Lake Rodney the minor fall, the major lift

Although the season for harvesting herbs had come and gone, there were many other medical supplies Raven intended to gather. She even made a mental checklist of items she wanted for her inventory: sticks to use for splints; grass and feathers (preferably down) for bandages and bedding; even bones to grind up for calcium supplements; among other things. She would also collect various odds and ends, just in case she could re-purpose them somehow.

For instance, this piece of driftwood on the lake shore might look like a useless hunk of wood but perhaps Raven could find some use for it. She stood there staring at it for a few moments, trying to figure out the best way to grab hold of it to carry it back to the caldera. Then movement caught her eye and she glanced upward, across the lake, yellow eyes slightly squinted against the glare of the setting sun. There was a wind blowing in from the south that ruffled the water's surface and brought to Raven's nose the scent of a neighboring pack.

After his meeting with Elwood (what a name), Colt kept his word and had his eyes open for any young wolf matching the description.  Black puppy, blue eyes.  There wasn't a lot of hope he would happen upon her, but he held it regardless.  

Despite his word to Elwood that he wasn't looking to settle here, he did decide to skirt the territory before striking north once more.  He didn't necessarily want to go far either; proximity to family, regardless of their relationship, was a tempting thing, and winter came swiftly.  

As he approached yet another lake (how many of those did they have here?), he caught sight of a black wolf.  Immediately his ears perked with interest,  despite the fact that she wasn't what he would classify 'puppy'.  How did he know Elwood wasn't just wishful thinking? He had no idea how long his kid had been missing.

"Hey!"  He called, hoping to catch her attention.  Blue eyes.  He had to at least check, he thought as he approached.

The blur moved nearer, cut into sharp relief by the sun's glare. Raven squinted, watching as the figure grew in size and began to take on the features and dimensions of a wolf. He sported a tawny coat and eyes that flared as brightly as the sunset. As he came closer and called out to her, she could make out the thick black stripe running down his spine, which immediately made her think of the recently returned Finley and the other Blackthorns.

"Hi," she answered his greeting, her demeanor a bit aloof but not unfriendly. "Are you from the pack I smell that-a-way?" she wondered, jerking her head gently in the general direction of the fen over yonder.

She didn't run, or seem particularly put off by his familiarity, which was a relief. But as soon as he drew a bit closer, it became clear her eyes were instead a clear raptor-like yellow.  Pretty, but not exactly what he'd been looking for.  Well, he'd tried at least.  That had to count for something in karma-land, yeah?

"Not at all," he responded, shrugging off the disappointment with ease.  "I'm unattached at the moment, actually.  Just passing by."  He, on the other hand, had an inkling of where she was from.  He shouldn't be surprised, really; that's what he got for hanging around.  "I thought you might be someone I'm meant to look for, but turns out you aren't."

He declared himself a loner, though the next few words out of his mouth surprised her so much that Raven immediately forgot about suggesting he try on the caldera for size (not that she knew the first thing about recruiting anyway). Her lips parted and she canted her head, wondering about this case of mistaken identity.

"Oh? Who're you looking for?" she wondered before adding, "I'm Raven, by the way."

ooc: should I pretend that Colt left the scene?

"A-a-a-chooooo!" Birk sneezed hard and loudly with yellowish green snot flying in every direction and him having a feeling that he had been about to cough his lungs out. He stood on the spot for a while, sides heaving heavily and himself preparing for yet another spell. And.Here.It.Comes! "A-choo-chooo!!!" 

"I hate this with burning passion," he mumbled, pulling one forepaw up to wipe his nose clean. He had been wrong in thinking that a cold so bad could be that easy to overcome. It had been a bit better for a while - the salty air of the oceanside had helped to ease the symptoms, but it had gradually become worse, as he had made his way back South. By the time he had reached the exact place, where he had started his journey, he was barely able to breathe through his nose. 

"Geez," Birk plopped down on his belly and hid his snout under his forepaws.

I'll PP him out of here. Thanks for rescuing! :D

Raven's brows rose when it turned out Colt was looking for her very own relative. They exchanged a little bit of small talk about Lucy—the yearling only knew of the situation very secondhand—and soon Colt said he must return to the search. Obviously, Raven couldn't raise any protests to that, so she bade him good luck and watched as he trotted off into the distance. They were barely more than strangers, yet she felt a pulse of gratitude toward him for what he was doing.

A loud sneeze caused her head to jerk sideways. Abandoning the piece of driftwood for the moment, Raven squinted and began trotting toward a white figure in the near distance. The closer she came, the more familiar he looked. He was the wolf who had come to the poppy field, she realized even as she came to a stop a few feet away. Raven's face drew into a sympathetic expression when she noticed his plight. She just wished she could recall his name...

"Common cold?" she guessed. "Or allergies...?"

The last thing Birk wanted was to anyone (read: a pretty girl) see him in his moment of shame. Brought down on his knees by a common cold that had gone worse. Plus, it made his voice sound kind of weird and funny. He cared less for the fact that he was unable to breathe through the nose. 

However, when he lifted his head to shoo away, whoever was the person talking to him, his sad face turned into a genuinely happy one. Oh, he knew the lass, even if he could not quite recall her name. Too bad that there were more than one beautiful creature walking the Earth, each having a different name. 

He gave her a silly smile, while he racked his brain to find the correct name, but the time was running out quickly, therefore with a sigh of defeat he blurted out all the little facts that he remembered about this creature: "O, hey wolf-booping poppy-dabbling-master! How have you been?"

