1939/The Coming of Spring

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The Coming of Spring
Date of Scene: 02 April 2015
Location: Dun Realtai
Synopsis: Yunomi Stadler arrives in Dun Realtai to herald the last of the land's unseasonable winter, and the coming of spring, at last.
Cast of Characters: 272, 482


Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
Dún Reáltaí is a land of rolling plains and hills. Once upon a time it was a bastion of agriculture, with farmland stretching as far as the eye can see, crops and livestock both well-suited to its rich soil. These days, the countryside is no more than lonely, windswept barrens. There are patches of snow still remaining, but for the most part, winter has moved on from here. The days are gradually lengthening, and the temperature gradually rising; even today, in spite of the wind, the sun is warm and the temperature pleasant.

Today, the lord of the land sits astride a horse, some ways out from the bounds of the village, northwest, away from the lake and the western slope of the hill, where the village rises up from the plain.

Instead of the blue steel of his new chain hauberk, he wears instead the slightly battered plate mail he had brought with him from the Round Table. As usual, he wears no helm, and over the armour he wears his much-mended and mantled cloak of office. If the lady of the land could see him from the tower window, it would be an appearance straight from memory, although this time he doesn't seem to be quite so weighed down by duties or concerns.

No, he's simply waiting for a guest, today. Every so often he reaches forward to pat his horse's neck, a sturdy beast of plain brown that blends in with the barren, dead soil of the hills. Occasionally, the beast tosses its head with a jingling of its harness, snorting, as though content to stand in the warming sun.

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
Yunomi arrives in a rather understated way. She's walking in, enjoying the warmer air and taking in the dreary landcape around her.

She feels like an artist, looking over the massive expanse of a blank canvas, envisioning the colors of the purples and greens of moor grass, the graying wood of livestock fences and the waving hills of green grains, promising warm breads full stomachs come wintertime.

Her garb is understated as well, instead of the brilliaint hues of her guild, with their stripes and brassy tones, she wears just brown workpants, sturdy boots, and a warm overcoat, buttoned at the front but without her arms in the sleeves. The same wind that would catch Bedivere's hair catches on her own, dark brown with just the faint traces of blues and reds among her bangs.

She gives a smile, coming upon the mounted knight, and she presents in a bit of a bow, her arms out to the side. "Good afternoon, Sir Bedivere."

Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
There aren't even any trees, or birds to sound on such a warm and otherwise pleasant day. The effect might be a little eerie to people used to natural places. It's like someone or something ripped the very spirit out of the land and left behind an empty husk.

He noticed her coming, of course. It's hard not to notice anything approaching when you can see for miles.

"Good afternoon, Lady Stadler." The knight manages a faint half-smile. He sweeps an arm to indicate the whole of the stricken countryside. "As you can see, your work is cut out for you. Not even the weeds will grow, at present, and they are persistent indeed." The smile fades. "Something else was equally persistent in scouring the life from this place. It is my hope that after today, that can be reversed, at least in part."

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
It is eerily quiet, like walking in a dream. The one used to the clamour of the Izzet League – the ringing f hammers, the screeching jeers of globlins and the low humming of equipment and djinn at work – Yunomi seems to take it in stride – although she's weary of the horse.

"That I can see." Yunomi states, and she turns, a small frown crossing her lips, though she's careful not to let doubt show on her face. She exhales, and rubs the back of her head. "This place is pretty desolate.... but I think I can handle it. It'll take a bit of time to cover all of it... I might even need to bring in equipment... mana generators, converters..." she states, and she looks out over the ground, and takes a few steps forward, taking off her glove and closing her eyes. She draws downwards, half-kneeling in the dirt, and draws her fingers over the earth, scratching its surface at first, skimming it with her nails before pushing her fingers down into it, feeling it for moisture, for any signs of life, any little bit of magic that the tanuki sense.

Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
"Worry not," Bedivere adds, at Yunomi's wariness of the horse. He gives the animal another pat on the neck, and its head gradually droops, ears flicking contentedly, large eyes falling half-closed. "I suspect he cannot evne see you well. No doubt the sun must feel good to his old bones. He is old and well-trained; I do not think he is any threat to you."

Shifting in the saddle, he turns to look behind himself, back the way he'd come to Dún Reáltaí's stone spire. It juts up like a tower in the midst of the plains. Although the slope is gentle enough to climb, it's still steep enough to give any potential invaders pause, with elevation working in the favour of its defenders. Is that, he wonders, why the village itself is situated on the slopes? What were they defending themselves from?

His attention soon turns back to Yunomi, and he straightens in the saddle once more. "Do what you must. The villagers will hardly begrudge what disturbances you must make; your efforts will be restoring to them the livelihood they have lost," he says, gravely. "Without crops, there can be no life in this place. If not for the Union's intervention, I suspect they would have been forced to abandon their homes, here, and find another place to go. It seems a peaceable enough land, and I am certainly willing to put in what work that must needs be done to restore to them their livelihoods."

"Crops are my primary concern, but restoring natural greenery and fertility to the soil would be ideal..." He trails off, watching as she kneels to test the soil, and remains silent to let her concentrate.

The soil is... ordinary soil, for the most part, although barren and dry. There's just enough moisture left in it from the melting snow that the wind can't pick it up, but unless something can start growing here to anchor it down, it's a foregone conclusion that this will become a barren wasteland; a no-man's land of salted earth... except there's no salt. Not obvious salt, anyway.

No, the salinity in this case is magic. Although faint, faint enough that Yunomi will need to concentrate hard to find it, there are the remnants of some great and terrible working left in the land; the echoed memory of a cataclysmic loosing of power that must have strained the land so mightily that it drew its power from everything living in the soil; so much so that even the remains of the greenery were consumed, leaving behind these barren and empty hills. Not even the skeletons of trees remain; in fact, the only growing thing in this land is the dormant oak beside the castle keep.

Curious, although perhaps at this point so old that there's little point in studying it. The trail's simply gone cold.

Astride his horse, Bedivere tilts his head, regarding Yunomi with those mild violet eyes. "What do you see...?"

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
"I've had trouble with horses in the past." Yunomi replies quietly, in answer to the horse and rider.

Yunomi closes her eyes. She had to learn how to feel the mana with Niv-Mizzet as her teacher, concentrating on the lush, green forests of her home, the rocky outcroppings of the jagged edge of the caldera of an ancient volcano, its fiery master dormant and under submission of a great and celestial frog, the islands that dotted the sea, facing towards the great, wide ocean.

Here it was waste. Here it was dying. An empty feeling, husks caught in a wind at the beginning of a long, artificial winter.

"The remains of an old wound." Yunomi states. She raises her other hand to her mouth, and pulls off her other glove with her teeth, and gives a toss of her neck to cast it to the side.

"Whatever it was drew so much away from the land that it left nothing in its wake... it's not quite barron, but..."

And Bedivere had done so much to soothe her scarred heart, how could she not feel Dun Realti's plight and know that sucker-punch in the stomach.

She lets out a breath. Her shoulders relax, and her fingers curl into the soil, pressing against it, massaging it, the way a hunter would a favorite dog, the way you would rub the sore shoulders of a laboring lover.

And the Tanuki tries to give some of that essence back to the land. Quiet encouragement at first, green mana lilting from her fingers, curling around her palms as she tries for something very basic to begin – grass. A great, green, thick carpet of green grass. Sweet-smelling, soft-under-your-feet, gently waving in the wind grass.

Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
The old horse paws at the ground and snorts softly. Bedivere half-stands in the stirrups to accomodate the shifts in weight, letting the saddle resettle more firmly over the animal's withers. He handles the horse with evident ease; the mark of a well-trained horseman, and also a man comfortable working with such animals. He'd had little choice in Camelot. King Arthur's well-trained cavalry had been a deciding factor in many battles against the Saxon host, who had been gifted navigators, but poor horsemen.

