Iolaire had convinced Sirius and Zee that it was never too early to start learning. Four out of five pups seemed eager to learn about plants, so the dainty healer carted them all to her garden. They would begin with one of the lower tiers where there were various vegetables and herbs planted. She'd give them a bit of fun too while they were at it. The tri-colored woman lined the children up and sat in front of them. They were all so damned adorable. Iolaire absolutely adored children, probably moreso because she couldn't have her own. This little brood was family though, so she loved them instantly, just like she had their older siblings. Io hoped they would turn out just as well. Despite the various issues that they'd all encountered, Iolaire found her niece and nephews to be perfection. Each and every one of them. Sinking down to lay on her stomach so that she'd be on a level with the small bundles of fur, Io began. "Alright, darlings. Who can tell me what this is?" Reaching behind her, Iolaire pulled out a bowl of bright red strawberries. Yes, she had a weakness for strawberries and wanted to share her special fruits with these special babes. "Speech"

Gossamer was excited for her first lesson, ever since learning that dandelion's and other plants could be used to heal or hurt herself and other wolves. As soon as her aunt called for the pups she hurried there and called out in greeting. "Hi, auntie Io!" She quickly moved to sit in the line that her aunt wished them to sit, her tail wagging as she waited for the official part of the lesson to start.

When they were ready Iolaire pulled out a bowl of bright red things. Ooooo! Gossamer really liked the color but she had no idea what they actually were. It was especially strange seeing bits of plants in a bowl and not growing in the ground. She tried to think of bright red things she'd seen and her mind went to some roses. "Are they rose babies?"

Aris bounced in after her sister, quite excitedly. Auntie Io had a whole garden full of plants and stuff, and she was going to teach them about it all! Ari bet she had all sorts of neat plants that Ari could learn to use. Maybe there was one that she could sneak into someone's food somehow to make them puke. Maybe Ko, he was always being all Mr. Snooty-snout about being the only boy like anyone cared if his bits dangled all over for people to see. She settled in attentively and, frankly, avariciously, to absorb all the knowledge. Aunt Io pulled out some small red things, that Gossy guessed were rose babies. "Roses don't have babies in them, silly, cabbages do," she retorted, elbowing Gossy teasingly. But she wasn't quite sure what they were, and squinted closer. "Are they dead bugs?" she queried doubtfully - she thought dead bugs were neat and all, but she thought they'd be learning about plants.

Kotori had eagerly followed their aunt into her garden along with his sisters.  The boy romped along, head held high and proud.  He was a mixture of puppy glee, curiosity, and a dash or two of arrogance.  Following was fun and exciting sitting down to just listen presented potential for boredom.  There were all sorts of scents and objects around he didn’t recognize and wanted to explore!  His eyes were roaming when the question came up and once more she had his focus when he saw the red-stuff. Like the others, Kotori had never seen them before and didn’t have a clue.  Standing up he headed over to the bowl, “I dunno, fat flowery-things?” They did have some green leafy things right under the red part, so they had to be flowery-stuff right? He had a great way of deciding what to think of them though.  If you don’t know what a thing is then the best way to find out it is to bite it.  With that perfectly logical thought in mind, he’d simply go to bite into one red things. Close up they had a promising tasty scent to them at least. Talk

Walk | "Talk" | think

Briar sat dutifully beside her siblings, specifically on the end beside Kotori so that she'd have an easy escape route with her fellow horn wearing partner in crime just in case things got too boring. Of course her turquoise gaze was focused and attentive as Iolaire spoke, but whenever the healer wasn't looking she couldn't help but let her gaze drift just past Io to look at all the various herbs and things that were hiding almost out of sight. There was a whole garden of things that she desperately wanted to go poke at, but when the question of what this red thing in front of them was she turned her attention to the thing they had been presented.

Her little brows scrunched together with thought as her sisters and brother cast their votes for what this thing could be and she gave little shakes of her head to each answer. Even though she didn't know what it was either she knew that none of those things were right. It definitely wasn't a flower cause it didn't smell like a flower and it didn't have petals. It also definitely wasn't dead bugs since bugs were one of the grossest things ever and it didn't look gross. It did have leaves though so she knew it had to be some kind of plant... all the plants she had seen at least had leaves. So what kind of plant was sweet smelling, bright red, and had little speckles all over it?

It was definitely different from anything she had seen before but she wanted to get it right soooooo bad! She remembered the berries that their father's bear friend would eat sometimes and she gasped with the realization, her face lighting up as she looked back up at Io. "Is it a berry?!" she asked with a huge grin, just knowing for sure that she had gotten it right.

As each pup came forward and made their guesses, Iolaire could see how their imaginations were forming. Bugs, rose babies, flowery things. Briar was the one to get it correct in the end. Kotori had planned to bite one, but Iolaire deftly swept the bowl away before he could do so, lifting it and balancing it on her oddly deft digits. "Briar is correct. These are strawberries." One at a time she took berries from the bowl, handing one to each pup. She started with Kotori first, flashing the boy a smile so he didn't think he was in trouble. Once she had them distributed, Io placed the dish back on the ground. "Eat up." Rising, she moved aside to show them the plant that the berries had come from so that they could visually inspect it. "It's good to know about plants that can feed you in case you're stranded and wounded in the wild and unable to hunt." The lower tiers of the garden were filled with edible plants. Fruits, vegetables, herbs. "Who can name another plant that you eat?" Black ears flicked forward as she looked at the pups expectantly yet again. "Speech"

Gossamer glanced at her sister and pouted. "If cabbages can have babies then roses can to!" As far as she knew everything had babies and that's how you got more of them. She wrinkled her nose as Aris suggested they were bugs. If they were bugs they were very weird bugs. Where were their legs? Kotori stated fat-flowery things. Gossamer was really at a loss but then Briar stated that it was a berry. That was all well and good but Gossamer didn't know what a berry was either. She looked to Iolaire for answers.

Well, apparently what she was looking at were berries, strawberries. Apparently they could be eaten. Gossamer sniffed hers cautiously. It smelt good. She bit into it, consuming the whole thing in a few bites. Iolaire asked about other plants they could eat.

"You can eat dandelions, but they don't taste very good. Say, Auntie, can you heal things with strawberries? What happens if you mash it up and put it on an owie?" She'd eaten a dandelion on her first trip out of the den but she was really curious if strawberries had other uses.