Otherwordly Foraging

Otherworldly Foraging 

Word count: 1604

Summary:

Three brothers make their yearly trip to the forest to find a rare herb known as Sassabao to make homemade root beer. Though, an extraterrestrial visitor unexpectedly joins them on this trip.

Leaves crunched under tiny paws as three pink baos with baskets in tow marched their way into the forest bordering New Bao City.  Each bao had  a different reason to forage, but it was an annual family activity they held for years and one they’ve yet to miss. Fae, the naturalist of the three, was on the hunt for a rare herb only found during the autumn season. He was on the lookout for a Sassabao Herb, an ingredient used for making homemade root beer!

Then there’s Gwen who accompanied Fae for just about anything should his schedule allow. With the weather cooling around Bermuda Bay, work finally allowed Gwen to make more time for his brothers. 

Finally, there’s Casanova. Surprisingly, food was the furthest thing from his mind. Being a city slicker, he didn’t know what to watch out for when it came to wild edibles. Instead, he used this time to add to his collections like a growing pile of pretty rocks, photos, or pressed plants! His lack of foraging skills won’t stop him from spending time with his siblings. They are his world, after all. 

Knowing his way around the forest surrounding the city best, Fae was the leader of their small expedition. His main goal was to find the Sassabao Herb, but wasn’t one to turn down other bounties he found like tubers and onions.

"What if this herb doesn't exist anymore, Fae?" Gwen wondered aloud, "Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for you to turn what we have so far into a tasty stew, but we've been here for hours at this point..."

The beach-bound bao slumped down on a rock, sighing. The brothers have been out for nearly the entire day trekking the woods with no luck on finding even a trace of the herb.

"Not all of us have wings to carry us, my paws are tired," Gwen sighed.

Casanova plopped down next to Gwen's rock, letting out a small sigh as he rubbed his feet, "That and my basket's getting heavy too! Maybe we can try again tomorrow?"

"Maybe it wouldn't be so heavy if you didn't fill it with rocks..." Gwen quipped.

"Oh hush, you!!" Casanova patted a laughing Gwen's side in protest. So what if his basket was nothing but rocks! They were pretty and the local rivers made them all smooth and shiny.

"I'm sorry guys!" Fae bowed, apologetically, "Guess I was too focused on trying to find this herb, that I kind of forgot you two don't have wings!"

Fae set down his basket, inspecting the contents of the day's haul. He sighed, his brothers feeling the tinge of disappointment over being unable to locate the herb.

"Don't worry about it," Gwen reassured Fae, "Maybe the herb doesn't grow around New Bao City anymore? Tomorrow we can go out to Baotato Valley's forests and look around!"

"Or we could go to Bermuda Bay!" Casanova suggested.

Gwen huffed with a smug look as Fae let out a small giggle.

 "What?" Casanova questioned, putting his paws on his hips.

They all knew that Casanova was yearning to go to the beach, especially around this time of year when tourists are few and it isn't as hot!

The silliness aside, Fae agreed to take a small rest after taking his flightless brothers into consideration. It was an opportune moment to go over their findings so far! 

Gwen’s basket was the most varied of the bunch. There were seasonal wild fruits, a good variety of nuts , and mushrooms that have gone through a rigorous identification process by Fae. There were also some other miscellaneous herbs that Fae had taught Gween about a while back that would be great to add to drinks back at his Bermuda Bay establishment!

Fae’s basked showed off his focus for the Sassabao as everything that was foraged was ground dwelling. Tubers, wild onions and carrots, edible flowers, and an unfortunate Inkcap Mushie that was swept up. The Mushie was unscathed, of course, and named guardian of the baskets. May others quiver before its presence.

Then there was Casanova’s basket. As mentioned before, his contents were of the non-edible variety. Though the photo pile in it had grown exponentially since they started their outing. Curious as to what caught Casanova’s eyes, his other two brothers requested that he share his photos and soon lost themselves in conversation over them.

