In service of a sapling

by **Kavak Frostfawn** on January 4th, 2014, 8:33 pm

14th of Winter 513 AV

Kavak woke up late in the afternoon, an unusual occurrence for the young Vantha. Syrie shook her head, tossing her long red locks back and forth, as Kavak came down to fix himself breakfast. "You have been lounging around the arvinta for an entire WEEK now!! do something today you lazy sack!!" She said with a twinge of annoyance in her voice. Kavak groaned and got ready, bundling himself up in his coat and clothes for warmth and decided Syrie was right. It was time for him to do something in the everwinter city...maybe contribute to the city in some way. "Well...volunteering isn't a bad idea right?" SHe bit her lip in thought, a nervous little habit she always used to do when he was young. Of course when he was young Syrie was in her twenties at that time...now she was a bit older. Syrie had now taken on the role of his mother since his parents passing. She nodded after a while, her long red hair tossing about her again, "yes that would be good, you need to show Avanthal and your fellow Vantha that you belong here after all." He nodded to himself and thought for a moment what to do. "Well...when I was exploring around this frozen place when you just got here I found this amazing place where they grow trees...I don't remember what they called it but I can give you some directions to it." She pointed to her head and tapped it, "steel trap ya know."

He had to ask a few people for directions to the tree growing place, and in their genrous direction of Kavak they told him what the location he sought was called, The Tree Retreat. He followed the path until he got to a set of stairs leading downward. Syrie ahd mentioned several sets of stairs he would have to take so of course he took them, what could it hurt? He reached the base of the stairs in no time and was surprised to feel the weather change just slightly, it seemed the wind had lost some of its power, probably because the site was a little lower than the rest of Avanthal, the stairs and the planted trees around acted as the skimpiest of a wind breaking wall. He was so concentrated in the slight deviation in the weather that he didn't realize that most startling detail. Avanthal was almost barren ,except for the Frostfawn hold, of tree life or indeed any greenery. It's not like Kavak hadn't ever seen a tree ever in his life, compared to the rest of Avanthal Frostfawn hold was in a veritable forest...but compared tot his place it paled in comparison. He saw so many kinds of trees there he had no idea what they were called. He only recognized the common Avanthalian pine tree that littered the wilderness. but so many others were around. Bushy ones, ones with needles like a pine but different, they had longer needles. There were trees with white bark, and trees with black bark. There were trees with green, red, yellow, white, pink, and some with bluish green leaves. The trees were still sparce compared to the tales he heard of the spires and other places but it may have been the most trees he had seen inside Avanthal at one time.

As he marveled at the trees he didn't notice the short portly Vantha male that rushed over to see who was gracing the tree retreat. He cleared his throat when he came to Kavak in order to get his attention and quickly offered an outstretched hand in an offer of a handshake. Kavak took it and gave the man a warm smile, still enchanted by the sight of the many trees. The man was wearing a startling array of colors from bright green to subtle lavender and his eyes changed colors repeatedly every five seconds it seemed and his hair was a ptich black with bright green streaks in it that showed up prominently. He grasped Kavak's hand and shook it vigorously, his grip actually hurting Kavak's hand and he spoke in a thunderous low voice that did not match his stature, "Welcome, welcome to the famous tree retreat of Avanthal my friend. Tell me please, have you come to volunteer your wonderous gardening skills to our lovely cedars or spruce trees? no no...perhaps an oak...no no not even that you look more like...hmmm...no I have it, the perfect tree for you to plant. It has to be a Tamarack tree, oh the colors are a splender to see on that one for sure. I know you will take good care of it!" He said pulling Kavak by his arm so furiously that he thought it would pop off. The man spoke at a thousand miles per hour and seemed to be under the impression that Kavak was some master gardener...he was about to be rudely woken up then.

by **Kavak Frostfawn** on January 5th, 2014, 3:41 am

He felt dizzy just following the man's rate of speech and dug his heels in to make them both stop immediately. "First off, Hi my name is Kavak Frostfawn and yours?" He said trying to get the man to slow down just a bit. The man blinked a couple times and laughed hysterically, something that sounded low pitched and very rapid. "I apologize fried, my name is Pavil Winterflame. I am a fair gardener and herbalist and am one of the people responsible for planting trees around the grand everwinter city!! I find it gives much needed color to the city!!" Pavil said enthusiastically. Kavak had to smile at the man's endearing personality, it was almost impossible not too. "Well as to the expert gardener...well I have no such experience in gardening whatsoever." Kavak said a little embarrassed at the fact all of the sudden. The man blinked a couple of times and stared at Kavak, he smiled and laughed a few times and the shrugged his broad shoulders. "Well friend, if you're willing to volunteer then I'm willing to teach you not to kill a tree." He said laughing hysterically at what Kavak assumed was his own joke.

