The Sovereign had made her will known—Obscura would be expanding its domain into the neighboring Redbud Nook. But to do so, they would need to be sure the land was worth taking. Several teams had been sent out to scout out the territory and accomplish a specific goal. Satira was leading the healers' team, and their task was simple: find as many healing or poisonous plants to justify staking claim on the land. So, in the warm spring morning, the little wolf-dog led her team across Obscura's borders and into the brightly colored woods.

The cherry blossom trees were all in bloom, their distinct and vivid pink petals drifting from branches to sway in the breeze like rosy snow. The soil under her paws was soft and loamy; a testament to its fecundity thanks to the eruption years ago. What had once been destroyed by lava was now a thriving woodland of lush vegetation. Life sprung back from death. Poetic. As Tira led the group through the trees, she paused to look back at the three that had accompanied her. "Our job today is to see how many kinds of beneficial plants we can find here. Scylla wants to be sure this land is worth taking," she explained to the group. "Keep your eyes peeled for anything worthwhile. It doesn't have to be healing herbs either; poisonous plants are just as useful. When you find something, be sure to gather up some samples of it so we can bring it back home with us."

"Satira"

the boy slinks forward at his usual unhurried gate, eyes round and distant as they flit over the territory. he’s grown with the changing of the season, puppyish fat melting away and revealing the hard angles of a teenager in its wake. it’s still very much his gaze in that newly sculptured face, however; those eerie yellow eyes darting from left to right so quickly it’s near-dizzying to witness. someday he’s statuesque, so still one might mistake him for dead if it for the steady rise and fall of his ribcage. but today he shuffles restlessly in place, claws gouging duvets into the earth as his packmate speaks. he doesn’t seem to be listening very well - nodding at random intervals where it isn’t appropriate, humming off-key in the middle of Satira’s sentence - but once dismissed, he darts off to investigate his surroundings, tail waving through the air like a white flag.

admittedly, his herb knowledge is a little patchy; he doesn’t have Mojito’s patience or memory, leaving for a spotty education outside the strange and macabre. this doesn’t mean he’s completely hopeless, however, and after a short while of inspection, he stumbles upon a familiar plant: alfalfa. the violet petals unfurl from an arrangement of slender leaves, it’s centre kissed with yellow. Ume noses at it, squinting as he recalls one of Mo’s lessons. nutritional. strengthens heart. stimulates milk production. closing his teeth around the stem, Ume plucks it from the earth, soil spraying in all directions. excellent, he’s done what they came here to do…he thinks? anyway, now he can investigate that decaying bird carcass he spotted in his peripheral!

If Scylla wished it, Bancha would make it so. He had pledged to the Sovereign that he would do whatever necessary to prove himself a worthy member of her pack. Plus, how could he complain about going on a scouting adventure with two of his siblings to go find plants? He hadn't spent much time with Satira until today, but Bancha had always assumed it was because she was busy doing something for the pack too. What other reason would his half-sister have to be so avoidant of her younger siblings? It didn't bother him... much.

Bancha would take his chances when he could. So he eagerly tags along with Satira, Umeshu, and Strix back out to Redbud Nook to search for the plants. He listens intently to Satira's instructions, nodding a confirmation before they are dispatched to go look. Turning from the group, Bancha heads not far away before something catches his eye. A cluster of mushrooms growing from the trunk of a tree stick out against the white and pink background. Approaching cautiously, he inspects it first with his nose and eyes before reaching out to grab a chunk from the cluster. Oh, lion's mane! How had he not recognized it sooner?

BANCHA

Obscura was seeking to expand its borders and that means that they have been investigating what kind of benefits a new land might offer. Strix is eager to tag along with the other healers as they make their way into Redbud Nook and the small woman known as Satira, who is leading the party, gives them their assignment. With a dip of his head, the group separates as they all go off in search of plants with healing or poisonous properties.

A small leather bag is fitted snugly around his shoulder and is filled with small squares of cloth so that he can carefully wrap any plants that he gathers. Eyes scan the ground, searching for a certain mushroom that he had seen in this place before. Thankfully, Strix doesn’t have to go far to find the telltale red capped mushrooms that he seeks. A grin tugs at his maw as he approaches the cluster of white-spotted fungi that grows through the soft mulch of the frost floor and he is suddenly extremely excited to present these fly agaric mushrooms to the rest of group.

Shrugging off his bag, Strix readies to harvest the cluster of poisonous and hallucinogenic fungi.


