Blackfeather Woods ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

For the quest "Where Life Grows." Backdated three days.

Her old caches. She assumed that others interested in plants here had made their own, for hers were largely untouched, the herbs and plants there slightly wilted with time and lack of proper upkeep. She stood by one of them now, poking her nose around, taking in the familiar smells.

If she inhaled deep enough, could she scent Cicero? Potema?

She ought to start a garden. She felt a sudden pang as she remembered the one started for her at Undersea--what a waste! Maegi was overwhelmed by guilt, knowing that they had gone to all that trouble for her, only for her to depart for good. She would have to repay them with a visit. Not in the near future. . .but someday. It wouldn't be fair, otherwise.

How would one go about starting a garden? She had some knowledge of plants, how they were grown--but she didn't know whether or not she would be any good at growing them herself or not. Where even to start? Who could she ask to help her? Maybe Relmyna had some knowledge, but even then. . . It was times like these where she almost wished her mother was here. Not that she'd help her--but damn, the woman had known her plants.

The girl lifted her head and looked at blue, preening idly in the branches above. He had made fast friends with some of the ravens here, casual enemies with others, and was more content in the forest than he had been out in the open. That was good, at least.

"What should I do?" Maegi asked, tilting her head.

Blue gave her a squawk, clearly indifferent, and went back to cleaning his feathers.

astara took examining everything in her home seriously, and that included the blackfeather wood's newest recruit. the nightcub couldn't possibly have known maegi's existence here preceded her own; the melonii had left when astara was but a nursling whelp, and all memory of the girl (soon woman) had fled from astara's mind.

the memory of her mother's fondness towards maegi had not been forgotten, and astara vehemently set up vigils in which she stalked the doings of the melonii girl. whether or not she was detected mattered little -- and if and when she was, she would often flitter away with an odd giggle, only to return a few hours later.

today maegi was somewhere astara hadn't seen her before, and the night-cub had noticed a raven had taken unusual fondness towards the limping she-wolf. deciding then she would catch or eat that bird to show her, astara hunkered down into a frond of ferns and, while the the bird was preening itself, threw herself with absurd hopelessness up the coarse bark of the tree, only getting about five feet of traction before gravity forced her downwards.

Her ear turned as movement in the brush signaled a new arrival, but she barely had time to process the sound before all hell broke loose. Blue let out an alarm cry as the black blur sailed toward him, and flew higher up into the tree; a few ravens crowded around him, cawing indignantly down. The would-be assailant fell to the ground, and Maegi rounded on it, snarling, only to realize it was one of Relmyna's children--the black-furred girl.

"What are you doing?!" she asked incredulously, the fur along her spine bristling. She looked up at Blue, surrounded by allies, then back down at the child, eyes narrowed. "Were you trying to catch Blue? He's my friend--he's off-limits." She punctuated this sentiment with a snap of her teeth, gaze sending daggers at the spiderling.

feel free to use PP!

no sooner had astara fell to the ground with empty jaws, maegi was upon her; in truth, the she-wolf was a whirling ghost of snarling spittle, and astara, losing her footing, fell to the ground with a surprised yelp. she wasn't resilient, or trained enough to be prepared for maegi's protectiveness of the bird, and her own inexperience made her vulnerable as she roiled on the ground, defensive as a spitting cat against her unknown older sister.

she scrambled around enough to get her footing, her muzzle crinkling in a silent snarl with her tongue poking between her teeth. she didn't like how she was being talked to (even if she deserved it) and a defensive spike of hackles rose along her back as she guiltily eyed the raven perched on the tree limb above. he was now well out of her reach, but he was not at all well out of her mind; for now she would do as she was told... but she wouldn't always.

sulkily, the girl's lips drew to a close and she looked at the ground between her paws. she didn't have a verbal answer for her sister, and instead placed her muzzle on her paws with a frustrated and exaggerated teenaged sigh.

