|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 4:37 pm
Oh, rocks. Why hadn't she thought of that? Zayne glared at her hands which had reverted to normal and held out a hand for one of Ezra's collection.
She didn't have an extra pair of gloves to offer, but it irked her that the other girl did. So far, Zayne was feeling a bit out of sorts among people. It was a very different sort of group than those she was used to.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 4:45 pm
"You're very smart!" Onoway commented. It was rare her tone changed, but she sounded a bit more enthused as they were slowly but surely making progress. Rocks. Such a simple but good idea. The ones scattered about the ground were probably too frozen to comfortablely dig with, so the fact Ezra had some of his own would make things easier.
"I believe so," she answered Chailyn after a moments thought. Honestly, she'd never thought to ask. It just seemed natural that if you could talk to something, they could talk back.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 4:54 pm
"Thanks, Chai!" Ezra said happily, tugging the gloves on over his alread-covered hands. The extra layer helped a lot. He handed out the stones, feeling quite a bit happier about this flower-rescuing adventure.
Onoway's compliment made him blush -- or would have, if Ezra had had slightly thinner skin. He grinned in embarrassment, reflexively putting one hand in front of his mouth to cover his teeth. "Thanks Onoway. You're smart too, it was your idea to rescue the flowers in the first place!"
He set to digging with gusto, chipping away at the frozen ground. This was much faster! He wasn't so sure about talking to flowers, but by now he was all for the idea of saving them. It must be awful to be buried in the frozen earth and snow... just imagining it made him shiver.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:04 pm
Taking a rock in her hands, Chailyn thanked the reptile and set back to work a cold shiver running down her spine. She heard Onoway's answer and it set her mind at ease for now, though curiousity was sure to flare up again.
"Wow, you must be good at digging Zayne." She noticed she'd dug further before getting a rock though she hadn't noticed the girls hands. She was somewhat oblivious to her surroundings trying to focus on digging up the flowers. It seemed to be going much easier now that she had a rock to use.
Tilting her head she noticed she was digging in a circle. She'd have to dig under the flower to get it out. She wasn't sure how to do that without hurting the roots. "How do I dig under the flower without hurting the roots?" she asked looking up and at the three tales.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:10 pm
Zayne gave Chailyn an odd look, but deciding that she didn't have anything to fear from someone who was willing to save flowers - she answered honestly.
"A lot of things are easy when you really concentrate."
A bit cryptic, but honest.
The next question struck her as well, since she had been starting to feel like she would never reach the end of the tiny thread-like roots branching out at every opportunity. Sitting back on her heels, she idly flicked back a strand of long black hair and look at Onoway - the unofficial leader of this conservation effort.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:25 pm
Hm. They'd get things done faster, maybe, but answering so many questions was tough. Admittedly, she was no expert on flowers or parts of them, and perhaps it was the butterfly in her that made her so determined to save them.
"Well, they're far enough apart," she began hesitantly, slowly shifting her eyes from flower to flower. "The roots will be frozen as well, I'd guess, so I don't think they'll break so easily. Pull the dirt up, not the flower, and I think they should be alright."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:34 pm
At Chailyn's question, Ezra took a break with Zayne. He had been getting near the roots as well, and wasn't quite sure how to proceed. He had dug up plenty of plants in the wild before, but that was in summer when the ground was soft!
Onoway's suggestion made sense. "I don' think it matters if you break one or two roots when you dig em up," he volunteered. "Just s'long as you get most of em."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:47 pm
"Oh, all right," she said hearing Onoway and Ezra. She was beginning to feel a bit put off by Zayne leading her to bite down on her bottom lip. She wasn't sure what to think or do, so she thought she would leave it alone.
She went back to focusing on digging up the flower giving a little cough every now and then. She used the rock to chip away at the clumps of dirt hanging to the roots trying to gently coax it out. She didn't seem to be having too much luck and upon digging underneath the big clump of dirt lifted the flower out. Still, she kept prodding at the dirt a little more so there was more flower.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:56 pm
Wrinkling her forehead, Zayne continued chipping away at the roots underneath her own flower. She felt, honestly, that it had started growing new roots for her to dig around simply to spite her. If she wasn't so fond of the colors the flowers displayed in the spring, she would have ripped it up.
