PM to join [Bhrani Library] Plants With a Side of Parchment

[Saej]

¤

Winter 33 515AV

Today was Saej’s day off from doing work for Miss Solla and she had already decided days ago it would be set to scholarly proportions. She first headed out and bought two quills* (1 topaz kina total), a vial of ink* (1 kina), and three scrolls* (3 kina total). These all went in her rucksack which she dutifully carried with her to the library as she plodded along the street to her destination. She was prepared to write about plants native to Lhavit. After living here for so many years she was ashamed to say she knew little about the flora and fauna native to her city. At around noon rest she had made it to the Bhrani Library, about the time when a class of twelve year old's filed in as well. It was time to get her knowledge on!

The library was somewhere new to Saej. She had passed it many times but this marked the first time had actually went inside. It was so grand on the outside, as passing by had shown her, and she was truly excited to see the inside of the place. The architecture was testimate to the master builders, every time she passed it by she couldn’t help but give a stare to its heights. Inside it almost seemed larger and she paused for a moment to take it all in. Perhaps the largeness was lent to the dome shape the original architects built it as. The winding stairs leading up and up made her almost feel dizzy to look at, she was unsure how her brother rode his Eagle at twice these heights. She inquired at the desk to where their section on plants and gardening was. The librarian asked her “Which, gardening or plants?”
Saej had stated simply, “Gardening the plants in Lhavit.” This got her an exact answer from the obviously knowledgeable man who wrote down the location in the dewy decimal system for her. Before she could leave the librarian made sure to inform her that she wouldn’t be able to take any books from the library, “All books stay here”, he had said. Saej curtseyed her thank you and made her way up the steps to the nonfiction section.

The librarian directed her to the six hundred and thirty fifth mark in the dewy decimal system. This was where the section on gardening was held. She made her way through the tomes, some encrusted in almost ancient dust of many years, until she finally found a book entitled “Common Flora of Lhavit” as this is what she came for after all. The book itself was bound in leather and not that thick, It had a light dust and upon opening it up to about the middle she was met with that distinct smell of old paper. Inside she gazed on an inked drawing of a beautiful flower, even colored in. The artist was certainly good at their trade.

She found her way to the tables and chairs, the tables majestic and obviously well handcrafted cherry wood, placing the book gregariously on the table and watching in slight horror as it slid slightly down a couple of inches in her excitement. Taking the backpack from her shoulder, a bit less excitable in her movements now, she sat down and removed its contents from the depths of the bag and placed them on the table. Now she was going to copy a few of the plants from the book on to the parchment to save for later study. Unfortunately she was too poor of skill to draw them, or else she would have. Who would think one would be so excited to be in the library? This is what she wrote:

Made by Liz

[Saej]

[Saej]

[Saej]

¤

The scrolls were poorly made, very dark against the ink she bought. She made a note to never buy from that paper maker again and find another source for scrolls. The first scroll had many ink blots from where she pressed too hard and even once her hand slipped, causing a large streak to run across the page, this was due to her hurriedly scrawling across the page, racing no one but racing all the same. The second was much better done as she was careful not to have any ink blots sullying the page, she took her time with this one as she knew these would be used in later dates to go over and memorize. The information she wrote down was easy enough to remember; she made sure to put what each plant was, flower or tree wise, beside its given name. Information wise what she wrote was simple yet concise, something she was sure to remember and be able to recognise each of the plants with after some practicing. Already though, she could remember her favorites such as the taka moss, the bulboru, and the ipdo.

