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Spring winds breeze gently around the figure resting against the large tree; leaves rustle, the taller blades of grass brush against her legs but the Dark-skinned women doesn't react at all.
Beauregard Lionett seemingly sleeps peacefully within the plot of life she and her girlfriend have claimed for themselves, it'll soon enough be nearing a year since Aeor and her and Yasha's relationship began.
Life was good.
Within her dream, Beau stood within a room and surveyed her surrounding, quickly enough a familiar smell came through and she knew exactly then where she was.
Kamordah.
She was smaller than current day, her arms were bare and lacking the wear and tear of life with the Nein -even too, the Monastery. she must have been in her mid to late teens then. Inspecting herself further revealed baggy, unkempt clothes and worn shoes. ah, the mid-Tori years then.
This could of been a nightmare, Beau considered, taking in the experience. A few years back and any dream that included this dreary place regardless of it contents would have been to her. But not anymore; there were worse things than returning home that sometimes stalked her mind on occasion at night.
Still, all the same she would of preferred a different setting for her first real experience lucid dreaming, her earlier meditation at the tree she currently slept under preparing her mind for lucidity and to push the envelope on what she could achieve.
This was only the third lucid dream she’d had since this specific training with Dairon began, this apparently being an excellent way to start on the process that would allow highly trained Monks to begin to project themselves Astrally.
Though she’s not quite sure she’s ready for that anytime soon. After the experience the Yussa had gone through, while likely a one and done now that the Astral city was long gone, was still enough that she wasn’t chomping at the bit to try. Maybe when the time came though, Yussa could give her some pointers -he owed her that much at least for being the one to find him within Cognouza.
Focusing back into her younger dream-self however, Beau checked around her space, the plain stone wall denoted one of the various wine cellars within the Lionett estate – a bit bare and boring and mostly devoid of Barrels; must be fresh out of the season, she concluded.
Cracking her knuckles, Beau wondered what to try first, attempting to manifest a new way out of the cellar and outside instead.
‘Quack’
Dream Beau’s eye reopened, the exit failing to manifest as her concentration broke.
Was that a quack she just heard? Beau wondered before she faintly heard the light rustling of plants some ways away as well. She strained her ears to tell where it was coming from but couldn’t place it.
Another rustle, a quack -faintly muffled this time and then fainter still, the sound of fluttering feathers coming from… beyond?
Well, now she’s curious.
Beau’s eyes open once more and she’s back at home, her home. The breeze still blows, the grass tickles slightly and now - there’s that noise, coming from within one of Yasha’s many gardens. It’s one closest to where the waterfall up on the cliff ends into two rivers that splits the water into the Pearlbow and to their pond.
Getting up from her spot, Beau made the short jaunt over to the offending noises, the source within seemingly none the wiser as it carried on whatever it was doing in Yasha’s plot as she reached the fence and peered inside, zeroing in on the heavier rustling within the breeze wasn’t causing.
~~~~~
Caleb had told her a story about his favourite food once; in the early days of the trio working on the restoration of the two floored derelict that they’d found just west outside of Rexxentrum. He spoke on the memories of him and his mother planting green beans in the limited garden of their home in Blumenthal, looking out over the surrounding overgrown with a fond smile and a gaze that spoke of potential.
The two women looked too to where he did; flat ground surrounding a large pond, and they knew just what to put there.
~~~~~
‘Quack- wak-, wak’
There was a duck in Yasha’s green beans. Correction, there was a duck on top of Yasha’s green beans.
Padding out of the individual standing trellises of near ripe beans, a small brown and yellow ducking was carrying out a bundle of its own in its mouth. If a duck with is mouth full could look proud, it was certainly doing so, as it deposited the stalks into an already existing pile and promptly sat on them, bill idly shuffling them around itself.
If it noticed the Monks approach, it didn’t seem to mind her as it carried on, Beau carefully vaulting over the fence to approach closer.
“Well. Hey there little… Guy?” Beau said quietly, unsure actually of its gender. Sure, she’d seen a good few ducks in her time since leaving Kamordah, but she wasn’t actively checking underneath them for clarification.
She was a few feet away from it now, it taking notice of her but seeming unfazed by the proximity.
It ruffled its fuzzy feathers, giving Beau what she could only assume was an indignant quack, before looking right at her. “Right, little Girl then, sorry.” Beau corrected.
Appeased, she gave a shake of her body before returning back to shuffling the beans around what Beau could guess now to be a makeshift nest of sorts.
The Human took another step closer, testing her guess. When she glanced at Beau but didn’t otherwise react, she chanced another, then another until she was a foot away from the duck.