"That is what I had thought. I had tried to search the land, a few times, although my senses are not as honed as yours." Bedivere looks aside to regard the windswept hills, barren and dark, patchy where the melting snow has left the soil damp. "At least, that is what it had seemed, to me."

The green of Yunomi's power reflects in his eyes as he watches her every move, and if she looks up, she might note his own eyes falling half-closed – a tickle of mana here, a faint tug there. He doesn't attempt to intervene, but merely observes, using his Sight to watch.

...It's like looking into a floodlight. Blinking away something that has nothing to do with his physical sense of vision, Bedivere's face flickers into a sour expression and he half-turns away, shaking his head as though to clear it. That was foolish. Once the sensation passes, he contents himself with watching normally, squinting to catch the first sight of green shoots.

They come, but they come slowly, as though reluctant to set forth their roots in such an unforgiving land. Their spread is tentative at first, as though uncertain in the wake of this unhealthy soil; but life always seems to persevere in most places. It does no less here, under Yunomi's guiding hand.

And then it begins to spread.

Bedivere's eyes slowly widen as he watches the carpet begin to form beneath the tanuki's hand, spreading around the point at which she kneels on the earth, and even beneath his borrowed horse's hooves. He stares as the little shoots catch the sunlight, growing taller, rippling where the wind ruffles at the taller shoots. Its spread outward from them is slower, but further away, the soil itself seems to change; adopting a healthier colour, a less grey, less black-char look to it.

It picks up speed, as though it had been just waiting for this helpful guidance in the right direction; healthy soil, merely waiting for the right seeds to be planted and a banishment to the unnatural malady that had been plaguing it.

"Lord God have mercy," he murmurs, staring in awe, twisting in the saddle to look behind himself, where the healthier soil and the spring-tender shoots of grass march onward, spreading even to the base of the village, far behind; and far out over the hills, until he can barely see the edge any longer.

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
Yunomi is very, very magical. If not for magic of some sort, she wouldn't exist. Every fibre of her being resonates with the song of trees, and plants, and distant yernings for home.

Also: She's part sunbeam.

Yunomi exhales. Grass took. That's a good sign. Yunomi feels a bit more upbeat as she draws her hands up, and runs her soil-crusted fingers over the grass. And she takes another deep breath as she draws herself up to a stand, and takes in the sight around her, teetering slightly on the gras, hesitant to step on it. It was a beautiful thing, and she lifts a hand to her eyes, as if to better judge how far the spread had gone. And she gives a whistle.

"Well... that should help stop the wind from picking up your ground and walking off with it." she replies. ANd she turns to Bedivere, a playful smile on her lips. "Should I try for flowers next? A few trees?"

Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
The sensation of looking directly at Yunomi while she's actively engaged in magic is interesting, to say the least. It's a bit like having one's head stuck in a cathedral bell while the rope is savaged by an overeager, half-drunken bell-ringer on a festival day. Maybe, some time later tonight, Bedivere's head will stop ringing.

In other words, that was a terrible idea and he's never doing it again.

Right now, he's too busy staring at the fields to consider that; unguarded and awestruck in a way that few of his allies have seen him. His shoulders are slumped slightly, eyes wide as he regards the rampant spread of greenery.

"I—" His voice actually cracks. He clears his throat self-consciously and tries again. "I would not ask too much of you, but if it would not be too much trouble... both would be useful. Trees would provide fuel, and perhaps help spread more of the greenery, as well. And my king would... appreciate... flowers, I think." He smiles a slightly lopsided smile, though it fades. "But only if it would not be too much trouble. You have done so much already."

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
Yunomi's not used to seeing people choked up. She blinks, and she takes a step back a moment as the knight sorts his mind. She holds her breath, thinking he might decry her a witch at this point... and then he speaks.

