Bramblepoint But I keep cruising

She had been here many times to gather herbs or feast on the different types of fruit that grew on the bushes and trees that called the forest home. She wasn't expecting to find any of fruit now, though, since most of the trees were bare or well on their way there in response to the freezing temperatures. Mostly, she found snow covered plants as she moved through the trees, but she was doing one last medicinal plant search before winter officially set in. She hoped to still find something useful, but was afraid she might have come too late.

The healer moved along the cold ground, nose busy taking in the scents around her. It would be easy to miss something with her eyes, but her nose could pick up even the slightest scent of useful plant. So far, though, she hadn't found anything worth while, but she pushed forward, determined to not return home empty-pawed.

The boy was taking his role as a guardian to heart; he tracked his siblings most often, but when they were busy with their tasks Revui's presence would adjust to any of the other wolves of Moonspear as they trekked along the mountainside. At the moment he trailed after one of the newer recruits.

Deep down he had less affection for anyone outside of his immediate family but he knew he had to treat everyone equally, for they all lived on the mountain and they were all his parent's subjects. The path the wolf cut went down the mountainside through the alpine layer, and then in to the valley just beyond the claim — Revui was aware of this only because the scent of his parents waned, and soon he was following the wandering scent of his chosen target through the forest. He was silent as he went, but that didn't mean his presence wasn't known; Revui had never been a particularly small boy and he was already out-classing his older siblings when it came to size. His steps were heavy and his path irregular, but he didn't mind if the wolf under his protection knew he was there—if anything, he was glad. Nobody would harm another wolf of Moonspear as long as Revui could keep his wits about him.

He was curious about their purpose here, though. This wasn't one of the well-known neutral territories for hunting, and Revui had no knowledge of anything beyond the different styles of blood sport (hunting and fighting), so when he caught up to the roaming figure and spotted them with their nose down (as if tracking prey), he quirked a brow but remained sullen and watchful.

She was completely focused in her task, perhaps dangerously so because it took her maybe a few second too long to register that one of the scents intertwined with the various plants and forest creatures belonged to another wolf. She froze, head whipping up from the ground. She searched the area a few seconds more before finally spotting the young male. At the same time, the familiarity of the scent finally made sense--he was a packmate. She had not met him yet, but she knew the scent from around the territory and wondered if that was maybe why it only sat in her subconscious while she worked instead of alerting her. Either way, she should be paying better attention; that luck of hers was sure to run out at some point. But today, that was not the case, so she took a few steps towards the dark male, a friendly smile crossing her face. Hey, she greeted. I'm Speedy. I don't think we've met yet.

He lurked in the stranger's periphery, or nearly so, and kept himself at quite the distance despite wanting to be the guardian and protector; Revui was not capable of forming friendships with those outside of his bloodline. Then again, Moonspear's members kept themselves secluded upon the mountain for the most part. If he got out more, maybe the sentiment would change. When the wolf he was following finally took notice of him, they reacted with a raise of their head and a deviation to their path. They were no longer tracking whatever it was that had caught their eye — instead, they swept backwards, and for a split second Revui thought that something was amiss. Perhaps something in the forest's shadows had spooked the girl? His body tensed with a natural up-tick to his adrenaline levels which paired with his anticipation — but as the wandering girl took notice of him and drew close, she did not have a frightened posture.

He took a few sniffs of the air just in case she carried the scent of something back with her, but there didn't appear to be anything amiss. Why had she withdrawn? It was a stupid question, because the answer was obvious to anyone other than Revui. The boy looked around for a few more moments even though the stranger was speaking. Speedy was doing her best to be friendly to the leviathan but it just wasn't in Revui's nature to speak - he understood speech fine, but it would be like talking to a brick wall.

I don't think we've met yet, Speedy was saying.

Revui's response was to look around as if she wasn't even there, because he was still entirely focused on the surrounding forest and its possible dangers. Once he realized it was safe and she wasn't running for his help, he grew bored. She wasn't here to hunt — she couldn't be, there were no signs of any animals worth hunting. Everything was gone for the season. He craned his neck and looked at the ferns from afar, clearly more interested in the plants than in Speedy — not that he was going out of his way to be rude — and then he lurched around her, curious and ready to do his own investigation.

As he followed the path she had already traced through the ferns, his broad head dipped and he began to mimic what she had been doing moments before - sniffing, searching, but he didn't know what she had been looking for.

