Saren’s life as of late had been reminiscent of his early childhood, largely alone. He hadn’t failed to say hi every now and then to the other wolves in the pack, but for the most part he hadn’t been a major social participant. His activities had been mainly taking care of his herb garden and managing craft projects in his den. The latter had taken over his time however given that the winter didn’t exactly encourage plant growth. Making pottery, weapons, decorative items, he’d been trying it all. Some attempts went well while others…well they’re better not spoken of. On today he’d decided to check on what the state of his garden was. A few feet away from the pond’s edge were a number of plants that had pretty much withered from the cold. He had hope that come Spring new plants would arrive in their place, some of the plants he had moved here himself from different places so he wasn’t positive they would come back due to the change in climate. He started to carefully push snow away from the bases of the plants using his paws while quietly whispering to the plants, “You’ll be alright, I haven’t put all my love into you for nothing. Spring’ll come and you’ll be as strong as ever.”

Ragna emerged from the ravine and headed to the lake with Integra, her macaque, at her heels. She didn't have much in the way of plans but she thought it might be nice to make some tea and sit by the lake with a nice warm drink. She arrived to find the lake frozen solid but that wasn't unexpected. Between her and Integra they got a decent fire going. While she was waiting for it to break down to the right state for tea she went for a short walk. She hadn't gone fare when she noticed a young man digging in the snow. She hadn't spoken with him before but she knew he was a pack mate. She cleared her throat and approached. "Hello there. I'm Ragna, a new member of Aerie. What are you doing in the snow there?" "speak."|  | 'Thoughts' |

Saren raised his head from looking at the ground when he heard another voice. What met his gaze was a woman who he only vaguely remembered. He’d probably seen them before but lately he’d been far too in his own head to register things around him. He noticed the monkey that the wolf had with her and was reminded of his own lemur, was she also interested in crafting? If he was serious with himself he hadn’t learned much in the way of crafting since Aureus’s death. Aureus was the crafter of the pack so he felt there was a glaring gap there. He’d be more than willing to fill it, but he needed the knowledge to match that status. Remembering the presence of the woman he responded to her greeting. “Hi, I’m Saren. I don’t think we’ve spoken before, I was just taking care of my plants.” He stole a glance back at the plants that had pretty much shriveled from the winter “But I think some of them are a bit past the point of saving.” He let out a nervous chuckle. Replanting anything that didn’t make it to the spring was gonna be a hassle.

The young man introduced himself as Saren and stated that he was looking after his plants. Ragna nodded. "Yea, it's been a rough winter so far. Hopefully, if they're perennials, they've reseeded themselves and will come up in the spring. Do you like to garden?" She'd herd of wolves that did some gardening and it was something she'd always wanted to try but never really had the chance to do. Since she and her husband had been living as nomads the past few years it hadn't made much sense to set up anything permanent. "I was going to get some tea going if you want to join me." There was little that beat a nice warm fire on a cool winter day. Thankfully, the wind had died down. She moved near the fire and pulled out a few ceramic bowls as well as some dried peppermint leaves they could use to make the tea. "speak."|  | 'Thoughts' |

Ragna had offered tea to Saren, this certainly wasn’t something he was going to turn down. He’d heard of another wolf in the pack that enjoyed making tea but he’d never gone further into the matter. He hadn’t had tea nor made it yet, despite knowing it possessed medicinal properties. Saren replied to her offer with “I’d love to.” Leaving his dying plants behind he trotted over to where the woman had constructed a fire. She seemed to have her own herbs and containers to go through the process. “I love gardening and herbs, but surprisingly I haven’t made tea before.” He said as he wondered how the process was done.

Saren agreed to join her for some tea and Ragna picked up some of the dried peppermint and placed it in her bowl before using her paw to mash and break the dried leaves into smaller particles. She'd let Saren make his own with a little instruction. "I'll let you make yours. You'll want to put in about an ounce of dried leaves for peppermint tea. It's about this much. I then like to mash the leaves down into smaller pieces but you don't have to if you don't want to." She knew plenty of healers that left them whole, she just felt the tea would be a bit more potent with smaller pieces. "So how long have you been in Aerie?" Ragna was interested in learning more about her pack mates and she was curious if anyone else was new or newish. "speak."|  | 'Thoughts' |

Saren grabbed a couple of the dried leaves to mash with his paws. The leaves were brittle and didn’t take much effort to crush into tiny pieces, although there were a fair amount of pieces that stuck to the bottom of his paws. He understood the logic of crushing the leaves to release flavor, the more area there was for the water to touch the more flavor would seep into the liquid. Ragna asked how long he had been a part of Aerie and Saren was wondered if he should take the time he’d spent away and the name change into account. “Well it depends on how you define Aerie, but I was born when the pack was down in Auster under a different name and leader. A fair amount of us are related somehow.”

Ragna finished mixing the herbs in her bowl. She then uncorked her water skin and carefully poured water into the bowl. She then very gently, and carefully, scooted the bowl near the fire. In hindsight perhaps she should've moved the bowl near the fire and then poured in the water. Ah, well. She settled down to listen as Saren spoke. He explained the pack used to go by a different name and was once in Auster. He also explained that many of the pack members were related. "I wondered that. I notice quite a few have the same last name. I wondered if perhaps the pack started out as a family clan. So, I take it you were born into the pack then?" "speak."|  | 'Thoughts' |

As Saren listened to Ragna’s words he wondered how much new pack members knew of the packs actual history. He wasn’t in charge of accepting people obviously so he had no idea if those not of the family within the pack knew of their religious origins. “I was born into the pack yes, I don’t know if you’ve met Thalia but she’s my sister. She’s also in the pack but she’s been off on business a lot recently.” The vibe Saren was feeling was that they were about to have a nice chat over tea and something inside him was more than ready for it. It’d be nice to have a chat about the pack’s history. “When I was a pup I learned a fair amount about our family’s history, we’re all descended from a god named Abraxas. So when you think about it it makes sense that the pack started out as a family clan, keeping with your own kind and all that.”

Ragna checked the water from time to time, waiting for when it was ready and she could partake of the warming liquid. Saren mentioned Thalia but she shook her head. "I haven't. I'll be honest I'm not the best at getting out to know others. My husband and I have been on our own for a long time, just us, so its taking some time to get used to being in a pack again. Do you know what sort of business your sister does?" Even though they'd been part of a pack originally it was a very war-minded pack and there often was much time to get to know each other or sit and relax. When you finally did it was only a matter of time before the wolf you befriend ended up dead in battle. Many wolves just didn't bother risking the heartache. She listened politely as Saren explained more about the pack and their beliefs. She certainly didn't believe in gods or anything of the sort but she wouldn't bludgeon his beliefs. If anything it did make sense that the pack had started out as a family clan. She nodded. " Are there other healers in the pack or is it mostly us?" "speak."|  | 'Thoughts' |