Oak walked and led the way down a long dirt roadway in the middle of a long, long line of trees. She was elected to the leader role as the oldest sister of the trio, so she took up the responsibility of looking after everyone. Which Gaia already felt skeptical about.

"So glad we didn't stay in that cave..." Oak mumbled under her breath.

"Huh?" Winter heard Oak say something, but it was incoherently sounding to her.

"Oh, nothing!" Oak responded.

"I wish we didn't have to constantly move. We are more vulnerable and at risk of getting attacked by predators," Gaia complained as she was more worried about their surroundings.

Oak sighed and explained again that they couldn't stay in that cave, "Well, we can't stay in the cave, it got flooded." 

"..."

"..."

A moment of silence, until Oak decided to ask Gaia a hilarious question. She thought maybe Gaia missed the garden they had found a little while ago.

"Is this about that garden?" She laughed while looking at Gaia behind her.

Gaia tensed up, trying to figure out what the garden had to do with what she said about them being vulnerable out in the wild, "No, I just wish we didn't have to reveal ourselves so easily."

"I mean, we've survived so long, what else could happen?" 

Winter instantly looked up at the sky to see that thick grey storm clouds were invading the blue sky again. In the past three or so hours, sunshine was abundant. But now it looked like precipitation was gonna pick up again. No matter how far the Pumpkin Sisters walked or wherever they went, the weather seemed to change rapidly, and some days it was just sunny and not windy. It was the fall season, so the wind was cold, and more red and orange leaves started to fall. 

"Rain again?" She frowned, not wanting to get soaking wet again. 

Gaia stopped walking and instantly ran over to a nearby bush. She saw a few fallen redish orange leaves on the grassy ground and grabbed for one, "Quick! Let's build a leaf umbrella!"

Oak became confused upon Gaia's instant request, "Out of what?" 

"Leaves, of course, and maybe plants!" 

The three instantly stopped and walked around the environment to see if they could find any fallen leaves, long strands of grass, and stems of plants that could be repurposed. She started stringing together a leaf umbrella with patience and skill. It was gonna be challenging, since they didn't have anything glue or anything remotely sticky to keep the umbrellas from falling apart from the heavy raindrops.

"Quickly! The rain will catch us!" She yelled in a playful tone. She was so into making a leaf umbrella that she was hoping her sisters would follow along in the making process. Oak instantly frowned, as she just wanted to jump in puddles and get wet. 

"Boo! I want to jump in puddles and get wet!" She complained and crossed her arms. Gaia tried her best, twisting and tying the stems of a leaf and the plant she found together. It took a few moments, but Gaia was finally finished making hers. It was kinda flimsy, but it would be useful for keeping out extra wetness. She held it to the sky while watching Oak rush to make hers.

Oak perked up from getting frustrated at making hers, and she saw the more well-made version of a leaf umbrella from Gaia, "Whoa! You're good at tying and braiding." 

"Hahaha! Yeah! I pretty much practiced a bit before we left the cave. I tried making a flower bracelet as well, but I think I lost it." 

It was now starting to rain, Oak and Winter lifted their leaf umbrellas to the sky, as the drops came down. Gaia thought of the possibility of coming across another garden and was now more excited than they had been. 

Oak wished with her whole heart, "Alright, let's keep moving. I hope we can find another cave to reside in."

The three continued through the long, calm ambient forest, as the rain came down. Winter, who did an ok job at making her umbrella, started to slowly fall apart. Poor Winter. She instantly stopped to see withered strains of grass fall apart in her stubby hands. She miserably bent down to try to put the broken lead umbrella back together again, but now it looked like a mess of grass and mud mixed on the ground.

"Aww!"

"..."

"Wait! My umbrella fell apart!" She shouted, looked back to see that Oak and Gaia were far ahead with their walk.

The two looked back, "Huh?"

Winter instantly started sneezing as she finally gave up on trying to fix the collapsed umbrella. The coldness of this rain was crazy, as she didn't expect herself to start sneezing. Gaia instantly went back to help, as her umbrella was the strongest and well-made one of the trio. She bent down to help Winter up off the soggy ground.

She instantly questioned what the noise Winter was making, "You okay? What's that noise?"

"This rain is-" *ACHOO*

As the middle sister, she was now concerned and worried for Winter, as she had never heard this sound before. She didn't know if pumpkins could even make the sound her little sis was making. She guessed that maybe the rain was causing the problem, as she could feel the change in the environment's temperature, and it was sorta getting uncomfortable with time. They were prone to getting cold easily, so this rain was slowing them down in various ways. 

