Ursa listened to every word that her mother spoke. Anything and everything - especially if it was related to healing or food. Mmm, food. The pup did enjoy a good snack more often than not, but she was trying her best to catch her own snacks and tend to the gardens. It all tasted a little better when she could do it herself! Today, she was in search of something called Meadowsweet. Her Mama had mentioned that it was something that grew naturally within the forest so there wasn't any need to cultivate it within the garden beds. But they would need some since winter was coming! Ursa still wasn't sure what exactly this "winter" was because she had a sister named Wynter and Wynter was already here? None of it really made sense, but she wouldn't argue with Mama so off she went! With her nose on the ground and her tail waving about in the air, Ursa began scenting out this Meadowsweet plant. Her Mama had mentioned that it was as sweet as it was called and she would definitely know it when she found it! URSA FATALIS

The shrubs and bushes that dotted the woods around and between the big, tall trees of the woods made for excellent hiding places! She had already found a couple that were her favorites and she had gotten pretty good at hiding in them. The first couple of times she tried to hide, she forgot to make sure no one was watching her when she went into her hiding spot so that didn't really work out, but now she knew to wait till everyone else was busy doing something so that she could sneak away really, really quietly and then after she was out of sight she'd slip into one of her bushes and it made for the perfect spot to spy on her siblings and see what they were up to! The only real problem was that some of the bushes didn't have a ton of leaves and they seemed to keep losing them. Their momma told her it was because of the cold and that in winter all of the plants would lose their leaves and she didn't like that something the same as her name was going to take away all of her hiding places!

For now though she was able to play her favorite game and she watched as Ursa started out on her own, clearly searching for something with her nose to the ground. Curious, Wynter started following her from a little ways back, moving from one bush to another once Ursa got far enough away not to notice her. Her sister always seemed to manage to find good snacks so Wynter hoped that would be the case today so she could get a little snack too! After a while though she got kinda bored of this part of the game and instead she waited till Ursa stopped for a moment, seemingly inspecting some kind of flower or something, and she started creeping out from the bush and moving closer to her sister from behind. Her creeping and stalking were, of course, quite clumsy but in her mind she was the sneakiest hunter around. At the last moment she jumped up and pounced on Ursa's tail, calling out, "Ha! Gotcha!" with a peel of giggles.

"Wynter Carpathius"

Fully distracted by her search, Ursa had no idea that she was being followed. "Meadowsweet, meadowsweet, just like candy for me to eeeeeat!" Ursa sang quite out of tune as she continued along the path. With her nose still on the ground, she knew she was getting close! There was a tinge in the air that wasn't sour or meaty, but more like the tea, Mama liked to drink. That had to be it! Excited to find her first herb all by herself, Ursa hurried a few feet before stopping in front of a pretty flowery bush. When she put her nose up to it, it had the nicest sweet smell ever! Before she had a chance to being picking the flowers, a rustling sound caught her off guard. As she began to turn to see who it was, someone was pouncing on her tail. The puppy force of her sister surprising her made her stumble and roll onto her side. "Wynter!!" Ursa squealed as her own peels of giggles combined with Wynter's. "I definitely didn't see you! You're getting good at that," her tail thumped against the ground as she rolled to get a better look at her sister. URSA FATALIS