Closed Little Seedling (Waisana)

[Haena]

20th Fall, 516
Roughly the 9th bell
Speech
Others

Haena was camped, a loosely used term, inside the tent known as the River Flower. It was busy, as usual, but not too bad. She had managed to find a space, and there she had unloaded all her equipment. Outside, Alta' grazed patiently, whilst inside her Drykas woman poured over Harriet's notebook. It was scruffy, her mother's handwriting wasn't good even at the best of times, and this was a book full of her notes. As such, it was Haena's constant struggle to understand what she meant. The book was now so full of ink that she thought it might burst, as she had made some of her own annotations next to a particularly difficult passage.

The specific part that she looked over now was interesting, though. She had been working on a medicine to make a person happier. Syna's ray flowers she had already experimented with, but now she wondered whether to try something more... potent. She had remembered last night, as she lay tossing and turning, a fragment of a note that Harriet had left in her notebook. This morning, she was discovering that finding that particular segment was turning out to be harder than it looked.

However, even as she thought that, she skimmed over the sentence.
~"Trader called. Bought some beans, said they were rare. Came from a tree with yellow fruit. Beans grey and brown with furry covering. Available in Cyphrus? Must research."~
Underneath that, Harriet had written about something else entirely, before she followed a scribbled line leading to a short note.
~"Beans good for nothing!!"~
Then underneath that in a different coloured ink, were the words:
~"Trader said they were for making someone happy. Can't see how."~

So, there she had it. The note. Haena stared at the text, trying to figure out what her mother meant. However, her interest was piqued, if nothing else. A yellow fruit that grew on a tree. She snorted to herself, as trees were few and far between. Yet perhaps it was worth the travel. She began to collect what she would need, a knife, her mother's notebook and Haena's own logbook. Outside, her shortbow was residing in her yvas bag, and she walked out to place her equipment there. Then she hesitated, her hands about to pull herself up onto Alta's back. Perhaps it would be wise to find a companion with which to journey.

The obvious people to ask were the workers in the River Flower. Haena strode back inside the tent and searched for someone who looked like they were a little less busy than everyone else around. A short man with a long scar on his cheek began to smile as she strode up to ask him, but it quickly fell again when she explained what she needed. A quick shake of the head later, and Haena looked around again. Then she spotted a blonde woman, with pretty features, nearby. She walked up to her, and softly tapped her on the shoulder.

"Excuse me?" She signed question, apologies. "I'm about to go out and search for a plant, I'm a pharmacist attempting to make a medicine. Would you be free at all to accompany me? Two is better than one." She smiled encouragingly as she signed with quick flicks of her fingers, assistance, journey, protection.

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[Waisana]

She'd checked the stores, she'd pulled out every little container available and put them back in the right order. It was no use, they'd somehow run out of a herb and try as she might, there was no way for her to make it magically appear. She couldn't understand how someone could have been so negligent. Perhaps a particular need for the small plant had suddenly arisen and their supplies had been rapidly diminished. Thankfully, she'd checked and that meant that she could remedy the lack. It wasn't needed right this moment but that didn't mean that the River Flower had to be left wanting.

Slinging her bag over her shoulder, the teen made a move to leave the tent but was waylaid by a patient. Smiling kindly, she set her bag down again to free herself up for any necessary work. The complaint was one of dizziness, headaches and tiredness. The blonde got the patient to follow her finger with his eyes as she moved it back and forth in front of his face, checking to see how alert he was and testing his reactions. Next, she took his pulse, counting softly under her breath as she felt for each thrum of the arteries beneath. The activity beneath the surface was weak, his pulse not as strong as it ought to have been for a man who looked to be in his twenties. She asked him about his activity over the past day or so, questioning if anything else out of the ordinary had presented itself. She gently pulled down his lower eyelid to check the moisture level and the colouring of the membrane.

"How much water have you been drinking the last day or so?" she asked, as she held his hand on hers, the palm down and gently pinched the knuckle. A ridge formed between her fingers and as she released it, the skin was slow to sink back down. His reply that he did not know how much he'd drank came as no surprise to her. She pressed her fingers to the skin of his armpit and found it drier than it should have been. She had an idea what was wrong here and it was an easy one to fix provided that her patient did as he was told.

