Diligence 5: A muddy situation!

Pursuit of Diligence: Chapter 5

Word count: 1379

Characters: Cassandra Wicke, Dove

After the troublesome coffee bean delivery a little earlier this week, Wicke had decided to just take a few days off and relax. Working with the Cherubuns was cool and all but getting into the rain and her beautiful fur soaked really wasn’t Wicke’s favourite part of the day. On top of that, getting chewed out by Primrose (again) kind of seemed more fun in her head.

In the end, Wicke had left her BunPhone™ number to all of the Cherubuns who had worked with her (mostly Dove and Primrose but Beanny INSISTED she also needed Wicke’s number) so they could reach the Succubun at any point if they needed to do so.

One last glance at her BunPhone™ revealed that it was once again hella late, almost 2 AM. Ugh. Another day of barely any sleep because Wicke had been browsing Bunnit for too long. With a sigh she tossed her phone aside and then closed her eyes.

Bzzt

…

Wicke groggily looked at the clock. 8 AM. NOPE. Not important enough to check the phone. Too early.

BZZT

BZZT

BZZT

“What is it?!” The Succubun hissed and grabbed her phone after the third Beep and checked the caller ID. Dove. Usually they had the courtesy of not calling before 10 AM since they knew how long Wicke took to fall asleep, especially on weekends. Something must be off.

“Yes, hello Dove? Is everything okay?” - “Wicke, good morning! I think we might have planned wrong, somehow the flowers grew overnight and I haven’t seen THIS many before! I think both Primrose and me might be a bit overwhelmed with all the work of harvesting these, would you mind helping us out here?” It took Wicke a second to understand the waterfall of words that the adorable Cherubun at the other end of the line blabbered but once it clicked, Wicke slowly peeled out of her soft, fluffy blanket.
Despite it being so early, there was no way that she could say no to Dove’s excitement. They had been so eager to show Wicke the Heavenly Meadow’s native flora that it would probably break the Cherubun’s heart if she missed out on both seeing and harvesting these.

“Sure, I’ll be there in half an hour. Breakfast will be on you, though. One of your famous tea blends and a sandwich please~~ Talk to you soon!”, Wicke sang towards Dove before hanging up her phone and getting ready for the day.

…

Slowly, Wicke pushed open the gates to the Garden of Virtues, entering silently as she had been taught by Primrose. He preferred a quiet and dignified entrance and since today was still young and lots of work was ahead of them, Wicke also preferred to not make a fuss like she usually did when arriving. It *was* way less fun, sure, but also Dove seemed so happy and excited that the Succubun did not dare darken the sweet Cherubun’s mood.

Almost immediately she got tackled by said Cherubun that excitedly grabbed her hoof and smiled their gorgeous smile that could brighten up the darkest days.

“I’m so glad you came! I already grabbed some gloves for you and prepared the ingredients for tea and a sandwich for after we’re done! Let’s just tackle this right away, you’ll love the colours!”, Dove beamed with their melodic voice before shoving said gloves into Wicke’s free hoof and dragging her to the little garden the Buns had prepared so diligently and by Murmur Dove did not promise too much.

Seemingly overnight, the little patches of soil had become overrun by the most delicate and soft flowers that Wicke had ever seen. Every single one looked slightly different and all of them radiated the same calming and soft energy that all Cherubuns exuded.

The most beautiful thing though were all the colours. It was like a warm gradient of pastels, blues, purples, pinks, colours Wicke had never seen in real life before.

Her mouth stood agape while she carefully put on the gloves, admiring the sheer variety of the flowers that she had planted a few weeks ago. How was this even possible? The little seeds seemed all the same when she had buried them in the soil.

“I think you Succubuns might be slightly sensitive to the Ambrosia flowers just as we Cherubuns are to alcoholic beverages so please be careful! Also, please make sure to not damage the Ambrosia flowers, we will use every part of them, even the stems!” Dove’s soft voice snapped Wicke out of her thoughts who just nodded in confirmation.

With a slight huff Wicke grabbed a small shovel and knelt down next to the flowers before gently starting to dig around them, freeing the first Ambrosia plant from the soil and putting them down next to her. Easy enough, right? Wicke thought to herself with a nervous laugh before looking upon the rest of the bed of flowers.

She had been so so wrong.

While Dove had not exaggerated that the Ambrosia plants had overrun the Garden of Virtues, they also never said how Murmur-damn many of them there really were. While Wicke had already started harvesting the flowers, Dove had asked Primrose to move them in batches so the work was split evenly in thirds between the two Cherubuns and Wicke.

For hours upon hours both the Cherubun and the Succubun dug in the soil, gently lifted the flowers from their place of growth and then placed them next to themselves while every half hour or so Primrose showed his gorgeous face and picked up batches of them and carried the delicate flowers inside a small shed behind the seedbeds. Despite the gloves and Wicke’s somewhat meticulous work, she still managed to sully herself with soil and pollen which dyed her fur in a strange mix between the dark brown and a slight yellow twinge. It looked comical, really. She snorted before once again stabbing her shovel into the soft brown soil.

The monotonous work had only been slightly alleviated by the gentle tones of Dove’s voice while they sang some songs Melangel had taught them back at the Heavenly Meadows (Although Wicke could swear some of these were just adaptions of her favourite Metal bands). Primrose on the other hand did not have anything to nag at, luckily.

The clock had moved *way* past noon when Wicke harvested the last flower. As soon as her gloved hooves touched the Ambrosia plant, one other pair took it from her while the second pair laid upon Wicke’s shoulder.

“We’re done! Look!”, chimed Dove happily while pointing with the flower to the now once again empty soil ahead of them.

Dove was correct. After so so many hours of this work, they had managed to free the garden from the absolute overgrowth of the Ambrosia plants. With a satisfied look, Wicke turned around to the Cherubun, stemming her little hooves to the right and left of her.

And then she saw it.

Dove had apparently worked extra hard since their fur looked even more stained than Wicke’s. Their usually bright white and pastel blue-ish fur was mostly just a muddy brown, speckled with some pollen at this point. They even had gotten muddy soil on their face?? How??

“Pfft. BAHAHAHAHA” Wicke burst out in laughter when she saw how absolutely, adorably ridiculous the sweet Cherubun looked. She had started laughing so hard, she fell over with exhaustion while snorting, barely able to breathe at this point. The few minutes of Wicke rolling in the mud didn’t really do the Succubun favours with her own fur, though.

“Oh my Murmur, you look ridiculous, Dove. Get a shower, you really need to clean up. I can make the sandwich myself, really.”

Dove puffed up their soft, puffy cheeks before making a little face. “Fine, I will take a shower. You might also need to get yourself cleaned after your little mud sport. I will serve tea in an hour, will you be there then?”

Wicke wiped a small tear from her face before looking down at her own sullied fur.

Dove really had gotten her there.

“Sure, I’ll be there. Let’s celebrate. I bet Prim would love to also get a sip of your delicious blends.”