Sleepy Fox Hollow hang around

looking for widow, but all welcome!

Fiona checked on the pool of water near the stream daily, ensuring that the color slowly changed. It was a gradual, subtle process, but she could see it working. Whatever made up the stalks was beginning to seep into the water. Only a day or two more, and it would be ready for her. She returned today to the place where she had found the first batch of the plant she harvested, checking to see how it fared. Fiona knew it would not sprout this deep in winter, but it did at least look undisturbed by others.

There were other scents on the wind in her relatively new home. A woman. A woman who may not wish to be going through what she currently was, especially with two young, unstable men on the loose. Fiona put her nose to the ground and began tracking the @Widow's scent, although she did not know her by that name.

she stood on the падина facing the valley.

wind whipped her braids.

she stilled her heartbeat.

medalina lifted her chin, and let loose a call.

bark blending into jagged howl.

sign she meant good.

if this don't work for ya, shoot me a PM and i'll edit <33

they settled and an uneasy peace followed. heda's body hovered on the edge of natural pull, too starved to do more than simmer. it kept the widow angsty; her hackles were often frayed. 
heda was never far from her girls.
hunger for a cache bid her a bit further today. she would go out and hunt soon, soon, she told herself; but;
the approach of the woman stiffened her spine. the eldritch cry from beyond caused heda to jump. 
silence followed.

Another caller on the border interrupted before Fiona could get a word in edgewise to the bedraggled wolf mother. The witch hid her annoyance at the faraway caller, instead focusing her attention on the woman at hand.

I can, if you wish, prevent your body from harboring children until you are ready. Fiona was assuming much here, but there was little time. The season of such things would quickly come upon all of them, and the medicine would take some time to work.

The caller would have to wait until she sorted this.

the other woman was beautiful as moonshadows often were, face lit by the warm and seeking light of candle-flame eyes. beside her, heda was ragged and haggard, even as her fur began to smooth into something less coarse now that rest was available and her food had become better.
the call chilled heda, who crossed instinctively toward the other wolf, wanting to be near someone who also carried the pack-smell of etienne and his cruel companion.
opposites, those two.
what was offered caused her nostrils to pinch, her mouth to thin; heda looked away in shame that a desperate relief had blossomed inside her.
"it is a call from god," a god upon which she still fell back in the hardest moments, and the past months had been one harsh day after another. "if he sees fit to — call me — then i will not ignore it."

Fiona did not understand what the woman meant of god. The witch herself believed in no such thing, though she had met others who did. It reminded her too of a tale she had once heard.

God has offered you a way to prevent it, she said, giving the woman one more chance to take her up on the offer before she would answer the call. The woman was barely skin and bones. Pregnancy would no doubt ruin her chance of surviving another year.

"then he should show me himself," heda said, more harshly than she had meant; she wanted to apologize for herself but the season's gnawing set her teeth on edge.
sharply she turned away in a flare of regret. "can you tell me where i can find decent fish?" she asked, stopping to face out unseeing across the hollow.

The witch did not think her logic was sound, but she did not press further. If this woman wished to destroy her body, and perhaps the bodies of any children she might carry going forward, it was not Fiona's duty to stop it. She could offer help, but she could not force it upon anyone. This was one of the core principles of her teachings in Greenroot, and she knew she must abide by those guidelines. To ignore them was to sully the name of her people, and she did not wish to do that.

Still, watching others make mistakes was not Fiona's favorite part of her trade, especially when she knew easy ways to prevent them. She certainly had no plans to bear children unless the tincture she brewed did not work for some reason. Fiona could only hope that it was strong enough to keep her own fever at bay.

There are many creeks and streams that pool in the hollow, she replied, an absence of judgement in her voice. I must see to that call and pray that it is not a god who greets me. Fiona turned to leave, but paused and looked back to add one more thing before she left the woman to her fishing... or to follow her, if she wished. My name is Fiona.

. . .

The strangest creature—though not a god as far as Fiona could tell—stood at the edge of their claim. It was gangly and hairy in ways Fiona had never seen. It set her on edge. She was not kind with her approach, baring her teeth, and raising her hackles at the otherwordly thing.

@Medalina tagging you back in, if you want! sorry it got a bit side-tracked.