Rory had heard that one of his packmates had left and needed some help. He, being the kind and selfless dog he was, had offered his help in anyway possible. He didn’t realize that he would need to take care of a pumpkin. He had never done that before though he did know how to garden. So he wasn’t a fish out of the water when it came to this.
He had gone to the garden early in the morning to see what would need to be done. Apparently what mostly needed to be done was watering, weeding, and occasionally fertilizing. That wasn’t too hard was it? Boy he was wrong. First he had to weed the garden, which he was glad he had done early in the morning because he was hot and sweating from doing it and he wasn’t in the hottest part of the day. Plus, it wasn’t summer, which helped. But still…
Then after he had gotten some water from the well to cool off and quench his thirst, he stood by the well, debating how to best get the water to the garden. He could carry the bucket back and forth but he would tire out soon and he was already pretty tired. Luckily it near lunchtime and he could go get something to eat before he got back to work.
ooc: Ok, it's silly of me to reply to a thread that's regarding my own challenge but I really wanted to meet Rory.  <3
300+
IC:
The garden was one of her mother’s most favorite places, and so by default the young coy-wolf loved it too. In her short months of life she’d seen that garden go through so many changes. It was some kind of miracle land because so many different pack members cared for it. Though her mother, Zulie was sure, loved it the most. So she decided since she was bored out of her head this morning that she would pay the place a little visit and see what was growing now.
The upside-down world righted itself as Erzulie rolled onto her stomach and popped up to her feet. Trotting from her family’s home to the garden took little time at all, and all the while she kept up a peppy gait. Tail held high, ears pert, tongue panting in the early warmth. It wasn’t long until the creamy girl padded among the crop.
She sniffed at the fresh churned soil and inspected each sign. She was just learning to read, but knew what all the signs said anyway. Still she pretended to try out the words for the first time, sounding them out in a curious voice. “Blueberries… bayberries...” she was familiar with all of them. Still her piercing gaze carefully inspected the bright fruit on each of the plants. She laughed and batted at one stick that had berries that were still green, but did no damage to the plant.
Then her nose came to a new sign that she’d never seen before. She looked at it in confusion, surprised that she didn’t know the word. She glanced at the vines that erupted from the soil and then back to the sign. “P… Puh… puhmp… kin?” She wrinkled her nose. “What the heck is a Pump Kin?”
She glanced around as though the world would just magically tell her, but was given no answer. Sighing she dropped her gaze to the ground, and that was when she noticed the prints. Her brows arched at the few round dots in the soil that purported a foot. Curious, she followed the tracks away from the garden, and all the way to the man at the well.
“’Scuse me mister,” she said, plopping her butt down at his feet and looking up. “What is a Pump Kin and why were you walking on them?”
Rory was still considering what to do to watering the garden, when he heard a child walk around the garden, saying the names of various plants. He gave a chuckle at her obvious confusion but sobered up as she approached him. He pretended not to notice her until she sat next to his feet and started to talk to him.
He smiled down at her. He remembered meeting her at the celebration about a month ago, though she might not remember him. ”’Ello there, lassie.” He was about ask her what she needed when she asked him two questions, one about what a pumpkin was and the other about what he was doing with them.
His smile widened, ”Well, wee one, a pumpkin is a type o’ vegetable. Ye cin carve an’ ‘ollow it out. Ye cin also use it ta make a pie.” He wasn’t sure what else to say that she would understand but would try anyway. ”It’s a type o’ plant called a gourd.” He then explained, ”I was getting’ rid o’ weeds, which are bad plants. An’ now I’m tryin’ ta figure out ‘ow to water them.” He figured that she might like to help him. ”Cin ye think o’ any ways ta git the water to the plants?”
ooc: Thanks for the little note in there that they’d met, I caught that. I wouldn’t have known!
She's being a very scatter brained child right now. She'll get back to the topic eventually. 
IC:
As she listened to the man’s reply she inspected him, her eyes making no effort to hide their gaze as she looked him up and down. Everyone in Cercatori looked different, with all kinds of fur colors and different accessories, but this man looked different. Not like Mommy and Daddy looked different.
