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[Celeste Andaris]

2nd Saun 716

This was, frankly, unacceptable. Celeste was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain this house, although she was doing what she considered a passable job of it. But the garden? Well that was simply impossible to maintain. But yet, she knew, it had to be kept tended and beautiful. It was, after all, the first thing that anyone saw of her home and before anything else, she was an Andaris. There were standards to maintain and keeping a careful and well tended garden certainly gave the correct impression. Celeste was all about giving the correct impression and so she determined that a group of stems and leaves and roots was not going to get the better of her. Working in the Library, she had been able to bring home some books on horticulture, which told her which plant was a weed, which ones were plants and which flowered or produced in which season. She had spent quite some time studying these books and then walking out to the garden to make sure that she was identifying the correct plant and so on. They had been quite useful, in truth.

But not one of them prepared her for this business of kneeling in the dirt and pulling things with her hands. Her hands, which she worked so carefully to tend and care for, now were being assaulted by weeds and rough earth. Really, this was unbearable.

Grand-daughter of the Duke of Andaris, Her Lady Celeste Andaris knelt in the earth and she had a deep frown on her face. She was wearing her dark trousers and top, her long dark hair was piled in a chignon at the back of her head. Her brown eyes were entirely focused on the plant in front of her as she knelt on her haunches, both hands around the offending weed and she began to pull.

It didn't come up.

Unpeterbed, Celeste wiggled slightly in her position, put herself more firmly on the ground and gripped the stalk of the weed a little harder. Now, the book that she read *had* warned her that this particular weed had a deep system of roots, but really she had not considered that it might be this difficult. Frankly, it was a good job that it was still such an early break of the trial, because if it was too hot (which being Saun, it could be) then she might have ended up actually sweating or something else vile and common and totally beneath her station. She let out a grunt of exertion (and what would Father say about such?) as she continued to pull, futilely, at the weed which she was not strong enough to pull out without first loosening the earth. But the book had not told her to, and she did not know to.

"I suppose you think you're clever, don't you? Well, let me tell you" she said to the plant in question, anger sharpening her tone "I am going to pull you up and then I'm going to bloody well jump on your roots"

[Aeon]

Once more, just like the other days before, the Sun wasn't floating in the sky as Aeon left the barracks and went for a run. Every other or so day, he'd switch it up, and exit the city to run around the roads. He didn't know why, but he really enjoyed the nature, especially in such an early break. He wasn't going as fast as he would've been, if he was running in the city, as the roads weren't as easy to run on, and the scenery wasn't so plain. There were several houses outside the city, and more often than not, they had some kind of farm along with them, because why else would anyone live outside of the protection that the walls presented. Of course, there were those people that wanted solitude, and privacy, so they lived alone on the outskirts of the great city, but Aeon never understood them. Why would anyone abandon such a place like Andaris city only to live by themselves? It made no sense to him, but when he thought about it more, not many things made a great deal of sense to him.

Often when he was running in the nature, he would remember his home, back in Warrick, the farm, his father, and it never really got him in a good mood. He remembered how happy he was when he didn't have to worry about things, when his problems would disappear just by talking to his father, when his responsibilities where there only to keep him from doing bad things he wanted. Now his responsibilities were his life, and they were all he had, besides the god-awful room at the barracks and his personal belongings. It was hard, adjusting to the new lifestyle at first, and it was still hard for him, Aeon still hadn't adjusted to being someone so meaningless, someone so easily dismissed. That was one of the things that scared him the most, being dismissed as a nobody, and he was working all the time to stop that from happening, to stop that possibility form even existing.

He hadn't been running for that long, when he encountered yet another house that he never understood the purpose of, but this one was different, this one actually had a person he could connect the house to, and what a person it was. A beautiful young woman, who for some reason, was kneeling in the dirt, digging weed out of her garden. A not so beautiful garden, Aeon dared to think. He paused for a few seconds to catch his breath, he wasn't usually this tired after only maybe half a break of running, but he wasn't exactly paying attention to the state of his brain and body at the moment. He slowly walked towards the house, thinking about the reasons for anyone like the girl in front of him to live here. There were none, in his mind.