Much to her delight, the girl folded with little trouble, though the insolent look upon her face was not at all ideal. Maegi continued to glare, shooting concerned looks at Blue every so often. The grackle seemed to intuit the danger, staying close to his raven friends. She turned to her cache again, rifling through it. Picking out the dead things, tossing them aside.

"What's your problem?" she asked the girl, who hadn't yet said a word. Maybe she was speechless like her mother. Was it some sort of defect that ran in the family? She knew her twisted foot was because of Cicero's and Potema's sins. Maegi looked over at her, scowling. "Are you just gonna sit there and pout? You should, at least, apologize to me for trying to hurt my friend."

astara half-expected a strike, but none came; maegi had glanced at the bird she protected, and then turned her back to the night-cub. with a churlish interest astara watched her silently, gauging from the manner in which maegi rifled through the cache-stockpile that she was looking for something.

maegi's hot inquiry was left unanswered; whether it was out of indolence, indifference, or lack of understanding was not clear. astara had never spoken in her life -- while she possessed a tongue, she did not possess the means to command it. relmyna had been silent in the girl's nascent stage of learning, and all astara had developed was a keen understanding of body language.

she did not miss the scowl maegi gave when she glanced over her shoulder: it was returned with an ugly grimace, the way a child might face-mock its mother by disfiguring their face. yet she could not stifle the curiosity she had for what maegi was looking for, and at length forgot all about the bird in favor of nosing the cache alongside the pale girl.

No response, again. Maegi concluded that she probably was, in fact, mute. She was beginning to lose herself in work when a shadow emerging next to her brought her back to reality; she shot an exasperated look over at the girl, eyebrows raised.

"Seriously? I'm trying to clean this out," she sighed, feeling more prickly than usual. She jerked her chin down at the pile of discarded leaves, looking back at the spiderling. "If you want to look around, you have to help. Take out all the dead stuff from the hollow while I search for fresh herbs."

Hoping--but not at all confident--that the girl would follow her orders, Maegi began searching through the brush, looking for diamonds in the rough. Lots of moss, of course, and dandelion. Same old, same old. It was a small bush in a rare patch of sunlight that caught her eye, and she wandered over to it, peering at the pink, red-edged flowers with curiosity lighting her eyes.

"Hello, there," she murmured, mouth quirking. "What's this?"

astara was nose deep in leaf litter when Maegi shared her disapproval. All that remained visible of the night-cub’s head were the tips of her ears, which twitched with a near indolent aspect before she slowly pulled her muzzle from the wreckage discarded by the elder Melonii. 

She glanced at the girl, then back to the trove of rotted leaves and loam — unaware Maegi had found her own treasure, Astara pulled forth from the detritus a decaying stock, and swung it towards her sister’s head with a pounce and a wild giggle. 

So engrossed she was in the plant that she didn't even notice the assault from behind. The dead plant thwacked against the back of her head, and she spun with a snarl, bicolored eyes flashing. "Knock it off," she growled at the girl, bristling. "Can't you see I'm trying to do something?"

Wasn't she like six months old by now? Maegi had been far more mature at that age--not to mention verbal.

Maegi turned back to the plant, an almost apologetic look on her face. She gently prodded the flowers, the leaves. "Pretty," she murmured, smiling. "But what do you do?" Gingerly, she leaned forward and tore off a tiny tip of one leaf with her teeth, holding it on her tongue for a moment before swallowing. Surely, nothing was deadly in this small of an amount, and even if it did make her sick, she could always eat some yarrow and vomit, right?

