☽ Nicht ☾

    The small blue-furred pup looked up at her mother, screwing up her face in thought as she stared at the leafy green plant the herbalist held in her mouth. She couldn't tell if it was a goldenseal leaf or a carrionflower leaf. They weren't even that similar, so she should know the difference by now! She mentally chastised herself, her brow furrowing.
    "Just give me your best guess, Nicht. Just do your best. That's all you can do, right?" Rionach spoke gently around the stem of the leaf.
    "Red fruit coming out of a single leaf... I... think it's goldenseal!" Nicht declared with as much confidence as she could muster.
    Rionach dropped the leaf and grinned at her daughter, "exactly right! That's six for six right there. You know much more than you let yourself believe, young one. Now, I think you can take a break and go play with your sister. She should be about done with her lessons for the day."
    Nicht beamed up at her mother, her chest puffed out with pride. She nodded and quickly ran off to find Raea in the training hollow.

—

    Raea waggled her tail in the air and pounced squarely onto her sister, tackling her to the ground. Nicht squealed as if they were still pups playing in the training hollow after lessons and shook her off. She jumped up and whirled around to face Raea, swiping the lighter-furred she-wolf playfully across the muzzle.
    Raea shook her off and laughed, crouching low as if to pounce again, then taking off in the other direction with Nicht chasing after her. "Just try and catch me! Can't chase a chaser!"
    Nicht followed her all the way back to the hollow before she caught up, finally taking Raea down in a heap of giggles in the center of the hollow. A few of the other hunters trotted by, remarking on the herbalist's decent technique. Raea shook her sister off and smiled at her.
    "Next time I'll take you hunting!"
    Nicht looked down at her somewhat squashed herbs and chuckled, "I think we're going to have to go and find some fresh herbs first. But I'd love a good hunting lesson sometime."

—

    Nicht set the strange plant at her alpha's paws, nudging it toward him so he could inspect it. She had never encountered anything like this in her training with her mother, in her travels as an herbalist herself, or even in the tales of other herbalists she had met. She stepped back and sat on her haunches as her colorful alpha squinted down at the plant, gave it a sniff and shook his head before looking up at her with a puzzled expression.
    "And you say you've never seen this kind of thing before? Rionach didn't teach you about it? There must be some mistake, she would never have missed something like that in your training, she was too meticulous," Aleifr shook his head and looked back down at the golden flower at the end of the leafy stalk.
    Nicht sighed. Her alpha had been close with her mother, Rionach. She was something of an aunt to him, 'making me his cousin? Huh. Never thought of it that way before... Anyway...' Nicht shook her own head and told herself that one day Aleifr would trust her like he had her mother. For now she would just have to do her best to assuage the growing worry within the pack about all the unusual goings on of late.
    "I'll keep my eye out for any more odd happenings, and bring back every strange plant or otherwise that I find. To the best of my knowledge, Rionach didn't know about these things, but maybe we can figure it out."

—

    Nicht looked deep into her sister's eyes once more. There was an odd wistfulness there that unnerved her, even though Raea was smiling. It was as if the other she-wolf didn't even care Nicht was there. She just wanted to chase those strange lights. Sighing, weaily Nicht exited the den and took all of two steps before Rasp made a mad dash for the den entrance. Idrit, who was on watch ran to intercept him and ushered him over to hear what Nicht had to say. He stared the weary herbalist down with blazing eyes as she began to speak.
    "My sister has gone... "moon-eyed" for lack of a better term. I've spoken to her at length and examined her for any kind of sickness, but there is nothing off apart from the fact that all she wants to do is... chase the lights. I think, and I'm not sure yet, but I think that this may be how it starts. The wolves affected by this mysterious thing see something out there and they're transfixed. They wander off more and more until... they're just gone," Nicht's voice gave way and Idrit stepped up to press his forehead to hers comfortingly.
    Rasp was clearly on the verge of tears, something that Nicht had never seen before. He took a breath and then asked, "how do we fix her?"
    Nicht looked up at him confused, "fix her? We barely know what's going on out there, let alone how to fix the wolves who've been affected by it. I'm afraid she's going to have to be kept in one of the sick dens under guard until we can figure this out."
    Rasp staggered back as if struck, then seemed to find some resolve. "Whatever you need to figure this out, I'll do," he said firmly, and Idrit agreed.
    Rasp leaned into his brother and Nicht gave them a weak smile. She hoped there was a way to figure this out. The three of them stood there a long while just taking in all that had happened, and then they got to work. Idrit agreed to accompany Rasp to see Raea and act as her first guards while Nicht went to report her findings to Aleifr.

