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It pains me to see her sag in disappointment when I say I don't know what is paining her dam. It is a part of childhood that I recognise, the day that you realise your mother isn't the god you have elevated her to in your own head, but that she is as fallible and mortal as anybody else. I remember it well. After all, what foal doesn't believe that his mother will always keep him safe from harm? Shadow is a good mother, and I can tell from the God fights that she would do anything to save her child. The fact she is so aloof already, and that the moment of mother-related realization has to come so soon for the filly, is concerning. My own mother had done everything in her power to protect me, despite the articificial, human-dominated environment I had grown up in. How she had raged against leather and metal when they took me away from her long before I was ready! How she had screamed for me from her field whilst I was locked in my stable, alone and bewildered! That was the day I realised she couldn't protect me from everything. Erthë will hopefully never have to leave her dam until she is good and ready, but she will soon realise that her dam is not the perfect creature she undoubtedly believes, just as I had believed. At least she has me, though, and I will never abandon her whilst I have blood in my heart. And, if I teach her everything I know about healing, it will hopefully ensure she grows into a mare herself, kindhearted and knowledgeable and ready to have children of her own one day. Her first question is a valid one. "Alas, herbs don't taste as nice as grass," I say, and it's true. Herbs are often bitter - it seems that anything that helps you must taste horrible. "Realistically, though, it is simply a question of knowledge. If you study herbs enough, you learn to recognise them by smell, by leaf shape, by stem length, and so on. The humans had taken a lot from me, but the one thing they gave me was their knowledge of alternative, herbal medicine. Without that, I would never have known everything I know, and Shadow could well be dead. These things happen for a reason, and the human knowledge of herbs has given me a meaning in life. Perhaps that was their way of compensating for taking away the part of me that would allow me to create life, which is every animal's purpose for existence. I gesture with my nose to one particular pile of herbs. "For example, this is green vein kratom. See how its leaves are smooth, and how its veins are green when you turn it upside down? It is very similar to something called red vein kratom, as in they both provide pain relief. Red vein provides greater pain relief, but it also sedates, which means it isn't as useful in battles. I used green vein in the Bear battle - if I'd used red vein, the stallion I'd used it on might well have collapsed into a relaxed heap, which would be very dangerous." I'd had red vein used on me by the humans in conjunction with normal medicine after I'd had medical procedures done, and I can testify to its effects. |
