far from perfect

whitefish river actually, but far from the borders of BDP. @Blue Willow maybe? Anyone is fine tho

Tiger had a collection of herbs in her mouth. She really, really wanted to see Blue again. She'd been so nice... so she headed toward the Plateau, only to stop midway. Fuck. Fox's words came into her head and she grimaced, dropping the herby things out of her mouth and sighing. She was enough of a distance away to not cause a disturbance, but she let out an invitational howl if Blue Willow would want to see her.

She understood there was a lot of drama between their packs for some reason. Tiger wasn't involved in the personal nuances of all the things, like Peregrine's daughter being attacked, or ex lovers, or seriously anything. Tiger liked Blue Willow, though. She had been nice. But she was owed nothing, she understood... Ugh. Complicated.

He had been watching her. He had watched as she gathered herbs and carried them toward some destination and now watched as she howled for someone. Tucked in the brush, he waited patiently for some time, but no one came. No one sang back. She was alone, and he had an itch to scratch. He slid from his cover and approached, leaping upon a decently high, weather worn rock at the edge of the stream a dozen feet or so from her. Here he sat, his eyes settling upon her, tail curled about his paws. "Is the prey so scarce you've taken to grazing?" he asked, voice like silk.

A voice spoke, and Tiger turned, sucking in a great amount of air in the process. Whirling around, she noted a coyote... but Tiger behaved non-aggressively. All she had were plants, things of which she had never seen a coyote carry around, and she was on neutral land. She nearly missed the words that silk voice had spoken, and Tiger looked at the tawny creature, confused for a moment. 

"Huh?" Shuffling her feet, she felt the herbs at her feet and was reminded. "Oh, no, not quite. I'm a meat-eater through and through." Insert cheeky grin here. "Do you know anything about this stuff?" she pushed the herbs forward some, all non-toxic fortunately (by some miracle), some useful but most useless. It appeared none of the Plateau would come to chat... so, well, she would have to see what she could garner from the wilds. 

He knew she had not. It was more a rhetorical question than anything. He was no healer but was aware of the usefulness of some plants to mend wounds and cure illness and knew also that some wolves practiced it by 'trade'. "I see," he hummed, and she went on to open the door for him, by asking if he knew about any of it. He did not miss a beat. "That one," he said, gesturing with his paw to a small fern near the rock, "cures constipation."

While he did not answer her question about her herbs, he did answer that he knew of herbs just in that he knew one cured constipation. Tiger gestured to it with a paw, head tilted some, "D'you mind...?" she wanted to grab some for herself, but didn't want to invade his personal space. Tiger could be thoughtless but was working more on being mindful. Her tail waved in a friendly manner. That he knew anything sort of made them kindred spirits. "It's cool you know about flora. I don't know too much, if I'm honest." This plant that cured one of constipation could actually cause her to become just that and she'd be none the wiser until it was too late.

"Not at all," he invited with a sweep of his tail, as she gestured to the fern beside his rock. It was an ordinary fern and had not medicinal properties whatsoever. But she was trusting, if not entirely gullible, and she believed him without question. How delightful. "I can show you a couple others that grow near the river," he offered in his velvet voice, coupled with a small smile that painted him in a harmless, perhaps even charming light.

"Sure!" Tiger responds. He was nice enough to help her with one herb. Why not more? She took the useless weed in her mouth, believing it the cure to constipation, and left her collection a ways before the rock. The stuff bled her saliva, so she'd be sure to find it afterward.

His velvet suggestion was well-received. Dropping the weed for a moment, she says, "Wow, are you serious? Cool. So it's an eye for an eye here, there's some dead carcass down-river some, that-aways," she gestured in the direction crows currently flied. She grinned, glad to have given him something in return. Animals helping animals. Tiger would start a damn club.

She picked it up and waited for him to move. If it wasn't clear she'd follow, it became so when she propped her forelegs on the rock he stood; she'd follow in his footsteps.

She was the fish that swallowed the hook. She was eager. She even shared with him the location of a carcass down the river, which he cataloged for later reference. "Come along," he cooed as he nimbly hopped down from the rock, on the opposite side she had placed her paws on. He lead and she followed, and not far down stream he pointed to a another plant. This one had an umbrella of white flowers. "This one helps you sleep," he glanced over his shoulder, a small smile on his lips. He waited then, to see if she would collect it.

"Sleep," she hums back, nodding, and then glances to him for an instant, back to the flower, then to him again. Coyotes could be tricksters, couldn't they? "Not like, eternal sleep. AKA death," she raises her brows at him, but then laughs. No, no, foxes were the tricksters. As cunning as a fox. He'd given her no reason to be suspicious, and she'd been suffering from some agita lately anyway. A little bit of these white flowers would do just the trick, she imagined, if what he said was true. So without waiting for any real confirmation, Tiger swooped in and disroots the flowers with a grin on her face, nodding at him to continue.

"Of course not," he hums, swishing his tail a couple times to soothe her distrust, however brief it was. "This way," he said, after she gathered the water hemlock, leading her further down shore before stepping away from the stream bank a bit and into a more wooded area. It would be some time before she, or some other wolf, consumed and realized the effects of the hemlock, and so he pointed her in the direction of some poison oak. "These are good for fly bites." Whether she rolled in it or collected it, the reaction would be more immediate.

Tiger knew her mouth would be full. With the hemlock and the useless root locked between her jaws, and her collection waiting, Tiger thickly swallowed. "I should get back. But hey, thanks so much for your help..." She left the itchy stuff be, grabbed the stuff by the rock, and took an impromptu leave back to the Caldera. She'd come back here soon to see the Plateau again, maybe chance getting a bit closer... but in the meantime, it was clear they'd not help today.

He had a contingency plan if she knew what poison oak was, but she would not be collecting any more plants today. Pity. "Anytime," he smiled as she made to leave. He waved his tail and watched her go, idly wondering how long it would be before she or someone else consumed the hemlock. It was likely he would never know, but he did not need to see it for himself. He was satisfied just knowing a seed of chaos had been planted.