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Choteka pushed herself lazily up from her bed of lovely and warm furs and blankets. The chill of the early morning hit her immediately, and were in not for the bright gray morning pouring into the top of her teepee, she would have curse the day entirely and gone back to sleep.

But the heavy mental burden of the chorse she needed to finally do roused her fully, and she pulled on warm clothing before pushing open the flap and walking out into the world.

First, she needed water. Heading up to rockier terrain, she found the lightly bubbling source of her favorite spring near the opening of a large cave. Kneeling, she splashed her face with the cool liquid before proceeding to fill every vessel she'd managed to bring with her.

A long stretch and a heavy thump later had Banhi on her way to her wake up call as her shoulders connected with the dry ground rather heavily. She gave a small grunt of irritation and slowly stood, brushing off her torn and darned pants and adjusting her breast strap again, as it was all that covered her torso. Her shaggy golden brown hair had more than a few twigs in it thanks to her sleep on that tree branch last night, but the fall to the ground hadn't helped it at all.

She ran her delicate fingers through it and yawned. Her chest pushed out a little and made a sufficient arch in her back before a loud crack resonated off of the trunks of the ever dying trees around her.

"Ugh." This was too early in the morning for Banhi's taste. She'd have much rather slept in a few more hours. After all, she was tired from having stayed up all night long playing under the stars. Rubbing a hand over the wolf print tattoo on her right side of her belly, Banhi gazed out blearily through bi-colored eyes and stumbled along the sticks and dirt of the ground towards the spring nearby.

That sounded like a rather lovely place to just let herself fall into and wake up. The cold water would clean her and keep her conscious all at the same time. Genius.

She grumbled and adjusted newly-heavy jars and waterskins as dynamically as possible over her person as she stood and turned, not to head back home but to suddenly spot a twig-ridden, sleepy looking woman a few yards away. She was inwardly pleased that her alarm had not, for once, caused her to drop what she was holding. She readjusted the large jar in her arms and called out to the girl, blinking rapidly as a single bead of sweat ran down off a moist piece of gray hair stuck to her forehead and into her oddly-golden eyes.

"Hello? Good morning!"

Banhi looked through her bi-colored blue and brown eyes at the new person standing between her and the spring. She had a rather large jar in her arms, arms that appeared to be used to that sort of thing, compared to Banhi's body that was so fragile looking that it seemed a large wind would knock her over. Running another hand through her golden brown and silver spotted hair, the seventeen year old girl smiled at the other woman with a set of pearly whites that would make anyone jealous.

"Hello. Is it a good morning? I can't tell yet, my eyes are all blurry. I suppose that comes with falling from a tree though doesn't it? I'll take your word for it then." Banhi said softly, yet in a strong enough voice for the other woman to have been able to hear her even at that distance.

She lifted an arm above her head and pulled on it with the other that was behind her head. A soft pop met her ears and she sighed aloud in a pleasant way. She was just stiff from sleeping perched on a tree branch away from those wolves all night long. Pity, she should have slept on her favorite spot on the large boulder, but that had been too far of a run even for her to make.

"How are you this morning then, um..." She faltered a bit because she came to the realization that she had never asked for the woman's name, nor had it been given to her as of yet. "Well, how are you this morning at least? My name is Banhi. It's nice to meet you." She smiled and put her slender and delicate boned hand on one of her wide hips. "Would you like some help with those?"

While she norammly would have leapt at the chance to share her burden, this girl...Banhi, was it? She looked as though the jar would easily overpower her. At just over six feet tall, the younger girl really was tiny by comparison, not to mention a little strange. "I'm Choteka. And I think I can handle these as long as I don't stay here too much longer talking. Would you like to come back with me? I can make you some breakfast. It looks like you've had a rough night."

That was the understatement of the day. Falling out of a tree? She had to be a saint for even being capable of a smile just then. "Yes, you should come with me!"

Something about Banhi was instantly endearing. Perhaps it was the strange assortment of foliage in her hair.

Well, this woman seemed to be incredibly nice. Though she had a feeling that she was being underestimated because of her dainty figure and bone structure once agian, Banhi didn't care all that much. She flicked her silver spotted golden hair out of her eyes and smiled rather broadly at Choteka. Breakfast eh? It had been a long time since anyone had made the small teenager anything, from food to clothing. She did almost all of it with her own hands.