"I'm sorry, you need some help with that?" he said, surprised at his own words, as he wasn't going to offer his help, in fact, he doubted he was even going to start a conversation, but he did. Then, shortly after, he realized he wasn't looking exactly friendly, except for his face, that was, because he had his regular warm smile on, along with his sweaty hair ruining his eyesight. Though his clothing was rather inappropriate, as he didn't bother putting on the Iron Hand tunic, with the sigil and colors of Andaris. He took those colors for a reason, to show who he was, he wasn't the child from Warrick anymore, no, he was a man of Andaris City, the capital of Rynmere, and yet, without that dragon on his clothing, he wasn't even that. Because of his plain shirt, that used to be white, he now could've been a peasant, or a thief, or a merchant, or even a bandit, for all the girl knew. In the bit that had gone by after his words left his mouth, he regretted not using his first words to the girl as an introduction.

[Celeste Andaris]

Frankly, had she known Aeon's thought processes she would have quite agreed with him. The garden was ugly, which was beyond unacceptable, the house was in a ridiculous place and quite why she was kneeling in the dirt was, at this moment, beyond her. However, as she heard someone approaching, Celeste stood, wiping the dirt from her hands, removing her gloves and shaking out the dirt from her trousers.

"Good trial" she said and she looked at the man in question. He was friendly, with a nice smile, she considered, although he looked unutterably dreadful. Really, she considered, why anyone would ever feel the need to be running around and getting sweaty like that was beyond her. There was no excuse for it, none at all. However, to each their own and the young woman smiled at him with a genuine expression which was a mixture of gratitude, frustration and amusement. "I am certainly not having any success. Do you know anything about how to do any of.....this?" the last was said with a wave of her hand, gesturing to the garden with a dismissive gesture. "If so, I can only tell you that I would appreciate the help"

However, sweaty though he might be, Celeste had been raised in a household where she understood the importance of manners. "Forgive me, my manners seem to have escaped me" she said, although of course, they had escaped him too, but she did not and would not ever consider, mention that fact. "I am Celeste Andaris. To whom do I have the pleasure?" she wondered, holding out her soft, perfectly manicured hand and smiling at him.

Did she expect him to know who she was? No, not really. But still, that was all part and parcel of the excitement of living here, alone and without people to help her. In truth, the young woman was hardly prepared for such an adventure, but she was still at the stage of enjoying it and relishing the freedom that it granted her. It was *her* garden and if she wanted to accept help from a stranger, then she damn well wood, and father and Peake and grandfather could all go to hell. She smiled at Aeon and awaited his name. "So what am I doing wrong?" she wondered, after they had introduced themselves and she gestured for him to come in through the little gate. "If you really do not mind to do so, I would be very pleased of the assistance in here" she said, honestly.

Because in the battle between woman and weed? Weed was winning.

[Aeon]

The girl didn't seem to be afraid of him, even with Aeon's looks, perhaps she knew him, or maybe didn't want to be scared of him for some other reason, he didn't bother himself with the psychology behind her actions. Not like he would ever understand any of it. Aeon simply believed that all people had good in them, no matter how deep down, and he wouldn't let himself lose that thought.

She spoke, and Aeon lost his track of thoughts, something in his mind wouldn't let him be distracted from her, no mater what the distraction might be. As she greeted him he mumbled something close to 'Good Trial', though hardly recognizable, and he freaked out in his mind because of the sound of his voice. Aeon never really payed attention to his own voice, he would just talk, and think about the things he was saying, though never the way they would come out. His voice seemed rusty, rough, not like the warm one he was used to, for some reason, he sounded different to himself, and he wondered if it was like that to the rest of the world too. Surely it was just because he recently woke up, and didn't talk very much since, yeah, that thought gave him comfort, it was nothing special.

