Moradin has been on edge. There's been promised of conflict- one that the Cove's rulers would see their pride involved in. It's meant to be in other lands, blood is intended to stain foreign soil. But there's no guarantees it won't come home, that Caladan will not be impacted instead of being the impactful ones. Since being told of what was to come Moradin had done diligence in his patrols, been extra watchful and scrutinizing of anything found that was even just close to abnormal. To his credit nothing has happened... But it makes day after day of heightened senses exhausting. He's just waiting for the snap of built up tension. Day. After day.

Even now when he's caught the chance to leave for awhile he finds no relief. A few moments meant to relax and he cannot take advantage to enjoy the natural and untamed gardens that he strolls. He's watching, he's scrutinizing anything on the horizon. And ever turning his ears to the south towards the Cove just in case alarm bells should ring.

@Analía

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Little did either of them know that she had already been wandering the land for an hour trying to gather up some devil's claw. Apparently their second winter had delayed a lot of plant growth and that might have been among the many that had been forced to question their upcoming celebratory arrival.

It took nearly three quarters of the hour before she finally located some devil's claw that had grown in a bit differently than usual. Some of them were not nearly ready to be plucked or had already withered down, but she managed to snap off a few of the tubers and laid them carefully inside of a cracked turtle shell. There were a few roots littered amongst the tubers but unfortunately a lot of the roots were far too brittle to be used but she would manage.

Eyes turned upwards as she focused her good eye on @Moradin and sniffed at the air, double-checking that it was indeed him. Chuffing to him to get his attention she grabbed the lip of the shell and began to wander in his direction. As careful as she could be to not trip and fall over tree roots, rocks and large branches.

+5 — Collect herbs

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In the peripherals of his attentive observations he hears her voice. His head is quick to swing around, initially propelled by sheer quick reaction the speed of his motion is held even when he realized who it was. He was pleased to see her and over his stern features there is the slightest flicker of relief, a moment where he feels he can relax and let his guard down. Just for a second and then he is all business once more. Calmly approaching her at the same rate she came closer to him.

Analía, hello. He says with a tip of his head her way. Eyes briefly looking over the shell in her lips and the strange to him plants she's gathered up in the make shift bowl. What's that? He asks and pokes his nose in the direction of the devil's claw she'd spent nearly the last hour working on getting together.

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Very similar to how she felt whenever she saw Eisa walking about, she was almost as delighted to see @Moradin. Because at least she felt comfort in knowing that he wanted her there and she didn't have to feel like she was a bother. He had always made her feel safe and welcome in his presence and never like she was meant to be somewhere else, or anywhere else. Hey, she said as she closed the distance and set the turtle shell upon the ground, catching her breath and licking at her lips to free herself of the uncomfortable feeling of having hard shell of the turtle hanging from her mouth for even that long.

That's a turtle's shell, silly! she chided and teased, knowing full well that he was likely asking more about what the contents of the shell were than the shell itself. The content is devil's claw. It's good for anti-inflammatory and makes for a good sedative when the pain is too much. From fights, of course, but she felt like that was kind of a no-brainer when she was a somewhat skilled medic and didn't exactly train in much else that did with pain. Not to be confused with Devil's Trumpets or Devil's Peppers. Don't use those. They both might look pretty but they would not end well with whoever tasted or consumed it.

+5 — Teach someone basic wound care
+5 — Warn someone about a poisonous plant

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That's a turtle's shell, silly! His brown eyes widen and both of his pointed ears swivel forwards in response to the prod. Quickly it dawns on him that she was not seriously telling him it was a turtle shell (he did very much know what that was) and some of the built up tightness in his face loosened into a calm chuckle. "Goof."

He looks a bit harder at the strange plants in the turtle shell. They're very alien looking to him but sounds like they're quite valuable. He's been on the receiving end of bad cuts and bruises before. Hoping for some kind of relief to the pain and anger of his healing skin. "Kinda weird the claw is the most helpful part of the devil." He does not know specifically why any of these plants got the names they did. Besides this one that did have a weird finger like quality to it. But if having to pick between the claws, the trumpet, or the peppers the latter two sounded much more friendly. "What do Devil's Trumpet and Pepper do?" It's as much curiosity as enjoying hearing Analía's knowledge that pushed him to ask for more information .

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There was certainly a look that she gave the paladin which could've constituted to just making your face less tight. @Moradin could have a little more fun now that she was here to give him company and there didn't seem to be any obvious threats around so he might as well be teased a bit. Though, she was thrilled by his interest in what she had been collecting and the plants that she had warned him about. He was right, though; why was the claw the most helpful part of the Devil?

Theeee trumpet can give you hallucinations, temporary paralysis and amnesia and theee Pepper causes depression, loss of appetite and a fondness for staying awake for long periods of time. Also know as insomnia but she was being rather coy and opening him up to the idea that even if things looked pretty or sounded pretty in any way, it didn't mean it was good. So if he ever had a healer tell him what they were using, don't judge it based on the name.

