fern believer

The early morning sun filtered through the grasses as Modesty led the small gaggle of pups across the prairie and towards the gully. Once, they had debated claiming this place, but she was happy that it was still within striking distance of their current home.

She had bought along a smaller copy of Sakana's map, small samples of each herb they might find here dried and rolled within the goat skin. She picked a place on the edge of the slope and rolled out the map, indicating that the children should gather around. She sat each bundle on a corner. One bore delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers that smelled strongly of antiseptic, another could have been mistaken for clover, were it not for the purple veined white flowers that adorned it, and its citrus scent when crushed. The others were a longer shot, but necessary to try and gather as their season would end with the increasing heat of summer. She laid these ones out at the bottom of the map.

The small, tightly clustered leaves with inconspicuous but delicate, white, somewhat star-shaped flowers came next. It smelled of cornsilk, and they would need to search in the coolest recesses of the gully to find it. The next was quite distinctive, finely toothed, needle-shaped leaves moved in whorls along its stems. The small flower clusters varied, either green, yellow, or white. Some of the supplied branches even bore fruit, two rounded nuts joined together and covered in hooked bristles that would snag in fur to help it spread. The vanilla-grassy combination stood out among the scents presented.

The final bundle was pungent and unique, its broad, green leaves and star-shaped white flowers made it rather distinctive, although chances were they might not find any left this late in the season. She waited for her children to settle before pointing to each herb in the order she had laid them out. "Meadowsweet, wood sorrel, chickweed, cleavers and wild garlic." She took a moment to wave over the bottom three again, "These ones might be harder to locate, as they die off with the warmer weather, so it is important if we find them, we take them back to Sakana to store for the coming cold season. Call to me if you think you have found them, and I will confirm. Sometimes there are plants that look similar, that may be poisonous." She tipped her head to indicate the children were free to start their hunt.

"speech"