Timestamp: Vhalar 7, 720
Hankley approached Brach gently, cooing toward the Nashaki Ox softly. It seemed that this morning he had a bit of the zoomies and was using them to jump around on a small section of her melons, spilling juicy, flesh, and seed all over the fertile soil. "My love, please stop, you're destroying the plants." But the large creature continued to buck and frolic happily, ignoring her entirely. He ran forward, grabbing a melon with his beak and slicing it open, stepping on a few more. Hankley felt her temper rising and she ended up shouting loud across her land.
"BRACH!"
The creature stopped in his tracks, and now was looking at her, giving his full attention. She stomped over toward him, her bare feet further squishing the destroyed fruit. She had tried the nice and gentle approach. Now was the time for tough love. She walked straight up to him, staring him full in the eyes, "No!"
There was a slight flinch in his reaction, and Hankley pointed out behind her, out of the melon field, back along the path of destruction her sweet little ox had caused. The great armored creature huffed, clearly not wanting to stop playing yet. It started to turn its head away from her, and she reached out, grabbing his head between both of her hands, forcing him to look at her. His eyes kept wandering about until he couldn't not look into her own. Her eyebrows furrowed, "No."
The young ox huffed, and she pointed back out of the patch, and this time he lumbered out of it, pouting. Once he left the patch, she reached into her pocket, pulling out his favorite food, dates, and walked up next to him. She placed a gentle hand upon his neck, cooing some more. "You're a good boy Brach. I just need you to not destroy the plants like that. Thank you for leaving them." She then offered him some of the dates and he gently took them from her hand. She felt the change in his attitude, as he was no longer pouting, and he pressed his head against her. She cradled his head, scratching beneath his chin, as he let out a small noise from the back of his throat, almost like a cat mewing. Hankley smiled. He was a good boy, he was just young.
And so, Hankley went back to work, picking up the destroyed fruit, carrying the flesh over to the trough for Brach's feeding, picking out all of the seeds first and tossing them in the the basket that hung from her waist. Thankfully these melons seemed to grow quickly enough, so she knew the damaged area would be covered once more before the end of the cycle. She checked the stems and vines, seeing which plants might recover and which would not. And the latter, she pulled them up, and carried them over to her compost pile, to let them dry out and decompose under the sun.
Midday came and she heard Brach let out his cry, and she stepped out to greet him as he came trotting through her date trees from the north. He moved in behind her, hiding comically, considering he was larger than her by several degrees. But she was his mother, and he was still a juvenile. And she knew why he was coming to her. A traveler or caravan must be nearby, likely doing a trade run through the nomad camps. They often stopped near to here, as the green land meant there was water to refill their stores.
"Come my love, let's go say hi."
She walked through her orchard of date palms to the north, with Brach walking behind her. She moved slowly, seeing if she could get a view of the travelers before they saw her, or heard Brach. She saw the wagons first, saw tents being set up, and she saw a banner carrying markings of the city of Nashaki and she relaxed. They weren't bandits. Very likely to be traders of some sort.
So she stepped out of the tree line, a bright smile upon her face, "Welcome, travelers. Are you hungry? Thirsty? I have a farm here, and if you need respite, I will happily provide if you will be friendly guests."