Raspberry SOS

The summer's sweltering heat made having a fire in the barn absolutely unbearable, and the close confines of the stalls where they stored everything was too stuffy to spend any real amount of time in, so as soon as her time on guard had passed Corbie had escaped to the dubious relief of the shade of the orchard's fruit trees. Even here it seemed too hot for belief, and the very fruits on their stems were starting to shrivel and go bad even before they were ripe. At least the raspberries were ripe enough to pick now, before the weather killed them off, so despite the heat Corbie was listlessly filling a basket with the berries. The scent of their juices was nearly cloying in the sweltering air, but Corbie persisted. They might very well not get any other fruit harvests in the fall with the weather as it was, so she couldn't afford to waste time rescuing the berries. Her steady work brought her near to the river border, and she promised herself that when she'd filled her basket she'd take a dip in the sluggishly running river as a reward.