"Breakfast? Well, that would be good. I haven't had a decent meal other than roots and that apple a few days back in the past few years." A small laugh came from the soft spoken indian as she shook her head blearily. "Are you sure that you can handle all of those though? I'm not that weak, and I'm sure that they can be rather akward to carry all by yourself." She took a few short steps forward on her bare feet and the black braided strings from her breast strap, that in fact covered very little of her breasts, fluttered in the wind gently.

On her left cheek under her eye she could feel Shanyee moving about on her cheek, probably just waking up though her master had taken a tumble. The little spider really was no help whatsoever was she? Chuckling, she put a finger on it's thorax and stroked for a moment, before taking it off and smiling at Choteka again.

"Oh no! Hold still! There's a...a..."

She quickly shifted the vessel into one arm as she opened her palm to swat the spider crawling on Banhi's face. Really now! It was one thing to look a little disheveled in the morning, but quite another to allow bugs to run all willy-nilly over her barely-clothed body.

Her eyes opened widely as she made to smoosh the bug. Still staring, she shook her head a little, her tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth in fierce concentration. "Mmmhhhmmm...I've got it. Lemme just get that little sucker and we'll be on our way."

Banhi almost squeaked in her own disapproval as her only real friend she'd had for the past few moons crawled away from the fingers of the larger woman. The small little golden and black silk spider crawled straight into Banhi's hair where it spent most of it's time, because it's major part of it's body blended in well with her golden brown hair. Shanyee was safe as long as it could hide somewhere on the golden haired indian.

A laugh exploaded from Banhi's mouth as her small little friend scrambled into her hair, and her new friend tried to squish it. While her friend was distracted, one of the jars picked that time to slip out of her arms and Banhi caught the bottom of it with her hand as quickly as she could, moving her head so Choteka couldn't smush her thumb into her eye and blind her in her brown eye like she was partially in her blue.

"Now really, all of this fuss and nearly breaking such a wonderous jar over my little Shanyee? I wouldn't worry about her, she's the only friend I've had for a long time. She weaves little designs for me to wake up to, and she keeps me company. It's okay, she won't hurt anything, she's more scared of you and me than we would ever be of her." Banhi said in her same soft voice, lifting the jar and balancing it on one of her skinny shoulders with an ease that made it look as if she'd done it many times before.

After all, it takes a good amount of upper body strength to hoist oneself up a tree every night and day to escape the predators of the forest.

"Shall we be on our way then?" She said gently, smiling at Choteka jovially, her other hand on her wide and delicate hip.

Thoroughly impressed with Banhi's agility and confidence, she nodded slowly a few times before laughing out loud herself. "I underestimated you, my little friend! Let's be on our way!"

She adjusted her long-sleeved buckskins over her bronxe shoulders. It was warming up particularly fast today, and she wagered her clothes would be very uncomfortable by the time they made it back to her teepee on the outskirts of the village.

A few stories later they had arrived. Choteka pointed out where the watervase belonged and dumped her own baggage inside the messt teepee before busying herself with building a fire for cooking. "Feel free to wash up if you feel the need."

She didn't want to hint too strongly, but she gestured pleasantly enough at a basin with a waterskin next to it. "You can either relax inside or help me finish pounding the corn. It's fine either way. You're my guest."

She ducked back behind the flap for a few moments before emerging again with her normal daywear on: a pair of pants (with a skirt over it, to fit in a bit better with her female tribesmen) and a midriff baring top decorated with beads and embroidery. And of course, her favorite sturdy moccasins, all in the same warm shade of brown.

She looked at Banhi, who clearly didn't feel the need to be so...covered. "So, what's your story? You sleep in trees for fun?"

A soft smile graced the face of the outcast indian girl as she followed her new friend as quickly as she could towards her teepee. She had to admit that it was hard to keep up pace with the larger woman, who's every step was about three of Banhi's own. But she kept up well enough without making a comment as to the difficulty of it.

What she was most interested in were the stories that she was told. A few times she heard the word Soquili pop up in them. What in the world was a Soquili she wondered in her still bleary brain. However, she didn't push a question onto Choteka, it would be rude to interupt when someone was telling you a story.