He had no response for her greeting, and she was instantly reminded of her meeting with the dark boy inside the Moonspear borders. He reacted similarly, although he seemed more cautious at first. She watched curiously as her packmate walked around her and began searching the ground kind of like she had been doing before he arrived. She caught up to him, silently walking beside him for a few moments, wondering what he was looking for. I was searching for any herbs that might be left, she offered, lowering her nose back to ground to continue searching. She didn't mind tending to her work while he did the same, whatever it was. 

After a few quite minutes, her searching proved fruitful when she picked up the scent of a raspberry plant. She knew the berries would probably be gone at this point, but that was perfectly fine; all she needed were the leaves, and hopefully there were still some to harvest. She stopped and looked to the male, assuming he was still near. I found something this way, she informed him with a lift of her nose in the direction she needed to go. I'm going to go check it out. She smiled and turned to begin walking again, leaving it up to him to follow or stay there.

She came up beside him; he didn't lift his head, but his ears pivoted to follow her movement until she came to a stop beside him. When she spoke, he finally paused his huffing and sniffing and glanced at her with a peculiar expression. Revui was curious about what she meant. He didn't know anything about herbs or why any wolf would seek out green things - he had always savored the red things (blood, for example), and didn't understand.

When she pulled away from him she mentioned finding something, and Revui swept in to the space she had once been in. He looked around, sniffed the earth, but found nothing of importance - so he followed after her as a dutiful guard dog, keeping his head on a swivel and his mind alert in case of danger. The boy was invested now, he did not often fall prey to his curiosity nor to whimsy, and this adventure seemed to drum up a child-like wonder in him.

She followed the scent until she found the raspberry plant, sensing her packmates presence behind her as she moved through the trees. The plant was devoid of its berries, but tha didn't matter; she only needed the leaves. She examined the plant for a few quiet seconds before finally beginning to gently pull the leaves off with her teeth. There was still a pretty good amount left, but she could only carry so much. When she was done, she realized she had actually picked quite a lot. She was struck with an idea then. The empath turned around to face the grey-scale boy, a small smile on her face. Would you mind helping me carry some of this back? she asked, motioning to the pile of leaves at her feet. She had pulled most of the leaves from the plant and had a fairly decent pile gathered. She would make two trips if she needed to but thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

She busied herself with the plants, and he watched for a while, but Revui's attention began to drift. If an event did not involve battle, bloodshed, or combat, he was unlikely to linger - but he knew his role was important, and would protect her. Perhaps in the process he would glean some understanding for this behavior. She was gathering the leaves from the vines, not the fruit. As the pile grew and grew, Revui's confusion spiked. But then the girl called out to him and asked for aid, so with a heave he drifted closer and bent over the pile to inspect it. His nostrils flared as he sniffed at the frostbitten bits of leaf-litter, but eventually he scooped some of them up in his mouth - like a crocodile holding precious eggs between those sharp teeth - and looked at her for direction. Raspberry leaves stuck out from his mouth like a fringe of green, giving him a bearded look almost, and it was almost comical.

She watched him quietly as he inspected her pile, letting him familiarize himself with the plants. He finally gathered some of the leaves in his mouth, and she grinned when he looked to her with his mouthful. Thanks, she said with a wag of her tail. The leaves are good for a couple things. The berries are just good to eat, she explained before gently picking up the rest of the pile between her own teeth.  

She motioned with her head for him to follow. We just need to take them to my den, she said around the plants in her mouth. Then she moved to make her way back through the trees.

One thing Revui was well versed in was food, although most of his favorites were the kind of food that leaked red fluids as he tore them to pieces, he had not tried anything of the herbivore variety, so her comment struck him as odd but intriguing. It took some concentration for the boy not to scarf down the leaves after she said that — he'd wanted to try crunching on them for a while, but she had said they were good for something else, so he had to hold off.

The girl moved on through the trees, heading towards the packlands while Revui followed behind her. He was so focused on keeping the leaves collected in between his teeth (and not to lose or damage any of them) that his assumed role of protector was dropped for the time being; once the escort quest was completed he'd go back to his usual routine of patrolling the borders and looking for trouble, but in the back of his mind all Revui thought about for the rest of the day was the potentially edible quality of raspberries.

As they moved through to forest, both carrying leaves in their mouths, Speedy glanced over at her packmate. The leaves help with digestion stuff like nausea, she offered, her words a little muffled by the plants, in case he was curious as to why he was helping her carry so many back to her den. Some say they help with fever too, but I've yet to see that, so I don't think it's true, the empath continued on. She never minded talking about healing, and always hoped that maybe she could bestow some kind of useful information on those around her; maybe it would come in handy sometime. She smiled as best she could around the leaves. Thanks again. This is a huge help, she offered before falling silent once more as they made their way back home.