Blackfeather Woods breathe, just breathe

@Cicero -- set today, late morning

Staying true to Vaati's advice, Maegi had stopped rolling in the mud before excursions out of Spiderling's Glen. She spent less and less time in the glen with each passing day, anyway, so why bother? She was a Melonii, a Blackfeather child. She feared not the denizens of this dark forest.

Today, the white-pelted girl stumbled upon a beautifully desolate meadow, in the center of which was a gorgeous tree, its feathery boughs dipping low, almost touching the ground. Her eyes--one of which had darkened to indigo, the other a muddled greenish-amber that would soon be a vivid orange--widened as she took in the sight, tongue lolling as she grinned. Hobbling through the meadow, she approached the tree, breathing heavily from exertion.

That turned out to be. . .well, not a mistake--but certainly something she regretted for a brief moment. The sickly tree's spores hit her nostrils and made their way into her system. A wave of nausea rolled through her, and Maegi closed her eyes, thankful that there was nothing in her stomach to vomit. Soon after the nausea passed came some dizziness, and the world and its shapes began to double.

Double tree. . .double meadow. . .double sun. . .double clouds. Blinking almost stupidly, she swayed about on her feet and began to move around, almost enjoying the way everything blurred around her as if in slow motion. The symptoms receded a little as she took several slow, measured steps back away from the tree, but the girl was still quite intoxicated.

"No!" But he was too late and she was already down by the tree. Ragged ears folded forward as he watched her drowsily wander from the tree's side. It was too late now, no use calling her back; she was already gone and she would not be able to hear. Well, he supposed that it could not harm her overly much. He had learned most of his knowledge of poisons through experience, and he was still alive.

Cicero stepped into the clearing that surrounded the poisonous tree and he moved closer to Maegi. His mind was clouded the closer he came, but she had strayed away from the tree itself now so it was easier to stay somewhat clear. "This way," he said, hoping to herd her far enough away so that she would not stay within the poisonous pollen for too long. Yes, she would come to feel drowsy and possibly hallucinating for another half day or so, depending on how long she had been in touch with the pollen, but that was why there was all the more reason to coax her out of the pollen for now. Half a day was long enough.

No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!-!-!-!

The voice crying out to her seemed to drag on and on, stretched into infinity, starting so low and rising till it seemed almost impossibly high. Confused, Maegi shook her head once, twice, and turned, her uncle Cicero coming into view, face concerned.

"Cisss-row," she slurred, giving him a toothy grin. Before she could speak further, he was beckoning her away, drawing close so she had no choice but to turn and walk from the tree.

With a small groan, she padded after Cicero, having to break into an ungainly trot to keep up with his much larger strides. The ground pulsed like a heartbeat beneath her feet, and she found herself mesmerized by the sight, mismatched eyes fixed on the earth whirling past.

"Wha's happening?" Maegi asked her uncle drowsily, with a small yawn. The dizziness was fading; now she just felt sleepy.

It would have been comical but there was something distinctly different now that he was a father. Cicero had not thought he could care for anyone but Damien, ever, but these little pups were somehow important to him, somehow needed to be preserved and he wanted to make sure they were safe. In his younger years he may have laughed at them but now there was nothing funny here; which oddly only contributed to the hollow feeling he had been having of late.

Luckily she followed when he asked her to. "It will be fine once you are outside," said Cicero. "The tree and the clearing are poisonous. They make you feel bad. If you see anything that is not really there, do not listen to it and just keep looking at Cicero." He knew that wolves could drive themselves mad listening to hallucinations and could harm themselves following their instructions or trying to attack them. He would not let that happen to Maegi.

She had closed her eyes as he spoke; the vivid colors inside her mind seemed less invasive than the maelstrom of blurred images that met her on the outside. But at his words--if you see anything that is not really there. . .keep looking at Cicero--they popped back open, and she opened her mouth to ask him a question and left it hanging dumbly there.

Cicero had two heads. Then three. Then four.

Maegi closed her eyes again and shook her head once more, trying to clear the image of the many-headed monster that had taken the place of her uncle. When she opened her eyes, just a slit, Cicero miraculously had just the one head.

