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Post by Nadia on Oct 7, 2020 12:26:32 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:33:40 GMT -6
They were in the gardens now, preparing for an upcoming contest that had been announced in the city recently. Rhys had enjoyed his stint at the last one he’d been to, and Noa was never one to turn down the possibility of buying himself some prizes. Rhys wanted to come up with the routine himself, which suited Noa fine, but the trouble was that Rhys hadn’t had much to do with the gardens prior to this, aside from whatever menial tasks Noa had set him to. He had helped in the gardens from time to time, but Noa’s level of personal care to his gardens had been so sporadic and irregular that Rhys didn’t have a strong idea about the whole process, or what the plants were even for, necessarily.
Well, it wasn’t a bad idea for Noa to visit the gardens himself either.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:34:08 GMT -6
He stepped out of the house with Rhys fluttering beside him, and together they made their way through the hedge maze to the gardens out behind them.
Rhys looked back at the hedges in the maze. {Are those good for anything?} he said.
“Most of them are just decorative,” Noa replied. “I cultivated a few bushes in there that bear fruit, though I wouldn’t recommend eating most of them.” The things he raised were mostly not for consumption as food, but as potion components, or as medicinal herbs. A lot of them were deadly in the wrong - or the right - quantities. Noa knew how to make even more potent poisons than this, but he was more interested in brewing something that would help with his symptoms or, heavens willing, provide a cure at last.
No luck yet with anything he had come up with though. Rhys could attest to that.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:34:19 GMT -6
They moved on to the gardens proper, where there were rows of neat raised beds in which various different things were planted. Some were flowers, others were vines creeping up trellises, and some even resembled vegetables of a sort. There was also a greenhouse off to the side, but they could save that part for later. “You wanted to know about their care,” said Noa, meandering up to one of the beds. Idly, he took a leaf and rubbed it between his fingers, tapping his chin. “This one prefers full sun, regular watering, well draining soil. If it sits, the roots will rot. You fertilize it maybe… once a month, sparingly, with a liquid fertilizer for best results. Now, that one over there actually doesn’t like to be watered too often, and the ideal soil pH would be---”
{Whoa whoa whoa, slow down! My head hurts already,} said Rhys, fluttering a quick circle around Noa’s head.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:35:21 GMT -6
In a plaintive voice, he added, {I don’t even have a way to write it down or anything. I have to learn all of that about all of your plants?}
“Why not?” Noa inclined his head, the way he did when he didn't get something. “I did.”
Rhys’s tendrils sagged. {Honestly, I’m surprised you remember all that. You don’t even take care of them yourself anymore.}
“Well, I don’t, but I had to take it over when…” He trailed off, falling silent for a moment, before forging on with a grin that might have been a bit forced. “I had to nurse a lot of these back to health, though I also planted some of these beds from scratch. And when we got Rabbit, I had to teach and program her to take care of them.”
{And now the work is outsourced to Briar, huh…}
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:35:58 GMT -6
Rhys looked out at the plants. {How did you memorize all of it? You didn’t learn it all at once, did you?}
“I had notes to follow, and after you do it for a while, you sort of just start remembering,” Noa replied. “And if you screw up, well, some of the plants can be a bit dramatic about it.” Noa grinned as the memories came back, one after another. “The nightshades will wilt like they’re dying if you forget to water them even once, then prop back up as if nothing happened just as soon as you water them again.”
{Which ones are the nightshades?} said Rhys, taking another look at all the plant beds around them.
“Those over there,” Noa replied, pointing them out. “I actually have a couple of normal cherry tomato plants mixed in just for fun, but we’ll get to that later.”
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:36:11 GMT -6
Rhys shuddered, but at this point he had grown used enough to Noa’s personality not to be surprised by this show of caprice.
“Since you can’t handle all that information at once, let’s try and memorize two beds a day,” Noa said. “Now, this first one…”
Rhys looked as though he would have liked to protest, but Noa arched a brow at him. It had been his idea, and he was serious about learning how to take care of these plants, wasn’t he? Under that insistent gaze, Rhys wilted, and resigned himself to the lessons. Noa went through the care of the first plant, going over its particulars, and had Rhys repeat them back at him at the end to see how much he had absorbed. From there, he filled in the gaps in Rhys’s recollection, and they went over it again together one more time, before Noa moved onto the second bed of plants.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:36:22 GMT -6
The same process was repeated there, until Rhys could repeat it back to Noa’s satisfaction, and then they went through the specifications of one more bed of plants. After that, Noa said, “I think that’s the most you’ll be able to memorize in a day, especially since you can’t read or write to help with your recall. Let’s go over it one more time.”
Rhys let out a soft whine of unhappiness. He wasn’t an unwilling student, exactly, but brute force memorization wasn’t his idea of a good time. But then, Noa didn’t think it was anyone’s idea of a good time. Unfortunate that neither of them had come up with an alternative method to learn the care of all the plants in Noa’s gardens. And there wasn’t much sense in trying to learn how to garden without knowing what to do for each of the plants.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:36:33 GMT -6
The first few days went like that, with Noa introducing some plants and their needs, and Rhys committing them to memory as best he could. It was slow and arduous going, made worse by the fact that Noa was not a particularly forgiving instructor, and inclined to rattle off figures that he could recall with perfect accuracy; and no matter how many times Rhys implored him to slow down, he always forgot a few minutes later, and had to be asked again.
