We're unique and the same

Briar · 12-30-2020, 08:20 PM

The plants and herbs within the Armada's borders had all been found and investigated by now and she had slowly started to branch out to the spots just outside of their borders like the willow tree forest and the places owned by Ashen, but even those places were starting to get boring. All she did when she had time when she was alone was search for different herbs to collect and name and practice with so it was really no surprise that she had grown tired of seeing the same old plants over and over. It was getting harder and harder to find them too since it was starting to get cold and they were all wilting away in preparation for winter. She hadn't experienced winter yet, but she had already made up her mind that it was the worst season. A whole season where it was just super cold and nothing grew? That sounded awful! Maybe something interesting would happen to make it a bit more appealing, but as far as she was concerned there was nothing that could convince her otherwise for now.

Since everywhere she went was no longer entertaining, she started testing the boundaries of just how far she could go before someone noticed she was gone. She inched around the edge of Ashen's territory so no one there would notice her and tattle on her for sneaking away and on the other side of that she found herself in a big open field that even in this chilly weather it was still full of plants! She looked at all of the plants around her as she slowly padded through them all and almost couldn't believe her eyes! She almost felt a little cheated that no one had taken her here before now or at least told her that this place existed cause this was everything she had ever wanted! Sure, the leaves were a little wilted and browned because of the cold weather that she hated, but there was so many plants that she had never seen before and there was even little pockets of flowers! Her tail was wagging so fast behind her while she hopped from one plant to the next. How was she ever going to carry all of these back with her?! If only she had someone else here with her to help her carry them home... but if she had brought one of her siblings she would have had to share and that just wouldn't do. This was now her special place to go find herbs and she wasn't going to dare tell any one of them about it! Although she was certain at least her aunt Io would know about this place... but she wouldn't tell her siblings - no way, not a chance!

While she was buzzing from plant to plant and trying to decide what of the many plants she would take back with her, she got completely and utterly distracted so she didn't pay any attention to a rock that was jutting out of the ground, mostly covered by grasses and nearly out of sight. The rock was broken off at one portion of it and it had left a sharp edge poking out of the ground. Her turquoise eyes landed on a weird flower that she had never seen before and with an excited gasp she went running toward it and sent herself tripping over that very rock. If it hadn't been for that sharp edge she probably would have just taken a tumble and hopped right back up, but as she fell her shoulder caught on that sharp edge and sliced her skin right open. She yelped loudly and hit the ground hard as she flipped over the rock and did a full roll across the grass. She landed on her side with an "ooof!" and blinked her eyes to right herself now that the world was suddenly turned at a whole different angle than it was before. She tried to get back up right away, but a pain in her shoulder made her yelp again and whine, making it much harder for her to get up. Eventually she did, but when she sat up on her haunches and looked down at her shoulder her ears folded back against her head when she saw the big, bloody cut her fall had given her.

Ow ow ow owwwww she kept thinking to herself while she tried to think of what she would do now. Maybe she might get someone in Ashen at least to hear her, but then she'd be in so much trouble for coming out here on her own! No no, she had to figure out how to get back home on her own and take care of this! She had been learning all about healing and herbs and stuff so it couldn't be that hard, right? And she was somewhere that had a ton of herbs! Yeah! She silently hyped herself up and rebuilt her confidence before turning her gaze up to the plants around her. Okay... which one did she need for cuts again?

"You might want this."

She suddenly heard a voice to her left and it made her head pop up with surprise, turning her gaze to look at the creature that was now standing near her with a small bundle of marigold flowers in its mouth. It looked kind of like a fox, but the colors were a little different and it had... antlers? She looked at the black and orangey gold fox with wide, shocked eyes. She had never seen another animal with antlers like her besides deer! Her cut was momentarily forgotten while she took this information in, but eventually she realized that she was just staring at this fox that was apparently trying to help her. "Oh... Oh, right! Thank you!" The fox nodded and sat the marigold plants in front of her.

"Do you know how to use them?"

Briar nodded confidently though she was a little less than confident. She knew how in theory, but she hadn't really done that much real life practice. Bending her head down to the flowers in front of her she started picking off some of the petals till she had a little pile of them off to the side. Once that was done, she looked back at the cut on her shoulder for a moment. Okay, so marigold is good for cuts and I need to put them on there... somehow... she thought to herself, racking her still slightly frazzled brain for what she was supposed to do.

"You should chew them up before you put them on there," the female fox reminded her, sitting down onto her haunches before letting her plush, fluffy tail curl around her. Her amber eyes watched the pup curiously, waiting to see if the girl had the aptitude for it or if she'd have to step in and help with more than just instruction.

Briar looked up at the fox again and nodded. Right! Of course! She licked up the petals she had picked off and started to chew, her muzzle wrinkling up a bit at the bitter taste. Once it was all paste-like in her mouth she turned back to the cut and bent her head over to start putting it onto the wound. It was a little difficult and awkward to do on herself, but eventually she got it after a couple of tries and she covered the cut all over with the marigold paste. It still looked a little messy cause she wasn't super practiced at putting herbs on cuts yet and because there was still some blood that had dripped down her leg, but it was already feeling a little better with the marigold on there. It at least didn't sting quite as badly and it seemed to help with the pain a little.

"Good job," the fox told her as she got up to go to the girl's side, examining her work. "What's your name?"

"I'm Briar," she replied, her eyes glancing up to look at the antlers on the fox's head again. Since her own antlers were still growing their antlers were fairly similar in size right now, but of course hers would be much bigger when she was older, just like her mother's. "What are you?" she asked curiously.

The fox scoffed and replied, "A fox, of course. Just because I don't look like most foxes doesn't mean I'm not one. You don't look like most wolves, but aren't you still a wolf?"

Well, with logic like that it was hard to deny. "What's your name?"

"I don't typically go by a name like you wolves do," she replied, her head tipping to the side slightly with thought. "What would you like to call me?"

Briar hummed with thought for a moment and glanced down at the remaining marigold at her feet. Well, it was the first plant the fox brought her and the orange-hued patches around the fox's shoulders were pretty similar to the color of the petals so... "Marigold," she replied definitively, grinning as she looked back up at her new acquaintance.

The newly named fox smirked and laughed lightly at the answer before getting back to her paws. "Come on, Briar, lets get you home."

"Briar" "Marigold" "Juniper"

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