Mini Mission: Fruit Picker
"Good afternoon." Nanouk smiled broadly and wiped a strand of colored hair from her face. "I'm here about the ad." She lifted the small piece of paper that had been pressed into her paws while her being in the village. It was a leaflet, printed with small letters of the add and with colorful pictures of fruits. "I would like to help with the harvest. I was told to say hello to you." She lowered the paper and waited for a reply. The farm owner was still resting on his sacks, which lay by the side of the road, at the entrance to his property, chewing on a blade of grass. Quietly he looked at her, as if her words were still seeking their way from his ears to his brain, then at some point he nodded. Without a word, he pointed behind him to the path that led to the distant farm. So that was the direction she would have to go. She could have guessed that, but she had somehow been waiting for instructions. But they did not come.
And so she nodded, looked once more at the farmer, then started to move. She felt weird being surrounded by this Kamishiba because he was not saying anything. SO she started walking faster but one paw shot forward briefly to touch her on the chest fur. She stopped and looked at the Kamishiba in surprise. The latter nodded to a cluster of baskets beside him. Ah yes, there was something... If you were going to gather fruit, of course you had to have something with you to carry it. She smiled mischievously. "Oopsi," she said shortly and quickly grabbed one of the baskets. "Yeah, almost forgot."
Again only a nod from Farmer, then he turned around again and looked bored down the street. It was like she was not right next to him. All right, she was probably dismissed from this conversation and was free to go. She cleared her throat briefly. "I'll... be going then," she muttered, earning only a grumble from the farm owner. And so she shouldered the basket by its loop and walked down the path, a bit unsettled. That had been a strange encounter and she felt very uncomfortable to have to collect fruit for this Kamishiba now. But she had volunteered for it, she would not back down now. And so she trudged off to the fields in the distance. Red dots already shimmered among the lush green of the trees. The aaku were waiting to be picked.
Taking a deep breath, Nanouk could swear she could already feel the sweet smell of these fruits tickling her tongue and nose. She fervently hoped that she would be allowed to take one of them at the end. She loved their taste, the colors, and also the sweet specks on the skin. But first there was work to be done.
"First the work, then the pleasure," she puffed when she arrived at the trees. Then she set the basket down beside her and straightened up. "I hope it won't take too long, and the owner of these fruits..." She plucked the first aaku. With a crack, the stem broke from the branch and the entire weight was in her paws. The peel felt pleasantly cool and now the smell of the fruit was very distinct. "... After work is a little more talkative."