By Jerry
Milli was peacefully sleeping in her bed dreaming of a giant bunny and a little man with a pointy hat riding it being trailed by a huge group of what seemed to be a bunch of goblins and they were about to catch up with the little man when- “ Hey, Milli.” Milli heard a voice whispering to her she looked around trying to see where this voice was coming from when “Milli!” she heard it again this time louder, closer.
She was trying to walk toward where she thought the voice was coming from when she was startled awake by her brother Monty. “Milli” he said exasperated “What?” Milli snapped back annoyed to be woken up from her dream.
“You said that you would show me how to harvest the plant today.” Monty had been bugging her about that for the past two weeks but you can only harvest it once a month.
‘Yeah, and so you woke me up at-” “what time is it?”
“3”
‘In the morning, why did you wake me up at three. We don’t need to go out in there right now’
‘But I couldn’t sleep I was so excited’ Milli rolled her eyes and got out of bed ‘well now I’m up’ she grumbled, and then she sent her brother to go make some breakfast which he replied with ‘oh don’t worry I already ate so we can go straight out there” Milli tiredly said ‘well I haven’t, go make me food while I get dressed, please’ at that Monty left the little room.
Milli got dressed and looked out the window at the giant forest her family were herbologists known for their moon bloom it is a very rare herb that only grows in the wild it doesn’t produce seeds so you can’t grow it in your own garden.
They were lucky enough to find it in the forest behind their when they where scavenging about a year ago ever since they started harvesting and selling products with moon bloom and their sales have sky rocketed.
One of the things they say about it is that if you drink/eat it then it gives you better health and you live longer in reality it actualy just boosts your emune sistem it is packed with vitmin D, E, C, and more. It is an interesting plant though; they say a lot of things about it though.
‘Ok I made you a big plate of eggs and bacon’ Monty said as he walked into the room and handing Milli a plate full of maybe 4 scrambled eggs and 7 pieces of bacon as he gave it to her he took a piece of bacon.
Monty waited impatiently for Milli to finish her food and then he dragged her out of the house not bothering to be quiet their parents were out of town picking up some new herb seeds.
Milli was in charge of her brother for the weekend. As they approached the forest they were greeted by nickels their “dog” the moon reflected beautifully on his long fluffy black hair the spots of white looked like stars along his pelt.
‘Hi buddy’ Monty said in a big baby voice Monty looked so small compared to the big ‘dog’ towering over him and then he came and greeted her as well ‘hi nickels you coming with us’ he replied with a big lick to the face. The forest looked ominous in the dark with the moon shining through the trees.
About 15 minutes later the whining began.
“Are we there yet?” Monty whined
“No we’re not, it’s another little bit” Milli responded
‘But nickels is boooored”
‘Well tell nickels he’s the one who wanted to come’
‘I-I mean he didn’t know it was this far away’
‘I told you it was a bit of a walk about 20 minutes’
‘He didn’t know 20 minutes was so long’
‘Here’ Milli handed Monty a dog toy ‘play with nickels’
‘ok!’
That kept him busy for a while ‘I’m glad I thought to grab that before we left’ Milli mumbled to herself.
About another 15 minutes later milli started to realize she might be lost ‘how long has it been now?’ Monty started to question.
‘Just a little longer’ Milli replied I hope she thought
‘Oh! I see a light we must be there’ (the moon bloom glows, the bigger the moon the brighter the light)
It was once they turned the corner there it was.
‘See what I tell you we weren’t lost it was just a little farther away then I remembered’
‘We were lost?’ Monty said a little worried
‘No I just said we weren’t lost’ Milli assured ‘well do you want to harvest it?’
‘Can I!’
‘Yeah of course here’ Milli handed him a pair of clippers he took them excited.
‘Now let me show you how to harvest it correctly’ milli showed him the right way to harvest it you have to be particularly careful because you can break the stem if you don’t do it right and if the stem breaks it releases a bad toxin that isn’t good to breath in.
Monty carefully harvests it from the bottom being carful to get most of the roots. You have to leave a little root so it can grow back later.
‘You did it perfectly, good job!’ Milli praised.
‘I know’ he replied.
Milli took the herb and went over to the creek that was just right by it moon blooms always grow next to water.
“I’ll show you how to clean and package it now” Milli started to explain.
“Can’t we do that at home?”
“No we have to do it now cause if we don’t it might dry out and die”
“Hmm ok”
Milli started by soaking the towel that she brought in the creek and then she started to clean the roots of the moon bloom first and then slowly emerging the rest of it next when she submerged it in the water it turned the water like a shining blue.
She then after taking it out o the water she coated the top leaves with a blue oil.
“We put this on the top leaves to preserve its color and keep its soft touch”
“Ahhhhhhh!” they heard a scream in the the distance
“What was that” Milli got off the ground to see if she could see anything
“That’s spooky” Monty said concerned and then they heard it again
‘Ahhhhh!’ it was coming from south of them or is that north I don’t know, that way.
They ran over to were they thought the sound was coming from.
As they got closer they could hear ticking it smelled salty and and as they got closer they started to realize that the terrain around them didn’t look like what they have seem before.
It looked maybe more tropical they reached were the ticking and screaming was coming from it was coming from a cave “stay here with nickels” Milli said to Monty
“But I want to come to” Monty replied
“ no I don’t want you to come it might be dangerous”
“Ok” Monty said disappointedly
Milli grabbed her big clippers they had used earlier and brandished it like a weapon and went into the cave.
In the cave was a big pool of water and in the water was what looked to be a big crocodile trying to eat a group of what seems to be pirates which is weird cause they don’t live anywhere near the ocean so they don’t have pirates milli looked around the cave to see a boy who seemed to be flying “ hahaha good luck captain hook!” the boy said and then flew off
“ Are you ok” Milli said concerned
The pirate clearly fighting for his life yelled “NO!”
Milli not sure what to do threw her clippers at the crocodile the clippers hit it surprisingly right in its eye. Milli felt a ping of guilt the moment she heard its pitiful cry as it slunk back into the water and the ticking faded away further down the cave.
“Smee!” the pirate yelled concerned
A second after he yelled a man waring a light blue and white striped shirt he also had a bright red night cap on “ smee where’s the rest of the crew?”
“I-I don’t know sir” the man I assume Smee said back
“Tik-Tok chased them down the cave before he came back a little later”
“Um hi” Milli butted in
“What? Oh thank you for the help kid” the pirate said “what’s your name?”
Milli wasn’t sure if she wanted to answer, something about him seemed off.
“Milli”
“Milli you’re new hear are you another one of peters kids”
“Umm no”
“Well Milli I don’t know where the rest of my crew went you should join me”
Octopencil 