source of the poison [c]

Duty had placed its mantle upon her shoulders, and she would not shy away from it. Instead, it was honor and pride that bristled deep within her chest to have been called to such a position. Her keen senses would have a sense of purpose: detecting anomalies that could be attributed to causing the poisoning of her clan's life-blood. The rivers than ran throughout their territory may as well have been clanmates all of their own, and to have seen them tainted in such a way disturbed the pale warrior deeply. Though prayers did not often leave her tongue, a silent one within her mind was sent directly to the stars shortly after she had received her assignment. Stars, let it be declared of your will that a solution illuminates along our paths.

Even with the weight of her assignment, it was easy to assign who would be in leadership for their small group. After all, it was the deputy herself that had joined, and the position of her title meant there would be no need in sorting out who would take the helm. She had the deepest knowledge of their territory, of their rivers and paths, even as Rowansong and Egretswoop had learned it in their upbringing. There was simply no ability to contend with the fact that the calico had walked the forest longer than both of them had, thus allowing the knowledge to become more ingrained.

As they followed the river's curves, she had allowed her senses to go into overdrive. A state that had once paralyzed her to the point of being nigh on mute, to being almost incapacitated from just how much the forest had to tell her. It whispered many things in her ears, gave her many fruitful scents to track with her nose, many vibrant colors to follow and see. But she had trained it all on the river and around it, attempting to hunt some semblance of a tether that linked from the ilk that stung her nose every time she inhaled it.

Her whiskers twitched as Poppyshine voiced further orders, her ears swiveling back. In having allowed herself to sense every little thing, it had also amplified what should have been normal. "Understood." She affirmed, rising her head away from the waters edge that she had been sweeping to-and-from. "I cannot smell any indication of what may be a source. However... the water may soon poison our foliage. The ilky scent is spreading." Her comment was made with a particularly grim tone. Even as the green grasses already browned with the chill that was settling into the forest, it was made more apparent close to the water's edge in her observations. It made sense that the plants would draw their hydration from the river, but if it also would poison the rest of their lands?

She wasn't sure what they would do.