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Through the groggy soup of thoughts polluting your brain ran a single throughline.
You wouldn't be able to sleep with yourself tonight if you let a research opportunity like this one just pass you by.
Before you knew it, you'd slipped your free hand into your pant pocket and offered the little guy a nutberry. The strange nut... fruit? <span class="mu-i">Plant</span> felt softer in your hand than you'd recalled it feeling last. No matter.
The small green stranger seemed more than charmed by the offer, rubbing itself against the berry like it had made a friend. It occurred to you that it might not view a fellow plant as some kind of food.
A strange kind of trill pulled your sight away from the small scene in your palm.
The creature's mother was getting impatient. The other two kids seemed nonchalant about it, the wilting one especially unconcerned, but there was distinct worry in the three-pronged plant's eyes. Enough to tug at your heartstrings a little. Lord, this odd neofauna was good at doing that, wasn't it?
You lowered your palm to let the nutberry's new friend return to its mother if it wanted to. Eventually, after a prolonged session of it trying to make friends, the verdant sprout rolled the berry off your palm and returned to its mother. It gave you a look of awe... before it was shuffled away by its shaken mother.
Mary returned to your side as the group departed and you felt yourself slump down next to her.
Looking at the sky was enough to give you a headache. It was time to head back to Redding.
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