Otatso Wetlands to know me as hardly golden.

@Luka <3 Thanks for hanging out with me tonight :) Gonna go ahead and bend time and space with this thread cause I'm a little too tipsy to figure out where exactly it would fit in her timeline

Otatso Wetlands. She had heard of this place before, but had she traversed them until that day, whenever the hell it was. Finley was on her outriding mission again, searching for the mysterious Adair. Her discussion with Slade was still fresh in her mind. She just couldn't believe the terrible things that the dark man had said about him. He had been so kind to her... Had it really been all a farce?

While she knew now what pack the man was in, she still had no idea where to find it. She wasn't sure where to find a "bypass", but she figured here was as good a place as any to start looking. She set her nose to the damp loam, searching for a scent. Any scent at all that spoke of the recent passing of one of her species. It may not be Adair that she found, but if it was one of his pack or someone who knew of the place, then the day would be a success.

</style>

Often did Luka find himself outside of his pack's boundaries. The ebony wolf was keen on finding new medicinal plants to help further his healing studies. His whetstone was plants. Finding new treatments for everyday (external) wounds. Knowing this it was not odd for the young male to be out and about near his home land.

Keeping to himself Luka wandered along the wetland with his feminine face pointed downwards. After a few hours the inky male had manage to squander up a few chunks of moss, for clotting and protection, and some poppy seeds, a light painkiller. Digging a small howl Luka covered up his findings with dirt and fallen leaves before taking off once more.

It wasn't long until the swarthy wolf wandered across another one of his kind. Standing down wind of the wolf he caught some vital information from it's scent. Female. Stranger. This was almost enough to make Luka leave the area, but there was something about her actions that made him want to stay. With her nose pointed towards the ground she looked as though she were searching for something. For what? He didn't know, but he would soon find out. Jogging over to her position Luka stopped a few feet away from her before letting out a soft greeting bark. "I am Luka. You look lost. Can i help you?" He spoke in a warm friendly tone.

Finley heard him before she saw him. As the strange male approached, the silver mockingbird swung her head so that her soft chocolate eyes fell upon his face just as he began to speak. She listened wordlessly, her face breaking into a gratuitous smile when his kindness struck her.

"I'm kinda hoping so, actually," Fin responded with a grin, "I'm Finley. Please call me Fin, though." She bowed her head momentarily, wanting to show him a bit of respect even though they were not of the same pack. Some wolves she knew were quite particular about this, and even she found herself expectant that the same gesture would soon be returned. "Are you from or have you ever heard of a pack called Noctisardor Bypass?"

</style>

Luka listened to the female's words intently. Her soft voice warmed his ears and brought a smile to dance across his face. The hazel eyed wolf had a soft and feminine looking face, much like the inky male. She spoke with a grin on her face introducing herself as Finley, or Fin.

"It's nice to meet you Fin." Luka replied as friendly as ever. He bowed his head in respect for her, as she did for him. "I am afraid I cannot help you with that. I just arrived here a few weeks ago and i haven't had time to get acquainted with many packs outside of mine." Luka had been warned by a fellow packmate to stay away from some of the surrounding packs, he wondered if this Bypass was one of the ones Falwasi spoke about.

In spite of her desire to remain congenial to the stranger, a frown slipped across Fin's lips at his words. She knew it wasn't his fault that he didn't know of the pack she was searching for. After all, she hadn't a clue about it either. Still, she couldn't help feeling the disappointment of her hopes being let down, as slight as they had been.

"That's alright, I know it was a long shot," Fin replied after a moment, sighing and then finally allowing a true smile. She eyed him for a beat, noting the honesty in his face and true kindness in his eyes. "So, moving on..." she said after another second or two, "What brings you out here?"

</style>

When Luka saw the female frown. He felt disappointed in himself. His knowledge of the sounding packs was weak and there was nothing he could do to help the chocolate eyed wolf. One day of he found out more about the bypass he would relay the information onto her. For now, the young wolf could not help her.

Fin questioned why the inky wolf was wandering out in the wetlands. "I was searching for medicinal plants to further my studies." The ebony male replied with a smile despite disappointing the stranger earlier. "Why ar you searching for the bypass?" Luka inquired nonchalantly.

Fin was intrigued by the stranger's mention of medicinal plants, being a budding healer herself. Likely her superiors were still not completely approving of her desire to become a healer--after all, she had completely drugged her alpha and sent her into a high stupor across their homeland, which probably was a little bit... frowned upon... But she was new to this. She knew how to heal herself of the aches and pains that had come with being a reckless, chaotic, and never satisfied wolf. But to pass her ways of healing onto others? Still a bit of a crapshoot there.

But still, she was eager to learn, especially since they had moved to a new territory without their healer. "Oh, a friend of mine lives there and I wanted to visit him, but he never actually told me where to find it," she said swiftly, wanting to push past it since the point was moot anyway, "Do you want any help finding some herbs and junk? I'm a bit of a... doctor in training myself. I'd love to share some factoids if you want." She gave him a grin.

</style>

The feminine male wondered if he had ever met this friend Fin was looking for. Most likely not due to the fact he had met very few wolves in his time of being with the Creek. Most of his time was spend furthering his trade skills.

Luka had not met another healer besides his mother. The inky wolf smiled as the female mentioned that she was attempting to become a healer also. His idea of a good time included finding herbs. "That would be awesome actually. I'm not a professional but I think we can help each other." Luka replied enthusiastically. "I have a stash of moss and poppy seeds not far from here. Shall we walk and talk?" The inky wolf suggested.

Fin was eager to accept the man's offer. "Certainly!" she responded, picking up her paws to step lightly to the man's side. Willow had opened her eyes a while ago to all of the things she was not aware of in her healer training. Physical ailments she was good with, but illnesses and disease? Well, anyone who was afflicted with those under Fin's care might as well be kissing their lives good bye.

