Redsand Canyon i wanna see it lay in your eyes when i leave with your love

"my time in mereo is nearing its end." qiao announced to @Germanicus, having found him strolling down the halls. he was such a stately creature, untrusting yet too cunning perhaps for his own good: it made him difficult for qiao. she bowed unreservedly as he took note of her.

she had been treated well here, if at arm's length. she had not gone hungry, her bed had always been dry, and the wolves here perfectly perfunctory.

an hour before, qiao had returned with meager wintertide herbs to restock @Aquene's cache as a parting gift. @Ruenna had been left a deerskin shawl: its warmth was piecemeal, yet its true strength was the incantation woven in between every blade of winter fur: a protection spell, for qiao had liked her most of all.

for @Glaukos, a fat and delicious hare. she figured any sentimentality would be lost upon his individual person. @Arsenio had not been so easy. for him, qiao left a small bundle of herbs to hasten virility.

but of germanicus, qiao had come empty handed. his last gift had been refused, and qiao was not a wolf who made the same mistake twice. for this, he got the rarest gift of all -- qiao's unwavering directness and honesty. "your subjects have treated me well, my lord. there is little else i can do. i have restocked what i could of your herbalist's cache, and in the spring i hope to return with herbs to barter with aquene. for each wolf i have met, i have left them some small token of my gratitude. but what for you, my lord?"