“What’s a duck so young doing by itself in one of Yasha’s plot” Beau wondered aloud as she cautiously reached a hand out, Monk instincts ready to yank it back if she tried to bite it -she was no T-rex, but the Monk would still rather not have a sore finger.
The duck regarded her hand, head tilting slightly, as it decided the fate of Beau’s digits before shifting in its mound to palm her hand with its head, a mumbled quacking emanating from it.
Beau wonders if this is what Yasha felt when she first petted the Weiner dogs during their date, as the fuzz from her head tickles her palm and she lifts her hand to carefully scritch it in return. Seemly pleased with the transaction, her wings flittering as she nestles a little deeper into the beans.
Fuck, Yasha’s gotta see this little girl, Beau concludes, wondering if she would mind being carried over to the house.
Deciding not to test her luck, Beau slowly gets up, her heart twinging a little, as the ducks head drifts up to chase the contact before settling back down.
“Stay here a minute, I’m going to get someone who’ll give you so many more head scritches.” Beau tells her, straightening out to beeline it over to the kitchen where Yasha would probably be, glancing quickly back to see that, phew, the duck was still in her makeshift nest.
Yasha was halfway through watering the various small herb pots from Caduceus when Beau bounded up to the kitchen door, wide grin plastered on her face. “Yasha – Yasha! Come here, quick!”
Yasha glanced up from the small watering can as Beau entered. “Did it work, did you do the whole ‘lucid dream thing?” she asked, growing excited until the Human waved her hand dismissively
“The dream thing? Yeah, yeah. Did that – But, Yasha. There’s a -like, a duckling in your green beans and its pulled a bunch off into a nest and it let me give it scritches and – just, come on!” Beau rambled, rocking impatiently on her heels.
“Oh.”
Suddenly the Aasimar could clearly see why Beau had forgotten about her ‘dream thing’, hastily dropping the watering can onto the work top, she darted to peer through the kitchen window at her green bean patch, she gasped.
“Aww. Hello little ‘Green-Bean’.” Yasha coos from the window.
Beau spun back around to the patch to see what Yasha was seeing and felt her heart melt just a little at the sight before her:
Waddling out from the Aasimar’s bean garden, mouth packed up once again, was the duck in question, heading straight for the kitchen door. Beau instinctively backed up into the house a little, clearing the doorway for their approaching garden visitor.
‘Green-Bean’ waddles her way though the threshold toward the Human, small quacking noises coming from her mouth, before depositing the small bundle of beans beside her leg and promptly plopping down upon them.
There’s a noise by the window that sounds a lot like a balloon squealing as Yasha watches it happen. No sooner had the duck settled down, was Yasha -carefully- upon her, movements as telegraphed as possible as her hand lightly trails ‘Beans’ head-fuzz.
Beau simply watches as ‘Green-Bean’ happily accepts the scritches, fuzzy body ruffling contentedly. “Seems she likes me then, or she just wants more of where that came from.” She chuckles.
“Can we keep her?” Yasha asks, looking up with hopeful eyes, from the Duck, “I know we talked about it before, but…”
~~~~~
It was soon enough apparent that after the discovery of the local dominant wolf pack within the Pearlbow many months ago, that Yasha’s desire to get chickens for the house was going to have to be put on hold for now. Sure, they didn’t frequent close by the pairs abode often, and the few time either of them had personally encountered them it was quickly met with an understanding -apparently, kill enough large monsters and you carry a particular scent that left a pack with a very important decision to make.
The local pack made the right one and they paid the two little mind.
But it still left them with a lingering issue of laying protective claim to the surrounding, and subsequently any animals they wanted to house.
Yasha had taken it as a zealous mission to see it done and so the work began.
~~~~~
“Well, you’re making good headway on the project, but yeah -I mean, I don’t know where she came from and- “
A quack from below drew her attention back to the subject of the question, ‘Green-Bean’ looking up at her from her bundle, there seemed like there was a question in those beady little eyes.
Unsure exactly of the question, Beau just gives a nod to the little duckling.
Seemingly satisfied with her answer, ‘Green-Bean’ got from its bundle, quickly collecting it back into her mouth before waddling away from the both of them across the kitchen’s stone floor and towards the rest of the house.
The two look back at each other as she disappears from view with a muffled quack.
“Huh, well guess that settles it then.” Beau concludes, a grin breaking onto her face. Yasha beams up at her, still crouched down from giving ‘Green-Bean’ scritches
“Welcome to the family, GreenBean.”