Herbalists' Cache Is That Healin' Stuff?

@Reek @Reek @Reek 

Ahhh! Victory! Success! WINNING!

She'd found it. A forest. A lush, vibrant forest with far more wondrous things than anywhere else in the area. It was a beautiful place and if the local foliage were a little more exotic, she almost compare it to home. Almost. Nothing would replace the Rise, but until they could convince the brat prince to return home, this would have to make do.

Citali'd left Tezcacoatl in the hands of the rest of his lingering guard. The ladies had split up, each seeking the warrior prince on their own. Luckily, she and Nochtli had banded together and happened upon him at the same time. Another one of them had found him first. Hopefully the rest were on their way. Alas, with two wolves at his side, Citali was comfortable enough to leave him in their care and do a little research on her own. 

She could use this forest. She padded through its interior, noting the rich variety of plant life and keeping her eyes peeled for anything she recognized that might be useful. Most of it was unlike what she knew which meant she'd be starting from scratch. She needed to take an inventory of what was and examine their properties. 

The female paused over a fern. She identified the family, but she could not place a name to the variety. She lowered her head, rubbing her chin against it's leaves. 

After his quick, and somewhat chaotic stint in Redhawk Caldera, Reek had returned to home to Redtail Rise with a happy bounce to his step.  Although it was good to catch up with old friends, he pined for home and his loving mate, and he couldn't wait to get back into the groove of monotonous pack life.  For the first time in the ragged wolf's life, he had begun to ignore his lazy urges and he invested his utmost attention into filling his growing herb cache, that had now taken up so much room in Reek and Wynter's den, that the pair had trouble fitting together inside without contorting awkwardly.   However, Reek remained diligent to become an important fixture within the rise, for both his, Wynter's, and their future children's sake.

Although most would argue, Reek considered himself to be a hunter. However, his prey did not posses a pulse or could fight back. Plants.  If it grew in the ground, it was the raggedy wolf's forte.  With his nose to the ground, Reek traipsed through the herbalists cache looking for his next find.

This forest had been a blessing for Reek.  Coming from the salty soil of Ankyra Sound, the plant life was rather limited. But here, the forest was practically brimming with life.  With each passing day, Reek had found a new useful plant to uproot and bring back to the Rise.  But this time, it wasn't a plant that caught the ragged wolf's attention.  No, someone else was rooting throughout he woods as well, and Reek decided to follow her scent.  Perhaps she had found something of use.

Reek spied the female from afar as she nudged a fern with a confused expression.  Enter arrogant douchebaggery.  "Adiantum," drawled Reek, pulling himself from the brush and into view.  "Most call it the maidenhair fern.  Good for coughs if you chew it."  Reek reached down and uprooted the fern with his jaws. "An ish shmine," he taunted with a wry grin, his voice garbled from his full mouth. 

With her chin freshly enveloped in the plants, Citali lifted her head a bit and waited. Nothing happened. Not a tingle. Not a burn. She sat down and contemplated its properties as she realized the plant wasn't the least bit poisonous or toxic. It wasn't native to her part of the world, but this here was one she could take back to her make-shift home and run a series of tests on to figure out what it was good for, if anything. Maybe she could do a little experimenting on the buzzards. If one of them died, that was a win for sure. 

The press of footsteps through the undergrowth caught her attention. Immediately she rose, turning towards the sound as she peered through the trees and attempted to seek out the intruder. Her eyes narrowed, watching as wolf walked onto the scene and proceeded to not only name the plant and its properties, but to steal it from her too!

"Not this far north! Oh no. Maidenhair needs a far damper environment." She stormed towards the wolf who was stealing her fern. Joining him, she wrapped her own teeth around it's leaves and began to pull at the plant. "Mine!" she growled, finding purchase a little higher up. "I shwaas roooking ar if fuuurrst."

Did she just?  Nah, no way.  Reek was sure the fern was maidenhair, well, at least 90%... or maybe 80. Or lower, but whatever, fuck it.  He never really got a good look at it anyway, since he intended to make the snatch quickly and speed off to inspect it later.  However, Citali wouldn't have that as she gripped at the other end of the uprooted fern and claimed squatters rights.  But Reek held his grip firm around the middle of the fern, unwilling to let it go to the much larger healer.  

"Shays you," sputtered Reek with a mouthful of plant matter, channeling his inner Sean Connery.  "Schquatters rightsch don mean shit."  The raggedy wolf tugged at his end of the plant, trying to loosen her grip.  However, instead of breaking away clean, the fern snapped into two pieces causing Reek to careen backwards into a tree and drop his payload on to the ground.  

Reek bent down to pick the remainder of the fern up, however, something caught his attention.  Upon closer inspection, the fern was not what it seemed to be. The fronds were similar, but Citali was right.  This was no maidenhair.  Actually, Reek couldn't quite identify what it was at all.

"Well, er... damn," stammered Reek after realizing he had been wrong. "You're right I guess.  This ain't maidenhair, and I can't identify it.  Any ideas?"

Did he just!?

She huffed, growling through the plant between her teeth. She didn't know jack shit about anything local to the area, but she wasn't about to let some scrawny, mangy wolf walk by and snatch up a plant she was testing for herself. Ugh. A fern? Yes. What kind? Who the hell knew, but now it was in her mouth. And his mouth and damn it!

Citali stumbled backwards as the plant snapped. She ended up with the fronds and its dozens of tiny leaves which chose that precise moment to free themselves from the main stem and cling to her tongue. She spat them out, lifting a paw to spew them out with the help of a clean limb. "That was my fern," she asserted from where she now sat on the ground with leaves at her feet. Freaking fern. She'd find another one.