"Oh, yes, I'm so sorry, I should have introduced myself, my name's Aeon and..", he was just listening to the sound of Celeste's voice up until that point, when he actually managed to figure out what words she was saying, and then it hit him, like some sort of battering ram inside him. Her last name, it was Andaris.. How could've he not realized earlier. Aeon didn't know much about nobility, or nobles in general, but he knew the basics of manners, well in theory at least. He had never talked with a noble before, sure, he'd seen them in Warrick, but never like this. Then it hit him again, he should've probably bowed, that was something that should be done when meeting a noble, right? So he did, with a huge degree of clumsiness, but he still bowed. He had no idea what was he supposed to do next, and then BAM, another battering ram straight to the brain. Why was a noble girl on her knees outside her city and castle pulling weeds from her, well, intriguing, garden. And once more.. how was he supposed to address her? He didn't even know who was she in the noble family, and even if he did, he'd still have no clue how to speak to her. it was all messing with his brain.

"The pleasure is mine.. um.. my Lady..?", he said, with much insecurity in his voice, for obvious reasons. He wiped the sweat off his forehead once more, how was he even sweating, he wasn't moving? Aeon moved the bit of hair that was covering his view of the garden, of the house, and of Celeste, to take a good look at the weed now. He wanted to help her, in any way he could, no matter her status, rank or name, so he gave his hardest to shuffle through his thoughts to, perhaps remember anything his father could've said about gardens or weed. No. It was all gone, he had no clue how to deal with what kind of plant in the garden, but he was sure that his father mentioned something.. Something like.. pull it as hard as you can and then wait for the ground to be softened.. No, it was surely not that. Or was it? Aeon had no clue.

"Well, I am not exactly an expert gardener.. but I can certainly try and help you with that, to the best of my abilities!", he smiled, like a kid who had just impressed their parents, and went over to the plant. Or was it maybe cut it out, it doesn't have deep roots, perhaps, though unlikely, Aeon didn't have an idea of what to do. Maybe, just maybe, it was: soften the ground, it's roots are deep. No, surely not, how come weed can have deep roots? No mater the case, it didn't hurt to try anything, so Aeon grabbed the plant and pulled, with all the strength he had in him, which mind you, wasn't a lot at that time. He pulled for a couple of moments, or was it breaks? He couldn't tell, as his eyes were closed and all he could think about was how his hands were burning. Finally, it reached the point where his subconsciousness gave up on the plant, so his hands instinctively let go, and he fell backwards into the rest of the garden.

[Celeste Andaris]

2nd Saun 716

The man seemed very awkward around her - possibly because of his extremely sweaty nature, she considered. That might be it, of course. She made it something of a personal rule to not get sweaty like that, it was most unladylike. But still, he spoke a greeting, although his voice sounded gravelly and somewhat strange in comparison to how it had sounded when he offered help initially. Ah well, she considered, really she wasn't one to judge. "It's nice to meet you Aeon" she smiled at him in a friendly manner, hopeful that she might calm him down. He seemed quite highly strung to the noblewoman. And then he dropped into possibly the most awkward bow she had ever seen and he stumbled over his greeting. Ah that made sense. He had just realised that she was an Andaris.

How strange, Celeste thought to herself. It was unusual to her that he hadn't known because she was so used to everyone simply knowing immediately. But then, she supposed, that was because she spent most of her time in the family home where the slaves simply knew who she was. "Yes, I suppose" she replied with a smile and a nod "My Lady or Your Ladyship is usual. Now, this garden?" she motioned and looked at him with an expression of exasperation "I am at my wits' end. Would you mind?" she asked and she watched him as he got to work on the weed. "Thank you, so much" he was obviously a kind man and she was pleased he had tromped past.

Oh thank goodness for that, she thought to herself. Obviously, being a commoner, he was likely to know more about weeding and so on and Celeste watched him with an encouraging smile on her face. Which turned to a vaguely perplexed expression and then her eyes widened as he fell backwards and landed on his rump in the garden. Celeste's hand shot to her mouth as her eyes widened and she looked at him with concern and amusement in about equal measure on her face. "Oh! Oh, are you alright?" she asked and she moved immediately to kneel next to him, checking that he was, in fact, uninjured. And then, because she could not quite help it, a slight chuckle escaped her and she looked at him apologetically.

