A Blue, A Yellow, and Green Fingers (Jaren)

[Chris]

Maever Donovan It was in a flurry of paperwork that Maever returned from his meeting, bustling into the Infirmary with a look of worry on his face. The papers were heavy enough that he carried them in both arms in front of him, and perched on top was his 'angreal, a wooden carved duck that would never replace Jeffrey but it was a lovely substitute.

"Oh, fortune prick me," he fretted as he went to his office. He paused on his heel and turned, almost smacking into an Accepted. "Sorry," he said automatically. "Do Jaren be here? No?" He looked around with dismay, then scuttled back in the direction of his room. The 'angreal fell over and then rolled off the papers. "Oh dear!" He tried to lean down to grab it but the Accepted, anticipating a paper waterfall from his arms, plucked it up for him and put it atop his papers. "Thank you Setalle. Oh, hummm, do Gareth be here? No, he did take some time to be with his family... oh dear!" He reached his office door, found it locked, and rested his forehead against it with a sigh.

Fortunately Setalle had a good head on her shoulders, and when Jaren appeared for his early morning shift she went over to let him know that Asha'man Maever was asking after him, and he seemed to be rather upset.

"Oh Jaren, thank the Light you do be here!" he exclaimed when the Asha'man checked in. "Oh, can you please get my key from my pocket and unlock my door... thank you..." once he was inside his tidy little office he set the papers down, only for the duck to roll onto the floor again. This time he hastily picked the 'angreal up and put it on the desk properly. "Jaren, I do be having a bit of a problem, and I do be needing a trustworthy and reliable Yellow with a Warder to go and do some work for me. I do be ever so sorry for the short notice, but it do be ever so important and I would be very grateful..." the Yellow went to sit at his desk, but realised he had put the papers too far away and had to stand up to grab some. Then he sat down again. "I did find a beautiful garden at World's End in Saldaea, and there do be growing some rather rare but useful herbs that I do be thinking we can use in the Infirmary. We do be needing to grow more before we can test them properly, so I did establish a small garden. But my eyes and ears do be reporting that people do be stealing the flowers before they do be fully grown! It do be terrible!" Maever sighed sadly, "I do be needing someone to go and excavate the flowers, but I do be worried about bandits in the area. The garden do be having a fence but nothing else. It do be so peaceful and lovely and bad people do be ruining it. There do be some space in the gardens here where it can be grown instead. Please do be taking anything you do need from the Infirmary, oh! And this!" Maever bounced back up and snatched up the 'angreal, pushing it into Jaren's hands. "This do be Cecil, he do be a useful 'angreal. Oh, and do be taking your Warder as well! J... something... ummm... what do his name be?"

Now as it transpired whatever his name was, was unavailable, but there were a few folk at a loose end who might be able to help out. And Maever had a good idea for someone...

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Nate When Nate was asked to accompany Jaren of all people to some place in Saldaea, he was more than happy to. It wasn't going to be an epic battle - if anything it would probably be very quiet - but it sounded good to Nate, who hadn't seen a friendly face for a while and was still getting used to being at the Black Tower again. Jaren was good company and he liked his Warder, who was apparently off doing... something. Nate didn't know what. A hair appointment, who knows?

The Blue wore his Asha'man uniform, though the coat was unbuttoned and his shirt laces untied. He wouldn't know what the weather was like until he got there after all. The man also carried his hammer over his shoulder, and he stomped his way to the Travelling Grounds at Maever's request to meet Jaren there. He'd been doing some training with the Warders, just to see how his hammer skills fared still, and he was pleased to report that he had improved in his time at the Black Tower.

They were apparently taking a small cart with them, easily moved by one person, to put some flowers on? And move them here? Whatever. Nate eyed the cart, then looked to Jaren with a broad smile. "Jaren! Good to see ya," he said, grabbing the man and giving him a one-armed hug whether he liked it or not. Was Jaren always this short? It must have been ages since he saw him last. "It's been a while, no? Let's hope there's less trollocs here eh? Should be a good day for some, er, gardening? Anyways, Maever says you need someone to keep an eye on things as you do some flower stuff, so here I am. I brought snacks too," he patted the bag at his waist. "All set? I can bring the cart too," he offered, setting his hammer in it for now and picking up the wooden poles to pull it along. The man was clearly excited to get going, and to do something useful even if it was being a pack horse for some random flowers for the Yellow Ajah.

[Elan]

Jaren

As predicted, the Gaidin wasn’t happy. “The last time I let you out of my sight,” Jasin huffed, exasperated, “it resulted in all-out war and the fall of the White Tower.” His hands twitched as though wanting to curl around the hilt of a sword, only he wasn’t wearing one, dressed as he was and about to leave for his sister’s wedding. “People died. You could have died.”

“Technically,” Jaren replied, refusing to take the bait, “you let me out of your sight every day.” They both knew that the Shadow would have found a way to deal with the Gaidin if he’d insisted on staying, and then Jasin wouldn’t have been able to alert Jaryd and the Red Ajah, and things might have turned out even worse. But Jaren couldn’t blame the other man for wanting to make sure nothing like it happened again.

