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Sephos was done for the night – done with trolls, done with herb selling, done with seed and plant purchasing, done with everything, and all he wanted to do was muck around in his garden. He longed to have loam in his hands, to put seed into holes, to tend them until they grew and regenerated his forest.

”Hooooom...” Maku hummed, gently tapping him with one of his massive, woody hands.

”Ugh. Ja... Ja, I know” he grumbled at his lusus, ”Patience. I know.” His garden would have to wait. He was nights away from home yet – one of the unfortunate facts about living so deep in the woods - and the time between now and home was interminable. ”But this place sucks, and I want to be out of it...” he glowered around him at the suburban series of lawnrings and hives. It was so fake, all of it. The only wild thing about it was the Lusii, and they were probably not even native to this region. It was just a big, fabricated mess. Sephos found it irksome.

”Hooooooom...” Maku hummed again as he plodded slowly behind his child. This place wasn't so bad.

”Humph.” Sephos supposed not. ”They could at least keep proper... gardens...” He was distracted by an odd sight: In the lawnring of a hive very clearly not decked in orange was an orangeblood planting... seeds?

”Hey.” he said, curious, completely disregarding the fence and walking up to her, ”What are you doing?”

When she started talking and talking at him, Sephos was slightly overwhelmed. He hadn't been expecting a novel. The mirthful what now? Oh. That religious clown thing, with the facepaint. Okay. he thought, after taking a moment to absorb her answer. Honestly, he didn't particularly care about most of it. The basics, as he understood them, were that she'd seen the lawnring, decided to spruce it up, and was planting stuff in it. He could get behind that.

”Ja.” He agreed, looking around him at the grassy old lawnring, ”It's pretty shitty.” But she was doing something about it, though he didn't understand why she was using punkins. He decided not to care – he liked punkins. Punkins, when grown, were pretty and they were tasty. Plus, they grew everywhere – several varieties were a major part of many ecosystems... not that Sephos cared. He just liked them.

”Yeah. Gotta have lots of plants. Lots of different kinds of plants. Not just grass.” he said, wiggling his toes disgustedly in the monocultured carpet. Grass was dumb.

On a suddenly inspired whim, Sephos began to grub about in his overalls and pockets until he found what he was looking for – a trawl. ”Gimme some seeds.” he reached for the seeds abruptly, almost rudely, as he pointed with the trowl to an obnoxiously manicured patch of grass. ”I'll plant them over there.”

Sephos was just glad to be rooting around in the dirt and planting things that would grow, instead of dealing with trolls that wanted to trade him this for that for this and tried to cheat him where they could. It was so annoying.

”Ja.” he replied, focused on his punkins, ”I keep my tools there. Easy to grab if I need them.” He dug out the grass in tufts, tossing them aside as he began to tuck the large, flat punkin seeds into their new soil home.

He looked up, briefly, as the orangeblood plunked a bucket of foul smelling stuff next to him. Phew he thought, looking into it. ”Sure.” he said. It was pretty good s**t, no pun intended, and despite the awful reek of it, he put his hands right in and began putting it in – not too much of course. The things that made manure so great for plants were good in moderation, and too much of it could 'burn' them. So he applied it carefully, and covered the seeds with a blanket of soil.

He moved on to the next patch of dumb grass and began to dig it up. ”What kind of punkin are these? Like, are they the flat white kind, or the big orange kind, or the small orange kind, or the one that's all mottled yellow and green?” he asked, suddenly conversational as he began planting anew...

Small, green and yellow with orange spots? ”Never heard of that one.” he said, planting his seeds with extra care before looking up at her with renewed interest. ”Not a variety I've got.” he said, by way of explanation, brushing his hands off as he moved on to de-grassing the next plot. ”I live in the woods, so there ain't enough light for most types, but I like, uh...” He had to think - it was hard to choose a favorite plant. ”The sort of... softish, yellow kind. They have a little bend to 'em – they cook up great.” he said, ”They're small but you can eat 'em outer bits and all.” he grimaced, ”Not that anyone does.” he added. And when they didn't, it was such a waste.