*ACHOO*

Oak looked back, "What's going on?"

Gaia wrapped her arm around Winter and helped her stand back up. "I don't know, but she just started making this weird noise." 

*ACHOO*

Oak distracted herself a bit with a thought, "Hmm, what does... Achoo, mean?" 

"I don't know, but we need to get out of this rain."

Gaia shared her umbrella as the two caught up to where Oak was walking. The trees were now slowly becoming less crowded and crowded on both sides of the long dirt road. They came across a solitary cottage home surrounded by fewer trees in the middle of nowhere. The bonus came in hand with this cottage home, as it had two gardens on the side of it with a main walkway space down the middle of it to the front entrance door. Oak pointed it out quickly as they got closer. 

"Oh! Look! A Building!"

Gaia took notice when Oak spotted them out, but she felt somewhat skeptical and nervous about them stopping by this place. But the other half of her couldn't help but leave them stop here, as there was a garden. Plus, Winter needed to get out of this rain; the weird noise she kept making didn't go away with time.

Gaia hesitated, "I-I don't know about this..."

"Oh, come on, and even has a garden!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This cottage home was so visually enticing and well-made, as the building had a beautiful color and style that was going for it. Either a woodland princess was settled here, or it was an old couple that shared a favorite taste in cottagecore. It gave off cozy vibes as the three made their way closer to the home and land. 

Oak continued eyeing it as they got closer and realized the lights were on in this house. Her mind started to stir as she wondered if another nice person was living in it. She regressed to the short time they were back at the farmhouse, when they encountered a surprisingly nice lady. She recklessly assumed that maybe the person living here would be nice enough to let them inside, if they had gotten noticed. 

Gaia stood on business and instantly shouted to Oak not to go near the front door of the house. Her instincts said that it was a bad idea to try and go inside, but finding an area nearby would be a better way to get out of this rain. 

"Big sis! We can't go in there! Especially not like this!"

Oak stopped and looked disappointed. " What do you mean?"

"What if it's dangerous?"

*ACHOO*

"..."

She sighed upon realizing what Gaia meant, and she just went ahead and started looking around for where they could try to hide out from this rain. "Maybe, you're right."

The abandonment trauma got Gaia the most, as she still didn't forget what had happened to them earlier on. She didn't know if the people who were living here were nice or not. But she knew it was very risky, especially since they were talking pumpkins. Oak, however, never forgot about the trauma, but she didn't let it consume her. She instead had moved on from thinking that all humans were bad, but she was more naive in thinking they would be welcomed anywhere that humans were.

"Hmm, let's build a fort," Gaia brought up.

Both Oak and Gaia individually searched for broken tree branches and twigs to make a camping fort. Winter miserably sat and waited in the rain. Gaia made some touch-ups by adding some flowers she had stolen from the garden to put on top of the fort. Oak laughed upon the addition. She did something different while they were building the fort; she gathered soggy dirt and water together to make mud. She smothered a lot of it in between the many branches and twigs of wood, and it made the fort stand even stronger. This was a small lesson, as Oak now knew she could've done this with the leaf umbrella. 

"This is a beaut!" Gaia smiled with gleaming eyes. 

15 minutes had passed, and the three were now sitting underneath, snuggling up closer and closer to each other. Oak gathered some leaves to help warm up Winter, the shivering had slowly started to stop. 

Oak patted Winter's head with her left stubby hand and noticed she was cold. They now had to learn that they were prone to getting cold easily out in the wild. Luckily, not every day was this cold, as there were still some muggy, warm days.

*ACHOO* "T-Thanks!" Winter had a frail smile and curled up into a ball with the leaf wrapped around her.

"Big sis, I'm sorry about earlier..." Gaia looked down at the ground and felt a little bit guilty. She insisted that Oak probably wanted to stay inside more than just hiding away outside.

"We are probably better off underneath here..."

"No! It's just..."

Oak looked at Gaia with concerned eyes, as she wondered what Gaia was thinking about truly. Gaia nervously explained why she was feeling terrible about them going inside the home.

"I can't seem to forget what happened to us..."

Oak gave Gaia a side hug to reassure, "Everything'll be alright, let's just stay here, ok?" 

She didn't care anymore about getting abandoned and kicked out of the farmhouse, as that was a while ago, and they all needed to move on. That bad experience didn't change her opinion on humans, as she felt maybe things would be different the more she met of them. Winter rose back up with some sunshine in her energy. It seemed like the ACHOOING had gone away, as Winter felt warmer and toasty. 

"I'm no longer achooing!"