Revitalizing Moledeep: Building the Pond

Characters: Aikuen, Fira, Will, Amy

Location: Moledeep

Moledeep: Dibbun's Garden

Its a bright sunny afternoon, two days after the wedding between Aik, and Fira. The otters have been more mushy then ever since that day, to much annoyance of the others. Except for Kentar... who has not been seen since he left suddenly during the ceremony. Gone to find Garnet. The otters hardly leave each others sight, which is true at the moment. Fira is sitting in the shade of a tree, book in paw, taking a little nap from watching Aik, who has begun to work on the pond. Aikuen has marked out a place in the dibbuns garden to place the pond. Using stakes and a mallet, he pounded eight markers around the edge of where the pond edge will be. He is wearing a soaked coif on his head and shoulder, as he starts in the very middle of the markers and digs with a shovel, dumping the dirt in a nearby wheelbarrow. He is all smiles, as he glances from the ground to Fira periodically, and hums a very light otter song.

Will walks up to the dig site and watches the otter curiously. The rat is amused that his father needs a shovel to dig in even this soft ground. "Need any help, Pa?" he asks.

Aikuen dumps another heap of dirt into the wheelbarrow. He looks up and tilts the coif up to look at his son properly. He smiles and says in a voice so unlike his normal voice, very bright and upbeat "Oh Hey Will! How are you! Why yes! you can start digging around in the circle i marked out... that is where the pond will actually be. Dump the dirt in the wheelbarrow, and ill move it to the other gardens for composting and such uses for heaps of dirt!" he laughs and leans on his shovel, and takes a quick look at Fira, before turning back to Will.

Will looks at the otter a bit oddly but shrugs it off as having to do with his now being married, he'd heard it changed beasts sometimes. He nods and gets to work digging /without/ a shovel.

Aikuen watches Will for a second, "No shovel? OH! Nevermind!" He forgot the rat can do that sort of thing, with his claws. The otter looks at his own claws, and shakes his head. These were made for swimming, using swords, and holding certain otter-maids... not digging... He wipes the sweat that has collected on his brow before going back to his small hole. After a bit he begins to sing lightly, a recently translated otter song, "General Taylor came away! Walk him along, John carry him along..." he then starts to hum the next part, as he works.

Will tears into the soft earth with both paws pushing the dirt back behind him to a pile. Every so often he stops and moves the dirt from the pile to the wheelbarrow as Aikuen had instructed before going back to digging again.

Aikuen now has a sizable hole, it goes about to chest height of the otter. He hops out and walks over to where will is working. He chuckles, "Very nice! We'll have the pond itself ready in no time!" he laughs and looks to the Wheelbarrow, which is now overflowing with dirt, "Oops! Time to go dump it! I got it!" He smiles and walks over and easily lifts the huge mass, "Alright! Just keep digging, and ill be back with it before anything!" he wheels the dirt to the other garden. He soon returns with the wheelbarrow, and now there is a bucket of water with a ladle in it that the otter carries. He sets it down near Will and he sits next to it, "How ya fellin'?"

Will stops his digging and looks up at the otter, "I-I'm ok." He smiles seeing the bucket and ladle. "Need a drink," he goes over to get some water for himself from the bucket. "It's still hot out here but I guess it could be worse."

Aikuen takes off his coif and rings out the excess liquid, "Aye, and its only going to get hotter as summer progresses... Just make sure... that when working in the sun... to take frequent water breaks. And if you start to feel dizzy, light headed, or most importantly if you start to get chills... to stop immediately and go lay down somewhere cool..." Once Will has had his drink, he takes the ladle and pours it over the coif, before plopping the wet mass back on top of his head, "Ah! And a hat always work well too!" He laughs before going back to his hole and shovel.

Will nods, he'll keep that in mind though he's sure the otters said that before. He goes back to digging making sure to stop for water often though it does slow him down a bit, he really hates Summer.

After a good bit of digging, the otter's head is now lost to view in his hole. Just heaps of dirt seem to fly out of the hole as far as any passers by would see. From inside the hole the otter yells, "Oi! Will! How deep should we make this?!" It should be pretty deep, but the deeper the pond... the more digging is required...

