Author's note: several scenes in this chapter were inspired by the Winter Night Market and Moonlight Jelly Festival of the Stardew Valley video game and the relationship between Tifa and Cloud in Final Fantasy 7. Some elements of Doraemon Story of Seasons from Nintendo Switch may also present. No copyright infringement is intended. Everything else is mine. The pictures posted here were taken by me in 2016 in the Shinjuku National Park in Tokyo.

Banner credits: thank you @thefutureunheard for your wonderful work

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Rain and Ardiansyah had pitched the tents together while the girls were busy rowing their kayaks. Tony helped clear the grounds of any debris while Nardho went to a nearby bushes of mangrove trees to collect dead branches to make fire. Moira and her best friends returned from their kayaking adventure soaking wet and, after toweling themselves, sat by the fire to dry off any remaining water. Nardho dug something up from his backpack and pulled a package of marshmallows. Everyone's eyes instantly lit up as marshmallows meant grilled S'mores!

"This is good! These are flavored mallows, right? You need to tell me where to snag more, I can stock up on these once we're back on campus. I'm on cloud nine." Moira was hyperbolic.

"Yup, they are cherry and lychee-flavored with real sweetener made from organic sugarcane. I can't take credits for buying them, Tony was the one who bought these at the farmer's market a while back and told me not to eat any of the stash except for special occasions. Well, this is a special occasion, so go gaga. Hey look, mine is super stretchy!" Nardho's mallows melted.

"So cool. I wonder what these mallows are made of." Moira read the back of the packaging out of curiosity and expected to see collagen or gelatin in the ingredient list, but instead found high fructose corn syrup, fruit extracts, food colorings, xanthan gum, and arrowroot powder. Huh, so the gummy texture is not derived from any animal product. Nice! Rain had been reading along with Moira and excitedly told the group that some gelatin was made using pig's tendons or ligaments, which were forbidden or haram to Muslim, so finding something plant-based was God-sent. Moira couldn't imagine being told not to eat pig, she liked to eat baked ham for Christmas, but she respected Rain's dietary restriction nonetheless and was happy for them.

In the distance, fishermen boats began to show up as local Little Trees threw big nets in hope of catching some jellyfish. Ardiansyah had explained to the students that jellyfish in Golden Valley only came up to the surface during nights of full moon to mate and to lay eggs, on other times they were elusive. The Little Trees use jellyfish in some of their culinary delicacies, such as spicy jellyfish soup, sesame jellyfish salad with cucumber and radish, sushi, and sashimi. Moira could not imagine eating something gelatinous but Tony was ready to add it to his bucket list. Ardiansyah continued on with his story of the Golden Valley's rich culinary tradition and Moira almost gagged when he mentioned frying jellyfish in peanut oil and vinegar sauce. Ayumi said that it did not taste as weird as it sounded, but she understood it could look off putting.

Nardhia had wandered off and saw a water tower a few feet from the camping ground, complete with blades of a windmill attached to it, and there was also a lighthouse on the coastline. She motioned for everyone to go check out the water tower and the group climbed up the stairs. Moira held Nardho's hand and made sure that he went at a comfortable pace so as not to exhaust himself too much. The two caught up to Nardhia and the rest of the gang, who were posing for pictures with the ocean in the background. The sky was cloudless and the stars twinkled.

"I wonder if it's safe to jump from here and swim all the way to the lighthouse. It's bright enough and I guess the water can be cold, but I really want to, that sounds irresistible." Tony stared at the lighthouse and Nardhia jokingly said that she wouldn't be responsible if he drown. Ardiansyah just laughed and said that it would be okay, the water would be deep enough to swim in but not shallow enough that one would hit their head on rocks or something sharp. He did jokingly say to watch out for sea urchins and cape sharks. Tony scoffed as he knew sharks rarely killed humans and if they did it was probably because the sharks felt threatened enough.

"I'm jumping!" Tony took off his shirt and jumped from the water tower. Nardhia screamed and was relieved when she saw the daredevil's head rose out of the ocean. She jumped after him and the two swam to the lighthouse, much to the amazement and bewilderment of their friends.

"That roommate of yours is perplexing but I'm more perplexed at Nardhia. Has she always had a devil-may-care attitude or is this a new side to her that I'm lucky enough to witness?" Moira asked Nardho. The boy laughed and said that when one was in love one did stupid things.

"I wonder what it felt like, growing up with Nardhia. Did you guys always get along? I don't have any sibling, as you know, although Neesa's already like a sibling to me."

"She's a great sister. Sometimes I forget Nardhia's a girl as she and I would play wrestle and she knows how to tackle me to the ground and would show no mercy. Johan taught her well, it would seem, the three of us love to roughhouse much to our mom's chagrin and dad's disapproval."

