Lúta lingered in the southern lands where the warmer summer temperatures were helping the plant life to thrive. She was on the hunt through the marshy lands of the estuary for marsh mallow and elderberry. She glided along the soggy ground as the birds sang around her. It was lovely out and she almost wished she could just settle down by the water's edge and listen, however she had work to do. Lúta was no pack wolf. She would need to get herself well stocked for winter if she didn't plan on joining a pack or band.

She slowed to a halt as she spied a plant that just might be what she was looking for. She quickly padded over to investigate.

Saren was on his way to find where ever his pack had gone to, he knew he was getting close but he wasn’t quite there yet. Before he had decided to return he had been spending his time observing plants and picking up what healing knowledge he could on his own.

Now he had come across a rather colorful female who seemed to be investigating a plant of her own. He recognized the plant from his wanderings and wondered if the female was looking at the plant to learn what it did or to gather it for her own purposes. He carefully walked towards her and said “I see you’re curious about this herb.” Saren may have learned about what plants did but their names were something you couldn’t figure out without another’s help “For what purpose are you after it?”

I wanted to seek, but I got distracted

Lúta grinned as she realized that this was indeed a marshmallow plant. Perfect! The later half of summer was an excellent time to gather the leaves of the marsh mallow plant. The whole plant could be used but she wanted the leaves for certain. She'd need to hang them some place to dry so she opted to snip the plants off at the base of their stems. Her jaws worked to sever through one of the plants which she set aside.

She was about to grab more when a yearling male appeared. She dipped her head in greeting. "Hello there. I'm gathering the leaves to make a marsh mallow tisane. Do you want some to? There's plenty." She reached down again to gather more plants. "My name is Lúta by the way. Do you live around here?"

So that’s what the plant was called, marshmallow. Hearing the plants name made sense but the word that followed it didn’t. A tisane? What was a tisane? With the offer of gathering the marshmallow he figured it wouldn’t hurt anything, as long as there was enough of the plant left for it to stay alive and regrow in time.

Saren wasn’t sure if he lived around here per say, hopefully he would be he wasn’t positive. He started to gather some of the herb although a bit hesitantly, he didn’t know where he would store it since he hadn’t stayed in the same place very long as of recent. He paused his gathering to think before saying “I’m Saren, my living situation is a bit in flux, but i’m curious. What’s a tisane? it’s not a term I’ve heard before.”

I wanted to seek, but I got distracted

Lúta picked a few more plants until she had a good bundle of them. From there she separated them into two piles. She could do a fresh tisane and a dried one. The boy introduced himself as Saren and stated that his living situation was a bit unstable. She wondered if he was alright or if he was perhaps a loner like herself. "Nice to meet you Saren. A tisane is an infusion of herbs in water. It's a way to get the medicinal properties out of the herb into a form that's easier for a patient to drink." They also tasted much better than munching down on what was essentially a strange tasting salad and the dosing could be easier to control.

"You can either hang the herbs to dry or you can use them fresh. Ideally, you'd put them in hot water but regular can work. You just won't get as much of the good stuff out of the plant." And as such you'd have to put more in.

Huh, putting herbs in hot water, it certainly wasn’t a method he had thought of when he had been experimenting with his herbs, he’d only tried eating them or placing them on the skin. He guessed he would have a new method to try things out with. Although he wasn’t sure where one would find hot water or how it would be made, maybe he could gather hot water from a spring of some kind. Then of course he’d need something to contain the water in, figuring out want plants did was complicated business. He continued to gather some more of the herb, if he was to experiment with it later he’d need a decent amount. Even though he recognized the plant it wasn’t one that he had tested out, maybe the other wolf would know what it did they seemed to know a thing or two. “If you wouldn’t mind explaining, do you know what it does? I figure if i ask someone it might save me the time later.” Saren chuckled a little bit he still wasn’t the best at being social. “I’m still trying to learn what plants do what.”

I wanted to seek, but I got distracted

Satisfied with the amount she picked, Lúta began to divide the gathering into two bundles. One she'd hang to dry and the other she'd go ahead and put in fresh water if she could find any. Being in an estuary so close to the sea she knew the water might be a bit saline. Though maybe the salt would help? She had to admit she'd never tried a tisane with salt water mostly because too much salt could dehydrate a patient. Lúta set aside the bundle for her tisane experiment. Well, for several experiments.

Lúta smiled and Saren and nodded in response to his question. "Sure, marshmallow has many uses. If you eat or drink it it can help soothe a sore throat. It can also ease coughs. I always try to have some on hand for the winter. The leaves or the crushed root of marshmallow also makes a good poultice for bruises and bites and mild wounds." She'd only ever tried them fresh. She had yet to see if it would work to dry the herbs and then reconstitute them for a poultice. That would be something to add to her experiment list. Though in order to do that she needed some dried.

Lúta turned her attention to the small pile of herbs she intended to dry. She bent her head and gracefully began to stack them until she had a pile she was satisfied with. "I'm going to dry this batch by hanging it off a branch, I think." She reached into her deer hide bundle and pulled out some strips of sinew. She laid out one strand of it then placed the bundle of herbs in the center. From there she very carefully took one end of the strand in her teeth and using her paws carefully tied a simple square knot. Ragna was much better at this part but the absence of the monkey was proving good practice for Lúta.

"So, Saren, what made you have an interest in healing?"

Saren listened intently as Luta described how you used marshmallow. For coughs and sore throats in tisane form and for small injuries when the roots were ground up. He repeated the words a couple times in his head to help the knowledge stick better. At least now he knew the intended use for the plant and wouldn't do things like eating it raw which was a fast way to learn if something was good or not, he'd learned that the hard way.

Why was he interested in healing?! That was certainly a question to ask. Of course Saren knew why he was interested in healing. It was easy, at least to him. Healing didn't involve talking to people directly or extreme physical activity, neither of which he was particularly good at. He wasn't sure how much of that he should tell though, she was a total stranger after all. "Umm, it's" his bad social skills had kicked in once herbs were no longer the main topic. "I don't" He took a second to breathe staring at the herbs he had gathered, in...and out. "They don't speak, they're simple." It wasn't that hard of a question to answer, he just didn't do well with strangers, you never knew what they would do. He liked things he could predict and wolves he didn't know well weren't one of those things.

I wanted to seek, but I got distracted

Lúta smiled gently, trying to offer the boy some encouragement. He stared at his paws and stumbled out an answer. "That makes sense to me," she replied. "I think it's nice to get out into new territories and into nature when herb hunting. Pack life never really quite sit with me." Lúta doubted she'd join a pack in this new land though if she found a nomadic group she might be persuaded.

"Its easier to store herbs when they're dried. They'll last longer. I like to keep dried marshmallow on hand for the winter when I'm more likely to pick up a respiratory bug. You can just find a tree with low hanging branches to hang it from. I have special claws so I do things just a bit differently."

Lúta carefully picked up the bundle of herbs in her mouth and padded over to a nearby tree. Her claws unsheathed from her paws and she leapt up into the tree, climbing swiftly up to one of the lower branches. Bending down she tied the bundle around one of the smaller branches stemming off of the larger branch. When she was satisfied with what she'd done she leapt back down to earth. "Actually, trying to dry herbs in such a moist environment is probably not the best idea. I should've taken them somewhere drier but…" She shrugged.

"Ah, well, live and learn. If you want I can show you how to make a tisane using fresh marshmallow. Ideally you'd have heated water with a fire but I haven't quite mastered that yet, unless you know how?" If they didn't have fire they could do sun tea. She'd done that before, it just took longer.