The golden glow of sunlight filtered its way under Kiela's eyelids, and she sat up, stretching. The nighttime ache it her bones quickly dissipated, and she stared at the wall until she felt awake. Kiela quickly glanced around to find that the inside of the tent was barren. Kymir must have left. She sat up and changed into a long brown leather dress. Its stiff embroidery scratched her skin, and she wished for the plain clothes of her homeland. Her soft footsteps raised small clouds of dirt when she walked that dissolved into the air. Stepping out into the sunlight, she let her eyes adjust before setting off towards the area where she had gotten her food a bit earlier. The building was a rather queer structure, unlike anything she had seen before. The roof was a canvas, and it was suspended overhead on four poles. It's opaque bulk blocked the sun while sheltering the tables underneath. The wooden tables were all laden with food. Kiela ducked under the low entrance and grabbed a wooden plate. She began to pile food in it. Idly, she separated all of the different dishes into their own portion of the plate so that no one thing was touching another.

A large crowd entered, and Kiela looked up to see Shiibah walk to the table with several people trialling her. Kiela ducked her head, trying to avoid being noticed. It was too late, though.

"Kiela!" Shiibah raced up to her, leaving her friends to try frantically to catch up.

"How are you darling? I couldn't find you yesterday at all after our little conversation." Kiela remembered how unpleasant the woman had been, and chose her words wisely.

"I'm sorry, Shiibah. I was feeling rather ill so I left the party."

If possible, Shiibah looked even more rotund then when Kiela had last seen her.

"Ah well." Shiibah cackled. "More food for us, then." She then proceeded to fill not one but two plates with food, and say down at the table. Kiela sat beside her, but she left a few chair' distance between them. And she was glad she had. The woman chewed with her mouth open and shovelled food into her mouth at a rate that Kiela had never seen before. Not even she in wolf form would've been able to eat the two plates plus to more for a second course in under two minutes, but Shiibah managed. "Scho," She said, bits of gristle visible in her open maw. "Hwat have cyou beehn up twho latshtly?"

The words were so mangled that Kiela barely understood what was being said.

Shiibah stared at her expectantly.

"Oh!" Kiela exclaimed, comprehension dawning on her. "What have I been doing lately!"

"Yesh" Shiibah replied, swallowing. Mild annoyance was visible in her tone. "That's what I asked."

Kiela shrugged. "I've mostly been exploring, finding my way around. Kym has been showing me where everything is."

Shiibah took another huge note of food. "I doshn't chink that gihrl ish a good influanch on tchou. Her fasher, the cheihf dotesh on her. She's spoilt roshtten." Kiela frowned. Kym did not seem spoiled to her at all. Perhaps Shiibah was making things up.

"Well," Kilea replied. "It isn't your place to decide who I'm friends with and who I am not."

Shiibah huffed, but said nothing. Kilea kept to her own counsel.

Eventually, Shiibah got up and wiped her mouth daintily with a napkin.

"Well," she said. "I really must be going."

Shiibah waddled away, leaving her abandoned plates on the table.

Kiela stared at the empty plates, and then back at her own. She lifted a bite to her mouth before thinking better of it and shoving it away. Sighing, she lay her head on the table and closed her eyes, thinking of her home, or of Blue-eye in the wolf pack.

Eventually, she grabbed her plate and stood up, ready to leave. She felt someone pull out her chair from behind her, and turned to see Pather standing there with his hand laid on its back.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

He leaned back against one of the support posts and, producing a blade, began to clean under his fingernails.

"I was waiting for you to finish. You seemed to be having an... enlightening conversation with Shiibah."

Kiela growled at him, and he pointed a finger at her idly.

"And don't growl."

She frowned instead. "Aren't you going to teach me anything?" She asked.

"I may," he replied. "or I may not."

"I grow tired of your riddles!" She exclaimed.

Pather began cleaning his teeth with the blade, not once moving his eyes away from her face.

"Then be tired." he said around the piece of flint. "Just don't forget that you need my help."

Kiela swallowed her pride. "Please help me." she said.

"I thought we had agreed that I was going to help you. Silly me, I must've misheard." He glanced at her. "Stop with the growling."

Kiela shrugged and looked away. When she looked back, Pather wasn't leaning against the post anymore. She glanced around wildly, but her seem to have disappeared.

