Ixia absolutely adored the changing of seasons, especially when the troupe was traveling through Sauti. The landscape would seem more golden with amber and crimson splashed in between as fields of crops and various trees would shift with the cooler weather. The troupe would even take a break from performances so that the members could help with local harvests earning morie coin and food for their efforts while also helping out potential guests since shows would be slower during the harvest while everyone was busy preparing for winter. Then at the end of it all came the big harvest festivals when food would be all over the place and their show would be in high demand by those who desired a respite from so many days of hard work. Even Ixia would help with things, eager to do her best to gather what she could while looking forward to the huge feasts at the end of the harvest before getting to help the performers with their harvest show, and so when the others gathered in the fields today the little Elarian hybrid eagerly joined in. Her hood was pulled up tightly over her mess of crimson curls, her antenna tucked inside to hide the stranger Elarian features that still startled some across Tendaji who were only recently accepting Aishan hybrids and still wary of those born from the Extremists, and thankfully the hood hid most of her markings while the few markings that showed were the only things to confuse a few of the locals who were not quite certain of the girl’s origins. The troupe though eagerly took care of her and today Ixia was following behind another performer, a juggler by the name of Maxi who blended in perfectly with others from Sauti with his tan skin and sun kissed hair the speckling of pink gemstones only adding more shine to his glamorous appearance. Maxi was nice and definitely enjoyed flirting with the locals all around which only made Ixia giggle every time she saw them flushing and stammering as the juggler gave them his attention. “Ya can’t gather corn that way.” She teased as she trailed after Maxi who was supposed to be helping her to pluck any remaining corn from the fields while others went behind them to gather the stalks for shredding now that the summer season was over. It was good to use the silks and the like for other things during the winter and the capremal and other farm animals enjoyed eating some of this in their feed which kept them going through the colder months when the fields weren’t full of golden wheat and grasses for them to graze on. Ixia was bouncing around from cornstalk to cornstalk, her hood moving with every step but somehow staying in place as she plucked the corn and placed it in either of the two baskets swinging from her arms.

“Why gather corn when I can gather other things?” Maxi hummed playfully as he slowly plucked one corn for every three that Ixia found. “It’s much more fun to tease reactions from those lovely folks so that they want to come see the show at the end of the month.”

“I ‘spose.” Ixia could only shake her head with amusement as she tossed a corn towards Maxi to see if he would react quickly enough to catch it before tossing another. A giggle of delight left her lips as he started juggling them and she found herself following suit since he had thankfully taught her minor juggling tricks earlier this year. “I still think it’s nice ta help out.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t somehow rigging these fields full of traps.” Teased Maxi as he slowly stopped his juggling to add the corn to his basket.

“I could~! But then mama said that I can’t participate in the feast if I set up somethin’ like last year.” Pouted Ixia even though she was still awfully proud of how her scarecrows that she had set up in the middle of the night and swinging bats had a full group of villagers racing out of the cornfields with screams one afternoon. Obviously they weren’t at that particular village this time and Ixia had been thoroughly chastised and reminded to behave this year before they stopped for the new harvest. “The feast is definitely worth behavin’ fer.” She nodded firmly as she stopped her own juggling to gather more corn. “So you should wait to woo anyone and leave the broken hearts for after the feast, Maxi.”

Maxi chuckled. “We’ll see about that. Since you’re so keen on behaving this year let’s get all of this corn. I wouldn’t want to ruin your chance at playing around in the other harvest festivities since you enjoy them so much, Ixia.”

Ixia stuck her tongue out at her companion before bouncing away, ready to continue helping with the harvest so that she could play around more later….as long as it didn’t cause too much trouble surely that was okay, right?

[839]