"I don't know!" she snapped back at him as he admitted the variety of fern wasn't the maiden hair he'd assumed. "I'm not from here." Which meant she was herb dumb and she hated admitting that, but it was true. Better for her to admit her ignorance than to kill a wolf pretending she had her shit together.

She rid her mouth of all the leaves and turned her gaze back towards what remained of it. On closer inspection, she had a few ideas, but couldn't say for sure. "Lady fern? Alpine lady fern?" She rambled off a couple. "Elevation's too high for licorice ferns." Staring at it, she continued. "We're not close enough to water for it to be maidenhair unless there's a waterfall or a river hiding somewhere I haven't seen. Those suckers like to be near water."

She was right and Reek was... well, less right. Being wrong was something the raggedy wolf wasn't used too, and the words to admit defeat were simply not in his vocabulary.  Although the herbalists cache was damp by any standard, the water content of the soil where Reek and Citali squabbled over the unknown fern was a bit too low for maidenhair to grow.  His initial assumption fell flat like a lead balloon.  Scowling downwards, Reek pushed his half of the remnants of the fern around in the dirt, desperately trying to drum up ideas to not look like such an idiot. 

However, it seemed the Citali was wearing the same figurative dunce-cap of ignorance that Reek was sporting when she admitted that she wasn't from the area.  Great. Although, despite her self-stated herb-dumbness, she was quick to rattle off a few possible assumptions.  The first, in particular, stuck out in Reek's mind.  Lady fern.  Typically characterized by it's foul taste, lady fern could be quite easy to discern from the rest with a simple test.  

"Hold on," said Reek, holding up a forepaw to Citali's muzzle as he tuned out the rest of her spiel.  The raggedy healer took the remnants of the fern in his mouth, and this time chewed.  "Tastes like shit... has to be Lady fern,"  he said with the corners of his mouth grimacing from the foul taste of the fern.  However, his grimace turned into a knowing smile now that the fern was properly identified.

She was guessing. Just throwing names of ferns out there and hoping one of them stuck. Maybe saying their name out loud would connect the dots for her and she'd have some magical discovery as to what plant in particular this ruined clump was. Ugh. Did it even matter at this point? Without the roots it wouldn't dry in a way that would appeal to her natural OCD tendencies. She needed perfection. Demanded it. That cluster now was ruined.

She mentally mourned her losses while the ugly wolf sniffed at it and tasted its leaves. Citali huffed. And then he. What the–? Paw on her muzzle, he pushed her face out of the way. She jerked her head out from behind his nasty feet and snapped at him. He did not get to touch her. Oh no! Not that nasty looking, flea ridden heathen who'd tried to steal her precious fern. 

Citali was about to snarl at him when he spoke up again. Lady fern. She grinned. That stuff did taste like shit. Served him right. "Ha. I was right." She wouldn't settle for less even if being "right" meant one out of however many options she decided to ramble off. 

On her paws now, she barreled through him and continued on her way. "Next one of those suckers we happen on is mine." She was on the hunt now. Looking. Scenting. She was gonna find another one of those plants and fast.

This should be my last thread for healer before I can claim the trade!  Wanna wrap this up soon?

She may have been right, but Reek wasn't ready to step down from his high horse just yet.  "A broken clock is right twice a day,"  chided the raggedy wolf sarcastically.  Sure, she may have had a lucky guess, (which was super vital to the plant's identification) but Reek had done the actual identifying... plus, he had the displeasure of tasting that shitty thing.  It's putrid taste still clung to his tongue.

The other healer pushed past him, leaving the torn plant strewn aside in order to find another that was intact.  What, was it not good enough?  Just because the fern was no longer pretty didn't mean it didn't have use.  Even though it was in two pieces, the raggedy wolf had already decided that it would have a place in his herb cache.

"Why find another?  I'll let you have half of this one," said Reek in a weak attempt to extend the olive branch.  Obviously, she didn't want it, so he figured it was a safe offer.

Sounds good to me!

He said something. She didn't know what the hell he was taking about. "The fuck is a clock?" she asked, testing that new word on her tongue. It sounded strange. Almost like the sound a chicken or bird made except more awkward. Citali gave him a look, thinking him strange as she waited for him to elaborate. Maybe it was just some word he made up to make himself feel better about being wrong. It sounded like a reassurance of some kind. She had no idea, but she did know she wanted another herb.

His voice broke out behind her as she started walking off. Citali turned, glancing over her shoulder as she looked back towards him. Did she want that broken herb? "Uh. No. It will dry weird like that." She wanted one intact from root to tip. But if he wanted scraps? More power to him. She only wished to work with the best and roots would preserve the plant longer if she could find a way to keep  them damp. "Have at it." And with that she was off to scout further on her own.

I can get this archived now, or you can squeeze one last post in. You're choice! Thanks for the thread!

"Not a goddamn clue," retorted Reek, who in truth had no idea was a clock was.  While growing up, his mother tended to speak entirely in idiomatic expressions, and most of them stuck in the boy's subconscious like a stick in the mud.  However, Reek did understand the context behind the words.  "It's an idiomatic expression," he explained. "Figurative language... fru-fru shit.  Given the context, I figured—"  He paused and cocked a wolfen brow toward Citali while he contemplated why the hell was he sitting around explaining something that neither of them would ever understand. 


"Whatever, fuck it,"  chided Reek as he ceased his attempt at an explanation and picked the tattered fern back up to take it back to his cache in Redtail Rise.  Obviously Citali didn't want it... since it will (finger-quotes) dry weird.  So what?  Whatever, as long as it still worked, it was fine in his book. 

She took off and set out on her own, presumably to find another more suitable fern.  Reek turned to call out to her with the fern planted firmly in his mouth.  "Shee you 'round, Missh Perfec," garbled Reek before he set off toward the rise.  He hadn't even gotten her name, but perhaps the two would meet again in the herbalists cache to argue about plants once more.