HOME | DD

Description
The tension in the air was almost tangible, neither of the two fractions dared to move. A single human stood infront of a tribe of nekos, receiving incredulous looks upon her plea.

"Do you have something to eat for me? I have no idea where I am so I didn´t dare to eat anything," she had asked.

The small tribe was naturally wary, as only few humans ever dared to come here. Actually, the young lady didn´t even look like a typical human you would find out here in the jungle; she was naked, although humans would usually insist on wearing clothes. She didn´t seem to be quite in the need for food either, her body actually seemed to be well fed, and there didn´t seem to be the slightest hint of fear in her eyes, while she was facing pretty much the entire tribe.

There was no response by the nekos at first, some exchanged glances and murmured something to each other, but the crowd ultimately remained silent. But then there was a little movement among them, someone was making his way towards her. A rather tall, young but intelligent looking male with pretty dark, blue fur stepped out of the crowd, carrying a spear in his right hand.

"Aside from your question, you seem to be very brave," the young male said, examining her a bit closer "But that´s not supposed to be a compliment, it´s rather a reason to be distrustful, and although I could be wrong, I can´t let you come any further into our territory!"

"You might have a point there, but without any help from natives, I´ll probably get myself poisoned or killed any other way. Isn´t there anything I could do?"

Murmurs became audible again, some of the nekos seemed to get her point, but after a few moments their faces were frozen again.

"I´m sorry but I´ll stick to my decision, you´re not going to enter the tribe. Actually, what could you possibly do against it? Fight?" The young Neko laughed sarcastically, but quickly got back to his serious glare.

"Well, I´d be alright with that, anything´s better than not having any chance at all, although it might be a little bit unfair," she said, her lips turning into a wicked smile even while she spoke.

Before he could even take in what she just said, he was staring at nothing but the trees that marked the outer line of the tribe. Looking around, he was searching for the woman that had apparently agreed on a fight to decide the cause, but there was noone in sight. Then, as suddenly as she had disappeared, he could feel a hand on his shoulder, followed by a soft whisper, right into his ear "...for you."

He couldn´t even begin to react until a sharp pain in his back sent him down on his knees, a single hard blow into his back, as unexpected as it could possibly be, that knocked the air out of his lungs and made him lose the grip on his spear. She then disappeared again, only to show up right where she had been standing before. The crowd was chatting again, a mixture of unsettled and astonished voices filled the small clearing. Everything fell quiet though, when their fighter got back up to adress the stranger, "not bad ... not bad at all. But why don´t you let me try my luck now?"

Without saying any more he dashed forward, his right fist held back, already preparing his first hit. He got closer and closer to her, while she was only looking at him in a somewhat bored way, only to disappear in the last split second. Reappearing right next to him again, he could only see her bare foot coming for his waist from the right and even before he could feel any pain he felt her fist slamming into his chest, throwing him down to the ground instantly. The human didn´t disappear this time, she remained where she was and looked down at him, a satisfied smile on her face.

"I don´t think there´s any need to keep this up, is there?"

The tribe started chatting again, though this time it didn´t seem to be fear nor astonishment, they almost sounded cheerful. "It´s her!" one of them said, seconds later many others joined in. She turned towards them, giving them a look of wonder and disbelieve, until she sensed her opponent standing up behind her again.

"What´s your name, young lady?" he asked in a respectful voice.

"Nhale," she told him, wondering what this was going to lead to.

"Well, Nhale, in our tribe, there´s an old prophecy. And although most of us don´t believe in it anymore, everyone knows what it says; that one day, a godess in a form similar to ours would come to lead and protect our tribe. And on that lucky day when she would´ve found us, we´d recognize her in a fight, for she´s invincible, too fast to be hit and her attacks too fast to be dodged," he made a short pause to let the said words sink in "And although your appearance might not be as similar to ours as we would´ve thought, there´s no doubt in it that you´re said godess. And as it´s said in the profecy, she shall become the tribe´s leader"

"You can´t be..." Nhale began while she turned around to see the tribe´s reaction, hoping that one of them would start laughing any second. But the only things she could see were faces of hope and joy, "...serious" she ultimately ended her sentence, just for the sake of saying something.