Upon coming closer to the village, Banhi's steps faltered and she followed a little slower until they were there. She hadn't seen a village in some four years, she'd raised herself among the forest and was at present finding it rather hard to admit to herself that maybe she should have just let them make her hair black and accept her back, rather than wanting them to accept her for who she was.

Choteka's words snapped her out of her revier and she followed the gestured arm to a large basin looking thing, the likes of which Banhi had never come across before in her life. What in the world was she to do in there? She looked back at the older indian woman with innocent eyes that held so much confusion that the point had to have gotten across.

"Well, my story then?" She asked in a soft voice, her eyes downcast at her slender hands. "No, normally I sleep on a boulder, but the wolves were rather fast last night you see. And I couldn't make it back to my boulder in time, nor would it have been that safe, to be sure. After all, I don't have a village to come back to like this one. I have to fend for myself." She gave a slight laugh and smiled gently, "So I spent the night in that tree. It could have been a great deal worse, I must admit." She wrung her dark delicate hands together and peered at the basin again for a moment.

"Yes, much worse indeed."

Choteka scratched her head curiously as she tried to gauge Banhi's reaction. Did she really not know what to do? How long had it been since she'd been with other people?

Taking the girl in more critically, she did notice that Banhi's strangely colored hair might have had something to do with her alienation. Especially if she'd been a young girl with her peers were ostracizing her. Choteka's own hair was completely and unwaveringly gray (though she liked to imagine it was the color of the clouds before a storm, or moonlight reflecting off of the water). But before that fateful day five years ago, it had been as dark and as straight as any of the other women of her tribe. But that was not something for her to think upon just then.

She slid over to the stone basin and began to fill it with the water from the skin, pretending as though she wouldn't want to trouble Banhi with the work of filling it herself rather than the girl's ignorance of how. She casually demonstrated, rinsing of her face and hands before raising an eyebrow and returning to her cooking as she wiped her hands on her skirt.

"I see. Well as inviting as a boulder seems, wouldn't you rather be here with your kind? It must be lonely up there by yourself. You might start to go crazy, I'd think."

She bit her lip to keep from laughing and pushed the doughy lumps full of fruit onto the flat, hot sheet of rock over her fire. The smell was almost immediate, and Choteka's stomach burbled with longing. "Do you ever see Soquili up there where you are?"

Banhi's small hands reached out and dunked in the cool water and she followed Choteka's example of what to do to clean yourself from this... basin. She washed off her face and considered dunking her head in the water for a long moment before running her hands gently through her hair. She felt a bump on her skull and pulled Shanyee out of her hair for a long moment and dunked her stick infested golden brown hair stained with silver spots of stress into the basin for as long as she could hold her breath. Her fingers of her right hand scrubbed her hair wildly as her left hand held Shanyee free of the water, so the spider didn't get harmed at all by it.

With a flick, she flipped her head up out of the water and sighed from the expulsion of the dead air and sucked more into her large pink lungs, her breasts straining against her breast strap as she did so.

With a content smile she stood agian and walked over towards where Choteka was cooking. Whatever it was made her stomach growl in an angry way at her and she raised both eyebrows in slight embarrasment. It had to be painfully obvious just how little and how few times a week she ate. At least to someone who ate many days a week, if not every day.

"Well, you see, I was sent away because of my gold hair and my blue eye. They said I was half a person, that I shouldn't be in the tribe if I was only half of a person. So I went away, that was almost six years ago, and it's very rare that I get human contact. So I'm really rather sorry if I come across as a wreck or something." She said in her quiet yet smooth voice. Banhi smiled up at her new friend sadly. "What is this thing... a Soquili? You've said it before. Though I've never heard of it, whatever it is has a pretty name."

She sat down respectufully cross legged across from the older woman and put her hands on her crossed ankles, leaning almost all of her weight on her hips. She might not have known her very well, but she liked to listen to Choteka tell stories and talk. She had a mellowing voice that helped Banhi to understand better than she would have had another been yelling it at her for her lack of this knowledge.

