17) Pinecones

Arha collected the pinecones from the ground with significantly less care than she gave to placing them into the baskets on the sides of the draphibian. It wasn't her draphibian - hers wasn't exactly a patient sort who would stand around to let dextroluma harvest food around it. Hers was more... Well, her draphibian didn't like anyone but Arha being around her. It suited her just fine for gathering herbs beyond the sanctuary, but it didn't really work for collaborative harvests like this.

At least the sanctuary had better trained draphibians who could be relied on for this. She would have hated to try to collect all these pinecones by herself. But they were such a useful food resource, even if they weren't as easy to collect as the more typical harvests. She'd relied on them to survive when she had first managed to escape the Blighted Wilds, and-

"Ms. Arha, what do I do if a pinecone has poop on it?"

Arha turned to look at Laji, feeling a prick of amusement. "Just leave it, then, that one is for the animals."

"Okay!"

And then Laji was back off to collecting. Arha wished she had half the energy the child did, honestly. It would have made her life easier. But she just had to make do with the energy she had. (Besides, she reminded herself - at least she didn't struggle as much as some of the other cured did...) The baskets were almost full anyways, once they were, she could lead her group back in for a meal and get a break while some others went to go rummage around the forest floor instead.