Pavil took Kavak down to a long and skinny house made of what appeared to be ice stone. Kavak didn't know much about Ice stone but it was something every Vantha was acquainted with at one point or another. They walked in to the icestone house and was immediately met with a warmth slightly above normal...by Avanthalian standards anyway. It was still pretty cold but compared to the outside it was a tropical paradise. If the outside was a marvel...the inside of this building was impossible to believe. Trees lined each wall on his left and right for at least twenty feet with not one spot unoccupied by at least a sapling. Some of the trees were ten feet high and full of leaves though he could see they were sparse enough to be young ones. There were also small plants hanging around the building from small baskets. It was a tree lovers paradise and Kavak thought it was a wonderful sight to behold, not unlike the one he saw at the Frozen Falls Market. Pavil walked forward and Kavak snapped out of his amazement to follow the portly Winterflame.

"Now...since you don't have any gardening experience I will give you a crash course in tending to a tree as to give you enough skill to not kill the thing. Anything else you can learn on your own as you care for one of the glorious plants." He said while walking down the span of the twenty foot long wall on the left. Pavil stopped at a young sapling not one foot in height. If Kavak would have to guess, the sapling was eight inches off the ground. . It had very few leaves, maybe twelve in all and had a white appearance to the bark. It was left in a pot, unplanted with the roots of the tree coming out of the bottom of the pot. "Well...obviously the first step is to plant the tree right...?" Kavak said unsure of even that. Pavil nodded, "Yes...although it's not a tree yet. It's a sapling. A very young tree. We will plant it here and you will be in charge of trimming and watering it, putting fertilizer in it's soil and any other needs of the young tree." He said grabbing a few stone tools from the next stall. Each area was cordoned off with wooden walls, each holding a tree other than the box next to his cordoned off space. It held gardening tools. Pavil took, what appeared to be, a small hand shovel. "This is a spade, for digging in the soil. It is what we will use to break the soil you have before you and dig a small hole, about two in a half inches into the ground and place the sapling inside where we will replace the soil." Pavil said, a now serious and reverent tone was now emitted in his speech, as if he were talking about something very sacred to him. Kavak nodded in understanding as Pavil gave him the small stone tool.

by **Kavak Frostfawn** on January 5th, 2014, 3:39 pm

Kavak dug into the dirt with the stone spade tool. It took him a while to break into the ground and make a hole. He dug a few times with the spade and removed about two scoops of soil when he thought that was good enough and reached for the sapling. Pavil took the sapling before Kavak could grab it. "You must make the hole deeper, and wider." He said, directing Kavak with hand motions as if he were digging. Kavak dug once more into the soil, carving out the hole, making it a little deeper, making the circumference wider. Pavil would instruct Kavak again and Kavak would again make it wider and remove a little more dirt with the spade to make it just a bit deeper. "No...a little bit wider" Pavil said. He was completely serious. Kavak didn't know why it had to be this hard to put a single tree into the dirt!! After what seemed like ages but was really only a few moments Pavil gave the tree to Kavak. Kavak held the small, fragile sapling in his soil covered hands. They were almost black with all of the rich earth covering them from the long digging session.

Kavak gingerly placed the young tree into the hole and covered it with the darkened earth. He smoothed out the soil around the base and smiled as task one was now complete. Pavil nodded his approval and walked to the next area where the tools were for a moment and returned with a small jar filled with water. Pavil gave the water to Kavak. "This should be enough to nourish this young one for quite some time. remember, pour slowly so it may drink. Pouring the water too fast can cause you to drown the sapling." Kavak nodded his understanding once more and tipped the jar so the water just trickled out of the small jar, flowing down the lib of the ceramic container. Every once in a while when the water could be seen pooling on the soil he would stop as to not drown the poor thing. When the water seemed gone from the surface, seeped into the ground and drunk by the sapling he would pour more. The whole process took some time, about fifteen chimes in all. It was going on the twelfth bell now, so that meant he had been in the Tree Retreat for three bells now. "Now...the tree needs fertilizer..." Pavil said going to the tools once more and grabbing a small hand held bag of whatever fertilizer was. He gave it to the Frostfawn and waited. "Uhm...what do I do with this...?" Pavil raised an eyebrow, "Oh, well...you just spread it around the base of the tree so it goes into the soil. It helps the tree grow." He said almost sounding puzzled at the question.