**

The Nekos had then held a short ceremony in which her prior opponent, who turned out to be Basroel, the leader of the tribe, transfered his role in the tribe to her. Still pretty much dumbstruck and unsure what to think of it she just followed Raquo´s orders, who kept his prior role as the leader´s adviser. Only two hours after she had first found the tribe she was already sitting in her own hut, which formerly belonged to Basroel as she was told, and was crowded with servants, both male and female, while Raquo was giving her a short briefing of the things she would be taking care of from now on. To her great relief he offered to take as much of the weight off her shoulders as he possibly could. And although she was far beyond reaching her aim of getting into the tribe, she somehow couldn´t get herself to go through the usual procedure but chose to play along instead.

**

Unsure of whether it would be inappropriate to do so or better to tell them to stop, Nhale's entire evening had consisted pretty much entirely of worshipping by the maids, although she had told them several times that it was not necessary to arrange her hair in what they seemed to consider a godess-worthy fashion or to give her another foot massage. While Raquo was easily convinced that she was feeling tired and he too could need some sleep, she ultimately had to threaten the last maids to make them stop working and despite herself whispered a silent "I'm sorry" after them while they hasted out of her tent while begging her to excuse their behaviour themselfes. She finally had to realise that the two guards who actually stood inside of her hut too wouldn't at least mind their business outside without a threat, although she had attempted to explain that it wasn't necessary to guard her at all.

But now it was finally morning and she felt fully relaxed and recovered from the things she had to force herself to endure yesterday. Dazed as she was after just getting up she had almost forgotten to put her guard back up before leaving the hut, reminding herself of how much attention her peculiar situation demanded of her. Giggling to herself on the thought of screwing up just yet, she left her new home and had to realise, that the two guards (who didn't seem to be the same as in the evening) were sleeping themselfes, with their heads laying pretty much right infront of the entrance, so she had to be careful not to step on them.

When she was already a few meters past them, a thought struck her; why not waking them up and showing some good will? If she was the one to wake them and play the nice godess (the thought of the title still made her shiver for some reason) she might find some more acceptance and even make friends among them. Despite the fact that she didn't know why she even cared about something like that, which was actually the straight opposite of her original intentions, she walked back to the guards and gently touched their faces to shake their heads slightly. Naturally aware of the many threats out here, the two woke up quickly and looked startled up into their new godess' shining green eyes and the kind smile she managed way too easily.

"Good morning," she whispered down to them "I already told your friends that I don't mind, but I think the others might be mad if you're sleeping while I vanished. I'll be off for a walk, there's no need to follow me, just don't fall asleep again"

Without waiting for any reaction, she then turned away from them and left the clearing the tribe had built their huts in, many years ago.

She was not quite a fan of walking nor was she eager to get out here for anything but having a little bit more peace. She did feel better after getting some sleep, but would need more time to fully recover from yesterday already, which raised the obvious question if she could even keep this going for much longer. She had allowed herself to let her guard down as soon as she could be sure to be out of sight, hoping that sticking to moving on foot would be enough to be fully recovered until she had to get back to the tribe.

**

Raquo made sure to be up early in the morning so he could talk to godess Nhale as soon as she would allow him to. There was still a lot of things to talk about for today and he wanted to give her at least a brief preparation for all the things she would be expected to arrange and participate in. Knowing his fellow tribe members he was sure that she didn't find any rest even hours after he'd left yesterday, but it was still worth trying. He was all the more suprised when her guards told him that she had already left just a few minutes ago. Assuming that it wouldn't hurt to catch up on her walk to prepare her for the day he followed Nhale in the direction they gave him.

It only took him a few minutes, of a rather fast walk, until he caught a glance of her long, blond hair vanishing inbetween the trees. She didn't seem to notice him, so she just went on, further away from him. Raquo slowed down a bit now that he knew that she was just ahead of him, still faster than she was so he could catch up with her.
When she finally came back into view, he saw something weird. At first, Raquo thought it was just the light playing tricks on him, but then he made a few more steps forward and realised what he was seeing.

He had this strange feeling that something was wrong about Nhale for all the time he knew her, but the translucent wings on her back were just too much. The view left him stunned for a couple of seconds, until his mind finally managed to comprehend just why she had the powers they had seen in the inequal battle yesterday.

