peyote

Approaching on her first birthday Verity was slowly becoming much more comfortable venturing from the Ashen walls. In order to gather a larger variety of herbs it will be imperative to get to know other territories. There were various plants that only grow in certain terrain and climates. Such as cacti in the desert or horsetail in standing water. Some plants have very particular growing requirements. Verity's collection of common herbs was rather large but she felt it was time to begin expanding to the more rare assortment.

This hunt for variety brought the youngling to the desert. The small healer padded through the sand with vibrant green eyes sweeping the territory. She was not use to being this far from home without another Wolf. But, she was in the company of Bernet and Mumo. All three of them were small but could make do if any trouble found them. Mumo, the Raccoon, sat upon the back of the Miniature Donkey with eyes also scanning the region for danger and herbs.

"Ver, just there!" Mumo alerted the girl of a bunch of Peyote in the distance. Verity narrowed her eyes she slithered that way, tail wagging with excitement. Bernet clomped his way over as she hovered over the small dusty green cacti. Most were small in size but some were larger with beautiful pink flowers blooming from the top. This was quite the rare discovery. The west was home to quite the assortment of Cacti but Peyote was a tad bit harder to find. It can easily be missed due to how low to the ground it is as well, only adding to how difficult it is to find. A smile slipped across her lips as she looked to Mumo, "Good eye."

Verity ducked down and allowed her leather satchel to plop onto the sand. Nudging through the contents with a small paw she finally found her bone knife. It was a small knife wrapped in a leather sheathe to prevent any accidents. She set the knife down next to the Peyote and glanced back to Mumo, "I'm going to need your paws, if you don't mind." The Raccoon hopped off of the back of Bernet with sand flying around them. Ver wrinkled her nose and giggled as she watched. "I figured." Peyote was to be harvested by slicing the cacti at the base. A nice even slice should allow it to grow back, meaning she could come back to this very location after some time and harvest some more.

The Raccoon grabbed the knife and unsheathed it. His slightly more dextrous fingers allowed holding a knife to be much easier then it would be for a Wolf. "Just slice it at the base. A few small ones should do for now." Verity was still learning about cacti and Peyote in general. She knew it was mostly consumed to alter the mind. Something she was not really  familiar with herself, being so young. But, it was something she'd want to try in the future. It was said that Peyote can heal broken or lost souls. That intrigued her greatly. Verity thought herbs were a sort of magic, in a way. The fact that plants could heal so many sorts of ailments or some could even do the opposite. There were so many possibilities from healing to poisoning and beyond. She was very much interested in all of it.

Mumo sliced three of the bulbs, leaving nubs in the earth. Verity offered a smile as she leaned down and sniffed at the Peyote. With a small shrug she grabbed some linen out of her satchel and wrapped each bulb in it. Placing them into her bag she slipped the strap back over her neck and looked to her friends. "I'd say our work here is done." Mumo climbed back onto Bernet's back and the trio started their journey back home.

WC: 649