Spirit wandered into the tree retreat for the first time in a while. She’d completely forgotten about the place, busy with other things, but had decided to visit today. Plants in general in Avanthal were pretty uncommon, so this was probably one of the few places where you could find them in large numbers. Since she wasn’t quite sure how the gardeners would react to a horse of a dog near their plants, she’d decided to leave Silver and Wind behind for today. The Frostfawn still felt guilty from this, not liking to leave the two of them alone for any long period of time. Though, in truth, she basically abandoned Wind every day to work at the stables. Most horses didn’t like the company of dogs in general, so Lusina, though loving all animals, didn’t approve of having them near her elks and horses.
At the entrance, the Vantha realized she had three possible directions to go. One led to a landing with two buildings, white the other two were labelled doors. She poked her head in the right one, and spotting a variety of pines, decided to enter. She wandered through the groves of small and little plants, just staring at them. They were all common and native to Avanthal, so not too much of an amazing sight.
After exhausting her interest in the trees, she left that area and checked the door to the left. Inside was much hotter than before, possibly warmer than any other place in the area. Apparently the room grew exotic plants and such, and inside Spirit could easily see carefully planted trees that looked relatively strange, obviously not native like the pines. The proposal of such complicated and delicate plants, however, slightly put off the inexperienced girl, who left the room after only a chime of standing in the warmth.
She now headed to the landing area, where faced with two buildings, one long and narrow, the other a square. The Frostfawn decided to enter the square one first, on a random whim. Inside was decently busy, with several people caring for plants inside, and a few more wandering around. The sight of everyone helping out and caring for the plants made the young groom sorely want to join in. It would be so much fun to care for a tree and everything… Her very own tree…. The idea was sorely tempting, and despite her shyness, caused Spirit to walk up to a more official looking gardener.
“Hi… uh… do you think I could… uh…. Help out or something?” She asked politely but slightly awkwardly. She clasped her hands behind her back as her eyes slowly turned a pinkish-purple.
The gardener turned to face her with a wide grin on his face.
“Of course! We always love new volunteers!” He stated, delighted, until his expression grew more serious.
“As long as you don’t hurt the plants…” he warned, sternly, wagging a threatening finger at the girl. “Of course not!” She replied, startled by the question and tone. She hated hurting things in general, be it animal, person, or plant. Really, it didn’t make sense to her why people did such things, as ut was just pointless and mean. Luckily this response caused a grin to return to the gardener’s face.
“Excellent! Come with me then… I’ll get you started! I’m guessing you don’t have much experience with plants?” He began interrogating as they walked, leading them out of the square building and into the longer one. Spirit shook her head in response, being completely clueless on the subject of plants. Once there, he directed the young Frostfawn to one of the many trees, a tiny sapling barely 9 inches high. It was thin, but even at its small size, its hardiness was obvious.
“It’s a Talderan Pine” The gardener explained, as his new volunteer hesitantly crouched down. She delicately poked one if it’s tiny needles. Nothing bad seemed to happen, so she grinned widely.
“It’s so small! And… well, cute She exclaimed in delight, standing up to grin at the gardener.
“So…. Uh…. Now what?” Spirit asked, slightly confused what to do from there.
“It’s yours! Well.. not really. You just care for it whenever you come here. Remember it’s spot… and I’ll show you what to do.” He motioned the girl over to the next stall, where a variety of tools were continently kept.
“So you water it with this… and when it gets too big in the wrong place, trim is with these. Give it this as ‘food’, the group of nutrients will make the pine grow stronger and bigger. Got it?” He pointed to the watering can, scissors, and fertilizer as he spoke, indicating the needed tools. The Frostfawn nodded, hesitated, and then grabbed the watering can. Under careful watch of the gardener, she filled it, and very slowly and carefully poured a small amount of water on the soil. It was absorbed almost immediately, but barely seemed to make an effect.
“You can add more than that!” The gardener grinned and laughed as the Vantha’s face fell into a frown.
“It’s not that easy to kill or harm, but still don’t overwater it. And since you doesn’t seem to be doing so badly… I’ll head back. Just call on me if you need anything!” He backed up a few steps, waved, then turned to leave the building. The young groom watched him for a few moments blankly, then shook her head and turned back to her sapling. Water… She tilted the can up and watched as a few more drops spilled out. She glared at nothing in particular, and in her annoyance at the lack of water, moved the can to far up. A huge gush of water came from the water, causing her to yelp and drag the container away from her precious plant. By a sudden turn of luck, it seemed to be enough, but in the process the Frostfawn had spilled a large quantity of the water on her clothes.
With a sigh, she replaced the can in the stall with the rest of the clues, and returned to start at the tree for a few moments longer. On a random whim to see how much of the soil actually got wet, she stuck her finger into the soil sort of near the base of the pine. It was still mostly wet at the bottom, which seemed like a good thing, so took a step back. What else did it need now? Right… the fertilizer. She grabbed a smallish chunk of the stuff and scattered it around the soil, not quite sure what to do with that either. Had she added too much? Too little? Well… time would tell. Too much food wouldn’t hurt it, right? Well… everything looked done now. She should come back tomorrow and see how much it had grown…
Walking out into the open air, Spirit shuddered slightly. Though she didn’t mind the cold, the chilly wet spots on her pants were beginning to get annoying. Where could she dry off…. Right, the exotic room! She dashed off in that direction, and once there, stepped deep inside, placing herself near one of the trees and it’s collection of storm gems. She breathed a sigh of relief and comfort, kneeling down on the floor for a more comfortable position. It would take maybe half a bell or so to try off well in this heat, which left her lots of time to…. Muse.
She thought about one of the things that had caught her mind as she had been caring for her sapling. Just how similar they were to animals! You had to feed them… water them… groom them… so maybe this wouldn’t be too hard? But there were always those specific amounts… like how much water, how much food. She knew them by heart for most animals, at least those she cared for, but plants… the Frostfawn was clueless. Though she knew only time (and the gardener) would tell if she messed up, a simple screw up could kill the tree! And she’d never killed anything intentionally before… even accidentally killing a plant seemed horrible to her. At least animals would tell you if they were hungry or thirsty, but trees… couldn’t. It made everything so much harder…
Finally, after slightly longer than her prediction, Spirit was mostly dry. She stood up and stretched, careful not to touch the exotic tree beside her. Where to now… she didn’t feel like going home yet… A vauge thought touched her mind. She remembered hearing trickling water in the square house, but had seen none. She should go find that! With a goal in mind, the Vantha strode out of the room purposely, and to her destination.
Once inside, she followed the sound of the water. It took quite a bit of weaving through the plants, but she found it. A little pool with a waterfall, hiding inside this busy building. The area seemed empty, and she clapped her hands in delight at the magnificent scene. Spirit hopped over to the edge of the water and sat on the icy rim, staring at the plants around. In all her gazing, she spotted… another person! A woman, apparently caring for the plants inside.
“Hello!” She called happily, simply adoring this new discovery. Avanthal was a treasure trove of hidden art…
OOCehe... really long into... sorry XD