Will nods at first then looks ovet at the odd noise. "Hmm. Maybe you did ... I don't know." He walks over to see what's going on.

Amethyst comes in to the dibbun's garden unaware that a pond is being dug though her staff alerts her to the stakes around the pit so she has little trouble avoiding it, "What's going on out here?" she calls to the digging sounds.

Aikuen says, "It is way too high to be the well water... Maybe we hit a spring?" He think about it, and shakes his head, "Nah... just hopeful thinking..." as he pulls out several more heaps of mud, and water is beginning to pool at the bottom of the hole. He hears Amy, and says, "Hello Amy! Its a great day aint it! Were starting on the pond... watch out for the hole... its a long fall!" he laughs, and still continues on.

Will watches the water seep in, "I think we should finish what we can before more water comes in. It may not be the spring that feeds the well but it could be another spring ..."

Amethyst sits down near the stakes that outline the pit and calls down, "You might want to make a shallow end for those that can't swim as well you can Aikuen."

Aikuen shrugs, "It might be... Makes my job a whole lot easier... if it was another spring!" He chuckles as he starts to shovel the side, to make the hole bigger. He stops and answers the rat-maid, "Of course! What a wonderful idea!" He had already planed to do that, but he is trying to be nice and such. And he goes back to digging the side.

Will nods some, "Yeah but we need to finish the pond before we can let the water come up all th way." He goes to finish the digging he'd been doing and starts to pack any loose dirt down so it won't be as likely to fall and muddy up the water later. He calls up to Amy, "We are!"

Amethyst leans against the stakes a bit and starts strumming on her lute having nothing else to do.

Aikuen laughs as the water is now coming up over his ankles, "We wont mate...at this rate... we will be up to our necks in water, by the time we are half way done..." His laughter subsides, as the realization of his words seem to be coming true. He shrugs, and hurries up a little bit, "Lets dig a ramp out of the hole, and then we can work on the outside first... then combine the two... later, when were done..." he sighs and works on the ramp.

Will nods with a sigh and helps with the ramp.

Amethyst moves her ears toward the two in the pit. "You two found a way to make this harder than it needed to be didn't you," she deadpans.

Aikuen stops and looks at Amy, "We sure did! Course it wouldn't be fun if he did it the other way!" He is been oddly nice to her. He hops out and says, "I think we did hit a spring, hopefully it will stop flowing... or else it might flood!" he jokes and wait for Will to jump out, because the water is raising at an alarming rate.

Will scrambles out and backs away from the edge should the water keep rising.

Amethyst pulls herself to her feet with the aid of her staff, "Well, you won't have to water this garden for a while if it over flows and nothing important's growing out here either so it shouldn't ruin anything too badly." She has mixed feelings about the pond knowing it's the punishment for breaking most of the rules. She stay near the stakes, if the water gets higher then she'll move.

The otter also backs away to the edge, as the water breaches the hole. It seems to flow everywhere, and then seems to slow... and then stop. Aikuen laughs, "Well... it looks like we don't have to dig from the river... That's always good!" He chuckles and takes a quick glare at Amy, "Except for the tunnel... That is usually important, and we don't want that to flood now do we!" He laughs and walks around the edge of the water, "This'll work!" He glances at Fira before kneeling near the water

Amethyst blinks then exclaims, "Wha?! The tunnel entrance is /nowhere/ near the dibbun's garden! There are two other gardens and a shed between here and there, Aikuen .... aren't there?" Being blind can mess with a beasts sense of direction.

Aikuen smiles and hides a chuckles, "Well yes there is! But water, is water, is water! And If the water didn't stop already, it might flood the whole entire area! Tunnel included! But it should be fine... it seems to have stopped at the moment..." he drags a paw in the water.

Will is a little confused too. The tunnel is visible from here but the vegetable garden and the shed are between it and the dibbun's garden, not to mention the rose garden. He looks over to Aikuen, "Should we make the ground around th pond higher or something? .... it might not any time soon but if it were to rain ...." Maybe making a pond wasn't such a good idea after all.