Enthusiastic for another chance to share her love of the Soquili, Choteka launched into their story, gesturing so wildly she almost knock over the cooking breakfast on several occasions. It was nice to have Banhi around. It had been a while since she'd spent this much time with someone else.

Just as the warm, sweet smell of the fruit-bread reached unbearable proportions, Choteka popped the pair of cakes off the slate and juggled them for a moment until they cooled enough to warrant her tossing one to Banhi. "Careful, I've burned myself many a time on the inside of those things. And let me go get some water for you."

She grinned and stood up, walking behind her teepee and returning with a pair of roughly-hewn cups. "I was going to pull out the fine dinnerware, but I'm sure you don't mind."

She sat done once more and pulled a water jug between the two hof them before biting into her breakfast. She was no great chef, but it was warm and filling.

Banhi's eyes got wider and wider as she listened to the stories that Choteka told her about Soquili, she was amazed by how magestic and incredible they seemed to be. It could have been because she was incredibly young, it could have been because she was innocent and completely unaware of many things in the world around her, but Banhi was taken aback by the stories of the incredible beauties of the horse world.

Quite a few times she had to reach out her delicate boned hands to keep her larger and more enthusiastic companion from knocking over their breakfast, burning her hand once without a sound. She didn't want her new friend to know that she'd hurt herself by any doing other than her own. Besides, Banhi had done worse to herself over the years.

The second one of the bread chunks was tossed to her she stared at it in confusion. She had never eaten anything but tubers and fruit and the occasional egg or leaf. Never in her life had she eaten anything that looked like this. What on earth was it? Banhi cast a glance at Choteka's retreating form as she went to get water and waited until she came back to ask her.

"Thank you, but.... and pardon my idiocy, what are these? I can't figure it out. They aren't a tuber or a root, they aren't a leaf or anything from a tree and they aren't fruit, though they seem to smell like it."

"You really haven't been around other people much, have you?" Her bemusement at Banhi's lack of understanding quickly faded to genuine concern. What kind of life had she been living these last long years?

Granted, it wasn't that Choteka's tribe lived in the lap of luxury...but there was food enough for all, and opportunities for leisure and play between the necessary chores of daily life. The days of living off roots and scavenging the land were blissfully behind them. There had been no Great Storm since the last one half a decade previously.

"It's just sort of a cake, Banhi. It's dough with fruit on the inside. I wish I could wrangle up some sort of milk for you. It's delicious with the milk...but I haven't seen Wheta and her cattle at all lately to barter for some..."

She noticed Banhi's slighty-blank stare and realized she was probably rambling. "...but that's neither here nor there, friend. Eat up. You can spend the day with me, if you'd like. And you're my guest here with me as long as it pleases you."

She blushed a little, feeling forward with the girl she'd only known a few hours. Taking a deep breath, she sighed happily and finished the rest of her breakfast in a few bites.

"Cake?" Banhi stared at it for a long time before taking a heasitant bite out of it with her white teeth. It was really hot, hot enough that she almost spit it back out with a yelp, but rather she held it in her jaws and let the saliva cool it off.

It was good. A bright smile lit up Banhi's dark face and she chewed it happily until she could swallow it then took another bite from it. "This is really good! Cake, I never heard of that. Heh. I like the little fruits in it. But, what's this milk thing?" She said happily after she'd swallowed, taking another bite while she looked up at Choteka with large bright eyes.

She might have been innocent, but she didn't mind it, after all, it was rather understandable when you looked at her. She had a wolf tattoo of a tribe that no one even knew about, hair that she shouldn't have had with silver from stress, eyes that were cursed, and a smile that could blind you. She was a mutt of a person that had never had that much human contact aside from the random people she'd met in the woods.

Swallowing the last of her breakfast, Banhi looked around her, a little curious as to where she was. All of the teepees around her looked really nice. Well, some of them had a worn look to them.

"You've seen the Great Storm neh? That might explain all of the turmoil in this place. Even the trees are still in mourning. I've never seen anything like this."

Choteka's eyes glazed over for a long, painful moment. Tuwa...

She quickly blinked back what she knew would become great, stinging tears in a few moments. "It was a bad time for everyone here. But things are better now."

She was glad to see that Banhi enjoyed her cooking. Her brother used to tease her mercilessly about her food. "You'll never keep a proper husband with that...that food, Teka. They'll keep dying off. Little children will call you the Black Widow Spider!"