She had hardly finished writing when three young boys came up to her table and stood, staring at her. The one boy had black hair and blue eyes, just by his stance she could tell he was quite the rapscallion, another was a redhead with a broad smile, like herself, though to her trained eye he was easily not an Inarta, the third and final boy was a brunette who also had blue eyes and he seemed to have been dragged there by his friends, he wouldn’t look directly at her. Having been noticed they clambered at her footstep. She closed her book and turned in her chair to face them.
“Whatcha doing here?” Asked the black haired boy.
“Are you an Eagle Rider?” Asked the redhead, his brown eyes blazing with anticipation.
She was assaulted by their questions and let out a laugh at their sweetness, each little face, even the shy one, was imploring her to divulge the answer.
“No, not an Eagle Rider unfortunately, but I do have a brother who is!” The boy gasped and she continued on, “I’m here the same as anyone else, to read books. Hey, where are your books?” Surely they must be here as some sort of classroom field trip.
“Our books? Oh, well, we haven’t gotten any. I mean Mikey has one,” he was referring to the shy child, “but his is on the table.” Mikey became even more bashful with his name being thrown into the mix and seemed to retreat into himself. Saej noticed this and gave her own name,
“I’m Saej. What are the rest of your names?”
“I’m Gregory”, said the black haired boy.
“Scott.” Came the redhead’s answer. Mikey kept his mouth shut and stared at his feet.
“So,” Gregory said, she was right in that he was the more outgoing of the trio, “Your brother rides Eagles?”
“He does! He enjoys it a lot. His bird is named Lucy.” This was the first time she had ever really spoken about her heritage to anyone, usually people either didn’t notice or didn’t bother to ask. A shame it was to a group of children, but she supposed children had wild things to say on a good day so she might as well make some fun out of it. Truth be told she was itching to get up and find another book to use the last scroll on, but she would talk to these children about her time spent on Wind Reach and her family for a bit longer, she was having fun.
“Does he come to Lhavit?” Asked Scott, excited out of his wits it seemed as he bounced on one leg as he spoke, using one hand to steady himself by propping it up on the table.
“Yes, he’s a trader. I see him every so often, too. Maybe you’d recognise him. His bird is HUGE and gray. He looks a lot like me, my brother, we’re triplets.”
“Ohhh!” Gregory exclaimed. Mikey seemed more ready than ever to leave but stayed with his companions. Saej laughed at the sight of the three kids, they were all so different even just within this small span of meeting them it was obvious.
“So he does ride one though,” Mikey finally spoke up.
“Of course he does!” She said happily. Saej found herself hardly bothered but their presence and in fact very much enjoyed being seen as an Inarta.

[Saej]

¤

The children stayed and chatted to each other about Wind Eagles and Saej began putting away her things back into the backpack for safe keeping. She had an idea but wasn’t sure how long she had with the children, surely they needed to be back to their classroom soon. Her heart raced with slight anxiety at just the thought, she wanted to tell them an old story her mother told her many times as a child. The library was exciting the storyteller within her. She felt the familiar paranoia wash over her, how would it feel to be laughed at by children? Pulling on all of her inner courage she asked innocently enough. “Would you like to hear a story my mother told me when I was small, like you?” She wouldn’t put them at any older than twelve.
The outgoing child grinned, “An Inarta story?”
“Well, yes. Though it’s pretty standard issue.”
“YEAH!” They chimed in together, even Mikey finding his voice, and laughed at their unison cry. They were excited to hear a story from a native Inarta.
“Okay,” she started, “Once upon a time and a long, LONG, time ago there lived a woman.” Her voice became slightly more melodic as she started the story, she continued on,”She was very beautiful,” her voice trailed slightly at the word very,”and she knew it too. She was vain, as vain as vain can be. For hours she would stand in the mirror and gaze at her reflection.” The children stood enraptured. “One day,” she said, her voice inflecting upwards as she spoke, “There was a knock on her door. It was late in the night, much too late for visitors and when she opened the door an old woman stood there.” She paused for effect, taking in each face of the children. “The old woman was haggard and ugly. So ugly, in fact, that it repulsed the woman to look at her. ‘Uhg!’ she had said, ‘Leave my house this instant!’
‘But please,’ the old woman pleaded, ‘I’ve been lost for days and need somewhere to stay, won’t you please let me in?’ The woman refused and turned her away. Little did the woman know the old lady was a magi and placed a curse on her, ‘For every bad deed you do you will turn as ugly inside as out.’” By this time Gregory’s attention shifted, he began to fidget. “And as it turns out the woman was a very bad person, her vanity making her mean. It wasn’t long before the curse’s effects took place and her beauty began to fade. After only two months she was ran out of the village, she had turned within that time an old crone herself despite being of such a young age. For many years she wandered, until finally, one day out in the woods, she came upon a old woman who didn’t shy from her unearthly appearance. In fact this was the same old woman who had cursed her all of those years before. The younger woman didn’t recognize her, although the older woman knew who it was immediately and was surprised to see that her whole demeanor changed.” Now it was Mikey’s turn to become fidgety, he began itching his nose and staring around the room. Turns out she wasn’t as good as her mother at storytelling. “After a dinner of roasted squirrels the old woman told the younger, ‘Do you know me?’ The disfigured woman was confused, she had no idea. Finally the older woman reminded her of the curse that was placed all those years ago and the young woman fell to her feet and wept. ‘Please,’ she begged, ‘Release me.’ Satisfied that the woman had learned her lesson the old lady told her that for every good deed she did she would regain her beauty. After they parted ways the ugly woman took heed to the old woman’s words and began doing good deeds, even small, and slowly learned that being kind was worth its weight in gold, even more so than regaining her beauty, as she earned a new place in a village far from her orginial home and eventually the curse was lifted, she felt even better and felt even more beautiful now that she was a good person.” The children sensed this was the end of the story and waited with bated breath. "What do you think the moral is, you guys?" she asked the children.
"Be a good person!" Scott said triumphantly
“Almost, you're on the right track. The moral of all of this is thusly;” and fittingly, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover, and kindness is worth more than all the Kina in Lhavit.” The children clapped and laughed, “What was a good story Miss Saej. I’ve never heard that one before.”
“But what happened to the old woman,” Mikey asked.
“Oh she lived her days in in satisfaction out in the woods by herself, just the way she liked it.”

