mint is spicy?

Delphi supposed she was getting better at this healing stuff. Well, she wouldn't consider it stuff, more like a business. Something for her to actually be good at. Having small paws and a brilliant mind made the learning and the doing come easy. While she didn't have fingers per se, she was able to manage mixing and squishing and stripping, and palpating objects with more ease than others with rather large paws. In a way, Delphi took pride in the fact that she was excelling in something other than fighting or hunting. At one time, she thought she had wanted to be a great hunter like her mother, but chasing down animals was either too difficult (for multiple reasons) or she simply wasn't strong enough to craft traps capable of taking animals down. Which is probably why she was enjoying fighting more. Fighting, while she was actually terrible at it, was fun and she had a higher chance of winning.

Healing though? Oh, she was great at it. Making bandages, creating salves and teas, and exploring for different herbs around Heidinn's lands. Which is exactly what she was doing on that wintry day. And wintry it fucking was. Snow drove down in sheets from the dark sky as a strong wind came billowing in from the east. Honestly, she could barely see five feet in front of her, but she was trying her best. Each tiny paw picked up to her chest and belly before plummeting back down into the deep snow until her chin was resting along the surface of it. Every inch of her was shivering as she made her way further north. Didn't quite make sense since north meant colder temperatures, but she was going off of a tip from some birds that had the most delicious-smelling mint. They'd mentioned finding it close to the borders of the packs, but couldn't quite tell her which packs. Stupid birds.

The girl would still try though because the mint they had in the stores was getting stale and didn't always taste quite right. It would be better if she could find some fresh stuff then maybe Strai would be impressed with her tea! Hope twinkled in her frost-encircled eyes as she continued to try and bunny hop her way through the snow drifts. What little light she followed was growing dim fast until she almost couldn't see right in front of her face. Swear words, in both the common tongue and Swedish, fell from her lips as she paused and squinted, trying her best to get a good look around. From what she could tell, she was almost to Elysium lands, the lake shouldn't have been that far off...

Tilting her nose upward, Delphi tried to scent the gusts of wind that whipped by her. A myriad of wet wolf, plants, and other animals made everything so confusing, but if Delphi was anything, she was persistent. Pushing forward toward what she believed to be a small outcropping of trees, she let out a sigh of relief when her paws touched pine needles and dirt. Giving her coat a shake, she peers into the darkness, her nose twitching when she finally gets the scent of fresh mint. Yes! A hoarse whisper before she tumbles forward, paws nearly frozen, as she lurches toward the large bush of wintergreen mint. There was so much of it that she was surprised she hadn't seen it before! Grabbing as much as she could, Delphi stuffs her worn satchel full.

TLDR: Delphi travels to the northernmost point of the Stone Steppe to gather Mint when...

Her muscles begin to warm as she hurries to fill her bag full. Night was upon her sooner than she had realized. Had it really taken her this long to venture toward the outskirts of the steppe? Stripping a few prickly leaves from the branch, Delphi pauses to take a sample of it. As soon as the greenery touches her tongue, her mouth is alight with a fuzzy electricity that is almost... spicy in nature. Mint wasn't supposed to be spicy, was it? Or was it that cold and refreshing after growing in such a frigid climate? Unsure of how the plant could have such properties, the girl knew she had to take as much as she could. There was no leaving such a good tasting mint behind!! Then she got the brilliant idea that maybe she should try to grow the plant up on the mountain! Completely distracted by her endeavors to now dig up some of the mint plant's roots, she didn't hear the shuffle of someone approaching her from behind.

As her worn satchel began to fill to the brim, Delphi settled on it being enough. Leaning back and letting out a few pants after such tiring work, she smiled to herself. Proud that she had trekked all this way to gather something she heard of on a mere rumor! Taking another leaf out to give it a good chew while she finished cleaning up the area, the stranger behind her finished their approach. Seconds stretched into minutes as the young girl stood and began to turn. At the last moment, the much larger stranger pounced. Delphi's startled screech echoed into the night air as she struggled to fight back. Her saber fangs pierced thick fur and flesh as her small paws smacked and kicked and tried to escape their embrace.