”Hey! You two! What are you doing on my lawnring?!

Maku had ignored the arrival of a third troll, so intent was he on the good work and lively conversation. But at their irate call, the treebeast turned languidly towards them. They were an older troll, and their color and symbol made it likely that they were the owner of the hive.

”What's it look like we're doing?” Sephos snapped at him. What they were doing was completely obvious, after all.

The blueblood growled, an animal sound obviously learned from the lithe feline tiger-like lusus that slunk behind him, their eyes gleaming with assessing interest. "What do you mean, mirthful spirit?" he didn't seem impressed by her statement, even as he took in her facepaint and obvious juggalo attire. "What are you doing to my lawnring?! The tiger murmured something, and he flushed, blue. "Yeah, I can tell they're ******** digging!" he snarled, clenching his fists reflexively. The bladed knuckles he wore extended their claw-like blades, an obvious threat.

Maku moved ponderously between the older troll and his charge, still calm as ever, still massive. Hooom... HOOM. The treebeast didn't see what was wrong with what the children were doing, but it did seem like this other troll was upset for whatever reason. Sephos, Maku implied, should think about leaving.

Sephos wasn't done yet, but he didn't answer the blueblood's question. Why should he? It was obvious, and clearly the orangeblood was going to explain it. Sephos didn't care about mirth and such but they were doing him a favor. Punkins were very good vegetables (fruits?), and deserved to be planted everywhere.

"What are you adding?!" snarled the blueblood, "Did anyone say my lawnring needed anything?! Did I?! Huh?!" He was clearly belligerent.

"Your lawnring was boring." Sephos retorted with a grunt, not even looking up from his digging. Lawnrings generally were. Waste of good soil, lawngrass was, when it was all you had. "This is better."

The long speech was not what the blueblood was expecting. Shouting, or fighting, or running, or screaming maybe, but not a lecture. The tiger lusus listened with interest.

The blueblood took Punkie's card, perplexed, his lusus peering over to take a look. "Mipi, stoppit, your in my way!" he said, pushing at his lusus's big, fluffy, toothy head. It purred and gave him a nuzzle. The Blueblood seemed calmed by this. "... All right, lowbloods." he said fiercely, though he slipped his claw-like knuckle blades back into their carrying case. He brandished the card. "I'll give your stupid planting s**t a chance and not kill you right here and now, but only because my lusus thinks you're a good example to lowbloods. So thank her." The tiger preened. "And get out."

Maku heard the message loud and clear. The moment Sephos finished his planting, Maku picked him up and placed him on the gnarled bough that served as the treebeast's shoulder. Sephos protested a little, but there was no point to arguing with his lusus. "What about my tools?" he said to Maku. Hooom! Ah yes, tools. With bizzare daintiness, Maku picked up Sephos's tools in between his 'thumb' and 'forefinger' and lifted it to his charge. Sephos stuffed them into his overalls before an affectionate stroke from Maku's woody hands could jostle them out of his hands. "Hey!" Sephos called down to the orangeblood, "Lets go."

The blueblood's lusus' tail lashed as she realized that the huge bark thing was actually a lusus. Good thing her troll hadn't tried to fight it. "And don't think I won't take you two up on your little offer here!" the blue blood called after them, shaking his card, "You'll be getting a visit and fixing the mess if I don't like what I see!"

Maku had no idea what a business card was, so he handed it to Sephos, who took it and looked at it. He'd been just about to ask for a business card himself because it had been fun, and he was curious. Punkie Vielli. So that was the orangeblood's name. It had her address and number too.

He slipped it safely into his overall pocket and nodded. "Ja." he said, "I'll... let you know. About the uh, tea and punkin pie." It sounded great and he knew he was probably going to take her up on the offer. "I'm Sephos." he said, suddenly realising that he'd forgotten to give her his name. Not that it mattered, but if he knew her name, she should know his. That was sensible. "And I'd like to garden again sometime, too. Mind if I bring the seeds? I've got a few punkin types of my own..."

He felt suddenly winded. It was not often that he said this much, or had this much... fun? Yeah.