"Mist, hurry up! We've gotta get those apples before it gets dark!"
"I'll be there in a second!" Behind him, Mist added another flower to her basket and Rolf sighed.
"If you keep picking every flower we see we won't have room for the apples," he said. Mist shrugged, picking two more of that same flower.
"We've got two. We'll just use your basket for the apples," she said. "How much does Oscar need anyway? He's only baking one pie." And Rolf had to admit she had a point; he'd sent them each with a basket but unless he was trying to bake the world's biggest pie he wouldn't even need one basket full.
"Okay," he sighed, "but you're helping me carry it if it's too heavy and I don't care if you're a girl!" Mist gave a snort and a laugh, then finally caught up to him. Not only was her basket half-stuffed with flowers, but she had one in her hair. Typical Mist.
"And there's more over by the apple trees," she said. "Mmm, don't you just love autumn? It's so...colorful!" She did a little twirl, her skirts spinning out and the breeze stirring the flowers in her basket. "Everything's still alive and happy."
"And no snow yet." Rolf added. "No Boyd tracking it in with the firewood and complaining and throwing snowballs at everyone." And since it's still warm out, Uncle Shinon said he'd start up my archery lessons. It was a secret no one would ever know about, especially his brothers, who wanted to keep him home and away from the action as long as they could get away with it. You're just a kid, you're too innocent, stay out of it. It wasn't fair! He was almost twelve years old, practically a man. Why were they always so-
"Rolf!" Mist tugged on his arm. "Come on, it's getting later by the minute! You were the one who said we had to get the apples fast and the trees are still about a foot away!"
"Oh yeah." He grabbed her free hand and they rushed over to the orchards. The people who owned them were usually pretty nice about letting the Greil Mercenaries take their fruit, and if Rolf and Mist were the ones to visit sometimes they'd even get treats like cookies or a meat pie to take home. "Wow, look at 'em all! They're so big and shiny...too bad we're supposed to eat dinner soon or I'd pick one and eat it right now."
"We could share one!" Mist said. "It wouldn't be a whole apple so it wouldn't ruin our appetites. Here, I'll get that big one up there." Her slender arm shot out and grabbed a particularly juicy-looking apple, which she rubbed on her skirt before holding it out to him. "Here." She always let him have the first bite or piece of whatever they were sharing, it was just her way. Rolf took a bite, letting the sweetly tart flavor fill his mouth. It was perfect. Apples were always at their best this time of year, and as he watched Mist savor her first bite he knew she agreed.
It didn't take them long to finish their snack, big as the apple was, and it gave them the energy to fill the entire basket with apples before the sun even began to set. They marched back to camp, basket of flowers slung across Mist's arm and the basket of fruit cradled between them. Somehow they managed, somehow they got back to camp without dropping a single apple or a single flower.
"Took you long enough," Boyd snorted. "Aw, man, did you have to come back with flowers? We don't need 'em!"
"Boyd," Oscar chided. "At least they managed to bring back enough for the pie."
"Not for our rations, though," Soren pointed out. "We gave them two baskets for that very reason." So that was why! Rolf knew he should have felt embarrassed, but he was too used to Soren complaining for that.
"We'll get more tomorrow," he said.
"You did a good job." Oscar patted each of them on the head, then took some of the flowers to put in a vase for the table. "And these are lovely."
"Thank you! Does this mean I can help you make dinner tonight?" Mist asked.
"I'd love that," Oscar said, before anyone could groan or complain. "You can help chop the vegetables and wash the apples!"
"Yay!" Mist put on an apron and waited for him to start working, and Rolf leaned back against Boyd's shoulder to watch her. Soon the room filled with the smell of roasting meat and vegetables, and the sound of everyone's stomachs growling.