Yeeaaahhh this is just a shenanigans chapter while Orange goes out to find his friend for help :)

Hehe, both Gerald and Sabre are about to do things they're not supposed to, since the technically most responsible person isn't home >:D

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[Sabre's POV]

It's now a little before the sun usually starts to set, and Orange is about to leave for the trip he told me about.

"Sabre, are you listening?" Orange says.

"Huh?" I say, turning to look at him again. I got distracted because I saw a bird.

Orange laughs, and ruffles my hair.

"C'mon, focus buddy." Orange says. "I'm trying to tell you the ground rules."

"Rules are dumb." I say, crossing my arms.

"I know, but I don't want you getting yourself hurt or sick." Orange says. "First, if a portal activates, don't go through on your own. You can't teleport, and it would be hard to find you again. Second, if you go out into the forest here (because I know you will), don't climb anything. And third, don't eat anything in the forest that looks weird. Remember what I told you is safe?"

"Yeah, you made me memorize from that foraging book you found." I answer. "Things that grow in there that I know are safe are sweet berries, the red apples (and not the weird purplish-grey ones), blueberries, and the watermelons."

"Good." Orange smiles. "Now, this last rule is the most important one."

"Okay." I say.

Orange places his hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eyes.

"Do not root around in the storage room, because I know you'll just either immobilize yourself again or make yourself sick." Orange says. "I left plenty of food for you on the table that should be enough for dinner for tonight and breakfast for tomorrow morning... if you don't vacuum it all up."

"Heyyy!" I say, annoyed at that last comment, and Orange chuckles.

"Oh come on, don't act like it's not true, you tiny vacuum." Orange says, getting up. "Okay, I'll be going now. See you tomorrow, okay?"

"Seeya tomorrow Orange, be safe!" I say as Orange walks off.

I wave to Orange Steve as he teleports, Gerald standing behind me. As soon as he's gone, Gerald and I look at each other.

"Remember, we promised that I wouldn't tell him about your rave parties if you didn't tell him about how I'm going to break two of his rules." I say. "I don't care how loud you get, I'll probably just pass out around four in the morning anyway."

Gerald nods at me. Then, he trots off towards his 'domain', and I rush off into the forest. I'm gonna climb so many things! I'm pretty much a pro at it already, me climbing buildings and all, I don't get why Orange is so paranoid about getting in high places. Maybe it's 'cause he's scared of heights, and he's projecting onto me a little bit? I dunno.

I quickly make my way into the branches of the first tree I get to, and I hop around from tree to tree in the canopies. This is so much fun! I feel like I'm one of those superheroes from old comic books! Although, I never actually read them, I just saw ads and posters. I couldn't read the stories for myself because all of the comic books were either wrecked by water damage or something else.

As I nimbly make my way from tree to tree, I suddenly bonk my head on something, which falls to the ground immediately after. Looking around, I see I'm in a tree that grows those weird purple-grey apples that Orange warned me about.

The foraging book said that they taste sweet, but actually make humans really sick. It didn't go into descriptions about the effects of the thing, but I don't really want to find out. I move on from that tree and bound into the next.

I keep exploring in the treetops for a really long time. I only stop when I notice that's it's starting to get dark, and soon it'll be too dark to see the branches. I don't want to break my bones, so I jump down from the trees and start heading back to the house. That, and I used up a lot of energy exploring the trees for that long... and I want food. A lot.

When I get back inside, I can already hear Gerald having a blast. Both figuratively and literally, I can hear EDM music blasting through the walls. Huh, Gerald actually has pretty good taste. This song is cool!

Anyway, I spot the stuff Orange left for me on the table. Might as well start with that, so he doesn't know that I went into the storage room.

There's two separated meals on either side of the table; One is made up of a baked potato, some bread, and a water bottle, while the other is two apples and another water bottle. I quickly finish both, but like I guessed I would be, I'm still really hungry. I should clean this up first before I go looking in the storage room for what I want, though.

I pick up the plate and two bottles form the table, and I use the stepstool Orange made me to put them on top of the empty furnaces. Then, I turn to the storage room door, and I excitedly open it. Orange restocked everything the other day, so I know I have a lot to choose from.

