Blacktail Deer Plateau Get a little dirt on your hands

@Aurëwenn <3
Dated morning of July 1st
Yesss Essie eat the baneberry!

There was something to be said for these southern lands and their pale trees, bathed as they were in the golden light of morning. Saoirse was used to the cold beauty of her home, far enough north that summer was a passing dream of warmth; the trees there had been skeletal at best, save for the thick evergreens that had bordered their pack lands. Here, the trunks were skinny, but the canopy above filtered in enough light that the ground was covered in vegetation. It was an unfamiliar sight, yet a beautiful one nonetheless.

She had found herself on the plateau as she was hunting breakfast—rather, hunting dinner, as she would soon return to Shige and they would rest during the daylight hours when his sight was weaker. Essie had already caught herself a fat hare and eaten her fill, but she wasn't quite ready to return yet. Sunlight was something they had eschewed for weeks; she wanted to enjoy the warmth in her fur for a while longer.

In the meantime, she was investigating the unfamiliar growth around her. She paused often to examine this or that bit of leaf or grass, even pulling a few stalks up to nibble on curiously. She was especially intrigued when she found a plant with a towering red stalk sticking out above several other bushes, clusters of white berries bobbing gently in the breeze. Saoirse made her way to them curiously, sticking her nose in right among the berries to get a good whiff of their scent. She'd never seen anything like it before; she wondered if they were edible, and if so, what they tasted like.

Surely no one could blame her for trying them, right?