Blacktail Deer Plateau reminiscence

it is @Erzulie's company she seeks that day. the girl grapples with her own naivity; she is not blind to it. she wishes to be more like her golden sister, perhaps, or her mothers, fierce and strong. she wonders, sometimes, at the cause of her otherness, and yet finds no definitive answer. it is as if some heavy mantle has been throw over her, making unattainable that sharpness her siblings share, that clear view of the world she longs for. the more the struggles with it, the further tangled within it she becomes. 

her mothers are wise, and have always given her some form of clarity. and so she calls lowly for erzulie then, settling on a ridge as dusk begins to gather thickly on the horizon.

so many occurrences within rusalka during so short a time. perhaps it was due to the spring; it made short work of galvanizing everyone these past days.
she was returning home after a successful hunt; a pheasant dangled from her jaws. the prey was returning to the lowlands, and the deer that made the plateau their namesake were filtering back.
among them she had seen at least two pregnant does, a wondrous sign for rusalka, which had struggled through a terrible winter.
erzulie easily changed directions at her daughter's call; she coursed along game-trails until she came to where clementine waited, dropping her burden and gazing toward the girl encouragingly. "what be on your mind? sit here; have a meal wid your maman."

her apprehensions ease when she catches sight of her mother, the familiar lilt of her voice enough to have the tension drawing taunt her shoulders release. she steps forward nimbly, planting a kiss on her mother's cheek and obeying her instruction readily. she sit back on her haunches, careful gaze moving to find her mother's. 

"I just — I feel lost, mama. as if; as if I'm missing something, always a little bit behind. everyone seems to have things figured out, and I, um, don't." it is a vague, worry, certainly, but so are the feelings that plague her. she struggles to find something more concrete, and fails, maw opening and closing again as hopes desperately for some piece of wisdom her mother might procure.

a nod given to her growing girl, pretty gossamer child. reyes and nieve were certainly settled, and the healer could appreciate how the young one might feel displaced. "do you remember de odd wolf on de borders? de one who said dat he was sick," erzulie probed, recalling as much of it as she was able.
"it was good dat you brought me. but clementine," she went on, mismatched gaze aglow, "maybe one day dat could be you, someone who knows how to use de herbs of de eart'."

in truth, clem had been expecting some secret truth then. a sentence, or two, that would bring epiphany, and things would simply click into place and she'd see more clearly, somehow. but rather, it is a reminder of that wolf on their borders. to this she offers a small nod, remembering the man clearly. 

the suggestion that follows is one she'd considered briefly, but never put all that much thought into. "herbs of the heart?" she echoes, contemplatively. her brow furrows, then clears. "I think—yes, I'd like to know to do that. could you teach me, mama?" aningan had asked for her mothers, on the borders. she'd rather like to be the person people ask for, one day; she'd rather like to be useful.

a beam crossed the woman's face. "je vais t'apprendre tout ce que je sais, ma petite étoile," erzulie crooned. "what would you want to learn first?"
already she cast her mind with the net for the properties of common plants clementine would recognize. such exercises honed her knowledge, refreshed it for moments such as these.

a wide, unabashed smile, and she moves to pull her mother briefly into the wolf equivalent of a hug. this seems right, seems good; she could be useful to them finally. "merci, mama!" she withdraws as Erzulie offers her a choice.

"oh—um," she begins, brow furrowed as she considers a moment. "if a wolf was sick - with a fever, a cough, and, um, vomiting - how would you help them?" it seems a good enough place to start; she finds she's better at remembering circumstance and situation rather than attempting to memorize plants and uses alone.

erzulie hugged her little watercolor child close, a beam lighting upon her face. she listened closely to the symptoms given, considering the option of what herb she might give. "spearmint for de stomach, honeysuckle for de cough, an' yarrow for fever."
"you will also want to keep dem well watered. vomiting makes a wolf weaker. bone marrow wid a little water is good for keeping up de strengt'."