A gentle smile overtakes Yunomi's face as she looks out over the land. "For you, Sir Bedivere, my dear friend... anything. Might want to hold the horse steady." she warns softly, and cracks her dirty hands.

And she sets to work, this time, with the gras setting in nicely, Yunomi closes her eyes and envisions. Trees to provide fuel – and food. You can't forget about fruit trees, the odd walnut tree (good for their nuts, good for their wood), trees that are already beginning to break down where bees might make nests and provide sweet honey.

The grass took easy. Trees, especially ones that look old, need a little more encouraging. It starts with Yunomi at the epicenter, and a few saplings spring up, placed at least ten feet from one another as they begin to grow. Artistically, they stop at varying ages.

Off to one side, a yew tree yawns to life, stretching its boughs and providing shade.

Yunomi is calling on her memories, walking through a British wood as a young tot, sneaking into human schools. The knight and the mage are soon shaded by the little stand of trees.

And here, Yunomi springs her trap!

Among the gnarling roots that take hold, providing trip hazards, dark green foliage appears, nestled between the arms of the yew, rizomes appear and then spring up. Little spsears jut outwards, to heaven, and from them spring delicate white buds.

Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
Fortunately, the silver-haired knight recovers his composure quickly. Once upon a time, his very life had depended on the ability to control himself, and he'd learned long ago to master his reactions. Right now, it would behoove him to watch this process, because it's a once in a lifetime event. Never again will he have the chance to see this place's vegetation reconstructed, literally, from the ground up. Once it's been restored, it should be able to sustain itself.

Automatically, one hand reaches up to choke up on the reins, keeping the horse's head steady.

He stares as the trees begin to form in a radius around them, staring. It's like an artist taking brush to canvas, as though it were as simple as all that. How easy she makes it look, as though with a swipe of an imaginary brush, she might raise a yew tree there; a linden tree there, oaks and elm and so many other species, in various states of health and age.

And up above, the branches stretch, offering shade and whispering leaves in the wind. Bedivere turns his horse in a circle and stares, thunderstruck. What else can he do but stare? This is like the stuff of legend; a miracle made reality, something completely unimaginable to his mind brought forth with seemingly no effort at all.

...The horse, on the other hand, is perfectly content to ignore the magic of all this, dipping its head to crop at the fresh, tender grass.

Bedivere, however, has his gaze brought down by more movement – and he can't help a smile at the sight of so many little lilies-of-the-valley springing forth from the roots of the trees. It's a true smile, warm and appreciative; genuinely pleased to see those little heralds of spring in a land that had nearly been doomed to lie barren. The smile is still in his eyes when he glances aside to look at Yunomi, watching her work.

"Thank you, my friend."

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
He wasn't far off; the tanuki was going by a mental canvas, tracing her memories in the shapes of trees, twisting and gnarling branches, giing the forest a natural, home-grown look. It might be miraculous to outsiders... but to Yunomi? It was artwork. The best kind of artwork – the kind made for others to enjoy and use. The trees might die, or tumble over in a heavy storm. Some will be used for firewood, that's true – but others will be used to make cradles, she imagines, cradles and beds for the old. Coffins for the perished. Comfort and All Things Good.

Yunomi lets the trees grow, for eighty feet around, and then, as the flowers begin to blossom, she teeters slightly, and then eases herself down to one knee. There's the barest shimmer of sweat on her brow. And she takes a deep breath of fresh air in a newly-minted forest, and for the briefest moment it was not Dun Realti around her, but the distant, now forbidden forest that the river wound its way through, leading to the village Namamura.

And for the breifest moment, her heart splits, and she feels tears begin to burn at her eyes, so she throws her head back and laughs, and tries to sound happy.

"Ah, no artwork of mine was ever so pretty."

Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
There comes the rough sound of armoured plates clattering, and the slither of a chain hauberk beneath it; and the muffled sound of impact as Bedivere slides from the saddle and lands on fresh-grown grass. He approaches silently and at some speed, though more from the result of height and naturally long strides than any particular haste.