“Who painted your fur? Why do you look like that? Did Legba do it? Legba has a friend who looks like you, but he’s black. He doesn’t change though. He’s like me, but older.” she asked her questions a though she had already forgotten about the Pump Kins (though she had not; she was merely bouncing topics as any curious puppy would do). “And I forgot your name. Do you remember mine? And what made your voice like that?”
The issue of the Pump Kins still hung in the air and was divided into a little place in her puppy mind to return to later – probably while they were in the middle of something else.
Her eyes turned to the well and she eyed the brick. “Water? Those are bricks.” She cocked her head and eyeballed Rory like he was crazy. “Are you feeling okay? I can cure that.” The girl stood up and started sketching something in the dirt with her; it was the beginning of one of the symbols the girl drew frequently, but it didn’t look like anything. This was a new one that had come to her, and she was excited to try it out on the sick man.
At her sudden shifting of questions, he was surprised but figured that would happen. He did have a young niece after all. ”I was nae painted, lass. I ‘twas born this way.” Yet he found the question humorous and wasn’t angry at her at all. ”Though, who might this ‘Legba’ be? I’m nae familiar wi’ that name.” But he wouldn’t mind if she didn’t answer.
His smile grew at wanting to know his name. ”Me name is Rory, lass. Though I’m afraid I ‘ave forgotten your’s.” He thought it started with an ‘E’ but that was about all he remembered about her name. His voice. He supposed that not many people talked like he did. ”I jus’ grew up talkin’ like this.” He didn’t know if that would satisfy her curiosity or not.
At her question if he was feeling all right, he just chuckled. ”Aye, lass. I’m feelin’ right as rain. Though there is more than bricks in ‘ere.” He gestured to the well. He then worked the handle so the bucket came up full of water. ”See, there’s water down there. I cin lift ye up to see down the well. I promise not ta drop ye.” He could see Skye and Bangle being quite mad at him for dropping their daughter down the well. Though the thought was a bit amusing, in a twisted way.
ooc: Hope it's ok to PP Rory picking her up.
400+
IC:
She paused her drawing long enough to poke her nose at his leg and sniff at his fur, then looked up at him. There was no smell of paint on him, so she was satisfied. “I guess you were. It’s different.” She muttered as she turned back to her drawing and continued. “I’m Erzulie,” she reminded the dirt, though she meant to tell that to Rory. She wasn’t fully satisfied with his answer about the accent, but she was preoccupied and didn’t have any follow up questions in queue, so that was one topic that was done for. Daddy talks a little different too, I guess.
Then he said he wasn’t sick. She stopped drawing and turned to him again, her face long with disappointment. She scratched out the lines she had started. “You’re not? Why not?” She wanted him to be, she really wanted to test out her new symbol. “Are you just a weird-o then?”
But no, that wasn’t the case either. The problem was that Erzulie didn’t know what a well was. Her eyes turned to the well and she stared at it curiously. Why was there water in there? Water was for rivers and lakes, not rocks. He offered to hold her up but she wanted to take a look for herself, so she hopped up onto her hind legs and propped her forepaws on the edge. She stretched her little body as tall as she could go and craned her neck to see down into the well, but she wasn’t quite able to peer down on her own. Finally she glanced over her shoulder at Rory.
“Yes, please!” She said, and giggled when he picked her up; his fingers tickled her ribs and she squirmed in his grasp. Yet soon she caught sight of the dark expanse of the well, and she looked far down into it to see the water that collected below.
“Ooooh!” she was wide-eyed, face wondrous. “How’d it get there? Did you put it there? Why don’t you do whatever you did to get it there to get it to the Pump Kinberry Gourds?” Still suspended in the air over the well, the bucket of water caught her attention, and she pawed at it. One white extremity dipped into the cool water and she hooked her toes over the edge, pulling the bucket towards her. Water sloshed out and she laughed… a moment later someone laughed below her.