"Oh, please forgive me" she said, though she did not stop laughing "I would say that this is an Andaris weed, the proudest weed in Rynmere and we might be vanquished by it, momentarily. Would you like a cool drink?" she asked, with a smile at him. Really, it was unforgiveable of her to laugh at him for falling over, but she could not quite help it. "And then, maybe, we can try to dig it out? The book I have says it has deep roots. Or... perhaps I should buy a different house" she added the last with a smile to him which was at once both good natured and slightly cynical.

[Aeon]

The titles Celeste told him weren't really known to Aeon, and when he started thinking about them, they didn't make much sense. Why did they have the 'my', or 'your' parts in them, when the woman was her own. Not like Aeon owned her, so she was his Lady. The other one was even stranger to him, what did 'your Ladyship' even mean? What was a Ladyship? Aeon thought it could be the duration during which a woman is a Lady, but that didn't make sense, considering a woman would be a lady from her birth to her death. And why was it her Ladyship? Was Ladyship some sort of object, a paper? Nobles are so strange, Aeon thought. With all of their etiquette, and titles, and huge castles in which there were definitely over a dozen unused rooms.

The landing hurt, of course it did, but nowhere near how much a fall from a horse hurt. This pain he could easily ignore, just by focusing on something else, on someone else, but the pain he felt years ago, no, that was not so easily forgotten. He remained sitting on the ground for several trills after the fall, and he had almost forgotten that he actually fell, or that he was sitting in a noble's garden. Aeon didn't notice, but his shirt was almost covered in dirt on the back side, but all he could feel at the moment was Celeste's voice. She wasn't like Aeon expected nobles to be, she appeared kind, her voice soft, and soothing, something about her just made Aeon lose his thoughts every time he looked her in the eyes.

"Oh, yes, I'm all good." Aeon smiled, and he noticed that she was on the verge of laughing. He couldn't blame her, he was in fact a Skyrider that was beaten by some weed. Every normal person would've laughed at that. As he heard her laugh, he couldn't help it, he was amused by himself too, so he started laughing as well. "No need to apologize, my Lady, laughing is normal.", indeed it was, but the more trills passed the more embarrassed Aeon was feeling, and his cheeks slowly turned red.

The more Celeste talked the more embarrassed Aeon felt, even though he knew it surely wasn't her intention to make him feel that way. Then, at the mention of a cool drink, Aeon's throat suddenly felt dryer than before, like it understood what Celeste was offering. Aeon couldn't answer with words, because for some reason, he believed it would be rather inappropriate of him to just barge on into her garden and ask for a cool drink, but he forced himself to nod at the question, because he could in fact use a nice cool drink. With the nod, he mumbled to his chin, probably the hardest words for him to say.. "Thank you"..

The book said that? The book did say that.. Aeon was now feeling incredibly stupid for not remembering that his father said that. Or did he say that? Surely he must have said that while explaining how to take care of a garden. It would've been impossible that he skipped just the plant Aeon needed right now, or would it? No, it would've, Aeon wasn't going to blame it on his father, his father didn't deserve such a thing, he gave his best to teach Aeon everything he would've needed, it was Aeon's fault he didn't listen.

"Oh, there's no need for that.. I.. We'll surely be able to dig it out." he said, not quite understanding what Celeste meant. Aeon wasn't exactly an expert in cynicism or sarcasm, no, he didn't know any of those at all. He would always assume that what a person says is exactly what they mean, which was probably the reason for every misunderstanding in his life.

[Celeste Andaris]

2nd Saun 716

Sitting there on the ground in her garden, although he laughed he also flushed red and Celeste looked at him with a business-like expression. All in all she recognised that her words were embarrassing to him so when he spoke his thanks for the drink, she waved her hand with a dismissive gesture "It is hardly enough for the trouble you have endured so well at my hands already. My thanks are to you. Excuse me one moment" and she popped into the house, to re-emerge some short time later with two drinks and some small sweet buiscuits that she had "I thought that maybe we would need some sustenance too, and sweet things are always welcome to my mind" Indeed, she had a very sweet tooth and was always having to resist nibbling this or that. She lived in fear of getting fat, after all.