She might feel a gauntleted hand settle on her shoulder; a gesture of silent comfort. Maybe he sensed her pain, or maybe he simply observed it. Bedivere is observant like few of his brother-knights were. He'd gotten to be unsettling at his knack for reading people, even if many weren't aware of how sharp his perceptions could become.

"No." He smiles, even as he regards the trees, the grass blanketing the hills. It all seems so very natural, as though it had been here since time out of mind. "I once envied the farmers in the fields, at times, to be able to grow and shape and create as they did, working with green and living things... but this is just as beautiful, if not more; to restore this land from such a pall as had been over it. You should be proud."

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
Yunomi tried to keep laughing, until she felt that hand on her shoulder. And she turned her head away, squeezing back tears until she set her hand on his.

"No, Sir Bedivere... it's... I am proud. I am so very, very proud of this." she motions with her free hand. "This is the most useful I've felt since..."

Yunomi paused, and she looked over the trees. It wasn't taking down Kaiju. It wasn't fighting the Golgari.

This was a peaceful endevour. And it still made her heart hurt. She looked over the lilies of the valley, and she takes a deep breath.

"You're right." she replies, "... it's good to feel useful again."

Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
"Sometimes it's the simple things that give us the most satisfaction," Bedivere murmurs, withdrawing his hand. He steps away from her, as though uncomfortable standing too close – it's nothing personal; the knight simply has problems sharing his personal space, something Yunomi may have observed before now. He seems uncomfortable even standing too close to others. "Although I would hesitate to call such work as you've done today as 'simple.'"

He shifts his weight, kneeling to cup one of the tiny, white blooms of the lilies-of-the-valley in his hand. His grasp is delicate enough not to harm any blooms, tilting them until a stray dapple of sunlight falls over them. The silver-haired knight smiles.

"This will please many. Now that the soil is retored, it seems to be a chain reaction; with such mild weather, the plantlife will spread itself. We can begin planting crops soon." He inhales, sighing through his nose in evident relish. "And then these people can begin to recover their livelihood once more."

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
Yunomi stands, teetering slightly, and puts out a hand to lean againt a tree for support. Handy! She's used to the 'not wanting to be close' thing. Her adoptive father wasn't exactly the touchy-feely type either... it took years for him to just address her as Yunomi. Even after the adoption.

"Compared to my usual fare, Sir Bedivere... this is simple. A little green mana, and a lot of happy people. At least I can back up the hope that you've given them." she pauses, and then gives a bright, cheeky smile. A knowing smile.

"And the flowers will please the King." Yunomi points out. "I do recall you mentioning they were her favorite when we were discussing the greenhouse."

Sir Bedivere (482) has posed:
With the sound of leather straining and the jingle of harness, Bedivere climbs back up into the saddle and settles in over the old horse's back. The animal flicks an ear complacently, but apparently doesn't mind the interruption.

"Sometimes it is the simplest things that provide the greatest joy." The silver-haired knight smiles, faintly. "I could not back up their hope if you did not help me, Lady Stadler. You have our thanks, and the thanks of all of Dún Reáltaí's people, as well. Your assistance in this matter has saved this land and its people."

To the last, he doesn't say anything, at least not right away. Gradually, though, he smiles a faint smile.

"Aye. I did, did I not? They are. You have my thanks, for that."

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
"Good. Make sure you bring her some, Bedivere. It might lift her spirits." Yunomi adds with a rueful smile, and with a little wind at her feet, she rises up ino the air to go eye-to-eye with the knight, even on horseback.

"I'll need a few days rest. I'll bring mana generators and transformers next time. Let me know what grains you want, and we'll do some fields. You're also going to need a better source of water for orchards. You've /got/ to have apples. And I'll bring some crabs or bagels next time... it takes a lot to do fruit trees." she warns, and then she acends, parting through the trees easily and heading back to the city-world of Ravnica.

... with a case of the warm fuzzies.