OPEN go bananas!

[iida ryosuke]

Mental stimulation was essential for growing boys apparently, according to Xanti at least, but Ryosuke wasn't exactly sure what that meant. Nevertheless, he was more than happy when the cheetahcore offered to take it and Ichiro out for the day. Ryosuke had slept through the eruption, so it didn't see a lot of the destruction first-hand (or paw, perhaps), but even he could tell that the forest had changed. Take him getting lost and having to be rescued by Knox, for example!

The 'heart of the rainforest' had been a common play spot for Ichiro and Ryosuke before the eruption, so it was no surprise that was where they ended up this time. Both Ichiro and Xanti had wandered off to do their own thing, though he could see both of them still, and could tell Xanti was doing whatever Xanti did as well as simultaneously keeping an eye on him and Ichiro. So, the question is, what should he do?

In the back of its mind, it remembered a few fleeting conversations from the elders about being hungry. He knew enough to know that food was getting scarce around the islands, but, well, Ryosuke was three months old, and generally speaking, that meant it was too young to really understand the connotations of such things. Nevertheless, he decided hey, maybe he should try to gather some food!

See, Ryosuke was half-spider, which meant it ate a lot of things. Other spiders, its own webbing, fruit, insects, small rodents too given it was also half-cat, et-cetera. Gathering fruit for the others made perfect sense to him! He ate fruit, so of course the elders did too, right? (Wrong, but surely the effort would be appreciated). Thus began his long day of climbing trees and plucking various different fruits off the branches. Whatever he could get his grubby little paws on; his hooked claws came in super handy for this, actually! Apparently the spooky winged fox Xanti kept in xer office had done a really good job at healing this part of the rainforest so far, because slowly but surely, a pile of mangos and oranges and pineapples and other such fruits had grown in size, courtesy of yours truly.

Ryosuke hopped down from the last tree, a bundle of bananas held between his mandibles, and sauntered over to his sizable-ish pile of fruit to deposit them. It was tired now. Lots of hard work today. Deciding that Ryosuke's hard work deserved a reward, Ryosuke snapped off one of the bananas and began to peel it- only for a bunch of little spiders to crawl out! "AHHH!" Ryosuke screamed, yeeting the banana away and falling onto his butt. "SPIDER!"

[XANTI]

the hardest thing to me is facing the fear i live

no one can help me now, it’s under my heart!

Xanti walked behind Ryosuke and Ichiro. The slower pace allowed xem to watch the two hybrids and take a few notes with pencil and notebook.

The rainforest’s heartland had been where quite a few useful herbs—most of the useful herbs—could be gathered conveniently in one spot. Xanti made a few notes in xyr observation about the health of the trees that Kane had rerooted, as well as educated guesses as to the amount of biodiversity restored. All of that would probably be interesting to the prisoner (Xanti planned on sharing these notes when xe returned to the Doctor’s Caves), but unlikely to alter the planned schedule for Vale and Kane.

Regardless, it was troublesome. Simultaneously: so much progress and yet not enough. The delicate little plants with weak root systems? Not regrown. The vines and plants which grew upon the rainforest’s canopy? Not regrown. But the trees? Here. And the sound of birdsong.

Xe glanced at Ryosuke and grinned to xemself. The kid was helping and didn’t even realize it; Xanti hadn’t noticed the fruits. Xe updated xyr notes with those observations. Even if the Descendants were almost all obligate carnivores… tropical fruit was a delicacy upon the mainland, and surely useful for trade.

Xanti finished jotting down the notes and telekinetically slid the notebook and pencil into xyr satchel. Of course, while Kane would likely appreciate looking at the unfiltered notes… xe’d need to provide a streamlined report for Meteor. The pharaoh wouldn’t give a fuck about the science, only the practicality of how the restoration project delayed starvation conditions and which resources were available for the Descendants and to trade.

Ryosuke’s yell snatched xyr attention. “Ryosuke?” Xanti called back. Xyr golden eyes narrowed.

A teleportation blip. Then xe was standing next to the pile of fruits. For an instant, Xanti’s body language was in shank mode, until xe saw the spider problem for what it was. Xe exhaled, relaxed.

“That’s why I stick to eating meat, kid.” Xanti shrugged. And rolled xyr eyes. “Fresh corpse? You never have to worry about biting into a spider’s egg sac.”

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