Chapter 20: Strange Fruit

After they'd lost sight of Cinnamon, Muriel turned to Vanessa and asked, as they walked along, "Do you think she'll be ok all by herself?"

"Yeah, I think so, I doubt any one is here to attack her, and she does have a staff, and with the pipes that girl's got, all she'd have to do is scream and we'd hear her half way to Avondell."

That made Muriel laugh. Cinnamon did have a very loud scream. "She does have a healthy set of lungs."

"That's not all she has that's healthy," Vanessa said with a lusty grin.

Muriel's mouth dropped open with surprise and her face flushed. "Vanessa!" she exclaimed.

Vanessa laughed, and then said, "Don't worry, I know we can't touch her, but that doesn't mean I can't look."

Muriel rolled her eyes, "You're incorrigible."

Vanessa grinned impishly, and Muriel shook her head and sighed.

After a few minutes of companionable silence, Vanessa said, "To answer your question though, I think Cinnamon will be ok. Besides, knowing Sharmon, I doubt she's really alone."

Muriel smiled, "She does seem rather taken with her, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, she's really brightened up a lot since Cinnamon arrived," Vanessa said.

"I noticed that too," Muriel said, agreeing with her friend. "I think she's a blessing from the Goddess for that alone."

Vanessa nodded in agreement, then she said, "What do you make of this morning?"

"Do you mean the way Cinnamon reacted to the tea?" Muriel asked.

"Yeah, I thought Cinnamon was going to be sick there for a minute."

"I thought I'd be sick too the first time I tasted it," Muriel replied with a smile, and they both laughed.

"I can't blame you! Ugh! I nearly spit it out. I don't understand how Harnley can swill the stuff like he does," Vanessa sighed. "Still I've never seen anyone react the way Cinnamon did."

"Neither have I," Muriel replied worriedly. "I suppose some people could be allergic, but the cases of that must be exceedingly rare."

"That could explain the alternatives," Vanessa said.

"I think the taste of the tea explains those," Muriel said, straight faced.

The two friends looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Cinnamon picked Nana Berries steadily, nibbling only occasionally, for what she figured had to be a couple hours. Since she'd started, she'd picked berries from several different bushes, and was now further upstream from where she'd begun. She had occasionally taken a break to stretch and walk around a little, as well as get a drink from the fast moving stream, all the while being careful to keep the stream in sight. The only time she hadn't been able to see the stream was when she'd gone behind a tree to pee. She wasn't going to do that out in the open, even if she was alone.

At first, she had felt a bit nervous being by herself, but gradually felt more comfortable while she hummed to herself and worked. Between her staff, and knowing that her friends would come running if she screamed, she felt safe enough. Still, she jumped and gave a short cry when a loud rumble filled the air.

She looked up with concern at the dark angry looking clouds, and prayed they'd make it back to camp ok. She didn't want to get caught out in a downpour. Then she looked at the bag in her hands; it was about half filled with berries. She hoped it would be enough, but she thought she should try to find more just in case. She looked across the stream and sighed. It wasn't very deep, but it was wide enough that Cinnamon didn't want to risk jumping it. The last thing she wanted was to fall in and get soaked, and she knew that would happen to her if she tried.

So, instead of risking it, she sat down at the edge and took off her boots and socks before rolling up her pants legs. Then she tucked her socks into her boots and stood up. She tossed her boots to the other side, picked up her staff with one hand, the bag of berries with the other, and stuck her toe into the water.

"EEEeee!!!" she squeaked. The water was cold, and she yanked her toe back as shivers moved up her body in a wave.

She stood barefoot, shivering for a minute or so, looking at the berry bushes on the other side, before moaning again. She took a deep breath and stepped into the water. The coldness made her gasp. Not wanting to stay in too long, she hurriedly walked to the other side, and shivered while she sat down to briskly rub her her feet and legs dry with her socks. She then slipped her bare feet into her boots and rolled her pants legs down before walking over to the closest berry bush. She laid her socks on the bush to dry, and began to pick berries again.

As she walked around picking berries, she thought about how comfortable her boots felt. She normally didn't like wearing shoes without socks, but the boots felt good even without them. She guessed that it was the rubber-like sole and the soft leather they were made of. Whether that was the reason or not though, they still felt comfortable.

After picking all the yellow Nana Berries from that bush, Cinnamon stood, stretched, picked up her bag and staff, and started walking upstream to the next Nana Bush.