"She's a Fairy," he stumbled despite himself, not even realising that she had already stopped walking while he was thinking.

Before Raquo managed to panic or even attempt to flee, Nhale was out of sight. That was until he felt a strange, tingling sensation all over his skin. While he was shrinking, Nhale seemed to have materialised right behind him, her right hand ready to catch him in mid-air after he had reached the size of what he would've probably considered as food if he was as big as her right now.

"So you were the first one to find out?" At this size difference, her soft voice sounded very threatening, probably because of how loud it felt to him, although he was sure that it was hardly more than a whisper.

"It would've been easier if your wings were always visible," Raquo said despite himself, not believing that she would even consider to let him go "And I know what fairy magic looks like, just how do you manage to do it without anyone noticing it?"

"Well I guess I can tell you," Nhale stopped for a short giggle, probably taking his frustration as a compliment "If I concentrate on it, I can use a little more power to speed my magic up quite a lot and since most people don't focus on my tiniest form, I can be out of sight before anyone can spot me. And my wings," she paused again for a few rapid beats of her wings, as if it wasn't clear what she was talking about "A Dryad once taught me how they use their magic to appear like a tree. With some training and certain skills you can make these look like your back as long as you don't move them"

"I see and because constant use of magic takes you a lot of power you had to come here to savely recover from yesterday, right?" His voice only became more frustrated when he realised that these might not be the only special things about her.

"That's right, but I guess I can go back in a few minutes. I just have to think of something to do with you..." A wicked smile passed her lips when she saw the fear in his eyes at the thought of what any predator would consider first.

"You know that the others will certainly miss me, the guards know where I am," despite his fear, Raquo tried his best to believe in his own words.

"And you should know best that there's always a chance to get eaten, even on a distance as small as this," Nhale definitely knew what she was talking about, there was no mistaking that she had been in similar situations before "But you know what? I don't think I'm going to eat you..."

As unexpected as it had been, this single sentence brought back all his hope, there was still a chance to get out of this.

"That is, if I can trust you"

Not giving a single thought to what being under the control of a predator would be like, Raquo nodded so heavily that he got a headache from it.

"I didn't make up my mind about it yet, but as long as nobody finds out about what you've seen, your tribe should remain save" she stated with a suggestive tone to her voice.

"But you know that someday they'll find out, even if I won't tell anyone!" Raquo tried to counter, not even sure if it wasn't for his own misfortune.

"We'll see what things will be like on that day, I'll stick to my role for now, though I guess I'll make them stop calling me godess all the time. I might be kind of cheating you, but that'd be too much," Nhale said, her tone somewhat understanding.

Her undecided view on their fate left Raquo frightened and hopeless, knowing that nature's harsh laws allowed her to change her mind at any time. He couldn't do anything but hope that he could rely on her word and that she would act in an acceptable way on the day when someone would find out about her horrible secret. The mere fact that someone who they were all taught to follow and worship was mistaken with a person that could mean certain death to the entire tribe made him angry, made him wish to switch places with her so he could show her what it felt like. But since he couldn't, he had to accept that he was the powerless one and, as much as he hated to admit it, his duty to help her with keeping the illusion of Nhale, the divine godess in a human body, up for as long as nobody else found out.

"I was actually coming after you to go through the schedule for today with you," he began after a brief pause, surprising Nhale at first, until she gave him a satisfied smile and went on.

"And what's been planned for today?" she asked casually, as if she had done this for all her life.

"Rika gave birth to her baby yesterday and though it's tradition to ask for the gods in heaven to give her their blessings and although the godess you're supposed to be is not quite the one we usually adress on that matter, she asked for your blessing for her daughter. I can't give you any advice on how you're going to do this, nobody has ever seen a godess so there are no real expectations to fulfil"

There was a certain bitterness to his voice, the certainty that this newborn child might never receive a real blessing that was supposed to keep her safe and grant a long and happy life. He hated the fact that he had to help her with it; pretending to be a godess was not a minor sin, but it didn't do any real harm. Depriving an innocent child of her traditional blessing felt like shortening her life to him and the feeling that he was the only one who knew that she should have a traditional one, that what she was going to get was worth nothing, made him feel sick.

