Dragoncrest Cliffs don't worry about me

maybe somebody she hasn't threaded with in a while — or at all? :)

the arrival of the whale on the shoreline had brought weight to jorunn.

who now felt pudgy, unbalanced. she had not done scouting in some time! now she had become a cozy home body, often times confined along the sides of erzulie or rosalyn. occasionally she chased after quennell or aminthe, but it was hardly enough effort to shed off this coming winter weight.

yet she found she did not hate the way it made her look or feel. when bodies collected in cuddles or napping, she no longer felt like bones against one another. nor could she deny the sense of security her instinct felt from added pounds.

all of this led her down a winding path of thoughts as she walked the treelined coast. it was not the walk of a patrol or a scout. it was the walk of a pensive woman, so drowned in her thoughts that she might not realize a single soul who came up upon her!

:D

With her paw still healing from the jellyfish sting, Suzu had to be careful about where she went, and how fast. The bandage of kelp on her foot trailed up her ankle, and by the time one dressing dried out, her brother would be there to apply another. With a fresh bandage, and a fresh coat of aloe to soothe the stinging, she felt comfortable meandering through the forest, still walking on three feet to keep the pressure off the blistered pawpad. 

As she could not study the life along the shore, instead she set her sights to the trees of the woodlands. The sequoias she knew, as the true giants of their wooded territory. The hardwoods were more difficult to identify in the winter without their leaves, so instead she spent some time studying the different types of coniferous trees, separating them in type by the clusters of nettles they had. 

She'd pulled samples from three different trees. One had nettles in clusters of two, one in clusters of three, and one had clusters of five. From where she sat, she could see both the sample and the tree she had plucked it from, and thus, she studied the shape of the overall tree in relation to its nettle clusters. 

But then she saw Jorunn- and she had questions that perhaps the Emerald would know, so she woofed, to beckon the woman over.

a gentle startle!

but jorunn quickly pulled herself together, finding the small form of chacal's daughter. suzu. she smiled warmly to the girl, tail waving as she moved closer. with the girl was a collection of leaves. she wondered if she had been sent on a task by somebody — or if this was an interest of her own doing.

suzu, she crooned warmly as she glanced from plants to girl. how may i help?

She waved her tail as Jorunn came to join her, and was pleased that she'd noticed the collection of nettles she had pulled from the trees. "I be tryin' to learn de difference between dese trees." She said. "Dey look almost de same from far away, but closer to dem, deir nettles be different," She said. "I t'ink dere be some kinds of little birds dat like dese trees, but...Just particular ones. Do you know what dey be called?" She asked. 

She reached out to spread the nettles apart a bit. "Dis one, wid two nettles, be from dat tree. Dis one, wid t'ree, be from dat tree, an' dis, one, it 'ave five nettles in each bunch, an' it be from dat tree." She said.

in which i know nothing about trees so neither does jorunn u⌣u

the girl was kind and smart. the things that made sapphique turn. she liked to think she saw plenty of chacal in this one.

so jorunn hated to not have immediate answers!

i have been here so long i should know! her voice was full of warmth and humor. do they have a smell? perhaps it is different when sniffed closer.

she asked and suggested at she bent her neck down to gently snuffle through the plants that suzu had presented.

Alas, Jorunn had not spent much time learning about trees, and wouldn't have names for her. She might have to make them up, at some point, unless she could come across another wolf who knew what the proper terms for them were. But for now, nicknames would work- and Suzu knew exactly which tree she ought to show Jorunn. 

"Dere be one, yah, it 'ave a pretty distinct scent," She said with a giggle. "Actually, dere be a few dat 'ave a particular scent. Pine smells fresh, almost minty. Cedar smells woody, earthy, but den dere be dis one- it is a kind of spruce I t'ink, but I do not know the name for it. It is..." She stood, and while holding her injured paw up, she began to limp through the woodlands, looking for the right tree. It would have short spines, and would be rather symmetrical. A good looking tree- and the nettles were round, not flat. 

When she found one she paused. "Dis one. I'll pull off a branch, an' you tell me what you smell," She said. She gripped a small node of a branch, and pulled until it came free. Sap dribbled out, and with it came the pungent odour of cat urine.

she learned much from the young girl in these moments. the scents to look for most and the shape of things. it went well and above jorunn. yet she felt more than eager to be here. listen and learn.

she sniffed the one offered to her, finding the scent upon it distinctly not woodsy. not in the way of plants.

cat! she declared with wrinkled features. did you smell it heavy where you plucked, suzu?

she feared a problem, waiting for them around the bend.

At first, Suzu felt amused by Jorunn's reaction- until she realized that there was an urgency to the question she asked. It hadn't occurred to Suzu that a wildcat could have been responsible for the smell, but she had been the one to evoke it by plucking the nettles from the branch. But it seemed now that she had fooled the tawny wolf, making her concerned about the safety of the area. 

"Oh no! De scent be not dere before." she explained. "It is from de tree itself!" She explained. "Look- come, dis one," She said, leading Jorunn to another tree. She noted the nettles on it, having memorized that white spruce had nettles about two centimeters long, and sharp, but the needle itself was rounded. She sniffed the tree, and felt certain this was another white spruce. "See? Dis one. It does not smell like cat now, but-" She pulled a node from a branch, and the scent of feline wafted into the air.

how had jorunn been fooled by so? how had the tree done such!

she followed with a heavy curiosity as she watched suzu describe and pluck free a branch. as promise, the scent wafted out at once. ripe and fresh. it perplexed her so.

oh! i do not know... her features softly wrinkled with the scent. perhaps erzulie knows? maybe even your mama. she reached to softly touched suzu's crown if allowed.

they have been here longer than i. they will know these things best, why the trees do what they do.

Her mothers might have the answer, of course- but Suzu was beginning to want to think for herself, and come to her own conclusions. She was studying and learning from the environment. "I will ask dem, but-" She said, with a willing nod. Then, she grinned. "I wonder..." 

She liked coming up with theories, and trying to figure out why nature did what it did. Why did crabs and starfish grow limbs back after they'd been severed, but not wolves? Why did this tree smell like cat urine? "I don't t'ink it be a defense mechanism," She said, looking up to Jorunn to see what her thoughts might be. "I would not t'ink a spruce would 'ave to be worried about bobcats. Dey might climb de trees, sure, but dey do not eat dem." She said. "And, it is a tree. I do not know dat trees 'ave defense mechanisms at all," She said with a shrug. "Maybe it is somet'ing dey pull up from de soil dat makes dem smell so? But den...Den all de trees here would smell dat way..." She fell quiet, puzzling over any possible reasons that a tree would smell this way.

"Let's go look at de redwoods an' see how dey smell!" She said, hobbling ahead toward the cliffs toward where they could investigate another type of tree.