the tree right next to them. Fiera shrugged, acquiescing to their request.
Fiera 8 Langley 10.3/10.3 3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 14, 2022 15:51:21 GMT -6
"I don't mind, I can hold off on one. But don't think I'm going to leave it forever." She said, clacking the blades of her clippers ominously. Langley gave a shy smile back and nodded wordlessly, before hunkering down and sketching furiously. "...Huh." Fiera said mentally. "Guess they're quite serious." She shrugged and got to work, clipping away at the trees. The branches fell to the ground effortlessly, though Fiera quickly realized that she would have to clean those up later. The edges of her mouth turned down. That wouldn't be fun to do- a lot of bending over... but considering it wasn't set to snow in the next couple of days, she could always do it later. Putting things off was always a good time... temporarily. She glanced over at Langley again. The brownie's brow had furrowed into an expression of focus. It was like they didn't notice Fiera at all.
Fiera 9 Langley 10.4/10.4 4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 14, 2022 15:53:38 GMT -6
Instead they kept glancing up and down between the notebook and the tree, entirely engrossed in their task. Fiera was hoping for some company on this trip to make the work go easier, but it looked like the harachiu wasn't much for conversation right now. In fact, it looked like they were so into drawing right now that they wouldn't even hear Fiera if she spoke up. "Well, what was the point then." Fiera huffed to herself. If they weren't going to help and they weren't going to talk, then it didn't do Fiera any good at all to have brought them along. ...She immediately felt bad for thinking that though. They had just as much of a right to come out and enjoy nature as she did, and it wasn't like there was much they COULD do to help anyway. A lot of these branches would be pretty heavy for them.
Fiera 10 Langley 11.0/11.0 5
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 14, 2022 15:56:04 GMT -6
The branches were skinny after all, but pretty long. Fiera wasn't sure how much a brownie could lift, but it couldn't be much. She snipped off another branch, letting it topple to the ground. This tree was just about done. Though, Fiera had to wonder- why were they putting so much effort into learning how to draw to start with? Granted, they had always been interested in art, and it was looking like that was what they were going to want to do with their life in general. But in the past couple of weeks, they had been trying to learn with a particular verve, practicing as much as they could. Fiera found herself constantly having to supply them with pencils or scraps of charcoal so they could produce their works. And yet, they weren't making much that could be considered impressive or grand. It was mostly drawings of twigs.
Fiera 11 Langley 11.1/11.1 6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 14, 2022 15:58:31 GMT -6
Well, no. Not ALL twigs. There were some flowers in there too, and some impressions of bark. Fiera supposed he had to start learning to draw somewhere, and plants were as good a subject as any. But why the sudden interest...? Something in her mind clicked just as her gardening shears did, another branch falling to her feet unnoticed. Her mouth moved back up into a smile again, and she began humming a merry tune. Ah of course. It wasn't that Langley was suddenly into plants all of a sudden... or, they were, but they were into a very SPECIFIC plant. Langley had forged a friendship recently. They had proven the perfect partner for one of Fiera's harachiu crossbreeds, Aspen, to learn how to speak- albeit in Labs Sign Language instead of common. Langley was very calm, quiet, and patient, and so they made the perfect partner for a creature that was quite new to communication.
Fiera 12 11.2/11.2 7
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 14, 2022 19:38:03 GMT -6
However, even after Aspen had become proficient at Labs Sign Language, they still stayed close with Langley. Langley enjoyed spending time with the rest of the flock of course, but it seemed like Aspen was the only one they opened up to. Not to mention Langley was the only one quiet enough for Aspen to tolerate. Desiree and Icarus were nice enough, but far too loud and fast for their preferences. Langley was the only one that bothered slowing down long enough for them to catch up and understand what was going on. They made a good pair together, and... oh. That explained it. Fiera's humming increased in pitch and tempo as she bit her lip, resisting the urge to break into a characteristically evil snicker. So that's what this was all about. Becoming obsessed with illustrating plants, trying to figure out how to draw tree branches specifically- like those of Aspen's hands.
Fiera 13 11.3/11.3 8
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