[Pouflon] Winterberry Wonderland

The warmth of the shop embraced him as the familiar ding of the bell above his head sounded. It wasn’t quite the biting cold that the winter brings but being in the snowy mountains of Snowhurst meant that any source of heat was always welcomed.

“One moment, in the back room right now!” A cheerful voice called out, slightly muffled as they were, indeed, in the back room of the cozy shop. Fabrics lined the walls, the more elegant of the collection were hung high above the ground, displaying their lovely patterns to any patrons. The more basic fabrics, linens and such, were rolled and stored vertically, snugly fitting wherever managed to be convenient. Myth had been a patron of this particular shop before, having bought his first tailcoat here and being extremely satisfied with it’s quality he has bought all subsequent clothing from Thread & Thimble. “Alright, sorry about that- Oh! It’s you!” Zephyr, owner and resident tailor, greets as she rounds the doorway into the main shop. Myth greets her with a nod and small smile,
“Hello, not too busy today, I hope?” He chuckled as she shook her head, having immediately started some work on another garment left on her work table near the back of the shop.

“Only just started the first spring orders, the festivals are soon so plenty of time to get everything done! Did you need something new as well?” She didn’t turn her head as pins flitted about her workspace, her focus evidently entirely on getting the alignment of the two pieces of fabric perfect. He raised an eyebrow, thinking that her last statement thoroughly disputed her first statement; preparing for a festival seems to be something that would qualify as ‘busy’ in his mind.

“Well… If you’ve got any spare time…” Zephyr’s whole body whipped around before he could even finish his sentence.

“Do you need help with something? I can help you! This can wait!” Abandoning her project she whizzed past him to the front door, “Wait, where are we going? What are we doing?” Startled and somewhat bemused, Myth blinked a few times, willing his brain to catch up with the energetic pouflon in front of him.
“Oh, right, I, ah… needed to find some winterberries for Amaryllis.” Myth didn’t think Zephyr’s face could get any brighter at the mention of the mage.

“Ohhh… this is a mage thing! Hmm…” She squinted, “winterberries… I think I know a good place to look for ‘em. And I might have a secret technique to finding wild berries we can use if things get really tough.” A determined look settled on the shorter pouflon’s face.

“Very well.” Myth nodded and Zephyr beamed another full smile at him. She turned and held the door to her shop open as he exited in her wake, locking it behind her and trotting excitedly in whichever direction she thought best.

“Okay, this should be a good place to search!” Zephyr called from over the snowy hills. “Look for thick, low bushes… maybe near trees, I don’t fully remember!” She sounded perfectly cheery despite the slightly limited time they had to fulfill this particular request. Mythralos almost regretted asking Zephyr for help but the thought of having to verbally joust with the mountain devil, Vivian, made him instantly take that thought back.

“Right, okay, bushes…” Myth hummed.

The two of them searched for a good hour, finding only a handful of berries before they both were stumped as to where more could be. Slightly disgruntled with their results, Myth smirked down at the half full bag of berries. “Are you sure there is no other place where these are more… abundant?”
“You know, I’m not sure. I dont go berry picking often, I just buy em if I want to eat some. They definitely taste better fresh though!” Myth’s head snapped up to see Zephyr looking around the snowy hill, casually chewing on a winterberry she had just taken a bite of.

“You’re… you’re eating them! I need these you know!” He scolded.

“Yeah, I know, I’m sorry!” Zephyr whined, “I just needed a little thinking snack!” Myth closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose, maybe asking Vivian was the better option after all...

“Okay! Secret technique time!” Zephyr’s voice snapped Myth back at attention, “I heard sometimes pippets around here like to stash berries and other foods for later. So, all we have to do is find a few of these secret stashes and you should be set!”

“Seriously?” Myth deadpanned.

“Oh come on, Myth! It’ll be fun; where’s your sense of adventure.”

“I left it back in my tower, with my crystals.” He rolled his eyes, but followed Zephyr as she trot away from him once again. It only took half the time they had previously spent searching to find one of these ‘stashes’, as Zephyr put it. It wasn’t the motherload of winterberries, but it was certainly enough that they really only needed one or two of them to fill Myth’s bag.

“See, I told you so. I’m a master berry finder,” Zephyr posed triumphantly over the pile of berries, “I’m glad you asked me to help!”
“You said no such thing and technically, I didn’t ask.” Myth gently added the new finds into his bag, careful not to bruise or squish any of them.
“No, but you were going to.” There was a slight tease in her voice and Myth smirked as he glanced over his shoulder at her.

“Yes, I was.” Zephyr’s joyful laugh rang over the hills as she happily bounced along next to him, talking his ear off the whole way back to town; going on a tirade about someone’s terrible taste in fabrics or the difficulties of hand embroidering flowers on silk, anything that came to her mind was released unto the world via her mouth, unfiltered and without care. If someone told Myth when he was younger that someone he considered a friend was as boisterous and loud as Zephyr, he might have not believed it but he thinks maybe, just maybe, he could get used to this friendship thing.