Lion Head Mesa the botanist and his ward

'Cause you'll find the brightest colors, when you look inside each other.
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Haizel bounced excitedly, taking the last of the flowers he had been growing in his chamber - nurturing, growing beautiful blooms of every shade he could find. Carefully, so very delicately placed within the garden's space, his skill for all things lovely crafting the perfect space and his large size - while some may say was overly large, came out at just big enough to have forearms the perfect shape for digging, and dexterous paws meant to study the blooms of the earth without tearing their fragile petals and leaves. And he did so, using powerful muscles hidden under thick fur and a stilted set of legs, he dug the final homes for the final blooms that would make such a beautiful garden.

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It swept over the northern end of the palace, saplings of hardy trees that would one day provide shade for wary wanderers. For now, bushes he'd managed to drag back without breaking them, cacti that grew fruit for @Tuna to snack on. The pretty little red flowers for @Senmut and the dune sunflowers that Haizel was still convinced looked the prettiest on Kind Queen @Toula the wonderful and great and soon-to-be Pharaoh (even if he still didn't know how royalty worked). Akashingo's residents and all those who decided to take a stroll would find carefully placed rocks - of the size he wondered how he managed to get the strength to move them there - with vining plants that would someday adorn them with blooms of brilliant color to rest behind. The botanist had made the places around them soft with dug sand and sprinkled with moss from the forest, with fur from his dinners and his own self. He made a promise to refresh it daily.

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Everyone in Akashingo, which was a lot more friends than Haizel had had time to meet just yet, had to have a favorite flower, and the man had tried his very best to ensure everyone who walked with pads hardened to the land of red sand would find theirs. It was an array of colors that stood out among the landscape in the best possible way. He hummed to himself as he carefully swept dirt and backfilled the hole of the final flower.

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He'd worked so very hard, and the time seemed to fly as he had worked. But he stood back to inspect his creation. And then decided a flower looked better elsewhere and quickly fixed it. Then, he lifted his head to the sky, and announced it ready for others to enjoy.