Svala had returned to the clearing in the thicket she'd found some time back. It was a wonderfully peaceful area in her opinion and she enjoyed listening to the birds sing as she worked. She had a simple goal for today, just get a good infusion of boneset made. It would be useful in cases of cold and fever and an essential item to have on hand for the approaching winter. The infusion itself wouldn't last long. It was better to keep dried herbs for use over winter but Svala wanted to practice. Knowing how to create such infusions would be important. She got a fire going then pulled a ceramic bowl out of her bundle. She had some dried boneset somewhere. Svala started pulling out odds and ends until she found what she was looking for. "Talk" "You" Think

The sound of birdsong was what had really attracted Spirit to this place. It wasn't to far from home either; it was just far enough away that he felt like he was exercising his independence, without fearing he'd get sidetracked and lose his bearings. He'd brought Strawberry with him anyway, who pushed ahead of him, tweeting softly as if to keep him on course. Today he wanted to go out looking for herbs, hoping he might collect some and bring them to Meadow for inspection upon their next visit. He still wanted to connect with his mother and express his interest in healing, but for now he supposed that examining and collecting his own plants was a decent start, so long as he didn't actually use anything before figuring out what it was - or whether it was safe.

Strawberry's song was easily recognizable among the other birdsong that filled his ears. Oh, the sound was just delightful! For a moment he realized he was closing his eyes while he walked, moving through the the utmost care. Needlessly disturbing the foliage seemed like a foolish idea to him, and he wasn't about to cause a ruckus anyway. When he opened his eyes and rounded a little bend in the thicket, he was alarmed to see a ribbon of smoke rising toward the sky. Equal parts curious and fearful, Spirit was slow as he closed the distance between him and the stranger, finally stumbling upon the clearing and trying to assess what was going on from a distance. A quiet little chirp told him Strawberry was still close and looking after him, so he tried to push back his fears. He had to be brave, right? "W-what is that?" He asked softly, hoping she could hear him, given the distance between them. He wasn't sure he was capable of moving any closer yet until he understood what she was doing.

Svala grinned as she pulled out the dried boneset. She took the herb and pushed it into the ceramic bowl before taking part of a deer ulna and mashing the herb finer. She set the bone down and was about to grab her water when she heard movement and a black and white yearling came into the clearing. He seemed rather shy so she smiled gently at him. "Hello there, I'm making an infusion of boneset. Do you have an interest in herbs?" Though, she supposed it was rather odd to see a woman near a fire mixing oddities so it was probably a bit to much to just assume the boy was most interested in the herbs. "You're welcome to sit with me if you like." She would be there for a bit as she'd need to bring the infusion to boiling and that would take a little while. "Talk" "You" Think

For a long moment he felt completely frozen, glued to the ground with paws made of lead. Moving felt impossibly difficult, no matter how hard he tried to force himself forward. Briefly he felt like he was lifting from his body, and seeing himself from above; he no doubt looked scrawny and disheveled despite his larger size from the trek through the thicket, his flanks covered in burrs and twigs. Should he have made an attempt to groom himself before approaching her? Either way, he felt himself snap back into himself as she spoke, explaining what she was doing. Boneset? What was that? He tried to think back to his first lesson with Meadow, deciding that she hadn't talked about that one.

He nodded jerkily to her question, and suddenly - as if sensing his nerves - little Strawberry was gliding down from a nearby tree and landing on the ground beside him. "I d-do," he admitted, feeling encouraged by his companion's presence. Though quite small, she held a big place in his heart, and he felt significantly more at ease with her beside him. "But I d-don't know m-much." Slowly, cautiously, the closed the distance between them, though kept a safe distance from the fire, visibly quite wary of getting too close to it.

