'Alright, alright, who's next?' A white slimy-like figure was wobbling around the counter of his store, attempting to aid all of the customers as quickly as he could. 'You, the blonde girl in the red dress, how can I help you?' She stepped forward out of the crowd in the store, and gave him a receipt.

'Mr. Pakista, I've come here to get that new vacuum that I ordered a week ago, I assume you got it in store?' He nodded. 'Yes, it arrived this morning, hold on.' Wobbling to the back of the store, he came back a few seconds later with a large box that he had trouble lifting above his head. The girl took the box from him, reaching with her hands above the counter, and reached in her dress, handing him a handful of dollars. 'Here, 30$, correct?' He accepted it, and counted it quickly. 'Yes, seems in order! Have a nice day!' The girl hurried out of the store with the box in tow, and Pakista quickly scanned through the crowd for who was next in line.

'You, the brown-haired girl in the blue skirt and boots. How can I help you?'
'Ah, I'd like to order that special spicy curry recipe pack that you have on sale for today. It's enough for roughly two to three people, right?' He reached down under his counter, grabbing one of the boxes, and handed it over to her. 'Here you go. Say, you come in my store frequently, don't you?'

'Mm-hm!' She grabbed the box, and reached for her purse, handing him over the money. '10$, right? Feel free to count it if you're doubtful. ' He giggled at that remark, and put the cash right away in the register. 'Haha, I don't think a frequent customer would try to swindle me so easily. Have a nice day, miss uh...' He scrated his green leaf-like strains of hair on hishead trying to remember her name.

'Arle.' She took the box. 'Right, I'll be sure to remember that. See you later, miss Arle.' She waved goodbye, taking her leave as she carefully navigated through the crowd in the store, until she stepped outside, sighing of relief to be able to breathe some fresh air, and strolled through her hometown of Chestnut Village, noticing that people were either chatting amongst each other on the streets, or the children playing games near the town's fountain in the center of the town. 'Sure seems busy as always...'

'Oh come on, Panny...you promised that you'd help me collect apples in the forest today!' A green-haired elf girl exclaimed amongst the group of child-like figures near the fountain, looking disappointed at another elf-like boy with blonde hair wearing what seemed to be a hat similar to Santa Claus. Right as Arle passed through, the boy started stomping on the tiles in sheer frustration. 'Grr... I told you, I'm not in the mood for it! My special flute's gone missing!'

'Ah!' Dropping her box from the sudden shouting, Arle looked in the direction of the boy. 'Oh, let me get thaaaat...' A small child in a green shirt picked up the box, and gave it back to Arle, her thanking him by shaking his hand, though she felt a bit uneasy by how slimy his hand felt. 'T-thanks...what's wrong with that boy?'

The child turned his head literally to the back, then turned it back to Arle, who was now even more creeped out by it, and took a step back in discomfort. 'Oh, that's Panotty, he's pretty upset that his favorite fluuuute got lost, and at the worst possible time to, as he promised Archan here to help her collect apples in the foresssst.' Arle nodded. 'Ah, I see...should have known.' She walked over to the group, and addressed Panotty, still looking disgruntled at the floor.
'Say, little boy, you said you lost your flute, right? How about I'll help you—' She was interrupted by him looking fiercely at her and his ears twitching. 'I SAID I DON'T CARE! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU HAG!' He grabbed a nearby twig and broke it in two to vent his anger, Arle quickly running away as to not unintentionally make him even more upset, and dashed away to her home to the edge of the town.

'Geez...always a hothead...' She sighed as she approached her small cabin-like house, grabbing the keys to her front door, but was surprised when she heard something bounce out of the open window to the right side of her house, and jumped on her shoulder to happily greet her. 'Guuu!'

'Ah, Carby! Thanks for looking after the house while I was away!' He hopped on the box she was carrying. 'Gu-gu?'
'Yes, it's the special spicy curry that you wanted for dinner tonight, right?' He bounced in response, which she simply smiled at. 'Come on, let's go inside!' Opening the door, she placed the box in the kitchen, and donned a cooking attire to prepare the curry ahead, Carbuncle opening the contents of the box and handing her the instructions that were packed along with it.

