28. At work

There was so much to do and there was so little time to do it in. Wasn't that always the way of things? Of course time ticked on no matter what you were doing, sometimes quickly and others slowly. Very slowly. Like watching grass grow, or in this case, wool.

Jaden made their way out into the pasture to tend to the combined lallabaa flock, their own and also the ones that Vervain kept. The two of them together took care of a total of ten of the large fluffy beasties. (Plus fyrefowl and duckies!) It wasn't so bad, they were mostly gentle, and always adorable! Jaden could watch them frockling together in the fields forever, if they had the time, that is. They didn't spend a whole lot of time just watching the baas, especially when the critters needed care.

It was coming on into Summer, and the lallabaa were shedding huge balls of wool on the daily. Jaden was armed with a big canvas bag and a brush. Collecting wool was a daily job, if one was lazy and didn't gather it all up, it would be ruined by the dirt and the weather, plus the lallabaa themselves tracking it all over and trampling it as they raced and bounded about.

First Jaden went around the large penned in grazing field and collected whatever big clumps they could find that were relatively clean and undamaged. After that it was time to coax the baas into calm moods and attempt to comb as much shedding wool from their coat as possible.

Jaden figured this would reduce the amount of time that they would have to set aside each day to gather, getting it done like this. If only all of the lallabaa behaved! Most of the flock were approachable, pettable even. Jaden started with the friendliest from the flock, petting their heads, talking to them softly and brushing the fluffy from the critter's necks and backs.

Vervain had acquired a special baa as a gift, Sunlight, they said it was called, that sparkly yellow glowing coat, and in a very Vervain fashion, had named it Sunshine. Sunshine was a feisty lallabaa. It had calmed down around Vervain, who doted on it daily, feeding it handfuls of sweet grass and sometimes a little handful of wildflower seeds, but it seemed to like to yell at Jaden. Poor Jaden didn't understand what the sparkly baa had against them, but they couldn't neglect the lallabaa, if they took such good care of all of the others, but they also couldn't ask Vervain for help, not without having to explain why they needed! that amazingly yellow fluff for. 

In the past they had tried sweet grass and wildflower seeds, like Vervain did, but the feisty yellow baa had never wanted to take treats from them, would today be any different? Jaden looked around for the warm colored critter. Where was it? Then a familiar baa yell sounded from behind them. Jaden turned, and there was Sunshine. It yelled again, and Jaden froze in place. Usually after giving a few good loud screams, Sunshine would turn tail and bound off, but this time, it wasn't leaving?

"Ah, haa. S-sunny, there you are. Do you maybe, want to be brushed?" 

Sunshine yelled again, but didn't move and so, gathering up all the courage they could muster, Jaden took a few steps closer, holding the brush out, offering it to Sunshine to sniff. Sunshine didn't want to smell the tool, it just yelled again, insistently.

"Okay. Okay. Please don't run away now."

Jaden slowly and gently began to groom the sparkly lemon baa and to their complete surprise, Sunshine didn't run, didn't yell, but actually closed its eyes and allowed Jaden to brush from neck to tail. Jaden did a thorough job of it and then took a step back, quickly stuffing the clumps of yellow wool into their canvas bag. 

"All done! Thank you, Sunshine!"

Sunshine opened its eyes, gave a single yell, that wasn't actually really a yell at all, it was much softer than its usual yells, and bounded off.

Jaden gave a little laugh, "Did that really just happen? … I guess it did."

(WC: 701)