But as the lessons went on, and Rhys had a better knowledge base to draw from, he began to be able to separate the plants into groups, based on their types as well as their preferences, and even their uses. Noa hadn’t neglected to mention what each plant was good for - and they were all good for something, or else Noa wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of raising them in the first place.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:36:50 GMT -6
There was no sense, in his mind, of wasting time and resources on something that wasn’t going to serve him at some later point.
Some were edible, though in Noa’s garden these were few and far between. Most had medicinal properties, or else toxic ones, and Noa made sure that Rhys understood these very well before he was allowed to move on. A badly cared for plant might yet be salvaged or replaced, but if Rhys got himself sick… Well, he could cure himself, but still, it was better to avoid such things when possible. And some of the poisonous plants in Noa’s collection could cause death very quickly, especially in creatures of Rhys’s diminutive size.
And they did, fortunately, eventually run out of plants. But by that point, Rhys had become proficient enough in learning new plants that Noa felt he would take well to any new ones introduced into the mix.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:37:01 GMT -6
But having finished with what Noa could teach Rhys in his own gardens, Noa was moving onto a portion of his lesson plan that promised to be much more interesting. On the next particular session in which they were to work on his skills for his routine, Noa took Rhys with him out of the property, and into some of the neighboring land.
{Where are we going?} said Rhys, who knew Noa well enough to be suspicious. That suspicion only grew as he saw the wide grin on Noa’s face. {Oh, no. We’re not going to…?}
“Oh yes,” said Noa. “We’re raiding someone else’s garden. It’s not as if I have anything edible in mine, and if we’re careful they’ll never even know we were here.” And if they got caught, well, that would be interesting too. In fact, it almost promised to be more interesting, actually.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:38:16 GMT -6
But it was probably better that they didn’t, just on the off chance that law enforcement got involved. Noa didn’t really want to deal with the authorities, since it was always such a hassle. Stealing berries wasn't a big deal, but their scrutiny might make it hard to keep other things he was doing out of prying eyes.
Gracehaven was in the neighborhood of several very nice, very large estates, and its falling into disrepair was every day causing no small amount of grief for these neighbors, whose property prices were suffering as a result. Gracehaven had always had a reputation for eccentric occupants, but until it had come into Noa’s specific care, at least it had been upkept with a care to maintain appearances. But Noa had no need for such things, and whatever hints had been sent his way by said concerned neighbors were promptly discarded and forgotten.
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:38:55 GMT -6
Suffice to say that their own grounds were well tended, and some even had gardens that existed for purposes that weren't strictly decorative, as was the current fashion. Noa went to the garden of a particular neighbor who had a reputed fondness of berries, and a greenhouse dedicated to their cultivation. The locks of the property itself were no object, between his magical and more practical skills, and soon they were inside the greenhouse, with no one apparently any the wiser.
{It’s still daylight out,} said Rhys uneasily. {Don’t you think we’ll get caught? They must have gardeners.}
“You’ll know that better than me,” said Noa cheerfully, though his voice had been toned down to a whisper. “But as far as I know, their gardeners are off for the evening. They don’t pay very well, which is rich considering how much this house is worth.”
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:39:22 GMT -6
Rhys still felt uneasy, but a cursory inspection of their surroundings did reveal no one else in the vicinity with them, so he had no choice but to trust Noa’s words on the matter.
“Now, all of these bushes around us are bearing fruit, and we’re going to help ourselves to some of them. But not all of them are ripe, and not all of them will be good either - and if you pick them badly, you can ruin their quality.”
{That sounds like a lot to keep in mind,} Rhys said. {This is going to be like the plants again, isn’t it?} Already he sounded a little more apprehensive.
“Oh, I don’t think it’s so bad. Some starting rules of thumb: if it’s green, it’s no good. I can’t think of a single berry that you’d want to eat green.”
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Post by Noa on Apr 7, 2021 21:39:47 GMT -6
As he spoke, Noa took them up to a section of strawberry plants on the ground. “You want to be gentle too, since most of these are delicate fruit, and they’ll bruise if we hold on too hard.” Picking up a berry, he inspected it, turning it over. “You want to look at the whole fruit, in case it’s hiding any nasty surprises. Bugs love this stuff, and something else might have caused it to bruise and contract mold or something. You never know.” The one he was holding was hale and healthy though, and a nice vibrant red, just ready for the picking.
{Isn’t this one kind of small?} Rhys said, climbing onto his shoulder to get a better look.
“Aren’t you a glutton,” said Noa with a laugh. “This is a strawberry. For these, the smaller ones are actually sweeter, though there’s nothing wrong with the big ones either, I suppose."
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