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Post by Kadin on Nov 1, 2020 16:54:45 GMT -6
It continued searching, sure that finding more fruit and a better spot to grow in was the solution it was looking for. The gardens had plenty of vegetation, too, which made it easy to find plants that might produce fruit, but finding the fruit itself was a bit more challenging. Many plants were no longer in season and that especially made finding things harder. Still, it kept search, especially for a spot to root down.
Lux was already well accustomed to running when he heard 'race', but having someone run AT him rather than in front of him seemed to unlock something more. The moment Kadin called "race!" Lux would run ahead, more than happy to run away from the human in this fun new game. Kadin kept him practicing a while longer, doing the same thing each time. He'd call out to Lux to "race!" and once the houluh started running he'd run after him, encouraging him to go faster and faster. Lux seemed to be happiest when he was right ahead of Kadin, really, but he'd keep running off and then back again, lapping him easily. "Show off." Kadin scoffed, but kept getting him to practice the trick until he was sure he had it down.
Race: 9
39 *points added
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Post by Silver on Nov 7, 2020 6:12:29 GMT -6
A pair of crunchy little leaves fall slowly off the Skutirut onto the ground.
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Post by Kadin on Feb 9, 2021 19:14:01 GMT -6
It was a funny thing, going to the gardens. Kadin had been there, occasionally, with one pet or another. He didn’t come often or stay there as long as he’d stay in other areas. He’d done training there, too, of course, but more often or not it just seemed like they were just there to admire nature and find plants. Which was fine, of course.
The last time he’d been here with a plant pet it had basically been a sentient, walking twig. He had no idea how to communicate with a sentient walking twig so he sort of just. Didn’t try. This time, the plant he was with actually had a face and seemed to understand speech. He supposed it probably had ears. More like a pachee or a leaf scatter than the sentient twig of last time, at least. This was good, since he figured he’d probably be doing some training with it at some point.
Also with him today was one of his harachiu. He didn’t remember her. He had to even ask her for her name, which was a little embarrassing, since they were supposed to be bonded, or something? But she wasn’t offended and didn’t seem to mind.
40
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Post by Kadin on Feb 9, 2021 19:14:12 GMT -6
If anything, she was amused by it, which was a bit unnerving. It seemed like she just knew more than he did, but that might have been paranoia talking. He tried not to let that get to him too much. Anyway. There were all here, together, in the gardens, and the harachiu seemed to have gotten it in her head that they’d actually be doing some gardening today. Kadin did not know how to garden. He’d had Velkar burn away some weeds and crap, but mostly he’d been letting the plant pets take care of all the plant stuff. They knew more about it. But when he tried to explain that to Mori, after she had told him her name, she just smiled at him with that amused smile of her’s that made him feel like he was a kid again and shook her head. Just slightly.
Kadin sighed and sat down next to the plant creature in the dirt. He wasn’t sure if it was male or female and he wasn’t sure if he was meant to know. The plant creature seemed to know what it was doing. That was what he’d been leaving all of this work to them in the first place!
41
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Post by Kadin on Feb 9, 2021 19:17:08 GMT -6
But Mori was surprisingly convincing when she put her mind to it, so here Kadin was. Helping. He poked at the dirt a bit with a shovel, side eyeing whatever the heck a person the size of a butterfly was doing to pull her weight in all of this. Was he meant to be here as manual labor? Once again! The plant creature would be better for that! It was practically build for digging through the soil and here Kadin was with a shovel, getting stuck on… was that a root? What was a root even doing here?
“I hit a root.” He said glumly, staring at it instead of Mori or the plant creature as if the root held the secrets to why he couldn’t go any further in the soil. How did a root even get here??? He was far from any plants that looked like they could have a root that thick!
“That happens.” Mori said, unhelpfully and just a bit cryptic, as he was quickly learning was her favorite way to be. “Try digging around it. It’s probably from that tree over there.”
Much to his own displeasure, he found himself looking up to catch the flutter of her wings.