"So you think we can't talk her out of it?" She asked a little nervous, though Raquo couldn't tell if it was respect for their religion or uncertainty.

"I've already tried, but she was even concerned that you might think that you're not accepted as a godess when you're here among us. And the fact that her daugther would be the first one to be blessed by you seemed to be pretty important to her"

"Wait, wait. The first one?" Now that Nhale could barely begin to realise what she got herself into, that a godess, as a leader, still had a lot of dutys in the tribe, all of them a possibility to blow her cover and to further desecrate their traditions, she began to wonder if she shouldn´t make an end to this here and now. She didn't particularly care about their religion actually, but she had something she would call "a certain amount of respect" when it came to things like pretending to be a god.

"As much as I hate to see you doing it, I'm afraid I can't avoid it, you'll have to do it, at least this time," Raquo said, then he added "you've still got some time left, I'll try to take over as much of your work as I can so you can think of what you're going to do."

"Alright then, let's hope that things will work out fine, we're almost back," Nhale said when the first parts of the tribe came into view.

She magically concealed her wings again and put Raquo down infront of her to return him to his original size, before they walked the last few steps back into the tribe.

**

For the rest of the morning, it seemed like Raquo had really done his best to keep everyone away from her, the only ones who had entered her hut had been two maids who brought her breakfast and left again, apparently knowing about how she made the other maids leave last night. She had a lot of time to come up with a plan, something that would satisfy the expectations of the Nekos. But she eventually had to admit that she had no idea what they were actually expecting of her, Raquo had said that the godess she was supposed to be didn't even have a thing to do with the ceremony, though she herself didn't even know what her name or role was.

Hours passed and she soon found herself thinking of other things, like how this whole godess thing would end, how they would react and what she was going to do afterwards. She had just come back to the ceremony when Raquo's head broke through the curtains that worked as something like a door for the hut, "I hope you're ready, she wants to hold it now."

Nhale followed him out of the hut without a word, she didn't even nod and that got him pretty nervous, not because he was concerned about her, but about what she would do if anyone would begin to wonder why she didn´t know anything about their tribe. They were heading towards the end of the tribe that lay behind Nhale's hut. Despite the few things she knew about living in villages or tribes, she would've expected the ceremony to take place somewhere in the center of the tribe, where she had fought her antecessor yesterday. She was all the more surprised by the place they finally entered after several minutes of walking.

She would've barely called the place a clearing, it was considerably dark for the time of day, despite the fact that it was actually a pretty open space. Only far above their heads did the trees' leafes grow together into something like a roof, leaving only one real hole, which let in a few rays of sunlight. As she glanced across the natural room in the middle of the woods, she saw where the light was going and why they were going to hold the ceremony now; the single ray of light, that fell through the leafy roof, shone right onto a stump in the center of the otherwise bare clearing. It seemed that the Nekos have choped the tree and turned the remaining stump into something like an altar, the surface looked smooth but slightly sloped and there was, not deep but visibly, some kind of bowl carved into it, which was probably supposed to prevent a baby from falling down from the altar.

Only now did Nhale glance over at the young female which, she figured, had to be the babys mother, which she held in her arms. Though she didn't pay attention to her at first, the Neko had been giving her a thankful smile ever since she had come into sight, unsettling Nhale all the more. Raquo led her right towards the mother who stood a fair distance behind the stumb she was, hopefuly, supposed to include in the ceremony. There was something pretty odd to the scenery; they were on their own. It was not just for the absence of the rest of the tribe, even the father was missing, it was just Nhale, the mother and Raquo. It seemed like the ceremony was a very private part of their culture, still important but too private to share with anyone, even the father, as it seemed.

Raquo came to a halt when he reached the mother, and turned towards Nhale, while the silent Neko gestured her that she wanted to hand the baby over to her. The fairy gently took the baby into her arms, while the mother whispered "her name is Sarima". It was the first time in her life to have an infant in her arms, but her instinct told her that she had to be gentle and careful. She took a brief moment to take a closer look at the baby, which was apparently sleeping. It was still very small, but the typical fur, black it was, was already growing, increasing the warmth it was emiting. She looked up for a brief second to look into the mother's face; she was calmly smiling, glad to be able to grant her newborn this great opportunity. Nhale gave her an encouraging smile, although she was quite sure that she wasn't even looking at her, then she turned towards the altar, her eyes locked on the baby in her arms, and positioned herself behind it.