"Lesson two about being human." Came a voice from beside her. Kiela whirled around. Pather towered over her. "Learn to fear." he said. "You don't have teeth or claws, so you have to be careful. See how quickly I snuck up on you? You'd be dead." Pather slammed his palms together I completion of the sentence, intense gaze pinned her down and scrutinizing her.

Kiela nodded mutely. She knew that this wasn't the last time that she would rely on senses she no longer had.

"Alright," he sighed. "Follow." With that he turned his back on her, leaving her to catch up again. Kiela swore under her breath and then took off once again in his wake.

They travelled through the woods for a while before reaching a sunlit, grassy pathway. The ground gradually became flatter. In the distance Kiela could hear a booming sound, accompanied by a soft shhh-ing.

"What is that?" She asked Pather.

"You'll see soon enough." he replied.

Eventually, the land turned rocky, and then dropped off suddenly. Kilea looked over the edge of the cliff and muffled a gasp of surprise. Below her and stretching out to the horizon was a seemingly everlasting stretch of water. Great surges built up and pounded against the rock, sending sorry upwards. Foam swirled at the base and dissolved back ini the water.

Pather's voice sounded behind her. "Behold the great liquid temptress, the ocean. Respect her, or she will swallow you and everything you care about." Pather inhaled the briny air, for once sermon at ease. "This is where I will train you." He said. "You must learn to fear. Fear is helpful, as it takes all of the blind pluck out of you and replaces it with rationality." His hard gaze narrowed on her. "Rationality is something I see that you need."

Kiela frowned, kicking a large sharp chunk of stone. It clattered over the edge and was swallowed by the mass of water.

"Meet me here tomorrow." Pather said.

"What, you aren't going to train me today?" Kiela asked.

"No." He replied, turning away from her. "Kymir is expecting you on a hunting trip. You are to leave in ten minutes."

"Ten minutes!" Kilea exclaimed. "But it took us thirty minutes just to get here!"

"Then I suggest you run." Pather said with his back facing her. "Wouldn't want to be late."

***

Panting, Kiela ran towards the small group of hunters. Kym was testing a bow, but she put it down as Kiela approached.

"Sorry," Kiela said. "I overslept."

"Oh its quite alright." Kym said. "We weren't going to leave without you, really. Let me show you how we hunt here, it should be fun!"

Kiela nodded enthusiastically, missing the time that she had spent hunting in the woods.

"First," Kym said, glancing Kiela over. "We have to get you a bow. Let's go to Lakra's, she's the best fletcher around."

One of the guys cleared his throat.

"Hey Kym!" he said. "Do you mind if we go ahead?"

Kym glanced back at them. "Oh sure!" she replied, before taking Kiela's hand and dragging her to the tent of the fletcher, Lakra.

When they arrived Lakra was on the ground in front of her tent. She was using a flint blade to whittle a wood stick down to an arrow, checking to make sure it wasn't warped every few strokes. She appeared to be in her early forties, and stood up when they approached, dusting her hands on her short breeches.

"Kymir!" She said with a smile, reaching out to embrace the girl. "You haven't been here in so long! How are the arrows holding up?"

"Just great thanks! I'm here with Kiela to get her fitted with a bow and a few arrows."

"Good, good." Lakra said. "Come with me." She vanished into her tent and Kym pushed Kiela in behind her.

The interior was lined with close fitting racks that held all manner of bows, arrows, and other assorted items. There was a wall that was lined with flint arrow heads, and sheaves of feathers hand from the ceiling. A small bench which held several half completes arrows sat beside the bed, and lester guards hung off of pegs.

Kiela looked around in awe, trying to take everything in.

"Hmm," Lakra said, running over Kiela's arms with a practiced eye. "You have unusually strong shoulder and arm muscles, that will mean that you can stand up to a tougher bow." She walked over to the wall and pulled down three bows, handing them to Kymir.

"Try this," she said, handing Kilea a dark wood bow. Kiela tried drawing back on it, and the string pulled backwards quickly. Kiela held it to her check with little effort.

"Too easy." Lakra said to herself. She handed Kiela a light brown one instead. This time Kilea was barely able to pull back on the string. Finally, lakra handed her a light grey bow. This time when Kiela pulled back, the wood flexed smoothly. She felt the strain, but it came with surprisingly little effort.