That was so long ago, though. Perhaps she'd improved with time? The truth was probably more along the lines of: at least your food tastes better than leaves and dirt.

She smirked and wiped the crumbs from her fingertips. "Milk is...a drink. That all mothers make for their children. There is an old woman here that keeps bison and milks them for us. But I haven't seen her too much lately. I hope she hasn't fallen ill."

"But speaking of the Great Storm," she leaned her elbows on her knees, her voice lowering to a darker half-whisper, "how did you manage to survive it? You must be blessed by Nature herself. She's given you knowledge of the forest and land. And where are you from, anyhow?"

She tried vainly to curb her questions to a gentle flow. But this girl was something special, and the mysterious nature of her very existence intrigued Choteka.

"So that's why they mourn so. Even the grass and ground is sad and scarred. The grass says that it's growing again at last, however. So I believe that once again, your lands will finally bloom." Banhi's eyes focused again after long moments of speaking with the grass's heart. Shanyee was curling up on her cheek to cheer her up since her heart had clenched so. The earth was so pained around here, the Great Storm had taken so much from this land and these people.

"Ah, now bison I know of. I love how fuzzy they are. Like a giant blanket you can use to curl up on and sleep. I slept on top of one once, it was a sweetie that one. I miss him since he died last year from an arrow." She looked down at her hands and gave a sigh. A scar over her thumb showed where she had cut herself trying to dislodge the arrow from the head of her dying friend to no avail. Sometimes she could still feel the heat of those many tears. But that was the past. A finger reached up and stroked Shanyee's thorax.

The Great Storm again, ah, how had she indeed. "Which one are you reffering to? There were two that I remember, one when I was just a baby, that I was abandoned during and found later and another not that long ago where I was stranded on a boulder in the forest while the water rose all around. It was a little frightening, but the trees told me not to worry and the wind promised to keep me safe from lightening and thunder, so I slept through most of it. Sometimes I still think I'm wet." She laughed brightly and put her hands on the log she was sitting on in relaxation.

"You...can...TALK. To nature."

Her eyes bulged, and her mouth hung slightly agape. It wasn't that she didn't believe, Banhi. On the contrary, that would explain a lot about her. But talking to and understand grass and flowers? That was either the most amazing gift Choteka had ever heard of, of Banhi was batshit crazy.

Either way, she was impressed.

"So you can look at a tree, and have a conversation? I can barely understand other people most of the time. There's this REALLY old man in the center of the village, and he just starts to ramble a lot, and then it turned into this unintelligable mumbling..."

Oops, she was doing it again. Focus. "So many people here lost their lives not just during the storm, but weeks later as we lived off the food that hadn't been washed away or rotted by the moisture. It's amazing you're here at all. You certainly are blessed."

Banhi's eyebrows pulled together at the look Choteka gave her. Did she not understand? Or was she shocked to find out that Banhi could speak to nature. At her next words she understood the look in its entirety. A sigh floated from her full lips and she looked up at the clouds as the wind fluttered against her skin. She had once been told that she was crazy and that it had to be a lie. Deep in her heart Banhi could understand everything that nature said to her. And it often spoke to her simply because she could understand it.

"Maybe he's like me and can understand things that nature says, there's a possibility that he's trying to tell you what nature wants to tell you. If you respect nature and listen to what it has to say, then it can help you find the best place to sleep and the best place to stay. It'll keep you safe when you're in trouble and make you smile. Shanyee was given to me that way, she weaves little designs at night for me to wake up to and smile at and she always has a good bit of sage advice for me. Except for when you tried to squish her." Banhi giggled and had to cover her mouth out of respect. She didn't want to be rude after all, "She didn't like that at all."

"I'm not that blessed, just lucky and caring of nature. If you care about it then it cares for you, as I said. I am sorry to hear that it hurt you so though. Nature has a way of ridding itself of things when it has no need for them, or if that thing has been overdoing it and stepping over boundaries. I hate to say it, but maybe that's what happened. However, it's saddening." Banhi remembered wandering after that storm and seeing all of the death in the forest, deer lying dead, bird's eggs cracked and shattered on hard rocks after being blown out of nests. Such horrid scenes.

