Blackfeather Woods new life sprouts

While digging up one of his caches with dried herbs, Cicero was pleased to find that some of them carried seeds. He himself had never kept gardens of any sorts, but he knew that Kendra had been busy before the locusts had come; perhaps now these seeds could be of use to her. Cicero carefully took the dried herbs between his teeth and started through Blackfeather Woods' territory, hoping to find @Kendra nearby.

The locusts had taken much and Cicero's bones were showing even more visibly than usually. He felt weak, but he would not let his hunger turn him into a beast. He would stay strong, and he knew he would need be strong for another while to go; Malice would soon need nourishment and it meant more hunger for him.

if you have time for a herb-y thread! :3

Always!

Kendra had been in fact very close by. She had just returned from her little trip when she met the black female. It had been really interesting to her, which had also sparked her thirst for knowledge. When she came across Cicero's trail the girl changed her path and followed it until she saw her older brother.

She trotted to catch up with him and greeted him with a bark, the most cheerful she had been in days. She had been rather quiet and mournful. Maybe even quite depressed. The girl wagged her tail in greeting and then gave a nod too. The dark female looked at what he was carrying, giving him a curious look.

It was good to see Kendra's tail wagging again for a change. Cicero offered a meek smile through the herbs that he carried in his mouth as he looked at her. They had all grown thinner — Cicero himself looked like a walking skeleton, for he had always been very thin and the lack of food did him no good — but that was not all that was wrong with Kendra. Yet Cicero was not sure that there was anything he could do to fix what she had lost, to fix what was broken. If it were Damien that had died, he was not so sure there was anything anyone else could do for him. Loss was a part of life, yet sometimes you lost pieces that would change you as a person entirely.

Cicero placed the dried herbs in front of Kendra and said, "These are seeds for poison ivy, and some others Cicero is not sure which any more. Maybe Kendra can grow back some plants with them." Cicero had never been interested in gardening, but he knew Kendra would know what to do with these. There was a mixture of other seeds in there too, but the plants were too far gone for Cicero to know or remember which ones they were. Perhaps Kendra knew.

Okay, the plant she finds in her thread with Damien will be from Cicero's seeds! ^^

The girl eyed at the seeds with wonder. She hoped these seeds would come to live as she had done before. Maybe she had to ask her sister if she wanted to bless her plants. That might be a good idea!! The girl shot her brother a quick smile and then nodded. "That is nicely offered. Shall we plant them together?," she asked him.

Kendra was a bit worried about the pressure coming from it. What if she couldn't make the plants grow again? What if she lost her talent? She felt kind of lost with her other half gone. The girl rather liked to plant the seeds together with Cicero because that would mean she would not be responsible for the seeds alone, at least not planting them too deep.

yay :D

It was nice to see that Kendra was positive towards the seeds he offered, and Cicero nodded in silent acceptance when she asked if he would help her plant them. It was good to see that Kendra would take up a new task, as tasks were important steps towards the healing process. Even if she would always be broken in ways, a part of her missing through the loss of her brother, it was good to get back into a rhythm, a cycle; to do something, anything.

"It is good that Kendra knows about planting seeds," said Cicero. She would be an essential step towards their future by contributing those skills.

Kendra nodded in reply to Cicero. To then grab her stick again and started to put pressure on it so it would make a small gutter into the soil. She drew a 'line' which was not straight at all. Not that the female cared. The young girl let go of the stick and then looked at her brother. "You can place them in the gutter. make sure they are spread out so not too close together!! ". The girl was quite a perfectionist. She hoped these seeds would do well, it might attract the prey they badly needed.

Cicero sat down and watched his sister as she drew a gutter in the sand and instructed him. He nodded to show that he had heard her instructions, and then got to his feet. He placed some of the dried plants down and kept a few others. Cicero moved towards the gutter that Kendra had made and started to spread out the seeds, shaking them out of the dried plants he had brought while trying to spread them out as evenly as possible.

