Horizon Ridge chasing the sun · pack meeting

OOC: Pretending Jinx found lots of petrified plants and... Mmm also powerplaying that Kisu is there already, hope that's okay!

<style type="text/css">q {font:13px Georgia; color:#BA6D00;}</style>IC: Jinx had mulled long and hard over her choice of gift for Pied, and had collected a variety of materials: dried and desiccated basil, frostbitten catnip, chamomile, coltsfoot and horehound, all plants guaranteed to wreak havoc on pregnancy and possibly cause miscarriage. She had collected a birch branch that curiously bent in the middle to form a misshapen V, and after soaking it in the ocean shallows for two days to give it a crust of salt, had affixed strandy bryony and cinquefoil roots to it, to amplify its magical properties. She had found some rare henbane, and affixed that in well-spaced intervals too, for sexual vigour; perhaps the new couple would wear themselves out, only to lose litter after litter to the magical effects of the herbs.

But Jinx had puzzled for days over which herb to plant in that bend in the wood, which would be best suited to thwarting the couples' attempts at procreation... And had come across many snags. All of the plants had good properties alongside the bad: basil gave courage, catnip gave clairvoyance and sleep protection, coltsfoot was calming, and horehound gave heightened intuition. None of these were gifts that Jinx particularly wanted to bestow upon Pied.

For Kisu, she had gone more simple: a somewhat straight twig of oak, for powerful protection from the elements, decorated with crinkled mugwort leaves for protection from lightning (since they lived in a tree, although ironically, Jinx didn't know where they lived), dispelling evil, and prevention of unwelcome visitors. She had also soaked the oak wood in salt water, so that both amulets were dusted in sea salt, to amplify magic and banish hostile influences, such as spirits.

Jinx thought long and hard about her meeting with Pied, and what had been revealed there... And at long last, chose three shoots of horsetail to put in the bend in the branch. These amulets she carried with her to the meeting place when Akhlut summoned them with the rising sun, pausing once or twice along the way to adjust them in her mouth. They were not large, but they were big enough to be cumbersome together, and awkwardly shaped to boot. Jinx was careful not to press her tongue to them; she did not want to dislodge any of the salt that had cured on their surfaces.

When she arrived, she approached with dignity and authority in her stance, cowed only by Akhlut himself. Her amulets were placed on the ground a short distance from the Alpha male, and she moved forth to pay her respects with the lowering of her hinds, bending of her legs, and the upward turn of her muzzle as she thrust her tongue respectfully against his throat. Her gaze lingered long on Pied and Kisu, her expression uncertain and perhaps a little stormy, as she trotted back to seat herself protectively over her gifts, and await the time of giving.

Their purposes she would explain... Having thought long and hard over Pied's own, it would be important to explain what she had chosen. The why would be evident when the what was explained... But Jinx also kept secrets, and perhaps she would do so now.