Minted Measure [AW]

The healer smiled easily as Luta set her companion to gathering. Luta showed great interest in the fire, and he cocked his head with a smile, readily answering, “The cave system is almost like a human… castle, I think it’s called. Not built in, but found by my Spirit’s great great grandmother long ago. In the last couple of years we got a fire started in one of the back cave chambers that has a decent crack in the ceiling the seems to have been cracked in such an angle the water doesn’t get in, but the smoke gets out.

“There’s still some smoke scent, but it’s not choking at all. A good number of us live in the alcove system as our dens, so there’s usually always someone around to feed it, and much of the year we make sure to gather wood so that it stays burning, especially in winter.”

In turn, he listened with interest as she spoke about the bowl, nodding slowly and considering. “I’ll have to see what Kayode and Ime say. They’re both primates, and have a lot of knowledge of human artifacts. Perhaps they know how to make things like this.”

His eyes left the bowl as he ranged around the clearing, giving a soft sound of pleasure as he found yet another plant he’d been after. Gypsywort, which went by several other names, including Water Horehound. It was past its flowering season, but it was an ideal time to divide some of the roots for the streamside garden the water mint would be planted in.

It was an incredible plant to have around when it came to healing internal injury, and with Cairo having found a healthy amount of honey lately, he felt like he’d hit a jackpot.

Bending, he nipped some of the stems, tucking them into his pack before gently digging his claws into the wet soil around the roots, humming a favored Nomad song under his breath. It had a gentle, crooning tune, a mother's lullaby. His aunt had sung it to him as a pup while he'd been raised with the Nomads after they'd found and saved him.