>>6438121Thus, you decide to keep yourself and your food safe by hiding the stash at the top of a tree, tying the crinkly bag in place.
Before you do so, however, you help yourself to a rare midday meal, and remove a big red berry, a long yellow berry, and tough orange berry from the crinkly bag. You get into a seated position on the cave floor, cross your legs, and set the fruit on top of your legs. It takes you a moment to pick your first course, before picking the most familiar of the bunch.
The big red berry is smooth to the touch, and is somewhat firm. It has a faint shine, and when you flick the surface, it is audibly solid, but should be possible to chew through. You hold the berry in front of your open mouth, slide your toung across the surface a few times, then take a careful chew. Excitement courses through your body as the sweet juice and crisp pulp swish around your closed mouth. With every chew, the crisps break apart and release more of the juice, until they dissolve into a cool paste for you to swallow. Another bite is taken, and another, and another, each a refreshing and delectable experience that causes you to flap your folded knees and giggle. Every chewable piece is eaten until you reach a hard and seemingly inedible core. This causes you to slouch, but you find that there are several seeds stuck inside this center. These are picked from the remains of the berry and stored in your satchel.
<span class="mu-s">Notes:</span>
- You ate one Big Red Berry.
- You gained seven Big Red Berry Seeds.
Licking your lips for any remaining juice, your attention turns toward the long yellow berry. Upon holding and shifting the strange fruit in your hand, you notice that it has a thick, matte coating. You touch your tongue to its surface and recoil as if you licked wet bark. It must be removed from the rest of the fruit, you surmise. Looking for a place to peel the coat, you pinch the short stick at one end and pull. One side of the skin separates cleanly from the rest in a straight line, revealing a cream-colored, soft interior. Your hand peels the rest of the skin until the soft, curved stick is fully revealed, as if emerging from a big flower. A sniff and one reassuring lick later, you take a gradual bite from the top. Soft, sweet paste fills your mouth as you hum in delight. The fruit is not juicy, but rather filling, as if you are biting through only the best parts of a root. Shorter and shorter the soft stick becomes, until you savor the last piece at the bottom. Only the peel remains, but it seems safe to discard.
<span class="mu-s">Notes:</span>
- You ate one Long Yellow Berry.
