They'd left the fire to burn down to coals and Sperla assured her that the fire ring would keep the fire in place and if they didn't take too long it would be fine. Dagrún wandered after the kestrel, doing her best to keep track of the small raptor so she didn't get left behind. She really wanted to learn to make fire but the bird said she was too young yet. Which was stupid, but fine! She'd play nice because she really wanted to learn about pine pitch. Sperla said it could be used to stick stuff together and that sounded terribly fun. All they needed to do now was find a pine tree. The duo wandered around the range until Sperla let out a cry to alert her furry companion that she'd found a pine tree suitable for their purposes. The bird landed on one of the lower branches and Gossamer bounded through the grass as fast as her little legs could carry her until at last she arrived at the bottom of the tree. "Is this it, Sperla?" She reached out and sniffed at the tree. Welp, it smelt like a good pine tree.

Gossamer moved cautiously. For once the pup wasn't running amok like her tail was on fire. She had dried chamomile held between her teeth and Ásta warned her it was very fragile and might fall apart if she wasn't careful. If it fell apart then they couldn't make tea so she moved slowly, very slowly. So slowly that Ásta had a fire going by the time the little pup finally arrived. She set the dried chamomile down on an piece of rawhide then grabbed two ceramic bowls out of Ásta's bag. She'd need to get water for the tea so she carefully grabbed the fox's waterskin, formerly a bison bladder, and wandered to the stream to fill it. As she did she noticed another pup examining a pine tree. It took her a moment but she soon recognized the pup as Dagrún. The other girl was nice enough so she wandered over. "Hey, Dag, what are you doing?"

The bird nodded. "Look a little up and to your left, see that sticky stuff? That's sap. That's what we want. Try gathering some on a stick." Dagrún nodded and picked up a small stick before she leaned up on her hind legs and started working sap onto the stick. "Ok, start adding it to your bowl." The pup resisted the urge to nod and wiped the sap off into the bowl before returning for the tree for more. Once she had what she thought was enough she looked back to her kestrel. Before the bird could answer a voice spoke out. She turned to see Gossamer. "Hey Gossy, I'm learning to make pine pitch. What about you?"


Sperla took to the air and flew back over to the coals that remained of the fire, eager to try and keep the pups attention. "Ok, we now need to heat it. Add some ash to the sap and let it heat up but not boil."

"Ok! You can join us if you want, princess." She waited til the other girl agreed then Dagrún picked up her stick again and scooted some ash onto it before adding it to the pine sap and stirring it until the color darkened.

"Sure!" Gossamer followed after the younger pup, beckoning her fox companion to follow along. They could put their fire out after finishing up the tea. Dagrún's fire had already burned down to a degree that it would be a bit easier to use. Gossamer looked to her companion and gestured to her work thus far.

Ásta peered over at the pair as she grabbed a couple lids for the ceramic bowls. "Gossamer, the fire is ready. Go ahead and put about an ounce of dried chamomile in each bowl." The pup nodded then bounded back over to the bowls. She carefully broke the dried chamomile into small enough pieces that it would fit into the bowl. Once that was done she carefully mashed the dried chamomile into even smaller pieces. "So, what's pine pitch for? Is it some sort of healing thing?" She didn't think the other girl liked healing things.

"Ok, now what?" She looked to Sperla. "Now we just watch it. You don't want it to boil or catch on fire, its very flammable which means it can catch on fire easy." Dagrún settled down to wait.

After a while the sap started to darken in color and become thick. "Ok, now use a stick and scoot the bowl away from the coals." The pup nodded and carefully moved the bowl away from the fire. At one point the bird twitched as Dag almost knocked the bowl over but she repositioned herself and managed to scoot it safely away.

"Ok, let it cool a minute then stick a stick into it and start gathering it onto the stick." Dag nodded and grabbed her stick. She stuck into the tar-like mixture. She gently rotated the stick until she gathered most of it onto the stick which she then stuck into the dirt with the sticky side up so it could finish drying. She looked to Gossamer. "It's sticky stuff so you can stick things together, like putting sharp bones at the end of a spear."

With the dried chamomile ready to go it was now time to add the water. "Ok, let's do about a pint of water each and for chamomile tea we'll want to put some lids on the bowls. The good things in chamomile have a tendency to evaporate, when you heat it up and you see that steam, that can carry away some of the healing properties to." Gossamer nodded. Ásta had shown her before what a pint of water looked like so she carefully added a pint of water to each bowl. With that done Ásta helped her move the bowls near the fire to heat up and turn fully into tea. Gossamer cocked her head to the side as Gossamer mentioned what the pine pitch was for. She liked the idea of having something sticky. She wasn't sure what she'd use it for but surely there would be something. Maybe in making tools or sticking bandages together. She'd have to ask if Ásta had some ideas.