I grab stuff I want to eat as I walk past the chests. Hm, some apples, pre-baked potatoes, some more bread, sweet berries and blueberries from outside, some smoked fish, even a few bits of chicken (hey, it's not cannibalism because this is just a hoodie, I take what I can get), a little more berries... ooh, melon slices. Nice.

I soon decide I've picked out enough and set out all my food in front of me. Hey, I don't have to sneak it up to my room, because Orange is out of the house. So, I can eat all I want in here and the scraps won't be as difficult to deal with. I happily start munching on what I collected, pretty sure I'll be good for a while.

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Man, Orange would be so mad at me if he knew how much I got into.

I'm now sitting against one of the chests in the storage room, having finished the last of my entire haul a little while ago. This must be what those raiders felt like after they took over that rations storage place, and didn't want to get up even though they could clearly see me stealing a few ration packs from their pile. Except what I had is wayyy better that those rations. Y'know, I honestly feel a little bit tired already...

I then notice Gerald walking up to me, coming from the living room. As he trots up to where I am, I start to greet him.

"Heya Gerald, what's u-" I start to say, but then Gerald suddenly headbutts my stomach. Third time since he's known me, dang it. What is with him doing that?

"Oof!" I groan, while Gerald backs up a little. "Dude, don't do that. I might have actually found my limit to how much food I can eat, and you headbutting me probably isn't a very good idea right now."

Gerald rolls his eyes, and motions for me to get up.

"Gerald, I would get up right now, but uh..." I say, making multiple attempts to sit up, but keep failing. "I literally can't move. Like, I could try, but I most likely wouldn't get anywhere."

Gerald suddenly clamps down on my sleeve and starts pulling. I don't really have any other choice then to go with it, and soon he's gotten me standing up, even though I feel like I'll just fall over in a few minutes.

"Alright, you got me up. Now what did you want?" I ask.

Gerald then motions to the leftover scraps in the floor and starts walking out of the storage room, probably to return to the party I can still hear music blasting from.

"Did you seriously tell me to get up just to clean?!" I say. "I was gonna do that in the morning!"

Gerald just walks off, out of sight. I grumble and start picking up the scraps from my food I left on the floor. I eventually get them all and walk through the house, out the door to the yard, and over to the composter in front of the crop garden. I dump all the scraps in there and cover them with a little extra dirt inside the thing, so Orange doesn't see them and get suspicious. There, did that. Now to walk back to the house... ugh. I'm just gonna go ahead and head to bed, I'm seriously tired now. So much for my plans of staying up super late.

I eventually make my way back inside, and stop in front of the staircase leading up to my room. Why did my room have to be upstairs? I begrudgingly start going up, the oversized stairs quickly becoming an obstacle as I have to climb up every step. Man, going up stairs like this is uncomfortable.

I finally get there, and I immediately walk over to my bed and climb onto the soft mattress and wrap the blanket around myself. Even though it was just a few minutes of walking around, it felt like an hour. Maybe this is why Orange says I should stop eating so much... Eh, still worth it.

I quickly drift off, sinking into the comfy bed.

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I'm woken up by hearing Orange outside.

"Sabre! Get out here! I need to take you somewhere!" He yells outside of the house.

"I-I'm coming!" I answer, getting out of bed.

Dang, Orange said he would be back a little past noon! Did I really sleep in that long?! I make my way downstairs as fast as I can, waking myself up as I go. I get outside, and Orange Steve is waiting for me next to the gazebo. As I get to him, he picks me up.

"Dang, I don't usually have to tell you to hurry up." Orange says. "You feeling alright today?"

"Yeah, I'm good." I answer. "I was just, uh, in the middle of something."

"Well, you can get back to it once we return." Orange says. "For now, I'm taking you to meet my friend."

"You are?" I say.

"Yeah, he said he had something he wanted you to hear." Orange says.

Gerald suddenly appears next to us, covered in colorful bits of paper.

"Gerald?" Orange says. "Why are you covered in confetti...? Never mind, I'll figure it out later. Right now, Sabre and I need to go. See you soon!"

With that, Orange and I are surrounded by lighting, and I cover my eyes because of the bright light.

Wow, I was so scared we got caught for a second.