Now was the time she hasn't been waiting for at all, although she knew that she had to get it over with. She kissed the baby on the forehead, then carefully laid it down on the altar, peering over at Raquo while she did, to find him, to her great releaf, nodding, or at least she hoped she did. Nhale now closed her eyes and took a deep breath. collecting her thoughts and hoping that it might look mystical in some way. After a few seconds had passed, she let out the air in her lungs and spoke up.

"Today, we have come here to celebrate the birth of a new member of the tribe, to welcome Sarima to the world and to send our best of wishes along her way, hoping that her life will be a long and joyful one," Nhale now raised her arms towards the sky, her voice amplified to a real call "So I pray to heaven, to the gods, to bless Sarima with a long and healthy life, with all the joys she could possibly have."

She now lowered her arms again, carefully reached for the baby infront of her and lifter her up again. She whispered a soft "welcome to the tribe," before kissing her on the forehead again, then she slowly walked back towards her mother. She was almost there and, due to the two Neko's content (and Raquo's somewhat relieved) smile, confident that she had done the right thing, when she found the baby waking up in her arms. When she noticed the disconcerted look it was giving her, she answered it with the warmest smile she could manage under these stressful circumstands, trying to avoid what happened next. When it's look didn't change in any way she stopped and, despite herself, looked back at it in just the same confused way. The tiny Neko then started crying and kicking in her arms, probably upset because her mother was nowhere in sight or simply because she was a stranger. Hasting the last few steps towards her mother, Nhale handed the crying baby over to her, who now tryed her best to calm her daughter.

Barely saying a word, the group separated then. Even Nhale knew that the baby's reaction was not quite what it should have been.

"I assume she was not supposed to cry right after waking up, was she?" she finally managed to say when they had separated from the mother once they had reached the outer borders of the tribe's small village.

"No, it was not," Raquo said "The ceremony itself is not a problem, it's private and we're not talking about it. But it seems like the baby felt that something was wrong about you, I never saw one crying after the blessing"

"Wait is that why the father was not with her?" Nhale asked.

"That, and probably because she doesn't know who he is. If there were no people like you," Raquo made a short pause when they entered Nhale's hut again "we could actually take our time to find a real partner for life, but since we've got to try to keep pace with the predators who actively threaten our existence, every girl and boy who reach adulthood are forced to mate and so was she. If she doesn't show any signs of pregnancy, the procedure will be repeated then and I know that she took quite a while"

Without thinking about the possible consequences, he let out all his anger upon Nhale, who had never really thought about the consequences of her actions. Not quite willing to let him call solely her to account, she got, not quite unexpectedly, angry.

"Hey, I didn't do anything to you guys, I'm not responsible for anything going wrong here, I'm actually the one here who's supposed to protect you if anything's happening," Nhale retorted.

"You're acting like you've come to be our protector, but you can't act like I wouldn't know what your initial intentions had been! In fact, I can't even be sure if they have changed by now," Raquo snapped back at her.

"I've told you before that you'll be alright as long as you don't tell anyone, besides, why does it bother you that much suddenly?"

"The ceremony. It's supposed to be the first and most important step in the life of a young tribe member. With it, he becomes a real member of the tribe. Of course, nobody will know about it for as long as you won't change your mind about our fate, but I know and I will mind, because it feels like I'm responsible for it because I didn't intervened," Raquo said angrily, leaving the small but comparably luxurous hut with firm, fast steps.

The next hour passed by eventlessly as Raquo was probably taking over most of her work to avoid contact with her. Concluding that there was probably no point in staying here other than sending the maids away who occasionally entered to worship her, Nhale got up and left the hut after shrinking down to her usual small size, when she didn't want to be seen.

**

Rika's day has been pretty exciting. She had been waiting for her daughter's ceremony since Raquo had told her that Nhale would do it for her, on the last evening. Despite the unexpected reaction of her newborn on the stranger she found herself held by, she was thankful for the great favour the godess had done for her.

When Nhale saw her coming back home to lay the now sleeping baby into her bed, she dashed towards the housing, that seemed to be hers, and slid into it through a hole in the ceiling every single one seemed to have. She then sat down on a small bed table, leaned against a bowl of water and did her best to calm down before Rika would enter.