The Claw, though, she said as she pointed a paw at it, you can eat the roots or the tubers here the one's she assumed were what it was named for, and that'll help with the inflammation and make you a bit drowsy in the process so best to do it when you don't plan to go back out. At least, that was hatw she would be telling the patient if she were planning to use it right now. The last thing they needed was for them to doze off while walking and find themselves off the edge of a cliff.

+5 — teach someone basic wound care
+5 — warn someone about a poisonous plant

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When she was near he was happy. It did not entirely remove the nagging voice of worry and caution that pesters him, that forces him to anticipate and prepare for action. But it did mean he could relegate those feelings to lions less important to him than Ana was. Her teasing served it's purpose, getting him to momentarily release what he was holding in and when the sound of his own chuckle faded from the echo in his head the feelings of anxiousness did not immediately return. He suspected until they parted company he would feel only this calm and pleasurable companionship.

Or you know, maybe the anxiety would come back in a little as she began to describe the long and very unpleasant list of plant side effects. Moradin was turned off at the mention of hallucinations alone but that was not nearly all these two plants could do. Depression? Keeping you awake? His face gradually grew more furrowed and unpleasant with each symptom recalled from her memory. "I'll stick with the claw then." And maybe just in general he'd avoid random unknown plants. Not that he's ever felt the urge to experiment with such things... Just REALLY didn't feel the urge now.

"It's strange, these little plants can do so much." He thinks aloud, absently gazing at the roots and tubers but also the grass and plants around them still in the dirt. "Did you want to gather more? I can help." This anti inflammatory sounded useful to keep a stock of. And although not his specialty Moradin was aware sometimes healers had tricks to make herbs and plants last longer so having a large stock would not mean plants going bad or becoming unusable. Plus, he did want to spend more time with her now that they'd run into one another. He should make himself helpful.

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Plants can be just as deadly as our own claws. Analia makes to point out to @Moradin as he expresses that it was likely smarter to keep to the claw rather than the trumpet or pepper. There were just as many plants that cause harm than there were to do good and as a healer she did most of her work with the good but you couldn't be a healer without knowing what not to pick. They do. Not many are very tasteful but they get their job done. Analia hadn't had much reason to ever have to use her healing skills nor had anyone ever come to her specifically but she would prepared for whenever that day came, she was sure.

That would be very helpful. She grinned, always surprised when she shouldn't be to have him volunteer to help her with something as mundane as collecting plants. Most folks didn't really ever want to bother learning about them or asking questions, they just wanted to get to the event. Thanks, she issued in a more quiet tone of voice as she nudged the turtle shell. I'll leave the turtle shell here and if you find more of the devil's claws, just put them in. Thankfully if he chewed too hard on the product it wouldn't do anything drastic to him so she didn't feel it necessary to warn him. He might feel a little thirsty but it wasn't enough to be detrimental.

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"They're even more dangerous than us." Claw or tooth. He's looking down at the plants nearby now, intently tracing his eyes around the edges of their leaves and stems. "You see a claw or tooth of an animal, you know the damage it can do. You look at these..." He brushes an unknown to him plant with his paw. "You might never suspect what it can do " All that to say, he was glad their diet did not consist of plants. It seemed unlikely he'd be chomping down on random salads of nightshade and hemlock by mistake any time soon.

He breaks concentration on the plants and looks to Ana. "Thank you for sharing your knowledge." He's impressed, if not also now a little suspicious of any plant that didn't look immediately like devil's claw.

And with that, he began to scan and search for any additional devil's claw to add to Ana's stores.

( Letting dice decide how successful he is - 1= none, 2 = a few broken, 3 = one whole, 4 = one whole and some pieces, 5 = signs of a patch/more growing )

Rolling 1d5: 4

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Now that she couldn't be too sure of. At least plants couldn't move like a lion could but in the wrong hands, they could certainly serve more nefarious purposes. It was part of why she had taught herself earlier on to never trust a stranger that gives you any kind of food. That you shouldn't eat anything unless you were present when it was killed — she usually made an exception to this within the Cove but it had taken a few weeks before she had known she was completely comfortable with the rest of the members.

@Moradin's explanation, however, made her realize that from his perspective (a non-medically inclined student) it made sense that it was a lot scarier. I suppose it is to someone who isn't trained to know what is bad and what is good, she snickered lightly as she certainly found it amusing to see it from his view. That because he didn't know the good plants, he couldn't know the bad either. Just be careful when accepting food from strangers. Though, that wasn't all. And you can easily be poisoned by claws, too. Evil puts poison on there for fights. Analia had seen a lot of what plants could be used for and while she didn't like the idea of under handing a fight like that, there was no way she could begin to control that.

Of course. She felt elated that he found joy in hearing her teach about what kinds of plants could do what. If anything, healing was one thing that she had (almost) always been confident about. She might not be the best in Amaryllis but she could do the job knowing that her knowledge was quite unlimited. I'm always happy to help, especially when you're injured. If you're ever injured and don't tell me, she narrowed her eyes as if to give him a silent warning of i'll kill you myself but she would only chastise him forever about how stupid he was to let a wound potentially get infected.

Scooting the turtle shell along with him as he looked, never straying to far, she was pleased to see that he had begun to walk in the direction of some. But she wanted to wait to see what he would do and if he truly would locate what was right in front of him or move passed.

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