Leo was hunting, but he wasn't hunting prey today. No, today he was hunting a very special kind of red-headed bunny-tailed wolf. He crept through mangroves, keeping down wind and close to the ground like he was on the hunt for a very important prey animal, sniffing along the ground to follow Amalia's trail. He certainly hadn't forgotten how she had so kindly greeted him at the last two meetings and he happened to be feeling a little extra mischievous today. He neared her herb den and slowed a bit, wanting to move extra stealthily so she wouldn't hear him. He went around to the back of the den so that he could carefully climb over it and perch himself above the entrance he grinned and crouched down to wait for her to come out. A little taste of her own medicine, that's what this was! Well, and just a chance to pick on his sister a bit. Why not, right? "Talk" "You" Think

She poked her nose around her herbs, the scent drowning out anything that may have warned her about Leo's approach. So devoted to her work, she didn't know what was waiting for her when she left her den. For now though, she had no intentions of leaving any time soon. Amalia was pulling down the rest of the herbs that had tried, tucking them neatly where they were supposed to be. After counting a few more things, she took a seat to eye her many piles of plants, flowers, and roots. She was running low on a few things, but as was to be expected during the winter time. Thinking that it was good for now, she thought about taking a little nap in her herb den, after all she did deserve a bit of a break. Winter was a hard time for all wolves, healers weren't safe from the cold season. The tiny woman had been working for hours on end to gather all she could before the real chill got here, but she had done all that she could already. What was left now? Tapping her tail against the ground, she hummed softly to herself. It had been awhile since she checked in on her girls, Diana hadn't been at the meeting which made her concerned. Was she feeling alright? The little look-alike was a rather quiet girl, but it wasn't like her to just not come to a meeting. At last her mind was made up, and she squeezed out of her den. Yawning, Amalia paused as soon as she stood outside, her upper half lowering as she stretched out like a cat. How long had she even been in there? It was hard to tell, but with a shake of her head she turned to made her way to her den that she shared with her family. "SPEAK"

Amalia had him waiting longer than he thought he would be, but he was determined! He stayed crouched above her den, watching the entrance closely for his sister to appear. Finally he heard her shuffling out into the open and he grinned with excitement. He waited for juuuuuust the right moment and then- He tried to jump down to pounce her and all of his joints protested against it. His "ah hah!" quickly devolved into a pained "owwww!" Well this was embarrassing. He stood at the very edge of the top portion of her den, slowly pulling himself back up onto his paws. It felt like all of his joints were creaky door hinges. His face felt hot as he blushed from embarrassment. "Well that didn't go as planned," he said with a chuckle as he tried to laugh it off. "Shouldn't have kept me waiting so long, sis, I was finally gonna get you back!" He hopped down onto the ground beside her. His knees really, really didn't like that he had been crouched for so long. His shoulders had hurt him for a while now, but this was a newer development. "Talk" "You" Think

Amalia was totally unaware of Leo's plans before she heard Leo call towards her, only for it to turn into a groan. She spun on a dime and eyed him with narrowed blue eyes, nearly hearing his joints cracking from here. Instead of her usual smile, the tiny healer quickly fixed her brother with a sharp stare. "And just what do you think you are doing? How long have your joints been hurting? Have you come to seek out herbs from me? Noooo! And then you go and lay on top of my den! What are you thinking Leo, you could get yourself really hurt!" she tossed at him, huffing at she dropped to her rump to glare at him. It hadn't even crossed her mind what he was going to do, focusing more on the fact that he wanted to seem to hide his pain from her. Was she not a good enough healer? Did she have to shove the darn herbs down his throat? And then she remembered his words. Wait, what didn't work out? Blinking in confusion, she noticed how he was standing and the fact that he was going to jump. On her. Suddenly the woman snorted, her damper mood erased as her grin broke across her maw. Oh, he had been trying to get her back from the meeting! Giggling, she didn't try to take back her words, but just shook her head back and forth slowly. What a silly man he was! "So much for getting me back, you're going to have to keep that to us young wolves!" Amalia teased. They were very close in age, with her actually being a few months older than him. It didn't mean that she couldn't tease him though. Her stump of a tail wagged, but there was still a touch of a harder note in her eyes. She wasn't kidding about shoving herbs down his throat. "SPEAK"