Reluctantly, she rotated to face the girl again, grimacing. "What is your problem, anyway?" she asked again. "Even Mou can speak a little bit, and he almost died."

man I wish I could spell. Lmao sorry

it took less effort to heave the dead matter in maegi’s direction than it did to stare her down when she whirled to face her: astara froze, the familiar unblinking indigo of her gaze formed of innocence. certainly Maegi hasn’t meant to growl at her, right?

she quailed all the same under the weight of the elder girl’s sharp look, and for a moment sat as if stunned in the trash heap. while her sister bent over and gingerly nipped from an unknown plant, astara schemed. like any brat astara was straddled between two whims: the desperate want for another’s approval, and the destructive defiance to disdain it. 

rising to purposeful limbs the girl strode confident towards the plant while Maegi chilled her; ignoring the girls accusatory tone astara flubg herself upon the plant bitterly, gorging on its bitter stems with none of the respect or caution her elder sister had afforded.

oh my fuck

No answer once again; Maegi was about to give up the cause altogether when the girl shouldered past her, chomping down on the plant and greedily swallowing. Irritation morphed quickly into panic, and she made to knock the spiderling over, trying to pin her down and pry her jaws open with her good paw. "Why did you do that?" she shrieked, heart pounding wildly with fear. "Spit it out, now!"

She didn't know what the plant did. For all she knew, it could be completely innocuous! But it was too much of a chance to take--she couldn't just stand around and do nothing. Yarrow, yarrow, where was the nearest clump of yarrow? Maegi knew there hadn't been any in this cache. And time was of the essence, here.

"Spit. It. Out. NOW," she repeated, each word a loud, punctuated command, in case the girl hadn't gotten the message the first time. "You can't just eat random plants, not in that amount!" Mute, immature, and stupid, too. God, Relmyna was going to kill them both. . .

in truth, astara had not considered the aftermath of her gluttonous move; certainly she had no idea plants could be dangerous, or that she might be at mortal peril. all she knew of plants was that by and large most were bitter to her taste, and largely harmless. 

she was bowled aside and pinned with force surprising to her; the night cub blinked as she stared up at her concerned elder, shifting uncomfortably on her back with one paw feebly raised as if to fend off the insistent pry of maegi’s hand. it did no good and with a yak the girl spat forth a quidding of plant matter. her gaze was rueful, her muzzle crinkled in distaste as she worked the unsavory taste from her tongue. 

idk what she ate but can roll with whatever as long as she doesn’t die lol!

It's oleander, which is super poisonous. *grimace* Time for some forced vomiting!

It was a bit of a struggle, which she expected, honestly, but the girl at last spat it out, licking her lips with a sour expression on her face. It wasn't over, though. She didn't know how much she had swallowed; Maegi knew she needed to get it out of her system immediately. She nudged the spiderling to her paws, trying to grab her scruff to pull her upright again.

"Come on," she said brusquely, urgency clear in her face. "You need to swallow some yarrow; it will help bring the plant back up." Without waiting for the girl to follow, she shouldered ahead into the brush, following one of the small trails that led into the thicket, full of herbs. After some time searching, she found the yellow clump of flowers she was looking for, and seized it, stems and all, in her mouth.

Maegi dumped them unceremoniously in front of the shadow-child, fixing her with a gimlet stare. "Eat this," she commanded, her tone brooking no opposition. "Eat it or you could get really sick. You could even die." There was no time to mince words. This was Blackfeather, after all, the place of lethal things (wolves included). There was more of a chance here than anywhere else that the plant was poisonous.

"If you refuse, I'll hold you down and stuff it down myself," she added, knowing how averse she had been to Maegi's rough handling earlier.

relmyna’s nightcub was given little choice in the matter of her participation. she was hauled upright, unused to such urgent or rough handling — somehow the bitter taste that scalded her tongue was less insulting to the girl than Maegi’s sudden handling of her. 

a queasiness overcame Astara as she mutely followed after Maegi’s searching form. she had spat most of the plant from her mouth, yet all the same a malaise snuck into her stomach and lined her throat. 

a plant was flung in front of her; Astara glanced up from her pity party and regarded the coarse yellow roots and her sister warily. the last plant she had ingested tasted terrible; with a snobbish air Astara declined her sister’s ministrations, sticking her muzzle straight up in the air in childish refusal.  

full PP permission given!