With the story over she thanked them all for listening and told them remember what she taught them and to get back to class, they were gone for quite awhile. With the kids bussed back to where they were supposed to be she opened the book back up and began rereading it in its entirety; paying special attention to blooming seasons and how the plants can be arranged, so as not to choke out other plants. She enjoyed her time here and was also enjoying learning about the plants. Many of these she remembered seeing around, as she wrote down the most common of the plants from the book, and was happy to think that now she would know their names and even some of their properties. Perhaps she would collect bulboru this summer and plant it in her own garden. She was also looking forward to try out some teas of kariina flower to help her go to sleep at night and even giving taka moss a go in her kitchen, curious how strong their effects would be. By accident she knocked her inkwell over and onto the bottom part of her third and final scroll. She was upset and cursed herself, "piece of shyke that I am," using the hem of her cloak to mop up what was left on the table. When she was finished with her final scroll, after leaving it to dry for a good ten bells, and copying the plants she deemed important or interesting she packed up her things, replaced the book to its home, and returned to her own house, where Thak waited patiently outside her doorstep to be let in and stay inside with her cat for the rest of the day.

[Saej]

[Saej]

¤

*-4.1 Kina from quills, scrolls, and inkwell.

OOCFeel free to PM me if you want to meet with Saej in the library, I can just scrub out her going home!
Comes out to 2,347 words, but I believe if my writings with the plants were added it would be well over 2,500 words. If need be I can type all of that up. For future reference I also have a better parchment image to "write" on. This one was messy, I was using "paint" as well. Old school!

[Brandon Blackwing]

SAEJ

XP:

• Observation +3
• Gardening +2
• Herbalism +1
• Socialization +2
• Storytelling+1

Lore:

• Lhavit: The Bharani Library
• Bulboru: Recognizing, uses, when to harvest
• Dwarf Primrose: recognizing, uses
• Fadeong: recognizing, uses
• Ipdo: recognizing, uses
• Kuhari: Recognizing, Dangers
• Nokkochi: Recognizing
• Taka Moss: recognizing, uses, how to harvest
• Bromegrass: uses
• Kariino: Recognizing, uses
• Wanamu: Recognizing, effects

Notes:
I feel the note-taking could perhaps use a little more detail, but otherwise this is a very light and fun thread. Good job

Please remove or edit your post in the request thread.
Also please track your newly awarded xp and lores in your CS so both staff and graders alike can keep on grading your threads
If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding your grade, please do not hesitate to send me a PM.

credit goes to Adelaide Sitai