"I'm actually really only good with broken bones and cuts and stuff like that," she admitted as they walked, "I'd love to hear about the things you've worked with." She cast her gaze upon him, curiosity evident in the smooth chocolate of her eyes.

</style>.

Luka had really only worked with small injuries, cuts and minor pains. He had observed his mother, multiple times, helping with birth. It was a complicated matter but Luka felt that he could go into it with confidence. As long as the birth went well he would have no issues doing simple tasks. If things went south he would have little knowledge on what to do.

"I have worked with simple cuts and burns. Nothing too serious. I also observed my mother as she helped with a few females give birth over my younger years." Luka offered. He was curious on how to deal with a broken limb. The inky wolf had never ran into that issue before. "You said you have worked with broken bones? What did you do to help the wolf along with that?" Luka inquired softy as the two wolves trotted side by side.

Fin listened eagerly as they walked. Ever since moving to the Caldera, she had taken up the role of healer since Blue Willow had chosen not to join them in their new adventure. Unfortunately for the Caldera, this meant that Fin was really their only option as she was the only one with any experience with that sort of thing. Her knowledge was definitely lacking in places, but she at least was aware of her shortcomings (quite the feat for the self-centered, often delusional female) and thus knew where she needed to work.

Her ears shifted upon her head as he asked about her own skills. For a moment, she mused over whether or not to admit that the wolf she treated broken bones for was herself, but in the end decided she could easily just gloss over that fact. "It's really not too hard," she replied, "You really just need to make sure to wrap it tightly so that it can heal properly, and that you can do with leaves or seaweed. Seaweed definitely works best as it's a lot tougher than landborn plants." She paused for a moment before adding, "Setting the bone is definitely the worst part. I screamed like a bitch when... my patient screamed like a bitch at me when I did it for her." Nice save.

Luka was shocked that he never thought of using seaweed before. His face must have shown it. He was dumbfounded that seaweed had always been passed by when he thought of pants that could aid in the healing process. "Seaweed. That's brilliant. Why didn't i think of that before?"

The inky male was now curious on why the female had spoke of her screaming like a bitch when her patient was treated. "Is the healing process hurtful for the healer and patient?" Luka inquired not understanding that she was the one who had the broken bone at one point. The ebony wolf was now thinking of never healing a broken bone if it meant injury to himself.

Fin smiled at his words, feeling rather proud of herself that she had known that at all. She hadn't spent too much time near the sea, but had run into wolves who had. Many of her knowledge of healing, she had gleaned from other travellers or from healers at the packs she'd stayed with recently during her wandering. That was before coming to the Teekon Wilds to stay, though, at a time that seemed like a million years away from then.

"Erm..." Fin replied, faltering at his next question, "Sometimes it is. Empathy, you know... Sympathy pains." She grinned meekly, still unwilling to admit that she was the clumsy fool who'd once lunged at a goat, missed, and gone tumbling down the face of a mountain.

The ebony wolf smirked at Fin's reply. Empathy was a great trait to have, especially as a healer. If Luka did know of the whole truth about how the female treated her broken leg the swarthy wolf would laugh. It was a brave thing to do to treat yourself, especially with a wound so severe as a broken bone. The she wolf was strong even at her weakest points.

"The leaves of the witch hazel help with burns. If you take a rock and then crush the leaves the pulp can be applied to burns. My mother treated a young pup who had gotten too close to a forest fire with it." Luka added his tiny piece of healing information into the conversation.

Fin gave an involuntary shudder as he spoke of a pup who'd been burned. There was very little the Blackthorn was afraid of (besides commitment), but fire was definitely one of those things. She'd never experienced it first hand, but had heard many terrible stories about its devastation and destruction. She'd heard of avalanches and even of tornadoes, but both had struck her as things that would be exhilarating to run from. Fire though... Fire was chaotic and unpredictable, and that frightened her deeply.

Fortunately, she was not going to have to comment on that as suddenly they came upon a thicket of tall, leafy stalks. The leaves were only slightly withered, which actually was rather good considering the time of year. Fin pranced over to them, calling out to Luka to follow. "Here we go!" she chirped brightly, slowing to a stop and ducking her nose to run up and down the stems. "Wild mint! Good for nausea and reducing fevers." She glanced back at Luka with a smile, "We can collect some to take back to our packs. What do you think?" It seemed she had completely forgotten that she was actually searching for Noctisardor Bypass, but since she wasn't likely to find it anyway, it mattered little.

Learning was something that the ebony wolf had always found it externalizing. He rarely came across another wolf who enjoyed the art of healing as much as he did. Finley could provide so much information to the young wolf to propel his healing trade. The male's voice was filled with excitement and interest.

"Ah mint, interesting. Yes lets pick some." Luka spoke as he caugh up to the female and bent down to carefully pick up the wild herbs. Placing them on the ground after tugging them from the ground the inky wolf turned to the female. "i use moss a lot to cover wounds. It soaks up blood and protects an open wound. It's also good for carrying water for those who can't get up and get it by themselves." The ebony wolf shared his little piece of knowledge.

I'm gonna go ahead and fade this if that's cool with you? :)

Fin set herself to picking mint, enjoying the company of the Creek wolf. Her ears perked as he shared the bit about moss, and she canted her head. "Never considered that one..." she admitted, "But yeah, I suppose if you clean most of the dirt from the roots that would work pretty well. I'll bet there's plenty of moss around here too..."

By the end of the day, though, both wolves had mouths far too stuffed with mint to be bothered with searching for any moss to take home to their packs. With herbs in her teeth, Fin finally poked a friendly muzzle against Luka's and took her leave, making the long trek back to the Caldera.