The gift was held in Kiorif’s grasp as he looked at the screen of a map, scrolling and dragging his eyes towards different titles of the map. His mind was dreading their next stop, not sure what to do next.

“You need to relax, we figure out where to go next,” Rookie leaned herself on him, poking his cheeks. Though he wanted to disagree, his stinging eyes found this as a reasonable excuse to leave the screen.

“That’s the spirit Kiorif. Come on, we are up for the next shift,” Outside though had its own draining issues. Still given a wall of silence, Kiorif ignored the quiet eyes as he passed the varied livestock.

“Hey, how are you doing with the data?”

“It was tough, to begin with, now the fight and this gift aren’t helping our image. We may need to spend more time here,”

“How about I ask them? I’m fine with most of them,”

“Do you know what to ask?” Rookie paused in motion.

“Uh, no. But it shouldn’t be that hard,”

“Yes, it is. It isn’t just asking what their favourite colour is,”

“Mine is purple,” Rookie spat out.

“Rookie,”

“I’m sorry. Okay, I’m serious now, seriously. So what do I have to ask?”

“We need tribe numbers, the technology they use, how they act around humans, how they act with each other,”

“This sounds like a lot,”

“It is a lot Rookie, which is why I’m the one asking. We need to collect basically anything we can find about them. I mean they shouldn’t even be living here in the first place,”

“Maybe keep your voice lower about your opinions,” Rookie eyed some VitaNavs who paused for a moment distant from them. But looking back Kiorif walked off.

“Hey wait, so what am I supposed to do?”

“The same thing you always do Rookie, shoot any problems. And right now one problem is whatever is running around this place,” Rookie was left behind as Kiorif returned to his guarding pattern, following an invisible path.

Rookie wanted to block him, but she couldn’t challenge him. Returning to her own path, she stayed alert for any problems.

***

Tomobi wasn’t sure what to do. He needs to tell somebody about the creature, one that could be the problem of Spoon’s farm. But there was one small problem.

He no longer had the gift.

Sprout and Nana were the only ones who knew about the gift. And all the possibilities of what could’ve happened next made his stomach knot.

“Tomobi,” the voice he didn’t want to hear was right behind him. Sprout showed a half-smile under her drooping eyes.

“You good?”

“Uh, yes,”

“Good. So, what was it like using a gift for the first time?” She got closer to him with a sprouting smile.

“It felt,” What did it feel like to him? He couldn’t use the right words to describe it, or even if there were any.

“Well,”

“It felt, different,”

“That’s all? Different?”

“I don’t know, I can’t describe it,”

“Alright, but what did it do?” Now he didn’t worry about that, but now it hammered itself along with the lost gift. How would Sprout react? He didn’t know what to do.

“I don’t have it anymore,”

“What?” Sprout’s smile wilted from Tomobi’s blurt. He knew not to do that again.

“What do you mean you don’t have it anymore?”

“Well it is complicated,” Seeing the stress streaking across his face, Sprout took a soothing breath and calmed from her quick spike.

“Okay, we’ll go inside so you can explain,” A wise choice as to when Tomobi explained what had happened, the gift, the beast, Rookie, all of it was lifted from Tomobi and placed on Sprout. Her expression made it seem she balanced it well.

“And then that lead to you asking about everything and I panicked,”

“Ah, okay,”

“Thanks, Sprout, I’m surprised you handled everything,” Tomobi had a nervous chuckle.

“Oh no I’m freaking out,” she dropped everything explained to her. her expression didn’t match this, but Tomobi saw her eyelids rose slightly, so maybe that was a sign.

“Okay, I’m good now. So what we need to do is tell everyone about everything. Then we can go deal with the creature. But first,” She stood up, grabbing Tomobi’s arm.

“We need to get your gift back. Where is Kiorif?”

“Hang on, we can’t just ask him for it back,”

“Sure you can, we just need to convince him to do it though. Now come on,” Tomobi sheepishly followed after Sprout as she began her search for the treasure, collecting her tools for the quest. And as they ventured out of the safety and view of the farm, where the creature now acted out its plan.

Tomobi didn’t know what made him more nervous, the silence of their walk or what Sprout had with her. A shovel was carried with her, along with a small bag jumping against her body, with a faint glow that allured Tomobi.

“So you made soap?” Sprout’s question snapped him out of the trance.

“Y-yeah it did,”

“Well, it ain’t the weirdest thing I’ve heard. And from what you told me about it you handled it pretty well for somebody who ain’t use to them,”

“Really,” Tomobi still felt unsure about the bubbles but something told him Sprout was to raise his ego.

“Oh yeah. I remember Nana only let me get to use a gift a couple years younger than you. I was given Root, cause a lot of problems I did that day,”

“What does Root do?”

“Right I should’ve taken a guess, given all the gifts' simple names. Too much effort just describing them, I’ll tell you what when we get back I might show you,”

“You still have it?”

“Course. When Nana gives you a gift you take it, can’t trade or return it. Whatever gift Nana gave you, you would use it, not like gifts fall from the sky,”

“No, I guess not,”

“Anyways I think I found who we are looking for,” far ahead they saw the silhouette of Kiorif.

“Get ready to defend yourself, cause I’m only gonna be starting it,”

“Wait what? Sprout I don’t know-” The two paced steadily towards Kiorif, all whilst the creature moved to its next step as it picked up the pace.