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 Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 12:49 pm
This is a private story between Lunadriel and Juliette06. Ping me a message on Discord if you want to join in!  Quote: For those soquili with a green hoof, it is almost time to harvest before the summer sun wilts crops. Does your soquili partake in any farming or gardening? If so, what do they plant? How do they care for their garden? Do they work solo, with familiars or are they part of a herd or family who work together? Are they farming for food, are they gardening flowers, do they grow herbs for medicine or are they trying to conserve or restore a damaged plot of land? If they don't farm or garden, why not? Do they not have the skill? Have they killed every plant they've tried to keep alive? Do they want to learn but don't know where to start? Maybe they can reach out to a farming or gardening soquili to get some tips! If they don't farm or garden, how do they eat? Do they live off the land and forage for food or are they hunters? Write an RP responding to the above prompt telling us about how/why your soquili farms/gardens if they do. Or why not if they don't and what they do instead.
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Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 1:17 pm
Nestled at the edge of Kawani where the forest meets the open plains, Cloudberry Hollow came alive each spring with color and promise. The air is honey-warm and smells faintly of loam and strawberries. A charming place with a patchwork of raised flower beds, old wooden planks stacked on large river rock legs that supported a medley of painted clay pots and many more large pots with trees and bushes. Gravel trails led through the garden oasis. All meeting at a giant oak tree that shaded some of the more delicate growers. To the other side of the garden area, lay rows of strawberry plants that hugged the ground in mounds. Their leaves a lush green ruffle of lace that ran from one end of the field to the other. Red berries peeked out like hidden jewels, so ripe, they seemed to call "Pick me!" as the breeze rustled them.
To the north of the nursery, a wooden trellis framed the entry to a small lake. A red rustic bridge leads to a center island, covered in clusters of purple petals. Sweet violets, and a willow tree the islands only inhabitants.
Today is a special day for Cloudberry Hollow. It's harvest day! June had invited several locals to come. Any strawberries left from this years yield, would be free for the taking. Only if you stayed to help pull up the old plants. June had made the mistake last year of trying to do it on her own. This year, she would try something new! The payment for the strawberries, was to pull up any number of plants you wanted. She had shovel's and trowels available, as well as baskets for the berries. Pickles, her cat-cus would help, and her loving mate Delphinium. She also had some bird friends that would help pick the berries, but more so they could eat them. Autumn would be of more help, but well, he was a lazy proghorn.
Other early crops dotted the grounds, like baby lettuce, and carrots. She also had tons of propagated plants available to those that came. Propagated plants were to share her passion with others. She had spider plants, rosemary, vegetables, lavender and several other water propagated plants. Free to good homes.
By the end of the day, she hoped to have enough of her field clear to start planting sunflowers for the summer! If not, she would pull it all herself tomorrow. if this worked, she would repeat the process in the fall, to prepare for pumpkins!
June trotted over to the edge of her nursery. She looked out eagerly, expecting a line of Soquili. To find, well, none. June chuckled to herself, and waited a few minutes. Doing some light work. It was early still, and even Delphinium hadn't woke up yet.
WC: 466
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2025 12:30 pm
Pyxis Gloriosa was on something of a quest. She was in charge of the Flock's greenhouse, and it was a successful little plot of land, but it was all rather...
Boring was too strong a word. Expected might be more accurate. There was nothing surprising in her greenhouse anymore, nothing that Pyxis felt like she could show off, or brag to her sisters about. It was all just - what it was supposed to be, and Pyxis had decided enough was enough.
So she'd requested leave to bring back interesting, exciting samples, from near and far. She'd had some middling success so far, but nothing worth returning home about, nothing to crow to her sisters about. She needed something...big.
She had heard rumors of a nearby nursery having some kind of harvest day special event, and her interest was piqued. Even if the nursery had nothing to offer her directly, Pyxis never passed up an opportunity to speak with another green-hoof.