42
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Post by Kadin on Feb 9, 2021 19:20:26 GMT -6
She pointed out a tree that was quite a distance away, which didn’t seem like it could have a root this far out.
“That tree?” He was pretty skeptic, it showed in his voice. “But it’s all the way over there. I thought roots grew, you know. Down.” This! This right here was why he shouldn’t be doing this! Let the plants take care of the other plants! They knew all of this by, I don’t fucking know. Instinct or whatever!
Mori gave him that mother fucking smile again. “Trees like to spread out their roots far and wide. Since nothing has been growing here, it probably thought it was a good opportunity to expand.” She explained as if it made perfect sense to refer to a tress as if it had thoughts and feelings about where it spread its roots. Kadin, predictably, was skeptic about this, too.
“Do the roots every stop growing?” He wondered, “Or would this tree just take over the whole fucking garden?” He could picture it now. A tree, not even that tall, with roots spanning the whole garden. Fuck, a whole forest. If trees worked like that, was was stopping them from taking over the whole world?
43
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Post by Kadin on Feb 9, 2021 19:24:15 GMT -6
Mori, once again, seemed amused. He scowled in her general direction. Harachiu couldn’t read minds. He’d checked. And yet, he still got the strange feeling that she could sense what was on his mind. It was endlessly frustrating, really, to keep interacting with this creature who seemed to know him so well, but he didn’t know in the slightest. How was he supposed to deal with that, when she seemed just as smart as he was to boot?
“There are some forests who’s trees are all part of one root system. They share water and nutrients with each other if any one of them are in danger. Perhaps that tree is spreading, looking out for something to connect to. And when it doesn’t find that, it just keeps spreading.” Mori mused while working on whatever the heck she was working on.
Kadin scowled some more, just for the sake of scowling, and poked at the root with his shovel some more. “So we need to clear some of these roots away so we can plant crap that the tree can talk to.”
Apparently. As if that made any sense at all. The plant creature next to him didn’t seem to have anything to add to this fascinating conversation.
44
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Post by Kadin on Feb 9, 2021 19:27:42 GMT -6
With a sigh, Kadin kept poking at the root for a while. It wasn’t huge by any means, but it was healthy and hard to break because of that alone. He didn’t really see the point in disturbing this root, anyway, since they were just going to put a different plant with roots down in its place. Why not just leave it there and plant somewhere else? But he didn’t want Mori to give him one of those looks again for suggesting that. Instead, he glanced over at the plant creature with him, and wondered what it was called.
“Hey.” He asked, without thinking, “Does this guy have a name?”
Mori looked over at him, tilted her head, and the looked over at the plant creature, considering. After a long, slow moment, she eventually shook her head. “I don’t believe it was ever given one. I’m sure you could offer it a few, see what it likes.”
Kadin just shrugged back. It wouldn’t hurt. At least it would be a distraction while he was working on this fucking root. “What’s the species called again? ‘King of the Evergreen’? Could go with a tree name, then. Or would that be offensive, since he’s a bit tree himself?”
45 *level up
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Post by Jack on Feb 9, 2021 19:39:26 GMT -6
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Post by Kadin on Feb 10, 2021 19:17:01 GMT -6
Mori’s laugh sounded like wind chimes. What a fucking weird observation to make. What a fucking weird laugh to have. Kadin ignored all of these thoughts and just waited for her to actually, you know. Say something.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a name after a tree. As long as you don’t name him after a nyssa or another creature he knows.” She watched the human with amusement as he seemed to mull that over. Really, after living in a kennel with as many names as he’d interacted with, it wasn’t surprising that he seemed to be having trouble naming this particular creature.
As Kadin seemed to consider his options, the plant creature in question nudged him slight. Looking over in surprise, he noticed that it seemed to be holding something and looked as if it was offering it to him. Kadin held out his hand, wondering what it could possibly be, only to have some small, tasty looking berries deposited there. He looked down at the berries in confusion, wondering if he was supposed to eat them? Was that why it had given them to him?