Nardhia and Tony returned to the group and Ardiansyah asked the daredevil if he got his adrenaline pumping. Tony raised two thumbs up. "Absolutely! That was thrilling. Ten out of ten, I would do that again! Now, if only there's a zip lining facility somewhere, that'd be awesome."

The next day, the group woke up at sunrise as Ardiansyah had promised to take them trekking to the Gaburs sanctuary. Ayumi and Lee had given the students an assignment to study the Gaburs' physiology and behaviors. Each student was also expected to use their skills to contribute something back to the Little Trees community: Moira was tasked with drafting modules and individualized lesson plans about the Gaburs to be used in the local middle school schools' art lessons, Rain was tasked with creating new dance moves with the local teenage dancers who want to organize next year's Gaburs Dance event and had started the process early, Vannie was tasked with creating booklets about Gaburs to be distributed to the tourists at the Golden Valley's visitor center, Tony was tasked with creating a board game about the Gaburs that could be played by the local kindergarteners, while Nardho and Nardhia were tasked with creating new nursery rhymes that Little Trees mothers could use to sing the children to sleep. Those assignments would be due on the same day the students would perform their modern freshmen play for Ayumi's parents. Today the mission was to get up close and personal with the Gaburs!

The students marched across a manicured lawn and passed gardens full of foreign flowers and vegetation, including some cactus and tropical trees. They finally reached an enclosure. Ardiansyah inputted the passcode and the gate swung open, revealing tiny winged elephants perched on some weeping willows and hickories. One of them flew down and started making trumpeting noises at Ardiansyah, who picked it up and put it on his shoulder. It squeaked.

"Everyone, this is Flora, one of the Gaburs I've helped raised ever since she was just a baby Gabur. She loves being petted, so don't be afraid to stroke her fur." The elderly man lowered Flora into the ground and she ran back up one of the weeping willows, still squeaking gleefully.

"Does anyone want to feed the Gaburs? Here, I brought some snacks." Ardiansyah distributed packages of roasted chestnuts and crushed walnuts to the group. A horde of hungry Gaburs surrounded the students but Ardiansyah just scattered the nuts in the other direction and soon only a few were still clinging to the students. Moira crouched down to pet one of the smaller Gaburs and let the runt eat from her bare hand. "Heh, this tickles. Haha. Ow." Moira laughed.

"Were all of the Gaburs born here? Will they live all of their lives in thus enclosure?" Vannie asked while a Gabur sniffed her and squeaked for more walnuts, saliva dripping from its open mouth. Vannie held her empty bag of nuts and the salivating Gabur whimpered dejectedly.

"Some of them were born in the forests as wild Gaburs but they wouldn't survive because all the traffics from the tourists would stress them out to the point that they become too anxious to come out of hiding and find foods. If they were left to their own devices, they would have to rely on their parents but unfortunately adult Gaburs don't take care of their young offspring—once the baby Gaburs were born, the adults left the nest and build brand new nests far from the original nest. My friends here in the village are Gabur trainers and have rescued some younglings. When the younglings reach age of maturity, which for a Gabur can take anywhere between two years to three and a half, we start rehabilitation programs to try and release them back to their natural habitats. This means exposing them to human noises and human activities so that they would not be scared of tourists." Ardiansyah explained while two unruly Gaburs were climbing up his legs.

"Is that okay, though, releasing them where tourists are? You sure the tourists wouldn't hurt them?" Nardho petted a Gabur that had nibbled on his fingers and now sniffed his jeans' pocket.

"The laws here prohibit tourists from engaging in recreational hunting. We have also asked all tourists to refrain from smoking, lighting up fireworks, and go four wheeling. Bicycling and walking the pooches are allowed but no motorcycles and no trucks or cars." Ardiansyah was now gently picking up a couple of rowdy Gaburs that had been ceaselessly trying to climb his arms.

Moira took a lot of notes from Ardiansyah's explanation, determined to ace her college assignment but also thought that her notes would somehow be beneficial to Deandra. An interplanetary council hearing was something Moira had never known of but she had believed that if the council could see how the Gaburs depended on the forests of Golden Valley to breed and thrive, perhaps that could strengthen Deandra's case and convinced the council to ask that Mr. Milton did not go through with moving the mining company headquarter. She was aware that for so long humans had always seen themselves as the center of the ecosystem and the top predator that prey on the animals lower on the food chain hierarchy, but she had hoped that she would be able to point out the flaws in such an anthropocentric thinking. Moira could not wait to see how the interplanetary hearing would unravel. She was sure Deandra could win the trial.