—

    Nicht took a deep breath as she walked along a pace behind Aleifr. Orynne walked by her side, the other packs' parties followed them and, failing at staying unnoticed several strides behind, was Winnie, the alpha's son. They were headed toward what they had been calling the final battle with whatever had been overtaking the forest and stealing their wolves. Nicht resolved to end it before her sister broke out of that den and ran off into the forest, never to be seen again. But for now they followed the unlikeliest of leaders to who knew where. Alastor was generally a reserved and slightly strange wolf. He was very particular, and very sensitive to a slew of sensations. He never made direct eye contact, so when he had marched straight up to Aleifr, stared him down and announced that they should follow him everyone was hard pressed to refuse.
     Now it had been hours and Nicht only hoped that he truly... the thought was cut off as they came to the mouth of a huge cave surrounded and filled with glowing yellow lights. Alastor stopped and turned toward the wolves who followed, giving a nod and stepping to the side, his part in this plan fulfilled. Nicht nodded back to him, still avoiding eye-contact as he would usually prefer, then stepped forward to study this cave.
    "I've never seen this before. I come here often to gather herbs and unless this was obscured by something until now it wasn't here before," she told her alpha.
    Aleifr shook his head, "you must be mistaken. How could this just appear out of nowhere?" He called the other alphas to him and they spoke in hushed tones.
    Nicht shook her head, shrugging off her alpha's dismissal and moving closer to the den entrance. She sniffed the air, peered into the cave, and then yelped as a huge, shadowy black wolf lunged at her. The rest of the wolves cried out in surprise as Nicht reared up to meet the shadowy creature's attack with one of her own. She got a few good hits in before a huge paw slammed into her and sent her flying. She hit the ground with a crunch and all the breath was driven from her lungs. As she gasped for air she could see the alphas scrambling to piece together the strange runes they had found to try and appease the creature. The shadowy wolf thundered toward them, but Orynne darted forward and planted herself between it and them, baring her teeth and preparing to fight. Before it reached her, though, Nicht saw a green-tinged streak go flying straight into the creature, gripping it by the throat and holding on as it thrashed its mighty head.
    "Winnie!" The herbalist tried to cry out, but her voice was no more than a whisper and her rib cage felt as though it was on fire.
    Aleifr heard her call, though, and whirled around to see his son dangling from the creature's throat by his jaws. He realized it was a corporeal thing and sent up a wild howl, sending all the hunters and fighters the other packs had brought at it. They tore into it savagely for several minutes, but nothing seemed to weaken or slow it. Nicht watched helplessly, then realized she had to do something. She dragged herself to her feet, crying out as her ribs shifted strangely, then staggered toward the alphas. She stared down at the runes, vision swimming, and realized that they had placed two of the pieces in the wrong positions. She reached out with a shaking paw, scooting the pieces weakly out of the lineup and then back to where they belonged, and then collapsed into darkness.
    When she awoke she was lying in her den with sticks and poultices bracing and binding her entire midsection. She shifted and let out a gasp as her most definitely broken ribs were set on fire once again.
    "Oh," she wheezed, "I hoped that was just a dream."
    "It was not," the voice of her alpha sounded just out of sight off to the side. She didn't feel like shifting or rising to try and see him, so she just listened as he continued, "you were incredibly reckless going into that cave before the rest of us were ready. You put us all in danger, you could've gotten us all killed," he sighed, "and you were incredibly brave to face it head on. What's more, you were the one who put the runes together correctly, and the one who defeated the creature."
    Nicht's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "I... was the what?"
    "After you collapsed-" The alpha began, but was cut off by Raea, who bustled into Nicht's vision with more poultice and piped up excitedly.
    "After you collapsed, there was a great light that came off of you and the runes, and it blew that nasty shadow creature away!"
    "Yes," Aleifr's voice came again flatly, "that."
    "I... All I did was collapse and black out. I'm certainly not your hero. I think that honor would belong to Winnie. That crazy wolf was hanging off of that creature by his jaws and still attacking him with his claws as if it was nothing!"
    Aleifr sighed, "I've given him a good thrashing and a good bit of praise for that already, but something about what you did caused everything to go back to normal so I'm choosing to thank you... and to apologize. I dismissed you and treated you like a pup, just a sub-optimal replacement for your mother. I'm sorry. I was very wrong. I would also like to welcome you to the ranks of the Strong. The first herbalist to receive that honor. Now, I'll leave you to your recovery and your sister's endless barrage of questions which I'm sure she'll ask all over again to you."
    Nicht heard the alpha's footfalls fade as he left the den. Raea did not ask any questions after all, but just sat quietly applying more poultice, seemingly deep in thought. Nicht knew she was just waiting for Nicht to break the silence and allow her to ask the questions that bubbled up beneath the surface, however, and the herbalist thought for a moment before coming up with the perfect thing to say.
    "You know, these poultices could've used some more boneset."
    Raea's face lit up and she scurried off to fetch some more from the stores, all of her questions streaming out at once as Nicht chuckled as much as her burning ribs would allow, answering each question as it came.

