blossoms and bumbles

Vibrant coat of orange and cream stood out vividly against the lush green foliage of the God's Garden. Although not officially claimed territory, the Hallows used the neighboring gardens as frequently as it used the Grapevine Cathedral for their purposes that it had become second nature for Syanna to be here as often as the castle. Autumn had come to Auster, and with it the start of the rainy seasons. She needed to harvest as much of the botanical bounty in the overgrown ruins as she could if the Hallows wanted to be well stocked for the coming months before the plants went through their seasonal perishing. That was the goal of today.

Walking leisurely up the sloping hills from the plains to the gardens, Syanna carried a sizable wicker basket with her—empty for now, but would eventually become a cornucopia of medicinal herbs. Her recent work had left her personal stores of powerful pharmaceuticals depleted, and once word got around that she had managed to cure an affliction of the Long Night, wolves would be banging down the doors of Hearthstone to have their ailments and diseases examined. She would need to be prepared if she was to repeat the same miracle again.

Syanna walked through the old stone ruins and overgrown foliage, paws crunching over long vines of ivy and upturned roots. The rich smell of loamy earth and fresh plant life heavy in the humid air—along with another scent. Someone else was visiting the gardens. Syanna was intrigued; the gardens were wild lands, of course, but it wasn't a frequently visited place by any means. Whoever was here was likely a kindred spirit; a fellow healer of some sort.

Finding her wasn't difficult. The stranger was larger than she was, over a foot taller, and wore a coat of earthen hues against the lush greenery. She was tending to some nearby plants with a smile. Had she started contributing to the garden too? "Hello there!" Syanna called out to the stranger, greeting her with a wave of a paw while she began to cut a few trillium blooms from a nearby plant and added them carefully to her basket. "Lovely sprouts you've got there. Your work?" Small talk wasn't always her strong suit, but she was trying to be friendly.

"Syanna"