Submission (#3654) Approved

The older elnin had told Mizuki that there was no reason to be embarassed. Yet,  it had taken days for his older traveling companions to stop teasing him about it. 

'The little one's afraid of the rain!'

'Don't tease him, he's never seen a storm before!'

'Do you take baths? Are you afraid of that too?'

'I can loan you my parasol if you're afraid!'

Naturally, the young kittom found a lonely place to hide after that, only really taking the time to talk to or play with kittoms and elnin native to Bellmoril. They were oblivious to his embarassment and had no way of knowing his weakness. It was a welcome relief, but it only lasted so long--before he knew it, miasma season was ending and his group was able to travel again. Reluctantly, he bid farewell to his new friends, resolving to come back one day to visit. The storm had been terrifying, but the region hadn't. With the small, warm chuckles and giggles his caravan-mates seemed to promise that the travel to Ealei from there would be terrible too.

---

"There shouldn't be any storms in Ealei," his guide promised, when he brought up his concerns at the dock. She beamed at him and gave him a few gentle pats on the head.  It was degrading but... strangely comforting still. His guide went on to explain, "The huge canopy helps keep rain away. Even if rain gets through there are are plenty of places to take shelter."

From what Mizuki could see she was telling the truth. There were tons of giant roots and tree trunks everywhere, and when he squinted he could see sunlight trickling through the tree tops. Leaves were swaying and dancing gently, and the fact that he could see them from the docks made him guess that each leaf was probably massive up close. "One of those leaves would be a perfect umbrella," he mused.

"More like a tent," another elnin grinned, giving him a playful nudge forward.

While it felt like forever, it really only took a few minutes for them to scale one of the central trunks, leaving behind the docks and shoreless waters in favor of the wooden structures higher up. Building a village so high up seemed ridiculous to Mizuki, used to trudging through snow with the earth beneath his feet, but it was pretty cool to see the world from so high up. He swore he could see the mainland as the lift they were in rose higher and higher. The waters shone, tickled by the rising sun, its warm rays promising Mizuki that this visit would go so much better than his last visit to Bellmoril--

"Ah!"

A shout caught Mizuki's attention, and he whipped his head around to the door of the lift. Already partially open, something was pouring into the lift with them! Taking a cue from the older Elnin around him he retreated to a far side, pressing his back to the wall to avoid being buried by an onslaught of massive, tumbling, squishy blue--fruit?

"Sorry, sorry sorry!" An elnin was scrambling into the lift to scoop up the intruders (that Mizuki recognized were mana berries). They tipped their straw hat to the lift's occupants in apology, though seemed to have trouble with wrangling the offending produce.

"Here, I'll help." Mizuki offered, a broad grin on his face as he nommed a pawful of berries. This seemed to amuse the Berry-nin, who gave a smirk..

"I hope you've got plenty of room then. I've got quite the mess here." With a sweeping gesture he stepped out of the way, giving Mizuki full view of the walkway behind him. The small kittom's eyes were filled with a sea of blue.

Mana berries filled the wooden walkway and overlook, almost to full. Blue spheres, large and small threatened to pour over the edge, and while he could see many elnin there carefully picking up the fruit, he could tell they had a sizeable job ahead of them. Was it too late to take back his offer? The pleased, 'what-a-helpful-young-man' smiles on his chaparones' faces told him 'yes'.

--

"Don't wander too close to the edge now. There's railings in place, but you're just small enough to fall through if you're not careful." The Berry-nin--whose name Mizuki probably misheard as Dave--had given him a basket for collecting but said he could eat a few if he got hungry. After the first ten minutes or so he wasn't hungry anymore.

Carefully he would scoop berries into his little basket pail until it was full, tote it back to the larger crate 'Dave' had waiting nearby, and then go back for more. No one would tell him why the berries had fallen all at once, or if someone had made a big mess. Maybe the storm had given something a really good shake? All he knew was that everyone nearby was pitching in to make the suspended bridges walkable again. It hadn't been his fault, but Mizuki figured that removing the risk of someone slipping and falling from so high up was a great idea. Either that or he'd end up spending the next couple of weeks cooped inside of the inn. The view on the way up told him that option was off the table. Besides, he hoped to climb the tree even higher later on, if someone were willing to go with him.

Six hours. 

It took six hours for them to clear the walkway, and by the end of it Mizuki was exhausted.  While everyone else was casually talking, leaning on crates or cradled in nooks and crannies of the trees surrounding them, he lay splayed on the floor with his forehead pressed to the cool, unjudging wood. A couple of fellow kittoms prod him a couple of times to ask if he were dead but he didn't have the strength or will to answer. He wanted to just doze off and never see a little blue berry again. Well, maybe not for another couple of hours. Someone mentioned a pie, and there was no way he was missing out on that. Oh, or the jam someone else was making and promised him a recipe for helping out. Ok, so maybe he could see the berries again. He carefully opened an eye, and once he was sure no adults were watching, he pulled one last mana berry from his poofy mane and popped it in his mouth with a quiet, 'nom.'