The Indecisive Wakabi
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"What should I do today?", pondered the young wakabi. 

It was a lovely morning in the Skarch desert. Although the season was autumn, the sun was still shining brightly in the sky, its golden light mirrored by the sparkling sands below.

"I know! I should catch a sand cobra for my lunch!", decided the wakabi, as he saw a baby sand cobra slither by. 

And so the wakabi chased after the baby sand cobra, eyes pinned on the prize as he followed the snake in hot pursuit. But right as he was about to catch the cobra, the wakabi ran headfirst into a prickly kouseki cactus, narrowly avoiding serious injury due to some good fortune.

The kouseki cactus was in full bloom that day, blossoming with lovely red crystalline flowers. 

"I should make a kouseki flower garland!", thought the young wakabi, as he abandoned pursuit of the baby cobra and began to pluck flowers from the plant.

And so the wakabi wandered around the arid desert, looking for enough blossoms to create a lovely garland. This garland would be the talk of the desert!

"What are you doing, young one?", asked a lithe roadrunner to the wakabi, as it zipped past.

"I am making a garland out of kouseki blossoms! What are you doing, speedy roadrunner?"

"Oh, I am gathering seeds for the winter!", replied the roadrunner. "I must gather the seeds before the cacti start to hibernate." 

"Oh! I must gather seeds for the winter, too!", said the wakabi suddenly, as he dropped his half-finished garland to the desert floor. "I will join you presently and collect some seeds of my own."

And so the wakabi and the roadrunner travelled the length and breadth of the desert, breaking open cactus pods and harvesting the small seeds within. 

As he was harvesting a small kouseki cactus, the wakabi chanced upon a young dracnari who was hunting gila lizards and collecting the vividly hued corpses.

"Why do you hunt the lizards, young adventurer?", asked the wakabi, looking up from his current work.

"I am collecting the gila lizards to sell to the Nomad Camp for a high price!", replied the dracnari. "Ssaliro Xeth of the dracnari Nomad Camp seeks gila lizards to make a potent herbicide."

"I could really use some gold sovereigns right now", thought the wakabi, throwing away his bag of seeds. "I could buy many many more seeds from the gold sovereigns that I would get from gila lizard corpses!" 

And so, abandoning his collecting of seeds, the young wakabi began to hunt gila lizards of the Skarch desert, quickly collecting a sizable few as he made his way to the Nomad Camp.

"Helping the Nomad Camp with their herbicides, aren't you, young bird?", said a voice from behind. The wakabi turned around to see a well-dressed lucidian carrying a small leather bag.

"You would get much more gold sovereigns from helping the Mesa Compound..", said the lucidian to the young wakabi as he opened his leather bag and showed off his impressive collection of sandojin skins. 

"What do you do with the sandojin skins?", asked the wakabi curiously, placing the gila corpses on the ground as he spoke. 

"Why, you give them to the lucidian researchers, of course!", replied the traveller encouragingly. "In fact, I am on my way to do so myself."

"You are right.", said the wakabi as he started to make way to the southern part of the desert in search of wild sandojins. "I must hunt sandojin to receive more gold sovereigns."

And so the young wakabi hunted and killed many sandojins, removing skin from corpse as he slew each reptile. As he gathered a reasonable amount of sandojin skin, he began to make way towards the lucidian Mesa Compound when he suddenly remembered his cousin in Gaudiguch city.

"I must visit my cousin, the postman of Gaudiguch city!", exclaimed the wakabi as he threw away his sandojin skins and began to make way to Gaudiguch. "I haven't visited him in months!"

As he made his way towards the village of Dairuchi, the young wakabi chanced upon a little sign. "Train our rockeaters to harvest marble, for a kingly sum of a thousand gold sovereigns!", the sign read.

"I must train a rockeater rightaway!", thought the wakabi as he made his way to the excavation sites. "I bet I could train one really fast and still have time to visit my cousin!"

As he entered the rockeater tunnels, the young wakabi found himself in a pitch-black labyrinth, no light source to be found. 

"This can't do!", said the wakabi to himself as he hastily got out of the tunnels. "It is quite dark now and I can't see very well. I must run back home and grab a torch to light the way!"

And so the wakabi speedily ran back home to look for a suitable torch to carry light. He soon found it, a log of firewood neatly kept beside his nest. Now he could go back to Dairuchi and train the rockeater!

"But the sun is down and I am quite tired and sleepy", thought the young wakabi to himself. "Surely I could train the rockeater tomorrow!"

And so the wakabi went to bed.