Astrid hummed. A bit of this, a pinch of that... Alocasia and larkspur, both a bit past their prime, but the dip in potency was nothing she couldn't work with. Both were known to cause intense burning in the mouth and intestine, vomiting and weakness. An inhibitor of the finest caliber... Or would be. She hadn't tried any sort of combination like this before, and of course she had no test subjects. As fascinating as it was to test out her concoctions, senseless murder still wasn't something that appealed to her. Vigilante justice on the other hand, well that was another story. There were always a plethora of rapists and marauders to be found, that might be an option. She shook the musings from her skull and resumed humming. A different problem for a different time. A dark sky roiled above the young fae as she gingerly picked amongst a pile of plant bits. Her choice roots and stems were placed upon the strip of tree bark she had pried loose from an unlucky trunk. A carefully selected stone, smooth and round, sat beside her and when all was as she needed it to be she placed that atop the pile as well. Paw-to-stone she began pressing and wiggling, grinding the two plants into a pulp. It would not harm her skin (she hoped) and so long as she was very careful to clean the pads before bathing again, all would be well. A gust of wind swept through the small vale and snatched up the leftover leaves. Whirling and cursing Astrid watched them go, grinding forgotten for a short moment... Well damn. "Talk" "You" Think

He had been watching this stranger for a few minutes now, his scent having been masked by his downwind position. He was very interested in what she was doing, he had never seen a wolf gather herbs and smash them into a pulp with a smooth stone. What could she possibly be doing? So badly he wanted to approach her, but he was afraid. What if she was mean, or worse, what if she wasn't alone? He didn't want to walk straight into an ambush, but his curiosity was getting the best of him. Maybe if he just said hello... His mind was made up. He would do his best to drown out his anxieties, and he would puff out his chest to make him appear larger. Standing up completely straight, he would waltz out into the open, and hopefully, step into her vision. Immediately his eyes are drawn toward her acidic green orbs, and he is momentarily mesmerized by her beauty, Hopefully she was as nice as she looked. "Hi." He says aloud, his mismatched gaze aiming to align with hers should she chose to look up at him. "speech"

The voice that broke in on her staring match with missed opportunity was, honestly, a welcome respite. She turned with a sigh and found an oddly-furred male awaiting her recognition. She eyed him up and down. About her age, obviously looking for something to pass the time... She blinked. "Hello." The word was slow and ponderous. How long had he been... No, she didn't want to think about it. She looked down to her little work station, and prayed that he didn't know a rose from clover, otherwise this could be awkward. "Nice to meet you?" The common phrase became a question in the face of her surprise. So she had been caught off guard, no big deal. These things happened right. And if worse came to worse, she'd bet her left paw she'd be able to trick this male into eating her concoction so... Yeah, back up plan. Thunder rolled in the far distance and she looked up into the cobalt-and-iron clad sky, and another blustering wind swept into the grove of shrubs and low trees. "I suppose this would be the part where I make some bland comment on the weather, hm?" Small talk might not have been a strong suit but wit and sarcasm had never in short supply for the pale young femme. Hopefully this was a male who could roll with the punches.

Her voice seemed harmonious enough to match her attractive features, so hopefully her personality wouldn't fall too far behind. Her acidic green eyes would trail him from top to bottom, and he would take this moment to do the same to her. He was pretty impressed with what he saw, especially with her eyes. Not many members of his family had such bright green eyes, it was mesmerizing. Her greeting brings a shy smile to his face, his lips curling just enough to show the tips of his ivory canines, but not in a threatening way. "Nice to meet you too. My name is Gauner!" His tail starts to wag from left to right, he is pretty happy to finally have someone to talk to. He has been alone since he had gotten separated from his family. When she talks about the weather, a cold gust of wind coincidentally blows past them, and he feels a shiver roll down his spine. Mismatched gaze trails upward to behold the blackened sky. Hopefully it didn't start pouring rain, because he had no idea where he would be able to wait out the storm. "Yeah, the weather looks pretty nasty huh..." He trails off, his skull tipping back down to align with his spine. "Do you think it will rain?" He asks, hoping to spark up a conversation with the girl. He would surly ask her about the herbs once names were exchanged and he knew a little more about her, but for now he would be patient. "speech"

