Rice, nap, and untold worries

Finally! They had made it to Faunt Peak! It had been quite challenging and exhausting –  well, especially for Shibani – but that had also been really fun!! Shibani did not regret at all joining in! He was grateful that Dan did not go all so fast everyday, that at times he took the time to slow down, or Shibani knew he would just be lying on the floor right now and would probably not be of any other help.

Now was time to harvest the rice! It put Shibani in a good mood when he thought about the delicious mochi that Dan would make with it! But also, Dan promised to cook something out of it as well once they would be done harvesting, and he was excited to try that too. Anything Dan cooked could only be good, there was no other way.

Dan and Shibani started collecting rice from the main fields around the cave. Shibani had the occasional ten minutes nap from time to time but Dan didn't say too much about it as Shibani still managed not to make it happen too often, and, to be honest, that was actually kind of cute to see him falling asleep surrounded by those fields.

Now was sunset time already, time had went by so fast! They had only barely taken a break to eat some of the food that Dan had taken with him, and let Shibani enjoy a thirty minutes nap this time, since they started.
While they were heading back to the rice fields, Shibani noticed that the crevice in the side of the cavern. with the strange rice and crystals, was glowing so much now. He already knew the rice in there was glowy, but Dan had insisted to harvest the fields outside of the cave as they were already special enough and it could be too risky to go into the crevice. Shibani had been okay with it so far, especially as from further away he could not really notice anything special about the crevice but... The coming of darkness made it pop out in the middle of all this, it had an amazing blue glow coming out of it and Shibani could not help but to feel attracted by it.
Making sure that Dan was busy and could not see him, he headed for the crevice and, what a marvel! He got his eyesight blown away but the beautifulness of it all. How could he not go in and try to harvest some of the rice. So, he did. Despite Dan's "orders", he held his sickle strongly and entered the cave in a resolute manner. Shibani started collecting the rice, and, little by little, his sack got fuller and fuller. He still could not believe the beauty of that rice. For sure it should make some wonderfully amazing mochis! Dan would be so thankful in the end, he was sure of it!
Shibani wanted to collect more of them but... With the surge of adrenaline finally down, he suddenly realised that the cold blue light filling the place felt comfortable and, without really being conscious of it, he fell asleep, just there, using his nicely filled bag as a pillow.

It was so dark now. Dan was looking for Shibani everywhere but could not find him. True, the fields were huge but... He would not have dared getting so far away that Dan could not find him. Where could he possibly be..... As he was getting out of ideas as to where to look, he remembered the crevice. Would Shibani really have disobeyed him and went in there alone..? Why could he not listen... Exasperated, Dan headed there in the hope of finding his friend. At first glance, he was not there, so Dan carefully got down the crevice and headed deeper into it to end up finding him right there, hidden in a corner, all cozy and sleeping peacefully without a single worry. Dan was actually the one who had gotten worried – what if Shibani had gotten lost forever into the wild, what if he had badly injured himself... or worse – but that, he would not admit. He angrily woke Shibani up and asked him what in the bun he was doing there! Shibani, looking up at him while yawning and stretching his arms, explained proudly how much strange rice he had collected!! His proud happy face was too cute but Dan had to be strict about it. Why did he not tell Dan to come with him! That was dangerous! Shibani was a bit confused and started apologising and then said that he could leave the rice in the cave if it really was so bad. But no, of course it was not so bad, Dan was just worried. It could actually be really nice to experiment with that rice, so, Dan handed a hand to help Shibani get up and carried his heavily filled bag back to their camp. There, Dan cooked some hot bowl of rice with that glowy blue rice, and it actually tasted amazing. He was thankful he agreed to bring Shibani with him. He opened him to new possibilities for his mochis that he would not particularly have thought about if he had been on his own. As he finished his meal, he turned his face to get a look at Shibani but there he was, sleeping already after having eaten all of his bowl. Dan cheeks warmed up a bit as he started cleaning up before heading to sleep as well.