Meadowlark was taking the day quite lazily this time around. Her cream and white coat stood in stark contrast against the green and the flowers, making it possible for her to be seen from quite a distance. As much as her cautiousness wanted to be on the lookout for strange wolves that could possibly do mean and unmentionable things to her, the other half of her easily distracted brain kept shouting out about the plants and flowers. There were so many varieties she had never seen before! Plus, the colors! There were so many colors that she had never seen before. While Meadowlark recognized some varieties of plants she had used before, there were others she wasn't quite sure of. Even more so, not wanting to try them to find out their affects. For the most part, Meadowlark wanted to find something for her sadness, really. While she ran away from home, she truly missed her home. It wasn't something she anticipated when coming here. Her home pack may have been isolated from others, it contained everything she needed, and the environment was pleasing at the very least. She had places to escape, and yet it was never far away enough from those that hurt her, until now. This time, Meadowlark had ran so far away from home that it was highly doubtful any would have followed her. Besides that, the pack had Rolan, her brother, to help produce heirs and keep her fathers line intact. No one would care that she had run off to never return. Meadowlark hardly had friends there anyway. The few she thought were friends truly weren't with all of their demeaning and belittling of her views and beliefs. There was no longer a need to kowtow to their approval. Still, a sense of regret and guilt lingered for not being good enough to gain approval. Shaking the thought from her head, Meadowlark focused on the task at hand. Perhaps if she couldn't find anything that would heal a broken heart, perhaps something a little sweeter to snack would bring a smile to her face. Sweet leaf? A small, bushy plant with a strange flavor that produced smiles. Maybe something like that existed around here. Somewhere. “Speech" OOC: xxx

The gulley was close to home, which made it an ideal location to collect when stores were running low. There were all sorts of useful plants that grew here. Goatweed (in the hopes of improving Modesty's mood), yarrow and marigold were on the hit list for today, if he could manange to track them down.

His lapwing keke'd a warning to him from above and his capuchin pulled his ear. He'd been caught up studying a fern that could have been maidenhair, but it could have also been spleenwort... He sighed a long suffering sigh and lifted his blue eyes to scan across the gulley. Sure, there was a girl there, but why was it any of his business and what if she didn't want company anyway? At another insistent tug of his ear, he swung his head to grumble and click his teeth at Blondie. He saw her okay? Gosh.

He closed the distance, head held non-threateningly level with his spine, tail at half mast waving steadily at his back to show he intended no harm. There wasn't a lot to him after all. “Yer lookin fer anything in particular Miss?” He queried, head tilting with the question. He was pretty familiar with this little patch of flowers, he could potentially point her in the right direction, if she wanted.

“Speech”

Meadowlark continued to rummage through the plants, but decided since she had all day that it was safe to spend extra time on the new plants that she was unfamiliar with to study them. In particular, she spotted clusters of bright white flowers and lacey like leaves. Some of the clusters occasionally would be pink. Briefly touching it, the stems of the plant were stiff, allowing for the flowers to remain sternly erect, while the leaves were happy to flex with a gentle touch of her paw. It was quite a peculiar thing. In her forested home from before, hardly anything like this would ever grow. The plant also had a particular smell to it which was vastly different than the hot springs she found herself at before. A smell floated to her on the air that was unfamiliar, and eventually Meadowlark raised her head to see what the source was. A dirt-colored male with stripes and striking blue eyes, and as he strolled closer, a set of white freckles on the cheeks. It was an odd coloration in comparison to Meadowlarks moon-like coloration and silver eyes. Most of her family were colored this way, as was the rest of her pack because of their dogmatic like views. And actually, no one has different colors beyond the white, cream, or silver spectrum because of their views. This was the first time Meadowlark actually recalled something that she should have paid attention to. Seeing brown for the first time was ... odd. It made her nervous. Old submissive habits kicked in as her nervousness didn't allow room for her to relax. It also didnt allow her to register the wolf asking what she may have been looking for. “Ah.. well, uh.. HI!” Meadowlark started to say, laughing awkwardly to try and shake some discomfort off. “I'm sorry! Don't mind me if uh.. this area is your patch. I wasn't going to take anything! Honest.” Meadowlark was failing at trying to be nonchalant from her shaky voice and a lifted paw. Her tail was tightly wrapped around her feet as a form of some sort of self-comfort, though she wouldn't get any right now. “I can just go, and then it was like I was never here!" “Speech" OOC: xxx

Sakana's head tilted as she prattled on about shoving off his patch and he forced the sigh he wanted to make out his nose as a long exhale instead. “Nobody's patch, nearest pack is out on the islands,” he tipped his head towards the coast, doing his best to remain patient with the pale woman.

