Well this sucked, Crux had been continuing his study of useful plants he should keep an eye out for. The market wasn't a terrible place to gather that sort of information, wolves who'd seen much more of the world than he had could tell him of plants he could only imagine... For now at least. One had even mentioned a rare type of berry shrub called that grew not too far from here... But well... Not far from here was still up a mountain! Which wasn't exactly terrain Crux was built to traverse. This time he'd been smart enough to at least ask Riya to come with him, something the cat had been more than happy to oblige.
It wasn't like it was easy going though, even with Riya to help steady Crux on the more precarious parts of the hike they still had to move carefully and take care not to step somewhere unstable. This wasn't as hard as it could have been though, he'd been here once before after all and he'd made a point of remembering certain trail markers, y'know just in case he'd ended up getting lost. He gently guided Riya as she picked along beside him, pointing out a part of the stone cliff face that he could tell wouldn't hold her weight. "The air's warmer up here so even though it's been cold the ice around here has been rapidly cooling and warming and when it seeps into the stone it makes it weak." he explained as he guided her up a safer route. "And here I thought I was coming along to keep you from falling." The leopard teased.
"Oh you will be, on the way back. I'm going to need someone big and strong to carry our haul." Crux retorted, sticking his tongue out at the cat over his shoulder. He heard a playful throaty growl from behind him and grinned, his swaying happily above his hips. "Besides, we're here." He said as he drew himself over the final ridge between them and his quarry. The lush sea of green spread out in front of them, though many leaves were starting to turn with the season. The crashing of the falls was deafening, growing only louder as they picked their way towards the pool of water it tumbled into. He'd been told to look for little red berries and he'd have thought that would be easy to spot in all the green and yet-
It was Riya who found it, gesturing with her paw towards the shrub. Then it was only a matter of carefully gathering up some sprigs. He would strip the bark for drying when they got back, for now it was probably important to make sure they could safely carry their haul, the berries and bark were both useful in their own way but he doubted it'd help the trip back if he and Riya started to throw up. Finally they'd wrapped their branches in a tight leather bundle and Crux grudgingly agreed they'd pass it between themselves for the return trip. He gave a nod and the pair turned back towards home, slow and steady just as they'd been on the way there.
"Speech"
WC: 535 (Using Half Word Count Pass)
Updated 04/30/23: Still on
indefinite scarcity, please do not remind me of threads I am behind on right now.
Crux has a 6 inch long burn scar on his throat, most of his art does not reflect this.