—

    It had been about a year since everything had returned to normal in the hollow, and Raea was still busy with her temporary herbalist duties. Nicht had come to help her here and there, sometimes for weeks or months at a time, but each time it had proved too much exertion and she'd had to take to her nest again to rest. There were decent ways to bind broken limbs or paws, and though her sister had tried her best it was not so for broken ribs, and Nicht's inability to sit still for more than five minutes coupled with that fact made healing slow going. She likely would have some lingering trouble from this for a long time if not forever.
    Now Nicht appeared for the first time in months at the mouth of her sick den, blinking in the sunlight filtering in the entrance to the giant stump. Raea dropped the herbs she was carrying and hurried over to her sister, moving to support her before Nicht waved her away with a paw.
    "I'm fine, Raea, really. Things have finally settled into place, and I think I'm ready to get back to work."
    Raea gave her sister a flat stare and shook her head, "is this going to be like the last five times you've tried to come back to work? Go back to your den and rest, sister, I'll handle everything up here."
    Nicht fixed her sister with a stern look, huffing, "I think I am quite capable of knowing when I am healed, thank you very much little sister. I know I was eager before, but it's been months since I've tried to come back before it was time." She sighed and bumped her forehead to Raea's, "don't you want to go back to hunting?"
    Raea shuffled her paws, kicking up a tiny cloud of dust, "I suppose I do... but I must say being an herbalist is interesting. I've learned so much, and I get to be so helpful! I was completely useless for a month last year, and I feel like this way I can give back a bit."
    Nicht shook her head with a light chuckle, "and how do you think I feel? I've been locked away in here for near on a year now. Let me have my turn to give back, too, Raea. Go and hunt with your party, I'm sure they miss you."
    Raea smiled and touched her nose gently to her sister's, "all right. I suppose it does sound nice to stretch out a bit. I'll just go and find Rasp, then. Oh, that's the beginnings of a heali-"
    "Healing salve. I know," Nicht chuckled again more heartily as her sister scrabbled out of the den and off to find her mate.

[Starting 529]