Iki had an idea. Recently, while traveling with her mother, uncle and cousin, she'd seen a tree unlike anything else that she'd ever seen. At some point in the trees life, it had been struck by lightning, splitting it in two. She assumed in some stroke of luck during the storm, part of another type of tree had been lodged in the center. In time, those tree segments blossomed and grew, fusing themselves together into a totally new type of tree. The young woman was absolutely amazed by what she'd seen and had taken quite a long time investigating the strange occurrence. On the journey home, she wondered if she might be able to do the same thing, only in a much less invasive fashion.

Once home, Ikigai took several of the Akita guards, one of the only good things to come from her father being part of Ashen, and set out to the Fern Gulley.  The princess still wasn't comfortable going out on her own and perhaps she never would be. With the dogs, she felt safer and she knew that she needed to start leaving pack lands, if only to learn how the world worked. This would be a good reason to do so.

This place was full of plants and various trees, so Iki thought it would be an ideal place to find a sapling or two for her experiment. There was so much to choose from that she spent quite a lot of time walking back and forth down one main path, shopping for saplings. It was then that one of the dogs growled low and Iki's attention was pulled away from the greenery. The young princess stood tall, her long, obsidian tail snaking across the grass as she, and all of the dogs, turned their attention towards the mouth of the path to see what was coming their way.

WC-314
Total-314/1500

"Ikigai"

Gareth was finding that there was plenty of option when it came to finding decent places to live around Boreas. He and his brother had mostly kept to themselves since they arrived, but he continued to find remnants of Maverick's scent here and there—interestingly enough in areas near the pack that he believed belonged to the woman he had a chance encounter with not that long ago. At some point he would need to track down his rouge brother and figure out what the trouble maker had been up to, but for now he was more interested in creating a little homestead for himself. He had a nice enough den dug out and a decent supply of dried meats and the like stored up in it, but there was a nice, flat piece of land near by that he decided would just go to waste if he didn't at least try to grow some useful herbs there. The spot he picked wasn't very plentiful with herbs so it would be nice to have some at the ready just in case his mess of a brother showed up injured after one of his many scuffles. Perhaps it said a lot about their relationship that one of his first thoughts after setting up his at least temporary home was making sure that he had herbs available to patch up his sibling when he inevitably found himself in trouble.

One of the areas near by seemed to be absolutely filled with all kinds of plants so after spending the early morning preparing a bit of earth for them he decided to make his way out to the gulley to see what he could find. He'd probably only be able to carry back a couple of plants at a time so he knew he needed to choose carefully and make sure he was picking ones that were both useful and would likely survive in their new environment. The climate wasn't all that different since it was just a short trip away, but the soil texture looked quite different and the plants would probably need to be pretty hardy to survive in a rockier soil. He was slowly wandering through the gulley, examining some of the plants and making note of a few good options, when he stepped out of the thick of the plants and into a bit of a path that made a clearing through some young trees. He gave himself a shake to get rid of any twigs or leaves that might have gotten caught in his fur during his digging around in the dense plants and hummed softly as he started to step down the small path to see where else he should look.

He had only taken a couple of steps when he suddenly heard a set of growls up ahead that caused him to stop, his pale pink gaze lifting from the plants he was looking at to see what was going on. His attention landed on a pale young woman with dark markings and the group of dogs that were guarding her, some of them closer to where she was standing and some emerging from the trees to add more layers of protection between him and her. He blinked with surprise, glancing between the stranger and her pack of akitas. The breeze brought her scent to him and he was surprised to find that it was quite similar to Venom and had obvious signs of being a part of the pack he had skirted around a few times now. "Um... hello there," he called to her, deciding it was probably in his best interests not to come any closer. "My name is Gareth... I don't mean any harm, I'm just looking for some plants I can transplant if that's alright with you and your security team here."

WC: 639
Total: 953/1500

"Gareth"

The warning growls brought the young lady's head up and her attention shifted to focus on the approaching form of a rather large man. Obsidian ears swiveled forward catching his words. He seemed friendly enough and Iki was trying to put herself out there more. A single nod from the soot and snow princess calmed the akita's and they went about their duty. They stuck close just in case the friendly exterior was just a façade.

Turning her attention to the man instead of her task, Iki dipped her head in greeting. "Ikigai of Ashen," she gave her name simply, no longer comfortable giving her birth title. "I am looking for plants as well. Are you looking for anything in particular?" One dark brow lifted as she questioned him. Ikigai had moved back and forth over this stretch of land a few times, searching for the most ideal of saplings before she made her final decision.

One ink dipped paw raised, motioning for the blue and white brute to approach. If he was interested in plants, perhaps he would be interested in hearing about what she had found. "I traveled recently with the alpha's of Ashen and Fenmyre," she began. "On my travels I saw two trees that had melded to become one new tree. I have it in mind to try to recreate this, but I need to find the proper saplings to take back to Ashen."

Ikigai didn't only like beautiful things, she appreciated things that served a purpose. Something that, if her experiment worked, would be useful for the pack. Marbled eyes shifted to the tall man again. "I believe that I can graft two fruit trees together so that both apples and pears grow from the same tree. And this," Iki tapped a small, sweet smelling sapling with one delicate paw, "Will be my test subject. I just need to transplant it to somewhere closer to the palace." It would be easier to keep an eye on and tend to if it was close to home.

Paws began to move the earth gently away from the roots of the small tree. They were already deep for its age, but not so deep that she couldn't safely pull them free. Again and again soft paws swept the dirt away until the young tree began coming loose. One of the akitas stood by with a large piece of cloth, ready to wrap the roots within so that they could take it back with them. Moving a few paces away from the brute. Ikigai repeated the action with a second tree. She could tell the difference by the shapes of the small leaves and soon had both an apple and a pear tree ready to be taken back to Ashen where she would perform her experiment.

After parting ways with the blue patched man, Iki made her way back to Ashen with the dogs. Once there, she chose a suitable place where the saplings would get optimum sunlight. Carefully, she planted the little trees close to one another. She wouldn't be grafting them now, but would wait until their roots took hold and they were healthy enough for her to try. Over the course of a few weeks, the young trees would grow and thrive, their trunks becoming thicker and their leaves growing rich and bright. She'd done that part correctly, at least. Her transplants had been a success. Perhaps in a season she would begin the grafting process. It was her intent to graft an apple branch onto the pear tree and a pear branch onto the apple tree. Hopefully one of them would take and Ashen would have two interesting, fruit producing trees.

WC-616
Total-1659

"Ikigai"