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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 30, 2020 15:01:08 GMT -6
As she bent down to tie the garbage bag off, Fiera saw something. She riddled with the tie, quickly finishing it before she moved on to what caught her eye. It was a bright red berry, looking like it had freshly fallen off a bush into the snow. She picked it up, carefully brushing it off on her jacket. It was soft and delicate, but perfectly formed and fresh. It was a rich red color and shaped like, of all things, a heart. Fiera smiled slightly looking at it. She couldn’t remember for the life of her what she had planted to make something like this, but it sure was pretty, wasn’t it? She carefully put it in her bag with the other fruit, making sure it didn’t get crushed. She’d have to investigate that one in more detail later- for all she knew, maybe it was good for something .
Fiera 6 Michael 10.1/11.1 51
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 30, 2020 16:23:11 GMT -6
From there though, it was time to drag her garbage bag full of weeds to the garbage bin in the shed- all the way back toward the entrance of the garden. Fiera sighed, loathing how much physical effort she’d had to put in today, as if it were possible to garden without exerting physical effort. With a major heave ho, Fiera swung the garbage bag over her back and started off down the path again. She whistled for a Michael, who snapped out of his reverie at the shoreline of the pond, and saw Fiera leaving without him. The king of the evergreen quickly jumped to his feet and followed after her, crunching through the snow. The way back felt like it took far longer than the way there, but Fiera figured that it was because she was carrying a plastic sack full of frozen plants on her back.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 30, 2020 16:56:49 GMT -6
Soon though, the front gate of the garden came into view, it’s white paint gleaming. Michael snuffled and whined unhappily, but Fiera just waved him off. “Don’t worry, we’re not leaving quite yet. I’m just dropping something off.” She chuckled, and approached the shed, pushing past her skinny trees. She pushed open the door and found the garbage can in the dark, dropping her bag into it. “Well, at least that’s one thing done properly.” Fiera mused, turning around to look at her half done mulching job again. Oh well, at least there were other things to do. She started back up the path, calling for Michael to hurry alone. He fell in line, though not without taking another mouthful of dead plants with him. The trek back to the pond was quiet and uneventful for the odd pair, punctuated only by the sound of Michael chewing.
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Post by Renathan on Jan 30, 2020 18:45:28 GMT -6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 30, 2020 19:28:28 GMT -6
By the time she reached the shallow pool again, it had already frozen solid again, a stark reminder of the current weather. Fiera sad there for a moment, gently tapping spots on it with her rake. Michael cowered behind her, clearly not willing to take his chances with it again. After noting that it was indeed frozen, Fiera simply shrugged and moved on, trudging up the stairs to the top of the terrace. She gave Michael plenty of time to catch up- she doubted that he had ever seen stairs before, as inexperienced with human inventions as he was. He padded up them slowly, tapping each one with his foot several times as if it was going to lash out and bite him. Or perhaps he was just trying to get a good grip. Fiera was wearing awfully grippy boots, but she had no clue how slippery the stone steps would be to a barefooted pet.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 30, 2020 19:33:40 GMT -6
Still, he made his way up if at a glacial pace, clearly not wanting to be away from Fiera for too long. He relaxed a lot once he reached the top, seeming relieved to be back on flat ground, no matter what it was made of. Indeed, the terrace was another 'floor' of garden, being made mostly of paved cobble with large patches of soil, upon which she had planted multiple groves of various plants she had found interesting. Most had died off over the course of winter, half because they were annual and half because Fiera had never made a garden before and forgot which plants did badly with the cold. At least Michael might find them interesting, and he immediately crawled off to sniff around the wrecked flowerbeds and skeletal bushes. A stone balcony, elegant and curved, but functional, lined the edge of the terrace, for obvious safety reasons.
