milliways_bar | (no subject)

The problem with receiving a plant sometimes is one doesn't always know what it is. So, being an eight year old for the time being, and a curious one at that, a young girl goes wandering. "Excuse me..." she mumbled quietly through her split lip, not wanting to intrude.

Faramir smiles down at the child, his kind, grey eyes focused on her and nothing else.

"Hello, little one. Can I help you?"

An almost shy smile and a glance upward are his rewards, revealing eyes taht swim with color, but only for a moment. Then a grubby milk carton is raised for inspection, a single seedling curling up from the soil "Would you know anything about plants sir?"

"Indeed I would, my dear!" He turns his body fully towards her, resting his elbows on his knees. "What is it you'd like to know about this one?" He won't dare touch or take it until given permission. Children's treasures are to be respected as much as any King's.

"Well, what is it?" She lowers her nose to the edge of the cardboard to squint at the little seedling. "Her name is Maple, but that's a tree, and I'm not sure this is a tree..."

It looks far too small to be a tree, and she'd hate to wish it to be other than what it was. She curls her knees under herself and sits by his feet, offering the cup carefully with both hands "I forgot to ask when I got it"

Faramir actually slips off his chair to sit on the floor with her. He takes the cup and holds it with as much careful respect as she had, safe in his larger hands.

"This little seedling is too young for me to tell what it is for certain," he says. "But I can tell you a sure way to care for it until it gets larger. You'll want to keep it in a place that is bright and warm. If you put it by a window, best not keep it on the sill in the winter. The cold comes through the glass and bites at young leaves, and makes the plant grow up weak and afraid. You'll need to make certain it has enough water, but is not drowned. If the soil ever gets dry, it needs to drink. If you put a few very small holes in the bottom of your cup, that will make sure any extra water leaks out. You can set a tea saucer under it to collect the water. When the plant grows larger, it will need a new pot, which surely the bar can give you. A plain bucket will work as well. That will take time and you won't want to use dirt right from the ground -- it's too heavy."

He hands the plant back to her. "I'll be happy to tell you all about that when you think it's ready for a new home. I live here, in room 771." He smiles at her. "My name is Faramir. And I think you have a very special plant, whatever it turns out to be."

Faramir does not believe in weeds.

For some reason his words almost seem to make her sad as she takes the plant back carefully and cradles it against her breast "Maple had to hide under Marie's bed, but she always tried to give her light when she could. Maple isn't sick because of that is she?" that would be terrible.

"I can make sure it's kept warm and well lit, that's an easy part...but when will it get bigger? I don't have many plants at home, how much room should I make for Maple?"

"Oh, no, Maple isn't sick. See how green and straight she is? Plants are very good at recovering. Sometimes even ones that seem to be dead can come back if someone cares for them enough. And sometimes, those are the ones that'll bloom the brightest." He's not sure that last part's true.

But he hopes it is.

"In the city I come from, there is a tree that everybody thought was dead for more than a thousand years -- but then the King came back and he made it grow again. So you see, plants are even better at surviving than people are. Maple is not sick, but she will get very sad if she does not see the sun for too long.

"She will get bigger in her own time. Some plants take longer than others. If she is a cucumber, she will grow faster than you can blink, almost! If she is a tree, she may take a little longer. If she were a cactus, which I can see she is not, you'd wonder if she ever grew at all even after months and months. Cactuses are lovely, but not very friendly. All covered in spines. They'll prick you badly if you try to touch them, and some have poison."

His father was a cactus.

"You'll have to wait and see how much room she needs and try to give it to her as she grows. If she's a tree, she'll want to go outside in the earth eventually. For now, just a little saucer in the sunlight will do."

"I'll do my best then" she grinned. "It's nice to have something to care for, and maybe Maple will even have flowers, that'd be nice" The smile changes her face from thin and beaten to something close to radiant, true joy shining through. After all, the temple does get lonely, and perhaps just this once the price givn for a wish was something Wish herself needed.

"Kings can do that sometimes, if they're good kings" she agreed. "It's like stories and older lands wheer lands are still tied to the rulers. NOt like most places now. It must be a nice place..."

Then her brow furrowed for a moment as she looked down at the plant "Are you a cucumber?" she almost demanded. "I like cucumbers, but it seems silly to be a cucumber on purpose...a nice tree though, you'd love the Street of Gods. You can have the Atrium, I promise...though if you are a cucumber I'll make you a garden..."

Faramir chuckles quietly, listening to her chat to the plant. "I'd almost forgotten to tell you they do like to be spoken to -- but it doesn't look like you need to be told that. Do you live in a temple, then, child?" He wonders if she may be a foundling. She has that sort of look about her.

Her attention is drawn upward once more by his question, and oddly her split lip seems less injured than moments ago. "Yes. It is a ruin and empty except when the desperate come by now,but a temple. And nice for plants, there's holes in the roof for sunlight!"

"You've no one to care for you, then, little one?" he asks, a note of worry in his voice.

The chuckle that meets that question is rolling, adult, warm and oddly sadder than laughter should be. "There has never been need..."

The plant is tucked in the crook of an arm now, careful fingertip petting the single leaf as oddly she feels she's decieved him, and has she not? "Marie believed so very deeply, wished so hard...I'm still a child for a bit..." she offered haltingly.