"Your body needs fluid. Water, fruit juice." Drink, rest, no work! she explained, the short, sharp gestures lending a sternness to her words; there would be no compromise in this situation. "Drink little but very often for a bell then eat something with salt, eat some fruit. Your thirst should come back. When you are yourself again, you will know you are better." Body warns, listen to it! Go! she told him, shooing him away just as a woman approached her. The youth did her best to hide a sigh as she turned to the other with a helpful smile. At this rate, she would never leave the tent!

The plea for help was not quite what she'd expected, no request coming for the aid or diagnosis of an ailment. Her hands came together in a sign of delight at such a fortuitous occurrence. "I was just about to go in search of a plant myself! Our stock of it is gone and I was going to replenish it. I was going to go in search of someone to accompany me!" Good fortune, gladness, she signed excitedly, her joy not lost in her tone either. Hoisting her bag up from the floor, she returned it to her place on her shoulder and beckoned for the other to [color=black]come as she walked briskly outside. Drusine was near at hand and she cooed coaxingly to the mare who bent her steps towards the Drykas as she remembered her manners and turned to introduce herself to the pharmacist.

"I am Waisana. What may I call you?" Her Strider nudged her with her nose and the girl laughed, rubbing behind her ears and ruffling her mane affectionately. "What do you seek?" she asked the woman, signing question, assistance, knowledge. With Drusine waiting so expectantly, it was no time to carry on a conversation but she figured the other would answer in her own time. The yvas was still on her mount's back, the doctor leaving it ready in the event of a herb finding expedition. As a result, it was only necessary for her to pull herself onto the beast's back to be set to go. Her bag was attached to the yvas with a quick double knot before she grasped the handhold, took a step back and rushed forward, vaulting upwards. One hand gripped the hold while the other found and applied pressure to the seat of the yvas, lifting herself up and landing inelegantly on her stomach. A wiggle forward and movement of her hands and she got the other leg over and righted herself. She'd await her companion's own mounting before tapping her Strider's flanks lightly with her heels to spur her to a walk that would allow them to pick their way around the various tents and the traffic of animals and people.

[Haena]

Speech
Others

Waisana was enthusiastic, and Haena smirked a little with surprise, not expecting the response from the blonde-haired healer. "Well, that was fortunate then, wasn't it. I'm Haena, Haena Horserun. Really I'm going on a wild chase for something my mother spoke about in her journal. I'm not even sure if it grows very often around here, but I thought I'd give it a go." She bent the cover back of the journal, and showed the woman. "What are you searching for? It's probably more likely for you to find what you are looking for, so we can do that first."

Waisana mounted her horse, and Haena followed suit, equally inelegant. She followed the woman through the flourishing tent city, until the tents filtered down and the magnificence of the grasslands showed themselves. Already, Haena found herself breathing more easily, taking deep, soothing breaths of the air through her nose. Here the land was littered with scruffy shrubs, barely taller than the grass they grew amongst. Alta' trotted briskly through them, and Haena gently leant forwards, digging her knees in to encourage her horse to go a little faster. The dun-coloured strider seemed to agree, and soon the herbalist was beside Waisana.

"So, which clan are you in?" Haena wasn't good at small talk, but she would give it a try. She was feeling somewhat refreshed that day, full of the woman's infectious enthusiasm and a certain peace that she always felt in the expanses of Cyphrus. It wasn't long before she slipped back into professional speak, though. "Do you have many patients that suffer from, well... unhappiness? It's like a depression of the soul. Supposedly, this bean might be effective in treating it. Although gods know where it's supposed to grow. You haven't seen many bean-like plants in the grasslands, have you?"

OOC :

I am *so* sorry this thread has taken so long to get going. I must admit I kind of forgot about it for a long while. Hopefully we can pick up the flow of it again, seeing as it hasn't really started.

