Redsand Canyon The ethereal and I.

Towhee grimaced as she shuffled toward the oasis, then past it. Something she’d eaten for lunch must’ve disagreed with her because she felt strangely queasy. Her belly was making ominous noises, not that she could hear. But she could feel the rumbling in there and it couldn’t mean anything good.

But she was determined to catch up with @Fennec today, see how her garden was coming along. Hell, maybe there was a leaf in there she could chew on to settle her stomach or something.

Fennec was just finishing a meal herself, near the edge of the lake, when she heard Towhee approaching. Her ear flicked to acknowledge her, but she finished cleaning her muzzle before she turned to greet her.

Hey mom. There was a strange gurgle that distracted her for a moment, but Fennec didn't immediately comment on it.

While she wouldn't call herself 'happy' over the past week or two, having a purpose was at least a huge improvement. She wasn't skipping meals as often, slept less, and didn't entirely avoid the pack any chance she got. Hopefully it was the beginning of a slow climb upwards.

For shit’s sake, Towhee muttered under her breath when a cramp seized her by the gut, halting her in her tracks. Did I poison myself?

She stood there a moment, letting a wave of nausea roll through her. She began to salivate, so Towhee braced herself for the incoming emesis. When she opened her mouth, there was no vomit, just the world’s rancidest belch.

Feeling a good deal better for it, she resumed her walk, her thoughts meandering until she spotted Fennec near the water’s edge. She raised a foreleg in a wave as she made her way over to the Plebian, only realizing a beat later that that was an idiotic move.

Hey, she rejoined. I came to see how your garden was doing. And on my walk over, I had a big brain moment while possibly suffering the side effects of food poisoning. Was wondering if you planned on growing anything toxic…

She was more interested in the second bit than the first, but her mom sounded lighthearted enough that apparently the 'food poisoning' wasn't immediately unbearable.

No poison. Yet. She smirked, thinking of her plans to move the more toxic of her supplies soon. She still needed to nail down a good place to grow them outside of general access. The healer's den (she couldn't remember the name) had given her an idea on that. I might have something, though. I went and got some of my old plants, from the forest by the Caldera.

She was done here, so she took a few steps in the direction of where her garden was, only pausing to make sure she heard Towhee joining her. By now she had the habit of keeping her face pointed at her mom anytime she spoke... and walking didn't interrupt that much, seeing as she didn't really need to see where she was going.

It's going pretty okay, actually. A lot better. It didn't help the loneliness much but it certainly helped the directionless feeling she'd had, and the former she could at least live with. The latter had left her spinning out in a way she hadn't been able to deal with at all.

She fell step beside Fennec, smiling softly at the latter proclamation and reaching out to touch her nose to the other woman’s shoulder. She was happy to “hear” that. It gave Towhee a sense of maternal satisfaction, knowing she’d seeded the idea in part.

Good, Fen, I’m glad, she said. Would it be even better if you and I conspired about the application of poisons in warfare situations? Not that I anticipate finding ourselves in need of this sort of thing anytime soon… but, I mean, this is a military pack, so it’s just good optics if some of our flowers are lethal, right? Specifically, I was thinking of how effective it’d be if we could somehow give our enemies the shits in the middle of the battlefield…

Fennec actually did smirk a bit at that, a little darkly. I've done that before. Someone asked me for some and said it was for whoever kidnapped her kids. She was going to poison some prey, but I don't know if it worked. She hoped it had. It was the least someone who would take a kid like that deserved.

The only problem with keeping them in the open is, some of them you really don't want anyone getting into by accident. Anything you leave out for an enemy to eat by accident, a friend or stranger could eat instead. She'd only poisoned herself the once by accident but it was absolutely not something she would recommend. Also, she'd gotten lucky - the one she'd screwed up on hadn't been deadly in the amount she accidentally swallowed. Some of them were.

That's why I wanted to hide them away, like I did in the bramblepoint. There I just kinda made a thorn barrier. Not sure if that's the best thing here, though. She hadn't found a good cave in the ravine wall, like she'd hoped, but she'd found an inset or two she could maybe use. I especially don't want anyone's kids finding them. She knew for a fact that Jack Snipe would be interested in "giving his sister the shits" and there was the other wannabe healer she'd met. Trouble was - most of the poisons she'd ever found were deadly, and it was hard to tell the difference more often than she liked.

