Lukina arrived back at the camp site. Magnolia sat next to the fire and gazed curiously at the wolf that followed her albino companion. Lukina set the feverfew down and gestured to the arctic fox with her silver antlers. "This is Magnolia. Magnolia this is err…. oh gee, I never gave my name. I'm Lukina." She almost gave her name as Hoarfrost but had hesitated at the last moment. It was her swamp wolf name. Something she didn't really feel like sharing with the stranger just yet.

Magnolia nodded and smiled sweetly but didn't say anything. She didn't often speak to strangers, and was even quiet around Lukina most of the time. Lukina fiddled about looking for her ceramic bowls. When she finally found them she set the pair down on the dirt. "Here we go. Did you want to make some tea along with me?"

Following Lukina back to her camp, Jasper allowed (read: forced) the remaining well of tension within her gut to unwind. Even as the voice in the back of her mind insisted that this young shewolf was leading her away to murder her somewhere more scenic, another slightly louder voice argued back that at least it would be quick. Good enough. Of course, those thoughts were again derailed almost entirely by the sight of a fox... with antlers. At some point, Jasper figured she might as well surrender herself to the shitstorm of weird today was becoming, and just settle in for the ride. Lukina introduced the... okay, calling it a 'creature' would be rude. Mental note made. Lukina introduced the fox (probably) as Magnolia, to whom Jasper sent a polite nod and a, "Nice to meet you." Turning to address them both, tacked on, "I go by Jasper." Probably best to keep on the fire-wielding jackalope's good side, right? Meanwhile, Lukina fiddled with a few small containers and it was all Jasper could do to stare, drinking every detail in. Wolves definitely did things differently here, huh? "Did you want to make some tea along with me?" Jasper sent back a hapless shrug. "I'm afraid I might not be very helpful, but I'm happy to try. What should I do?" This was new. This was strange. This was something Jasper could maybe get used to. "Talk" "Listen" Think

Lukina scooted one of the ceramic bowls toward the woman who still hadn't introduced herself but Lukina opted to let it go. She clearly was uncomfortable giving her name and it seemed maybe introducing herself as Hoarfrost wouldn't have been that strange after all. "We'll want to put a half ounce of the leaves and flowers in the bowl first. I'll show you how much. My cousin Rœkia showed me. I don't know how else you tell otherwise." She'd once heard her cousin mention something about scales but she couldn't figure out how a fish was going to help her tell how much herb to use. She bent her and started chewing off leaves and flowers and dropping, sometimes spitting, them into the bowl until she had the right amount.

Jasper was nothing if not an apt student once her mind had latched it's teeth into the task, and she watched Lukina work for a moment with keen interest. How much of the plant she first grasped between her teeth, how she moved, how much care was taken. If she was a perfectionist built on fear of punishment, well... It would work in her favor right now, and she didn't want to think about that so she got to work instead. At first nibble the plant was slightly bitter and unpleasant, but that tracked with what she did know of most healing herbs. She chewed a moment, careful to mimic the texture of what Lukina produced as closely as she could manage. Hopefully it wasn't too clumpy, right? And hopefully whatever this tea was would make it taste better in the end. A few mouthfuls through, seeing the contents of her bowl looking more or less level with the younger wolf's, she gently tilted the dish sideways so Lukina could get a clear look inside. "How does this look?" "Talk" "Listen" Think

Lukina watched patiently as Jasper worked to follow her motions, filling up her bowl. She smiled and nodded. "Yes, that looks good to me. Now we need to add the water to make the decoction or tea if you prefer. They're really the same thing." She rooted around in the hide cloth sack before finding her water skin. She set the water skin between her paws and used her teeth to pop the cork off it. Then she very carefully took the top of the water skin in her jaws and tipped it to pour into her bowl, using one of her paws to control the flow until she had about a cup of water in the bow. She carefully set the water skin down, being careful to keep the spout up. "You then add this much water. I have a water skin but you can use water from rivers and streams if its available." After all they'd need to boil it to get the good properties out of the plant anyway.

