Halo was settling in well, genuinely.  Day by day she was turning her den into a home.  Curled up in the soft furs and sleeping better than she ever had, and realizing the way in which this pack actually too care of each other.  Imagine.  No ill will, no bitterness, towards the band that she grew up in, but Halo could tell just how different things were here.   Like a duck to water, Halo took to starting her life.  Today was the day she would start setting up her garden, having turned the soil with her paws the day before.  There had been more joy in the digging than she cared to admit, and had done it fairly gleefully.  The spring sun shone softly down on her pale shoulders as she set about planning her plot.  With her claws, the girl drew a soft line in the dirt, tracing where the rays of the sun hit.  It was important that she know which areas were more and less exposed throughout the day.   From there, Halo moved to scratch a list into the soft dirt beside the plot.  The tenderhearted creature needed to consider what would grow well here, things from climates similar to their own.  How much rain did they get here?  How humid would it be during summer, on average?  Much of it would be trial and error, but she could prepare as best she could.

Having been assigned to a complete stranger to help them with a garden of all things - the only garden she had experience with had been Iolaire's when she'd been a pup, and time had blurred those memories and she hadn't been particularly impressed at the time anyway, so the idea was definitely not appealing to her - but it was considerably less unappealing than hanging out with Sedna, so Aris decided to do some observations and investigations of this Halo person before deciding to completely hate the idea.

So with a good old fashioned camouflage of mud, grass, and sticks - can't go wrong with a good camouflage - she'd set up to spy on the newbie. So far nothing super interesting... she'd poked around at the freshly-turned dirt a bit, and now was scratching in the dirt next to it for some reason. Aris thought maybe she was writing something, so she crept closer to try to read it, but was at the wrong angle. Damn. If Dirk was ever around when she needed him she'd have sent him to go read it for her.

The soft, pale creature busied herself with tending to her garden plot. She'd collected a spare few things to plant within it already. From her list, she moved to her den and returned moments later with a clump of lamb's ear that had was still wet at the roots. It had been sitting on a damp hide, allowing the roots to heal from any trauma they'd received from being dug free from the ground, but also staying moist. This clump had come from the other side of the Plains, in a spot that Halo would guess remained in full sun most of the day. With that assumption, she moved to plant it at the farthest corner of the plot, where the sun would hit reliably. With careful paws, she dug a small hole in the loose soil before tucking the plant into its new home. It was as Halo moved to retreat for the second lamb's ear bundle from her den that she caught a rustling close by. She paused, head coming up. Without realizing it, her pulse was pounding in her chest again-- all she could think of was the panther from her first day. Nerves spiked, the tender hearted creature held her breath as she listened for more noise. "Hello?" The call was meek, her eyes wide. If it was another predator, she wouldn't be able to run. No, Halo would need to fight. That, and she'd call out for Sirius or Mortis-- they'd help, right? But they were probably busy... oh no. Her gaze fixed on a clump of sticks and mud where the sound had originated, looking cautiously for the shine of crystals or the reflection of eyes.

Aris froze when the woman looked her way, cursing the impulse to get closer. Unfortunately, she was midstep and her paw raised when she had to freeze, so her muscles very quickly started to quiver from holding the position. But Halo didn't look away, so Aris couldn't put her paw down. It was an awkward position, and quivering gave way to cramping in short order. Damn, fuck it! She was going to have to go in.

She took barely a split second to rock back on her heels to gather her weight before springing forward, scattering accumulated mud and vegetation in her wake as she bounded up to stop in front of Halo. "For someone putting in a flower garden you spend a lot of your time standing around doing nothing," she sneered. "What's the point anyway? You could just go collect herbs from anywhere like everyone else. It's a waste of time and space to even have one, and now you're stuck in pack lands taking care of it. It's stupid." It felt good to voice her irritation with the whole idea, even if it was to someone timid enough to have been staring at a bunch of mud in fear. She couldn't have said it to her dad, who only had experience with quiet, mousy little healers who were prim and proper and fussy, who wanted to be stuck in pack lands so they could depend on everyone else to defend them. She didn't want that life.

As the yearling sprung forward, Halo took a large step back. Her eyes went wide, heart pounding in her chest-- oh. A yearling. Not a panther, you're safe. It wasn't something that Halo would need to draw arms against, and that was for the best. Though her training with Sirius had begun, the pale healer still lacked confidence. Maybe she'd be a better fighter someday, but today... well, today wasn't one of those days. The verbal assault that came next had Halo hanging her head a bit lower than moments before, seeming to crumble a bit under the girl's words. While pups were her favorite, yearlings seemed to have their venomous phases. Some of those didn't end, the tenderhearted creature considered-- look at her own sisters. For a moment, Halo evaluated the girl with a vague sense of awe. A stranger, and she was here... well, it wasn't yelling. No, Halo wasn't being yelled at. She was being talked down to, which didn't feel great. Still, to have the guts to lash out like she did, Halo had to envy it. Her ears (well, at least her good ear) tucked into her head. Nervously, Halo took another step back. ...you spend a lot of your time standing around doing nothing, that one would sting, especially later when the tenderhearted girl had time to dwell on it. Still, she fixed for a moment on the yearling's question. It wasn't until after the frustrated young woman seemed finished that Halo finally spoke. "Do you want to know what the point of it is?" She couldn't tell if it was a rhetorical question or not. Would she be open to learning what the point of having the plot of herbs planted and on hand was? Halo's voice was quiet, with a slight quiver. Still, there would be no use trying to teach her if she didn't want to learn.