But when she suggested that she might have to move house, he took her entirely seriously and Celeste looked rather surprised but pleased "Well, if you save me from that I will be in your debt. It was a dreadful chore moving here" she said and then looked around with a thoughtful expression on her face and when she spoke she sounded entirely serious. "Although, I supose if I *do* have to buy another, it might come with servants this time. It's dreadfully inconvenient, you know, having to make do without them. Almost barbaric" just how serious was he with not understanding sarcasm and joking, she wondered as she made a more outrageous statement. Would he see it for the joke it was? "Your good health" she added, raising the glass and smiling at him. The sweetened lemon drink was nice and refreshing.

But it did all rather raise a serious point for Celeste and she looked around at the garden which, in that moment, seemed rather large. "I appear to be as badly equipped for living alone as was the general consensus when I decided to do so" It was a tricky thing, certainly. And more difficult than she had thought it was going to be. But she was damned if she was going to prove the naysayers wrong. "Do you think you might be able to help me now and then with the garden? I assure you I will be doing it myself, but just some of the heavier work that I can not manage" she asked, her gaze forthright "Only if you combine both the time and the inclination. I would not be able to pay you, but I will try to always have these" she added.

But whatever he said, once they were done with their drinks, she looked at the weed and sighed "So, how do we do this?" she asked, looking at it as though it was her greatest nemisis.

[Aeon]

Celeste was so nice to him, and Aeon had absolutely no idea why, considering what he'd heard of nobles, they were cold, distant, and in no way nice to simple lowborns like himself. She was in fact different in his mind, not only because of her behavior, but just the fact she decided to move out here by herself, without any servants, or anyone at that. As he noticed her returning with the biscuits his stomach growled, not loud enough for the Lady to hear, but just loud enough for Aeon to be bothered by the sound. He hadn't eaten much before going out, in all honesty, he really disliked the food at the barracks, but that was all he had. He took a bite of one and drank eagerly. It felt good, the chill in his throat, it was like he hadn't drank in trials.

"Oh, thank you, these are really good.", Aeon said while swallowing just a bit too large of a piece from a biscuit. Then it occurred to him that it probably wasn't polite to speak with your mouth full, so he quickly covered his mouth in a sort of shame, or maybe embarrassment. After he was done with the biscuit, he dared to speak again. "I'm sorry, Lady, I, probably shouldn't have.. it wasn't very polite, thank you for the um.. cookies, they're really great." he mumbled quickly. They were cookies, weren't they? He thought, as everything of that sort of treat he knew was a cookie, but these ones appeared way more fancy, and noble.

What was on the Lady's mind, Aeon had no clue, as he watched her rather suspiciously, considering he believed there was no chance she could actually be thinking what she was saying. Perhaps she was so spoiled she really believed it, or maybe she was joking. That possibility wasn't striking Aeon's mind before that very second. Now he began treating her words as a sort of joke, a bad one in his opinion, but he couldn't actually let her see he thought that way. On the mention of the word barbaric, something popped in Aeon's mind, and as Celeste raised the glass Aeon's thoughts drifted away, to a completely new realm, not paying attention to the toast the Lady had just made. What was it, about the word barbaric, that triggered something like that within him. Something he buried deep in his memories, something he probably wouldn't want to see ever again. Of course, he could see it now, see his younger self and his father, standing in the yard just outside the house. He was talking about Aeon's mother, and that was a rare occasion. He mentioned how once, Aeon's mother expressed her views on his lifestyle, as far as Aeon could remember, she said it was almost barbaric, how he rarely interacted with fellow humans, but spent all of his time with the animals, and the farm. Why did this memory strike him now.. Not long after that, Aeon shook his head and made his hair flow in every direction before it returned to it's regular, messy state. Now he realized the Lady made a toast, and as he quickly raised his own, now half-empty glass, he mumbled something about independence and growth of character. Of course, he had no intention to make his toast actually understandable to Celeste, as that would embarrass him even further, considering he had no idea what her toast was about.

