Amalia stretched out, blinking open her deep blue eyes. For a moment she didn't realize where she was, and a small burst of panic rose in her chest. It took her a moment to take in the familiar scent of herbs and the sight of her shelves that she had dug into the den. Oh my, she had fallen asleep in her herb den again. Shaking her head, she squeezed out of her den and shook the dirt from her pale coat. Hopefully Athena wouldn't be too mad at her, it would seem that she had fallen asleep while she was sorting through her stores. Winter may be the birth season of her boys, and now her girls, but other than that she disliked this cold time. Hardly any herbs grow, and all healers were on low supplies. It made her heart feel heavy, no matter how much she tried to collect for the rest of the year, she always seemed to get low on more than just one type of herb. She needed some help, she always drove herself to getting sick by the time that winter came. Her cold that she had caught earlier this year had finally wore off, but last year she had been way worse. Blowing out a deep breath she watched it fog before her, before an idea came to mind. Tib's little girlfriend! What was her name again? She had seen the black woman during meetings, but other than that she hadn't really personally spoken to her one on one. Tib had told her that she was interested in healing and had been leading her own studies. Well then, what a better way to bound than over herbs and healing? Giggling to herself she tipped up her head, calling for the darker coated girl. It would be good to get to know this dame that had seemed to capture her boys heart, and it was always nice to have a hand during the winter. Maybe she could even take her on as an apprentice! Amalia's rump wiggled in the snow, excitement burning in her eyes as she lowered her head and waited. This was going to be so much fun! "Speech"

There was a lot of things happening around Fiori that, luckily, she knew of. Having all the good news piled onto her would have knocked her over and paralyzed with excitement. Let's see...Amalia and Athena recently had their two little girls, Jayne and Diana. She had yet to see them, but eventually she wanted to privately ask either Athena or Amalia. Preferably both if they were around. Tiburtius seemed quite thrilled to have younger sisters as he's told her a bit about them, but she wanted to see them and love them for herself. Besides, she loved pups to death! Hopefully they liked her. She wasn't very colorful or big or snuggly...but she'd definitely try her best to make herself lovable. Leo and Svetlana had gotten married which was also pretty thrilling! Leo and Svetlana were both friends of hers and just seeing Leo with someone to love made her heart flutter with joy for him. Hopefully she'd get to babysit their future pups. So many puppies to love on...ee! She was excited for them all! Plus, she finally reached Tiburtius, and they now slept in the same den together. And yeesh was it crowded. She needed to work on digging more room for the two of them before he rolled right on top of her at night. The thought made Arivae smile as she slithered her way out of Tiburtius' loving embrace. He was asleep and she didn't want to wake him up, but escaping his warm hug was pretty hard. This time she was lucky. She stretched outside the den and yawned, enjoying the warmth of sun despite the snow that bit at her paws like angry pythons. She sniffed. It was pretty cold even with the sun and she instantly wanted to curl back up with Tiburtius...but Amalia had called her. She didn't want to dismiss her like a dead autumn leaf. Arivae sighed and leaned into the den, kissing her big blue buddy on the head. "I'll be back." She whispered, before turning and setting off toward the small red-headed woman. She slowed to a trot as Amalia came into view, sitting in front of a den that had a heavy herbal smell to it. Must be her medical den or whatever. But why did she call her here? Arivae smiled and stopped a few feet from her, letting her rump drop to the snow and her tail wave aimlessly behind her. "Hi there, Amalia." The dark girl said with a friendly grin, her blue eyes shining with interest. "It's nice to see you. How are the girls?" She asked, tipping her head to the side curiously. Even though Tiburtius kept her updated, she wanted to hear from one of the mothers. They knew their children best, after all. "SPEAK!"

Art by Evelyn

It wasn't long before the black and white female showed up, and the tiny woman rose to her paws to greet her. A beaming smile was on her maw, tiny rabbit tail moving along in time with her rump. "Arivae! Its so good to finally meet you one on one, without the looming of the boys at the pack meetings." she said with a laugh, although her eyes grew sad at the mention of her other kids. She tried to shake it off as quickly as she could though, not wanting to put a damper on their time together. "I think this is actually the first time that we have ever really spoken, and for that I am sorry. I should have been trying to involve you more in our family affairs. Which is why I called you here today!" Amalia said with a small giggle. She remembered that Arivae had asked about the girls, and she quickly jumped back to that. "And I guess that Tib told you about the girls. Oh they are just so wonderful! You really should and come meet them sometime soon, I am sure that they would love the company. It won't be long before they are out and about, and then we are really going to have our paws full." The healer said, a big, wide smile on her russet face. She adored her girls so much, and would do anything for them. It still made her heart heavy that the rest of her children were not here for them, but she knew that Tib would make an amazing big brother. And with Amalia's mother here as well, they would never be short of wolves to look after them. Maybe when the time came Arivae could try her paws at pup wrangling... "So!" Amalia began, turning around to peek into her herb den for a moment with narrowed blue eyes. "Tiburtius tells me that you are interested in healing and herbs, and that you have devoted yourself to your own studies. I thought that I would invite you here for a little chat and perhaps a lesson or two as well. I would be more than happy to take you on as an apprentice of sorts, and help you along with any studies you might be interested in." Ama offered, head tilting to the side slightly as she turned back to study the taller girl. "So tell me love, how much do you know so far? Or better yet, is there anything that you are interested in learning?" It was very obvious to tell that Amalia was very excited for this. None of her kids had ever really showed an interest in herbs, and Athena just smiled and nodded half the time, she felt like. Fighting was in her mates blood, and it was her job to patch her back up when she got hurt. "Speech"