{YOTB-1} Sparkles Amongst The Grains

“What a beautiful place, I’ve never seen this much greenery around before…”
“Right? It’s just like I remembered—”

BOOM.

Before Dan and Shibani even had the chance to step further into the gorgeous landscape that was Faunt Cavern, the ground shook violently.

“Woah…”
“Shibani, are you okay? What was that…”
“Yeah, I’m fine… hey Dan, look! In the distance over there…”

On top of the hill that Shibani pointed at, a wisp of smoke trailed upward into the sky. Honestly Shibani just thought the happenstance was interesting, but Dan…

“Is… is that a fire? If we let that fire spread, we won’t be able to harvest any rice! Shibani! Let’s go, quickly!”
“Oh—oh??? Okay!”

Quickly—with sickle and rice bag in hand—Dan and Shibani ran towards the source of the fire. It seemed like quite a walk to get there, but by following a small path cut through the rice pads it was quite easy to get to the makeshift “campsite” … if one could call it that anymore with how much char littered the ground. And there, laying in the middle with a half-burnt wick in hand, covered in soot, was…

“Ah! It’s the fireworks man!” Without a care in the world, Shibani wandered over to Dagasho and pushed him up into a seated position.
“Oh, that explosion was you… old man.” The moment Dan said ‘old man’, Dagasho perked up from his daze.
“Dan! Shibani! Well yeah, ‘course it was me. Why wouldn’t it be me? Since they’re preppin’ for Mochi Moon downtown, they kicked me out an’ told me, ‘Go prep those fireworks elsewhere! Bring em back when yer done!’ so… yeah! I’m almost done too!” It wasn’t uncommon for Dagasho’s fireworks to be a disruption to some folk in Burrowgatory… and while he did annoy Dan, their work seemed to cross paths more often than not, so everyone knew each other at the least.

“So, why are yall up here anyways? Awfully far way to go out just for a dinner date—”
“Oh shut up, old man. I’m harvesting rice, and wouldn’t want you to burn it all with your explosions.” A slight dust of pink came to Dan’s cheeks; Dagasho couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
“Rice? Ohh yeah, you’re doin’ that mochi thing…” For the first time in a while, Dagasho took a look at the green hills around him… before coming face to face with the sickle that Shibani was waving in his face.
“Heya mister fireworks man! How about you help us too? You said you were almost done, and there’ll be free rice to eat afterward!”
“Shibani, I never said that there’ll be free rice for him—”
“FREE RICE?” Dagasho cleared his throat. “I mean hey, sure! Three’s better than two when it comes to situations like this, right?”
“I never said there’d be free—gah. Fine. Here Dagasho, take this; follow Shibani around with a bag and help collect rice… also, move your camp so you don’t burn everything to the ground.” With a great sense of resignation, Dan handed Dagasho some equipment and the group fanned out to start harvesting rice… after setting up camp and moving Dagasho’s stuff.

…

“Phew, we got quite a lot gathered… Thank you Dagasho, I wouldn’t have got this much without your help. Dan’s gonna be so surprised when he gets back to camp!” After depositing yet another bag of rice at base, Shibani took the time to gently slap the bag as Dagasho finished tying it up.
“Yep, no prob’ small fry! Only the best for the offerin’ and all that.”
“Actually, speaking of ‘the best’ …” Shibani stole a glance at Dan; he’s still quite a ways out… “Don’t tell Dan, but I saw… this place.”
“Oh?”
“It was a teeny little cave with blue glowie-glowies, and there was some super sparkly rice in it…”
“Glowies? Like these?” With the tip of his tail, Dagasho flicked at the glowing sparkle-things that always seemed to float around him.
“Sorta? But I thought it’d be interesting to get a bag from there… maybe we could mix it in with the other rice and it’d taste better? Or it’d at least sparkle…”
“And yer tellin’ me and not Dan?”
“Dan’s busy! Plus I kinda want it to be a surprise…”
“Special surprise rice for a special surprise guy?”
“Uh… yeah something like that! Ehe…”
“How about I help ya? We can harvest the rice together, just a little bag. Then we can decide what to do from there!”
“Yeah, okay! We’ll be quick—it’s this way, hurry…”

After a moment of wading through the rice paddies, Shibani showed Dagasho the way to the special sparkling rice. Sure enough it wasn’t just a trick of the light; Dagasho took a sprig out into the natural light to test it and it shimmered in that weird blueish color. It was so weird… why WOULDN’T they take a bag? It wasn’t much harder than harvesting the other rice, but Dagasho kept stopping in between to really inspect each sprig of rice (for quality, of course) so it took significantly longer than they’d intended… and once they’d made their way back to camp, Dan was already back and stirring a pot of rice.

“Now where’d you guys get off to? I’ve been back for a while…” Dan squinted his eyes as Dagasho laid the “special” bag of rice down beside the others.
“Uhhhhh…” Shibani twiddled his thumbs.
“Harvestin’ rice, just like you said! C’mon buddy don’t go forgettin’ details on me. Is that rice done?”
“I— haah, alright. It is done, by the by… I guess you can have a bowl. Shibani, here’s yours. Dagasho… you get your own.”
“Oh yay! Thank you Dan!”
“Yahoo! Thank ya kindly!” After a hard day’s work, a fresh bowl of rice is just what everyone needs! Dagasho carefully piled his bowl high as the group settled down for the evening.

There were a couple more things that Dan needed to do, but for today they could just relax. And at the end of the day… Since Dagasho eventually finished his fireworks, why didn’t he stick around to help Dan and Shibani with their mochi? Shibani had a couple ideas, so might as well stick around to help the youngins while he could! At least one bun appreciated his help!