The Garden: Wednesday Early Evening

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

Dor ran after the flying objects, trying to keep up as best he could until he saw the tiny things dive into the ground next to what appeared to be a garden.

Then there was a popping noise followed by what Dor thought was Irene's voice shouting "GROW!"

Dor's thought was confirmed when trees and plants sprung from the ground and rapidly began to grow into full bloom. Irene must have bribed Good Magician Humfrey with something for him to bottle up her talent like that. Then again if Humfrey could put lightning in a bottle, a magical talent shouldn't be too hard to manage.

Dor immediately recongized the shoe tree and the clothes tree as the began to sprout various forms of footwear, shirts, skirts and pants. They weren't exactly what he was used to seeing but maybe since the plants took root so close to Mundania they took on some of their more recent fashions. Then there was a flannel tree also growing clothes, coats and blankets for colder weather followed by a nice fluffy pillow bush.

The next tree Dor couldn't figure out at all. Every time he looked at the trunk it seemed different and the shape would lead him to think something else and...

"Oh!" Dor said aloud and shook his head in amusement. It was a mys-tree. No one could ever figure out those things.

Dor walked around to the other side of the row of trees to find a milkweed plant with some of its pod all ready to picked for fresh milk. Next to that was a cocoa-nut tree (whose cocoa-nuts were filled with chocolate milk) a pie tree with almost every kind of pie variety you could think of and finally a...

"Cherry tree?" Dor said looking amazed. "That could be dangerous! Why would Irene send such a tree?"

Upon closer inspection Dor sighed in relief. It was only a chocolate cherry tree whose fruit had a delicious chocolate center. That was a good thing as the other variety, the cherry bomb, could have hurt someone!

Dor then picked a nice fluffy pillow, a ripe milk pod and some chocolate cherries before leaning up against the mys-tree to watch as the plants reach full maturity.

Suddenly Xanth didn't seem so far away.

[Open! Yes these are permanent additions to the garden from behind the stable and are free for people to use.]

Comments

[unddann]

Lola walked by, paused, and stared.

Yeah, so she was starting to get used to the weirdness of this town, and hadn't had too much trouble even from the beginning.

But the tree sprouting flannel? That was a new one on her.

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"Hi!" Dor said wiping his mouth with his hand. "Try the chocolate cherry tree. They're very good."

[unddann]

Cherry trees, at least, Lola had heard of. "Where did this all come from?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"Home," Dor replied cheefully sipping from his milk pod. "A friend of mine sent this along as a gift. Try it out, it's very good."

[unddann]

Right, this guy was from a world full of weird magic-y stuff.

"Shouldn't you wash it first?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

Dor looked at the cherries and shrugged. "They look pretty clean to me. Why? Are they dirty?"

[unddann]

"It's outside." What? It made sense to Lola. What was it her mother used to say, when she cared about that sort of thing? "You don't know where it has been."

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"Well it just grew up a few minutes ago," Dor replied. "So they should still be pretty clean."

[unddann]

"And they are already ripe?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"It's my..."

Dor paused a second once again trying to find a word that matched his relationship with Irene. Finding none he pushed on.

"... friend's magic. She can make things grow."

[unddann]

Lola looked around. "Did she come and visit?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"No," Dor said. "I think the Good Magician Humfrey bottled the seeds and her talent together as part of the gift. King Trend must have asked it as a favor otherwise she would have spent a year in his service and I don't think the King would allow that.

[unddann]

Yep, right over Lola's head. "Ah."

[intraspective]

Ino had been planning on fussing with her garden, and working in it for a few hours before heading into the dorms after work, but it became very clear, very quickly, that something was dreadfully wrong with her garden.

And there was someone there and enjoying it.

"You!" Ino said, hands on her hips. "What have you done to my garden?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

Dor blinked and frowned. "I'm sorry!" he yelped. "I didn't know it was anyone's garden. Actually I didn't actually plant these here myself as it kind of did it on their own and..."

Dor couldn't think of anything else so he held out a bunch of fruit.

"Chocolate cherry?" he offered lamely.

[intraspective]

Technically, she supposed, it was the school's garden. But she'd done all the work, and paid for most of it herself, so Ino felt she was totally justified in being a tad possessive of it.

She gave him a Look. "They kind of did it on their own?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"Well see I got this bottle from home and when I opened it the seeds hit me in the eye which you probably don't care about so I'll just move on from that point... Which was... Right! Seeds! They flew down here on their own and started to grow."

If Dor looked flaily it's because he was flaily.

[intraspective]

"And this... happened today?"

Ino, she was not impressed. And flaily Dor just made her think he was guiltier.

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Dor replied sincerely. "About fifteen minutes ago. If I had known what it was I would have asked first but I just opened the bottle and..."

He made a whoosing noise and gestured to the trees.

[intraspective]

She looked at her... expanded... garden. "It's not just going to... go away, is it?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"Um..."

Dor thought very carefully of how to answer that diplomatically.

Unfortunately he could only come up with "No, It's going to stay."

[intraspective]

That got a twitch, and a displeased frown. She was all for new plants, but really, she liked to be the one to decide where they were going in.

"Right," she said flatly. "What are they all? And what's got to be done to care for them?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"They're pretty self sustaining," Dor said gesturing to the tree. "But I'll be happy to take care of them so they don't cause any problems. Now let's see... that one over there with the high heels and the sneakers is the shoe tree. The ones with shirts, skirts and jeans is the clothes tree. The one with all the pillows is the pillow bush and that's a flannel tree with all the coats and blankets. Then there's the pie tree, the chocolate cherry tree, the milkweed, the cocoa-nut tree and the mys-tree."

[intraspective]

Ino was going to resist the urge to facepalm. A lot. She tugged at her hair instead.

"These are normal from your world, yeah?"

[talks2objects.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Dor said looking at the trees fondly. "A lot of these grow in the wild but these domestic trees are just as good."