Flying on a dragon had been exhilarating, exciting, and a little bit scary. Now, Talys's legs were more wobbly than usual (apparently he'd been more tense than he'd thought he'd be) and he was leaning on his staff as he looked at the nearby trees and strayed from the group. He was seeking out fruit trees, but especially peaches -- James had made the fruit rolls the first time with them, right? Other fruits would probably be good, too, though.

Talys eventually found a low tree/shrub with oddly-shaped green fruits, like apple-sized blackberries. They weren't peaches, but Talys started to pick one. The flesh of the fruit was hard, like a rind, and he bit into it experimentally. The outside was bitter enough to make him recoil, and a wave of nausea struck him, but the strange, orange goop rather reminiscent of the inside of a tomato was sour but not unpleasant. He twisted the rind open and drank the rest of the insides. It was ridged on the inside, and Talys grinned before casting aside the empty shell and starting to pick more.



[the fruits talys has found are mildly poisonous when eaten raw, but are safe if cooked. effects will be detailed in a couple posts lmao. the rind is hard and bitter, while the insides are sour and tangy. when cooked slowly, the rind softens and the whole mess becomes slightly sweet.]

Talys grabbed several of them, pulling out one of the folds of his cloth in order to loop it over and carry them as if in his shirt. He grabbed three that were good-sized and sounded ripe enough, and then grabbed two more from a nearby bush before trotting off to start looking for more fruits. Nothing caught his eye, though -- maybe it was because he was a little distracted by how his mouth was watering.

He felt a little itchy, and was a little light-headed -- that wasn't good. He paused for a moment and leaned against a tree, poking at his tongue (his hands were stained greenish) to make sure it was still there. It was weirdly sort of numb.

A few moments passed, but he was still alive, so Talys shrugged and continued on despite the mild discomfort. It'd probably been from the fruit, but he didn't figure it mattered much as long as someone only had a little bit. It wasn't impairing Talys too badly or anything, it was just unpleasant. He thumped his stick against the grass, and kept walking.

Talys rubbed his greenish fingers on his tunic to try and get the weird, oily feeling and the color off of them before continuing to trot around the forest looking for brightly-colored foods. Flower tones, mostly, or things that looked like other animals had been eating off of them. No need to eat something that'd kill him, right? Talys caught sight of a plant with several clusters of brightly-colored orange-red berries, but he crouched to look at them (wary of his green fruits) and noticed that none of the clusters had been disturbed.

Talys twisted one off and smushed it under his staff's base, finding no seed inside. Well, then this definitely wasn't a very good fruit. He wondered why it existed in the first place, and noticed then that the berry he'd removed was already growing back. His nose twisted up. Probably some kind of carnivorous plant using a lure, then. He stood back up with the help of his mediocre walking stick and looked around -- this was harder than he'd thought it'd be, considering he didn't know very many fruits.

Maybe James could have helped a bit more -- he seemed to know more about this than Talys did. He didn't eat large game, but he also didn't eat random fruits very often. His teeth were optimized for biting and crunching, not breaking into fruits. He ate a pretty decent amount of vegetable matter, but mostly he just ate fish and stuff. Sometimes mice and birds, if he could catch them, but fish were less likely to make him sick.

A tree with low-hanging branches caught his attention. There were deer clustered around it grazing on the pink fruits, and he crept closer. "Heyyyy," Talys called. All of the deer froze and stared at him. "Hey there! Just... want these, uh, fruits?" he offered, starting to move closer. They all bolted, and he sighed. "Sorry about your lunch!"

Talys walked forward and reached for one of them. The branches were low enough for the deer to eat from, so he could reach them, too. He took one that was a little higher up on the tree and rolled it over in his hand. They ranged from deep, dark pink in the smaller ones to a pale, rosy color in the bigger ones. He took one of the big ones, which were soft like plums. When he bit into it, he found that it wasn't very sweet. It was fresh, though, and he liked it well enough.

Talys picked a few and set them carefully in his pouch so that they didn't bruise before looking around. He'd probably get one more fruit (hopefully peaches, if his luck turned up) and then head back. If the creature wanted more of anything, Talys could bring it. He could also make some pumpkins, if somebody else hadn't thought of that already.

Talys leaned against the tree, looking around to try and find some more fruits. Some that were really sweet and maybe a little sour (like peaches) would be good. He was struggling to find some decent ones by now, and his feet were honestly starting to hurt. He'd probably get one more batch of fruit whether he liked them or not and go from there.

He sighed. He had noticed more of the pink fruit trees, but he didn't want more of those, so he wasn't going to pick more of them. At least the deer were creeping back in as he made some distance, letting them get back to their meal. That made him feel a little better about his repetitive failures.

Talys sighed, glancing down at his bundle of fruit. He took a few more steps, now in the vague direction of the river -- did peaches like water? He didn't know. Or maybe they only grew in Eridanus? He really should have asked James where they grew. Still no fruit, though. There were some strange-looking grasses, but Talys didn't eat grass, and so he didn't consider it food. He actually was more willing to consider weaving it into something, but he blinked the thoughts away and kept trundling along. He really was getting bored here... maybe he could grab some flowers and try to get Niedies some sugar, like that thing Aran had shown him? But that took a long time, based on his earlier attempts.

He glanced around, trying mostly to find other animals who were eating things now. That had proven to be more or less effective before; he could probably handle that, right? Thankfully, it seemed to work out -- he noticed a bird hopping around on branches and then flying into a low shrub with oddly shaped white fruits. They were each about the size of a small grape, in clusters about the size of a starfruit.

He approached, ignoring the disgruntled bird as it flew off and squealed at him. He grabbed one and popped it into his mouth. Its flesh gave a little resistance because of its surface tension, and then it popped -- the inside was barely even flesh, mostly just liquid, and hot. His eyes lit up, and he shoved four more in his mouth before grabbing clusters. It was a stinging feeling like fire, but he immediately found that he loved it.

Talys grinned, looking around. That Niedies thing had told him to get... grain, saying he needed... flowers? He realized at the last minute that he hadn't actually gotten any, and so on his way out of Pegasus, he happily collected a large cluster of wildflowers in various colors that he clutched tightly in his fist.


/exit talys