Yunaria, or Rea as she preferred to be called, rubbed both of her arms in response to the autumn breeze as it whistled by. The spring and summer had been kind to the land this turn and it's inhabitants had surely been spoiled as they were blessed with bountiful harvests but while many of folk now spent this time finding clever ways to prevent their harvests from spoiling, Rea was taking that time to reap the treasures that foraging in the midst of fall brought.
Even though Rea had answered the calling of the moon spirits to become an alchemist for the Nox Lunae herd, they had yet to recruit a member with medicinal talents and so she had also tasked herself in gathering ingredients that would help their herd should anything unfortunate occur. Ravenna had a devout knowledge of this too and was no doubt aiding in foraging ingredients for this very reason, Rea on the otherhand was simply collecting them as and when she came across the revered plants in her journey to collect materials and ingredients for her own purposes.
Traversing the forest's stream she soon found herself before a sad looking comfrey plant. The frost and freezing temperatures hadn't yet fully blown in and set upon the land and plants like this that did best in spring and summer hadn't yet fully died away and even when they did, the roots would remain intact which was what Yunaria was keen to harvest. She crouched down and took a nearby rock in hand to help her dig away at the earth. Giving a good tug she uprooted the plant and then placed it in to the medium sized satchel she had purchased in order to carry more of her finds rather than struggle to evaluate their worth and juggle with the leftover the best she could all the way back to the herds current location.
Sometimes she had travelled further than she had realized and wondered if anyone had seen her graceless maneuvers.
Rea lifted her hand to brush the back of her hand against her forehead and slide the hair from her face, unaware of the remnants of dirt now smudged across both. Continuing on her adventure she found the time spent ultimately productive in her findings, coming across numerous roots, berries and leaves that would prove useful in making salves, oils and remedies. None of them however were the items that she specifically needed for her alchemic processes.
She would rely on hunters and trappers to salvage the most important items but in return she would concoct effective lures and enhancement potions to help them in their duties and while she could have simply informed the foragers on what to bring back, she also enjoyed looking for the materials herself, especially when she lacked enough stock to actually make something from it.
"Ah, at last, Weepingvine." She smirked, reaching out to tug the long hanging vine from its perch. It's heavy body gave way with surprising little effort and to Yunaria's dismay collapsed directly down on to her head and shoulders. She let out a yelp at the sudden weight and the undeniable bruising from the impact before shuffling the great lump around until it was wrapped like a rope around her body. She let out an exasperated sigh and slugged forward. Weepingvine was a rare find but had plenty of uses and even though its addition would limit her capacity to carry as much as she would have without it she was now able to start envisioning recipes to experiment with on her return.
Next to grace her satchel were a few samples of moon snails slime and shells and gas toad glands, one of the very few things she could ultimately dissect without the need of a hunter or a trappers help. Once she had finished collecting them she decided it was time to head back and work her magic. Night was fast approaching and by the time she had made it back to her makeshift work station, comprising of nothing more than a large strip of tree bark over two wonky shaped boulders, the only light available was from the face of the moon gods.
She got to work immediately, netting a few star moths as they fluttered about her work station in the night and combined their dust with the gas toad glands, stuffing then inside the moon snail shells and sealing the mixture in with sap. She then went on to make healing salves from the comfrey roots, medicinal oils and tinctures to add to the herds reserves. Now she had finished making things it was time to test them!
Grabbing a couple of the moon snail shell mixtures she moved out to the middle of the plain so that there was plenty of space to test them safely. Lifting a hand high in to the air she then threw down a shell watching as it slammed hard in to the ground, immediately a stream of starry, silvery smoke rushed out from the impact, a cloud appearing in a small radius around her. She clapped her hands together in appraisal of her success and held a silly grin from ear to ear.
Light flickered across her eyes and suddenly it dawned on her that she had been so enthralled with her work that she had lost track of time and now morning was creeping its way across the land. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten and if she thought hard about it, couldn't actually remember the last time she had a meal. Whether it was the sleep deprivation or the red and orange glow of autumn leaves in the sun, Rea had the reminiscent taste of yams on her tongue and unable to resist the craving for them she cleared her work station and then set off once more to find yams. She hoped everyone liked sweet potatoes because she would be making a mound of roasted yams for dinner.
Providing she actually found any...
(1,008 Words)