'Let's see here...butter...check, spices...check...hm?' Noticing a small bit of text with the ingredients section, she read it through. 'For a nice combination of spicy and sweet taste with the curry, try adding in 2 sweet apples with the mix.' Heading to the main living room to check if she had any apples remaining, she was disappointed she was out of any apples, and shrugged, removing her cooking attire. 'Sorry Carby, but I'll need to get a few apples from the store. 'Guu!' He hopped on her shoulder, wanting to come along. Oh, right, well it is boring to constantly remain at home, I know. Come on!'

Closing the door as she left, she sprinted towards Pakista's store, as she noticed the sun was slowly moving towards the horizon. Making it to his store again in a few minutes, she noticed only a few customers were remaining, though Pakista noticed her entering, and made a gesture to the current customer to briefly wait. 'Ah, miss Arle, did you forget something?' She panted as she approached the counter. 'Ha...I was wondering if you still had any sweet apples in store?'

He shrugged his head. 'No, I'm afraid not. Someone came by earlier asking for those as well, but I'm all out of stock regarding sweet-flavored apples, only sour ones still in stock, though. Those alright for a substitute?' She shrugged. 'No, I'm sorry, it has to be sweet-flavored ones for the curry tonight.' She was about to leave, but Pakista commented further on it. 'Hold on. I think that previous customer mentioned that he was going to try and look for fresh ones in the Chestnut Woods close to this town, perhaps you might find a few fresh ones if you try heading there as well? They usually look bright red with yellow streaks for when they're ripe.'

She turned optimistic hearing that. 'Oh, really? Thanks for the tip!' Come on, Carby, let's go before it gets too dark!' She dashed out of the store and towards the town entrance, following the pathway to the east towards the forest that was a mere 7-minute stroll away from the village.

'Hmm...'she looked upwards at the trees as the orange glow of the sunset shined through the thick cover of the leaves onto the branches, for any apples that Pakista described, but none matched the color he mentioned. 'Bah...all I see are green, orange and even black ones...none of the apples look red with a slight yellow color to them, Carby.'
'Guu...' He was disappointed as well, though he picked up something with his large ears right then, and hurried through the bushes, Arle giving chase. 'What the...Carby, hold up!" She dashed after him, trying to not lose sight of him, and she quickly saw why he dashed off, noticing 2 children also looking in the forest for something, one of them seeming quite familiar to her.

'Huh? Ack!' The green-haired girl pointed her bow at Carbuncle, though she put it down when she saw the older girl appearing right behind him. 'You aren't here to hurt us, right?'
'No, of course not! I'm just here in the forest looking for apples.' Arle explained to the two, noticing the blonde-haired elf boy from before standing behind the girl.
'...And I assume you two are here to look for apples and possibly a lost flute as well, right?' He looked surprised by her latter statement. 'H-How'd you know?!'

'Don't you remember me? I heard from one of your friends that you two were planning to search for apples and that you were in a bad mood because you lost your flute, and yelled at me when I wanted to offer you some help in looking for the flute.' Panotty looked to the ground in shame. 'I'm so sorry for how I reacted, miss...it's just that it's my precious flute that I hand-crafted myself, and I can get rather upset when things are going wrong.' Arle patted his shoulder. 'Don't worry, I understand. Did you think you lost it here in the woods?'

He nodded. 'Yes, I did. I was practicing a song for Archan around here yesterday, when I suddenly heard a loud growling noise, and I got scared, so I ran off, but I only realized a few minutes later when I regained my breath that I lost the flute...but I was too scared to go back...*sniff*'

'Please, miss...could you help us find his flute?' Archan also practically begged for her help.
'Of course! And after we find the flute, we'll look for the apples.' Panotty cheered up from her eagerness to help. 'Yay! Thanks!'