The wave of relief that flooded through her was almost surprising in its intensity, and Jasper found herself letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. No catastrophic failures yet, happy day. She nodded like the word 'decoction' cleared anything up at all, but 'learn by doing' right? She wasn't going to bog down this whole process with a string of questions, because once she got going Jasper was worried it would be hard to stop. Best to take things one step at a time. And besides, watching Lukina rummange through her various wares was a culture shock all its own, only expanding the horizons of 'what the fuck is that' and heightening the need for Jasper to keep her mouth shut. (Paradoxically perhaps, but that is how her mind worked, damn it all.) That waterskin sure would have been useful out in the canyonlands... "What about salt water? Will that work too?" Shit. Oops, that one slipped. Clenching her teeth, wary of whether or not the interruption would rouse an ire as-yet-unseen in the other wolf, because you just never knew. Jasper peered down to get a good look at precisely how much water Lukina had used, distracting herself with the task of memorization instead. "Talk" "Listen" Think

Lukina wrinkled her nose at the mention of salt water. "Umm… I wouldn't. It would make it taste even weirder and could dehydrate your patient." Rœkia told her that drinking salt water would give her diarrhea but she wasn't sure if that was true or not. Sometimes it was hard to tell if her cousin was serious or pulling her leg.

"Once you have the water added you need to bring the water to a boil for a few minutes so we want to scoot it carefully to the fire. She used her paws and gently scooted the bowl as close to the coals as she dared. "The really hard part is scooting the bowl away when its hot!" She'd been burned a few times before learning to use antlers, bones and sticks to coax the bowl back away from the coals to cool.

Weird tastes were bad enough all on their own, and dehydration a beast Jasper had faced down a time or two as result of foolishness, and those scant occasions had been all the experience she needed to steer clear. "Right, duly noted." Lukina went on, so Jasper went right on listening. Heating up the mixture suddenly made the bowls make a lot more sense. Fire was yet another thing she hadn't really tangled with, other than the occasional lightning-sparked blaze which were best avoided, for obvious reasons. To try and tame such a thing was more than Jasper might have dared on her own, though Lukina and her companion made it look easy. At Lukina's warning she nodded, gravely serious. "That makes sense. I'll be careful." Then, Jasper cocked her head once more as she considered. The first question hadn't been a problem, so... Well, it was a day for strangeness after all, perhaps she could risk just one more. "Does heating it up make it taste better, then?" Gods she hoped so. "Talk" "Listen" Think

Lukina thought for a moment at Jasper's question. "That is honestly a good question." She hadn't really considered it much before. "I think for some of them it does. Like it's not as strong and bitter as chewing the straight plant. But really the main reason you boil it is to pull the healing properties of the plants into the water. It's easier to get patients to drink a decoction than eat a whole plant." She knew some wolves in her homeland would be mortified at being asked to eat a plant like a prey animal. She thought it rather silly but some wolves were just set in their ways. Lukina peeked over at the bowls near the fire. There was steam starting to rise from them but no real bubbles yet. "This part always seems to take foreeevvveeerrrr."

Lukina seemed to consider her question carefully, which was a pleasant surprise that left something warm and foreign stirring in Jasper's gut. She summarily ignored it, and focused on listening to her answer instead. Pulling out the healing properties, eh? She'd just have to take the pale wolf's word for it, though something about the concept tugged at her mind. Fire didn't seem to improve anything. It reduced the world to ashes where it blazed, and heat alone withered plants and parched the land. Water did just about the opposite, so perhaps the magic came from combining the two... No matter. She'd ruminate on that later. Jasper watched as steam began to curl up from the bowl's surface. For all the extra labor involved, it did seem a peaceful process. Almost meditative. Lukina lamented the time this step of the process took, and Jasper caught herself smiling before she could think better of it. "It smells nice, at least. Do you do anything with the plant after, or is that just waste once the... er, properties have been pulled out?" She thought back to times she had been sick in the past, parched and unable to keep food down. Something like this, that could help one stay hydrated while healing at the same time, was actually quite a marvel in Jasper's eye. "Talk" "Listen" Think

Lukina played with the deer antler, knocking it between her paws as she fidgeted. Waiting seemed to take even longer when you were trying to show somebody something. Her claws unsheathed as she needed a little at the hide she was partially laying on before batting the antlers again. "Yea, this one doesn't smell to bad. You typically discard the plant afterwards. You can fish it out with a stick or something before drinking but I just kind of lap up as much as I can before then." Sometimes it depended on how nasty tasting the plant itself was.

Lukina peeked back over at the bowls as she started to see a few bubbles rising to the surface. "Oooo its starting to simmer. Perfect. We'll want to give it a few minutes. A lot of times you can see the water change color when it pulls out the properties."