Gossamer eyed the yarrow plant, reaching up to gently touch it with her paws. The little bunches of white flowers were still in bloom but she could see where the petals were starting to fall. She glanced back over at Ásta who had just finished getting a fire started by striking some metal stick against a chunk of flint. Well, she supposed she better get busy. If she remember right she didn't need the root or anything for this. Gossamer bent her head and started to chew on the base of the yarrow. Ásta was going to show her how to make yarrow tea for the colder seasons. Apparently it could make patients with a cold or flu feel better. Gossamer chewed off a couple stalks and carried them over to where the fox was working. She set them down and then licked at her teeth where a shred of the plant stem had gotten stuck.

Walk | "Talk" | think

Kotori had found a tortoise in the long grass to practice his fighting maneuvers on.  The first whack of a paw at the tortoise had been ignored.  However when both paws came up the tortoise tried to ‘run’ away, at least it was walking faster than its normal pace.  Kotori charged, whacked, ran off, and charged in again.  He’d leap sideways as if ignoring an attack back from his enemy.  When Kotori finally rushed to shoved into it with both paws the tortoise ended up rolled over onto its shell.

The pup looked curiously at the tortoise underside and his stubby legs.  It didn’t seem as fun with his enemy unable to move.  OH well, Kotori had thusly one.  He was about to flip over the tortoise when he scented fire.  Glancing in the direction of the smell he started to trot off but, after a few strides he went back to the tortoise and shoved it over back on its feet.  “Thanks for the help,” as if the reptile had actually agreed to it.

Kotori headed towards the scent of the smoke and eventually spotted Asta and Gossy.  He still needed his own pet.  Kotori had to go searching for one at some point.  What would he get? Something even neater than a fox!  He approached glancing at the fire and at Gossy licking her teeth.  “Hey, Gossy what ya doin?”  The words were casual to try and hide his more excited interest in whatever he had walked in on.

Gossamer pulled her attention away from the plants as her brother Kotori wandered onto the seen. "Hey, Tori! Ásta's showing me how to make yarrow tea if you want to join." She looked over to the large fox who was walking back towards the pups, dragging a hide that had four ceramic bowls on it. The fox stopped and released the hide. "Ah, someone else interested in tea? We'll be making it with the leaves. You'll want to pull them off the plant first."

Gossamer had pulled two plants. She scooted one toward her brother if he wanted it before she started pulling the leaves off hers and placing them in a little pile. She paused halfway through and glanced at Ásta. "Hey, Ásta, can I put some flowers in mine to?" The fox nodded.

"Yes, you can use the whole herb in tea but its easier to make with the leaves but the flowers should be fine."

Walk | "Talk" | think

Kotori had decided two things recently.  He’d never make a main focus in healing as it got boring fast, but he would also still learn all he could on it.  Anything that was his would need to be cared for and he had also heard that there were some things you couldn’t eat cause they were dangerous.  That meant knowing all the herbs meant knowing which ones could be used against his enemies.  “Uh, sure.  What’s special about Yarrow tea?”

Kotori padded up the rest of the way, glancing down at the plant thoughtfully, laying down and pulling back his lips to carefully get the small stem in his mouth and twist his head a bit to pull it off, spitting it out afterward, “Does it taste good, how’d you make the fire? I want to learn how to make a fire later.” Fire is a pretty amazing thing to watch, and smell and it was dangerous.  Dangerous things had Kotori’s fascination.

Gossamer pulled off a few of the flowers from the yarrow to add to her leaves. It was more like a clump since the flowers were tiny and grew together. She knew it was girly but she didn't care. The flowers were pretty and she wanted them in her tea and she was so happy that Ásta said she could.

"Yarrow tea can help wolves with colds or the flu recover more quickly," Ásta explained. "Once you have the leaves off go ahead and add them to the bowl then you can crush them with your paws, a stick or," Ásta pulled a few bones from off the hide. "The rounded ends of certain bones."

