outNabout!(sole)

Trand grinned as he walked through hisorchards, it was quite late in the day, most workers were at home already, and those who were still here were packing away equipment. The only two people who fit into neither of these groups were Trand, and the person who was current;y in his line of sight, Dittany.

He grinned as he saw her up in one of the trees, he'd recommended that she should work with the, since she hadn't been full of praise for them before when she was about to move here, but she loved trees, Dittany did. She was so graceful up there, like a monkey...not that he'd say that to her face, she might decide that he meant the more negative connotations of the word than grace and agility.

Trand had started to walk towards the tree and smiled as she began to climb down. Maybe she’d seen him and decided to come down, he hoped he hadn’t interrupted her. Or maybe she’d just decided to come in because it was the right time, or because she didn’t like the idea of getting soaked by the rain.

The weather seemed a tad foreboding. Storm clouds closing on them, the beginnings of an ill breeze in the air. It was a good thing Trand’s workers were getting off home now. Better they get home before thunder, lightning and rain start. Besides, you didn’t get much work done with unhappy workers. Trand had found out, something that other orchards never bothered to try thinking off, that morale increased productivity. Happy workers got more work done. Others scoffed at him, but he got results. His hours were shorter, but he still got above average crop yields.

Trand headed over to Dittany, a smile on his face ”Hey Dittany” he said in greeting.

Trand grinned as Dittany dropped down from the tree. She seemed a little surprised, but she had still managed to make a rather graceful job of her jump down from the tree back to the ground, no scrapes, no breakages, no injuries at all. She seemed to have completely recovered from the wound she’d gotten oh so long ago when they had first met

He nodded ”I let most of the workers go home a little early, this storm’s not looking good, and I wanted them to be able to get back to their families before it hit and made getting back a nightmare. The people who’re still here are just putting away tools, then they’re off as well. We might as well head back inside. No need to stay out in that”. He could see that the storm stressed Dittany. They’d talked a lot in the time they’d known one another, and the gaps she’d left had been filled in, serendipitously, but Ash. He knew Dittany hated storms, and he knew why, so he sped up beside her instead of asking her to slow down.