Witch's Marsh Orion

@Minnow 

Esma had had a dream few days ago with details so vivid that she dwelled on the events that had transpired long after. It had started within a familiar setting of her Riverclan home. She had followed, what she believed to be mom around, preparing items for sacrifices, until suddenly she had heard a voice calling her in the distance. Mom had not seemed to notice and for a moment there Esma had stood mid-step, feeling conflicted. Part of her yearned to follow her mom as faithfully as she had all these years. But the other responded to the voice calling her and the pull was so strong that she knew, if she did not come and find out, she would regret it forever. 

The dream had ended, but that feeling had not left her since. She went about her days in Riverclan just as she had been used to before, but there was a sense that there was something missing that she had to find and it was not in her home, but elsewhere. It would have been a lot easier, if the voice had given her directions, because now Esma spent days, wandering around the nearby territories of the Lost creek hollow, hoping in vain to hear the same voice again that had instilled so much longing inside her heart.  

This was, how she had reached the Witch's marsh. A muddy wasteland and mosquito hell during the summer-time, but a frozen landscape during the winter. Unsure of, what to do next, Esma had sat down on the edge and looked in the distance. 

The wolf had been having nightmares since she had came to the willows and they just kept getting worse so she thought maybe a change of scenery would help take her mind off of it and give herself something else to dream about so she ventured off to perhaps hunt a rabbit or small creature as a distraction. Before setting out she let her leader know she was off to hunt and then she was on her ways.

She went a little farther this time and instead of coming across a small creature for hunting she came across a wolf . One by the looks of it was younger than she was and she gave a small chuff to announce her presence. “Hello.” She spoke softly.

Esma jumped, when she heard someone address her, and the first reaction was one to look around and see, if she could run away quickly. However, she missed her chance to act on it right away and now the other was close enough to catch up with her, if she tried. Plus, she seemed friendly and Esma mirrored her body language, by averting her gaze politely and wagging the tip of her tail. 

"Hello," she said, studying the other's expression carefully. "Do you live here?" was the next logical question.

The young wolf seemed startled and that certainly wasn’t her intention and the woman offered a small smile to hopefully ease her concerns. “No actually I’m visiting a nearby pack with my alpha.” The female wagged her own tail as a show of friendliness. “Do you?” Surely she must right she looked young but so was she when she ventured out on her own though if that was the case the woman hoped that the circumstances had been different for this one.

"You can do that?" Esma asked, looking clearly very puzzled about the idea. Life in Riverclan was based around staying put, defending the territory from the outsiders and appealing to gods to keep them safe and keep the loyal folk in their good books. Strangers by definition were not very welcome and other packs were something that you knew existed, but they were as far away and foreign as a different planet completely. 

"Riverclan," she told. "It is not far," she explained, though this was not exactly true. She was nowhere near a place, where other packmates could hear her, if she got into trouble. She was quite on her own here. "What is your home called?"

The young one seemed shocked when she’d mentioned travel and of course maybe the young wolf wasn’t allowed to which was understandable when she was young neither was she but that never stopped her which thinking back to it. Maybe if she’d stayed put, things would be different but she refused to think like that. “Yes you can do that.” She said with a soft chuckle. “But from my experience I would wait till you’re older if it’s something you wish to do.” She wouldn’t want anything to happen to her if she’d given her ideas. The woman wouldn’t have that on her conscience. “I currently live in Moonglow it’s a ways that way.” She pointed her muzzle in it’s direction.

Esma was not the someone, who would get inspired by any ideas that weren't her own. She was quite comfortable living in her own safe bubble and only, when she felt inclined to, did she expand those margins of that world. It had already grown over the course of the year and the fact that she was okay at being this far away from home was already and achievement. 

"Older, how?" Esma asked, furrowing her brow. After all she had already reached the size of an adult wolf, there was only the experience and maturity lacking to add the final touches. "You are not old," she pointed out to the obvious. "Is your pack, where the moon lives for the day?" she asked curiously. And from her standpoint the question was quite logical: Riverclan's name was derived from the river that fed the area she lived in. By this logic pack's name reflected, what it was. 

The young one reminded minnow of herself when she was young. So many questions and she was thrilled to be able to answer them and give her knowledge to others much as her father and mother had done for her. “Older when you are able to take care of yourself. As well as experiencing the world and learning all of what your parents have to teach you.”  She had skipped the childhood part and was thrown immediately into having to take care of herself at a young age.

“I am unsure why they call it moonglow I have only just joined but I’m sure I’ll find out in time.” There was still much the wolf had to learn herself before she could answer questions about the pack she resided in.

The answer was a tad bit disappointing. Esma as all children eventually do was learning that the world outside her home was no fairy-tale. Rather a dangerous place, where you could not be sure of anything at all. Were it not for the voice that called out to her from deep within her heart, she would not voluntary leave the territory of Riverclan. Ever. Yet here was Minnow implying that going out in the world was an absolute must to all people. It left Esma with a feeling that she would be missing out on something very important, should she decide not to do that. 

"What then - when you have learned everything that there is in the world?" Esma asked. 

The woman chuckled softly at her question and it made her wonder about it herself. “Well I haven’t actually made it that far so I can’t say for certain. But if I ever find out I’ll let you know.” Could she find out everything there is to know? 

Surely no one could know every thing but for a young wolf that topic wasn’t one she wanted to get into cause she knew she couldn’t answer all the questions the young one might have.

Had Esma been younger, she would have taken Minnow's words as an absolute truth and a promise to do so. She had learned lately that this was not always the case with other people. They tended to express things that they had no intention of ever doing or fulfilling and the girl found it difficult to tell, when it was happening. 

"What is that you do not know yet?" Esma asked, curious to find out, how a person knew that there was more to learn. Especially, when they were as old as her companion now. 

She continued with the question and the next one wasn’t one that could be answered simply cause there was a lot that the woman didn’t know. “Well for starters I’m in the process of learning the medical trade.” 

She had learned a lot so far but there was still so much to learn. So many plants to remember. “I just started being taught by my leader.”

 A medical trade. How interesting. Esma had been under assumption that medics were born with the knowledge, because all her life she had known Ash Paw to be one. Never had it occurred to her that her mom could have started out in her life differently. 

"Is it hard? The medic trade?" she asked, feeling genuinely curious. 

The young girl had more questions and Minnie took a seat before answering. “I believe learning anything you don’t know is hard…” she started off simply. 

“But sometimes certain trades just click with you if you have enough interest and motivation to learn.” A bit of natural talent if you will. “If you put you’re mind to it you can learn just about anything.”

Could you really learn anything, if you wanted it badly enough? Esma was not so sure. Take her mom, for example, she was very good in her ways with the gods and knew her plants. And - yes - she had probably learned it from someone else, but you needed something a little extra to truly be good at it. After all if it was that easy at all Ash star's daughter could have picked up all of the trade secrets by now and be just as good. But - try as she might - the names and properties of the plants just did not stick with her. And the older she got, the less convinced she was in the fact that Atka and Sos existed at all. 

"Don't you need talent for that? For being really good?" she asked. 

Esma would have loved to stay there and continue questioning for an eternity and a bit longer, but then a summoning howl from the Riverclan reached her ears and she quickly excused herself, dashing home to see, what the emergency was.