Ouroboros Spine xiii. biting words like a wolf howling

AW, botanist #1

Unfortunately, the two-year's allergies had chosen that year to act up and she'd been unable to tend to her garden the way she usually might -- not without feeling miserable anyways. The small plot she had set aside for such purposes lay in disrepair now, what few plants the herbalist had gotten into the ground beforehand long grown withered and brown. But as spring lengthened and summer approached, Lótë found herself acclimating to the weather of the Wilds and her sniffles had finally fled.

When the morning dawned with a mild warmth, dew clinging to the grass, the tracker slipped from her ulaq and off to the tiny clearing in the pines nearby -- a place she had largely avoided since her terse conversation with Raimo. It was disheartening to see the dead plants, perished before they could really bud, and see how the grass had begun to reclaim the tilled loam.

With a deep breath of preparation, the botanist set to work -- digging and scraping at the ground to tear away the grass and begin the process of churning the dirt for gardening.

Once, perhaps, Elenwë's daughter might've flinched as the words reach her auds -- soft as a spring drizzle pattering against the canopy of the blackpine. But the herbalist is calm as she turns towards the source of the sound, beaming a smile towards Keyni upon meeting the woman's emerald gaze. "Good morning," the Epsilon greeted cheerfully as her tail gave a wave of welcome, low and neutral at her hocks.

"I'd love some," she readily agreed, her smile taking on a grateful cast as she turned back to the dirt -- shifting to stand alongside the silver-gilded wren. "Do you have much inclination for gardening?" the green-paw asked, curious orbs of evergreen sliding over to Keyni as she began to dig once more with steady swipes of her forepaws -- claws tearing slowly through the clods and light grass.

The morning dove's ears cupped in Keyni's direction, listening attentively despite the fact that her paws continued to dig -- her gaze often drawn to the dirt beneath her digits. When the other she-wolf's words had concluded, Aiwë glanced up from her scraping, her expression mirroring the pale agouti's as her tail gave a few wags of kinship. "I think we'll get along, me and you," she joked lightly with an airy chuckle. "I feel much the same," she explained before adding, "it's why I wish to become a Naturalist and have taken up ecology."

"Will you be working on a Naturalist trade too?" She asked then, thinking that it was probable since Keyni had expressed a love for nature. Perhaps they might work in tandem if so, the prospect of a colleague exciting the herd-watcher.

Feeling a swell of warmth for her clan-sister, the herbalist bumped the earthen agouti's shoulder in camaraderie as they dug together. "I'm glad you have found a home here. I had hoped that village Glen would merge with us; I was happy to hear you would stay," the mouse grinned shyly as she said it, her gaze focused on the dirt but the sentiment no less genuine as she delivered it in her typical taciturn manner.

"I think you would make a fine Counselor," she offered when Keyni mentioned it, bobbing her head in a matter-of-fact nod. "You might speak with Kukutux and Sialuk...when they are ready, of course," she demurred in a softer tone, paws stilling for just a moment as she recalled the first days of Moonglow. "But you should know, they have customs regarding the dead. They will not speak their name, they have put their lost loved ones to rest with the death songs of Kukutux's homeland," she informed the aspiring Counselor, just in case she wasn't already aware. If she did choose to seek their leaders out some time, Keyni would likely wish to know such a thing so as to be respectful of the women's' traditions.