Some time later, Cinnamon stood and stretched again. The bag was now about two thirds full, and Cinnamon hoped that would be enough, because she could not see any more Nana Bushes with yellow berries around. Deciding to walk around to work the kinks out, and see if she could find any more Nana Bushes, Cinnamon began to follow the stream up towards its source.

The stream ended at a small pool right against the mountain, with fresh water pouring out from between two boulders. Cinnamon thought it looked like a nice spot for cooling off on a hot day, and maybe even bathing, but she wasn't tempted to try it out. The water was much too cold for that.

She enjoyed its beauty for a while before trying to wash some of the berry juice from her hands. She then took a quick drink. Her fingers weren't quite as yellow-stained as they were when she dried her hands on her pants. She wished she had a towel, but her pants would have to do. Cinnamon took one last look around and then turned to go. As she did, she noticed a small fruit-filled tree.

Walking closer, she noticed that there were really three small trees growing close together, and that there were two smaller trees behind them, each with a different fruit. Cinnamon thought the little cluster of trees must be related in some way, as the only real difference was the color of the various fruits. Two had light brown fruit, and the third had dark brown fruit. Each fruit that Cinnamon thought might be ok to eat was about the size of a softball, and ended in a long handle-like stem.

The other two trees also had fruit. One Cinnamon thought looked like an orange, except that it was not completely round. The fruit had seams dividing it into regular sections, with each section rounded away from the others. It reminded Cinnamon of a small pumpkin, about the size of a baseball. The other tree had round baseball sized purple-blue fruit.

'I'm not sure if they're good to eat, but they smell nice, ' Cinnamon thought to herself as she smelled the tangy scent of the orange colored fruit. Then she shrugged, and thought, 'I guess I should take some back and ask Muriel and Vanessa about them'...

Picking a couple fruit from each tree, Cinnamon stuffed them into the pocket of her sweater, and then started to walk back. About half-way back she jumped when Sharmon came out from a group of trees and said, "Hey there Cinnamon, Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

Cinnamon gave her a smile and said, "That's ok," and lowered her hand from over her heart. "Did you catch anything?"

Sharmon turned slightly so Cinnamon could see her game bag, which was slung over one shoulder, and said, "A couple of Jacquelopes. What have you been up too? I thought you were with Muriel and Vanessa," not letting on that she had occasionally been keeping an eye on Cinnamon while she hunted.

Cinnamon's eyebrows went up at the mention of Jacquelopes, she'd thought they were imaginary, but decided she didn't need to see them just now. Instead she answered Sharmon's question saying, "I've been picking Nana Berries. Muriel and Vanessa went to gather some other fruits and herbs."

"Ah," Sharmon said, looking around and giving Cinnamon a questioning look.

Cinnamon blushed. "I picked all the berries I could find, so I went to look around and see if I could find more," she said a little defensively.

"Ah," Sharmon said, figuring Cinnamon had left the berry bag by the bush. 'At least she remembered to bring her staff with her', Sharmon thought. "Did you find any?"

"No, but I did find some strange fruit," Cinnamon answered.

"You didn't eat any of it did you?" Sharmon asked, suddenly alarmed. "Some fruits could make you sick, or worse, if you ate them."

"No, I wasn't sure if they were edible or not, so I picked some to show Muriel and Vanessa," Cinnamon replied, worried she'd done something wrong.

Sharmon breathed a sigh of relief, and giving Cinnamon an encouraging smile said, "That's good. What did you find?"

"Oh! Here," Cinnamon said, pulling one of the brown fruits from her pocket and handing it to Sharmon.

Sharmon's eyes widened with surprise. "That's a Maple Fruit. Where did you find it?" she asked taking the fruit and examining it.

"Up at the beginning of the stream. There was a little tree with them."

"Wow, that's some find, Maple trees don't usually grow in this area."

"Oh? Well there were two little ones with those and another with a darker fruit."

"Really?" Sharmon asked, surprised.

"Uh huh," Cinnamon said, pulling out more fruit from her pocket.

"That's a Molasses," Sharmon said when Cinnamon pulled out the dark brown fruit.

"There're two other trees with orange and purple-blue fruit too," Cinnamon said, pulling out more fruit from her pocket.

"Wow. That's an Orange and that's a Blueange." Sharmon said identifying them, "Good find, Cinnamon."

Cinnamon beamed with the praise. Then she asked, "Are they ok to eat?"

"Sure, but most people just use them for toppings. Have you never had any of them?" Sharmon asked.