"Of course I will." Ari'sora exclaimed.
"But I will need a shovel if you want me to dig a new pool over where the baby waterfall will be born. And I'll need a bucket to carry the water over from the old pool to the new one. Do you have those things?"
The bird nodded.
"Shovels, we have in plenty. They always come to help us out when the waterfall is about to die. They need someone with hands to wield their leader, but if you pick a shovel and start digging, the others will follow your lead, and help you out."
The bird gestured towards a large pile of shovels that Ari'sora had not noticed until then. Had it just appeared magically? Well, the bird did say that the shovels came to help them, so perhaps they had just arrived.
"That part will be the easy part. Unfortunately, we only have one bucket. And that one...well..."
Ari'sora looked over to see where the bird was pointing. There was indeed a single bucket laying on it's side over by the pile of shovels. It was old, and worn. Clearly it had seen better trials. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the bucket didn't have a bottom. How was she going to be able to carry anything in it?
"I see what you mean. I guess I'll just have to figure out how to carry the water to the new pool once I've dug it."
"There is one more problem. You see...the water doesn't like to be moved. A creature lives within it, and whenever anyone tries to move the pool, it will protest, and attack that person."
That did seem like a problem, but it was one that she couldn't do anything about just now. Before she could move the water, she needed a place she could move the water to, and she was safe from attack until she started to move the water. So Ari'sora got to work. She chose a blue shovel that was big enough that she would be able to lift a good amount of dirt with each stroke, and small enough that she could wield it easily.
Once she had chosen her shovel, she walked over to where the new waterfall would be born, and began to dig. Sure enough, when she began digging, the other shovels followed her lead. With their help, it didn't take long before a good sized hole had been dug out for the new pool. Ari'sora allowed herself a few bits to congratulate herself on a job well done. Then it was time for her to start moving the water from the old pool to the new one.
[color =blue]Ari'sora eyed the bucket she had to work with and considered her options. Then she glanced at the shovel in her hands. What if she rested the bucket on the blade of the shovel, and used that as its bottom? She could scoop water into the bucket with her hands while it sat on the shovel, then carry the whole thing back to the new pool. It was worth a try, at least.
So she walked over to the pool, and scooped some of the water out with her hands. The lake creature rose up out of the water, and stared at her. When it saw the bucket nearby, it frowned. But then it turned back to her, and watched her intently. What was it waiting for? Why didn't it attack her? As Ari'sora watched the creature, a rabbit hooped over, and drank from the pool. Could it be that simple? Ari'sora had scooped a handful of the water out of the pool, but the creature didn't seem to mind if animals drank from the pool. Did it think she was planning to drink the water she had scooped out? Ari'sora decided to test her theory. She quickly sucked the water in her hand into her mouth, but she didn't swallow it. Satisfied, the creature sank back into the pool.
Ari'sora spat the mouthful of water into her bucket, but it was quickly obvious that using the blade of the shovel as the bottom of the bucket was a failure. The blade of the shovel wasn't completely flat, so the water ran out of the bucket. Her plan had failed completely.[/color]
That meant she was back to square one. She needed a bottom for her bucket if she wanted to use it to carry the water from one pool to the next. If the shovel wasn't going to work, what could she use to make one?
Ari'sora looked around.
Some of the plants had really big leaves. In some cases, a single leaf was big enough to be used as a bottom for her bucket. And a leaf was a lot flatter than the shovel had been. Could she use one of those to make a bottom for her bucket? The problem was how she would get it to stay on, but maybe it would work if she tied it with a vine or something. It was worth a try, anyway. So she looked around until she found a leaf that looked like it might work for what she needed. Then she had to find a suitable vine. That took more work since she had to fly up and untangle one from the branch of a tree growing nearby. Once she had everything she needed, she used the vine to tie the leaf so it would stay attached to the bottom of her bucket. Then it was time to try again.
As she approached the pool once more, the creature that lived there rose from the water to watch her suspiciously. Ari'sora didn't want to have to fight the creature, so she scooped some water up with her hands, and pretended to drink it. Like before, this satisfied the creature, and after it sank back into the water, Ari'sora spat her mouthful of water into her bucket. She did this many times, until her bucket was full. But when it was time to lift the bucket and carry it over to the new pool, the weight of the water proved to be too much for the leaf to hold. The leaf broke, and all of the water spilled out. She had failed again.
Clearly, she needed a new plan. Ari'sora looked around to see if there was anything else she might use. There were a lot of reeds and tall grass growing around the edge of the pool. Could she use them to weave herself a bottom for her bucket? She had heard somewhere that something that had been woven together was stronger than cloth...or in this case, a leaf that had not been. Or was that a single stick was weaker than a bundle of them that had been tied together?
