Planting Time
Characters: William, Kentar, Syla, Chris, Thane, Ella, Venei
Location: Moledeep
Garden and Orchards
It had rained for three days before the letting up and once the ground was dry enough Aikuen had started working in the garden again. The old otter is explaing planting to little Tag who has tagged along to 'help' with the planting. Will is also out in the garden helping the otters. It's a nice spring day. It may not be long before the rest of the family finds themselves out of doors again thanks to the change in the weather.
And as usual, where there are otters or rats, there are STOATS! Most of the stoats actually. Kentar, Garnet, Syla and Chris are all about in their nice gardening clothes, humming to themselves. Robin is missing of course, but thats probably because he's taking care of his new son. Syla has a silly hat on her head that keeps the sun out of her eyes. "Beautiful day." she comments.
William waves to the stoats. "Yes it is," he says from where he's been kneeling planting tomato seeds.
Syla waves to the rat and smiles as she heads over. "So. What is it you will need us to do, there Will?" she asks, tilting her head slightly to the side with a smile.
"Well th otters already cleared out all th dead plants I think. So talk t Pa and see what still needs planting where," the rat advises. "It's a good thing this garden is a large as it is th way our family's been growing. Seems we have t plant more of everything each spring," he says.
"Actually, Sy, you can help Garnet with the carrot planting." Kentar calls out with a smile. "While Chris and I plant the turnips." he nods, handing over the seeds to his wife before taking his son over near where William is.
William smiles a Chris as he comes over to where the rat is. The rat points out the row of holes where the carrots are to go for his nephew. "How are you, Chris?" he asks as he starts back on the tomato row. "Enjoying the sun after that rain storm?"
Christopher nods slowly and chuckles a little bit. "Yeah. For sure." he smiles. "Its been a while since we had a decent sunny day." he hums a little bit and then tilts his head, nodding as he starts to plant the seeds into the ground.
"Your dad an nephew were out sitin' in th rain th other day. Think they're crazy. Not sure about Thane but Kentar sure is," the rat says grining as he nears the middle of his row.
Chris laughs and smirks. "Dad is nuts, yeah. I think Thane might be one of the only sane beasts here." he laughs and shakes his head slowly, slowly moving down the row. "Heey. I'm just as sane as Aik over there." he nods to the otter who now is wearing his silly hat upside down. "Okay. Maybe more sane."
William smirks and tosses a pebble out of the dirt and it bounces off one of the twins. "Eh Pa's not that bad when he's not in a bad mood. Crazy an stupid yes but don't think that's ever gonna change."
The otter blinks a little as the pebble hits her, frowning a little. She leans over and whispers to her sister, both of them getting an evil grin. Chris notices it and inches away slowly from the rat but says nothing about it. "Heheh. Yeah. But he's still nutso." Kentar nods.
William hadn't noticed where the pebbled had gone. Lack of deepth perception has it's downsides. "He's an otter," the rat says with a shrug. "They're all crazy," he jokes. Will glances up over at the otters once he notices that Chris has backed away. "Are you two up t somethin'?" he calls over to the twins.
"Otters," the rat shakes his head. "They'll all crazy," Will says again to Chris before going back to work.
"No." the two reply. But only moments later, a bucket of dirt gets poured over the rat, the twins giggling wildly as they drop the bucket behind him and go back to work before anyone realizes they're gone. And the real funny part, is that on top of Will's head, in the pile of dirt, is a flower, sticking right up. "Hahahahahaha!" both otters laugh so hard, they fall over.
William shakes himself off and rubs dirt out of his good eye. "I wonder how long it would take to build a catapult," Will muses aloud as he dusts dirt out of his ears.
"Haha. Thats awesome..." Chris shakes his head slowly and then starts to get back to planting the seeds into the ground with his father.
William grumbles to himself and clears away the dirt the twins had dumped on him and the garden. They'd made quite a mess. "What was that about?" he growls at them, "I didn't do anything to you two. Is it 'throw dirt of big brother day' or something. ..... Stupid otters."
"You hit them with the pebble, Will." Chris speaks up after a few long moments, the stoat covering the seeds with some dirt before nodding to himself.
"I did?" the rat asks. "That was an acident. If you weren't so freakishly tall you would have been fine," he calls over to them hoping they'll take his words as affectionate as usual and not as an insult. He probably should have just kept his mouth shut.
