It's About Thyme! [Healing Lesson]

Nevertheless, she nodded to Dómari and smiled. The second to arrive was Acapella, and she gave the woman a warm smile. Solvegia was glad to see her making such an effort to be active and involved in the pack. Regulus would be glad to see it, too. Exodus arrived next, and Solveiga dipped her head in greeting, noting that he seated himself closer to Acapella than Dómari. And she supposed that made sense, Dómari was new after all. But he seemed very friendly and Solveiga had no doubt that he would soon be making many friends.

The next arrival took Solveiga entirely by surprise. Regulus, slipping out of the mist the way he always did. She never really understood how such a big, brilliantly colored wolf could manage to be so stealthy. She giggled softly as he sat beside her and affectionately bumped her cheek with his nose. "Thank you for attending and gracing us with your presence, Archangel,” she said with a teasing grin, her tail moving to drape itself over his. Paladin arrived next, introducing himself to everyone. Solveiga smiled at the boy. "I'm glad you could be here, Paladin,” she said. For a moment, she had hope that his mother would show up as well. But several minutes passed, and it seemed that no one else was coming. Which was fine. Solveiga was happy with the response she had gotten.

Sitting up straighter, the little sand colored healer smiled at the four members in turn. "I think it’s time to begin. Let me start by thanking you all for coming. It’s so good to see you all taking an interest in healing. Whether you hold a rank that involves the practice of healing, or not, it can be a very valuable thing to learn. Having a basic understanding of healing could be the difference between life and death.” The same was true for fighting and hunting. Solveiga believed that being well-rounded was incredibly important. Which was why she was so glad to see a couple of non-healers in attendance.

"I'm going to start with a quick lesson in herb identification. There are countless herbs out there, all native to different regions. Some are helpful, and make useful medicines. Others can be deadly. So it's crucial to know the difference." Solveiga leaned down, pushing two different plants forward with her paw for the group to see. Both plants looked similar to each other, long stems with vibrant purple flowers found in cylindrical bunches at the top. "At first glance, these two plants look similar to one another. But you should never try to identify a plant on its appearance alone. This," she said, touching her paw to the plant on the left, "Is lavender. As some of you may know, lavender is very commonly used as a sedative to treat ailments like insomnia and depression." She moved her paw to rest on the plant that looked very similar to lavender. "This is wolfsbane. It looks much like lavender, but do not be mistaken. It is extremely poisonous."

"These two plants can be easily distinguished by smell. I want each of you to come up and smell each of the two plants for yourselves, so you can make the distinction easily in the future. Wolfsbane has some uses when used in very small doses by a very skilled healer. It, too, can be used as a sedative, or a fever reducer. But there are far safer herbs to use, so just avoid wolfsbane whenever possible." She paused for a moment to give everyone time to smell the two plants. It was clear that lavender was the more pungent of the two, and more pleasant as well. Hopefully they would all commit it to memory.

"As a general rule, approach all herbs and plants with a sense of caution. Do not ingest or prescribe an herb unless you are completely certain what it is, and what it does. There are many herbs that look similar to one another. You may think you're giving a mother trillium for her birthing pains when really you've just given her jimson weed. Both are rare, but trillium is found in moist areas while jimson weed is found in areas of wasteland. Jimson weed has no medicinal properties; instead it is used by some for its hallucinatory properties. It is said to be able to create out of body experiences, which clearly sounds more harmful than helpful."