Autumn Prompts

"Come on, Tulipa, let's get going!" Cleo happily called, looking back at her friend, whose pace was a tad bit slower. The pouflon merrily hopped without a care in the world, crushing the dry foliage of fallen leaves and undergrowth. 

The two of them had reunited to enjoy the peacefulness of the autumn. Cleo had some ingredients to pick, anyway, and maybe they could even find some yummy berries and useful plants. 'This will do us good.' Cleo thought. They were in great need of some relaxing times, anyways, and nothing better for that than just relishing in the crispness of the season. 

"Isn't nature great?" Tulipa chirped behind Cleo, before catching up with her excitable friend and walking along her. "We shouldn't forget about the ingredients you came here to collect, though." She reminded her. At that, Cleo slowed down her rythm and nodded at Tulipa.

"Oh, yes! I'd almost forgotten about that." The pouflon confessed with a cheeky smile. "Just a moment - I've brought a list." She reached into her trusty bag draped over her shoulder and examined the piece of paper in which she'd written all the ingredients and berries which she was supposed to get. Cleo had a good look at the inscriptions before shoving the paper back in her bag. 

"We should start with the mushrooms." The lon piped up. "It should be easy enough. The season makes it so that the forest's always brimming with them!" Tulipa agreed with an excited nod. 

"Maybe we should go faster if we split up?" Cleo suggested with a raised eyebrow. "I can get you a copy of the list, as well. You can look for some ingredients, and I'll take care of the others" She completed. Her friend hummed in agreement, and so was done: Cleo wrote a copy of the ingredient list in a blank piece of paper, albeit a tad bit sloppily because of the surface on which she'd done so (a bunch of humid leaves didn't make for the most writable surface). She crossed off a few plants and fungi from her list, then carefully did the opposite ones in Tulipa's list, so that each one of them would have to pick specific items. 'It's almost like a treasure hunt!' She thought, merrily. 

"See you in about 40 minutes, darling!" Tulipa said, going off with her piece of paper in hands. The pouflon watched her friend stroll between the orange-hued foliage, and then focused on her objective. 

"Okay. What first?" 

About 30 minutes had passed from when they'd separated. Cleo had managed to tick out most of the materials - there was only one mushroom left to find. "Tricky little thing... How hard can it be to find a red mushroom?" She hummed to herself, frowning. Even with the obstacle, the lon was having a super great time. I'd been good to just let go of her worries and merely look for little plants and natural materials under the tranquilizing atmosphere of the forest. If she could just find this last ingredient, she'd be all set. 

Just when she was about to turn and go back to the meetup spot to have Tulipa help her with the final fungus, Cleo spotted a single, red mushroom, splotched with lighter color. 

"Eureka!" She celebrated to herself. The lon happily hopped in the direction of the mushroom, a quite big one at that, humming the rhythm of a cheerful song. It was sitting at the foot of a tree, kind of embedded in the earth. She got close to the material, inspecting it. It didn't quite match the description of the mushroom she was supposed to find. Had she come across a similar relative of it? She quickly lifted her list up again, inspecting it with a raised eyebrow. When Cleo put it aside, though, the mushroom was simply... gone.

"WHAT?!" She yelped, looking awestruck at the place it had just been static at. Cleo frantically looked for an explanation - perhaps she was going crazy? She hadn't hallucinated it, had she? Maybe she'd been consuming the wrong kind of mushrooms? Just as she tried to pin down an explanation for the mysterious phenomenon, looking around in concentration to make sure she hadn't misplaced the fungus, she felt a tickly sensation on her back, as if she was being prodded with soft appendices. Cleo screamed in terror and surprise, frantically kicking around. 

When she felt the light weight dislodge off her back, Cleo niftly looked back, panting, still spooked. 

There, at the bark of a tree, was a red spoongus - and it looked very pleased with itself. It dawned on Cleo what had happened, and huffed in frustration. 

"You stinky bastard!" She wailed, but the spoongus didn't seem less proud about what it'd just done, waving its little arms as if it was dancing in celebration. 

The sound of hurried steps were heard from Cleo's western direction, and she turned to inspect the cause of the noise. 

"Cleo!" Tulipa called, worry transparent in her face. "Is everything okay? I heard you scream." She inquired with a motherly tone. 

Cleo felt a blush creep across her face, as if her runic cheek spots were burning red. She tried to quickly come up with an apology, but when Tulipa spotted the happy spoongus on the tree beside her friend, it ocurred to her what might've happened, and she started to laugh.

"I'm so sorry, darling!" She said, between snickers. "It's just the red spoongus trick's so old I'd never imagine you falling for it."

"W-Well, it's not my fault this little rascal decided to appear just when I was looking for mushrooms!" Cleo replied, lowering her head in embarassment. 

"It was probably purposeful." Tulipa answered, still giggling. She finally composed herself, drying a stray tear from her eyes. "You should probably keep it! It's clearly taken a liking to you!" The lon advised. Cleo took a long, inspecting look at the pippet, still a little bit mad. 

"Alright! But I'll call it Rascal!" She decided, then stuck out her tongue at the spoongus, which it didn't seem to mind. It hopped in an instant to Cleo's back, and made a small sound. 

The two friends kept on bickering - Tulipa laughing at the incident, and Cleo getting mad at her and the true culprit. 

They even forgot about the final mushroom, which Cleo would only realize in the midst of potion making - much to her regret.