Mossie

[2/25/21 - day of her death]

After a hot, boggy summer night, Shasta came to Ryn, flustered that she couldn't find her mentor--the young herbalist had only recently taken on the mantle of herbalist, although she had been working aside Mossie for much longer. After a search of the caves, Ryn made the trek up through the caves and through the narrow crack in the rock and out onto the small enclave in which one could see the sky through cracks in the stone. They hadn't been up there in...ages. It had become hard for the herbalist to climb up there with her rapidly progressing joint condition. 

And there lay mossie, curled up in a patch of mosses and lichens. As soon as Ryn caught sight of her, she knew something was wrong, horribly wrong. 

There was no response when Ryn had called out to her. It wasn't until Ryn slowly padded forward and touched her nose to the small prone form that it struck her, and she let out a small cry. 

Mossie was dead. 

----

Elusive and incredibly shy, newcomers rarely see the stout little herbalist of Skyline Ridge. Practicallynocturnal, the little wolf is mostly seen dodging through the trees or ducking in and out of caves with bundles of herbs in her mouth. The eclectic little she-wolf spends most of her time napping or foraging for herbs. She's not very talkative, and almost never talks to wolves she isn't close with.

Moss, or "Mossie" as she's become known as, lived in in the Skyline Ridge valley long before North and Ryn. They had seen her but a few times, as she would always scurry away at the sight of them.

As shy as she was (and still is), Mossie couldn't stay hidden when she encountered Ryn staggering down to the creek in the dead of night with a hacking cough, North by her side. Slinking out of the shadows, particularly wary of North and his size, the little wolf dropped an herb bundle in front of a violently coughing Ryn.

"This'll help."

Ryn (always the skeptic) didn't trust the little she wolf at first but North, as always, was able to talk her into trying it at the very least.

It wasn't long before the odd wolf would come around more, usually bringing something for Ryn or just sitting quietly in the presence of the others. After a while, she actually begun to speak to them.

Her and Ryn can often be found sitting up on the ridge, slipping into a thoughtful silence between snippets of conversation.