Aikuen continues to walk around the edge, "We can if you want too... It shouldn't though... I was just joking when i said it would flood the tunnel..." he stops and walks over to the hole and jumps in. He quickly hops out and shakes himself off, "If this is a true Spring... it has stopped, and only fill if the water is lowered." he walks over and smiles to Will, "It should be fine... even if it does rain!" he laughs.

Amethyst shakes her head. Yes Aikuen's just like Bentfang, in the worst possible ways too. She mentally goads Will to push the otter into the pond.

Since Will is not telepathic he doesn't push the otter in, though he does kneel down and splash water at him.

Aikuen wipes the splashed water from him and sticks his tongue at Will, "Well that was rude!" He laughs and sits down, splashing the rattling back, "Take that, oh son of mine!"

Will exclaims, "Hey!" and splashes at the otter again.

Aikuen's mouth was open when he gets splashed. He coughs and hacks and spits up water, "Uff... Yum... dirt water... my favorite..." He smiles evilly and goes to jump right in the water. But doesn't come back up... He is waiting to see what his son will do. If the rattling gets close, he is going to attack

Amethyst isn't quite sure what's going on but decides whatever it is she would rather not be around for it and heads back to the tunnel.

Will watches Amy go still near the edge of the pond. He would move but want to watch to make sure Amy finds the entrance ok.

Aikuen is still underwater, and taps his claws together impatiently but still waits. Finally he begins to run out of air, and he breaches the water, "Wheh!" he looks to Will and shrugs, as he can see what he is doing. He gets out of the water and shakes the water from him, "I think the pond was a great idea! We can work on it later, to make it more... eh? pondy? no..." he chuckles and removes his coif, and tossing it away.

Will turns back around as Amy disappears from view into the tunnel. And the otter's back, "Huh? ... Did you say something, Pa?" he asks, already regretting doing so.

Aikuen laughs and crosses his paws, "Yah, I was saying if you wanted some gold coins I found laying around... Oh well too late now!" he smiles, "I'll tell you later..." he chuckles and walks around the edge again, still chuckling at Will.

Will tries to splash at the otter again but he's moved too far away. "Where are you going?" he asks half hoping the otter will come back in range again.

Aikuen goes to the farthest point away from Will and skips the last few steps, "I'm going over here! AND I'm gonna sit down!" He laughs and sits down placing his foot paws in a nearby puddle.

Will sits down as well splashing his feet in the new pond a little bit.

Aikuen is acting like a little dibbun as he plays with the water, splashing the water here and there. He often glances to Fira and chuckles to himself. After a bit he looks to Will and watches him, "Tomorrow, i will work on the pond... making it bigger and fixing it up and stuff... should be done soon enough... as long as the spring doesn't dry up!" he laughs as he get up and walks around the edge back over to Will

Will nods trying to keep his eye on the otter should he do something tricky.

Aikuen gets over to Will and sits down next to him, "So mate! How's it been! Sorry I haven't been around in the last few days!" he laughs and goes to hug a one of his legs, "I'm guessing it's okay since no one was hurt..." He sighs, and goes to back to watch Fira... just until Will lets his guard down.

Will shrugs, "It's been fine." He hadn't minded the otters absence /too/ much since it meant he wasn't around to tease him and Amy, though he had missed when it was just the two of them a little but he always got over that quick enough. He stares into the pond thinking over how by the end of this Winter it will mark a full year since he came to Mossflower. He plays over in his head all the things that have happened to him since then. He's not paying much attention to the otters though he can see Aikuen's refection in the water though it's more of a shadow than a mirror image.

Aikuen smiles when he sees that Will has been lulled. In one quick motion, he picks up Will and he jumps into the Pond. He quickly jumps out and says, "Yep you're just fine! Made a nice normal splash!" he places Will down, and laughs. Walking over to Fira. He wanted to make sure, even though he has a wife now...that it doesn't lower his son. He sits down next to her and puts an arm around her. She stirs lightly just enough to settle into his side. He chuckles and also settle in to his love. Hopefully Will took the random water jumping as a sign of playing with him.

Will lays soaked by the pond where the otter'd left him. Once he's confirmed that yes his father is crazy he starts laughing