Sweet Treats

               The trip back to the coast wasn’t too bad. The night Cleric had broke down in Frankie’s arms was one of her more rough days. But she also knew that whenever she hit that valley, she’d come back up again. Sometimes, all anyone needed was a good cry. She’d shaken off the events in the city that night, and when she woke up the following morning she felt better. Not great. The run in with the cryo still bothered her, but it wasn’t taking as much of an emotional toll on her. 

                Coupled with the fact that they were just leaving the city helped to improve her mood. She’d be able to leave everything behind that had happed in the city. 

                She still wasn’t sure when she should tell her brother that she wanted to go out on her own, however. He put so much into protecting her. Would it crush him? Would he demand to go with her? Or would he just accept it and let her go? Cleric trailed behind Frankie as they walked through the snow, their progress slow going and giving her time to mull things over. 

                Frankie was rambling on about something or other, she was only half following what he was saying and giving small nods here and there to keep him going. But after a few hours of walking he caught on to what was happening. That’s when he decided they should stop for a little bit, let their legs rest from having to wade through a foot or two of snow that whole morning. 

                The trees around them were thick, as was the brush. It allowed the pair of Utahs to quickly search the area and find a spot that didn’t have snow where they could snuggle and get warm while they rested. Cleric had found a thicket of bushes that were pressed up against a tree, big enough that the pair could go into the middle of the bushes to take shelter while also being directly up against the tree themselves. 

                Cleric had just laid down, tucking her feet and hands under her where she lay, when Frankie sat beside her but stopped as he glanced over the exposed roots of the tree that was sheltering them. She didn’t say anything but watched him, wondering what exactly he had noticed with the tree. To her, it was simply that. A tree. 

                “Oh hey! You know mom, Big mom, showed me a tree like this once! Look! I thought I smelled something delicious.” Frankie exclaimed. Before Cleric could say or do anything, Frankie had pointed down to a root that had sap bubbling up from an open wound. She guessed it was from a mouse or some other small creature, but Frankie brought his head down and licked the root. 

                Cleric instantly made a face of utter disgust. 

                “You licked a tree, Frankie. That’s gross. You know some plants can actually kill you, right? You sure mom showed you this tree?” Cleric asked

                “Mmm! Yeah! It tastes so good! It was for sure a tree like this. Here, trust me. You have to take a little try of this shit.” Frankie said, bringing a claw to the trunk of the tree and dug in. It took some work before he could find the perfect depth, but after a few moments there it was. Sap, slowly leaking from the scratch marks he’d made. And as soon as it started to roll down the tree, Frankie looked back at Cleric with a stupid smile on his face. 

                “You want me to lick. A. Tree.” Cleric said, looking back at Frankie with a completely unamused expression. 

                He sighed and rolled his eyes before using his claw to scrape up some of the sap from the tree trunk and held it out for his sister. It was a wonder she was still alive. For living out in the wilds, she had the weirdest things she refused to do. Such as eat anything that had dirt on it, or plants. She hated plants, even if they were good sources of medicine to ease stomach aches. Or to ease body pains. Frankie never understood, she only said it was something about things couldn’t be dirty.

                Cleric watched as he held his claw out that had the sap on it and lifted a lip in disgust again. But instead of waiting for her to try it, or trying to talk her into it, Frankie leaned forward and quickly wiped his claw off on her face. 

                “Frankie!” Cleric roared before quickly using her tongue to get the sap off her face. It did the trick. Her eyes widened at how sweet it tasted. And after a few moments of her trying to clean the sap from her face, she turned to the tree as well and started to meticulously peel the bark back and away so she could get to the meat of the tree and dig into it. 

                The pair of utahraptors sat there for a few hours, warming up and absolutely destroying the poor tree. Neither of them realizing the damage they were doing to it. They only cared for the sweet sappy treat that they were getting from it as well as the energy the sap gave them. And after a few hours, Frankie was happy to see that it seemed to have boosted Cleric’s mood slightly as well. Her tailtip was flicking here and there, a sure sign that she was content and happy. 

                “Big Mom should show you more plants like these. No meat can match this taste. It’s so good.” Cleric said as she used her claw to carefully scrape another globule of sap up from her spot on the tree, sticking her claw into her mouth to enjoy the taste. 

                “Next time we see Bird Mom, I’ll ask her if she can get the information from other mom. Maybe there are those picture papers that Apocrypha has that shows what plants have this same taste? I don’t know. Big Mom knows more about those paper piles than I do.” Frankie replied and sighed as he stretched out and flopped onto his side, head on the root of the tree so he could stick his tongue out to continue eating even as he laid there. 

                “Come on. Don’t get comfy. We need to keep covering ground so we can at least find a cave or something for the night. I’m not laying out here in the dirt.” Cleric said as she stood up and shook herself off before wiggling her way out of the bushes. Frankie watched her go with a small smile, thanking whatever tree gods existed for making something that made his sister get out of her slump.