Seeing him staring at something in his hand, Mori came over to look, too.
46
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Post by Kadin on Feb 10, 2021 19:19:39 GMT -6
She tilted her head, gazing at the berries for a bit, before looking back over at the King of the Evergreen. It seemed pretty pleased with itself and their rabid attention to its work, although it sort of tried to hide its pleasure by turning around to continue working on the soil nearby. Mori smiled faintly before looking over at the human instead.
“Do you know what those are?” She asked curiously, wondering just how much he knew about the creatures he chose to surround himself with.
Kadin slowly shook his head, looking back over to Mori in question. “Should I? It- he- it just handed them to me. Where did it find them?”
“Those are healing berries. They’re very useful. Only Kings of the Evergreen grow them, it’s quite lucky to get some.” She explained, patting his hand at the same time as if to congratulate him. Kadin just shrugged in return.
“Alright. Thanks.” He directed towards the plant creature in question. Then, he turned back to Mori. “I think I’m going to look around for more berries and stuff. I’ll probably be more useful doing that than staying here.” There wasn't much she could argue with there.
47
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Post by Kadin on Feb 10, 2021 19:27:04 GMT -6
The harachiu nodded and watched as Kadin carefully tucked away the berried he’d been handed. He got up, brushed off his hands, and started wandering through the gardens, looking down around his feet and occasionally bending down to brush away leaves to check other plants for things hidden underneath. Mori turned away from watching him and got back to her work. She was trying to find useful, fruiting plants that had been grown over with weeds and carefully coax them back into health.
It didn’t take too long before Kadin had his first find. It was pretty large, actually, and had to miss. There was a big sort of pumpkin looking thing on the ground not far from where they’d all been working. Only, it wasn’t orange? Instead it was sort of yellow and green, but still distinction pumpkin shaped. Or maybe he should be calling it a squash, not a pumpkin. After all, all pumpkin are squash, but not all squash are pumpkins.
It was a long, slow process, but she relished the work. The King of the Evergreen was helping her, too, and, oh my. It really would be much easier if Kadin did find a name for the poor thing.
48
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Post by Kadin on Feb 10, 2021 19:28:00 GMT -6
It was going to be quite a mouthful to keep calling it that in her head. With a careful sigh, she moved closer to the plant creature and looked down at where it was digging. It was careful and meticulous in its work, which she appreciated. It seemed just as at ease in the gardens like this as she did, although she couldn’t help but wondering if it would prefer to do some of the training that Kadin seemed so keen on.
Kadin pulled the vines away from the squash and brought it over to a relatively clear spot where he figured he could keep his finds for now, until he had a chance to bring them back home. He patted the squash before looking around some more, wondering if he’d be able to find anything under the leaves and plant life near here. At the edge of the clearing, poking through the soil were, in fact, some small blue… ice… things? Were those even plants???
Not that it mattered all that much either. She was sure that the human would get to that at some point, too, even if right now he seemed more interested in looking for berried.
49
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Post by Kadin on Feb 10, 2021 19:30:04 GMT -6
She fluttered down to the ground and started shifting through prickling leaves, finding some smoother branches being smothered near the bottom. She directed the plant creature to them, watching as he deftly moved the invasive branches away and helped her free the plant trapped underneath. Really. Couldn’t they all just get along?
They sure didn’t look much like it! But when he came over, they were distinctly more plant like than they looked from a distance. With a contemplative hum, he picked them up and examined them. If he’d just been walking along, he’d have guess that they were ice crystals just sticking up out of the dirt. That must be why they were here now, during winter. They’d blend right in! It’d help keep them camouflaged from any critters that might be looking to eat them. With a shrug, Kadin added them to his growing pile of finds.
Once the unruly plants were picked out and the more helpful ones were exposed, Mori leaned back with a sigh of relief. They really had a lot more work to do, but she couldn’t help but look over and see how Kadin was faring. He tried so hard.
50 *level up
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Post by Jack on Feb 10, 2021 19:33:10 GMT -6
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