Fennec quickly latched onto the idea, speaking of her experiences with toxic plants. The mention of kidnapped kids made Towhee’s stomach clench a little. It did the same thing when her daughter mentioned the possibility of pups accidentally ingesting something poisonous.

I didn’t even think of that, she admitted, glad that Fennec had considered it. Would it be better to hide it… or try to educate everyone about it, make them aware of the dangers? Honest question. You’re the professional.

Naturally, she thought of Jack and Leo. Young pups were curious, especially about forbidden things. If Towhee tried to hide something from them, they would not only find it but get into it. It was inevitable. But if she made sure they were aware of it and the risks entailed, maybe that would deter them? She hummed ponderously.

Hiding it. Fennec said without much hesitation. You can do both, but telling someone something is off limits sometimes does the opposite. They have to understand why. They'd need to be old enough to be able to actually grasp the danger, and she remembered clearly how Killer was when he was young. Sometimes it took kids a little bit to sort out that they weren't invincible.

I'd at least wait until they were old enough to get why it's important. And thorns seem to work pretty well, keeping most things out. Never wanted to poison any prey either. Fennec wasn't sure it would be the same, but eating poisoned prey seemed like a bad plan.

Fennec didn’t hesitate to insist they keep it hidden, to which Towhee only replied, I defer to you, a smile in her voice.

By now, they were approaching the garden. At least, she assumed as much by the look of the cultivated soil with bits of green. It didn’t look like much, to be honest, not that Towhee would tell Fennec that. This meager little plot of ground was giving her daughter a much-needed sense of purpose, plus it was utilitarian. What did it matter what it looked like?

You know, Towhee drawled after a moment of surveying, this conversation reminds me of something else. Did you hear about the queen of Akashingo being poisoned a few months ago? She died. And the Imperator spent a whole lot of manpower trying to solve the mystery, only I don’t think he ever did…

She didn't steal any kids, did she? Fennec asked, though the insinuation was definitely a joke. The woman she'd spoken to had clearly been targeting a man she knew, though that didn't mean she hadn't fucked up and killed someone else.

Either way, Fennec would hardly be responsible. She'd only provided the means. What happened afterwards was entirely their doing.

I always wanted to do things like that. Live unattached, somewhere, and provide fortunes and herbs and poisons to anyone who came. For a price, obviously. Back when I was little, it always seemed like this cool ideal way to live, but it turns out it's more complicated than that. She huffed a small laugh. Guess I should be glad, though. Because if I was that wolf, I'd be suspect number one. She imagined Germanicus knocking on a witch's door with an army behind him. Now that was something out of a story.

Towhee missed the darkly joking remark, though her eyes hung on Fennec’s lips as she told her mom about her former vision for herself. Towhee’s own lips pressed together thoughtfully, parting only when her daughter finished.

I actually wonder if you might’ve had the knowledge to solve the mystery, though I guess it’s way too late now, she mused. Can’t you do that—the bartering, I mean—without being all on your own? Raven once told me that mercenary has a deeper meaning than just being a guardian or warrior, that some mercenaries trade their services for goods. She said a lot of them travel from pack to pack, doing that, although I don’t see why you couldn’t do it from a home base.

Peering at the garden again, her lips twitched into a smile as she thought aloud, Imagine if you did that and word spread, so that wolves traveling the Teekons told each other things like, ‘looking for the magic mushrooms? Go see Fennec in Mereo!’ We could even come up with a proper business name, she proposed with a laugh.

Fennec let out a laugh also, her usual that was more scoff than genuine. She did appreciate her mom's humor though. I bet Germanicus would love that. Strangers showing up on the borders all the time, asking for fortunes and poisons. He'd probably keel over. Or chase Fennec out himself.

Emberwood was supposed to be that, but... it was fucked from the start. Maybe if I was making the rules, but I bet even you would have hated it. She said, giving her mom a smile that challenged her to argue. She remembered how Towhee was about the borders - she'd loved it as a kid, honestly. She and Fig had spent hours dealing with 'strangers' or whatever the hell they'd called them. They'd had another word for it.... 'coots'?