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[Waisana]

Waisana made a sign that she was glad to meet her, regarding the other with interest as she briefly touched upon her purpose. The notion of searching for a plant that you weren't even sure existed could be seen as a waste of time but there was something exciting about the concept to the young doctor. Haena was a trailblazer, clearly willing to take risks when there wasn't a guaranteed chance of success. Perhaps it was foolhardy but there was also a certain bravery to it. She imagined that this woman was one who could discover things as their ancestors had done and pass knowledge onto the future generations. After all, how many of the herbs they now took for granted had been rooted out and experimented with? The mention of a mother who had found such a plant before made the blonde think that there was a good chance she might find what she was looking for after all.

"Well, I'm going to collect some batonal because we've run out of it. It's very common at this time of year so I'm surprised no one has replenished our stocks. It's medical use is limited but it's a good plant to have," she explained. "The batonal should be easy to find but if I can find it, I would bring back some gigar stems." Rare. Valuable, Desirable. "If I can find the plant, I can take what I need and trade the roots."

The teen was eager to hunt out some gigar because it was a more valuable herb by far than batonal. This was the perfect time of year to seek them both out but it was the gigar that really made it necessary to leave the confines of the tent city to conduct her search. She'd seen many batonal plants dotted around Endrykas so they were easy pickings but it was better to leave those plants untouched if possible, as many residents used them in cooking. Most of them had enough rudimentary herbalism to identify and harvest the herb and so Waisana wasn't one to interfere with their supply. However, when they next moved, it would be worthwhile to gather some of it up before they went to a new encampment.

The blonde urged her Strider forward at a steady pace, not wanting to move too quickly in case she missed anything valuable. From Drusine's back, the rounded leaves of batonal were easy to spot, as was the aromatic scent that wafted to her nose as the herbs were crushed beneath her mount's hooves. The Opal clan girl made no move to dismount though as she knew that it was better to find a larger crop of the plant, preferably with more valuable herbs nearby or she'd been up and down off the horse every other chime. There would be plenty of opportunities to collect batonal in the near future. It was the spear-shaped leaves that she yearned for a glimpse of as her legs gripped her Strider loosely.

Her companion's first question brought an amused smile to Waisana's lips. Her eyes dropped immediately to her clothing, the abundance of white on her torso and the white stone beads she wore on her forearms seeming to give a clear indication. Her yvas was decorated with white as well, in patterns typical of her clan. Even without such markers, considering where Haena had found her, she would have thought it would have been rather obvious. All the same, the teen wasn't one to tease and perhaps it wasn't right to make assumptions. After all, her companion's brown clothing afforded little information although her pursuits suggested that she was in some way affiliated with Waisana's own clan; she could not be certain.

"Opal clan. I am a doctor, perhaps one day... a healer. I have a good grasp of herbs but there is still much for me to learn," she admitted humbly, bowing her head to the woman whose knowledge she assumed was far superior to her own. "Are you not Opal clan as well? You have herbal knowledge and you are searching for herbs." Your work, yes? the teen asked uncertainly.

Haena's next question gave her food for thought. A mildly puzzled expression crossed her features as she tried to determine what the other meant by unhappiness. Not mere discontent, no, and that wasn't something that you would treat. A depression of the soul was something she came across from time to time, however, as sometimes after giving birth, a woman could become terribly despondent. Such women felt they couldn't cope with life and the idea of looking after a new baby in the midst of that was a near impossibility. Some found they couldn't deal with it anymore and took measures to end themselves, while others thought it would be better--whether for themselves or their child--if they got rid of their baby somehow. It was an awful thing to witness and in those situations, the affected women had to be watched closely for fear of the harm they might cause. Occasionally, there were others who could fall into such low moods for no discernible reason, including men. She wondered if that was what the woman meant.

"I have known women to birth a child and become so sad, they kill themselves, or their child and sometimes both. Others sometimes harm themselves and it might be... unhappiness, as you say," she murmured sadly. "Treating that would be important. If this plant you search for could do that then it would be a blessing. I do not know if I have seen beans. Beans are noticeable... unless they grow underground. Maybe the stems and leaves are above and the beans hide below." What do you think?