Who: Mercy and Open What: gathering plants Where: outskirts of town When: morning Warnings: tbd Status: open, in progress
Makade Miigwan, or Black Feather, was out early in the morning gathering herbs and plants. As a widowed, childless woman she was able to do tasks her sisters and aunts could not do easily. She liked taking a horse and riding closer to the town. The people are fascinating, even if she knew they should merely be tolerated.
She'd earned the English name of Mercy by helping with animals and saving a horse for a farmer. She'd come to town to trade with her brothers and found the horse being prepared to be put down and stepped in with an herb poultice and saved the farmers expensive animal.
She held no illusions it would save her from harm, of course, so even as she sat at the riverbank digging up plants, her horse was close by, a knife in her hand and a club just on the ground by her foot. She worked in silence, letting the Earth guide her, her hands quick and sure at her work. She was treated differently because she'd been widowed early, but in a good way. She was in possession of the objects and land her husband had owned, and Ojibwe women had control of the water for the clan anyway, so she was treated well and comfortably so.
She'd picked up a few words of English working with her brothers for trade, but she was still wary of using it. "Bozho?" first in Ojibwe before a cautious "hello?" In English as she heard hoofbeats against the ground. She laid her hand on the club, waiting to see if they were friendly or not.