"How does that feel?" Lakra asked. Kiela smiled.

"I'll take it." Lakra grinned broadly. She took out a piece of knotted hide and took several measurements of Kiela's arms. Lakra pulled a dozen arrows out of a bin near the door, and placed them in a quiver that was made of the same light grey wood. She handed it to Kiela along with a leather arm guard.

"Look," Lakra said, pulling three arrows out of the quiver. "These have three different tips. One," She said, holding up the first, "Has a barbed head. This will inflict a lot of damage to whatever it hits, so be careful. It has to be cut out." Kilea nodded, remembering the arrow that had hit her when she first entered the village. "The other two are smoother, but one is longer and the other is shorter. The shorter is for birds and the longer is for larger prey."

Kiela nodded and thanked her.

"How much will this be?" Kymir asked.

Lakra laughed. "There is no charge. Honour me by using these weapons with grace." Kymir turned out her foot and arm, and Lakra mirrored the gesture. Kiela sloppily copied them, feeling awkward.

"Thank you for these gifts." Kilea said. Lakra smiled. "Run along now, and bring back some prey!"

***

"Alright," Kymir said. "Let's go down to the woods, and see what we can catch." She eyed Kiela's new bow. "It suits you." Kiela blushed.

"Thank you."

Kiela thought back to their experience inside the tent. "Kym, why do you all turn out your foot like that?"

"This?" Kymir asked, duplicating the gesture. Kiela nodded. "It is a symbol of respect." Kym responded. "Turning out the toe and bowing the head show repeat, and turning the arm shows deference. When we are young we are given a small tattoo on our inner elbow which shows a plant or tree. When we turn out our arms we are showing this image, and as our lives are built of of the plants we humble ourselves by wearing their images on our skin." Kym ducked to avoid some clothes on a line. "Although this image fades with time, our habits never change."

Kiela looked at her in awe. "You have this much respect for the forest?" Kym stopped walking and turned to her. "The forest gives us life. The plants give us food, and they also feed the prey which we then eat. When we die, our bodies return to the earth and then to the plants. How could we not respect those that we are so connected to?"

"You could not." Kiela answered. Kymir began walking again. Eventually, they reached the edge of the forest, and both their demeanours instantly changed. Quietly, they prowled into the woods, on the look out for game.

"Follow me," Kym whispered. "There's a stream up ahead, were the animals sometimes come to water." Both girls approached the stream hesitantly, but it was devoid of life. Kym tried loosing a few arrows at the chattering birds in the trees but they were too high up for her bow to reach.

Meanwhile, Kiela was studying the tracks around the stream. "Kym. Come look." Kymir came over and stared at the patch of dirt Kilea was pointing to. "What is it?" she asked.

"Deer tracks. And they're fresh." Kela gestured to the drying mud that surrounded them. "A young doe, it looks like. Plenty of meat."

Kym nodded. 'Which way?" She asked. Kiela pointed off into the woods.

"Follow me." Using the trees for cover she stalked through the underbrush following the tracks. Eventually, they came upon a rocky area, and Kilea groaned out loud. "We may loose the tracks here." she told her friend. "Keep a look out." Unfortunately she was right, and they quickly lost the trail among the jagged stones. They searched around for a while, but couldn't find anything.

"Oh, this is hopeless." Kym said after ten minutes. She stalked back into the forest, and with great confusion Kiela followed her. Kym marched up to a large maple. as she approached it, her stance softened and she touched a leaf hesitantly. Cradling it she crooned softly. As Kiela watched it began to shimmer under Kym's touch.

"Show," Kym exhaled. The leaf glowed and the image of a grazing deer appeared. "Where?" Kym asked in the same tone. The leaves on the neighbouring trees began to light up, leading a clear trial through the trees. "Thank you." Kym said. She turned out her toe and bowed her head. Opening a satchel at her waist she shook out a few dark pellets onto the tree's routes.

"The way is shown now." Kym said, gesturing at the path of the trees.

"What was that?" Kiela asked breathlessly.

"The pellets were a mixture of plant matter and bone marrow. They will help the tree grow. I gave them in thanks."

"No," Kiela said. "Not the pellets. The glow."

"Oh, Kym said, surprised. "That was the Touch."