remedies

Ecto's ears fell back against his head at Smiley's scolding, always resenting whoever had named the Fighter so ironically. He hadn't spent a significant amount of time with the older female, always more focused on his studies and accidentally wandering off... which was probably how he'd ended up with an escort in the first place. He certainly had a knack for straying from where he was meant to be without a word. It was possible it was because he'd left Rotstalker territory as well. Whatever it was, he wished he'd been paired with someone slightly more cheery. Or just anyone. 

Without a word of reply to Smiley, Ecto kept moving, nose to the ground as he tried to sniff out a familiar scent. His ears perked up as he noticed something, pace quickening excitedly as he finally found something that wasn't grass. "I think I found something!" he called over his shoulder, mostly for the sake of Smiley not biting his ear off again. He nudged his nose against the leaves, trying to make sure he was certain of the scent before he lightly tugged at the base of the plant with his teeth, freeing the herb from the earth and trying to keep it as much in one piece as he could.

"It's burnet, I'm pretty sure," he murmured, half to himself and half to reassure Smiley he wasn't just grasping at straws now. "It's not the most useful thing in the world but it helps stop bleeding..." His tailed wagged in satisfaction, scattering bits of blue slime about the area.

Turning towards the husky mix, Ecto couldn't help but puff out his chest just a bit, if only because she wouldn't be able to say she was dragged out for nothing. He frowned though, three eyes squinting at her shoulder, finally noticing how the fur was all displaced and recalling that he'd seen her chew at it a few times. "Smiley, do you think you could catch a mouse for me? Or something small like that. They're around here, right?"

Ecto did as Smiley requested, keeping his nose to the ground in search of more herbs, though it was a bit harder to track scents when he had to carry the burnet leaves in his mouth, confusing his sense of smell slightly. Fortunately, three eyes left him with superior sight, compared to other dogs, at least, and it wasn't hard to locate more of the serrated leaves of burnet. He dug those up as well, continuing to sniff along the field.

It wasn't the best place to find herbs, but he was at least finding more than he typically saw in his pack's territory. He located some yellow flowers, glad to find something else medicinally useful, but also aware that dandelions were hardy flowers that grew even from the cracks of the concrete of Rotstalker land, noting that it wasn't a very rare or special find. Still, herbs were herbs, and he carefully pulled at the stems to take as much of the yellow weed as he could manage.

With more in his mouth that he'd started, he turned to look for Smiley, noting that she wasn't too far off and internally praising herself for not letting himself wander out of her eyesight without meaning to--although that could have been because she was paying enough attention to him to follow along. Still, he headed in her direction, eyes sweeping the area to be sure he wasn't scaring off any prey and then hesitating a few bounds away regardless, too nervous she would scold him for scaring off a meal in case he'd missed it in his sweep.

Ecto wagged his tail in approval of Smiley's kill, quietly noting how proud she seemed just to have killed a rabbit, and he supposed that it'd maybe been a bit cruel to ask a Fighter to start catching animals for him, but he'd meant well. "Thanks," he murmured, dipping his head in gratitude to her, especially having watched the tail end of her hunting attempts. 

At that, Ecto sunk his teeth into the rabbit's flesh, using his paws as leverage as he pulled the meat apart. He dropped it again, not wanting her to think he intended to eat before a hungry pack, though he couldn't help but lick his chops at the taste of its blood on his lips. Focusing, he poked around inside the rabbit, locating its liver and tearing it out carefully.

"Okay," he muttered to himself, lightly poking his paw into the yellow of the liver. He stepped closer to Smiley, dabbing the bile against her shoulder where he'd seen her biting before stepping back with a satisfied nod. "That should take care of the bugs biting you," Ecto informed her, wiping his paw against the dirt to try and get the bile off.

"Trust me, I know," Ecto replied, continuing to try and rub the bile on his paw off, though he could still see the yellow stain growing on his white fur. "Thanks for catching it though; we can bring back its meat for the pack and I can keep its bile!" He smiled, lightly nudging his nose against the rabbit meat again.

Ecto set the burnet and dandelion by the rabbit, quietly looking over his minimal haul and twitching his ear in Smiley's direction to acknowledge her suggestion about the pond. It was true that they might be able to find something there--but no matter where they went, Ecto would be scraping at barren earth to find something for their pack.

"I bet the forest is filled with herbs," he muttered, three eyes fixed on the forest of the Fawnstalker land for a long moment before his gaze fell back to what he'd found. "Anyway, I guess we should head back? I don't think we'll find much more than burnet and dandelion out here. Sorry for dragging you out so far for nothing," he added, glancing back over the field for any last sign of something decent to bring back and unsurprisingly coming up empty.

Ecto didn't reply to her comment about the forests--the last thing he wanted was a war between the packs, even if Smiley seemed to be itching to make trouble. If Fawnstalker happened to be willing to offer part of the forest to Rotstalker, that was another story--an offer he would gladly accept, but a fight for the land seemed foolish, especially if it was for the sake of herbs. Injuring dogs just to get a land that grew more plants? It seemed very backwards logic in his head.

He followed Smiley back to the pond, flanking her closely just in case of a potential threat. Ecto dipped his paws in the water, working extra hard to scrub the bile from his paws until the fur was white again. With that out of the way, Ecto started to snoop around the pond for herbs, tail scattering blue slime about again as he wagged it in excitement. There wasn't too much of it, but he'd managed to locate the tangy smell that went along with the daisy-looking herb, happily gathering what he could of the feverfew plant and adding it to the rest of his collection.

"I found a bit more," he told Smiley, frowning as he noticed she had nearly submerged herself in water and slowly approached the shore, cocking his head to one side. "What are you doing?"

"Well, yeah, but..." he trailed off, politely deciding not to mention that the clean water probably would have been a bit cleaner and better for drinking before she'd submerged her whole pelt in it and rolled around. He shrugged, walking to the water's edge and lapping up a bit of the water for himself.

To Smiley's credit, the water still tasted fine, and he was glad for the fresh water regardless of whether a dog had decided to soak in it first. After getting enough drink to quench himself, he scraped around for moss, rolling what he could find into balls and soaking one in the bile and the other in the water, for dogs that were too dehydrated to move to find a clean water source. Proud that he'd located even more useful essentials, Ecto looked back at Smiley, paws nudging his herbs into a neater little collection. "I'm ready to head back when you are."