Björnbär 🍃✒️

"Mamma, what's a bear berry?" the curious questions came early, "why am I named like that?"
"Why is pappa named bear star? Is that a berry too?"
"Why are you named tree sap??"
Kåda took Björnbär to the forest and found a tree with plenty of sap on it, presenting it to her daughter.
"Tree sap is something that I like to use in balms," Kåda explained as she scraped the excess off of the tree to bring home, "It has healing properties, too."
"It makes wounds better?" Björnbärs question showed how smart she was already, at such a young age.
-
"Watch out for the nettles," Kåda said, not giving it much of a thought. She had brought Björnbär to her garden for the first time.
"What does a nettle look like?" Björnbär asked immedietly. Kåda had never been a teacher, or a mother, before, and realized the pup didn't know these things.
"These ones, with the jagged leaves. Be careful around them, they sometimes sting."
"Why?"
And that was the day that Kåda decided to start teaching Björnbär about herbalism.
-
"My goal is for you to eventually be a better herbalist than me," Kåda explained. Björnbär was older now, almost an adolescent.
"Are you a better herbalist than the last herbalist?" Björnbär had a question and let it flow freely out of her mind, knowing her mother would answer.
"Yes. The previous herbalist was my father, and he wasn't a herbalist for very long," Kåda explained.
"Why?" Björnbär asked before she could continue explaining. Kåda looked with her icy blue eyes at Björnbär.
"Maybe it's time for a history lesson, what do you think?" Kåda started gathering coal from the fire place and Björnbär became excited to learn something new!
She sat idly as her mother drew a picture on the wall, smearing it with some dust and then drawing the outline. The drawing depicted a very round wolf face, with blue eyes. Above the image, she wrote, "Astrid".
"Once upon a time, there was a blue eyed wolf named Astrid. Where Astrid came from, we don't know, but at one point she dwelled in these very forests," Björnbär laughed at Kådas exaggarated acting and Kåda laughed too, and shook her head, "alright, alright. Astrid was my grandmother. I never met her, but she was the packs first herbalist! She is also the one who made the packs book of herbs."
As the book was placed in front of Björnbärs paws, Björnbär opened it and looked at the pictures.
"Astrids dream in life was to have a big family, and she had many pups! One of them was Ragnvald. Ragnvald had dark dark blue eyes, almost black," Kåda drew another wolf below the previous one, "When Astrid died of old age, someone had to take over as a herbalist, and Ragnvald took over and did his best, despite not being taught anything!"
"He knew nothing?" Björnbär asked, shocked.
"Nope! Astrid hadn't taught him anything! Anyway.. Ragnvald met a girl who he had pups with, then she disappeared and left her three daughters with Ragnvald. One of those daughters looked a looot like Astrid," Kåda started drawing again, and, yeah, Björnbär knew who this was! She smiled and giggled a little, "and the pup really liked flowers and berries! And her father named her Kåda, and trained her to become the next herbalist!"
Kåda sat down next to her drawing and beamed at Björnbär, who smiled back.
"That's my mamma!" she laughed.
Someone called for Kåda, and she had to leave. Björnbär watched as her mother walked away, then she turned her gaze to the painting on the wall. Astrid, Ragnvald, Mamma Kåda. The herbalists. And next in turn, could it be Björnbär?

-
Her parents weren't talking to eachother. Björnbär didn't know why. When she talked to her father, he was enthusiastic about her being a hunter, and when she talked to her mother she was enthusiastic about her being smart and soon being a herbalist.
At first, Björnbär felt weird in her position as a stalker. Most of her familys hunters were finishers. But her father reassured her.
"A hunting party can't have just a finisher, and each wolf needs to provide with what they're best at," he explained, and kissed her on the forehead. And as time went on, Björn really liked being a hunter. But her father died and she didn't know what to do, her mother was old and the pack needed a new herbalist when she died.. and then luck turned her way. She got a little sister.
