I have decided to go ahead and adopt the entire original twenty for The Gardener cast, possibly replacing three of them with characters of my own (Kceler, Khouba and Tao). Drawings and brief characterisations shall come over the years.
Kamzik the adventurer (Czech: Kamzík)
Loves any and all physical activities, from climbing to dancing
If it exists, Kamzik has tried it
Reckless, extroverted, easily bored
Often volunteers as a runner
Pose reference (first Google result for "adventurer")
#Repost @martinzapalac ・・・ The mountains are calling and I must go 😍 . Posledni dobou me pri behu casto napadne, proc to vlastne delam?🤔 Hnat se za vysledky a casy uz pro me patrne neni uplnou prioritou a z behu se stava vic zabava a relax v jednom. Casto me "donuti" i nejake zajimave pocasi udelat si fajn fotovzpominku a vyrazit objevovat jine mista. . Jinymi slovy delam #behzafotkou 📸 Verim, ze tady pár lidi jede na stejne nebo podobne vlne a treba se vam ten hashtag zalibi jako mne a sem tam ho hodite k fotce a bude z nas pidikomunita "fotobehen" 😄 😜 . . #tatry #vysoketatry #hightatras #tatrywysokie #beliansketatry #tatrybielskie #mountains #hory #gory #mountainrunning #running #beh #bieganie #kamzik #goat #chamois #kozica #vstavatacvicit #tatry360 #slovensko #slovakia #thisisslovakia #turistikanaslovensku #turistika #domov (na mieste Tatry)
This is a Kamzik we spotted when hiking to Zbojnicka chata (hut) in the Tatra mountains.
These beautiful animals are critically endangered and not often seen. For more information see Wikipedia
The walk started from Hrebienok and took us up the Studena Dolina valley, climbing steadily up a series of nick points and following a babbling clear stream through pine forest and clearings.
Chains helped us negotiate a couple of rocky outcrops and there were several scrambles across large rockfalls, though it was never vertiginous.
As we crossed the stream for the final time we had a breather, and it was there that we saw a small herd of Kamzik just up the valley. The approached us cautiously and wouldn’t get too close, but I managed to get several good shots on the D800 with the 24-70 zoom lens. They came out well.
From the stream it was 30 minutes to the chata where we had lunch: it was very quiet compared to the huts we visited and we enjoyed the Slovakian tea as usual. I left an RFU whistle there - fell out of my bag on the terrace.
The hike back to Hrebienok was uneventful, though both our feet hurt after a week’s walking on hard granite.
A oneshot set during The Gardener, about a year after Arig and his brothers are created. It's fun to write from Krevel's perspective for a change.
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“You have a bone to pick?!”
Arig startled beside me. He looked around hastily, searching where the exclamation had come from. We had climbed on top of the Central Wall to have dinner above the Lake, in peace and quiet. There was, sadly, no peace and quiet on the Neverhood.
“Come at me, bro! Sticks and stones!”
Behind our backs and below, at the far end of the North Plane, Kamzik and Kabriel were flailing their arms at each other. A circle of onlookers had already crystallised. Someone was having a disagreement.
“Sticks and stones?” Arig murmured, twisted at the waist to watch.
“It’s a kind of saying,” I said. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will hurt you longer. It means either we can fight verbally and then be angry at each other for days, or – oh, there it goes. Or we can just fling our fists and be done with it.”
I turned away from the brawl. I would not spoil my dinner with their manners. I tried to ignore the sounds; whooping, yells, taunts.
“Four!”
“Four?” Arig echoed.
“That’s the fighting scale,” I said, resolutely looking out over the quiet Lake. “One for a playfight, ten for a deathmatch. Either Kamzik’s trying to prevent fouls…”
“Five!”
“…or he’s escalating.” So much for a quiet dinner outside. I should have insisted on eating in my room. Something like this was bound to happen. Something always happened. “Five means you can go after the chest compartment.”
Arig was still observing the fistfight. The sandwich I had made him lay forgotten in his lap. I took a few bites of my own and decided to tell him not to mind them. This was nothing out of the ordinary. They were out of options and hungry for attention.
I stopped when I saw his face.
“You want to go and break them up, huh?”
He nodded stiffly. His eyes were wide and he was barely breathing. He wasn’t even involved…
“It’s alright. This is the fastest way to work it out. Give it a few minutes and they’ll shake hands and make friends. They can’t even use weapons until they go to six. There’s no way they can actually hurt each other.” There was a crack and a yelp that carried. Ack. “Whatever that was, I’m sure it won’t stick.”
Arig was going pale.
“Ah,” he said suddenly. He pointed to the Fast Door. His brother Usha was marching from it and glaring murder. He didn’t really do anything. He just stood above Kamzik and Kabriel, hands on his hips and glowering. Arig relaxed. He turned away from the fight and back to his sandwich. He slowly took it up again.
“You don’t have to eat it all,” I said. “If you’ve lost appetite.”
He gave me a smile, brown-eyed and pained. “There will be worse.”
Damn that Guardian. It was he who had insisted on climbing up here. “Otherwise I’ll never get used to eating under the sky.” Why did he have to be as open as a book? Why did he make me feel guilty over a fight that had nothing to do with me, but that was happening within the culture I was easing him into? Was it wrong to let fists speak where words had failed? Had I once, long ago, also watched a fight with chills on my back, wondering why no one was doing anything to stop it?
“Tonight,” Arig said, “I’m going to check that Willie’s house isn’t getting wobbly. Is there anything I should look out for?”
“First and foremost, does Willie know you’re coming?”
Off I went. It’s so nice when someone asks and you know the answer. It makes you feel like you’re making a difference. It’s like that one-day-old who once stumbled into his new homeland with thousands of questions wouldn’t have to feel ashamed today for not knowing anything.
Still, I could see he was forcing himself to finish the meal. And I had but one thing to tell ourselves. It would get better in time. Probably. Hopefully.
