not here for mere ferns

Acacius noticed the way her exuberance dropped at the mention of bullies, beginning to regret having brought the topic up at all. Just because he expected people to be mean to him didn't mean he needed to instil the fear into this other yearling too. He glanced over at her as she resumed walking but without the same enthusiasm, frowning as he realised from her question that she had suffered similar mean kids too. "Yeah. I have a friend that nobody but me can see, it makes others look at me funny sometimes, so I can't talk to him in front of people anymore." The admittance was delivered casually and off-handed, but Acacius stole a few quick worried glances at the other yearling to spy any sign of her own judgement.

She answered his question next, their combined efforts filling the bag with leaves quickly. As he scooped it back up and slung it over his back, Acacius continued to gently prod. "Do kids pick on you because you're small? Because small people can be strong, too. Maybe they're just jealous about how fast you must be compared to them, it must be hard to win a fight if you can't land any hits at all on your opponent." He knew of many small individuals, a vast majority of them growing to become warriors or in training for it the same as he was. Every advantage came with a disadvantage too, and Acacius did not doubt that Seere would be a formidable opponent for even any boy.

Together they arrived back at the central area of the gully where his porcupines awaited, one tending the fire and the other watching the yearling's approach. Acacius motioned for Seere to join him where he sat, diverting his attention back to his companions for them to let him know what the next step in the craft might be. "Well done children." The porcupine praised. "Wintergreen is a good anti-inflammatory and can be used as a mild pain relief. We could turn it into tea, but I prefer a salve because it's more convenient to carry and have on hand. First you will need to tear up the leaves as well as you can, you can put them in this tin when they're chopped fine enough." Pushing the shallow tin between the yearlings with her snout, she stepped back to supervise their technique.

Acacius dropped the bag of leaves off his back once more, pulling the mouth of the bag open with his paws and carefully extracting one to begin to tear up. The scent of them crushed was a bit more then he liked, so he was careful to use only the tips of his teeth to do the shredding and to not get too much of the smelly oils within onto his tongue. He worked carefully, sneaking glances at his partner as he did so. "Do you live in a pack?" The boy asked as he finished with a half dozen leaves, placing the remnants onto the tin and reaching into the bag for more.

(1/3 Healing Lesson +15)
(1/3 Crafted an item related to healing +15)

"Speech"