Jermaul ran into his room that he shared with Susan and Moon Stone and grabbed his old battered basket. He had found it in a junk pile outside of the Sanguine cove the last time Kel and Kya had taken them. Once he had his basket he ran out to join Bunsen, Susan and Moon Stone.

"Kay! I am ready!" Jermaul announced. The basket in his mouth made it hard to speak.

The day was unusually warm and the ground beneath his feet was still wet from the rain of last night. The clouds were thick and dark, making everything look dimmer. But it was not raining. Which was a good thing as Bunsen was taking all the welps out foraging for food to put away for the harsh winters that were to come.

"Alright, it looks like everyone is here. We should get going. I don't like the look of those clouds." Bunsen said. Then she got up from where she was Laying and over to a cart. She quickly strapped herself to it and started walking toward the tree line and the start of a path.

All three welps followed her in.

"Moon Stone! Susan! Come back here!" Bunsen shouted.

"Ah but it's so boring just walking on the trail" whined Moon Stone. Susan nodded in agreement. ((They had found a large tree that had fallen. All its needles were gone leaving behind just an old log. The log was covered in moss and in some places it had started to rot away and the two of them were in the process of peeling back the bark to see what they could find.

Jermaul looked at Bunsen with pleading eyes. "Alright but just for a little bit.

"Shanks shu" Jermaul said around the handle of his basket just before he joined Moon Stone and Susan in the exploration of the log.

Bunsen waited and watched as the welps dug and scratched at the log. They found all sorts of bugs crawling around inside but nothing went into Jermaul's precious battered basket.

Soon it was time to go.

"All right. Time to go. " Jermaul obediently jogged over to Bunsen. Moon Stone took one last swipe of the log before she ran to Bunsen.

"Come on Susan. " Bunsen said impatiently when Susan was still pulling up the bark.

"But there might be something in here!" Susan argued back.

"Susan!" Bunsen said sternly. Susan stopped what she was doing and slithered over to the group. She knew that voice. "Yes mam. "

Bunsen once again led the group. Moon Stone and Susan close behind her. Jermaul skipping down the path behind everyone. The basket swung from where it hung. The evergreen trees were thick here and the smell of pine hung in the air all around them. If Jermaul looked closely he could see the black mountains peek through the trees every once in a while.

He could tell that they were getting closer to the plain where they were headed because the trees started to thin and more of the mountain could be seen.

Soon they came out of the trees and into a wide open field. The field was a lush green and was dotted with white, red, and yellow flowers. Berry bushes were scattered around the edge of the forest and apples hung from the trees just waiting for some colonist to come pick them.

"Yay!!! We are here! Moon Stone shouted and began running around. Susan slithered after her friend and they were soon lost to sight as they started rummaging along the ground.

Jermaul went to the tree line and started looking for mushrooms. There were so many things a mushroom was good for. He soon had half his basket full of the mushrooms but he was getting bored so he started to look up into the trees to see if there were any apples.

Bunsen walked over to Jermaul when she noticed that he was having a hard time reaching a couple of apples from the trees. She plucked them and handed them to Jermaul who added them to the full basket.

Susan and Moon Stone were putting some of their finds in the cart.

"What did you find?" Jermaul said. "Flowers! Susan exclaimed. She held up her tail to show Jermaul her finds.

"You can't eat flowers!" Jermaul pointed out.

"Actually that is not true. " Bunsen admonished. " There are flowers that are edible. But you can make dye with them and it would be nice to have some color on the table. "

"I found a whole bush full of berries. " Moon Stone said.

"Well our cart is full, Jermaul's basket is full and we have flowers. I think it's time to go." Bunsen said. Then she harnessed herself to the cart and they all headed back.