[ti]spawn[/ti] Leaf the Bears Alone

"Oh, no, you're fine..." Jinx burst into giggles before adding, "That's exactly what I was doing, too, even before you joined in! Following the wild bear rumors! Guess we're birds of a feather, or peas in a pod, or... shoot, is there a third metaphor like that?"

Jinx paused for a moment to consider whether there was, in fact, another metaphor with which she could continue, before shaking her head.

"So we're on the same wavelength here. And when it comes to a bear hunt, two heads are better than one! Probably true for other kinds of hunt, now that I think of it..."

Jinx heard a rustling nearby and twirled around to face the source of the sound. It looked like an ordinary leaf pile, like so many others in the Birchwild Grove, much too small to contain all but the youngest of bears... but then, looks could be deceiving.

"Ooh, what do we have here?"

"Sharing a brain cell! There we go! I'm glad you understand me." Jinx wouldn't have come up with the metaphor herself, but she recognized it well enough, even if it was as something her daughter might say more than something she'd say in a regular conversation. Good thing this was UNOVR, and all real-life conversation rules were out the window here!

Jinx was also a little disappointed by the Paras' appearance, but after a moment, a thought occurred to her. "Wait, aren't their mushrooms supposed to be valuable or something? Like, they're a special item you go sell off to the merchants?"

The Paras, for its part, evidently did not like this conversational shift as it tried to scuttle away, but Jinx's Rufflet was there to prevent it from going too far.

"Maybe they're bear food! Something has to make them so valuable, right? Maybe bears like truffles!"

It was a long shot, Jinx knew it even as she was speaking, but who cared, really? She was having fun coming up with these wild theories, and that was all that really mattered in the end.