Gathering Expedition: Apples (1/50)

"Ow! Stop dropping apples on me- please be careful!" Pantalaimon barked. Another apple from a branch above them fell down to smacked them on their temple, and they winced. "Why do you keep missing my baskets?"

Their Puffle was standing on a larger branch above them and scrambled up as far as it's nubbed legs could take it so that it could reach for another ripe apple. It squeaked and puffed up it's wooly fur, stretched out it's tiny legs, and reached far enough to nip at the stem of an apple- causing it to fall squarely on Pantalaimon's head again, falling onto the ground. The baskets that laid next to them were empty, surrounded by fallen and lightly bruised apples. Some forest-dwelling companions quickly dove out of the nearby bushes to whisk away some apples, vanishing as quickly as they came.

Pantalaimon grimaced again in pain from the impact of the last apple. They quickly shot a jet of air from their mouth and to knock their Puffle to knock it off the branch. The Puffle squeaked; but when the air blasted it off, it fell down gently by fluffing up it's fur, drifting to the ground much like a dandelion seed carried by the breeze. It landed a few seconds later, and shook itself to deflate it's puffed fur completely. 

Pantalaimon gave it a glare and a short bark. "We can't keep losing perfectly good apples like this if we're going to get ready for the Leafdusk Fete. I didn't bring you along to waste them!" They chided, swinging their ringed tail in displeasure.

Their Puffle stuck out its tongue to blow a raspberry at Pantalaimon before turning to the nearest apple on the ground, and promptly munched on it, marring it's surface with numerous pock - marks from it's tiny teeth.

'Hpmh! Suit yourself.' Pantalaimon thought, crossly, to themself. They sat squarely on their haunches and stared up at the apples, lazily reaching for one with their mouth.

"That isn't an efficient way to pick apples," said a voice from behind them.

Pantalaimon paused, and whipped around. It was Troia, standing behind them crossly. Though her face was expressionless they could immediately read her mood by judging the lashing of her tail.

They grinned, sheepishly, and gave their Puffle a gentle kick with a hindleg. It rolled away with it's partially-bitten apple, squeaking in protest.

"Oh! It's great to see you, Troia!" Pantalaimon wagged their tail and panted, accidentally sweeping a few apples away and out of reach behind them.

"Did you seriously think that you could make a Puffle do your job for you?" asked Troia.

"Oh. Um..." Pantalaimon's cheeks felt hot, and immediately shook their head. Normally, they were excellent at concealing their emotions; but at times like these they wished they had a mask halo like Troia did so others couldn't see their face. But they could already tell what kind of face she was making underneath her own mask. "About that..." 

They coughed to clear their throat before continuing; their cheeks still felt quite warm. There was no hiding how they felt being caught red-handed. "I was hoping it'd help me find some especially delicious apples... but," and they pointed their nose at their puffle, "It just ended up eating some of them instead." 

Their puffle lay on it's side, content and suspiciously plumper than before. Half of the apple's mildly sweet flesh was already chewed through, exposing the seeds of the core.

Troia shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "Then I'll do it if you can't."

She walked over to the trunk of the apple tree, and scratched the earth just in front of it with her hindlegs, letting her her hindclaws scraping deep gashes into the dirt to warm them up. She reared up and with her forelegs, kicked the trunk as hard as she could with a "WHOMP!". Every ripe apple fell from the tree and most of them dropped right into Pantalaimon's basket; for those that nearly missed the basket, Troia's horns glowed, catching them all in midair and gently sorting them into the baskets one-by-one.

Only one apple that she missed plunged straight into her golden horn, and lodged itself there. Some of the juice dribbled down from it.  Pantalaimon's puffle immediately climbed up her body to reach her head and clung to the back of her horns, lapping at the juice. 

Pantalaimon sat there, stunned, then burst out laughing. 

Troia glared at them. "You're not helping," was all she could say, bluntly.

Pantalaimon brought their feathered wings to their face to brush the tears away from their eyes. "Sorry- I couldn't help it! Here, I'll help you with the rest..."

They strutted over to Troia, and gently picked up the remaining fallen apples on the ground, one by one, with their mouth. Troia sighed, and helped them pick up the remaining apples using the magic from her horns- she couldn't grab anything with her teeth if it was concealed by her mask halo and she risked piercing the delicate skin of the apples with her claws. Pantalaimon's puffle stepped down from Troia's head and made itself useful, nudging over stray apples to the both of them so they could pick it up and sort it into a basket.

The three of them continued to spend their evening this way, with Pantalaimon playfully laughing as Troia admonished them...