Herbs... that was how she met her friends... she was out collecting herbs for her mother's patients at the clinic. She was supposed to be collecting berries in the woods, but she wasn't sure where to find one of them.
Then she saw a berry that looked like her mother had described them. A dull green berry that grew on a low bush. She was going to rush over before an older pup trampled over it, tripping. She was about to go tell him off before the bush started to move. It was another pup under leaves! She tried to stifle her laugh, letting out soft giggles. When the pup spun around to look at her, she let it all out, laughing as hard as she possibly could.
That was how she had made her first friends in the forest. It would be their secret.
Maple started to learn about herbs and tending the sick at the age of 10. She would always take careful notes. She found that the basics about herbs and plants were very simple. You wanted to avoid most of the bright plants, and there were giveaways that each plant had. If the plant had big thorns, that meant that it was good for its smell and/or taste, but no healing properties. If it had smaller thorns, it was more likely to smell or taste bad but had better healing qualities. She would always stay around and help her mother and, as her knowledge grew, she was able to help her mother.
Her mother was a kind wolf, always taking in the sick, even if they weren't able to tend to the costs of her services. She wasn't one to demand money, which made her patients very pleased with her services, and they would often pay back their debt, whether in workloads or silver bits.
But as Maple's knowledge grew and moons went by, workloads started to pile up and sick became sicker. Sickness and disease were starting to spread through this part of the region. As Maple's moons grew longer, meeting her friends in the forest were becoming the least of her worries. She would engulf herself in her work, forgetting she even had friends at times. She started visiting the forest less and less, but always made a point to show every so often she had a chance. But one day, her mother had fallen ill from a sickness that was spreading through this part of the region, and it took all of Maple's moons to tend to her mother. She was no longer able to see her friends, but she was happy to help her mother feel better. Her mother had become proud of the young wolf before her.
And then it had happened... Maple's group of friends was starting to fall apart.
YOU ARE READING
A Wolf's Story
FantasyA group of friends from different backgrounds find themselves being pressured by overprotective parents into pack duties. But as the pressure increases for each pup, the group finds themselves struggling to stay together. The Alpha's son is being ta...