Why had his companions been so insistent if she clearly didn't want company? “I'm Sakana, I'm a healer for Raiders Hollow, its busy work, which is why I asked if you were looking for anything in particular. I spend a lot of time here collecting supplies and thought perhaps I might be able to save you some time.” His voice was gentle, his tail still waved patiently at his back. “Have you been here long?” He would assume not, her twitchiness had a certain... novelty to it.

“Speech”

It seemed that her shy and cautious nature wasn't exactly creating a great first impression. The other was trying his best to be patient, and Meadowlark could sense it just a bit. Quietly, she bit her tongue as he spoke, trying to help settle her nerves. Deciding in that moment to take a sudden, deep breath, she lowered her head a little. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be so nervous..." she said. "I've never left home before so.. I guess I'm just shy." Meadow looked down at her feet a bit which were slightly pigeon-toed as she stood. It was a nervous quirk that she hated. Especially since this wolf indicated he was busy, she didn't want to take up more of her time. "I haven't really been there that long. Maybe a couple of days or so?" It truly felt like it was much longer, however, since she left home. In total, she had been running for at least a week with breaks in between, but she had only gotten to Auster within the last couple of days or so. It was very unlikely that any of her home pack would have followed.

Meadowlark cleared her throat and sat up again with a renewed focus of not wanting to seem more pathetic than she already had been. "Well, I originally was looking for >>Sugar Leaf .<< I kinda know what it looks like, but I'm unsure of where to find it. I wanted to eat something sweet. Sometimes it helps my mood." The mentioning of the wolf's name, Sakana, and that they were a healer for a pack struck an interest with her. "My name is Meadowlark, like the bird." Meadowlark wagged her tail a bit, a sign indicating that she was beginning to feel better with the conversation. "A healer, really? That's exciting! I've taught myself some stuff about healing and what plants are safe to eat."

"Speech."

-OOC note to self - Sakana is still 27" in this thread and his growth spurt hasn't yet started-

That she had only been here a couple of days made sense. He supposed if he had been born anywhere else and came here, he might find it terrifying. He thought he knew where her sugar leaf might be too. When she introduced herself, he responded with his own name, “I'm Sakana,” (he still didn't know that it meant fish in Japanese). He nodded along when she spoke of teaching herself what plants were safe to eat. “Well if you're looking for somewhere to stay, we can always use more wolves that are interested in healing. The rest of them get beat up often enough that there's no shortage of practice.” It was suggested offhandedly. He wasn't really going to try and drag her home, that bunch of heathens would scare her off in 2 seconds flat and then she'd probably drown in her haste to get back to the mainland... Maybe. “Anyone is welcome on the Archipelago too, so if you just want a place to rest where the scent of a pack might keep troublemakers away there's plenty to see.”

“If your sugar plant is what I think it is, it prefers a bit more sun...” He gestured up a small rise where the ferns thinned out lacking the shade of the hillside. “C'mon, I'll show you, and you can let me know if its the right one.” He kept his steps steady enough that she could walk alongside or behind him, whatever suited her best. If he wasn't mistaken, they'd have a pretty nice view down over Dove Island from the top of the hill as well.

“Speech”

Just the comfort of having someone else here talking to her was more than enough to help her settle. As the conversation continued to progress positively, she let out a brief sigh. See? This isn't so bad! Meadow thought to herself, allowing her soft instincts to help guide her through the conversation. Sakana was an interesting name! It was not one she was used to hearing and that was probably a result of this new lands culture and views. This area seemed more -- inclusive and open in some cases, where her home was the complete opposite. You either had a place, or you didn't.

Sakana mentioned something about his pack having a need for more healers, as well as the others getting beat up often. The statement piqued her interest. "Why do they get beat up?" She asked, rather up front and forward. "I'm no master at healing, but I wouldn't mind helping. Even if I learned from someone else." This may mean that Meadowlark would need to join a pack, but that was something she was going to have to do eventually anyway. Better suck it up, princess! "Also, what's an Archipegoolow?" Her inability to pronounce a word she had never heard before was badly laughable.

The idea of Sugar Leaf made Meadowlark smile with excitement. It had been so long since she tasted the sweet taste of the leaves, so she was very hopeful that it was the right plant!

"Speech."