Submission (#3) Approved

Wick overheard Anko talking about dinner preparation for the following day that morning but it seemed like she was short an ingredient. Luckily Wick knew where to find it. The problem was the owner of the plot of ginger root Anko needed was...quite grumpy and not much of a benefactor. Wick approached the situation quite carefully, knocking on their front door politely asking if they would be willing to sell some of their stock. Unfortunately he was met with grumbling. It sounded like the plot of land had quite a bit of weeding to be done and when Wick offered to help he was met with a slammed door. The plants were precious to the owner and they argued that surely a nosy kittom would just ruin their whole plot romping around if allowed to.

Wick never felt so offended but he also saw it as a challenge. Taking one look at the lovely home with it’s sliding doors and oriental architecture he huffed in frustration and disappeared back down the path home, through the little bit of jungle that separated the home on the edge of town from the rest of the town's people. Surely that elnin was a recluse, Wick thought. Clearly they had never met a kittom as skilled as he was. With that the challenge was accepted.

Late in the night Wick snuck out with Mallow in tow. Mallow wasn’t a particularly naughty kittom but as an obligatory friend, or so Wick had decided, the kittom often got pulled into Wick’s messes. It didn’t take them too long to get to the neighbors house though they did trip over a jungle vine or two along the way. The mist that covered Kyendi seemed a bit thicker in the evening which was to their advantage. Mallow had to suppress the faint motes of light that came off their fur while Wick eyed the garden. Quickly they crept in, eyes watching the sliding doors cautiously in case the garden’s owner awoke.

With a bit of instruction Wick set Mallow to work marking which plants were vegetables and which were weeds. Mallow truly was a friend of great benefit for Wick could identify some plants but definitely not nearly as many. While Mallow marked which plants were weeds, Wick got his paws dirty, coating his white fur and yellow toe beans in soil as he quietly piled up the weeds in a spare bucket they had found and dragged over. The process was pretty smooth and while there was the very occasional crumpled leaf or two it could be said that having small paws actually spared the garden quite a bit of damage. Plant damage that perhaps a full grown elnin would have struggled to avoid.

The garden weeding took them quite a few hours but they were nearly finished. Wick had scourged around for the best looking ginger plant he could find to swipe a root from when they heard a shuffling inside. Wick and Mallow both froze in their place but as the rustling around didn’t quiet they decided their work would have to be done. Pulling up a last weed or two they discarded them in the basket, whisked up the ginger they had swiped and threw themselves into the jungles brush. Wick could hear a bit of chuckling likely from surrounding fey folk and when they cleared the jungle he found himself covered in little prickly burrs. Mallow for whatever reason seemed absolutely fine. Perhaps the kittom had some unknown good rapport with the fey folk but poor Wick drew the short end of the stick.

When they arrived home both kittoms washed their paws and as much dirt as they could out of their fur before shaking off the excess water. Mallow was sent into the house first to clean the root off and leave their prize on the counter for Anko to discover in the morning. Hopefully she would think it was a thank you from the fey...but then that left poor Wick.

The two kittoms spent a good chunk of time pulling burrs out of his fur. Usually it was unusual for them to get so stuck but that’s why he suspected the fey folk common to Kyendi had stake in this. The fog was letting up by the time they finished freeing Wick of the burrs. All that was left was to sneak back to bed before anyone noticed. With that both kittoms fell soundly asleep and their guardian suspiciously wondered why they had slept in so late. Anko found the ginger root and was concerned at first until the neighbor that sold such goods stopped by later that day.

They were a grumbly well seasoned elnin that had settled down here for retirement from adventuring. When they reached the door they complained a little about how the surprise they had awoken to that morning was no good for their heart before handing over a basket of a few more herbs and veggies to Anko. From the door they eyed the ginger root on her counter though the kittoms were nowhere to be seen and began to explain how someone had broken into their yard the previous night and weeded the whole garden. They didn’t mention that the ginger root was missing but did mutter a begrudging thank you and suggested Anko use the newly acquired vegetables to make their family a good meal that night.

“Next time they want to help weed, have them stop by and we’ll handle this properly.” The elnin said playing down the fact they had turned the kittoms down the day before, too worried they would do more damage than help. It seemed to be quite the opposite though. The ginger root seemed to be forgiven and it sounded like the older elnin might even consider making ties with the restaurant Anko worked at in town. Wick and Mallow awoke hours later to an island floating overhead casting a shadow on their home and stopping the sunlight that slipped through their window. A fragrant aroma wafted into their room and with a satisfied smirk Wick knew that the harvest heist was a success.