She’d been sent out to harvest some datura, and while that was a useful assignment Kalare had a sneaking suspicion that it was just Aresti’s excuse to get rid of her for a while. They’d grown used to each other over the years, but if you put a plant and an animal, an oak and a rat, patience and anxiety together there will be times of grated nerves that just can’t be helped. So, rather than kill her, Aresti’s default had become to send Kalare out to the corner of the world (as she saw it.) Out here was a secret grove of datura, and while the stuff that grew in Aresti’s garden was more potent than this, the wild plant had its own bite and flavor. You needed more in a dosage, but the experience was…clearer, if that made any sense.

Anyway, given her suspicion of the real reason behind her assignment, Kalare was taking her time. At the moment, in fact, she was taking a break. Her horse, built for speed and distance and colored a fairly consistent beige not unlike the color of dead foliage, stood nearby with her nose in the grass. The mare’s tail mirrored the wind-stroked movement of the tall grasses as she idly grazed. Some yards away, but within hearing range, a tan-and-black dog (he had followed Kalare out of the main camp, and since he’d managed to keep pace so far she wasn’t worried about losing him) was stalking a vole or mouse or some other small mammal. She could hear it rustle and squeak, when the dog wasn’t filling the air with his own snuffles and huffs.

Kalare herself was lying comfortably upon the ground, her arms tucked behind her black-haired head. The sky was clear and the air fiercely warm, and so she’d taken her tunic off for comfort’s sake and spread it out beneath herself. No itchy weeds would plague her today. Her leggings had been hiked up above her knees before Kalare deemed herself too lazy and comfortable to do anything else with them. She’d lain back, and assumed the lounging position which she still claimed.

Originally she’d planned to rest for just a few minutes, until Eguzki moved out of his zenith and descended a little further down the sky. But when a person dozes off and loses track of time, hours can go by in the space of a blink – a long blink. Kalare’s blink was short, in comparison to some that she’d taken, but when her eyes opened again Eguzki was halfway down to the earth, and the opposite side of the sky was already pulling on its mourning colors.

The change in lighting, however, was not what had awakened her. Something else had the honor of this duty, and Kalare listened with her eyes half-open to hear what it may be.