Sheepeater Cliff To gather, such curious things

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Sorry for holding you up again! Had this one drafted for a while, wanted it to be perfect :)

A thousand thoughts seemed to swim through Cassian's mind, she could see it on that pretty face of his. 

Heal prey? S'a waste of good herbs.... if it isn't for practice anyways. Some are only around for so long through the seasons, some can be a bit of a commodity to get your hands on. All I know is that if I climbed a mountain to get somethin', I wouldn't use it on a rabbit that'd probably get eaten by an eagle if it wasn't eaten by me first. She shrugs and wraps her tail around her hide.

His departure was met with a cheesed grin, and gentle wag of her tai. Good luck then~ 

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In the meantime, whilst Cassian pursued the endeavour of bringing her even more to snack on, Envy turned her attention back to the crippled fox nearby. Laboured, panting breaths fell heavy from its jaws, and it had crawled a few steps away while they had been speaking. 

The drive for survival was fading. She could see it when she locked eyes with the beast, that it was not all there anymore. It was somewhere else, perhaps somewhere nicer—a field with enough mice to feed its kits, a burrow that spanned the width of the earth. Some place void of predators.

Void of her.

Though it may have been somewhere else, Envy was still here. She did not know what foxes dreamt of in their dying moments.

She did not particularly care, either. 

For what are you, but a soul bound in misfortune, about to meet your end? That was how the world worked. Some got the short end. Some got the painful end. This, Envy knew well. It was just another day, just another death.

Ambling closer, she laid with the fox, cradled it in her arms. It lacked the strength to fight back. She liked them this way. With scrying eyes, she examined it, looked at the gentle crook in its spine, far worse that appearances suggested. She looked into its mouth, at the rows of canines, and stared at the indents that caved in its ribs and legs—Cassian's own contributions. When she ceased her admiration, she looked into glazed, absent eyes. 

She would not snuff it out. She would wait. She would watch. By the time there was no movement, and no breath, she was satisfied. She opened it up through the belly, and gazed upon the innards tucked within, studying. Was it callous? Was it cruel? No. It was simply a necessary step in the grand design. How long would a wolf survive similar injures? How long would she have to work before they'd pass the point of no return? Within the torment of the smaller canines, she could find these answers. 

Or maybe, she just liked to watch things die. Who could tell?

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She'd damn near forgotten to find something for Cassian, and scurried to her paws to set off across the cliffside. A trove of knowledge, her mind could be, were it not so damn scattered half the time. Little white petals, in a bundle on stiff, strong stems. This was what her eyes scowered the rocks for, Osha, but more importantly, its roots. Pale paws pattered against the stone, and eventually her search wound up fruitful. 

Unusual, was the gentle manner with which she plucked the plant from its rocky home. It was a gentleness she did not offer to her patients. She rolled the roots into her jaws, careful, so as to not puncture any delicate pieces. She'd take only what she needed, this very moment, and leave the rest to collect more sun. Scampering back across the cliffside, she'd return to their little rendevouz.

As Cassian's golden cap peaked over the rocks, she grinned wider at the sheer size of the hare he'd brought her. Surely she'd manage to put on a few pounds after eating that. Scrawny was her default, but as it currently stood, it was becoming her detriment. Oh but, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog."—Not true. She'd gotten her ass kicked plenty, no matter how vicious she'd been. Small and starved just wasn't the ideal combination for... well, really much of anything. It left a bitter taste in her mouth. If only she could've been born larger, and not half-baked. Mother had cursed her from birth. 

...Oh no, this one's good. She hops to her feet and trots over, a skip to her step as she ogles the perished hare, and steps to take it from his jaws, and place it into her own. Stormy haunches would fall back to the stone as he asked his next question, her features faltering a bit. 

More than a bit rather, she slumped, and kept her eyes averted, looking out on the meadow below. 

...It was nothing special. She mumbles, ripping a few pieces from her hare, and then coming over to work on his ears. A silence fell between the two while she chewed and minced a poultice from the bitter herbs—A disgusting process, but she was in no mood to use stones to grind them when her teeth worked their magic just fine. She licked at the cuts, her tongue coated in the foul taste of earth would spread the medicine around, allowing them to seep into each nick and slice she'd lovingly crafted for him. When she was done, she spat the mixture onto the ground.

She steps back a little, returning to the hare, and talking between bites. ...I mean, its nice, to have a pack. There's always scraps to pick off, so you don't always have to do the work, and I get lots of things to do, fixin' up injuries, sniffing out supplies. It all feels.... purposeless out here, sometimes. But it is nice alone sometimes, not having to hide things. Not having to sit and listen to these pious, old idiots ramble on about "Be gentle, don't do that." Blah blah blah. Old fools get set in their ways real easy, yknow. They don't wanna hear about change, or about new ideas... It's... stifling. She grumbles, tearing another piece for herself. ..I had my brother. That was all. There's no worth in any other connection, not there, at least. They didn't want me, so I don't want them.

There was a clear disconnect, a flicker of hurt dancing across an otherwise consuming, delighted gaze. Deflection had gotten her this far already, and to admit any fault was off the table. 

You can have some too, yknow. She mumbled, nudging the hare a little with her muzzle, now stained a messy sanguine hue.