'Guu!' Carbuncle drew their attention towards them, and they spotted a large footprint of what seemed to be of a bear in the ground, and it left a trail of footprints towards the mountainous part of the forest.
'Whoa...looks like you were right about a growl...these look like the footprints of a massive beast...though it looks like these were made just recently. Maybe he grabbed your flute and made off with it?' Arle looked in the direction of where the trail would lead to.

"R-Right, let's go. I don't want to imagine what he could possibly do to my dear flute!' Panotty ran ahead of the group, the rest following suit, it leading to a small cave, and Panotty stopped there. 'It-it looks dark in there.'
'No worries! Fire!' Arle casted a fire spell and held up a ball of fire above her fingertip to illuminate the cave, and they immediately spotted what seemed to be the back of a large bear, all three of them shrieking. 'EEE!'

Though when the creature turned around, it's face was revealed to look not like that of a bear at all, rather, seemed to be more akin to the likes of a bird. 'Hnrgh?' It growled, approaching them outside the cave, Carbuncle being the only one to not be immediately intimidated by it, and seemed to talk to him, normally. 'Gu gu, gu gu gu?' The creature responded with a questioning look on it's face. 'Whrooo...' and Arle was the first one to respond. 'Hold up...Carbuncle, can you understand what he's saying?'

He nodded. 'Gu gu gu!'
"He's called 'Owlbear?' Odd...say Carby, ask him if he's got a flute in his possession.' Carbuncle nodded, and communicated with Owlbear further, the creature nodded and walked inside, the rest approaching him inside the cave further, and were baffled by a huge stack of red with yellow-tinted apples in the back of the cave, with Owlbear reaching between the apples, grabbing a flute. 'Wroo...' 'Gu gu!' Carby pointed to Panotty, and Owlbear handed the flute back to him, Panotty's beaming with relief as he hugged his flute. 'Yay! I'm so glad you're okay, flutey!"

'Thanks, Mr. Owlbear!' Arle smiled to him, though his stomach growled, the creature rubbing it with a saddened look on it's face. 'What's wrong? Are you hungry?'
"Groo-groo...' 'Gu gu!' Carbuncle translated it further for Arle.
"You say he's tired of constantly eating those sweet apples, and prefers fish? Hmm...'
'Oh, there's a pond near here!' Panotty informed the group further. 'Archan, maybe you can try shooting a few fish for Owlbear here to munch on?'
'Sure! But um...Mr. Owlbear, could we please ask for a trade?' 'Groo?'
She twiddled her fingers. 'If it isn't too much to ask, could we please have a couple of apples in return? We've been meaning to use a few of those sweet apples to bake a pie.'
'Groo!' He nodded, grabbing a few of them for Archan to carry in a bag.

'Oh, could I also have two of them?' Arle asked, Archan eagerly giving two to her. 'Sure!'
The group then travelled to the nearest pond in the vicinity, with Archan readying her bow and easily picking off a few salmon fishes for Owlbear to easily grab in the water, him being very happy to finally eat something different for a change. Satisfied, they waved goodbye as they parted ways.

"Bye, Mr. Owlbear, we'll come back another time to play!" Archan smiled as they left the forest, happy with obtaining what they were looking for in the forest as it started to get dark, though Arle twitched her nose slightly. 'Hmm...'
"What's wrong, miss Arle?" Panotty asked, him playing a little ditty on his flute. 'It's nothing, but I swear I smelled something...sour...'
'Hey, I shower regularly!" Panotty rebuked, though Arle shrugged. 'No, I swear it was coming from the forest...meh, it's most likely just some rotten fruit...'

The group returned to Chestnut Village as Archan and Panotty ran off somewhere else on their own, and Arle ran to her home as well, intending to resume her cooking. 'Come on, Carby! I'm curious how this will taste!'

*A few hours later*

Arle was finishing up reading a book for some evening pastime, and noticed that Carbuncle was already snoozing, her carefully picking him up as a bubble emitted from his small nose, and tucked him in bed on top of her large pillow, before changing into her pyjama's and lied down next to him. 'Sleep tight, Carby...' She whispered as she turned off the light, slowly snoozing off as well...