Woodsman Meet Wildflower (attn Laoise)

Welcome to the Gardens: one of the most tranquil areas of the Tower Grounds.
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Welcome to the Gardens: one of the most tranquil areas of the Tower Grounds. Birds sing in the trees which line the wide paths between beautiful flower beds and serene lakes. There are benches to sit and listen to the waterfall, and there is neatly trimmed grass to lie on and rest. Novices and Soldiers as well as Warders in Training can be seen, sweeping the stone paths as Accepted and Dedicated study from books and relax under leafy trees.
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Quinn
"New Spring"
Posts: 12
Joined: February 18th, 2016, 2:35 am

Woodsman Meet Wildflower (attn Laoise)

Post by Quinn » March 2nd, 2017, 11:55 pm

Quinn casually swept the stone paths that led through the gardens. One of his favorite chores since coming to the tower. In fact, it was second only to chopping wood. An odd combination, but each held certain elements he enjoyed. Chopped wood reminded him of the countless wood he had chopped at home. At least here all he had to do was work through a pile of wood rounds. At home he would have to trek into the woods and find dead and downed trees before dragging them home and starting the process from scratch. The gardens came close to the serenity of being in the woods. The only thing that had marred it was the people that could almost always be scattered through the gardens. Still he found it easier to think here than anywhere else in the tower. If he could get away with sleeping here, he would. It was much better than the claustrophobic room that had been provided to him. Most nights he found himself sleeping on the floor anyway. As odd as it sounds, his bed was simply too soft for him.

Quinn paused from his work and glanced at the sky. He was surprised to see that the sun was already passed two hours after high as near as he could tell. He worked right into his free period. With a smile, he flopped down on the nearest patch of green grass. It was one thing to work in the gardens, quite another to relax in them. He watched the leaves blow in the branches of a leatherleaf tree that stretched out over the top of him. Smiling, he started to hum The Fool who Thought he was King, and bobbed his feet back and forth to the beat.

Jon
"Lord of Chaos"
Posts: 365
Joined: February 16th, 2016, 11:11 pm
PC: Laoise "Lee" Arged, Novice
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: Woodsman Meet Wildflower (attn Laoise)

Post by Jon » March 11th, 2017, 5:33 am

Laoise the Novice sat in the Gardens, hiding from work but also trying to work on her calm. This was one of the first major lessons for this novice—the ability to maintain her calm. She had practiced being a lily opening up to the sun. She was the river contained by the bank. One teacher, knowing that Lee was a Tinker, had told her to be a leaf caught up in the wind. Pain stabbed through Lee’s heart at the memory, but she smiled too at the Sister’s reactions to Lee’s tears. How could the woman have known the pain associated with the Way of the Leaf? No one understood exactly what Lee was wrestling with.

Be the river contained by the bank, she told herself. Leave the past in the past. Accept what comes. Power through submission.

That last was the real reason Lee was busy trying to clear her mind. The One Power—the female half of the One Power in any case—was never forced. Only through submission did a woman weave saidar, and Lee was having a hard time accepting her new lot in life. Thus, submission to some unknown power, outside of herself, was a bit difficult for her to countenance as well. And so, she cleared her mind, hoping at least to sense saidar, but never touch it. She was not ready for that yet, or so she’d been taught.

It was in the quietness of concentration that the scuffling steps first began. Someone was near her in the woods. The swish of a broom on the pathway accompanied the scuffling steps, and Lee did her best to ignore the poor Soldier or Drin who had been chosen to sweep the paths. She had done the same in her own time, and she was likely to do the same again. But for now, any out of the ordinary sound—and the sound of a man sweeping after an hour of contemplative silence made the definition of what was out of the ordinary—was only a hindrance to her practice. The irritation of the hindrance needed only to find itself in the river contained by the bank to rush out of her, carried away by that river’s current.

But when the humming sounds of a tune Lee knew for many names—her favorite of which was Cock in the Hen House, even if the name made Lee’s mother blush—drifted over to her through the bushes, Lee could not take any more interruptions. She stood up from the patch of grass on which she’d been sitting and moved with purpose towards the working trainee. (The Sister’s would’ve probably called her down for her stomping towards him, but she just called it moving with purpose.) “Um…” she called out to him, before seeing the smile on his face. She knew that smile; it was the smile of a man who knew his lot in life. It was a smile seen on the face of every Tuatha’an, for they were content in the Way. It was a smile she no longer had a right to.

“Excuse me,” she said, taken aback by the simultaneous assaults of both anger and shame after seeing this man’s smile. “I am trying to meditate over here by the tree.” With that, she pointed towards the patch of grass. “And, while your voice isn’t one I wouldn’t mind hearing from time to time, I would appreciate it if perhaps one of those times were not now. Concentration comes easier in silence.” She folded her hands in her front of her and tried to smile, though she was sure she was only succeeding in grimacing in a maniacal way.
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This is Laoise, or Lee for short.

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