When Applejack woke up, her neck itched. She blinked a few times in confusion and searched in her bags, and with a silver mirror in her hooves walked out of the tent and scanned her neck under the light of the sun that poked though the horizon.
The borders of the cut had reddened, and a flea had found its way to the wound. She ripped it off a disgusted grunt, took some things from the tent, started a fire, and put tea to boil. Once it was steaming, she used the tea and a piece of cloth to clean the cut until it bled again. Any remaining infection would go away with the blood flow.
Before doing anything else, she spent some time searching any other fleas that could've climbed to her fur. Once she was sure no more had clung to her, she re entered her tent with an annoyed sigh. There was at least half an hour of sleep left, and she didn't plan to waste any of it.
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Winona barked happily at another dog when Applejack entered the town that, if she remembered it right, had an unpronounceable name that sounded draconian. She was both relieved and disappointed when she confirmed than the town was mainly occupied by diamond dogs. Dragon cities were fun in a heart attack-ish sort of way.
As Winona and the black dog went through the never ending ritual of mutual tail sniffling, Applejack entered a small trading post, glancing at the wares as she did.
"Can I get you anything, miss?" asked a diamond dog behind the counter, giving her a obeisance "Food? Medicine?" he added.
"Tea, and do you have disinfectant?" he nodded and turned to the shelves behind him, and she rummaged a few books in a shelf near the door.
"I have lemon, citral, mint, and green tea," he told her "And only small bottles of disinfectant, with three gioms each"
Applejack turned to see the brown bottle he was showing her, each about the size of an egg.
"Four of those," she saw the tea in the counter, in plastic flasks "And two of mint tea"
He nodded and she returned to the books, searching for something she could read: Nu-tra-doh er sa-na, nghisnenTosoeoa, durelalalala, were in glyphs she understood but languages she didn't, and some time passed until she understood something: Mountain mist. Or something to that effect, at least, as she hadn't had that much interaction with Alharean.
She took it anyway. As much as she wasn't Twilight, the Prasante seemed like it'd be utterly boring when it wasn't terrifying, a kind of place she had come to dread. Only fliers? No predators for anything her size. Ridden with holes? No bandits.
"Anything else?" asked the dog when she put the book in the counter.
Applejack thought for a moment before answering, "Lentils?" he nodded "Five kilograms"
He turned to the bags behind him and filled a cloth bag, then put it in the counter "Ten reis for the tea, twenty five for the disinfectants, fifteen for the book" he said, pointing to everything as he mentioned it "And... forty five for the lentils"
-º-
The stars and a intense fire as her lights, Applejack scanned the cut in her neck. It seemed to be fine now, but she used some disinfectant in it anyway. The dust of spending most of the day outside was a danger she had been familiar with long before starting her travel, and not cleaning it right away had been a mistake fueled by anger and tiredness.
With that done, her gaze returned to the lentils. They were in the middle of the fire, boiling liberally with some spices she had found, what few she recognized as safe to be eaten.
"May Celestia bless salvia" she said to no one in particular "And Luna" she added.
Winona's tail moved unassumingly.
"Yeah, you too" she said, patting her.
Some time later, she didn't know or care how much, she threw dirt over the fire and entered her tent, giving one last glance to her surroundings before doing so. The tall grass seemed to be in vegetal war against some kind of ground covering vine, of thick and glossy dark-green leaves, although the vine didn't seem to be doing all that well in the humid weather.
Just before closing her tent, she had a change of heart about Winona and poked her head out, calling her with a whistle. The night was too cold for to leave her outside.