"Well, as tragic as the damage was, my true contempt lies with man. It wasn't the storm that killed my brother."

She exhaled a slow, ragged breath and paused to regain her composure. The wound was still fresh after five years. He was her whole world.

As foreign as Banhi's words seemed, they rung true down in some little part of her spirit. But still, for a woman so tied into the affairs and state of man, it was hard to relax and commune with nature. So often she seemed an opposing force to our efforts.

"Umm...well will you apologize to Shaynee for me. I didn't...know." She nodded dubiously. I'm apologizing to a spider. What a weird day this has become.

"So, you were abandoned as a baby, and cast out as a child? I'm so sorry, Banhi. If you'd like, we can go to the Chief here and ask if we can take you in as one of us. I'm more than certain he'd permit it. You can be with people again!"

Banhi raised her fine golden eyebrows at Choteka, stay here? With others? She had been cast out so long ago and now there was a chance for her to stay with others? A cough came from her mouth as she averted her eyes to everywhere but Choteka.

"I'm sorry to hear about your brother, really I am. I never lost anyone to any of the storms, though I have lost friends in the past." She put her hand on the ground and wished her bison and hawk friends well wishes wherever they were in the great circle now. She had lost them so long ago that it made her sad to think about it.

Reaching a finely boned hand out, Banhi placed it on Choteka's shoulder and smiled sadly at her, sad that she didnt' understand but also sad that she had to have gone through that.

"It's okay, really. Shanyee says it wasn't your fault." Banhi giggled as she leaned back and put her hands in her lap. "I was abandoned, but I would rather have been abandoned than have had to recieved looks from my tribesmen. I was so tired of it when I was little that I was actually happy when I was banished for my hair and eyes. But, to live among others?" Banhi shook her head in amazement, "I don't know what to say to that, I've never thought about going to another tribe. I just don't know... if I'd be able to." It had been so long.

Choteka flinched as Banhi placed a hand on her shoulder. Not necessarily because it was her doing it, but she wasn't a huge fan of physical contact anymore. She smiled despite the awkwardness. "If you wanted to, of course. Let's try this first: stay with me for a few days and I'll take you around. If you think you'd like to stay around permanently, we'll see the Chief and I'll help you set yourself up. I think there's a lot you can teach all of us here, Banhi. What do you say?"

She poked the fire with a stick and watched the flames die away as the sun reached it's pinnacle in the sky. She sighed and looked up, basking her face and chest in it's warmth.

Banhi glanced down at the fire for a long time, watching the swirls of embers and etheareal twistings of the dead branches. The flames danced in the peak of the twigs before the peak snapped and fell over from strain. It showed her life in some way, though the little indian teenager wasn't quite sure how it did.

Finally her bi-colored eyes gazed up at Choteka and she smiled softly. "I'd like that. I've not been around or in the company of others in many a year though. I daresay I could hazzard a few teachings from you and your people as well." Banhi said with a cheeky wink. "I'm sure that I'd be fine living here though, if you could stand a girl that occasionally needs to take long walks and sleep in trees. Well, only to fall out of said tree in the morning." She giggled and looked at the sky. Was her life about to change.

<Stop being so scared you, the woman means to help you, now let her.> Shanyee said to Banhi's heart after a long moment.

<I think I may, I think I just may.> Banhi responded after a few seconds.

Choteka jumped up happily, fighting the grogginess of her meal. "That's great! I'll just take care of this..."

She evened out the low-burning fire and pulled a large lump of excess dough out from behind her. Arranging it as a large bubble on the hot slate, she pulled up a large wooden box lined with leather at the bottom and put it over the dough.

"That'll bake for the rest of the day," she explained, "and be done by the time we come home for the evening."

She was excited to show Banhi around, and to learn more about the bright-smiled girl. She ducked back into the tent and pulled out an empty knapsack and slung it over her shoulder. She had to remember to do her errands while they were about, and not be too distracted by Banhi's presence.

"Let's get started then! Plenty to do and see. And who knows? We might even run into a soquili while we're about!"

The thought alone put an extra spring in her step, and she took Banhi's arms and excitedly pulled her toward the main center of her village.