"Oh yes, sure, I mean of course, yeah, I could, definitely.", once more, just like the time he first arrived at this house, Aeon's words slipped away from his thoughts, and he just said what his instincts wanted him to say, and not his brain. He already had a job as a squire, and that was a hard job, and also possibly a job in the Skye Verath Lodge, if he listened to the colonel. But the words were said, and the last thing Aeon wanted to was to break a promise, especially one to a noble Lady. Although, something, somewhere in his brain kept telling him, with a high pitched voice at that, that he would've accepted that offer even if Celeste wasn't a noble, of course, Aeon refused to believe himself on that one.

Again, his attention went form Celeste's words to the bloody plant which had already given him enough trouble. He wished that he had brought his sword with him on the run, surely he would've easily dug out the plant with it. "Do you happen to have a shovel Lady?", following his logic, he lost the 'my' when addressing Celeste, because that word just didn't belong there, in his opinion. "I mean if not, It's fine, I'm sure I'd be able to dig it out without one, just that a shovel would make it a lot faster."

[Celeste Andaris]

2nd Saun 716

She waved away his thanks with a kind smile and a dismissive wave of her hands "Please, it is hardly a hardship" although the way that he ate them was rather.... colourful.... but Celeste was far too well mannered to appear to even notice it. "Cookies. Yes, indeed. Cookies are some of my favourite things. Sweet and small and entirely delectible" and she had never once in her life heard them called that, but then again, that was fine.

He fluctuated between seeming entirely bashful and not sure of himself and yet also distant and she had to admit that she couldn't really work him out. He vassilated between here and not here, staring off into the middle distance. Peasants were strange things, she thought, but then that was how things were, the divide between them. But then, he agreed to help her out and Celeste smiled.

"That is most kind, I very much appreciate it. I will make sure to have more of these cookies" she promised and she wondered just how cookies were different, what was different about them. But still, she had to keep her figure although she did consider briefly that if she got fat then maybe Father would have a harder time marrying her off. But then, Aeon asked her a question and she looked at him with a complete lack of understanding in her deep brown eyes as she answered.

"A shovel?" she asked, as though she was speaking the word for the first time in her life (which she was) and she raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. "What on Idalos is one of those?" she wondered and she looked around as if to see where there might be one, just about to jump out at her. "If I had one of these shovel-things..... tell me, where would it live?" because, in fairness, it was entirely possible she did have one. After all there were lots of strange and unidentified things in the kitchen, too.

[Aeon]

Aeon could barely hold his laughter when he heard that the noble girl had no idea what a shovel was. What did they even teach those nobles? Aeon thought for a second that she might've been joking again, but that didn't seem to be the case. He stopped laughing after several trills, and went on to think about how he may explain to Celeste what a shovel is. He was still smiling about it.

"A shovel, well, it's a tool, used for digging, it's got a wooden handle like a broom, and a metal end that can dig the ground. It's very common in fact, Lady." That explanation made him proud of himself, considering he had no idea how it was gonna turn out when he said it, but it sounded good to him. Hopefully the lady has actually seen a shovel before, surely, she must've. Aeon would've felt bad for the girl, considering she had no idea about common tools used to maintain a house. Who can possibly not know that stuff..

"Well, you would usually have one laying around here, in the yard, though I can't see it." He was gonna need to dig out the weed with his bare hands. Not that it was an issue, considering he had gotten his hands dirty before, it just would've been so much easier if the noble girl had actually prepared for her life by herself. "I guess I'm going to do this the old way", Aeon talked once more, before looking down at the plant. He lowered his stance against the weed, and he started digging out dirt from around it, it wasn't going as fast as he wanted it to.

After a few bits had passed, Aeon managed to grab a hold of the bottom end of the weed's roots, and manage to pull it out. It was a big one. "Huh, that's finally done." As he held the weed in his hands, he noticed how dirty they had gotten. So much that the skin on his palms was nowhere near the color of the skin from the rest of his arms. He tried wiping it away with his hands, but it barely made any difference. Training was gonna be delayed once he got into the city, he couldn't possibly train with hands like that.

"Anything else, Lady?"