Kendra watched as Cicero placed the seeds into the gutter. She nodded with approval because she could respect the care he put in his work. Kendra moved after him by covering those seeds with the soil. She used her nose for it and then pressed it gently with her paw.

Soon the earth was covered again. She looked at Cicero and then back at the ground. "Please Mistress Mephala," she spoke, closing her eyes so tightly, like that would make her prayer be more meaningful.

After the seeds were placed in the gutter, Kendra covered them with more earth and Cicero smiled as he watched her work so diligently. He enjoyed Kendra's presence, for she worked hard and she might be able to bring him more of the poisons he needed in due time.

As Kendra closed her eyes for prayer, Cicero settled himself on the ground and closed his eyes, lowering his nose respectfully towards the ground. He did not speak, praying in silence for the seeds to grow tall, for he doubted that if any gods were out there, they would be physically listening to his words, anyway.

These two are so cute!

Kendra opened her eyes and perked up her ears. She was not sure if her prayer worked. But maybe the night mother had heard her thoughts. It was scary to think that she could hear their thoughts. Her tail wagged gently. "Now we need to wait," she spoke softly. They gave the seeds to the ground, now the ground had to help them.

"A rain would be nice," she admitted, she noticed that after rain more plants appeared. You could see it in the forest too. There were more baby plants around rivers and such, at least that had been her observation up till now.

yes! i love kendra and cicero <3 though i'll miss our cicero/burke threads, too, at least we still got these :)

Cicero nodded as Kendra finished her prayer and he followed her gaze up to the little garden they had created. Rain would indeed help their cause, and hopefully it would come soon; the drought did not make their current state any more comfortable. He nodded again in response to her request for rain, for not many more words were needed there.

"Hopefully the plants will return soon," Cicero shared, a sentiment he knew everyone shared. "Not just for the wolves, but also for the other animals." The animals they ate, which ate the grass. He wondered how many wolves stopped to consider that the reason they were all going hungry was because their food had no food.

Agreed <3 Maybe in a few months Cicero can explore the hinterlands and run into Burke outside his territory!

Kendra nodded in agreement with Cicero, she knew very well that the plants were linked to the animals they ate. She didn't need a lesson for that. The girl sat down next to the planted seeds. "I hope so too brother," she spoke as she looked at the soil.

"Is Cicero going okay?," she asked curiously. He looked a bit sunken in. Kendra never ate much before, and with Xan often bringing her things in return for a smile she was not that underfed as he was. The girl had not even tried hunting for herself. In that aspect she was a bit of a princess.

He nodded thoughtfully while he looked towards the plants. Kendra was a bright child; it was nice to have her around. Despite the adversities that she had faced, she was a relatively cheerful child.

Her question came as a bit of a surprise to Cicero. The famine had hit everyone. Cicero had always looked thinner than most, in part because of his thin fur, and in part because that was just what he looked like. His bones were more present now than ever before, and his fur did little to mask it.

Somehow though, Cicero had not thought about it in this way, had not really considered whether he was — and would be — okay. The priority lay in feeding Malice, for she needed to birth children. "Probably," said Cicero after a thoughtful silence. "These times are hard on all." Whether they were harder on him than others, he left in the middle — mostly because he simply did not know the answer.

She won't be cheery for long >D

Kendra nodded slowly, wanting the other to know that she was listening. "I guess so," she admitted and then smiled at Cicero. They had each others back. Her father would make sure that the pack would thrive. She was certain of it. Soon they would be able to hunt again.

The young female nudged her brother. "Let me walk you to your den. I shall let you know if the seeds are growing," she promised him. That sounded like a very good deal to end their meeting with.

Cicero nodded in grateful acceptance to Kendra's offer. He fell in step with her, allowing a subtle silence to fall between them. It was not one that was uncomfortable or hard to him; he enjoyed silences like these, simply being with family, while things were not so complicated. He cherished these moments a lot. Cicero had no idea that he did good to cherish them, for they would not last forever.