we carry on

He read the hope growing in her eyes, and he thought he could hear her heartrate jump. As she gave her answer, he decided not to nitpick on her use of ‘your grace’ in reference to him. If it made the female happy, may as well let her go with that until she was comfortable saying his name. A wide grin bloomed on his face, tail beating the air for a few strokes. “Then welcome to Celestial, even if we are a ways outside the border.” He chuckled lightly, sweeping a brief bow to the healer. “Of course. I can tell you about our various laws and customs as we go, if you like.”

He smiled easily, adding the rest of the meadowsweet clipping to the bundle as she suggested and folding the hide carefully, making it so that the ends of the roll would be closed off to keep the gathered herbs from falling out of either end. He rolled the hide up slowly, letting her see the procedure. Lowering to his stomach in a crouch, he grinned at Solveiga. “If you could tuck that under my necklace chain, between my shoulders, that would be great; that way both of us can talk as we go.” His tail swept side to side behind him, guileless as a pup as he waited for her to get the bundle squared.

“Speaking of sharing, you can have one of the Alcoves in my den. It’s really more like a communal den; it’s a cave system in a hill in the plains. My Grandmother made the system her den back when a pack called Valhalla ruled the lands I rule now. She was the Lead Healer of the pack, and was pregnant with my mother when she found the den. It’s perfect for healers. Most of my family lives in there; we each have an alcove to ourselves, and there are still plenty left over for anyone sick or injured that needs watching over by Kavdaya.”

The crimson Archangel grinned with a hint of brotherly pride as he explained, “If you don’t mind pups, you can certainly have one of the ‘coves. My mother recently birthed another litter this Autumn. I have two new sisters and a brother, and they are a pawful.” He chuckled wryly. Baine and Tornach had been relatively easy; there’d only been two of them. There were three of them this time, and two were the adventurous type.

Kieryn was the one who was happiest to stick around and watch, which suited his mother just fine. It meant less chasing after children and setting time outs. He added with a smile, catering to Solveiga’s clear drive to learn more about healing, “Kavdaya has an alcove with us, so you wouldn’t have to go very far for her lessons.” Unless of course the snowy Nomad decided that the lesson was to be a gathering tour for paws on experience.