The moment Evaline darted past him James's grin broke into a smile and he rushed beside her, hurriedly picking a handful of berries before throwing them over her head.
Evaline plucked berries and threw them at James as fast as she could, but unfortunately, it seems he truly was a master forager since he could pluck and throw them faster.
She found herself letting out a deep giddy laugh—something she just realized she hadn't done in a long time. "Hey!" she said through the laugh. "Stop that!"
But she didn't stop herself, still trying to find berries to pluck, but often times throwing twigs and sticks at him instead.
When Evaline started laughing, it drew a laugh out of James, and he couldn't stop giggling. He just kept throwing them, and she was getting covered in the pink berry dust, but she was smiling, and it was fun.
He ducked away from a big twig she threw at him and caught it, holding it up accusingly.
"Since when do you make the rules?" she teased back before getting pelted with another round of berry dust. At this point, she was picking up whatever her hands could grab to throw at him. Sometimes it was nothing, sometimes it was leaves, sometimes berries, sometimes twigs, sometimes dirt and little pebbles.
Evaline suddenly stopped throwing things at him, tilting her head down to give him a look of disbelief paired with a silly smile. "That's why you brought me here?"
She shook her head and laughed, beginning to dust herself off. "You are unbelievable," she said, turning back to look at him with a childish smile. "Fine, I'll let you win. For now."
James was smiling wide, and laughed as he dusted himself off. He met Evaline's childish smile with shining eyes and shook his head, sending dust flying out of his hair.
"It was worth it, though," he said, laughter still in his voice. "For the look on your face."
Evaline matched his eyes as she still tried to comb the dust out of her hair. She felt her cheeks flushing up at his words, and she wanted to wipe that dimpled giddy smile off his face.
Her hands brushed up against an unexploded berry stuck in her hair, and she let out a sly smile.
She picked it out and quickly flicked it to his face.
James closed his eyes just in time as the berry exploded and blew a raspberry, as the dust settled over his mouth and nose. He spat into the dirt and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and when he stood up, scoffed.
"Okay, sure," he said, giving her a sly grin as he walked back over to Elliot, who had quietly been watching the whole time. He grabbed Elliot's reins.
"Let's get moving again. I know how to find actual berries we can eat too. I just wanted to surprise you with these first."
Evaline nodded, but not before letting out a victorious grin. "You know," she casually began, following behind him again, "if you gather enough of those berries and throw them into your hair, you might have enough dust to make your hair pink. It could be a great disguise." She paused, the smile not having left her face since the berry fight began. "And a good look for you."
James snorted. "Now that would be something," he said, before dropping his voice an octave lower to do an impression of a town herald - not that Evaline probably knew what those were - "Tiberius Hemming, last seen with pink hair, and a pink-haired woman in the small town of Riverside. He might just dye his horse's hair next! Keep an eye out!"
