#starter;eilonwy

He seemed to end up in the gardens a lot, and yet it was never really a planned trip. Asher always intended to spend the day indoors, whether it was to take care of someone else's child or to finish a commission or try and paint for joy, which seemed to be becoming rarer as of late. He'd plan to stay indoors and yet after a few hours, no matter what he was doing he'd feel stifled by his surroundings, and that was when he'd crack and go wander around the gardens, usually alone, occasionally with Maria Elena in tow when the toddler was under his care and restless and he tried to placate her by offering tree names as they walked past, which she attempted to babble back to him in her baby talk way and which he subsequently took as a success. He wondered sometimes if it was strange, spending so much time there alone or not. He never seemed to see anyone else.

On this instance, he was alone, having taken the day off - he was experiencing increasing guilt for doing so, what with Mars in the state he was, but he hoped the siren had found someone else to help with the toddler, perhaps Ryden. It had rained the night before and the ground was damp, droplets of dew adorning the leaves, and he appreciated the freshness, and the sound of the birdsong, which he tried to separate in his head to distinguish between the sounds. One call was different to the others, and it bothered him though he couldn't quite figure out why until he spotted the bird - male house sparrow, nothing someone who bothered to bird watch much might get excited about - in the long grass, evidently distressed.

He straightened up, for the first time looking around properly, instead of being caught in his own thoughts. He wasn't alone, after all, he noticed - he could see the top of a woman's head, bent down behind a rose bush, tending it. "Do you have a box?" Asher asked, without thinking, before he realised that might sound odd and was forced to quickly follow it up, "there's an injured bird.. I was gonna take it to the vet, so..."