Demesne Patron EX SS 29 – Fruit Picking (Patreon)

Karina glared up at their prize, despite the sun's best efforts to shine in her eyes. Light and shadows kept obstructing it from her view, making her squint, but that didn't matter. She knew where it was, and it wasn't going to escape her—!

A hand that wasn’t as pale as it used to be plucked the happyfruit and Karina turned to keep her outstretched skirt under it. Hanging under the branch with one arm hooking the branch under her elbow and both ankles, her hair falling down Shana looked down towards her to make sure where she was before gently tossing the happyfruit. It landed squarely in the cloth of Karina's skirt, making the other happyfruit already there to jump slightly.

Sweat was beading on Karina's face—it was only mid-morning, but it was already very hot—but she couldn't do anything about it, not while she needed to hold her skirt. One hand was never enough to do this, a floppy triangle would just spill all the happyfruit she hand on the ground. They needed to get this done soon.

Karina gone to check out the happyfruit trees, thinking of getting herself a quick snack if some were already ripe, and had found happyfruit on the ground, over-ripe and already going bad. The heat, so much hotter than it had been last year, seemed to have made them go ripe sooner. When she'd realized she couldn't get all the fruits on the trees by herself–once she'd gotten one, she had nowhere to put it or anyone to pass it on to—she'd gone to get help.

Unfortunately, no one wanted to go, saying it was too hot. Everyone either just wanted to stay in the dungeon, water the crops in the dungeon farm, or go swimming the in river. Even if it was shady under the trees, it was hot there, and climbing trees was hot work.

"Look, we'll go with you later when it's cooler," Big Yerart said when she'd gone to him for help. "We can borrow one of the wisplights, and Shana has her glowing rock if it gets too dark. Right now it's just too hot…"

He'd gone back playing lima with Yhalta, Matoy sitting next to her as they held hands and just watching how good she was at playing a grownup game. The three of them had ignored her as she'd stared—she hadn't pouted!—at them to try to get them to change her mind, so she had sighed tiredly—she hadn't pouted!—and gone off to find someone else to help.

Which was why she, Shana and Yoshka were here. They had a basket to carry the happyfruit and, since Shana insisted, a full waterskin.

"We need to drink regularly, or else we'll get dehydrated and make ourselves sick," Shana said, speaking like she knew what she was talking about. She would. She was a Dungeon Binder, after all, and she'd been learning from the uncles and aunties in the hospital.

At first, Karina had thought that she and Shana would climb the tree and Yoshka would catch the fruits, but the little girl had quickly gotten tired of being the one running around catching fruit. She also tended to not catch them, the fruits hitting the ground and getting bruised or tearing their skins, which made Karina twitch every time. It also turned out that Shana very good at climbing trees, her hands and feet seeming to find purchase anywhere, letting scuttle up and down trunks and across branches like a bug.

So after the two of them had climbed down to drink from the waterskin, they'd changed roles. Shana took over climbing all over the tree plucking happyfruits and Karina caught them in her skirt. Yoshka, to keep her from getting bored as well as letting her help, was tasked with going around the tree and looking for fruits for them to get. She enjoyed this more, since she didn't need to carry anything and let her walk around and look for things. Karina kept an eye on the younger girl, just as Shana was doing, to make sure she didn't wander off. While chokers hadn't been coming this close to the town lately, that didn't mean they weren't out there.

Still, it was more important to stay under Shana.

"Wait, I need to put these in the basket!" Karina called up to Shana. "Stay there, all right?"

"I'll come down then," Shana called, already moving to do just that. "I could use a drink anyway."

Ah, she should probably get a drink too, shouldn't she?

As much as she wanted to let the happyfruits fall into the basket they'd brought with them, she put them in slowly so they wouldn't bruise. It was hard, since she kept glancing up at Shana as she made her way down. Most would say she needn't have bothered, since the not-so-pale-anymore girl climbed down as skillfully as she climbed up. Karina had only started to put the happyfruits into the basket one by one by the time Shana made her way to the ground. She put on her reed tsinelas first before walking to where they'd left the waterskin, and wiped the spout on the hem of her shirt before pulling out the stopper and putting the spout to her lips to take a drink.

"Thanks for doing this," Karina called up as she carefully put the happyfruits into the basket. Sap had spilled from their broken stems, making her skirt sticky in some spots, but it would need to be washed soon anyway. Ah, she'd go swimming after this so she could try to get the sticky clumps off! It would be a great way to cool off.

Shana took one last swallow of water and stopped the waterskin before replying. "It's fine," she said. "I like climbing trees. Back when I lived in River's Fork, I used to climb every pace of the dome. I could even climb to the dome's highest point." She sighed. "The rotten fruits there must have gotten so thick with no one gathering them when they become ripe…"

Karina stiffened, pausing in the middle of putting a fruit in the basket. "What?" There was fruit going to waste? "Why would there be fruit that's getting rotten? Shouldn't people be collecting all the fruits in River's Fork?" Every day, fruit would come upriver from the other demesne, surrounded by chunks of ice to keep it cool and covered to keep it out of the sun. They grew a lot of fruit there because of magic done by Shana's itay, and because Shana lived with them now, they could eat it too… or something.

For a moment, Shana was quiet. "It's not something many people know," she said slowly, "but there are fruit trees growing near the top of the dome. There are no stairs or ladders to reach there, so the only way to get to the fruit is to climb. When I was the Dungeon Binder, I used to climb up there and collect the fruits so they wouldn't go to waste, but ever since I've begun living here I haven't had the opportunity to do so."

Karina was aghast. "Wait, so there's just food that's going to waste?" she said. She felt like she was going to be sick…

"There's no safe way to reach it," Shana said. "No one left in River's Fork is as good at climbing as I am. It would be too difficult for them to reach, especially in this heat."

But… all that fruit…!

Shana held out the waterskin towards her. "Here. Have a drink and we can continue gathering the fruit here."

Oh, right. Karina quickly but carefully put the rest of the happyfruits in the basket, and almost smoothed her skirt down before remembering there were sticky spots on it. She accepted the proffered waterskin, pulling off the stopper and putting it to her own mouth. The water inside was warm and tasted slightly of leather, which wasn't the best taste, but the water was refreshing in the heat. Karina resisted the urge to drink all the water in the skin, pulling it from her mouth and stoppering it. "All right. You want me to do the climbing for a bit, give you a rest?"

Shana shook her head accepting the waterskin. "No, I can keep going. And if I'm doing the climbing, we can go faster." She turned and called out to her cousin. "Yoshka! Come here and have a drink of water, you're been sweating!"

"I'm not thirsty!"

Shana sighed, then turned to Karina. "Do you mind if we feed her a happyfruit to get her to drink water?"

"I don't mind," Karina said, digging through the basket for one she remembered was bruised but had the skin unbroken. "Yoshka, you want a snack?"

"Yay!"

They left her eating the happyfruit, hands getting stained by fruit as she enjoyed her snack.

"We will need go back after we finish with this last tree," Shana said, looking up at its branches and the fruit they could see hanging among the leaves. There were still some left, but nothing that Shana could reach.

Karina was more concerned about bugs. They’d picked up and moved the fruits that had already become overripe and fallen on the ground—at least, those still reasonably intact—far to the side to act as a lure for bugs attracted by the smells. Many had already been picked over by the finger-long things, and it was only a matter of time before the bugs came after the contents of their basket.

“Let’s be quick, then,” Karina said, picking up the basket and moving it with her as she move to stand under the happyfruit that Shana had stopped at last time. Grabbing the hem of her skirt, she held it out, ready to catch more of the fruits.