Before the outing to gather medicinal plants, those who were being
sent to look for said plants had been given a rundown on types of
plants to be on the look out for.  So now here she was, a wide brimmed
straw hat on her head to protect her from the hot sun, a gather basket
in one hand, cutting tools in the other, walking through the wide
fields looking for things to gather.  Boring work, maybe, but nothing
she wasn't used to.  And gathering herbs was a lot more appealing to
her than gathering the numbweed, or worse, being stuck at a pot
boiling the stuff.  No, this might be hot, and tedious, but it was, in
her opinion, the better chore.

And it was a little while later that her eyes spotted a patch of
plants among the others; a bunch of tiny blue star-shaped flowers
spreading out close to the ground.  It took a moment for the identity
of the plant to click in her mind: quickwort!  The healers would be
thrilled to see that!  She knew that it was useful, and hard to find.
And, a little voice in her head said, very valuable.  Growing up in a
tiny hold with hardly anything, a part of Phyllia wanted to just hide
what she gathered, maybe sell it herself later and send those marks
back home - keeping a few for herself, of course.  Candidates wouldn't
ever see the amount of marks that this little plant was worth, and she
could have something tucked away for herself for the next big
gather...

But the Healers needed this stuff too!  Well, maybe she could
compromise... She'd take some for herself, to sell later, and then
she'd report the patch to the healers.  They'd never know that some
had already been taken and tucked away, and then Phyllia could earn
herself some marks later on down the road.  Everyone would win that
way!  Working quickly, the young girl harvested some of the quickwort,
placing it into a small pouch that she then tucked away into her
pocket, before gathering a bit more to take to the healers so she
could show them that she'd found the patch, so that they could gather
more of it.



--
"Life is NOT a journey to the grave with the goal of arriving safely
in a prettily preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways in a
shower of gravel and party shards, thoroughly used, utterly exhausted,
and loudly proclaiming: "F*** ME, that Rocked!!" -unknown

Whizzy: Jerzy
Aim: Yue146

> Megin was beginning to feel increasingly unwell when she stumbled across the other girl and that patch of blue flowers. Why were they so familiar? She couldn't think, with a headache that was quickly turning swimmy and why did it have to be so sharing hot?
>
> "Hey is that, um... Um-" finally she landed on it. "Quickwort!" She grabbed for a handful of leaves, remembering how *good* she had felt last time. She'd be darned if she had to go home early from her first lengthy outing ever.

Phyllia quickly straightened up, turning to see who had come up behind
her.  Another girl, a weyrling from her knots, and one who didn't look
so well.  The Weyrling also recognized the plant, so maybe she was
someone who had been studying as a healer before Impressing?  Given
how she was looking, though, Phyllia was of the opinion that this girl
ought to be lying down somewhere in the shade, and not be up doing
anything too physical, especially in the sun.

"Yeah, I just stumbled onto this patch," Phyllia said, coming to offer
the girl a hand if she needed it.  "I was just about to take some of
the stuff back to the healers, to have them confirm what it was.
Here, you can put yours in here too, and we can share credit for the
find."

She offered her basket to the weyrling, waiting for her to add the
leaves she'd picked up to those Phyllia had collected.  "There's a
skin of water in here too, you look like you could use some.  And a
rest.  And maybe...have a healer look you over?  You don't look too
great."



--
"Life is NOT a journey to the grave with the goal of arriving safely
in a prettily preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways in a
shower of gravel and party shards, thoroughly used, utterly exhausted,
and loudly proclaiming: "F*** ME, that Rocked!!" -unknown

Whizzy: Jerzy
Aim: Yue146