Fae and Gwen took their time with each photo, complimenting an aspect of each one or scribbling a little note over it. There was a river photo that Gwen adored. The lighting was gorgeous as the water sparkled and it caught the horizon perfectly with a mountain as a backdrop. Fae loved another photo that captured a handsomely posed Rock on top of a mossy log that was accompanied by a few bugs and a fellow Chanterelle Mushie. Casanova’s favorite was of a friendly mud fight he captured between Gwen and Fae with his own face at the edge of the frame. All was well until Casanova caught an oddly colored blot in the photo he was holding. It was an unnaturally bright green, a color of foliage that’s rare this time of year. The unsettling part of the splotch was the weird amount of blur surrounding it, like it was darting to or from it’s hiding spot. 

Taken aback, the brothers cautiously peruse all of Casanova’s photos.

The figure appeared in all of their photos, each varied in the distance between the camera and whatever was following the three brothers. As the pit in their bottomless stomachs grew, they jumped as they heard a branch snap nearby. Casanova squeaked, jumping into Fae’s paws, and held on for dear life as his brother tried to set him back down. 

“Hey, wait!!” Fae exclaimed, “You’re too heavy!”

Casanova gasped, almost offended at the mere thought of him being heavy. Does his brother not know how hard he works on this round figure? For shame! Though he didn’t have time to chastise Fae as the winged bao dropped him the second Gwen screamed. Panicked eyes turned to the source of the rustling in the foliage. It was none other than the strange visitor, Bogos Binty, who stumbled out of a bush with leaves and twigs stuck to his fur. 

All three pink brothers shook in fear as they huddled fast to each other. 

“WAAH!” Gwen cried out, “An alien!! Please don’t abduct me, who will take care of my Frogberts?!” 

“I can’t get taken by aliens now, there’s still movies I have to film!” Casanova sniveled.

“I still haven’t found the rare Sassabao Herb!!” Fae wailed.

All three were inconsolable as they dramatically bawled before they abruptly stopped, eyes cartoonishly wide as they stared at Bogos. Their not-so-beady dark eyes sparkled with enthusiasm at the mention of this Sassabao Herb. 

“Rock dwellers,” Bogos began, “You know of the miracle plant known as Sassabao? I, Captain Binty, have been searching high and low but have not been able to locate this famed leaf!”

Bogos rests a paw on their forehead, as if looking off into the horizon. They squatted then stood on their tiptoes to accentuate how low and high they’ve been searching. 

“And alas!” They said, falling backwards to show defeat, “No traces of Sassabao! But if you three are also looking for it,” they continued, getting up and closing the distance between them and the brothers, “then perhaps we can quadruple our chances of finding it!” 

The brothers looked at each other in bewilderment, unsure of what to make of this shocking turn of events. No one has ever come across an alien bao, a baolien you could say, and a friendly one no less! It beats meeting a mean baolien with unknown intentions. Still there was an air of silence that dropped after Bogos spoke.

“This could be fun!” Gwen eventually piped up, “Not every day does a baolien want to hang out!” 

“Hang out? No! We will not ‘hang,’ the Sassabao is a terrestrial plant, it does not hang!” Bogos corrected.

The brothers all giggled at Bogos’ lack of lingo knowledge, making the bright green bao huff in embarrassment. 

“Okay then, we can all look for the Sassabao! It’s a family tradition where me and my brothers set out to find it so we can make root beer floats!” Fae explained, “And you can definitely have a glass for helping out!” 

“Floating roots, huh?” Bogos squinted. Seen when do roots float? “Perhaps there’s more to this miracle leaf than initially recorded…”

“Not floating roots,” Casanova interjected, “Root beer floats. It’s a drink, silly! One that’s super yummy and goes down well with a hearty meal shared with others! How do you use Sassabao?”

Bogos gasped. They never thought such a wonder plant could be turned into a nectar. Perhaps there are culinary skills they’ve yet to learn. There’s much research yet to be done and this chance encounter proved it.
Snapping back into reality, they shook their head before addressing the question posed to them.

“Ah, you see,” they began, “There’s no greater pleasure than to stick it in a sandwich and crunch on the fresh, crispiness of it.”

As the conversation continued, the motley group trudged their way through the forest, finding all manner of ingredients they’d need for the coming winter. Recipes were exchanged, cooking skills taught, but the fabled Sassabao herb was sadly not located on this expedition. As the brothers saw Bogos off, getting extracted via their ship, they hoped that perhaps the eccentric bao would be open to the idea of visiting them more often.