a tiny puppy with a tiny pouch

It was funny, when she was alone, her mind either went very fast or very slow. Today was a quiet, slow day and Lore decided to make the very most of it by gathering some herbs for the very first time on her own. Mommy had been teaching her about many different types of plants and all of their helpful properties - even some not so helpful ones. Often, the plants that were the prettiest seemed to be the most dangerous. They had talked for a long time about that, and Lore was confident that she at least what not to gather. The little girl hummed quietly to herself as she scrambled into the shared family den and went rifling through Theory's medical supplies. Healers were special wolves, mommy had told her, and they had a responsibility to help others. Lore liked the idea of helping others - at least, helping her family and wolves she knew. Wolves she liked. She wasn't so sure about strangers yet.

Eventually she found a worn leather pouch that was smaller than the rest of the baskets and containers. It was empty, but had a bright herbaceous smell that let her know it had once been used to carry fragrant healing supplies. Lore affixed it around her shoulders and wandered off into deeper into Avalon territory, taking her time to really take in the surroundings.

Her mommies had been whispering late into the night about why the sun was suddenly red, but Lore was too new in this world to really notice how eerie it was. It was something different, but everything that happened was so new and novel that she wasn't sure what the big fuss was about. The anxiety had rubbed off on to her anyway, she often found herself looking up at the sky with a general air of suspicion. She stopped in her trek to do that now, glaring up at the red sun with tiny, angry eyes. Lore had a grudge against the sun for making her mothers worry, mommy especially. Theory had always hovered nearby, but lately she was on top of all the children constantly, herding them like little sheep. That was okay, she liked pretending to be a sheep sometimes. It could be a fun game if it didn't make Lore wonder too much about why mommy's disposition had changed.

"Stupid sun," she whispered, feeling like she was getting away with a very clever insult. Lore hustled on, deeper into the Range, peering through the overgrown grasses to try and find something useful to gather. In pack territory, it was slim pickings. All of the wolves helped out with gathering and harvesting the fields here and she'd been told the harvest had been unpredictable since it was so hot out. What was left was crispy and brown. "Hmph..." she grumped, traipsing deeper into one of Avalon's fields.

This was a corn field, which hadn't been harvest yet, but none of the crops looked particularly good - or that was what everyone was grumbling about, anyway. The stalks were yellowed and brown in some places, weak and brittle. Lore nudged her way through them, knowing that there was an herb garden on the other side. It had been picked over quite a bit, but maybe something was still worth finding there! The sun still bore down, unrelenting and red, but it was shaded between the corn stalks and she enjoyed the reprieve from the sun's rays. Once she nosed her way through to the other side of the cornfield, the sun felt hotter than ever. Lore panted as she made her way at last to the herb garden, her eyes roving between the neat rows. Most of it had been picked over, but there was one patch of mint that seemed to refuse to give up.

Other Avalon wolves had grumbled about the mint, that it spread everywhere much too quickly, but Lore knew it also had a ton of uses - thanks to her latest lesson with mommy. It could help settle upset tummies, clear up clogged throats and noses if you breathed in steamy water filled with mint, and many other useful things. Was it such a bad thing to have so much of it? She sidled up to where the mint grew rampant, choking out almost everything around it. The edges furthest from the ground were crispy and brown, having baked for too long in the sun, but she worked carefully to trim and pare back the plant until unscalded bright green leaves were revealed. Lore made a soft sound of success and diligently gathered healthy leaves, stems, and some pieces with the roots still attached. Mint was so helpful, maybe she'd replant it somewhere else, too! Bet that would really surprise mommy, if she started her own little garden right by the den. Feeling quite chuffed with herself and her pouch of mint, Lore scampered back towards the family den.

"speech"