_________________________________________________________________ Venturing from the castle walls toward the sprawling gardens around it, Audra glanced up at the wall that surrounded the grounds. Covered in thick ivy with the occasional blossoming white flowers, she wondered perhaps why it preferred to grow there. Distracted by the thought, she quickly placed her bum on the soft cushion of grass and let her tail wrap around her. Tilting her head gently to the side to admire the greenery that was the gardens of Amron's Castle, she nearly forgot the purpose of her being out here. With the sun warming her back and the quiet lull of nearby waves, she simply enjoyed her time here. It was the perfect place to live and she couldn't wait to see where life took her. Lost in her daydream for a moment more, her paw lifted a bit until it scuffed against the items she'd gathered. Not long back, she'd heard of someone mention that the sun rose and descended at specific times of the day. As such, the moon would do the same, but it was harder to tell due to the lack of light. Yet, Audra wondered if she could find a way to make it possible to tell how much time had passed. It was beyond what any wolf she'd ever met knew, but she was interested in the challenge of it. Laying at her paws, a pile of smooth river rocks and a stick asked for attention. The instructions had sounded easy. Stick the stick in the ground and place the rocks around it. But how that made it do anything, she wasn't sure. Staring at it in a confused way, Audra brought a paw up to her cheek to scratch it. _________________________________________________________________ A  U  D  R  A

"L-Lady Laeta, slow down, please!" Mel cried out, clambering hastily towards his wobbly master. Laeta really went out of the gates after Mel essentially carried her down the stairs from her room to the main floor of the castle, a place she hadn’t been able to walk around in what felt like ages. The moment her thin, bony toes touched the stone floor, she made a (very clumsy and unbalanced) beeline towards the gardnes, her favorite place. "You’ll fall, my lady! Please wait for me!" Mel stammered as Lae pivoted her angular, emaicated form towards the rim of the oourtyard, Lae narrowed her ruby eyes in determination. "I’ll be fine, Mel. Here, walk alongside me if you so insist," She replied to him, her calm tone quelling his worried expression. He still frowned softly in his usual nervous manner as she leaned softly against the badger, hobble-stumbling her way, step by shaky step, towards the lush greenery. Sunlight poured generously through the gardens this day, when it was normally so rainy and bitterly wet. Having bare ground beneath her toes that could actually move was even more enjoyable, and she paused to let hernose take in the sweet scents of the flora that thrived upon the crumbling walls and within the thick foliage. After a pause, Lae’s gaze traveled from the walls towards a familiar figure in the garden. Glancing down at her badger as a cue to move with her, she wobbled and unsteadily padded towards the familiar femme. "Audra, how nice to see you!" She said gently, not wanting to spook the girl from her thoughts. With a pause, the woman’s tail wagged weakly but surely as she saw the stick and rocks on the ground. A thought popped into her head, reminding her of a similar idea to Audra’s. The sun rose and fell in cycles, and based on the predictions of said cycles, one could create..this contraption? She had yet to truly figure it out for herself. Looking at the other woman, Lae’s cheerful expression was alight with curiosity as she asked, "Would I be correct in my assumption to say you’re making something to track the patterns of the sun? She supposed that’s what her packmate was attempting, anyways. "I’d love to help, if you’d like." Lae wouldn’t force herself upon the woman if she didn’t want assistance, and she mostly just wanted to get out and about anyways with her now moving legs. She sat down, her leg muscles still unable to hold her weight for long. "Speech"

_________________________________________________________________ A rush of relief washed over her when a familiar voice popped up from behind. With a warm grin over her tawny lips, Audra tilted her head back to see Laeta approach. "Laeta! You're walking!" She chirped in her sing-song style of voice. "Mel, it is a pleasure as always," Audra commented with a respectful dip of her muzzle toward the badger. "I had heard the good news but had yet to come by and find you," the petite girl mentioned in a delighted tone. Whether she noticed Lae's emaciated frame or not wasn't her's to comment about. The Hallows had plenty of healers to tend to her and surely, she was probably tired of being told how to care for herself. Health would come with time, Audra knew that for sure. When Laeta sat beside her, Audra glanced back down at the pile of rocks and the stick laying out on the grass. "You are very correct on that assumption," she mentioned with a sheepish smile. "If you could help, I would love that," there was a slightly embarrassed look upon her face now as she didn't want to admit that she truly didn't know how to make what she wanted to make. "See, from what I was told, you put the stick in the ground like so." Audra picked it up as well as her paw could and shakily drove it into the ground until it firmly stood straight. Scooting back a few inches so that her shadow didn't envelope their working space, she looked over to Laeta. "Then I know you place the rocks around it in a circle, but I'm not sure where," the girl lets out a quiet laugh, hoping that Laeta would be of some help. _________________________________________________________________ A  U  D  R  A

