Redhawk Caldera red velvet

@Nightjar @Raven maybe!?

Tiger nosed through the foliage of the Caldera, scouting around for herbs she could bring to Blue Willow or perhaps anyone else with any medicinal knowledge that she did not recognize. She also took care to take herbs she did know of, and bury them safely in the earth for her own safekeeping. Particularly the ones Wildfire had need of, given her allergies and her injuries both. Shoot, the cub had a wild week. Tiger took care to remain closer to the den now, in case she was needed.

Her investigations were endless. Fortunately she found nothing toxic (she would have no idea if she did, but as luck would have it, nothing she pulled to investigate could be a detriment to anyone's health), and she continued pulling one plant at a time from their root, sure to leave leftovers for when they might be needed.

It's about time you and I threaded together!  Tiger is such a great character.  :)

As was typical of her lately, Raven was wandering.  Mom had gone off to patrol the borders and Dad wasn't around either, so Raven took the opportunity to slip away and do some exploring of her own.  Something had changed inside her after the gruesome confrontation several mornings ago, though she was too young to understand or make sense of it at this point.  She was more attached than ever to Wildfire, her desire to help her healing sister eclipsed only by her sense of helplessness.  Most noticeable was her aversion to her father, the rift between them so enormous and heartbreaking that her young mind could not even comprehend it.  The man who had been her hero and the center of her universe since the day of her birth was now the very thing she feared the most.

Her absence from the rendezvous site today wasn't due to her avoiding Peregrine so much as it was simply her giving in to her newfound wanderlust and desire to be somewhere else.  She was chasing a particularly elusive butterfly when she came around a wide tree trunk and spotted a white figure nearby.  She fell still for a moment, uncertainty on her face, until she realized it was just Tiger.  Grinning, she loped toward the she-wolf on legs that were still a little clumsy, tail wagging behind her.  "Whatcha doin'?" she asked, puzzled by the piles of uprooted plants nearby.

YEEEES SHRIEKS LIKE A HARPY

 

A little inky pup came upon her, and it took her seconds to discern it was Raven. Her tail waved left and right as she glanced to the pile, then to the growing cub, and at the others curious inquiry her heart skipped a beat. YES. YES, ANOTHER PUPPY WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH ME. At this rate, she'd be as cool as Aunt Flea. They could call her... Aunt Tea. Auntie. Ugh, something cooler would come along, she knew it. 

"Just collecting some plants that help heal," she informs, her tail waving. "I need to learn more about these ones in particular. Some I know but some, I want to know." Some she honestly wasn't sure did diddly squat... but she collected a great many that did, unbeknownst to the scholar. Tiger nudged them toward Raven to sniff at if she wanted, and investigate on her own. "I wish I learned about this stuff sooner. It's a lot." Tiger thought of all the stressful going-ons in the pack lately... and in that vein, came up with a brilliant idea. Distractions, she had heard, were quite helpful. "Hey, ...would you be game to learn with me about this stuff? We can practice together and I can teach you what little I know..." Cue puppy-eyes... used upon a puppy, would they be effective? 

Tiger's so desperate to be cool.  Omg it's adorable.  XD

Despite being Aunt Filly's (Raven's butchered way of pronouncing "Finley") sister, Tiger was still a little mysterious to Raven.  Part of it was her own shyness; Raven was the most reclusive and withdrawn of the three pups, slowest to open up around members of the pack she didn't know as well.  Since Wildfire's injury, however, the snowy Blackthorn girl had become a fixture in the family and Raven was becoming increasingly familiar with her.  She liked Tiger; she was silly and a little strange, and always had a smile for the pups.  And (as far as Raven could tell) she seemed to know how to fix broken sisters, which was something that the blackbird was currently very curious about.  She hated not knowing how to fix Wildfire's brokenness.

"I wanna halp!" she exclaimed excitedly when Tiger invited her to learn some of this stuff and offered to teach her about it.  (Apparently, using puppy eyes on a puppy actually worked!)  When Tiger encouraged Raven to sniff at some of the plants she'd pulled up, the black pup snuffled about the weeds with vigor.  After a few seconds of this, she sneezed and looked up at Tiger with her nose all wrinkled up.  "It smells stinky," she commented with distaste.  "How's it gonna make Wifi better if it'sa stinky?"

I imagine her as Amy Poehler, I'M A COOL MOM but aunt. Also over-exuberant like her in P&R LMFAO

Tiger grins as Raven takes her up on her offer. I. am. doing. it. Her tail waves frantically, and she circles behind Raven as the girl sniffs. Her commentary was the cutest thing ever and Tiger withheld a screech-squeal, but squeaked out, "very stinky," in a tiny voice that had plenty of laughter in it. Her question was asked in earnest.

