Prompt 10: Foster
[no picture this time because trainer’s a bitch and I cannot fit all eleven into a picture]
Esredes had never really touched a garden in his life. He was nobody with a green thumb or anything of the nature. But over all the years, he had practically become a gardener of people. Sprinkling the fertilizer and tipping the watering can on people using encouraging words and far too much patience, and watching the result grow into a beautiful, stronger plant.
Most of the time, anyhow.
Or perhaps the more accurate comparison is he was like a repairman. A mender. A mender who could notice all the broken things around him, pick them up, and fix them, slowly but surely.
It was in his nature. When something broken came to his presence, how could one leave it to keep being broken without trying to fix it first? It was productive, it was positive, it was salvaging the world’s resources. And god, he was never one to let an obvious problem in his face go unnoticed.
There were a lot of those obvious problems to notice. A sixteen year old adventuring alone and offering to protect him, the adult with a sword he had forgotten to clean the blood off of. An angry Au Ra punching a tree in the middle of nowhere, screaming. Speaking of angry in the middle of nowhere and likely to be picked off, the same could be said for an emotional Elezen man once. A Duskwight traumatized by his past who hated himself. An ex-loyalist trapped in a box and starved. A boy whose parents disowned him. Another who was being attacked, and yet another whose uncle slapped him across the face...
So much weakness. So much anguish. So much suffering, mentally and physically. How had it taken so long for anyone to extend a hand? To really pay attention if only for a moment? Surely he couldn’t have been the first to notice? The first to say it? “You’re not disposable.” He said to Clover, that poor orphan who thought she only existed to die for others. “You’re only putting the burden on the people who care about you by not looking after yourself. Stop saying you’re fine. I can see right through you.” “You can learn how to control yourself,” he said to Dione, the delusional Au Ra girl who didn’t understand her own mind. “You were just born with a particularly potent fire side. All you need to do is remember the ripple of the water, the calm after a moment of anger.” “You deserve better than him or death,” he said, rather angrily, to Vlamont, as he cried over Esredes’ brother leaving him behind. “This wasn’t your fault. Don’t define your worth on a person who can’t love anyone.” “You’re worth it,” he had said to Caudecus, as he positively nudged the man any chance he got. “I appreciate having you around and what you do for me and my people. You’re quite the talented caster, too.” “You’re nothing to be put down.” A firm tone to Eyleth. “And absolutely not better off dead. You are more than what people expected of you, all right? You’re lovely, and that isn’t going to change.” “Covering up the pain you feel will only hurt you more in the long run,” he said, sitting down with Cynric in the aftermath of his uncle’s mark. “What he did to you was terrible. You deserve better. You’re a good kid, all right?” It hadn’t even been difficult to tell them what needed to be said. No, in contrast, it poured out without hesitation, all the passion flowing freely into them. And yet, their eyes all seemed to light up as if no one had ever told them that. As if they had been given a new revelation. That convinced him, time and time again, that it was far from pointless to care. A little bit of effort goes a long way. In its highest reaches, human love could reform the soul, letting it be born anew... To see them finally be able to pick themselves up, bit by bit, to see that effort pay off as their eyes began to positively shine... Well, that made everything worth it.
If only someone had fostered him, too.