4/28/2025, 3:26 AM
(This post was last modified: 4/28/2025, 3:28 AM by Cloud Lash.)
SNAGGING SKILL Herbalist 1/5
cloud lash moved north of the singing hills, her paws brushing through the damp breath of the grass, eyes low and searching. the rain had stirred new life from the earth; she could smell it, rich and green, curling between the hardy shoots and stone-slick moss. her heart beat lightly in her chest, a rhythm in time with the wind.
it was not herbs she found first, but movement — a boy, young still, painted in colors strange to her eye, sprawled atop a low rise like a patch of shadow and sun. he was not sharp with hunger, nor wary with pain, and the peace of the land seemed stitched into him.
cloud lash paused at the meadow’s edge, tail lifting in a slow, eager wag, cautious but kind. she let a small bark carry from her throat — soft, musical, not a shout but a greeting, as the sharadoii might give to distant kin across the valleys.
she stepped forward a pace, head low, paws light over the newborn flowers, her body language open and unthreatening. breath warm against the lingering cool of the rain-damp earth, she pointed to herself with a paw, then gave her name, simple and sure in the common tongue she barely cradled:
nuvts’eyaȟa.
cloud lash's river-red gaze stayed wide and unblinking, waiting to see if he would answer, if the boy of sun and shadow would welcome the meeting or turn like mist from stone.