Her lips twitched into a grin at his peculiar and impromptu pet name. "Hey there," she replied, realizing she'd skipped a proper greeting. Raven felt comfortable enough to slowly take a seat. "So," she said after a beat, still wondering about his name but, more importantly, eager to assess his apparent ailment, "which is it? Cold gone bad? Or did you stick your nose into something that disagreed with you...?"

She wasn't actually sure why she was so curious. She supposed it was just the natural caretaker within her. There wasn't much she could do for him, one way or the other. If it was a cold, he'd just have to take it easy and wait. If it was allergies, well, Raven could only think of one thing that might help: saltwater. There wasn't much of that lying around here, though maybe if she gave him the information, he could do something about it, like venture to the coast.

Birk was genuinely puzzled by Ringen's (he knew that the first letter and the last two had to be right; plus, his nickname was too long to use it for long) question about "sticking his nose in something that had disagreed with him". If asked to list all the things - literal and figurative - that should not have stuck his nose into, there would be an array of weird places. And he was pretty sure that it was not the stuff the girl was asking about. 

"Umm... I think that I was hexed by the snot-fairy. Or... I pissed off a troll - they are god-awful snotty things. Believe me," he said nodding his head, while thinking about the little, gremlin-like beings. Horrible. "Ach-ooo!!!" he sneezed again.

She quirked a brow at his whimsical response, though she smiled at the same time. It quickly turned into a sympathetic frown when he sneezed again and Raven was forced to admit, "I don't think I'll be of much help. I don't have any antihistamines to offer you and the only other thing I can think to suggest is trying to rinse your sinuses with saltwater, which might require a trip to the coast." She paused, thinking on her own brief foray to the seaside. "Have you ever been?" she wondered, ignoring the fact that it was a bit of a tangent.

"I don't think I even want to know, what anti-shit-amines are, let alone try them," Birk grumbled in a nasal voice, while wiping his dripping nose. Boy, did the medicine had a foul name - how could that stuff heal anything? Then he recalled that his something-great-granny had been a famous healer once and one of her best remedies had involved bear dung and fish guts. So... all things considered, there were definitely worse cures than the one Ragine had proposed. 

"Been to the coast already and not going back there anytime soon," he replied, feeling quite tired from his wandering in the North. His curiousity for adventures had been quenched for the time being. He then was caught up in a coughing spell, therefore he missed that one important word in the last question ("ever") and assumed that the girl had asked him, how he had been. This was nice, considering that no one he happened to meet again ever asked this. 

"Aside from this sorry state - I am doing fabulous. Isn't that obvious?" he straightened himself, sat tall only to burst out in a series of several sneezes in the next moment.

"Antihistamines," she corrected automatically, enunciating it carefully but smiling in light amusement. "Histamines are what cause allergic reactions. Antihistamines block them," Raven explained with a shrug. She loved imparting medical knowledge, though usually her audience wasn't particularly interested.

He declared that he'd been to the coast and had no intention of going back. "Why?" she wondered. Before he could answer, the wolf—she vaguely remembered his name being Brick, although that didn't feel quite right—went into a coughing fit. She was tempted to take a step back in case his illness was contagious. But Raven stood her ground, waiting for it to pass, frowning sympathetically.

"You—" she tried to say only to be cut off by his sneezing fit, "—really need to rest and take it easy. And you need to make sure you're eating. 'Feed a cold, starve a fever,'" Raven quoted. She was pretty sure she'd learned that from an old, decrepit coyote. "Drink a lot of water too. I'm sorry, there's not much else I can do for you."

"Sounds the same to me, but I won't argue - you know better," Birk shrugged, when R-something corrected him. Geez, why was it so hard to remember her name? He fixed his gaze at her muzzle for few moments, his mind gears working fast, but still... among many, many beautiful names he was sure that hers was not among them. And... he did not yet feel so desperate to ask her either. They were doing surprisingly fine without knowing the names. 

"That does not make much sense..." he remarked at "feed the cold, starve the fever" part, because from where he came from, feeding a cold meant almost certain death. And, how was it possible to starve a fever - he had no idea. Maybe with those anti-h-mines she had mentioned earlier. "So, what you are basically saying," he concluded, rubbing his itching nose again, "is that I live as I lived before and wait for it to pass? No magic herbs? No poppies or something?"

Raven couldn't hold back the amused chuff when he told her knew better, than contradicted himself in the very next breath. She almost began to shake her head but nodded instead when he posed a question. His affliction would only pass with time, sped up perhaps if he rested often, drank a lot of water and otherwise looked after himself.

"'Fraid so," she replied with a sympathetic grimace. "Poppies wouldn't do you any good," Raven added with a little glimmer in her yellow eyes as she recollected their encounter in the poppy field. "Well," she amended, head cocking thoughtfully, "you might forget how much your sneezing and coughing bothers you..." She laughed lightly.

"I should really be heading back," she announced a moment later, glancing sideways as she remembered the piece of interesting driftwood on the shore. It would be cumbersome but she still fully intended to carry it back to the caldera. Eyes returning to "Brick's" face, she added, "I hope you feel better soon."

With a parting smile, she retreated to fetch the awkward chunk of wood. As she began trotting home, she realized not only hadn't she ever gotten his name, she didn't know where he lived. Did he even belong to a pack? He must, she decided, for he looked healthy (head cold aside). Raven shrugged to herself, nearly dropped the piece of driftwood on her toes, then hastened home.

Thank you again for rescuing this. I'd love for them to spontaneously meet up a third time at some point! Maybe he should come join RHC. ;)