After their fight with the leopard seal, the duo had left the frozen wasteland in search of a more desirable place to rest. A few miles south, there were slightly warmer territories that bordered the submerged woods. Places where there weren’t several feet of snow to wade through, which was a relief. Once they arrived, a sense of relief rolled through his body as his paws met soil that was littered with small patches of snow. But he was still angry they hadn’t been able to eat the seal after they killed it.

His gaze shifted to Aresenn, who had been favoring the leg that was attacked during the fight. It was bloody, swollen, and would only get worse if he didn’t do something about it. “You’ve got a little scratch there.” He taunted with a smirk, not waiting for his reaction before he took off to sniff out some herbs. It's not that he really cared about Aresenn’s wound or maybe he did, deep down, hell, his leg could fall off, and Sephiran would probably try to eat it. He just didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to work on his healing skills.

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It had been harder for him to abandon the seal than he had initially thought, and the trip out of the tundra was a relatively quiet one as he fumed to himself. Anger offered quite a bit of assistance when it came to forgetting the pain of an injury. But the longer they went on, the more he was going to fill the bite taken against his hind leg. When Sephiran pointed it out, he decided to acknowledge the injury for the first time. Coming to a stop, he glance over his shoulder- kicking the leg out to the side so he could see for himself. “Yeah, the only evidence that we actually fought something.” Aresenn grumbled to himself. But the longer he looked at it, the more he began to think that it might actually be a problem.

But it didn’t do any good worrying about it now. “It’s just going to have to wait until I get home, or we encounter a healer one.” He said with a shrug, not sure of what else could be done for it.

He heard Aresenn’s voice, but he didn’t pay attention to what he said. And, once he was out of earshot, his mind became engulfed by his mission. He was looking for two specific plants; chamomile, and agrimony. One he knew very well, and was common and easy to find. But the other, which was the little yellow flower agrimony, he wasn't well versed with. One was good for swelling and bleeding, and the other just helped with the healing process. Together, they would make a good salve to start with.

It took some time to find them both. He came across a lot more chamomile before he found some agrimony, but he was content with the amount nonetheless. He returned with a mouthful of vegetation, spitting them onto the ground before taking a seat. “Lucky for you, I’m multi-talented.” He said with a haughty smirk, meaning every word. He was so full of himself “But this is gonna cost you.” He separated the flowers from the stems with his paws, until he had a little pile of what he wanted. Then, he shoved the pile toward Aresenn. “Chew it up, and spit it onto my paw.” He thought the taste was disgusting, and wanted Aresenn to do the dirty work. “And after that…. Tell me about the history of the pirates.” He knew they raided packs, stole things, and hoarded treasures. But how did that all start?

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It seemed that his traveling companion had something else on his mind, as he didn’t stick around to discuss the manner. With an annoyed sigh, Aresenn reclined to a sitting position, his amber gaze panning across the surrounding territory. Not too far away from his paw, he noticed a small branch that had rotted and splintered into pieces from the time it had spent dying on the ground. Lacking anything better to do, he hobbled over and chose a relatively large chunk that he could easily turn over in his paws. It was still wood but softened by moisture- making it fairly malleable. Taking a single claw, he began to shave the bark away from it.

About that time was when Sephiran reappeared. Carrying with him some plant matter with clear intention set in his expression. What the plants were for, Aresenn had no idea. The Saxe boy made a comment about having multiple skills, to which Aresenn scoffed. “What are you going to do with those?” He asked with interest. He’d trust Sephiran for backup in a fight … but when it came to healing, he wasn’t so confident. However, he wasn’t going to argue. When the plants were thrusted at him, he hesitated a moment before collecting them in his mouth to chew into a paste of sorts. They were nasty to the taste- which is why it was probably his job to chew them, come to think of it. With narrowed eyes, he spat the ointment into Seph’s paw as he had been instructed before returning his attention to his carving.

But with the request for information on the Pirates, he stiffened a moment, before continuing to peel back the bark of his stick. “It’s not that old of a group, as I understand. Just a couple of generations. Sparrow’s father was the king before her, so I guess she inherited it when he died or left. I’m not sure, which.” Aresenn started, turning over the softened stick in his paws to ensure he had removed all the bark.

To his liking, Aresenn did as he was told. He watched with a blank expression as the pirate boy chewed up the flowers, narrowing his eyes to glare at Sephiran which solidified the fact that the herbs tasted like shit. His lips twitched into a small, sly smirk, before fading away into a stoic expression when Aresenn spit the salve onto his paw. It came out in a long string, which was disgusting. But it was better than having to chew up the plants himself. “Poison you.” He retorted, flashing him another sly smirk. Whether Aresenn believed him or not, was up to his digression. But before the boy could reject him, if Aresenn chose to believe it, Sephiran was already slapping the salve onto his wound.

And as he rubbed it onto the wound, pressing down to make blood welt to the surface to coagulate it with the mixture, he listened to the tale of the pirates. He still found it unorthodox that a woman was leading a pack, let alone pirates who raided other territories. “So, you really do take orders from a woman?” He snorted. “Do you at least get to fuck her?” It was a crude statement, but the way it rolled off his tongue made it seem so casual.

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When Sephiran answered it was poison, he simply rolled his eyes as he realigned his attention elsewhere. “You might as well be.” Aresenn shot back as he began shaping his now stripped-down stick into the silhouette of a wolf bust.

It seemed odd to the Saxe boy that the Pirate King was indeed a woman- and she did in fact call the shots. Aresenn simply shrugged, without interest in convincing Seph that it wasn’t a bad thing. He was born to it, and that’s just how it had always been. However, the idea of fucking Sparrow made him want to gag. “Eww, why would I want to fuck an old woman? Besides, I’m fairly certain she tries to fuck women too- though I’m not sure how that works …” Aresenn mused aloud. Though he didn’t much care for lingering on that train of thought.

Instead, he quickly continued on. “Anyways. The original pirate group was made up of seven individuals who all went by the names of different sins. Then there was the king and his second in command. And that was essentially how the main hierarchy was established.” Aresenn finished, as he also finished putting some finer details into his carving project that he had chosen to entertain himself with.

When Aresenn quickly denied wanting to fuck the “old woman”, he couldn’t stop the cackle that left his jaws. Admittedly, hearing him say that was quite hilarious to the Saxe boy. But what he found even funnier, was his lack of knowledge about women fucking each other. “You're sheltered.” He taunted, before giving an explanation Aresenn probably didn't want. “Women go down on each other,” He started, as his tongue slipped out his jaws to slide across his lips in a crude, suggestive manner. “Just like we do to them,” The hair along his nape started to stand up, and he unknowingly pressed a but harder onto Aresenns wound. “Its the best shit ever.” Coming from his mouth, it seemed so casual and careless. But the only reason he knew about it, was because of his father had explained all of these things at such a young, vulnerable age. So it seemed so normal to him.

The conversation changed, and Aresenn continued to teach him about the history of the pirate pack. Something about sins, the king, and second in command. He didn’t say anything, just stood back to look over his work, which was sloppy but did the job. Then he let out a big yawn, and finally noticed the carved wood Aresenn had been messing with. “You keep playing with whatever that is.” He said as he bowed down into a stretch. “But I’m beat.” He turned then, going off to find somewhere to rest for the night.

-end-  

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