Jasin snorted. “That’s because I don’t think Jaryd would appreciate it if I started sleeping in your bedroom,” he muttered darkly, but at least now there was a note of humour in the tangle of frustration that was the bond.

Jaren didn’t need to tell the Warder what he thought of the comment, or the idea for that matter; the bond took care of that. “But really,” he went on, “I understand your concern, but this time it’ll be different. For one, I doubt there will be Darkfriends lurking around Maever’s garden, for Light’s sake! And,” he added before Jasin could argue that there could be, “I’ll have Nate with me. I’ll be in good hands.”

He could feel the Gaidin still wanted to argue but knew a lost battle when he saw one. “Nate?” he said instead. “Carridus, huh. I’ve seen him around the Yards lately.” He flashed a quick grin. “He does have strong hands. And a big hammer.”

Jaren briefly considered throwing something at the Gaidin, but decided he’d walked right into that one and just rolled his eyes. “You just try to enjoy the party,” he said. “I’ll see you later.”

Then it was time for Jasin to go or he’d be late for the ceremony and his sister wouldn’t be impressed, and time for Jaren to head to the Travelling Grounds to meet up with Nate. A Soldier had been sent along with the cart and the rest of the gardening things, a pair of shovels and whatever else you might need for the job. Jaren was half tempted to tell the Soldier to come along to help with the excavation, but decided against it; their destination was in the Borderlands, after all, and besides, he didn’t want to risk killing the flowers because a Soldier who knew nothing about gardening carelessly damaged the roots.

He didn’t have long to wait for Nate. The Blue seemed as cheerful and energetic as ever, despite whatever had been going on with him recently — someone the size of Nate staying in the infirmary was difficult to miss — and Jaren smiled brightly as he returned the hug. “You too, Nate,” he said. “Yes, we’re going to save Maever’s flowers. Somebody— or several somebodies, probably, have been interfering with one of his gardens. Shouldn’t be Trollocs, but it’s Saldaea so I guess you never know.”

Jaren opened a gateway to the location specified by Maever; he’d never been there, but the good thing about Travelling was that knowing your target location on the map was good enough. Saldaea — or at least this particular corner of the country — was sunny and windy, cooler than Hama Valon though not quite cold. Jaren waved for Nate to go through, then followed in the Blue’s wake and let the gateway close behind him. At a quick look around, nothing seemed to be amiss. The garden, surrounded by a quaint little fence that was more decorative than protective, seemed peaceful enough, though when he looked closer, Jaren could see the places where flowers had been taken.

He glanced at Nate and smiled again, momentarily distracted by the way the wind tugged at the tall Asha’man’s glorious mane. Then he shook his head and reached for the shovel. “Best get started, then.”

[Chris]

Nate Saldaea was cold and windy compared to Mayene, and even years later the man quietly lamented about how nowhere was quite as awesome as Mayene. But it was still a rather nice day, and the promise of physical labour meant that he wasn't going to get chilly any time soon. The Blue set the cart down just next to the gate that led to the flowers, though why it needed a gate when one could just step over the fence was beyond him. It was white, dainty and quaint; the man suspected he knew who had this particular fence erected. For the Grey Tower it was fine, but for here not so much. "Looks cute," he said. "What're these flowers for, anyway? I don't think I've seen 'em before, but then I don't go looking at shrubs." Flowers were a woman's area of expertise, though Nate would never voice that in front of the Yellows, lest he hurt Maever's feelings.

Jaren was quick to grab a spade and Nate didn't waste any time in helping either. First though, he had to tame his hair (which was enjoying the wind) and tied it up in a bun. Then he shrugged out of his coat and tossed that onto the front handle of the cart, and rolled up the sleeves of his blue shirt. "Alright, let's do this," he said with a grin, not one to simply sit back and let Jaren do all of the work. There were plenty of flowers to keep them busy, though as Nate looked at them he realised...

"Uhhh, so what do I need to do?" he asked. "I mean, I get that we're moving flowers but is there a right way of doing this, or... uhh?" Nate gave Jaren a quizzical look, but it seemed there was nothing particularly special about the process. Just scoop them up carefully, keep the roots, and pop them in the cart. It wouldn't hurt them to be moved on the cart for a while. With this in mind Nate happily began to dig, because this was much lighter than using his hammer (which he had politely moved to just inside the fence where he could grab it if needed). "So where's your Warder at today? I asked Maever but he didn't seem to be real fit for conversation." The Blue grinned toothily as he hoisted another plant out of the soil.

He had a pretty simple routine. He would dig up three of the flowers at a time, then take them all at once to rest on the cart, arranged neatly in rows from the back. All the while Nate kept an eye out for anyone who might be watching or loitering, but they were in a quiet location and nobody would come close without being spotted first. Nate could work and guard at the same time, this place felt pretty safe and he could see why someone quiet would want to work here.