Duskfire Glacier transparent and eternal

tags for reference, set in Greyfall Caverns

The golden merle sniffled a bit, trying to stifle a sneeze -- an endeavor in which she ultimately failed as the damp noise of it echoed quietly in the Caverns' depths. She gave a shake of her golden crown to rid herself of the lingering sensations stinging her snout, her auds making an undignified flopping sound. She reached up and pawed at her nose with a small white paw for a moment, returning to her work with another muffled sniff. 

Iana had her own stores here but Imaq did not think that the suputik would mind if the medicine woman stored her own pharmacopeia there as well, it made more sense that they stash their medicinal supplies communally anyways. Better that all their physicians should work together than scattered across the Glacier. It also meant that they would not need to dry so many herbs, for the warmer hollows further in the mountainside housed what seemed a year-round selection of herbs amongst the mosses and spongy growth of the cavewater's algae. 

Selkie had seen signs that spring was here, for the temperatures were rising and already ice began to break over Duskfire Plane and the Grotto. Water was rising at the great lake where she'd hunted the pine marten. Animals were beginning to emerge. The healer had seen womens' herbs in the Caverns, those used by mothers: borage and parsley though the tunnels were not so welcoming as to permit the growth of raspberry brambles. These had given Imaq pause, wondering if perhaps she should gather and store some, for it was then that she was reminded of the coming season. 

It was that trail of thought that had spurred the realization that she and @Iana were the only females that inhabited the glacier thus far. She did not know what position the other cream piebald held within the tribe nor whether she intended to whelp -- if she was old enough to whelp, for she had a lissome and youthful quality that made it hard to guess her age. That left Imaq, who was cursed. And even if the cur had not been, she held no power here. She was kulângi, she doubted that her genes would be passed along for the PiKalujak of fire. Perhaps customs were the same here and she would be forced out onto the Taiga to attempt redemption when her heat came -- a thought she dreaded. Perhaps she would hide away in the Grotto and risk @Wintersbane's wrath. 

She left the herbs for now and tried to leave her thoughts with them. Instead she focused on finding herbs for the waifish piebald, so that she might continue to treat their  AngajukKâk's wound for she seemed to be fairing well enough in that endeavor on her own. Imaq circled the grotto she was exploring, shivering as a bead of cold water trickled onto her nape, squinting her tropical gaze against the shadowed corners in search of something good that might keep away the evil inua that made wounds fester, horsetail perhaps or chervile preferably.