"Oh," she said faintly, feeling quite dizzy. She sat down when they had left the clearing, hoping he would notice and wouldn't just leave her behind. "What's 'poisonous'?" she called out, remembering his earlier words. She didn't love this feeling, but she didn't quite hate it, either.

Cicero felt he could breathe more easily once they had exited the clearing. He felt only a little bit light-headed so the risk was minimised for him -- and he enjoyed this, anyway, the feeling of letting go, even though the absence of pain was not his favourite feeling -- and it looked like Maegi would be alright. She blinked dizzily at him but seemed better. "Sit down," he said once they were back in the darkness of the forest. "It will take away the dizziness.

"Poisonous means that something is not healthy for you." Whether it was 'good' or not he left in the middle, but it was certainly not healthy. "Usually they are plants or mushrooms, and usually it is because we eat them, but some have spores in their plants, just like this tree. Poisons often make us feel pain, or sickness, or have to throw up, or dizzy. At times they make us see things that are not there."

"Wow," she breathed, dreamily taking in Cicero's words. She was still so intoxicated that every other one only made half-sense, but she got the general sentiment by watching his face, anyway. Her small head craned back to the tree; she felt drawn to it, despite the calamity it brought upon her senses, and wanted to defy Cicero and return.

"How do you know what's poisonous and what's not?" she asked, looking back at her uncle as she abandoned the plan to flee. He would catch her up swiftly, in any case. "Besides eating it, or getting too close?"

Maegi couldn't imagine trying to figure this all out by trial and error. That would mean many days, many nights, of dealing with this stupor, fighting through this haze. Though it was a novel feeling, she didn't think she would like it all the time. Perhaps it would take a learned wolf like Cicero to teach her, sparing her young body and mind from the quasi-torment.

Despite her intoxicated state she seemed keen on learning and seemed to take in the information he shared, at least. At her questions, he answered, "Learning. Either by experiment," though he would not really suggest this to any of his children; like she had experienced, it was not always pleasant. He had just done it a lot because of its unpleasant nature, as he enjoyed the pain and the loss of control and reality it offered.

"Or finding teachers who know already. Or giving it to others by experiment — but it is safest to practise upon creatures close to wolf, but who are not wolf. Wolves do not enjoy being experimented upon. Foxes work good, too." It reminded him of when he had taught Kendra about these things. He wondered where she was now... He missed her, but doubted that she'd return.

She nodded along as she listened, her black lips breaking into a smile as he mentioned foxes. "I saw a fox, once," Maegi said excitedly. "Maybe I could try it on that one. If I can catch it," she added ruefully, looking down at her mangled paw with distaste. The ruddy creature had been swift, much swifter than her current gait allowed.

So foxes were likely out. But about the teacher thing. . . "You know, right? All the plants?" Her eyes glinted with expectation. "Tell me which ones are. . .poisonous." The new word slipped clumsily from her lips, half-slurred from both lack of practice and drowsiness.

Maegi turned her nose toward the tree. "That one," she said, nodding with surety. Then she looked back into the forest. "What about in here? Show me?" She turned her gaze on him, giving him a pleading look. He certainly couldn't refuse her request, right?

Cicero chuckled when Maegi said that she would try to catch the fox. "No need to catch," he was quick to instruct. "Herbs can easily be hidden within food. A hungry fox won't know." He paused for a thoughtful moment before he added: "Neither will a hungry wolf. The food will mark the scent." Cicero's experience was that most wolves wouldn't notice herbs within a piece of food; they would just be hungry enough to get to it, especially loners. To think one'd have to catch a fox and force feed it herbs seemed like an impossible task to Cicero.

Maegi then asked if he could tell her about all the plants, which seemed an impossible task for there were so many. "Cicero can show his cache," he offered after a thoughtful moment, but added: "Though herbs grow much better outside of winter." Perhaps it'd be better to wait 'til spring, but he was not sure if the current family tensions'd keep him 'round that long. Time would tell.