Pyxis got directions from the nearby village and made her way over, cresting the small hill just as a mare peered out before getting to work. This must be the one who ran the nursery; it looked like she was entirely alone, which in spite of herself sent a pang through Pyxis' heart. While she did not usually seek out other Soquili for company, it was nice to have the option...
"Greetings," Pyxis called as she approached. "I understand you are having some kind of..." Pyxis paused, glancing at the assembled tools around the mare, "event today?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2025 9:24 am
June hummed a tune, while filling buckets from a basin. Being of an equine form, made it challenging to water plants, but not impossible. June figured out she could carry the buckets with her mouth, then lift a knee to tilt the buckets over into her plants. This is what she was doing when the first guest of the morning arrived. She didn't startle at the voice, but busied to get the bucket out of her mouth to speak. After setting the bucket down, she cleared her throat then replied. "Good morning!" she called with a soothing, quiet voice. She smiled with her eyes at the mare that stood there. "Yes! Today is harvest day. I'm giving away strawberries and plant starters, in return for helping prepare for next seasons plants. Though, if you aren't keen to labor, I'd still happily share. It'll all go to waste after today." Even if someone wanted to shop the other plants she had, she wouldn't say no. June liked to go with the flow, which worked well when tending to plants. They could be unpredictable.
"Let me finish watering these morning glories. While I do, tell me what you are interested in, yes?" she had noted the basket and could see that this mare had intent before coming here.
As she finished off this bucket, she listened over her shoulder.
WC: 227
Total: 693
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:30 pm
Pyxis considered what the mare said thoughtfully, and she had to admit, the concept appealed to her. Well, minus the giving it away for nothing; it took work and effort to bring plants to life, to keep them healthy, to make them ready to provide sustenance for others. That should not be rewarded with nothing more than a snatch-and-grab without a backwards glance, and the idea that some may do so, to reward such care with such carelessness, pre-emptively annoyed Pyxis. Deeply.
"I am happy to assist," she said as she moved closer, casting a glance about the assembled greenery. "I am a gardener myself, in my lands, but they are far from here, and I am looking to bring back anything unique or unusual that I can find," she explained. "So, if you have anything advanced, or curious, or special..." Pyxis trailed off with a light shrug.
"How may I best attend?" Pyxis asked. "What most needs done for the next season?" While it didn't seem that this mare was dealing with anything too advanced, Pyxis knew better than to go digging in a garden that wasn't her own - and she knew that if anyone had tried to do so in her own greenhouse, they would have been met with a stern hoof and a disinvitation to ever return. She liked things a certain way, and not everyone was capable of fulfilling that necessity.
However, because of that tendency, she was tremendously respectful of other people's idiosyncrasies, and she wouldn't go anywhere she wasn't invited in someone else's space, no matter how relaxed they seemed up front.
Especially as, in the back of her mind, Pyxis wondered if maybe there might be some hidden gems here in this out of the way little territory after all...something that might make her journey so far worth the time and effort it had taken to get here in the first place.
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2025 8:45 am
June brushed off her mouth on her leg when she was finished with her bucket. As the two were standing there, a rather large stallion with jewel toned bone markings walked up, set in a shimmery black coat. Flowers adorned dark antlers in abundance. Were it not for June looking over the mares shoulder, he might have snuck up unawares. "Good morning Locus." June called to him with a less than sunny tone, little emotion in her voice.
Locus gave a chin nod to June, and winked at her pretty friend. He didn't say anything, and walked past them. June began walking towards her strawberry field, following in the direction Locus went, talking as she went.
"Be warry of that one." she said quietly so only the teal eyed mare could hear. "He'll try to pluck any mare, like one might a flower. He's a good worker though, if you ignore him." she laughed and then sighed. Locus came often, absorbing himself in her gardens. Sometimes she'd startle her, popping up in her farm unannounced and unheard. "He's likely not the rare variety you want, haha. Just strange. What I do have, is some violets that aren't well, violet!" June barely contained her excitement with all her violet variations. Clearing her throat, she regained her composure. "I have some dual color purples, yellows, white, and hybrids of white and violet. Along with some blue violets, that are truly blue! While blue violets may be common, blue is such a rare color in the flower kingdom. I love them." she smiled. "They are across the pond, under the weeping tree. You may take any seed pods they have!" she gestured with her head in the direction of the pond. "Please fill your basket before you leave. I have plenty of seeds stored up! I also have many clippings of plants over on the table. Instead of serving lunch, I'm giving away my extra babies. I can name any that catch your eye."