Instead, she concentrated on the main root, the largest of the group, and ignored roots that got too tiny to see easily past the puffs of air coming out of her mouth. If a couple were ok to ignore, maybe she could finish this eventually.
Rubbing one slightly grimy hand against her cheek, Zayne sighed as she reached a point past which the main root itself got beyond her size threshold. A tiny whispered, "Yess!" and she pulled the entire thing up and out. Grinning stupidly, she looked to Onoway for further direction.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 6:03 pm
It was a moment or two before she looked up. Finding Zayne holding a plant, that blank look of hers formed into a rare smile and she nodded approvingly. "Good job," she offered, getting to her feet and brushing her pants off. Snow was still falling, and the flower pots she'd placed off to the side were now hidden by it.
Luckily, not too much, and it took only seconds to brush it away and hold the object out to the other girl. "Perhaps when you get home, you could decorate the flower pots as well," she suggested to the trio around her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 6:17 pm
Ezra let out a little cheer at Zayne's moment of triumph. He looked on with interest as Onoway dug out the flower pots out of the snow. It would be fun to decorate one... now he just had to get a flower to put in a pot.
He redoubled his efforts and was soon rewarded when the flower he was working on began to come free of the earth. Chunks of frozen soil still clung to the roots, and he chipped away around them, careful not to break the main root. Once the main roots were all free, he began tugging gently at the flower. Finally it burst free, showering him with cold chunks of dirt.
Ezra let out a yelp as one of the bits of dirt hit him in the eye. He dropped his hard-won flower, rubbing frantically at his eye. The aggravating bit of dirt gone, he grinned sheepishly and picked the flower back up off the snow. "Uhh, I got one," he said, a bit embarrassed, holding out the flower for Onoway's inspection.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 6:25 pm
Chailyn smiled when Zayne pulled a flower free, though it was mostly to herself. She was nervous that if she smiled or said anything the tale would dislike her more than she appeared to. She gave an almost silent sigh and continued working with her flower.
The flower didn't want to come out of the ground. She gently tugged at it but it just stayed put. She used her fingers to search through for areas she hadn't dug out but didn't find many. As she was about to try pulling it up again, she was startled by Ezra's yelp and jumped back.
A blush covered her cheeks as she looked at the others. "I seem to have a stubborn flower. It doesn't want to come free," she said looking over at Zayne and then turning her head to Ezra and Onoway.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 6:44 pm
Taking the pot from Onoway, Zayne placed her flower in it with perhaps a bit more emphasis than might have been good for it. Her worth to the group established, she looked around at the others.
Ezra's triumph gathered a smile, now that she had done her part, Zayne felt less competitive with the others - and she even ventured a few words to the group (although she directed them mostly Ezra).
"Maybe we should decorate the pots and then exchange them. So that we each get something to remember eachother."
And then feeling a bit exposed, Zayne hid her face behind a curtain of hair. She peeked out to respond to Chailyn, however.
"Would you like help? Someone could sort of push up while you pull on it?"
She looked around to see what everyone else thought of this suggestion. The more she offered on her own, the more vulnerable Zayne began to feel.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:04 am
It seemed, to Onoway, when you got people together they came up with good ideas fast, and lots of them. Exchange them, hm? "That's interesting," Onoway commented thoughtfully, wings twitching. "It's a good idea."
Likely more careful than nesscary, she grasped the dirt along the roots of her flower and pulled it out. Reaching over, she clutched her hand around another flowerpot and placed the lucky plant inside. Today was a good day to be a plant in this park.
Only when Zayne said something did she notice the problems one of their group members--or so she'd call them--seemed to be having. "Yes," she answered before anyone else could say much. "We need to help each other, and there's no shame in asking for help. With something like this, especially. The plants won't think less of us if we all help each other."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:16 pm
Reaching for a pot for his own flower, Ezra nodded. "Yeah, if we help each other we can prob'ly get done a lot faster... and then we can get out of the snow," he added, shivering.
Zayne's idea of decorating and exchanging the pots appealed to him. "That'd be fun to trade the pots," he said, smiling at her. "On'y we'll have to get a lot more flowers, so everyone can have a pot from everyone here!"
He slid over to Chailyn, eyeing her stubborn flower thoughtfully. "I'll help, Chai. What should I do?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
