Upon hearing Sura's question, Orion gained insight into Ursa's question. He then responded, "To be honest, I was initially just genuinely curious about her flower. However, at that moment, when I observed your calm demeanour and how efficiently you two were handling the task once she turned her attention to me. So, I decided to wait until you guys finished." Nevertheless, he included an extra little detail, which was a lie, to clarify his statement.

Sura nodded thoughtfully as she absorbed Orion's words. As his partner, she trusted that there was no need for him to lie to her directly. Meanwhile, Ursa couldn't shake the memory of the enraptured expression on Orion's face when they first saw Malaia's flower. However, she vividly recalled the glances he sent their way just before they finished their punishment, and so she too found it easy to believe him.

Nonetheless, the more Ursa thought about it, the more she began to believe that Orion was the type of boy who didn't discriminate. She recalled how unattractive the tree nymph was, and how Orion had still shown interest in her. Perhaps that was why the tree nymph had chosen to entertain his questions, and why they had become strangely familiar with two tree nymphs in just one day.

"Sigh! It seems that we are really late," Orion said, his deep voice interrupting Ursa's thoughts and drawing her attention to the group of people waiting for them.

As they approached, all eyes turned to them, and Mr Tog and Miss Fiona immediately walked over to greet them.

Once they reached Mr Tog and Miss Fiona, Mr Tog wasted no time in asking, "So, what took you guys so long to return to the group?" His tone was friendly, but Ursa could sense an undercurrent of curiosity in his voice. Despite his suspicions, Mr Tog couldn't guess what had delayed them. However, he still felt the need to ask just to make sure.

Immediately after Mr Tog finished speaking, Orion promptly answered his question. "We encountered a tree nymph who gave us a time limit to pluck her tree's fruits. However, we overused our time and ended up with a little extra work as punishment," he explained calmly.

Surprisingly, Mr Tog simply nodded and gestured for them to follow him back to the group. Orion exchanged a quick glance with Fiona, who smiled and nodded back. Before she did the same to the girls beside him, she suddenly said, "Although it may not seem like it, almost everyone else here arrived late today because they either got in trouble with a tree nymph or had unknowingly been troubled by one." She let out a soft chuckle as they all walked forward, following Mr Tog to the rest of the group.

Mr Tog also chuckled and added, "Well, at least now you all have a taste of the troubles we face on the farm. And that's not even counting the ones we deal with outside." He cast a sidelong glance at Orion, who caught the implication immediately as he thought of the Vyklr vines that Thak had told him about. Orion refocused his gaze forward and halted as they arrived in front of the group. "You guys can go and repack your fruits,' he said to Orion and the others."We'll wait until you're done."

..........

With a nod of my head, I beckoned Sura and Ursa to follow me as we made our way to the woman who was safeguarding our fruits, nodding to acknowledge her presence as we approached. We placed our harvested fruits by her side and then began to share the ones we had brought back earlier. As we finished sharing, Ursa ended up with an impressive haul of ten Kalna fruits and twelve Lipry fruits. Meanwhile, I had a respectable total of nine Kalna fruits and eleven Lipry fruits, and Sura not to be outdone, had also amassed ten Kalna fruits and ten Lipry fruits. With our harvest safely shared, we were ready to rejoin the group and make our way out of the farm.

However, we were faced with the challenge of carrying all of our fruit in our bare hands. Just then, the female teacher standing nearby seemed to sense our dilemma. With a knowing look, she spoke up and offered a solution as though she had read our minds. "If you're wondering how to transport all those fruits," she said, "you can easily pick up sacks from the farm like others have done." Relief washed over us as we contemplated the simplicity of the solution. But our gratitude was short-lived as she quickly added, "Of course, each bag costs about four Kalna fruits, and since you need three, that'll be about twelve Kalna fruits."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise as the woman named the hefty price for the bags. Unable to contain my disbelief, I blurted out, "That is expensive!".

The woman met my protest with a patient smile and began to enlighten us on the factors that contributed to the cost. "The price reflects the resources that went into planting and harvesting the plants used to produce the sacks," she said. "Not to mention the labour that went into crafting them. When you consider all these factors, the price is actually quite reasonable."

'Yeah, I almost forgot about the labour and cost,' I thought wearily, remembering the way goods and services are sold in this village. Despite this, my attention was drawn to Ursa, who had already determined the fair price and begun selecting four plump Kalna fruits from her pile to offer the woman. It wasn't long before Sura came to the same conclusion and followed Ursa's lead, preparing to make her own purchase.

After they were done, and retrieved their starched sacks from the woman, I begrudgingly selected a handful of Kalna fruits from my own stash and presented them to the woman. With a smile that didn't absolutely resemble that of a merchant eager to sell out all their goods, she accepted my payment and promptly handed me my sack.