UGH.

"I warned you," Maegi said briefly, then without further preamble, she forced the girl down to the ground again--not an easy task, as Maegi was not the strongest of wolves--and seized most of the yarrow in her teeth. She used her paws to pry the clenched jaws open and shoved the plant down, just as Reed had done for her after the poppies, forcing it as deep as she could and clamping the girl's mouth shut to make her swallow.

"Swallow it," she commanded, in case the physical pressure wasn't enough of an incentive. "Swallow--"

Her vision blurred suddenly, her heart skipping a beat, then another, and slowing. Maegi blinked, trying to regain coordination. Once satisfied the girl had taken down the yarrow--she'd probably just spit it up again, the brat--she stumbled away, pulse hammering loudly, slowly, in her ears. The earth swayed beneath her paws, and she felt at once both hot and cold, restless and sedated.

She stumbled and fell to her knees in the dirt, groaning at the impact. Everything was chaos at a glacial pace as she drew closer and closer to what remained of the yarrow, trying to take it herself.

the girl’s lack of obeisance was shortly remedied; Maegi made quick work of subduing her difficult charge, and the plant was brusquely shoved down Astara’s unwilling throat. 

there was a fair bit of squalling and struggling- while Astara did not speak her laryngeal functions were fully operational and she squealed at the injustice her sister doled out for her right up until the yarrow was forced downward and she swallowed it with a gasping choke. 

for a while Astara sat there simmering, coldly watching as Maegi reeled back. a change seemed to have come over Maegi’s composure, and Astara felt in her own gut the rumbling beginnings of discomfiture. 

A nausea overcame her and suddenly the girl vomited, an obscene pile thrown earthward in a steaming heap. Astara panted with a worried whine, for she was drooling uncontrollably and more than once felt the dull shake of vertigo take her. any concern she had for Maegi was entirely masked as the girl faced her own strange demons in the form of monstrous discomfort. a small whimper sounded from her salivating jaws as a febrile wave of hysteria wracked her. 

She eventually made her way to the small sprig that was left and took it down, swallowing with a throat gone tight with panic. The plant sat like a rock in her stomach, ignored for now as her body shook. In the meantime, she saw the girl start to drool and tremble after vomiting, and belly-crawled toward her, feeling the nausea roll over her in waves.

"Shhhh," Maegi whispered hoarsely, trying--and failing--to sound comforting. "Breathe. It's okay. Breathe." Poppies would soothe the girl--but would they make things worse? That she didn't know. She eyed the pile of vomit, wondering if the brat had gotten everything up. "Maybe some more yarr--"

She gagged suddenly, once, twice, then vomited the remains of what she'd last had to eat--a squirrel--along with the yarrow and, presumably, the tiny bit of poison she had ingested. She felt much better post-puke, and wobbled to her paws, standing, slightly swaying, over the spiderling.

"Breathe," she said, more confidently this time. "I will get you more yarrow--and perhaps something to calm you down, as well."

before her maegi lurched, compiling in front of her gaze a wretched heap of bodily after-effects: churned guts mixed with vile root, and whatever insidious plant they had ingested.

astara was shivering as maegi attempted to soothe her, standing over her as if some sentinel to shield the nightcub from whatever came next. wave after roiling wave of nausea accosted the girl, until at last her feeble legs gave way and she fell to a delirious and fitful sleep.

The panic finally abated, and the girl fell asleep, crumbling into slumber. She let out a sigh of relief, though knowing the fight was still not over. Despite herself, Maegi drew her tongue along the somnolent forehead, smoothing the silky fur there.

Then, with a shake to compose herself, the elder Melonii--still trembling, herself--stalked into the trees, hoping to collect more herbs. She cast a jaundiced eye at the plant on her way there.

Pretty. Ha. Pretty dangerous, more like.