Auster was not a territory she entered often, and was intrudged last time she had been there, about the herbs that land provided. Now that she was a part of a pack, she felt it even more vital that she had a decent stock of herbs and knowledge on how to use them. She had let her Alpha know where she was going and promised him that she would not be long. It helped that the pack had another healer of equal rank to her own. She was hardly going to leave the pack without a healer. Of course, she felt a touch of competition light her spirits. She especially needed to prove her worth with another healer in the pack. She was young, and had a lot to learn.

With determination to her steps, she set out from the pack lands in the early hours of the morning, and made the long trek down to Auster. She kept to a straight a path as possible without an aerial view of the land and made good time. She found dens and burrows to hunker down in overnight, and sleep out the cooling weather when night descended upon her.

It was with relief when she came upon the land bridge, and remembered her first time crossing it. She still felt a little exposed as her steps moved her over the sand and into the lands of Auster. She wondered about for a time, curious where to go. What she found, was the faded scents of a pack land, and an abandoned herb garden. Most of the herbs had been taken, presumably when the pack had left this land (why had they left? She did not know)

She found in the garden a small pink/white flower, with leaves that had a distinctive smell to them. She leaned forward and sniffed curiosity. Surely, if it was in a healer's garden, it would have healing properties? Perplexed, and very curious about this herb she had never seen before, she picked free first some of the petals, some of the roots, and some of the leaves. She then tasted a very small portion of first the petals, and rubbed a small portion onto her fur. She then waited a few hours, wondering round the garden, exploring, but otherwise doing very little. She she found it made no difference to how she felt, or her skin, she did the same with some of the root, grinding it into a paste and spreading a very sparing amount onto a different patch of her skin, and sampling a very small amount of the paste. She, again, waited a few hours to see if any effects occurred.

Her curiosity was growing, as was her confusion, and quite a few hours had passed at this point. She was tempted to bring back a few samples of the herb and see if the other healer in her pack knew what it was. But no… she wanted to learn this on her own. She crushed up the leaves, finally, and repeated her process. She waited a few moments, and felt a slight numbness to her body, a tiredness that crept up on her in a calming sort of way. She pinched herself, and noted the pain felt muted. A sedative, then? Moreover, the patch she had rubbed onto her skin left a slight tingling feeling and she wanted to investigate that further. She did not think that it was a part of the sedative effects. She had an itchy bite on her paw pad, and in a bit of inspiration, decided to rub it onto the itch. Her next move would be to draw blood and rub it over the wound, but this seemed a milder first step.

The itching soothed, but only a little. She felt she was onto something here. She moved about the garden, knowing she would find what she sought out. Ah, there. She rubbed a very small portion of her coat onto a patch of poison ivy, waited for the annoying rash and itchiness to appear, and then rubbed on her paste of leaves. Ah ha! The itchiness faded. Of course, she realised with some chagrin that she would have the rash for a few days because of this. Regardless, she was elated at her find. It soothed itchiness, mostly that made by poison ivy, and was a mild sedative. Not only that, but she had discovered these things on her own. Feeling rather proud of herself, she would return to the abandoned garden. She took more of the herb she had discovered, storing it carefully in her ribbon, and went about harvesting other herbs. It was a good find, and would prove useful to her stores back at home. She finished up and considered doing more herb hunting - but no, she had filled what she could carry. It was time to go home.

Things had been quiet in the empire, he had carried on with his experiments and Fauldr had proven himself to be a worthy assistant. He had come to accept that the upper echelons of the pack were beyond his reach, but he was content to teach the empire’s young and have their opinion of him surpass that of the Abraxas elders. Malleus seemed content with him but he had yet to meet the other members in spite of his near constant activity. Perhaps there was more to his father and grandfather’s belief of their heritage than he gave credit. Maybe they sensed the two demons living inside of him, although they had never spoken to him directly. Fauldr gripped his shoulder and brought his attention to a young woman, he cocked his head as she tutted about the garden, wondering just what she was doing. He put on the mask that was the wolf he once was and smiled kindly before he stepped closer toward her. She was not his enemy, he had no reason to let her see the viper that lived in his heart. “Good morning.” He said brightly, his tail waving nonthreateningly as his tongue lulled out of the side of his mouth. Lately one of his ears had developed a small crook that only added to his generally charming appearance. The woman was not much taller than himself but his gangly legs made him look more spindly and slight than herself. No, he would never be a fighter like his father, but the darkness in his heart would never allow him to never spill blood. Today however, nothing had warranted either a fight nor a poisoning. The woman was innocent and no threat to him, so he of course would be no threat to her. speaking Thinking   You