"Strix Klein"

She'd joined up with the group a little later on and was arriving just as Satira was giving the rest instructions. The cobalt woman shot the blonde fae a smile of reassurance and motioned with one dexterous paw for her to continue. Just because she was here didn't mean that she was going to take over or lead the group. It would be a good opportunity to see what Satira was capable of.

Blue and grey eyes scanned the surrounding forest and Scylla tipped her nose in the direction of a few winding vines. "Wild grapes. If we cultivate those, we could use them for wine making or thick, sweet jams to mask the taste of medicines. The vines themselves are also useful for crafting and other things."

"Scylla"

He had finished up his usual patrol early so he had some extra time on his paws today. Usually he'd spend that with Tira, but he knew she had been given a task by their leader to scout out some herbs and plants in the neighboring territory. Well, he wasn't very knowledgeable in all of that, but that didn't mean he couldn't be an extra set of eyes or at least a bodyguard of sorts. After all, Tira's body was certainly his favorite to keep an eye on. As he walked up to the group that had gathered in the nook he caught the tail end of his girlfriend's explanation and instructions to gather samples of what they found. As they began to split off to search, Ciná looked around a bit until he saw a patch of white flowers with yellow centers and he went over to pick a small bundle, bringing them over to Tira with a little grin. "How's that?" he asked with a chuckle, having no idea if these were just pretty flowers or something she could make use of.

"Cináed"

Arcturus passed through the nook on his way back from a scouting trip as he began to plan another large hunt for the pack and as he went he noticed a group of his pack members gathered up with his sister seeming to be the leader of the group. Curious, he walked over to join them just in time to hear Scylla suggest that they could cultivate the wild grapes she had found. Ah, so they were checking out the flora around here? That made sense. He knew they were working to lay claim to the land, figuring out what this land could offer them was part of it. He paused near where Scylla was standing, glancing up at the trees around them. The fruit on them felt beneficial enough, but maybe that was just him thinking in the mind of a hunter that was always looking for things that were edible. With a thoughtful hum he looked back toward the ground to keep looking, catching Scylla's gaze in the process. He gave her a grin before he moved on, walking toward a tree that had ivy climbing up its trunk to get a closer look.

"Arcturus Indarra"

One by one her healer party began to break off to investigate the flora of their new territory, determining its value to the botanists of Obscura. It wasn't long before a few more wolves joined the group—their fearless leader Scylla, as well as her brother and her boyfriend. Tira offered sweet smiles to Scylla and Arc, then a more sly smirk to Cináed when he approached her with a bunch of small white flowers, asking if they were any good. Tira recognized the flowers immediately. "They're very good, Ciná," she replied with a wag of her curled tail, taking them from his giant paws to stash away in her satchel. "This is meadowsweet. It's a common plant used for pain relief and to help ease the flu. We'll make lots of use of this!" With a bit of a playful pat to his paws, Tira pointed back out into the cherry blossom forest, silently issuing him back to work. They could flirt and be naughty together once their task was done.

Turning and proceeding through the woods, Satira followed near Cináed and came across a shrub of shiny jagged green leaves. Steel blue eyes lit up with recognition and her tail wagged faster at her find. "Oooooh, now this is a good one!" Approaching the shrub of motherwort, Tira used her claws to cut off a few sprigs, holding them up to the group to see. "Motherwort; excellent for easing the stresses of heat and making pregnancy and birth easier. Very useful for sexually active wolves." With another cheeky smirk, Tira shot Ciná a sideways look and batted her eyelids at him, knowing he'd get her subtle innuendo about why the motherwort would be so useful for the Obscuran wolves.

"Satira"

Seeing Satira and Cinaed interact brought a soft snort from the Sovereign. She rolled her mismatched eyes, but there was a smirk of amusement on her delicate little maw. "Get a den, you two." Lips parted and teeth flashed. "Or would you rather I started returning the favor and flirting with your brother?" Scylla's long tail stretched upwards, sliding under Arc's chin as she passed him. Little did they know, she and the maned brute had done a lot more than flirting.

Moving along, Scylla came upon a batch of wild roses. A sound of pleasure eked out in a purr. "Roses. Good for teas and dyes." She plucked a few flowers and slid them into her bag. Rose hips were good for many things and one could make rose water which was good for cooking.

