Tending to the Garden

Violet hadn't been out-and-about for ages. Ever since she had tried to heal a sick flower she had found she'd been sick too. Her hair had gotten tangled, her yarn somehow had gotten tied up in knots, her memory of the past few months was gone, and she seemed to be wilting as well. That was some sickness she had picked up.

Well, she was feeling better now, even if she still swayed in an invisible wind, so she watered herself "You don't water yourself, you take a shower," fixed her hair so that it had two braids flowing over most of her hair to meet up in back, and got some things together to go outside again, like seeds in her hair. The flowers missed her.

"You sure you'll be okay by yourself?" her roommate was the one taking care of her all this time. Apparently, she hadn't gone out much either except to get food for the both of them.

"I'm not going to be alone out there, you know that," Violet nodded, just in case Ana, or whoever it was this time, didn't catch the drift.

"At least let me help you outside," she said, opening a portal as she talked.

Violet smiled, skipped up to Ana, and kissed her on the forehead on her way out the portal which led to their favorite place, the courtyard. When her feet touched the grass for the first time in months, she danced around in a circle before skipping backwards and away from the slowly-closing portal waving back at Ana as she went.

Only to trip over her own feet and bump into someone standing near where she knew the garden to be right as the portal closed, a few drops of something white landing in her still-wet hair.

Violet blinked up at the boy above her. He looked so sad. She looked next to her just as some crows grabbed what Ana had told her was an ice cream cone and carry it away.

"Oh," she sat up a little and grabbed what she could of the frozen treat in her spotted hands, "I'm sorry, I just got out of bed," she held her dripping hands up to him and looked down in an apologetic fashion, she'd learned to exaggerate her body movements so people could understand her better. That, and it was fun to do. She'd get the ice cream out of her hair later.

Violet looked back up at the boy with tears in his eyes and smiled. Gardening was something she was very good at. She dropped what ice cream she had picked up and wiped her hands in the grass, figuring that he didn't want to eat something that fell on the ground. Some people were weird like that.

"I would have done it anyway, I haven't been able to do this in months," she said, wiping at the tears in his eyes before turning to garden, not even noticing the streaks of ice cream she had added to his face. As soon as she sat down and reached her hand towards the plants, all the flowers in the area bent their stalks in the direction of her hand. "I guess I'll start with the dandelions," she muttered mostly to herself, "If you wouldn't mind, it'd be less painful if you'd just make it easier for us. Your roots, if you please," she wasn't expecting much help from them, weeds tended to be stubborn after they had gotten established. "Promise to transplant us within the hour or our seeds won't leave your eyes," "I'll do what I can," she replied, a little surprised that they weren't more demanding, grabbing the first under the leaves and gently removing it from the dirt before setting it aside and going for the next one. She got so into it she forgot there was someone else there.

Violet went on with her work, getting a nice pile of weeds with ease. The flowers around her whispered thanks and sweet nothings as she freed up the space around them. She smiled as she went on with her work and they visibly perked up around her, getting brighter and sweeter smelling. She wanted the garden to be perfect, and the flowers were doing what they could to help her. It was what tended to happen when she was around flowers.

Eventually, she got to the point where there was little but one the most annoying of weeds left in her section to pull; those little prickle plants. They never listened to a word she said and you had to either grab them at the base or grab a pair of gardening gloves. Violet hated having to use gardening gloves, so she did her best reaching under the leaves to get to the base where the little spines hadn't yet grown sharp. These she set in a separate pile from the dandelions and other flowers, some plants were best used chopped up and composted. Considering how mean they tended to get, these were definitely one of those.

Then she was done, with her half, at least. As she wiped at her forehead and smiled, leaving a streak of dirt, she looked over at the boy she had bumped into before. He had hardly gotten anywhere compared to her!

The stupid boy had simply tried to grab one of the prickle weeds full-on! He needed a lesson in gardening, and fast.

"You can't just grab those," Violet scolded him, "You have to go underneath, like this," she grabbed his hand and wrapped a couple fingers around the soft part of the stem before helping him pull it up. "I can't stand it when people are babies about weeding," She sighed and went to work on his side as well.