Harvesting for One.... plus Three Creatures

“How does this keep happening,” Amaranthe shook her head.

Ama considered herself a recluse of sorts. She lived deep in the Caldera and could go months without seeing another soul. Then Cherry, the little lost jelluxi, had suddenly appeared so she had taken pity on the thing. Then a few days after she had prepared her garden, a wild hoppopper had appeared in her garden. Cherry had unfortunately befriended the dang thing which meant it didn’t leave, and Ama was forced to give it a name to refer to it… which she eventually chose Blueberry.

And now, a few days later, yet another hoppopper, though this one of a different color, had found its way to the Basin and in Ama’s path. And of course, Cherry and Blueberry had to befriend it immediately. At this rate, Ama was going to have to build a small expansion on her home just so she could hide from the upcoming noise of the creatures. Because with Cherry at the helm, there was no way they were not coming back with her. Even if she wanted to leave them all behind.

“Fine, do your thing,” Ama relented as the creatures began to play. Hopefully that would distract them long enough for Ama to do some harvesting… the reason she had actually come out to do.

Ama carefully made her way off the beaten path into the thicker growth of the Basin where the bioluminescent moss was the only source of light. It provided just enough light for her to find the mushrooms she was looking for.

Without caring much about what the mushrooms looked like, Ama began to harvest them one by one, slowly filling her very large basket. For the shrooms that were on their own, twisting them and pulling them was the easiest way to harvest them. The clusters, on the other hand, required her to use her shroom sheers. While the process itself was easy in theory, it was very time consuming.

Under previous year’s circumstances, she would have harvested just enough for her to get by and would avoid going to the Harvest Festival, ew people, but she needed supplies so she might as well harvest extra shrooms. And then she remembered the three little creatures who had very unceremoniously appeared around her again and were playing around with some spores they must have found.

Sigh.

By the time Ama’s basket was filled to the brim, Cherry had decided her head was a napping spot while Blueberry and Strawberry hopped on top of the closed basket. At least they tired themselves out, thank the great mushroom. But now she also had to carry them back.

How did the recluse end up with so many annoyances?