The boy looked a bit rough and she'd have thought him a wandering loner if it weren't for the light scents of pack that clung to his coat. She smiled gently at him though as he approached. "I'd be happy to share my knowledge. Do you know much about boneset? It's very helpful in dealing with fevers and the flu." Svala picked up her water skin and added a bit of water to the bowl til the dried boneset was covered. She then scooted the bowl closer to the fire so it could heat up while she talked with the boy. It was nice to pass on some of her knowledge and she was curious as well about if there was a pack near here. She thought she'd come across one at one point during her explorations. "My name is Svala, what shall I call you?" "Talk" "You" Think

It was hard to tell whether most wolves around here were just plain good, or if he'd gotten wildly lucky in that everyone he'd met had been warm and welcoming to his company. Regardless, he was thankful for her kindness in humoring his interest, even if he was quite wary about her fire - and her, to be honest, even though she was quite small. "N-no," Spirit admitted sheepishly. He'd never heard of such a thing, but he was interested. "W-what does it look like? B-before it's.. like that?" Spirit gestured carefully toward the dried herbs, hoping she wasn't too bothered by his interruption, but he did want to know. Especially if it helped with things like fevers. That sounded quite useful to him.

He watched as she added water to the bowl, moving it toward the fire. Was heating it up really necessary, he wondered? Spirit decided to save that question for a moment, as she introduced herself and asked his name. Svala was a nice name, for a nice lady, he decided. "M-my name is S-Spirit. Spirit Destruction." He knew that he had a large family, one that had lived in these lands for quite some time, and as far as he knew they had a reasonable reputation. Maybe he knew someone related to him? Part of him hoped she might.

The boy asked what boneset looked like before it was dried. She did have some fresh. She rooted around in one of the hide bundles on her travois before pulling out a rabbit hide. She unrolled it to reveal fresh, if slightly wilted boneset. "It looks something like this." The one's she'd collected were about two feet tall, with hair stems and toothed leaves. Each plant was adorned with a crown of tiny white flowers. "I haven't found any in the thicket yet. I gathered this farther north in the Rock Garden." The boy introduced himself as Spirit. She smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Spirit. Are you familiar at all with lavender? It grows here in the thicket and makes a wonderful tea. I can show you how to make some." She pulled out a few more ceramic bowls that they could put some of her dried lavender in or if he preferred they could search for some fresh. It was going to take a bit for her boneset infusion to finish heating up. "Talk" "You" Think

He watched carefully as she found some full boneset plats and showed him what they looked like. Spirit was glad he'd asked, as they honestly looked nothing like what was dried and ground up in water. It was quite recognizable, with its long stalks and small white flowers, not to mention the unique leaves it bore. Only when he'd started learning from Meadow had he realized the intricacies of plants; though many looked the same from a distance, up close they were quite different, with entirely different stalks and leaves and flowers. It wasn't totally unlike how wolves were each very different in their own ways, if he thought about it like that. She admitted she hadn't found any here, but further north, and he nodded in understanding.

"N-no," he answered her quietly. Some time ago he might've been embarrassed by his lack of knowledge, but now he found himself hungry for more. He wanted to be able to identify most plants he encountered, and someday to know exactly how he needed to use them. All in due time, he supposed - but in the mean time he had to be brave and to seek out knowledge wherever he could, no matter how terrifying talking to strangers could be. If he could push through those things, though... he'd been shown that some wolves were very kind, and willing to teach him. His eyes widened in interest as he watched what she was doing, taking it all in. "W-what does it taste like?"

Svala considered the boy's question. "That is a very good question, Spirit. It has its own unique flavor. Kind of like a milder mint but with more of an earthy taste. You can recognize it by its smell, its really unique. Here, I'll show you." She'd seen some lavender not too far off and she padded toward where she'd seen it. Spikes of purple flowers jutted up from the ground. A number of bugs and bees were buzzing around the flowers as their sweet perfume spread throughout the air. Svala bent her head and snipped off the base of one of the flower fronds. They could use this for tea."This is lavender. We can make tea out of the flowers. You can go ahead and pick a spike of it to if you like." She'd typically used dry flowers but she figured it could be done with the fresh as well. "Say, Spirit, what's your pack like? Is it nice there?" She'd been considering checking the pack out for herself and thought an inside view might be nice. She really liked the Eastern area of Boreas and hopped to find a place to settle down before winter. "Talk" "You" Think

So lavender was mildly minty, but earthy tool. He could kind of envision it, at least he thought. He nodded in acknowledgement of her words, though quickly stood to follow her. They weren't far away from some lavender, which was really quite convenient. He wanted to learn as much as he possibly could, and it seemed he'd made a good decision to head to place like this, so luscious and full of plant life. He examined the purple flowers from a distance at first, studying it with his head tilted before she invited him to take some of his own. Obediently he did, remembering how Meadow had done it as he gingerly snipped it close to the root, but not so close that it couldn't regrow on its own.

