Rœkia travelled back toward the edge of the lake with the valerian plants hanging from her jaws. She'd separate them once they got back to their campsite. She paused and glanced behind her to make sure that Lukina was following. She planned to work some of the juice out of the root and put it into a vial with white wine to make a tincture. Of course the first thing would be to clean and separate the root from the rest of the plant. She set the valerian down and turned to her cousin. "Ok, so the first thing we need to do is clean some of the dirt off the roots and then separate the roots from the tops." She took one of the valerian plants in her mouth by the stem and went over to the edge of lake. She dipped the root in then swirled it around to rinse the bulk of the dirt off of it. Once that was done she set it back on the shore and used her jaws to work the tops off leaving the roots.

Lukina bounced along after her older cousin, eager to learn more about the pretty valerian plant. A few of them were starting to show lovely pink flowers. Of course Rœkia stated that they actually need the roots, not the flowers. She thought maybe something could be done with the flowers but Rœkia insisted that they focus on the roots this time. When they arrived back at the campsite she settled down to listen and then moved to follow the example. She took the plant in her jaws and went to the waters edge and washed the plant like she saw her cousin do before setting it between her paws and chewing off the tops. She wrinkled her nose at the taste.

They were on a family excursion today. Sort of. Theory had dragged Fable along to give Poem a bit of a break and her beleaguered niece was dragging her paws. Funny, it seemed like last week she had been her niece's favorite and now she was the mean auntie who "stunk like a badger." At least her niece had a colorful imagination. Fable didn't seem much interested in gathering herbs - at least not for healing. Even when she tried to preface which herbs were edible and which were not, she tried to eat a little piece of everything. It was mind boggling. The pup was like a black hole and black holes didn't understand the meaning of the word no. "Alright, if you can't keep up then uhh... we won't stop for a snack!" she called over her shoulder. Without looking closely she could hear the undergrowth parting as Fable loped closer, her small tongue panting. As the lake came into view so did two other shapes, similar in profile to their own. One small and one large. Chuckling to herself, Theo began to close the distance between them. "Hi there!" The delicate pink flowers of valerian plants were dotting the surrounding greenery. It looks like the pair had a similar idea. There was no better day than today to begin replenishing winter's long depleted stores. "Gathering valerian?" Theo added as she closed the distance between them, keeping at a respectful distance until she was invited closer.

"Ugh... are you kidding me?! No snack?" Auntie Theo was really pushing her luck today. Only a real, big monster badger would take away her snack. Fable grumbled to herself as she loped closer, trying to close the distance between them. She had good stamina but wasn't particularly quick on her paws. It made it doubly hard when trying to keep up with the adults around her - they were all so huge. Each Fable stride could fit like, four or five times into one Auntie Theo stride. Everything felt so boring and hard when you had to crane your neck to look up at all of the adults in your life. Hopefully she'd hit her growth spurt soon. Some of her siblings had. They walked around like little deer, eighty percent legs and not a lot else. I'm gonna be so tall. So, so tall. Then I'll have a snack whenever I want. Fable almost ran into Theory's back legs when her aunt stopped to talk to some strangers. "Oh! She's carrying something in her mouth!" Fable said, peeking around Theo's legs. "Is it a snack?"

Rœkia finished shredding the green tops off of the root before she set it down on a smooth, flat stone. She glanced over to the side to make sure her cousin was following along. As she was about to continue the lesson she hear approaching paw steps accompanied by a feminine voice. She watched quietly as a friendly woman called out a greeting and it quickly became clear the other woman was a healer as well. Rœkia smiled gently and nodded. "Yes, plants with hardy root systems and rhizomes seem to be doing the best in this weather. My name is Rœkia. You're welcome to join us. Just working on a tincture." It seemed the woman had her own little whelp to tend to and she barked out a laugh as the girl asked if it was a snack. "Hardly. Valerian root is a powerful medicine. You should give it a smell, it's quite disagreeable and will only get worse. Its terribly bitter in and of itself which is why we're going to make a tincture out of it with wine."

She gestured for Lukina to pay attention to what she was about to do. "Ok, now we need to crush the root so it works better for the tincture." She took a deer antler in her jaws and used the smooth base of it to mash the root before passing it over to her cousin.

Lukina was delighted to see another pup close to her in age. "Hi, I'm Lukina!" Her tail wagged as she greeted the other girl and she nodded at what her cousin said when the older woman stated that they were making a tincture. She was excited and proud to make a helpful medicine. Not to mention this would be her first tincture. "Are you learning to be a healer to?" As if on cue her older cousin continued the lesson and she watched the woman mash the root a bit before passing the antler on to her. Lukina scurried over to her root, grabbed it in her jaws, and the pranced back over to the rock. Once there she took the antler, a bit awkwardly, in her jaws and mashed at her own root.

Rœkia watched her cousin work, offering feedback and encouraging the girl to mash the root a little better. Once she was satisfied with the girl's work she continued the lesson. Once she was sure the root was mashed appropriately she carefully grabbed her bottle of white wine. She worked the cork out with her teeth. "Ok, this is not the same as tea. We're going to use white wine to extract the medicinal properties of the root and preserve it. With tinctures you'll add a little to water for your patient to drink, not the whole bowl." Well, unless you were trying to poison them but that was not knowledge she was wishing to share.

Rœkia carefully took the bottle in her jaws and poured in enough white wine to cover the root. She then scooted the mixture into a jar, letting her magpie companion seal it. "So where are you two headed off too? Is there a pack near here?"

Lukina awkwardly mashed her root, wishing there was an easier way but eventually she managed to get it prepared good enough for her cousin to continue the lesson. Lukina was vaguely familiar with wine. She knew it was from fermented grapes and that, to her at least, it tasted sour and bitter. Still she could see the merits in using wine. It was nice to make something without having to go through the process of starting a fire and letting it burn down to appropriate levels. Once Rœkia was done with the wine then Lukina took the bottle. Unfortunately she was a bit to small to handle it well but Rœkia came to the rescue and helped her pour the wine in and then transfer the mixture to the jar. In hind sight it would've been easier to dump the root in the jar and then add the wine right to the jar. Ah well, she settled down and gazed curiously at the other girl.