Sun Mote Copse Miss Smilla Feeling for Snow

When all the routine duties of the early morning such as brief patrol along the borders, meeting and making sure that the other pack members were well-off and hunting in the nearby bog, had been finished, Wraen returned to her hollow, dug herself a comfy nest under the leaves and fell asleep.

Her dreams as of late were jumbled up reflections of, what had happened during the day. Sometimes the events lined up so that they almost made a coherent story, but mostly the storylines alternated in very quick succession, until her mind stopped trying to make any sense with it, leaned back and watched the show.

When she awoke, it was late afternoon. The sun was hidden by a thick blanket of gray clouds and wet, heavy snowflakes alternated with steady and continuous rain-fall. She emerged from her warm bed, stretched and yawned, blinked drowsily and realized that during her sleep, the landscape had changed.

It was no longer dark and gloomy, the whiteness of snow had softened the harsh and cruel colours of autumn, giving the area almost dream-scape qualities. Not yet quite woken up, Wraen lied down again and in quiet solitude watched the snowflakes fall.

Tags are for reference; I hope no one minds! :)

Tending to Towhee—particularly the infected gash on her thigh—had become a routine over the past several days, one which Sugar took quite seriously. With some guidance from @Eljay, the medic apprentice had learned how to field dress the wound with herbs, the greens crushed and mixed with melted snow to create a sort of paste they packed into the lesion. Sugar had also learned quite a lot about fevers and infections because of her sister's plight.

As of yesterday, Eljay had instructed Sugar to cease the dressings and simply keep the area clean to finish the healing process. She could see that the skin had begun to knit together again, weeping only clear pus on occasion; these were certainly good signs. And with the infection finally beat, her patient was much more lucid as well, though still quite weak. Towhee still needed Sugar's help, which she was more than happy to give, knowing she'd found her calling.

Currently, Towhee slept following a sparse meal of rabbit tenderloin. Sugar kept watch over her, at least until @Elwood dropped by and coaxed her to take a break if she needed one. She very nearly declined, then thought better of it and went striding through the copse, marveling at the cold white powder blanketing everything. She had been so focused on caring for Towhee, Sugar had scarcely stopped to notice her first snow.

Since I upcycled this post, I'll have her notice Wraen in the next post, if Wraen doesn't notice her first!

Towhee was in capable paws and Wraen did not much interfere in the doings of the two healers. At least once a day she dropped by to see, how her cousin was doing and, if there was food to share, she left some for them to put to good use. The Sovereign did not tell anyone this yet, but she had made a wager with herself on, how long would it take the leader of Asterism Grove pull her stuff together this time and be gone without a warning. Last time it had been 24 hours, now - surprisingly - Towhee had become a very obedient patient. No tricks this time.

She spotted Sugar Glider coming in her direction and got to her feet to meet her half-way. "Hey, Sugar Glider," she greeted the girl. "How is your patient doing?"

The Sovereign's sudden appearance made Sugar start, though a smile quickly stole over her face as she padded closer to Wraen. She dipped her head politely, tail fanning slowly to and fro. It would be impossible for her colorless eyes to brighten, per se, but there was a shine to those black depths at the leader's question.

"Her fever's gone," Sugar reported, "and so's the infection. Eljay told me I don't need to put herbs on her wound anymore and, anyway, it looks a lot better. There was a big scab, now it's more or less skin." She paused, wondering if that was too much information or, at the least, too much detail. Wraen probably didn't want to know all about the nitty gritty.

Although making conversation was the polite thing to do, it was genuine curiosity that made Sugar say next, "All the color's gone," as she recollected their long day spent together among the splendors of autumn, "except the green. They stayed, just like you said." And her eyes roved to the nearest evergreen, which happened to be a cedar, before she directed a sort of conspiratorial smile at Wraen.

"I am glad to hear that," Wraen smiled at the little healer and wished that Firebirds had more man-power here to deter Towhee from another selfless, but absolutely reckless and life-threatening venture to save Asterism Grove from their sad fate. She sympathized with the injured leader, knew that she would feel angry and sad about the helplessness of the whole situation. But a gravely sick, even worse - dead leader, was of far less use than a somewhat patched up one and functioning. They would find a solution or - and when thinking about this, she had a glint of hope - the solution would find them. 