Gently he set down his plant for a moment as she asked him a question. "My p-pack?" Spirit repeated, as if stunned she'd directly asked him anything at all. "It's.. home. F-full of f-family, who c-care about one another," he managed to stammer out. He'd leave out the part about how him and his mother had gotten unintentionally separated from Abaven for most of his young life. That didn't seem important, at least in the context of his question. "D-do you have a pack, S-Svala?"

Svala regretted the question as she realized it made the boy anxious. Upon further thought she realized that might be a question a scout or spy from another pack might ask and even though she clearly smelt like a loner she'd heard of wolves masking their scents. It did sound nice though. Wolves that cared about each other. She wondered if the pack would take in wolves that were not family. She knew of some packs that were more like clans and you could only become part of the clan through marriage. "That sounds very nice. I don't have a pack yet, but I should very much like to join a nice pack before winter." Svala tried to smile reassuringly at the boy. She was merely curious and meant no harm. She pulled two ceramic bowls out of her travois as well as a couple of deer bones. She scooted one of the bowls toward Spirit as well as one of the bones. "You'll want to take the lavender and place it into the bowl. It can be helpful to bite it into pieces that will fit." She worked at chewing the herb until she had about an ounce added. "I think that amount is good. Next we'll mash it a little bit to help release its healing properties. I find a bone works well for this." She smiled and picked up a deer fibula, aiming the ball of the joint down to lightly mash the herbs. "Talk" "You" Think

"A-Abaven is a good one," he spoke up a bit louder, sounding more certain now as he spoke about his pack. Abaven really was a great pack, Spirit knew that despite how little he knew of other packs. Would Svala be interested in joining them? She sounded like she wanted to settle down, and with what he'd seen of her nature he had no doubt she'd fit in there well, but it wasn't his place to recruit new members. Planting a little suggestion seemed harmless though, and if Svala truly was interested Theory would handle the actual recruitment. "I c-can't imagine being a-anywhere else." Truly. Since being separating from them and returning, he knew now that this was his home no matter what.

He watched carefully as she pulled out two bowls and a few bones. She explained what to do, and obediently he followed, grabbing the lavender plant and spitting out smaller pieces into the bowl. The taste was a little bitter as expected, but not really that bad, with that mild minty taste she'd explained before. Once he too had gotten a good little portion of lavender torn up in the bowl, he grabbed one of the bones and carefully angled it in his mouth, using the end to begin mashing the herbs together. The process seemed fruitless at first, but soon he realized the herbs were being mushed into a paste, the task slow but beginning to show results.

Svala smiled as Spirit stated that Abaven was a good pack. Maybe she'd go ahead and give it a shot after all, she'd need to gather up some of her things. Living as a loner she'd had to store herbs along her most travelled routes just in case she needed anything. "I'll have to stop by some time and see if I might fit." She watched at the boy worked with the lavender to make his tea. Once he was done mashing he herbs she nodded her approval and grabbed her water skin. She was pretty sure she had just enough water for two more cups of tea before she'd need to fill it again. "Now all we need to do is add is a little more than a cup of water to each." She took the water skin and removed the cork before angling the water skin with her jaws and paws to pour water into the bowl with the lavender. When she had a enough she corked the water skin and scooted it toward Spirit. "You're welcome to use my water skin. If I'm near a stream I usually just scoop water into the bowl." Svala scooted her bowl near the fire but not right up next to it. "Once that's done we just scoot them near the fire to warm up to at least a simmer." "Talk" "You" Think