“Ah!” she yelped, looking down again in surprise. Someone yelled back. “There’s someone trapped down there!” ‘Trapped down there… down there…’ they called back. The pup bristled, her whole body going stiff in Rory’s hands. Then she snorted and yelled down. “No, I’m up here! You’re down there.” ‘Down there…’ She looked over her shoulder at Rory. “They’re not very smart. Guess that’s why they got stuck in the well.”
OOC: Your post was hilarious.
IC: He grinned as she sniffed at him to see if he smelled like paint. ”Different cin be good sometimes, lass.” He wasn’t harsh or trying to reprimand her but more reminding her. ”Miss Erzulie, ‘tis a pleasure ta meet ye.” He was rather formal but his eyes were playful about his greeting towards her. ”What are ye drawin’?”
At being a weirdo, he had to chuckle again. ”Sometimes I’m nae so sure that I’m nae a weirdo. ‘Ow ‘bout ye, are ye a weirdo?” At not being sick, he just shook his head at her questions. If he didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that she wanted him to be sick. Kids.
Rory expected her to want to try it herself and waited patiently for her to decide that she wanted him to help her. He gently picked her up and listened to her questions. ”Well, first someone dug a ‘ole in the ground ‘til they got water. An’ the rain also pit water in there.” He went for simple but true explanations.
He gave a snort of laughter at her confusion about her echo. ”There nae another wolf down there. It’s jus’ yer echo.” He hoped she didn’t ask what an echo is because he wasn’t quite sure if he could explain it. ”Want ta git down now?”
“My echo?” She repeated, staring down into the darkness of the well. No way was he getting away with that one. Nuh-uh. Some funny word wasn't going to pacify here. There was someone down there, for sure. Then it dawned on her. “Ohh... my echo...” It was a magic well, that was it. And by 'echo' he must have meant something like a spirit. The girl nodded her understanding to the open hole, and then turned her head towards the man and nodded again. “Yes please,” she said, and waited patiently to be set down.
Once her paws were firmly on the ground again she saw the dirt she'd disrupted and remembered the veve she'd scratched out. “Oh, it's these pictures my friend showed me. Legba.” Thanks to her short childish attention span she hadn't answered the man earlier when he asked about Legba, but she was getting around to it now. “I met him on a road one day. I don't see him a lot but sometimes he leaves these pictures for me, so I copy 'em 'til I know 'em by heart. They do things... one of them raised a chicken from the dead!” Well, actually the chicken incident had just been due to a broken neck and the spasmodic nervous system of the fowl, but she didn't know that.
Her eyes moved to the well and she started sniffing around at the base. A paw scratched at one of the stones and then at the ground beneath it. The dirt all around was damp with moisture from the water hidden beneath the surface. She started paddling her paws, digging a small hole in the ground to see what this was all about, but she didn't come up with a puddle. She stopped digging and turned her eyes to the Irishman.
“If that's all you have to do then why don't you just dig a hole by the Pump Kinberries?” It was pure, unadulterated logic. She looked at him like she was surprised he hadn't thought of it before, and then grinned as if she'd solved all the world's problems.
300+
Rory didn’t think that she really knew what an echo was but he gave her a chuckle. ”Aye, lassie, your echo.” He wasn’t sure how to explain an echo to her so he let her believe whatever she believed that they were. But he did put her down gently when she agreed with to be put down.
He nodded as she explained her picture to him. That explained whom she was talking about earlier. But he started at the mention about raising a chicken from the dead. ”Oh? A chicken ‘twas raised from the dead, lass? Sounds like a good story.” He invited her tell her the story but didn’t force her to tell him.
He laughed at her logic. It made sense why she would think that but he knew that it wouldn’t work. ”I wish it were that easy, lass. But does nae work that way. Cin ye think o’ a way ta git the water from the well ta the garden?” He really wanted her help. He came up with an idea. ”Ye should play wi’ me niece, Saorise, sometime. She’s about yer age.” Rory knew that he should talk to Bangle about doing a play-date but he wanted to make sure she wanted to do it.
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