Cicero nodded when Maegi suggested the tree was poisonous. Perhaps not the tree itself, but it was close enough so he did not elaborate. Then, to the forest. "When the snow and cold is gone," he suggested. "First, the cache." And he wandered towards the nearest cache where he still had some dried herbs. Not much, but better than none.

"Oh," she responded, feeling quite silly for her idea of catching the fox. Of course, trapping it with food was more rational. She wondered if she could try it without running the risk of a wolf eating the bait instead. Perhaps putting it near a fox's den? She could watch from the shadows, making sure no one but her intended target ate the meat. She could ask Euron to teach her to lurk.

But for now, Maegi was more interested in the plants, and she nodded, following Cicero to his "cache." "What's a cache?" she asked, though a little voice in the back of her head informed her sternly that she'd find out soon enough, once they reached the place.

Lurking came so natural to him he did not even think to suggest she should stay and lurk nearby after offering the drugged bait. Cicero didn't pick up on any uncomfortable feeling she might have in having had an idea he considered funny; he was rarely ashamed of things (although there were a few things he wished were different, he didn't think it was useful to be ashamed) and didn't recognise the emotion well in others.

Soon they were on their way and she asked him about the cache. "Most wolves cache their food, which means they keep it someplace for later. Cicero keeps caches for poisons, in case they are needed. Plants grow in different times of the year." He continued to lead the way, walking slowly so it was easy for her to keep up, until they reached a cache, which wasn't a very far walk. He glanced back at Maegi a moment before turning to a tree. Cicero jumped up against the tree with his forepaws and ducked his head into a hollow in its trunk.

When he landed back onto the ground Cicero dropped down a few dried plants. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. "This," he said as he carefully nosed a dried, frumpy looking plant. "It is most poisonous when it is fresh, so remember the shape. Touching it causes blisters and wounds, rubbing it into wounds will make them infect badly." A thing he had done regularly; on himself.

"Cool," she breathed as he explained, following after him with eager, if uneven, steps. They reached a tree and her uncle nosed his way inside a hollow, pulling out a few bits of greenery and setting them on the ground. One of them was poisonous--but not loopy poisonous, like the tree, but a poison that burned and stung, instead.

"Okay," Maegi said, nodding. "So you can make someone feel pain without touching them yourself?" It was an intriguing concept. She knew even at this early stage in life that she was not cut out for the warrior class. Even wrestling matches with her brothers in the glen had not been her style.

But this. . . To lurk in the shadows, watching as your enemy succumbed to your handiwork, without lifting a paw--this was something she liked a lot better.

"So that's all you have here?" she asked, not impatient, merely curious. "What's it called? What's the tree called?"

Cicero nodded at Maegi's question. "Not all wolves are strong. Some need to use other skills to kill or maim." His words were void of emotion, cold and calculated. Cicero did not harm any wolf, truthfully; he held to a moral standard, some or other, would not think to harm an innocent yet his guidelines for who was 'bad' enough were loose, to say the least.

Maegi asked if he had any other things and he hummed before saying, "Elsewhere, a different cache. We can check some more later, if you want." Herbs weren't spread very thick in winter, so he didn't have as much and what he had was spread thin across his various caches in the territory. "It is poison ivy. It is not a tree, but it infects and takes over trees, much like the tree in the weeping meadow has been taken over. But here only the plants are poisonous, not the air they exude."

His statement resonated deeply with her. Her stunted paw would inevitably prevent her from having the brute strength of warriors like Vaati or Miraak. To know that she could wield power, all the same. . . It was life-affirming.

"Will you teach me about all of them?" she asked, her voice squeaking a little from curiosity. "The plants. You don't have to right now," Maegi amended hastily. She didn't want to overwhelm her uncle. "Not all of them. But I'd like to know."

It was on that day that the dark princess was handed a weapon--and she was glad of it.

 

last post

Cicero nodded at Maegi's question. He had never turned down teaching anyone that had asked him. "Yes." He would teach her their meaning but he would also let her experience some things, for it was good to know what sort of weapons one wielded upon others. His extensive knowledge of his poisons only made him better at being a toxicologist, he believed, and it made him more empathic towards his victims too.