"I would have felt surprised, if it had not," she replied and then, drawn by the strong scent of cedar wood, she approached the tree and scanned the bark. There on one side the bark was injured either by a sharp shard of rock from the recent rock-slide or a deer that had sharpened it's antlers against the tree during the rut season. There a thick, yellowish sap had accumulated and the smell was so pungent that it blinded her olfactory centre the same way bright light dazzles one's eyes. "I have sometimes wondered," she turned to Sugar Glider. "If this sticky stuff that's so difficult to get out of fur, once there, could seal the wounds just as well," she mused. "Have you ever tried?"

Wraen spotted the tree too, striding in its direction. Sugar followed suit, experiencing the same olfactory overload as the Sovereign. It almost made her nostrils burn. She wriggled her tiny pink nose, though her face stilled at the leader's sage words.

"No," she admitted, "but that..." A note of wonder was evident in her tone as she turned the idea over and over in her mind. "That's kind of brilliant." Her eyes lifted to Wraen's face, catching her eye for a split second before her gaze dropped out of instinctive deference. "We should definitely try it sometime."

Naturally, she thought about applying it to Towhee's wound, yet Eljay had made it very clear that all it needed now was to breathe. And Sugar couldn't imagine Towhee letting Sugar near her with a glob of sticky sap. The thought made her wrinkle her nose all over again, grinning. No, the visiting leader wouldn't have liked that much at all.

That train of thought split and led her down a slightly different track. "I was wondering something." Sugar paused, trying to frame her thought. "Do wolves like Tow and Fen—wolves who're missing a sense—does that make the other ones stronger?" If the smell of the sap was almost too much for her and Wraen, would it have been unbearable to Towhee, for instance?

"I have not thought about it much," Wraen shrugged after a moment of thought and then fell silent, seeing both Fennec and Towhee before her and how each had adjusted to their disability rather well. In fact, they were a living proof that it was possible to survive, though if asked to bid, she would put her money on Towhee. The sense of smell was canine's most sensitive instrument, but eyesight was just as important. She doubted that Phox's daughter could ever survive without relying on help from others. Even if she ever claimed otherwise.

"I think... that it is different for every person. Your best chance of finding out would be asking someone, who has had the sense in the beginning and lost it afterwards," she proposed an explanation. "It is hard for me to imagine, what it feels like, because I cannot turn my hearing off, I cannot stop feeling the world around me, I cannot stop my nose from smelling," she said. "I tried once to walk with my eyes closed, but I felt disoriented, weak and vulnerable. Definitely not stronger."

Then an idea came to her: "You can try to walk with your eyes closed now. I can guide you so that you do not hit a tree or fall in a pit somewhere. See for yourself." She chuckled at the play of words.

Wraen didn't know, though following her confession came a bout of musing to which Sugar paid rapt attention. It concluded with the Sovereign suggesting she close her eyes and attempt to navigate the world, with Wraen's help. Although the leader laughed over the wordplay, Sugar felt a strange sort of alarm at the mere idea of trying. Already, this was a good exercise in empathy.

She thought of Fen and wanted to better understand her plight, so Sugar nodded and then slammed her eyes shut. The instinct to stay still, stay safe, was almost overpowering. But she took a few tentative steps, her pulse fluttering nervously. This was no life or death matter, yet she could feel her fight or flight instincts kicking into gear. And the urge to open her eyes was nearly irresistible, though she persisted.

"Say something," she asked after a beat, remembering the way Fen oriented herself by vocal cues and craving the safety of knowing Wraen's location.

Sugar Glider was quick to test Wraen's theory in practice and the Sovereign appreciated this eagerness of the girl to learn to understand the world, using all means possible. She stayed silent, while the girl stood with her eyes closed, taking in the world around her and struggling not to return from the darkness right away. The need to see again had to be over-powering, Wraen knew this from experience. 

Then the girl asked to speak to her and Wraen obliged. "I think that you should lower your head and feel your surroundings with your muzzle," she instructed the girl, doing the same thing and began to smile, when the grass and ground tickled her muzzle and a second later her whiskers conveyed the information of the space around her. Funny, how you do not notice the most basic senses, unless you focus on them had. 

"Where do you want to go now?" she asked, moving over to stand next to the girl and bumping her nose against the aspiring healer's shoulder.