"Unlike skunks, who are gross and unhelpful and just the worst, this stink brings some good! I'm learning about these ones..." she pushed aside the ones she did not know of, and then grabbed some marigold, "But this one, for example, helps inflammation..." Tiger forgot that big words were hard to understand. "It's called marigold."

Whee phone post while riding in car!

Raven listened, confusion written in her youthful features, as Tiger explained that some stinks could be good. It made no sense to her.  It took her a second to recall exactly what a 'skunk' was, and when she did, she wrinkled her nose up again and recalled the time NJ had farted in their den and Dad had told him he smelled worse than a skunk.

A pang went through her at the thought of her father, but she pushed it away as Tiger continued on to tell her about a pretty orange and yellow flower with an especially odious smell. "Maragold," she repeated after Tiger, trying her best to memorize it.  She didn't quite understand its use though, having never been taught what 'inflammation' meant.  "What's information?". Her pronunciation, as usual, was still a work in progress.

"In-flah-may-shun isn't bad, itself. It actually means your body is fighting to heal. But it hurts, and gets all red and gross. It means your body is fighting infection. In-fek-shun. That's not good, infection. It means bad stuff got in, and if not treated right, can do a lot of harm." Tiger knew of medical terms and definitions, just not all of the ways to treat things. She was a wizz, and had learned a lot about the terms from the previous pack she had been with. Unfortunately, she hadn't cared so much about learning the rest of the trade; her young ambitions had more to deal with running around and meeting new people more than anything else.

She looked to Raven. Tiger was glad to have a partner in this; but if Raven started learning now, by her age, she'd be a genius. Her little protege...

Tiger moves to nuzzle her head. She knew psychology was a part of healing, too, and speaks softly. "How you doing, Rayray? I know you didn't get any cuts or anything, but how're you feelin'?" She knew Raven wouldn't be able to be the most articulate, but she also knew kids were pretty candid, and wouldn't even think to lie.

Raven listened to Tiger explain what each word meant, and she soaked it up with interest.  She'd heard her parents and siblings talk about "trades" before, but she'd never really given much thought to them.  It wasn't something that sounded especially interesting to her.  She just wanted to play and chase bugs, take naps in the sunshine, swim, and get dirty.  Why did she need a trade to do any of that?

But she found herself wondering if healing people with stinky plants was a trade and, if it was, if her mom would let her try it.  It sounded cool.  It was like magic.

Tiger paused after a few moments and then asked her how she was doing.  Raven understood that Tiger was asking in reference to the awful thing she'd seen her dad do, and the smile died out of the pup's face.  A somber cast came into her eyes as she looked down at her feet.  She didn't know how to talk about it.  She didn't know what to think or what any of it meant...only that somehow, something bad had gotten inside of her and was doing a lot of harm.  "Like I got a affection," she mumbled after a moment, Tiger's explanation of "infections" still fresh in her mind.

I MELTED

Raven responded to her, and her heart sank deep in her chest. That's not good. Tiger moved to draw a foreleg around the youth and pull her closer to her, nosing her. "Let Dr. Tiger check you out..." she hums, snorting around the little girls belly as if to tickle her. Her tail waved slightly, hoping to get the cub to laugh some, moving this way and that to test the girls sensitive areas upon her. Tiger did not want the girl to feel ill or badly at all. Tiger needed to help her.

OMG I LOVE TIGER <3  We can wrap this up after one more post from you, if you want.  I know you're ready to finish up Tiger's stuff.  :)

She grinned as "Dr. Tiger" pulled her close and began to snuffle her all over.  The ticklish sensations were too much for the girl and she squealed with delight, giggling helplessly and squirming like a little bug in the white wolf's arms.  After a few moments of this, Raven managed to roll away and laid there on her back, panting, until the giggles finally went away.  Still laying on her back, all four feet in the air, she looked at Tiger and asked in a small voice, "What kinda flowers will make it better?"  Referring to the infection that festered in her heart.

Gonna go ahead and slap a quick conclusion on this so it can be archived. :)

Tiger couldn't really help her with that last question, but it was okay -- she found that plenty of tickles and laughter helped drive the blackness out of her...at least temporarily anyway.  They joked and played for the next several hours, breaking from their silliness occasionally so Tiger could show her a new plant and tell her about its special qualities.  They stayed so busy and so engaged in one another's company that it was approaching dusk when they decided to pack it in for the night and head home to the clearing.