He gave his name with a gleeful wag. Astrid did not quite know what to make of the male. He seemed entirely nonthreatening, but she was a suspicious creature. It could be a farce, she considered. Perhaps he was some sort of sociopath. Internally that brought about a shrug and she decided at last to cross that sea when she came to it. "I'm Astrid Frost," she said with an infinitesimally small smile. Heaven forbid she humor the brute. "And I imagine it will, sooner or later." She tried to peer through the branches and track the movement of the clouds, but she could not get clear view, what with the whipping winds. She shrugged, signifying that it did not matter to her one way or another. Rain was rain, and cold was cold. Neither was likely to kill her, and falling ill was hardly something she worried over these days, gods strike her for hubris. She turned her gaze to the forgotten pile of mush which sat at her feet, dejected. It's sharp smell was starting to make her a bit dizzy, and she filed that away as something to be considered later. She dipped a toe under the bark base and tossed it away with a roll of her acidic orbs. "Pardon the smell," she quipped. "I was, er, testing something." She braced herself for the male's curiosity, fairly certain that he would have a volley of questions for her. They always did. For some plants and herbs were just fascinating, and for myriad different reasons. It was all the same to her, and she looked to him, gaze expectant and dry. "Speech"

'Astrid Frost... What a beautiful name!' He thinks to himself after the woman gives him her name, his smile widening a tiny bit as she halfheartedly grins back at him. She didn't seem as interested in him as he was in her, but that was okay. He was used to being the spunky one when it came to meeting new wolves. When she comments on the rain, and says it will rain sooner or later, his grin starts to fade. Mismatched gaze flicks upward again, his eyes beholding the massive sea of grey above them. "I'm hoping it doesn't, I don't know where I would wait out the rain. I don't know this territory." His gaze falls back down to align with hers, his skull cocking slightly as he ponders the possibility of having to wait out the storm.

The thoughts of the storm start to fade as she turns her attention back toward what she was doing before he had interrupted, and instantly his curiosity is ensnared. When she tosses away the piece of bark with a roll of her eyes, his auburn ears fold against his skull. Why did she just do that? She seemed pretty concerned with her herbs earlier... Then she mentions a smell. "Smell?" He questions, his neck extending toward her so he can sniff in her direction. He inhales some air through his nose, and after a few moments he starts to feel a little light headed. Weird... how could a smell do that to him? "Oh, I see what you mean now." He says with a lighthearted chuckle. "What were you testing anyways? What does that... stuff.. do to you?" He didn't know the difference between a pine and maple leaf, so he had no idea what was ground up in her little pile of paste.


"Speech"
'thoughts'

Astrid was trying to find some nugget of interest for the man. She was being rude, she knew she was, only... The girl stifled a sigh. The wiles and wishes of others had never brought about any sort of empathy. They weren't her kin, so they weren't her business. Yet this young male was persistent, and what was the worst that could happen. His bland remark that he had no where to stay caught her off guard. Was he... implying something? No, surely not. She shrugged noncommittally, as she had no where in mind either. If the weather came, it came. And in time it would move off again, nothing worth worrying over. Her company leaned in to get a better wiff of her meaning, and before she could stop him, inhaled deeply. Worry melted away as she watched him avidly for the details of his reaction. He seemed out of focus... Dizzy perhaps? Interesting. "What were you testing anyways?" he queried. A breath was spent deciding how to best answer that question, and she decided to be delicate. "I study herbs, its a hobby of mine. When I come across those I'm unfamiliar with I like to test them." Never mind that she had in fact been looking for potency instead of their viability as healing agents... well. What Gauner didn't know probably wouldn't hurt him, so long as he didn't ingest anything. Best keep an eye on that, she noted within her mind. You could never be too careful. An accidental poisoning wasn't exactly what she was after. "What of you, are you studying any one art?" This was small talk, she supposed. Never her strong suit, but how hard could it truly be? "Talk" "You" Think