Herbalists' Cache With scarves of red tied 'round their throats

@Ibis it broke my brain that this territory is in the taiga @_x

she paused at the forest's edge, eyes upon the shattered mountain in the distance. she had lived there once, briefly, the memory of it feeling as if it did not belong to her - a fever dream, its edges curling in the heat just before it caught alight by flame and swiftly burned away to ash. cooling lava fell like tears down the sleeping dragon's body, burning bright toward the caldera and darkening to black as the flow had moved further from its mouth.

the taste of smoke and sulphur and ash lingered in the air, though emaleth surmised the dragon had erupted in its rage before she had returned to the wilds.

fire. she had always harbored for it an appropriate respect and rational caution - it was destructive, to be sure, but she had learned of its necessity in the universe. to purge and fertilize and make way for new life. but this - her fear took on a new edge. something more like sheer terror of the element.

she swallowed thickly, then tore her gaze away from the terrible view and stepped beneath the forest's canopy.