Herbalists' Cache duskwood

Night had fallen long before the halfling creature had reached his destination. While the cache was close enough to their territory that it should not have taken such a quick-footed creature so long to reach the terrain, he had found himself getting sidetracked by many things along the way. Already, Gluska had managed to dig four medicinal caches and store an array of plants there to pick up at a later time. He was not capable of gathering them all and carrying them back in a single trip, but he imagined he would be making more to the land of herbs.
 
The tailless creature trotted in something of an unstable manner. Moonlight and the speckle of stars littered the sky above him, but his sharp citrine gaze was trained on the path ahead. Birch leaves were needed if he would be asked to soothe those in the ranks of the Dragon pack. While he had been there for a considerable amount of time, there was a large portion of Glu that did not truly believe he was a member of the pack. They were growing with each passing day, and he was beginning to lose track of the scents that wafted across the terrain.
 
Out in the woods, where the cache was returning to full life, the only scent was his own. The solitude brought a calm to his being, and the skeletal figure trotted forward with his inky nose pointed to the earth in search of his herbs.

He was restless in the night, too hungry to sleep, too nervous about the pups to relax. The coywolfdog exited his den to pale moonlight rather than early sunshine, determined to do something with his pent up energy. He slid down the slopes of Drageda to the borders, knowing that prey was more likely to be found in unmarked lands than the heart of a pack's territory. Food was coming back now, but it would be a while before the pack was as strong as before.

But he didn't see why he couldn't take advantage of the new bounties found in the unclaimed lands when other wolves were sleeping. The hybrid crossed through the empty space between the Moraine and the Maplewood, his nose pressed against the ground in search of some trail. His random wandering brought him to the Herbalists' Cache, a place somewhat familiar to him, though not a place of interest. He was no herbalist, only a scout and warrior. The pack, most likely, knew of this place, as evidenced by the familiar coywolf's presence.

Hush chuffed to greet the fellow half-breed, wondering what he too was doing in the woods this late at night.

Gluska had – by far – preferred to travel about at night. It had cut down on the many distractions that seemed to occur by the light of day, and allowed for the coywolf to focus on the things that needed tending. He had been working hard to gather enough herbs to keep a solid stock inside of his den. It was coming along so well, in fact, that the coywolf could scarcely leave without reeking of the plants that he had stuffed in there for the keeping. Should anything arise, he was starting to feel as though he would be prepared enough to endure it, and to save the skin of those around him.
 
The cache was quiet during the hours of the night, and so the skeletal figure had remained somewhat open about his comings and goings. It was strange, though, that the wind should carry a scent that was moderately familiar and yet unexplainable to the cadaverous creature. Pausing in his trek, the coywolf spun his skull around so that his vision could lock with the creature from the ranks of the sleeping dragons. Glu could recall having met this wolf when he had happened upon Gavriel.
 
“Ahhh, the mute,” he observed with a small nod of his head. There were no concerns about being uncouth with the male. Glu was relatively transparent about his oddities. “Care to tag along?”

The other coywolf's greeting didn't annoy or surprise him. His name wasn't known to many, and the title was the only way most Drageda wolves knew him. He had honestly heard worse titles than "The Mute", and merely ignored it.

He instead looked at what the hybrid was doing; collecting herbs. Not surprising, given the name of the forest they were in. He didn't know much about the intracies of plants, but he nodded anyway, having nothing better to do, other than stare silently.

Glu had done well to busy himself with gathering herbs and keeping a good stock of them in his den on the mountain. The Heda had been very clear with him what she had needed when he’d arrived on her doorstep, and so he had tasked himself with fulfilling the duties as she had wished. The dark leader had been kind enough to travel to the coast with him – though it was a journey he could have accomplished alone – and had offered a guardsman of sorts with Dio. The silent brute was someone that the coywolf had enjoyed, if only for his stoicism. It was a rare sort of trait in most.
 
Continuing to bustle about in the foliage, the coywolf glanced back at the quiet male with a quirked brow and opened with intrigue that was not masked by pleasant formalities. At this rate, the cadaverous little scavenger knew that yes or no questions would be best suited for this fellow. “Have you been nonverbal your whole life, then?” he inquired of the fellow halfling.

Hush was glad that the coywolf caught on quickly to his predicament. Sometimes it took a while for wolves to realize that he could not, under any circumstances, speak. Perhaps it was the coyote in him that gave Gluskap his cunning, but Hush could not say for sure. While he was part coyote, he hardly felt cunning at all (perhaps that was the dog in him superceding the coyote). The mute nodded, confirming whatever theories Gluskap had about him.

Would you mind at all closing this thread out with your next post? I'm putting Gluska on the shelf for a while and want to wrap his threads up so they aren't just left hanging. <33

 

There was a nod of confirmation from the other coywolf, and Gluska bobbed his own head in acceptance of the exchange they had shared. “How interesting,” he spoke softly, narrowing his brows on Hush with a single swiveling ear. “You might be better off for it. But I’ll bet you get sick of listening sometimes,” he suggested with a glint in his gaze and a soft chuckle. The scrappy stump at the end of his tail flickered once or twice before resting in its place.
 
“I prefer the silence myself,” the coywolf then added with a quick smirk and a toss of his muzzle for the fellow halfling to follow him deeper into the terrain in search of herbs. The skeletal figure was not the type to require conversation to keep himself engaged with another of his kind. He was perfectly fine holding onto the silence and merely allowing his company to exist in peace. Which was his very intention as they continued to search for herbs.

Hush snorted. You don't know the half of it. He thought to himself. Most wolves didn't, save for those mute like him. But after awhile it became a part of his life. Sure, a part of his life that he could not escape, but a part of his life nonetheless.

He too, preferred silence, not because it was a large part of his life, but because of how it made him feel. He felt at peace in the quiet, listening to the things around him that weren't chatterboxes. He watched, quietly as he always did, as Gluskap picked out herbs in the forest, silently trailing the healer like a shadow as they wove through the darkened forest.