Solar Wind's stomach rumbled angrily at him. He whined, stopping in his tracks. He hadn't eaten all day because he'd woken up late and needed to go out scouting. But now it was getting to be too painful and he needed to devour. Or at least find a decent meal and eat it like a gentleman.The problem was, what should he eat? Leaves were boring, and this deep into the warm season it seems kind of sacrilegious to eat bland old roots. It was absolutely berry season now. He pranced in place a little at the thought. Berries were so sweet and juicy and different. Some where sour and some were a little bitter. Now was the time where his diet had the most variety and that was very exciting.
He'd never been to this part of Vykeli before though, and he was a little dubious of eating plants he'd never seen before. He wished he'd had a gardener with him. He was pretty good at memorizing plants once he saw them, but gardeners had some insane ability to guess the edibility of a plant based on it's features. At least, he assumed it was a guess. He wasn't really sure how they came to their conclusions.
So, in the absence of a gardener, what could he do?
As if to answer his question, a tiny bird fluttered down onto a nearby shrub and plucked a ripe red berry. That had to mean he could eat it too, right? He stalked a little closer, careful and quiet as to not disturb the bird. He'd just watch everything this bird did, and when it moved on he'd quickly take some of what it had eaten for himself and follow it to the next food.
As if reading his mind, the bird hopped along to its next meal. Solar Wind hurried to where it had been eating, plucked a few berries, and then followed suit.
The bird's second choice was a fascinating golden berry. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen one that color. Shape-wise, it was a little like a raspberry, but it glinted prettily in the sunlight. It looked absolutely delicious. Apparenthy the bird agreed, because it spent some time there munch away. Solar Wind's stomach rumbled impatiently at him, but he wasn't going to eat his berries until he'd amassed a little fruit salad. It had to be worth the wait.
Finally, after a lifetime, the little bird hopped away and Solar Wind was finally able to get at the golden berries. There weren't many left, because the bird was apparently a piglet in disguise, but he was able to pluck a coveted few.
The next item on the bird's menu had to be the universe's cruel joke. It had jumped down into the mud and was pulling nasty, gnarly, stretchy worms from the earth. It schlorped them down happily, and Solar Wind thought he was going to be sick. There was no chance in the world he was going to add worms to his fruit salad. No sir.
After three courses the little bird seemed to have had enough, and flew off into the horizon, leaving him with just two types of berries.
Well... shoot.
He didn't trust any other berries, but he was pretty sure he could mix some leaves in without hurting himself. Leaves weren't so bad if he at least had SOME fruit to go with them.
He remembered passing something that was DEFINITELY mint. The leaf shape and everything was right. He traced back to where he had seen in and plucked a leaf - the aroma hit him immediately. It would go really nicely with some berries. He harvested a whole little bed of the mint to bulk out his meal.
Lastly for the perfect lunch, he needed the best spot possible to eat all the delicious things he'd gathered. What was befitting such a colorful salad? There was a stream near by, maybe that? He wandered over and walked the bank for a short while. He didn't have to go far to find a flat rock right in the center of the stream, illuminated by warm sunlight. It was perfect.
He waded his little lunch over and settled in to finally give his stomach what it had been demanding. It was every bit as satisfying as he'd thought it would be. Perfectly worth the wait. The red berries were tart and juicy, leaving him salivating a little more. The golden berries were sweet and almost exotic. The mint leaves tied it together and made it taste bright and fresh. It had been a lunch worth the effort in an unfamiliar but pretty place.
The real cherry on top was the tiny song bird alighting to a nearby branch. It tilted it's head back and forth at Solar Wind, and then sang him a cheery tune.