Either way, it was worth a try.
Ari'sora quickly began gathering up some reeds and tall grass so she could weave them together. Rather than a vine, she braided several long pieces of grass into a rope, and tied that around the bucket tightly to anchor her weaving. Once that was done, she tucked reeds, and blades of tall grass into the braided rope, on one end, wove them together, then tied them into the rope on the other side. It didn't take her long to weave a cover to serve as the bottom of her bucket. But she was far from being a skilled weaver. And when she tried to fill the bucket, the water drained through the holes in her weaving; small holes that she hadn't even noticed were there. She had failed yet again
The bird that Ari'sora had spoken to earlier watched her efforts impassively. Ari'sora considered asking it for advice, but something in its expression told her that the bird either wouldn't...or couldn't tell her what she should do. There had to be something she could do, though. It was just a matter of figuring out what.
Time had passed while Ari'sora worked. The angle of the sun in the sky had changed, and when Ari'sora looked at the pool she was supposed to move, she saw a rainbow dancing in the mist caused by the waterfall.
As she watched in awe, the creature that lived in the pool rose up out of the water, and stuck its hands into the rainbow. Chimes of music filled the air, as the rainbow swirled around the creature's hands. When the creature pulled its hands out of the rainbow, parts of it clung to them. The creature licked the rainbow off of its hands, closing its eyes in bliss as it did so. Then it blinked sleepily, and yawned. After a few trills, it sank down into the water once more, and Ari'sora had the strong impression that it was going to take a good long nap.
Almost as if compelled, Ari'sora walked to the edge of the pool, and stuck her own hands into the rainbow in an attempt to copy what the creature had done. It tickled her as it swirled around her hands, and when she pulled them out, it clung to her hands just as it had to the creature's. That gave her an idea. If the rainbow liked to cling to things that it touched, maybe it would cling to the bucket? Nothing else had worked, so it was worth a try. Rainbows were magical, after all. Everyone knew that. Anything as beautiful as a rainbow had to be magical.
So she stuck the bottom of her bucket into the rainbow. As she had hoped, the rainbow clung to the bucket when she pulled it free. There were no holes in the rainbow that she could see, but the real test would be whether the bucket would hold water now, or not. Since she was pretty sure that the creature was asleep, Ari'sora dipped her bucket into the pool. If the creature woke up, she planned to take a drink out of the bucket in the hopes that it would assume she had taken the water to drink.
But the creature did not wake, and her luck held. The rainbow clung to the bottom of her bucket, keeping the water from falling out. Thrilled with her success, Ari'sora quickly carried the water from the old pool to the new one, one bucket full at a time. When the water level got low enough that the sleeping creature was exposed, Ari'sora paused in her efforts long enough to carry it carefully over to its new home. If she was lucky, it wouldn't realize that she had moved it until she had left.
With that task out of the way, she went back to moving the water once more. When the last of the water had been moved over to the new pool, Ari'sora used the shovel she had used to dig the new pool to take all of the dirt that had been misplaced, and move it to the edge of the old pool. Once the old waterfall died, it could be pushed in to fill the old pool up completely after the animals had drunk all of the water. Perhaps she would do it if she returned to the meadow some trial. Or perhaps, it would be the task for the next person who came here.
"You saved us. And for that, you have our thanks." the bird said as it flew down and perched on her shoulder.
"You should go home and get some rest. You must be exhausted after all of that work."
Ari'sora nodded. She did feel tired all of a sudden. A good long nap sounded like a wonderful idea. But as she glanced at the arch leading out of the meadow, she hesitated.
"Will I ever find this meadow again?" she asked hopefully.
"Of course you will! Who do you think is going to have to fill the old pool once the waterfall dies?" the bird asked in amusement.
Ari'sora giggled in sheer delight. The idea of more work didn't phase her at all. It would be worth it if she could visit this wonderful garden meadow again.
"Now go home and get some rest. Theris is going to be grumpy for a while when he wakes up and learns that his pool has been moved. And no one likes dealing with a grumpy Theris."
The bird flew back into the tree once more, and Ari'sora ran through the archway that would lead her home.
Off Topic
This post covers the following challenges:
Growth Challenges
4. Have your character fail horribly at something.
5. Have your character fail horribly at something, then have them try again and again until they don't fail. (Note: this can be the same 'thing' they fail at as above, or it can be different. Up to you!)
6. Have your character watch something and attempt to copy it/stop it.