William covers his head with a paw just in case the twins don't react well.
William covers his head with a paw just in case the twins don't react well.
Both otters listen then grin at each other, shrugging a little. "Its okay." Chris says as the others get back to work. "I think they're going to ignore your comments for now." he laughs a little.
"Maybe," Will says doubtfully, "They are sneaky and tricksy. And one is still a pikefish type otter. Worst of all is they're bigger than me. Much bigger. Too much bigger." He laughs, "No one is safe," and tries to get back to work, again.
Christopher smirks and nods slowly. "Probably." he laughs then shakes his head. "Hey. I'm a little bigger than you too." he smirks then shrugs. "But I wont pick you up I don't think." he nods.
"Please don't. You'd only hurt yourself," Will says dropping some seeds into a hole. "If you did mange to lift me off the ground I'd have to eat more rocks and they don't taste very good."
Kentar arches an eyebrow at his brother then to his son. "I think that's a challenge, Christopher." he nods. "Yeah...I think so too." the younger stoat grins then shakes his head. "Nah...I'm too busy to lift a rat. Maybe later." he nods.
William stares over at Kentar for a moment before asking, "Do you want me t plant these tomatoes for you or not?"
Kentar laughs and holds up his muddy paws, grinning. "Do you want me to touch you with these paws of doom?" he reaches out and grins.
"You can't do much worse than th twins already did," Will says.
"Do you REALLY want a bet there, brother?" Kentar asks with a grin. "I'm a stoat. There are lots of things we can do thats worse...like this...." he takes in a big breath. "Ima stoat ima stoat ima stoat ima stoat ima stoat ima stoat ima stoat ima stoat" he keeps going on and on.
"And 'ima' pretend I can't hear you," Will retorts.
"Ima stoat Ima...out of seeds." Kentar frowns a little. "I'll be back in a sec." he stands up before getting some more seeds. He also grabs a pawful of some rather cold mud, going over and pushing it down Will's tunic. "That's much worse I think." he smirks and Chris only stares. "Uh...d-dad...dad!" "What?" Chris blinks and shakes his head. "Never mind..." SPLASH! Both the stoatmaids, who wanted in on some fun, dunked a bucket of cold water of Kentar's head.
William ergs as the mud slides down his back and pushes his brother away. He laughs when the stoatmaids throw water on Kentar. "Hurr hurr. Ho, ho, oh I think you got your now, brother."
Everyone laughs and then gets back to work. "Haha...very funny." Kentar frowns, shaking off his paws then rubbing his face. "Heh. Sorry Will." he nods, kneeling down again before humming. "You know what would make this a much more interesting time?"
"And what would that be, dear brother?" Will asks still grinning.
The stoat hums a little. "A song. A happy song, or a sad song. Just. A song." Kentar nods slowly.
"You have th wrong rat unless you don't want music," Will says. "Have anythin' in mind?"
"I heard Syla singing there the other day. So I was sorta thinking, maybe she could sing something." Sy blinks though and shakes her head. "I-I only know s-sad songs...nothing that would...be a good mood for this..." she nods.
"I can't think of any right now either. Look like you'll have to make one up Kentar," the rat says.
"Alright. I suppose I can come up with a happy sounding song." Kentar hums a little bit and thinks for a moment, the stoat humming a little to himself. He's not as creative as he used to be so it might take a moment or two.
William shakes the last of the mud out of his tunic as he finishes the row of tomatoes.
"Perhaps when you think of something, dad, you can sing to Thane here." Robin comes out with Thane on his shoulders, gripping his ears. Slowly, Kentar stands and goes over, picking his grandson off Robin and setting him down near Will and himself. "Ha! I've got a song in mind." he takes the little stoat's paws and claps them together lightly, making him giggle. "Iiiiiif you're happy and you know it...clap your paws." he clap the stoat's paws again. "Iiiiiiif your happy and you know it...clap your paws!"
William smiles and shakes his head at the stoats as he walks off to get another bag of seeds to plant.
"Iiiif you're happy and you know...and you really wanna show it...if you're happy and you know it...clap your paws..." he waits and Thane just blinks before giggling wildly when his paws are clapped together again.
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