Gossamer grinned and reached a paw out to pull one of the bones closer to her. "Cool!" She picked the bone up in her teeth, carefully holding it so her fangs weren't in the way then she tipped her head and started mashing the leaves. At the mention of fire she nodded. "Me too, I saw a boy make it in Ashen."

Ásta thought for a moment. "Well, I can teach you two to make fire tomorrow if you like, before we go over marigold poultices. As for the taste of yarrow, I wouldn't say its good but it's not bad either. It's… grassy."

Walk | "Talk" | think

“Gossy, that looks silly.” Kotori felt inclined to openly tell his sister what he perceived as the truth.  “It’s meant to be drank, not choke on a flower.”  Sure, he might be being a bit overdramatic about anyone choking on the flowers, but the boy still felt flowers thrown in the tear was silly, and she was his sister.

Kotori looked thoughtfully at the bone before putting his leaves in his bowl.  Pounding at them with paws like too much fun to start with, “So the bones on the corpse are actually good for more than just gnawing on and vulture perches huh?  I might need one of those just in case.” Kotori nodded with his decision, though he hadn’t stopped using his paws to try and pound the leaves.  It was taking a lot of pounding as leaves were kind of flat.

They’d learn about fire tomorrow! Marigold's poultices would be tedious but he had decided to take up this path, hadn’t he?  Kotori hadn’t mentioned to his teachers yet about wanting to learn more about poisonous plants just yet, but he would soon.  However was the fox really the one to go to for it? It would be more fun to show off what he learned to Gossy instead.  

"I like flowers!" Gossamer said, in defense of adding the flowers to her tea. It might not have been the most logical reason to add them but if it wouldn't hurt the tea she wanted to make it pretty too.

Ásta nodded. "Yes, bones are useful for all kinds of things. You can even chew them into knives and spearheads with enough patience." As the fox wasn't really the fighting sort she hadn't spent much time attempting these projects but she knew it was possible and might be of interest to both Kotori and Gossamer as they seemed to want to be warriors.

"Ok, I'm done!" Gossamer set down the bone she was using and looked to the fox. Ásta nodded. "Ok, now all we need to do is add in some water. About 8 oz for one cup of tea." The fox paused, wondering how to explain how much water was 8 ounces. The fox grabbed a water skin out of the travois and carefully worked the cork out with her teeth. She then added the water to Gossamer's bowl.

"That's about what 8 ounces looks like. Now, we scoot the bowl near the fire to warm up. You want steam to rise from the bowl for about… five minutes." Gossamer nodded and carefully used her paws to scoot the bowl toward the fire. It was a bit tricky for the pup as she had yet to achieve optimal coordination so it sloshed a bit but eventually she got it right up next to the edge of the fire.

Walk | "Talk" | think

Gossy’s logic was girly and Kotori just rolled his eyes with an exaggerated slow motion to make sure it was noticed.  “Only good thing about flowers is if they can do something medicine-y.”  They were nicer when he was young, like a few weeks ago but now they were losing their charm as anything but tools for the herbalist stuff.  Soon enough he’d have to decide who to go to and ask about what herbs were good for making poisons.  It would be a great way for this to be helpful.  He had chosen to be a healer to protect what he cared for but it wasn’t as fun as he’d imagined.

Chew a bone into a knife?  That sounded cool.  Kotori’s tail wagged a bit back and forth as he imagined using a bone knife to cut into things he couldn’t chew into well.  Kotori glanced down at his leaves when Gossy said hers was done.  Kotori’s leaves were kinda pounded but the bone had definitely worked faster than stomping on them.  Pounding still seemed more of a fun way to do it so even as he watched to see the next step the pup kept up at the leaf pounding.

Kotori wasn’t too sure about the term 8 ounces at all but he tried to recall about how much she poured and by the time Gossy’s bowl was near the fire Kotori decided his leaves were crushed up enough.  “Mine too? I think they’re good enough now.”