"Here we are." she said as they reached rows and rows of strawberry plants. Locus was there, and already pulling up strawberries with his teeth. Occasionally munching on a berry and maybe a little dirt... "I have tools, you don't have to use your teeth, please." she gestured to trowels, shovels, and hoes of various sizes leaning against a rustic wooden fence.
"Shoot, manners. My name is June by the way!" she said as she walked over towards the tools. "The ground is nice and soft, so the plants are easy to till. I hope to have this field mostly cleared by the end of the day."
A few of June's friends would trickle in soon, to begin the help.
"Let me know if you need anything! I'm going to go see if anyone else has arrived to aid us. It's nice to meet you!" she called out over her shoulder, expecting that was enough guidance to get Pyxis started.
WC: 491
Total: 1184
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2025 3:29 pm
Pyxis Gloriosa was reminded, not for the first time, that she was no longer at home in the Flock, where males knew their place and how to respect the females around them. She thought of the only male she allowed in her greenhouse sanctum, and how gingerly he treated the things that grew there - if she ever caught him treating plants so disrespectfully, he would have been punished. Possibly severely.
In spite of this male's admitted beauty, that alone was enough reason for Pyxis to be sure that he would not be...plucking her any time soon.
But this was not her greenhouse, not her herd, not the Flock with its clear rules, expectations and hierarchy. This was what they called 'the real world', which Pyxis was beginning to learn did not stick to any so neatly-organized boxes. On the one hoof, it made her miss home and feel very - unmoored, but on the other, it was something different, and different was...
Exciting.
Much like the violets the other mare - June - mentioned; blue was a rare color in nature, and many plants that claimed to be blue simply were not. She was pleased, and suitably impressed, to hear that in spite of her more casual, generous air, June was a dedicated breeder and a fastidious gardener. It warmed some part of Pyxis' heart to know she wasn't completely alone in the world - that there were others beyond the Flock who felt and acted as he did.
"Thank you," Pyxis said with a gracious bow of her head. "I will look at the violets once I have assisted..." Pyxis turned with a judgemental eye to Locus, "your friend with tilling the strawberries. It appears he needs all the help he can get." Foolish male, never doing anything the most obviously correct way. Maybe some parts of the world could use a bit of the Flock's teachings after all...
Eventually, others came and joined the two of them, which was good - not only for the clearing of the plants itself, but to put some distance between herself and the strange, somewhat irritating male. There was something - pleasant, Pyxis had to admit, about being around so many likeminded people, attending to a task together. It was a little community unto itself, brighter and more open than the Flock, but much more casual, too, and somewhat lackadaisical. After a couple of hours, Pyxis extricated herself from the group, satisfied with the work she'd done, and made her way across the lake to the violets.
She had to admit it, the blue violets were actually blue! It was an impressive achievement, and as Pyxis tucked a couple of the seed packets into her bag, and quietly decided that if the other mare hadn't named them, Pyxis would:
Juneblue Violets.
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2025 4:45 pm
The day went by fast. Soquili came and went. By the end, June was exhausted but content as she looked out over her now empty field. As the sun set, so too did the success of Springs harvest. Tomorrow, she would start preparing the earth for summers crops. The most anticipated crop being pumpkins! Though they were associated with fall, they actually grew in summer, and were harvested at the peak of the season. She couldn't wait!
As she cleaned up, she recalled those that had helped her today. Laughing to herself, she realized she still didn't catch that mares name! She should have taken a moment to catch her name, but had been too busy to pause. They were hard working and didn't require any managing on her part. June hoped they would come visit again! She would call them, Friend. That would be close enough for any who came to visit Cloudberry Hollow.
~End.
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