ANDEN
CHASING THE SUN
Anden knew better than to walk the outskirts alone. He hadn't been back since the incident with Dani. He pushed the memories from his mind. If Anden needed sleep, he was certain the images of his twin's face twisted and hallowed would keep him up. But Anden also knew he had to get out and about again. He couldn't let the incident hold him back. If he didn't keep exploring, keep searching Caido for new places to visit and see. Then he wasn't really living. That was something he knew Eloise Marie, wherever she was wouldn't be able to handle. They couldn't hold each other back. They had to push each other forward, even if they weren't with one another.
He'd heard about the fields from the locals. It's where the majority of the crops in the area were grown. Fields and farmland weren't uncommon in his own world. Not that he had ever seen them himself though. Merchants would travel to their inn and trade their produce with his parents. He knew that much.
It was the smell that caught Anden's attention first. The mix of fresh herbs and natural fertilizer. He understood now why the locals were confused why he'd want to visit the fields. It was still a new experience for Anden though. Mixed in with the new, was a familiar orange vegetable.
It was a rare dinner item back home, few farmers would grow pumpkins. And they were so season-specific that they were lucky to see one every year. Anden knelt down to admire the orange produce. It was larger than the ones back home. He rubbed his right hand over the tough exterior, part of him wondered if it tasted the same as it did back home.
NOM.
Anden blinked as the pumpkin revealed a mouth, and clamped its teeth down onto Anden's hand. With his free hand he pulled the pumpkin off of himself, holding it a distance from his body. "Why does everything need to be so difficult?" Anden sighed.
It wasn't the feral pumpkin in his grip that worried him, no. It was the sound of the leaves being crushed behind Anden that raised the spikes along his spine.
