Redhawk Caldera towers

Cinar chose to accompany them, which surprised Alivia not at all. He seemed to like to keep an eye on all the happenings in the Caldera territory. 

Ulysses. The name wasn't familiar to Alivia, and if he had been gone for three summers, she was unlikely to remember him even if they had crossed paths. 

Aureli zeroed in quickly on Alivia's hesitancy around the word healer.  "Oh, well, actually none of the Vitales use that title. It encourages, um.." How had Miro phrased it exactly..? "It encourages magical thinking. Like, the idea that healing is some mystical force that only special wolves can access. My teacher used to say, 'I'm not a healer. I don't heal the body. The body heals itself.'  He wanted his patients to take responsibility for their own recovery, and not to rely on someone else to heal them." 

Ugh, she had explained that terribly. Truthfully, it all seemed like silly semantics to her. She didn't call herself a healer because she wasn't one, plain and simple. Most of the time when she was at her clinic, she felt like a puppy playing pretend. Her heart leapt into her throat at the thought that anyone might actually show up with a medical issue. 

As they arrived at the clinic, Alivia took them past the entryway to the den, instead leading them around to the herb garden. She gestured toward the shabby, overgrown patch of herbs. At some point in the Caldera's history, some medic had gone to the trouble to plant the garden, but it had clearly been some time since it was tended. 

"Aureli, I was really hoping to get your opinion on this.. garden." That was using the word loosely. "I don't know much about herbs. I don't know if there's anything salvageable. We have a mother giving birth soon, so if there's anything here that could help with that, I'd be grateful if you could show me." 

The request was unlikely to have a positive effect on the healer's somewhat off-putting demeanor, which Alivia was intentionally ignoring. She would endure his attitude happily if there was a possibility she might learn something.