-
Björnbär started selling rotting fruits from her mothers garden to a young male. It was pretty strange, but she imagined he was probably starving or something so she gave him what she had. One day, the male came back, distrought and asking for help.
"It's Himle, he was injured badly when he fell off that cliff but he refuses to find a herbalist. I think he's ashamed. Please help," the male pleaded. Himle had been thrown out of the pack by Björnbärs best friend, the alpha, Borg. She hesitated, but she accepted. She couldn't let someone be in pain like that, even if it was a bad wolf. She followed the young male, and was led to a clearing by the river, surrounded by forest, and with one deep cave. She entered it and found the aforementioned wolf. He looked up at her and looked embarrassed. His face was scratched up.
"Did Håkan get you here? I told him not to.." Himle murmured. Björnbär nodded.
"I have a lot of herbal knowledge, I'm the herbalists daughter, I could help you if you want," she introduced herself, and her patient sighed and nodded, so she approached and started examining his injuries, and soon stated, "your jaw is broken, and it has been too long since the injury happened. I can't put it back. And as for the wounds, they'll leave scars."
-
Her little sister turned out to be somewhat of a prodigy. At first, Björnbär secretly educated her and then she prodded her to go foraging with their mother. Sadly, Kåda died before the little one became an adult, and Björnbär had to rise to the occasion. But she missed her hunting team too much, so she brought her little sister, now named Skivling, to work every day to teach her and even had her healing patients! When Skivling was old enough, Björnbär passed the herbalist duty to her.
-
"What are you doing?" Chills went through Björnbärs body when she saw Kådas thyme patch being ripped out of the ground.
"I need some thyme for my new herb garden. What are you doing here? You're no herbalist," Skivling was too quick with her words. Björnbär was visiting the herbalist garden to fetch some herbs for some ill wolves from a different pack who had no herbalist, but she couldn't tell Skivling about it, she didn't want her to get involved.
"I'm just visiting my lillasyster and find her destroying the garden that was passed down to us!" Björnbär looked at the empty patches of soil and the wilting basil, and, oh gods, "why is the mint all black and crispy?!"
"The mint was a strain on the ecosystem, I had to kill it," Skivling threw the clumps of thyme into a bag and went to inspect some more herbs to steal, then she saw Björnbär looking at her with concerned eyes, "Don't worry I kept some of it. Storasyster, this spot in the middle of the woods is not suited for all kinds of herbs. It's limiting my abilities. Maybe I should've told you, but I'm moving a bit away from here. Yes, I did talk to the alpha about it and it will work out."
Skivling snapped off a branch from the raspberry bush and stuffed it in her bag before starting to walk away, leaving her older sister with the words, "come visit some time."
Björnbär sat down in the former herb garden, her mothers legacy..
-
"I didn't think you'd bring them!" The wolf was overjoyed from seeing the raspberries Björn brought, and he was about to take the bag, too, before Björn stopped him and gave him a look.
"Ahh- sorry," he laughed nervously and then threw her some payment and Björn happily exchanged the berries, "why don't you come over tonight? There will be a bunch of fun wolves here!"
Björn was undecided, so she left without responding.
-
A visit from her little sister was always welcome, but this time Skivling had something unexpected on her mind.
"I need a favor," she said, as if she had ever needed help in her entire life, and Björnbär was ready to accept anything out of love for her sister. Skivling lowered her voice, "there's a female living in Himles area, I think she's his mate. She came to me with a nasty wound that had been festering for at least a month. Will you check on her for me?"
Skivling didn't know of Björnbärs past visits with the enemy pack, and as Björn visited more and more she found they were indeed in dire need of a herbalist. What she hadn't known was how Himle himself had tried to deceit her. As she checked on the female, she learned her name was Myr, she also noticed how frightened she was of her mate. Myr was a confident and well-spoken wolf, but when Himle was around, she became nervous and quiet, and obedient. Björn knew her help was needed here, it was not these wolves fault that their leader was bad.