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Post by Renathan on Jan 30, 2020 19:38:43 GMT -6
This is a squash, a big ole squash, and it's growing in the cold! The king of evergreen continues to refuse to drop berries.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2020 9:42:44 GMT -6
She watched Michael for a bit, making sure that he was settling in alright. He was currently sniffing around a squash of some sort, abandoned in the last harvest. It was large and mottled with greens and yellow, sitting dejectedly in the husks of its dead fellows. Oops. She walked over- no time like the present to harvest it. She tried to roll it over, but in sitting on the vine for so long, it had grown massive and far too heavy to move. She stopped, panting and Michael peered at her face to find the source of the strange noise. She guessed that explained why the squash had never been harvested. She decided to leave it for the time being, kicking that particular can down the road for a future Fiera to care about. It’s not like it was going anywhere after all, she realized with a snicker.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2020 9:58:41 GMT -6
In the meantime, she let Michael crawl all over the boulderesque gourd. He could gnaw on the gourd all he wanted, she knew there was no way he was going to break the skin. He was no pliathor- there wasn’t enough power in his notes to break the flesh. She took the time to look out over her garden, trying to see if there were any immediate problem areas that needing addressing. Just looking like this though, it was just... plants. Dead plants, too strewn out and far away for her to really tell if there was anything wrong with them. Beyond them, there was just endless blank or overgrown patches of dirt, with some better maintained gardens out in the distance. Fiera’s terrace was really the tallest thing for miles, but there just wasn’t much for her to look at up here. What a profound disappointment.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2020 10:08:34 GMT -6
She turned away from the terrace ledge, looking around at the raised area. Well... if she couldn’t find anything specific to work on, she might as well clean this place up. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do. She looked around her feet, rake in hand. There was a bit of an outcropping between the floor and the ledge, so the leaves couldn’t simply blow off the side. As a result, piles of fallen leaves had formed drifts around the edge of the terrace, building up wherever the wind was blowing most strongly. While they might have been pretty at one time, in autumnal colors of red, orange, and yellow, that beauty had long since faded. Now they were deflated and grayish brown, soaked and rotting together from a season of rain. Stepping on them didn’t elicit a single crunch. They definitely needed to go.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2020 11:02:06 GMT -6
Luckily after all that mulching. Fiera was fantastic with a rake by now. She quickly leaned it against the balcony and fished around in her pockets, looking for another garbage bag. Soon, her fingers closed around a familiar plastic texture and she pulled it out, flapping it open in one fell swoop...before ticking it back in her pocket as she hadn’t raked up the leaves yet. Then she took the rake and got started, dragging the leaves into a pile just off the edge of the wall. The leaves were a bit hard to rake up. Instead of being light and crunchy, they were sopping wet and half frozen, along with so rotted that they left little bits of themselves behind as Fiera dragged them along. She supposed that that was what you get when you leave them for so long. Still, a pile was beginning to form.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2020 11:26:44 GMT -6
It was difficult and messy, but Fiera was finally able to scoop up all of the leaves from the edges of the terrace. They were all put into one big, sloppy pile near the stairs leading back down to the garden. Michael snuffed it curiously, but his face quickly screwed up into disgust. The king of the evergreen slunk away, returning to his favorite perch on the giant squash. Fiera chuckled at his antics before eyeing the garden again, looking for any stragglers. There were still some scraps of leaf decorating the cobbles, but they were so wet that they might as well have been plastered to the ground. Fiera knee she’d have to wait for warmer, drier weather before those would come off. She nodded with satisfaction and took out the trash bag again, ready to put the leaves away. It was harder than she thought it would be to get them all in there, but she managed.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2020 13:07:26 GMT -6
Fiera leaned through bag against the balcony, figuring that she could probably fit more in there later. There was more to be done up here, after all. This place DIDNT get cleaned too often. The leaves were a good start, but if she was going to clean up the terrace, she might as well clean the whole thing. She decided to start with the bushes lining the interior. Over the fall season they had grown tall and shaggy- it was probably a much better idea to lop off those extra branches now and let them grow back in a more controlled shape once spring came. Except... she didn’t have her garden shears. Those were back in the shed. She groaned loudly, and started making her way back down the stairs. “Don’t go anywhere!” She called over her shoulder back at Michael. “I’ll be right back!” She said.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2020 15:19:19 GMT -6
She hurried down the stairs, and then didn’t after she nearly slipped on a patch of ice and was only saved by her quick reflexes making her throw an arm out and grab the balcony. Yikes. No wonder Michael had been so hesitant on the stairs, these things were death traps. From there she crept down a lot more carefully until she was back on the gravel path. From there, she went back to hustling, the gravel giving her more grip. She didn’t want to leave Michael unattended for too long- he tended to get a little spooked when she wasn’t there, and she didn’t need him panicking. Soon, the familiar trees of the front area came into view, and she darted off the path to get to the garden shed. She rustled around through it, grabbing the garden shears. A few test clicks later, and she was ready to go.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2020 16:44:41 GMT -6
Just to be safe though, she grabbed a couple of other pieces of gardening equipment. They might be a hassle to hold now, but she knew that they’d probably come in handy later. Fiera didn’t want to be making constant trips back and forth too with how far she was from the shed by now, and especially with how hard it was for Michael to follow her by this point. She gathered up all of her equipment (a little awkwardly), stuffed a few more trash bags in her pocket, and headed out the shed door. She gently nudged it shut with her foot, waiting until she heard the requisite click, and headed back up the path toward the terrace again. Soon it came back into view, tall and looming. Now that she had her equipment, she could finally finish the gardening she had been working on up there.
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