Laeta beamed as Audra greeted her with such joy. She found herself overjoyed to see the astonished yet amazed looks on her packmates’ faces as she moved on her own again. Many of them had become accustomed to seeing her wheeled about in a cart or propped up in bed, but now they’d see as she deserved to be - walking among them as a true member of the pack. It’s all she ever wanted, and though the journey to recovering wasn’t done yet, it was approaching at a steady pace. Baby steps, quite literally. Mel offered a smile and a polite bow towards the brown-pelted woman as Lae replied to her, "I’m happy the news is spreading! I hope the rest of the pack will see me at my best in no time." Her tail wagged softly, a faint sweep across the grassy floor. It was nice to be on dry earth. Mel would have a heart attack trying to guide her wobbly fawn legs through the typical rainshowers and mudslides Austers’ season brought. As Audra explained what she was attempting to do, Lae leaned slightly over the collection of rocks and the stick with curiosity. Truthfully, she did know a bit about constructing such things - a faint memory of her mother performing a similar task to determine the pace of sunrise and sunset over the seasons. With a thoughtful hum, the skinny older woman adjusted her position, elbows snapping loudly at the joint as she stretched them. Her body trembled under the exertion of merely lifting one leg - her wasted muscles were working overtime just to remain seated. Mel frowned, murmuring a "I’ll fetch you a few pillows to rest on, my lady," And promptly clambered up the stairs, ruby nails clicking into the distance. Once the younger woman stuck the stick in the ground, Lae grazed her mind’s deepest memory of her skills in order to determine the best course of action. After a few moments of thinking of the directionality of the stones, she shakily extended a thin paw to carefully push a rock behind the stick. "For starters, the rocks should be positioned based on key points of the day," She said, even learning a bit herself along the way. "This rock, for example, signifies midday. This is where the sun is at its highest. See?" The stick’s shadow eclipsed the stone, signifying the sun’s position at the time. She was too weak to push all the rocks where they should go, ideally, but she continued explaining with the brightest expression and biggest smile she’d held in ages. The sun felt so nice, the grass beneath her toes so cool. "Now, the other main stone would go directly to the right of the stick - that’s mid afternoon, then directly below the stick would be evening, typically sunset. Though depending on the season, the sun can set earlier like in the fall or winter. The stone after that would be the stone directly across from the mid-afternoon stone, about a quarter until the middle of the night." She paused to allow Audra to organize the stones, and if she had more, she’d suggest adding thembased on each individual hour, resulting in 12 calculated hours a day. But little steps, just as Lae had to remind herself with her physical recovery. Little steps were important. "Speech"

_________________________________________________________________ Audra's one good eye watched in earnest as Laeta shakily extended a paw to scoot a rock across the grass. Seeing where she placed it at the specific location at the top of the stick's shadow, she began to understand. With one ear turned toward Laeta's voice to listen to what she had to say, she nodded slowly. "That makes sense," her voice was quiet but loud enough to hear between the two of them. Glancing upward toward the brilliant sun, she squinted and blinked quickly before looking down. How Laeta knew any of this impressed her fully as Audra watched her shift the rocks into place. Warming her own lips with a gentle smile, Audra easily began moving the rocks with Laeta's direction. Knowing the other girl would tire quickly since her muscles were still redeveloping, she was more than happy to help. Thankfully, she had brought enough small stones to fill in the circle surrounding the stick's shadow. "Now that I'm seeing it come together, it is making a lot more sense," Audra said happily as her tail wagged behind her. Scooting the other rocks into place so that twelve round stones were placed at equal distances apart from each other, she admired their work. "I suppose if it is too cloudy out, it might not work though, huh?" She asked curiously as she took the time to make sure each rock was perfectly in position. _________________________________________________________________ A  U  D  R  A

Watching as Audra organized the stones, the woman smiled, allowing herself this time and this moment to bask in the rare sunlight. Normally the winter days were filled with dull, rumbling clouds and massive rainstorms - the ones that would pelt the castle walls like a torrent of gravel. She used to have a distaste for such days prior to her injury - rain-soaked pelts were heavier and it made it harder for her to run and hunt as she enjoyed. However, her life-threatening ordeal gave her a new lease on life, and now, whether it was rain, or shine, like this day, she was grateful for it. Grateful to be able to walk outside and sit in the warm glow of the day, and not just a sliver of blue from her bedroom window. Mel swiftly returned, awkwardly fumbling with a rather large set of soft pillows in his maw she’d recognized from her room. He dropped them, doing what he could practically do in his sleep now as her caretaker - arranging the large pillows on each side of her, curving them as such that if she needed to rest her forelegs she had a softer surface on which to do so. "Here you go, my lady - shall I fetch anything for you otherwise?" Lae glanced over to her badger with a warm smile. She didn’t want to treat him like a servant in any regard, so she shook her head and replied, "Oh, I’m fine, Mel. Thank you kindly. Why don’t you take a look at the rest of the castle grounds?" With that, Mel’s eyes brightened in excitement, and he plundered off on heavy clawed toes. He certainly liked a bit of exploring himself, and she’d let him do that. Turning back to the russet-pelted girl, she noticed she’d arranged the stones in the circle she’d suggested. It looked wonderful - exactly as she remembered it being done. The stick’s shadow indicated midday still as the stones were lined nicely, and she smiled up at the woman with sparkling ruby eyes. "Doesn’t it? Now you can tell what time it is with precision," She replied. Sometimes it helped someone to know exactly what time it was - you could guage then how many hours you had until night fell. Important flr shifts in season, for sure. With Audra’s next statement about it not working during cloudy days, she nodded. "Unfortunately, no. This requires a bright sunny day to work accurately. I still haven’t found a way to tell time when the sun isn’t out." She supposed she was thinking aloud at that point, but it certainly would be convenient to tell time when they didn’t have the luxury of such a clear sky. That said, Auster’s winters didn’t provide much leeway to make sundials, what with its frequent storms. ”Speech” ’Thought’