It was a hot day and the summer sun that filtered down from the tree tops above gave everything beneath it a greenish cast. This included the pale cream colored fur of the young pixie female below. She paused at her task and looked up towards the canopy, small wings on her back fluttering gently to give something approximating a breeze towards her face. It wasn't much but it did help some.
"Only a little after midday..." the little mare said more to herself than anyone. She'd been out all morning foraging for herbs and other essential odds and ends to make curatives and remedies for the senior healers in the herd. Despite the well tended fields and orchards maintained by the grove tenders there were just some plants, fungus and etc. that just refused to be cultivated in anything resembling a "civilized" setting so foraging for these more stubborn components was a necessary evil.
Despite all the trouble it caused, the little mare had been thrilled to find herself assigned to the task for the day. Not only did it mean a day away from the elder staff and endless memorization of plants and ingredients and being able to recite cures for various aliments, it was a day up in the less traveled parts of the valley the herd called home, a real adventure for the little pixie, but also that the senior healers trusted her judgement enough to let her go alone. It was another test of course and the contents of her bag were sure to be picked over thoroughly to make sure she hadn't let anything slip in there that shouldn't but that was very secondary to everything else.
She scanned the area she'd been working in one last time making sure that all that could be harvested from the plant growing around the base of the tree had been taken without causing too much damage to the plant so that it wouldn't grow again. That was another lesson the senior staff had hammered into her, to never take more than what the plant could give. There were exceptions of course but not many.
She leaned down and picked up the little knife that she'd left on the ground and carefully placed it back in it's sheath that was across her chest. Time to move on to the next item on the list of components that were top priority at the moment. She closed her eyes and mentally recited it until she came to something she knew wasn't in the bag on her back already. "Okay." she said out loud and looked around to get her bearings and remember where the best place to find the herb in question was.
It was then she caught something moving out of the corner of her eye.
Whoan
