Submission (#1343) Approved

    The weather was growing colder across Eyre, marking the start of what Bard called "miasma season"- and though she was not originally from Silveil, the brown and teal kittom knew that winters here would be just as shrouded with danger as other regions she had been to- such as her birthplace of Palu'Au and the region where she attended most of her school; Faerindell.
    At this point during the year she would be helping the older elnin to harvest their crops by taking baskets of fruits and vegetables to their nearby warehouses to be processed- but in Silveil it was much different, but not difficult for a trail-trekking adventurer like herself to get used to.

    She wandered about the paths stomped into the thick, dark forests in the less populated areas of Silveil; paths that were pressed into being by many paw and footsteps trampling over them repeatedly throughout the years. The sky was dark as usual, but lit magnificently by more stars than Bard had ever seen before. The stars were so bright they acted as nightlights of their own- but they were still not enough to illuminate the paths underneath the thick forest canopy, with was shrouded in darkness.

    Instead, what lit the paths were exactly what Bard was looking for. Other kittoms bustled about around her- everyone was pitching in to gather as many glowing mushrooms and other phospherescent flora as possible before the miasma made it impossible to traverse through the rural paths outside the cities. Many of the plants underpaw could be ground into glowing powders after being laid out to dry- something about mixing them with another material to bring out their luminescence again after drying, is what Bard had heard from some locals.

    As well as this, many of the different species of mushrooms that Bard had plucked from the ground and plopped into the weaved basket tied onto her back were good for stews. Some of them were not, and all of the kittoms present on the gathering expedition were taught which fungi and plants to avoid for fear of poisoning. Even Yakki, Bard's tiny orange Pacapillar who followed her everywhere, learned to recognize which ones to not touch. As he pulled mushrooms out of the ground with his little mouth, he crawled up Bard's leg to deposit his quarry into her basket-backpack, allowing their shared stash to grow exponentially.

    Being determined to fill the basket to the brim, Bard was starting to realize how unrealistic that goal may have been as her basket got heavier and heavier with the additions of more thick mushrooms, "Maybe we should start layering different leaves and flowers on top, huh Yakki? We'll let them lay in a way that they won't get smushed, but the mushrooms are getting a bit too heavy to trekk all of the way back to town." She gestured with a nod towards the edge of the forest, where you could just make out the soft glow of stars reflecting off of the surface of the huge lake where Silveil's Great Tree resided under the water. The trunks of the trees at the forests' edge were accentuated from behind by that same glowing. The rest of the elnin and people Bard had come with all crossed that massive lake via wooden boats, and Bard knew that the rest while sitting on the boats and riding back to the city would be a much welcomed comfort after bustling around in the forest, dodging ferns below and tree branches at eye level. Everyone there was going to need to rest before they all made their way to the shops and warehouses they had agreed to collect for- Bard for example was going out to gather materials for the local soup kitchen and the local healer for their dry stocks, though admittedly she loved stews and soups so much that she was looking for a bunch of smaller species of edible plants for herself as well.

    Taking off her backpack to rest and setting it next to her, the kittom found a large tree to sit under; nestling herself into the thick roots below in private away from the rest of the group- many of the other elnin and kittoms were chatting and being friendly to pass the time together, but Bard was a bit of a loner in comparison. It's not that she didn't like anyone else who she arrived there with to work, but she just preferred to be by herself most of the time- especially when she was low on energy. She pulled out a little cantine filled with water and took a few drinks before shaking it towards Yakki, "You thirsty buddy?" She inclined her head slightly then smiled as he excitedly wiggled his little behind.

    She always kept a little wooden bowl with her when she took Yakki out on any sort of expedition or adventure- Yakki was putting in a lot of work too, and she knew he couldn't drink straight out of the cantine himself, so Bard poured a bit of water into the bowl for him and filled it up when he needed, "There you go, you drink up ok? We'll rest here for a bit then get up to collect some flowers and such. I think it'll be good to diversify our haul a bit, don't you? We have tons of mushrooms, but I bet we could find some herbs in this foliage that would be good for healing yeah?" Bard talked to her Pacapillar quite a bit- moreso than other elnin on average. Except for maybe her brother, Sylvan. She wished Sylvan were here, he was quiet like her and the calm demeanor of the twin kittoms was enough to keep them both appropriate enough company to be happy.

    After a short rest, Bard shuffled her basket-backpack over her shoulders again and stood up. She thought it would be a lot easier to leave it off while she walked around as long as she kept it very close to her, but she also didn't want to accidentally make it too heavy to carry and thought it best to leave it on her back where she could weight it on her shoulders at all time. If she had laid it down and kept adding stuff to it, but it was too heavy to even lift off the ground then she would have been very frustrated at herself. No point in going on and gathering if she was just going to have to take some things out and leave them behind! To Bard that would just be a huge waste of resources, as no one else could pick those fresh if they were just left to rot on the forest floor. Every bit of gathered material was important in a time like this- there was no telling how long the winter would be this season, and if it ended up stretching out for a longer period of time than usual due to heavier flow of miasma, then the people of Silveil would need all of the resources they could get to stretch out and ration until spring released them to retrieve more. She she-nin decided she would carry as much as she was physically able, as to her this task was not just a way to earn a buck, but also to help stockpile and assure that the other citizens around her would be safe and well cared for during the most difficult and dangerous part of the year.

    She was sure she would be going out on gathering expeditions like this again, as soon as the next ferry or boat rides out this way were available Bard decided she would hop on and make her way to gather supplies again. No one would catch her dead sitting lazy at home when there was work to be done- not for a Pathfinder in training like herself.