Kavak opened the bag and immediately sniffed the air. "this...smells like the droppings of a caribou or a woolie." He said a bit unalarmed...it was after all a familiar scent around the Frostfawn hold. Pavil smirked a little bit and nodded, "we take the massive amounts of woolie dung from the Frostfawn hold and put it to use, we have found that if used properly it can cause trees to grow a little faster and hardier." He said with pride. Kavak thought about this, he didn't know such a thing occurred. There was a lot of woolie droppings to clean up by the stables, he knew that. No one would notice...or even mind if someone carried some of it off for trees. He opened the bag with his fingers and spread the fertilizer around with his bare hands, not minding what it actually was. He smoothed out the earth around the base. It looked like a work of art when he was finished with it. Pavil nodded his approval and stood up from his kneeling position. "This will be your sapling to care for, but if you wish to volunteer a little more we have a few trees that are just about to be planted outside. They need a bit of pruning and it's nice practice for when your tree will need it." He said walking to the other side of the wall to a few trees at about Kavak's height.

by **Kavak Frostfawn** on January 5th, 2014, 6:33 pm

Kavak went to one tree with needles. There were brown nedles and green needles and light green needles all over the tree. Pavil explained, "The brown needles and any brown leaves that are dried and withered are dead ones, the light green or any other lighter colors are ones that have not matured yet, they are very soft if you feel them and may be fuzzy. The dark green or stronger colors of a trees leaves or needles are mature leaves or needles." Kavak appreciated the lessons Pavil was giving him and went to work. Pavil taught him that dead needles or leaves needed to be removed as to not effect the other growing foliage. He spent bells upon bells of time plucking needles from the tree and around it's base. There were also small green grass and tangled vines at the base. "Those are called weeds, they can damage the root system of a plant and cause irreparable harm to the tree. We have to eliminate such things for the tree to grow." Kavak did so at once. The weeds, as Pavil called them, held tight to the earth. Kavak grabbed the long green vine and pulled with all of his streangth and still no budging from the accursed thing. It took all of fifteen chimes to pull one weed, loosening up the roots of the weed from the earth.

Pavil handed Kavak a ceramic hand tool again, this one had a handle that fit into your hand and a cermaic head that elongated into a flat piece of ceramic material that casted itself down like a wall. Pavil showed him how to dig with it into the earth. "You just take the hoe, that is what it's called, and try to bring the roots of the weed up. If the roots remain then there is a possibility that the weed can return. Do not get the roots and you have merely caused future work for yourself." Kavak grabbed the hoe and continued to work on the weeds. He pulled one...after some time, and hoed the roots out. Sweat beaded on his forehead and dirt gritted under his fingernails and covered him up to his elbows after several bells of work. Pavil smiled as he saw maybe five trees and Kavak's sapling tended for.

Pavil clapped Kavak on his back which almost made him fall over, "Well done well done, Caihya herself would be very pleased with the work you did." Kavak laughed and thought to himself, "Well after six bells of work anyone should be." He thought about what Pavil said and then thought back to the first, he hadn't asked then about the person but he would now. "Who is this Caihya, Pavil?" Pavil laughed hysterically, "that is a good one young Frostfawn." Kavak frowned and shook his head, "No I'm serious." Pavil looked at Kavak puzzled, "huh, not a religious type are you then? Alright, Caihya is the goddess of nature of course. She controls the plants and animals that make our lives possible. Every strong and elegant elk, every tall Avanthalian pine is a result of her work. Just as Morwen is a goddess of the Winter and the beautiful snow, so is Caihya Mistress of all that occurs in nature." He said highly reverent of this relatively unknown diety to Kakvak. Truthfully he only knew of Morwen ever because she was almost always present in the everwinter city. He knew nothing of this new goddess but he spent a lot of time in nature. Kavak felt he should know this goddess. He felt he should revere her just because of her domain, though he wouldn't revere anything if he didn't have a base understanding of it. He thought he might look into the goddess of nature. He knew there was a veritable library of gods and goddesses but this was just the second he heard about in his life.

Pavil grabbed the Frostfawn's shoulder and directed him forward, "You have served Avanthal and the great Caiyha well Kavak. As a reward for this I will share with you the most magnificent part of this wondrous place." He said leading him to the other ice house which was a square building. The building was full of lush green plants. They waded through the mass of plants, Pavil guiding Kavak forward and Kavak trying to push leaves and greenery out of his face. In the middle of the mass amount of greenery and unnameable plants to Kavak was the sound of trickling water. That was definitely something new. In Avanthal and most of Taldera, water was frozen. even in the wastes there were few running rivers and very small ones at that. They followed the sound of running water to a huge round pond. It was an amazing sight to behold, one that was unheard of by Kavak in Avanthal. In his ten year stay in Avanthal he had never seen so much water. "It brings water to all our trees and plants here" Pavil said sitting on the edge. There was a small waterfall feeding the pond hitting small snowflake shaped rocks below that pointed inward to form the pond. Kavak sat and peered into the pond. Small water plants grew within making the pond seem to glow a little bit. "this is where a lot of our water plants grow, this whole thing was built by the Iceglaze a very long time ago in order to rejuvinate our city with plant life. If a storm or disaster were to effect Avanthal in any way we would need to replant trees and other plants to help sustain our breathing and food." Kavak stood in new admiration of this place he volunteered at. He thought to himself that it was a vital part of Avanthal and that he was honored to be a part of it.

by **Ablation** on January 24th, 2014, 9:23 pm

Kavak :

Please don't be afraid to PM me with any questions ^-^ and please don't forget to remove your grading request from the list to keep Lullz Office spick and span.

Solo In service of a sapling