A Blossoming Partnership

Amaranthe wasn’t sure what to make of the invitation she received. The last time she was invited anywhere was… never. A hermit like her kept to herself almost all the time. It was probably the almost that caused such a weird happening.

Not long ago despite not really wanting to, Ama attended the Great Harvest Festival. She had things to do in society that dealt with other people (ew) so she figured she might as well make a few crystal along the way.

The biggest hassle was wrangling the three creatures that lived with Ama now.           After bringing them with her to the Festival, Ama had since completed “creature proofing” an area of her house where the creatures could stay when she had to leave. After putting the creatures in said area and making sure they had more than enough supplies for the day, Ama had left and made her way to the Strawberry Gardens.

The shop was not hard to find after reaching the shop area. Besides the obvious Strawberry Gardens sign, the pink trim and potted flowers by the entrance were also dead give aways. Even the bell opening the door gave a seemingly cheerful jingle seemed to give off pink energy.

As the door closed behind her, Ama felt even more out of place as the pink theme continued inside. Pink wasn’t really her color… though her own hair would say otherwise. Technicalities.

As Ama looked around, she saw a vaguely familiar figure next to one of the strawberry bushes. It took a moment for her to recognize them from the Festival. Flower? … Petal? … Blossom? Yes, Blossom.

Right. That was the name on the invitation.

“Oh, hello!” Blossom brushed off her hands and walked over to Ama, “How can I help you?”

“I received an invitation from you I believe,” Ama responded. “I brought fertilizer from the Lumina Basin.”

“Ah, yes, of course!” Blossom trotted over, “Amaranthe, right? Sorry, I was distracted looking for-”

Blossom cut off as Amaranthe felt something wrapping around her arm. Ama lifted it instinctively to find a familiar pink jelluxi. Not Cherry, of course.

“Petal,” Blossom sighed.

Petal wooblewooblechirped, very clearly pouting. An uncommon look that Ama saw very rarely on Cherry.

“Fine,” Blossom sighed before pulling out a cookie from her pocket. Petal immediately perked up, unwrapping herself from Ama, and floated over to Blossom and very eagerly took said cookie and floated away.

“Sorry about that,” Blossom gestured for Amaranthe to follow her, “Petal was hiding since she wanted more cookies… she already had twelve so far today.”

“Don’t give jelluxi cookies, noted,” Amaranthe thought aloud.

“Oh, do you have little friends yourself?”

“… You could say that, I suppose.”

Blossom brought Ama to a gardening? room. “Alright, here we are,” Blossom gestured to some open plots, “I saw your stall at the Harvest Festival, and I wanted to ask for your help.”

“What kind of help?”

“I was impressed by the variety of mushrooms you had and wanted to see if you could help me grow some experimental mushrooms.”

“…Experimental?”

“Well, not experiment-y experimental. They’re new spores that I am trying to domestically grow to see if they can be reliably grown.”

“Oh…” Ama pondered, “I… guess I could help. It’s something I’m doing at home too.”

“Oh, wonderful!” Blossom exclaimed.

Ama used all of her social battery for the day talking to Blossom in the following hours. Logistics, mostly, and determining the right fertilizer and soil for the greatest success rate. Ama agreed to come to the shop on a regular basis to help with cultivation, though she wasn’t entirely sure why she agreed.

First creatures. Then the festival. Now agreeing to help someone with cultivation.

Maybe she wasn’t as much of a hermit as she had thought. Or hoped. To be determined.