The Sovereign's suggestion gave her pause. Slowly, Sugar lowered her head closer to the ground, allowing her whiskers to make contact with its surface. Tentatively, she stepped forward, using the tip of her pink nose to feel out her path, as well as smell what lay ahead. The bristles on her jowls helped her navigate even more readily than she'd anticipated; it was almost like having an extra set of toes sprouting from her face, with which she could feel out the world.

"Cool," she muttered under her breath, before remembering Wraen had said something else. Sugar tried to mentally backtrack, only to come up blank. Her focus had narrowed down to the tip of her snout and she realized, with a tiny puff of breath, that she hadn't really heard Wraen at all.

"Sorry, what?" she asked, turning blindly toward the point of pressure as Wraen touched her shoulder. "I was too busy concentrating, I missed what you said."

"Never mind," Wraen shook her head, when she saw that her inquiry had interrupted Sugar Glider's investigation. "When you are ready to attempt to go somewhere particular, give a shout," she told the girl and then walked a little distance away to give the aspiring healer the privilege of solitude. The Sovereign was not too keen to find out, what it felt like to be blind. She was all too aware that if and when it would happen, not only her leading days would be over, but her life-span would shorten drastically. Even if she learned to cope, fate in the wilds was merciless. It would not spare her.

This did not deter her, however, from watching the girl work her way through to the experience of losing an important sense. It was endearing and amusing, and gave her inspiration to seek out more things to teach the young Blackthorn girl.

Although Sugar couldn't see Wraen, she pictured the Sovereign waving her off and smiled to herself. "Okay," she answered, "I will." She swore she felt the air shift as the Sovereign presumably strode some distance away. It was so tempting to crack open an eye to verify, though she just shut them all the tighter, truly leaning into this challenge.

For several more minutes, Sugar Glider felt out the world without what she would consider her primary (or maybe secondary, after smell) sense. A single footstep felt so treacherous at first, the urge to open her eyes sometimes almost overwhelming. But after a while of tentatively toeing around, Sugar's confidence had grown a little, as had her respect for Fennec's situation.

"Okay," she declared, echoing herself from a few minutes ago, "I'm ready for you to lead me. Let's go..." Sugar trailed off, turning her head as if scanning the copse, though of course the only picture she consulted was the one in her mind. "Take me back to Towhee," she decided after a moment's consideration.

Sugar Glider was amazingly patient - Wraen would have stolen a peek at the surroundings much earlier. Probably a force of habit to be always aware of, what was going on, and reliance on all her senses to draw a map of the world. Eyesight for her was just as important as the images of smell, sound and touch. They completed the image, they gave it colours, they gave it life. 

"Alright," she agreed, got to her feet, touched the aspiring healer's shoulder gently to let her know she was near and then began to pad ahead of her, frequently looking over her shoulder to see, if she should adjust her pace so that the girl could keep up with her, and then just as diligently checking the path ahead of her to see, if there were no pits, for example, that Sugar glider could fall into.

Figured we could wrap here? :)

Something cool brushed against her shoulder and Sugar turned her face toward it. Her nose, she surmised, smiling to herself. Her ears cupped toward the sound of retreating footsteps just ahead of her. Heart thumping a little anxiously in her chest, she took her own tentative step, then another and another...

Soon, the Sovereign was leading her through the copse as if by an invisible tether. Every time she spoke to keep Sugar on course, it made the youth think of when she'd guided Fen. Her lips twitched and she snorted lightly to herself when she remembered how Fen had reacted to the tug on her tail: "That's not really a brake." It really was better if Wraen didn't make too much physical contact, instead leading Sugar with the sounds of her voice and movements.

When they inevitably neared Towhee's spot and Sugar opened her eyes for the first time in what felt like hours, she immediately shut them again. "Too bright," she quipped, unscrewing one eye to seek out Wraen. "That was very educational. Thank you."

Being a seeing eye buddy for her voluntary-blind companion was surprisingly easy. Sugar Glider was wary in the beginning, but her confidence grew with every step and soon she had comfortably fallen in pace with Wraen. Now and then the guide looked over her shoulder to see, how the girl was doing, but she never seemed to need any help. 

They arrived to the den, where Towhee was healing, and the aspiring healer was done with the training for the day. "Keep it easy," Wraen told her. "Let's see, how your patient is doing?" she suggested and they did.