Damn. She hoped he didn't hate her too much, if he came back.

This is enough, for now. It really was, for the most part. Dealing with strangers wasn't going to fix her loneliness problem any more than running away would have.

Fennec pointed out that nobody wanted to draw a bunch of strangers to the borders, prompting a sheepish laugh from Towhee. Yes, that was certainly true, though already she was thinking of a compromise of sorts.

What if you had your own outpost? Instead of a pack, it could be a bartering station, somewhere nearby enough to be convenient but far enough away that it wouldn’t interfere with the packs, Towhee thought aloud, tail twitching. It’s fun to think about, anyway, she added, knowing the logicistics could prove to be a nightmare.

In any case, Fen seemed content enough with her little garden plot and the work she was doing with it. Towhee reached out to nudge the woman’s cheek in lieu of a shared smile. Actually, her lips began to pull down into a frown even as she withdrew a moment later.

I can feel the stomach pains getting ready to come back. Do you have anything here I could take for that, by any chance?

She'd absolutely considered that. Fennec didn't respond, though, mainly because she wasn't sure how she felt about it. It was mostly for the fun of thinking logistics, maybe, because she couldn't imagine herself dealing with so many strangers right now. She was enjoying her gardens but still wasn't quite up to par with the energy she'd need for that sort of enterprise.

The uncharitable part of her brain immediately urged her to point out that she wasn't the medic here. Or even a healer. The misunderstanding with Germanicus still bothered her to the point where she disliked the leader heavily and, in protest, refused to really find a place within Mereo at all. What was the point when he saw her and immediately set her to doing manual chores? She'd told him her skills and he chose not to use them.

This was Towhee, not Germanicus. She shut the bitter response down.

I think so. She nosed through the edge of her garden until she brushed against the leaves she was looking for. It wasn't as strong smelling, or tasting, as ginger but it would likely help more with the actual source of the problem. Ginger was more for treating the symptoms. Fennec dug up one of the fennel plants and rolled the bulb towards her mom. Eating this should help. You don't have to eat the leaves, unless you want to. The bulb was the important part.

She was quite used to watching her blind daughter navigate the world, though her eyes tracked Fennec’s movements as she meandered through the garden, seeking a particular plant. Towhee wondered what guided her most in this endeavor. Did each growth have a distinct scent? Or was it more important to feel the leaves and stems to identify them? It was probably a combination of both, she decided as she continued observing.

It didn’t take long for Fen to locate and unearth a sprig of green with a bulb attached. She carried it over to Towhee, who took a sniff before the Plebian could even set it on the ground. She supposed she should be glad her daughter couldn’t see her, as she reflexively recoiled from the scent, which unbeknownst to her resembled anise or licorice.

Fennec told her she needn’t eat the leaves, which left the pale green tuber. Towhee sucked in a breath and quickly snatched it up with her teeth, not bothering to clip away the feathery leaves. They tickled her mouth, inside and out, as she quickly chewed and swallowed the entire plant. Fortunately, the taste was not nearly as strong as the smell.

Thanks, Fen, Towhee said after it was down the hatch, playfully exhaling close to the younger woman’s nose so she would get a whiff of… What was that called, anyway?

You got post #4,000! :)

Fennec waited patiently while her mom finished. Fennel. Her lips curled up a bit at the similarity to her own name, though she wasn't sure if her mom would catch it. Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn't.

You can take some for later, just in case, if you want. She was growing it but wasn't exactly using it for much yet. That was a step past where she'd gotten; the one time she'd worked up the drive to go to the healer's den, she'd found it empty except for her son. Fennec hadn't given it a second try yet.

Hopefully I won’t need any more. If I do, I know where to find it, Towhee replied. Thanks, Fen. Think I’m gonna go back and lie down by the oasis until I feel better.

Figuring Fennec would stay here and continue tending to her garden, Towhee nudged her cheek and shuffled back toward the water, eager to get a drink to wash this lingering taste out of her mouth. Besides, it would probably help settle her stomach some more.