"Scylla"

Arc was certainly used to the relationship between his sister and her boyfriend by now so he hardly even noticed when they started making eyes at each other until Scylla made a comment about it. He chuckled a little and was about to get back to his search for herbs and plants when Scylla added a quip about flirting with him in turn and caught him off guard with her tail trailing under his chin. He blinked with surprise and gave her a sly—if slightly bashful—grin. It was hard to refocus after that, but after looking around a bit more he found a spot where it looked like some lavender was at least trying to go. The stems were pretty short and the few buds he saw weren’t fully opened. Still, that smell of lavender was unmistakable. “It doesn’t look like it’s ready to pull from yet, but there’s some lavender over here,” he called back to Tira over his shoulder.

Cina couldn’t help but smirk as Scylla told him and Tira to get a den and threatened to flirt with Arc in retaliation. It didn’t dissuade him in the slightest and he only thing that got him back to flower hunting was Tira mushing him onward. He started poking around some plants, having no idea what he was looking for but trying to pretend like he did. A moment later Tira was beside him looking at the green shrub he had stumbled upon, telling him about the uses of it that happened to be very applicable for them. He gave her a grin and chuckled, ripping his head to nip playfully at one of her floppy ears. “I guess we better collect a lot of that,” he rumbled, joining in on gathering some of the herb to add to the collection.

Satira was wholly unbothered by Scylla's teasing remarks. There was no shyness or shame in the wolf-dog girl's body when it came to being outwardly affectionate with her boyfriend, and even the Sovereign's comment about flirting with her brother just earned a titter of laughter from the girl. Good! It was about time Arc got to score on a regular basis! Tira hadn't been too fond of the idea of her brother languishing about trying to win the fancies of that weird quiet fae he'd been with before, so maybe now he'd get his game on. The poor lad was more than overdue. Still playfully bantering with Ciná as he collected the motherwort, Tira turned her attention to the rest of the group. Scylla had found some rose bushes which would indeed be handy in making teas and even perfumes. Arcturus found some budding lavender, but it was indeed much too cold for the usually fragrant plant to be blooming just yet.

Making her rounds to the others to help gather up some of the rosebuds and making note of where the lavender was growing, Satira ran down her mental checklist of everything they had found. Violets, lion's mane, fly agaric, wild grapes, ivy, meadowsweet, motherwort, wild rose, and lavender. A good haul for one land! Once spring came and thawed out the rest of the nook, Tira was sure the loamy volcanic soil would continue to bear a boon of herbs to come too. They'd have to return in later seasons. "All right, these are some good finds, everyone! Let's gather up any remaining plants you can see and start bringing some samples back to Obscura! Once I've done some quality checks, we can start harvesting from here regularly." Tira nodded her head approvingly. This land would be extremely beneficial to Obscura.

"Satira"

Scylla chuckled softly as the group of wolves teased one another. She didn't mind the PDA in the slightest, she was just the teasing sort. Even poor Arc got a taste of the tease as she touched his chin. It was nice to keep things fun and light. They were simply exploring, afterall.

Everyone made their finds and Scylla nodded as Satira spoke of the various herbs and plants that the Nook had to offer. These weren't exactly the plants that she needed to craft her own personal wares, but they would definitely benefit the pack regardless. There was many a healer in Obscura.

Collecting what was ready to be harvested, Scylla and Co. made their way back towards their respective dens, but not before she thanked them all for their services.

"Scylla"

This little side mission to help his sister and pack mates with finding and collecting herbs seemed to have gone very well. Tira seemed pleased at least and he trusted her judgement with these things. Once they found enough plants and at least proof of a wide variety of them they wrapped up their little mission of exploration and fact finding. While not his usual range of tasks, he was always more than happy to help his sister out. If nothing else it got him more familiar with the land that they were looking to claim and call their own. He nodded with understanding and agreement once Tira gave them the all clear to head back and he dipped his head to Scylla as well with a little grin as she thanked them for their help. All in a days work, he supposed.

"Arcturus Indarra"

It was probably a good thing that he and Tira typically had different jobs around the pack. Even this little herb gathering expedition was hard to focus on with his girlfriend in the mix. Luckily once they all started to contribute the various plants and flowers they spotted around the nook it went pretty quickly and soon enough Tira was telling them to collect the last of what they wanted to take with them and they were moving back toward their dens. He was always impressed with her knowledge of these things and how well she remembered all the different plants and what they were used for. She was just as brilliant as she was attractive. After Scylla thanked them and she broke off from the group along with Arcturus, leaving him alone with Tira, he was quick to grin and scoop her up–along with the bag of herbs they had collected–and he whisked her away to go back to their den... To start sorting through the plant samples of course.

"Cináed"