Swiftcurrent Creek Good men are not like buses. There won't be another one 'round in ten minutes.
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Not only could the healer assess the canyon for the ideal growing conditions for yarrow and prairie crocus, she could also recognize yarrow stems. Ruenna smiled. "That would be very handy, if you have the time." 

After gathering up the horsetail she had scraped from beneath the snow, Ruenna turned to lead the woman in the direction she came. As soon as she began to walk, her heavy limp would be very apparent.

They followed along the bank of the Swiftcurrent Creek. The woman questioned Ruenna's desire for her opinion. Did she sense Ruenna's agenda? ..Was it obvious that this was an interview? 

Ruenna would pass her mouthful of horsetail fronds off to Aquene, so she could speak. 

"My name is Ruenna Redfern." No. That wasn't it. "Excuse me. Ruenna Redsand. Caeso-Redsand." Well, that was a little embarrassing. "I just married," she added, by way of explanation. 

Now, to answer her question. "I'm taking you to my home, the Redsand Cayon. It lies behind that waterfall." Ruenna nodded toward Arrow Falls in the distance. "I have come a long way out here to dig up horsetail, because I did not think to look for yarrow or prairie crocus in the canyon." After a few more lurching steps, she continued, "Travel is not easy for me." Clearly. "If I had not met you today, I might have made this grueling trip for horsetail twenty more times. Or two hundred. And each time, when I returned home, I would have fallen asleep on a bed of yarrow and prairie crocus, completely unaware that an even better treatment for infection lay in easy reach." 

When every step was painful, Ruenna didn't like to waste her steps. She also didn't like to waste her time. She did have some medical knowledge rattling around in her memory, but what good was it if she couldn't access the necessary materials? If Aquene could help her identify better, more convenient treatments, that was certainly worth the time it took to have a conversation with her. 

If Aquene wished to answer her, Ruenna would take the horsetail stems back from her. They could pass them back and forth as they conversed.


Ruenna experiences chronic lower back pain as a result of an accident from over a year ago. She moves with a very obvious, heavy limp.