He probably should have been expecting his sister's scolding rant, but she still surprised him sometimes with the ferocity of her nurturing. He grinned guiltily, his head ducking a bit. He supposed he really should have come to her sooner about it, but he really didn't want to make a fuss. He was getting older and he had put his body through a lot the last few years. He figured some aches were par for the course. Leo hadn't really thought of the idea that there might be some herbs or something that could help. For a moment it seemed like his transgression was forgotten though when she realized what he had been planning on doing. His grin widened and he shot her a playful glare at her teasing. He knew he wasn't off the hook, but at least some humor would make her healer-ness a little less harsh. Maybe. "Yeah yeah, I'll get you back one of these days! Just you wait!" he replied with a laugh as he settled down onto his haunches. It was hard to believe sometimes that she was actually the older one. Not by much of course, but she was. Of course she had always avoided fighting so she didn't have old wounds to deal with as much. "To answer your question though, the joints hurting is pretty new. It's mostly just when I'm crouched for a long time or something like that... Like when I'm trying to pounce on my sister." He added another grin before he went on. "The area between my shoulders has been hurting more lately though. I dunno if it's just stress or something left from what Bacchus did or what. I'm sure it's nothing though, just old man aches." He tried to downplay it, not wanting Amalia to worry too much. "Talk" "You" Think

She snorted at his antics, her head shaking slowly back and forth. He could try to get her, but she doubted that he ever would. "Leave that all up to me, dearest brother. I bet you couldn’t pull something off like that ever," Sticking out the tip of her tongue at him, she blew a raspberry before growing more serious. She nodded slightly at his words, tossing him a glare as he tried to downplay it all. Without a word she slipped back into her herb den, grabbing a bundle of dandelion and some lavender as well. Walking back out, she dropped the yellow flower at his paws and nipped off some of the purple flowers onto his shoulder. Without saying anything she gently crushed the sweet smelling plant into his shoulders, knowing that the scent as well as the herb would help to ease the aches. Moving back in front of him she started to crush some of the dandelion up, looking at her orange brother as she did so. "I am going to give you that bundle there to take for yourself. When your joints are aching just crush it up like I’m doing and rub it on your joints. It will stain your fur yellow for a little bit, but it will really help." Nodding her head, she looked back down to ensure that she was getting it to the right consistency. Her ears were still turned towards him, listening for anything else that he might say. After a moment of silence, she peeked up at him for a moment with a soft smile on her lips. "How are the kids?" Amalia hadn’t seen too much of them, she had been pretty busy trying to gather up all the herbs that she could. She had been meaning to go and check up on everyone, maybe they would help her think of new fun ways to learn healing. After her last fun game had flopped, she had been feeling a little bit discouraged. She wanted to be fun and engaging, it was hard to listen to a wolf talk for hours on end. It was harder to learn that way! Huffing softly to herself, she worked the crushed flower between her paws, making sure to get in all that she could. "SPEAK"

He couldn't say that he was surprised as he watched Amalia glare at him and walk back into her herb den, obviously going to get something to give him for his aches. He knew he should have come to her about it sooner, but with everything that had been going on he just hadn't had the time or freedom to think about himself. He looked down at the yellow flowers that she left at his paws before turning his head to that he could watch her crush some other kind of flower into the fur on his shoulders. He watched her work and listened to her instructions quietly, nodding to show that he understood. He had always admired Amalia's skills when it came to healing. That was one art he had never really dabbled into, but she was so skilled at it. He was watching her work for a while until he heard her ask about his kids, making his ears perk a little and bringing his gaze back up to her face for a moment. "They're doing well I think," he replied with a soft smile while his gaze drifted back down to the yellow flower stuff that Amalia was working on. "I don't know if I can really call them kids any more though. They're practically grown now..." His ears flicked and his expression grew wistful and a little sad. "I don't think Roza will stay here much longer. She's been out of the pack lands so much and it seems she's made friends with someone from another pack. Alfred found a little fox for a companion... reminds me a lot of Svetlana. I think the bear attack really shook up Lionel, but he's hanging in there. Something is bothering Heather, but she hasn't really told me what yet. I did talk to her about being the heir though and she seemed really excited about it." He sighed a little and glanced up at his sister again with a small smile. "How about yours?" "Talk" "You" Think