Having only eyes for the baby in her arms, she didn't even notice the small figure watching her while she carefully laid it into it's bed, tucked it in and took a few seconds to watch her sleep.

"She's a beautiful little thing," Nhale said, her voice low so she wouldn't wake the baby.

Rika whirled around, trying to see who was speaking. When she couldn't seem to find anyone, she stopped and waited for who ever it was to speak up again.

"I'm down here," Nhale said, her voice carrying a little laugh, rather to ease herself into this than anything else.

With an expression of both, wonder and horror at once, Rika knelt down infront of Nhale after she had finally found the miniature godess sitting on her bed table.

"G-Godess? Godess Nhale?" She stuttered, "Are you alright? Can I help you somehow?"

Rika was already about to pick her up, when Nhale drew away from her.

"There's something you don't know about me," Nhale began hesitant, "You see... This is what I really am"

She then liftet the spell that had concealed her delicate wings from everyone, except Raquo. The moment Rika realised that the translucent wings on Nhale's back were neither an illusion nor a mere product of her own fantasy, she backed away so quickly that she stumbled and fell almost out of the small hut. Even then was she trying to get away from her, her eyes wide, her mind going numb from sheer terror, knowing that she was about to be this predator's next victim. When she was almost out of her home, beginning to think of anywhere to run to, she realised that her baby was still lying on the bed.

As she tried to dash back towards the bed, Nhale jumped up into the air and hovered right inbetween the bed and Rika, making her stop immidiately.

"I don't mean to harm you, you've got to listen to me," Nhale said with a voice as caring as she could manage.

"If you have to eat me I'm fine with it, just spare my baby, I'll do anything!" Rika said as she started to cry, the fairy's words were just so unexpected she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Listen! I just wanted to tell you that you better repeat your daugther's ceremony," Nhale said, pretty much ignoring her words.

"But why didn't you tell me before we had it?" Rika said, as the possible complications of asking for another ceremony let her forget about her fear for a moment.

"Because I didn't know how important it is to you, so I thought I shouldn't let another one into my secret," Nhale let out a bit too quickly.

"Another one?" Rika asked a bit confused, it didn't occure to her why the witness would keep it a secret.

"Raquo has found out this morning, but I have... convinced him to keep it a secret," Nhale replied hesitantly.

"So you threatened him?" Rika concluded simply.

"The point is," Nhale went on quickly, avoiding the topic "that he won't tell anyone and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't either. And I had hoped that you wouldn't mind to have a second ceremony rather than finding out that your daughter actually never had a real one"

"So... You do consider to reveal your true self to the tribe?" Rika asked.

"When Raquo saw me yesterday, it occured to me that I would never be able to keep this going forever, I would end up threatening the entire tribe not to tell the others, although everyone would know it someday," Nhale explained, realising too late that she had actually said that she would threaten them.

"So what are you going to do-" Rika began to ask, until Nhale stopped her in midsentence.

"I don't know it yet! I just want you to repeat your ceremony and don't talk about this with anyone, there's nothing you have to be afraid off," she said in a slightly angry voice, rather because she herself didn't know any solition for her problem yet.

She then darted off through the hole in the roof, leaving a slightly startled Rika with her baby, who then walked back up to it, gave it a last kiss on the forehead and left for work, as she had already been late before the unexpected encounter.

**

Despite the fact that she actually wanted to see him now, Raquo didn't show up anymore on that day, he probably needed some more time to get over it.

As much as she would have liked to tell him that he wouldn't have to bother about Rika anymore, she was certain that there would be too many nekos around to tell him and he wouldn't want to listen anyway. Then her thoughts drifted off to Rika herself. She hopefully won't have too many problems with getting a new ceremony. Then, as she hoped that she didn't scare her too much, she caught herself caring for her actual prey for the very first time.

She quickly brushed the thought away and got to the next, more important question; what would be the easiest way to get out of all this? Without even noticing, she spent hours with thinking through every single possibility. She could just tell them the truth, but they would obviously blame her for all this and most of them would probably try to flee before she could even begin to explain anything. For a brief moment she even considered just leaving, because, obviously, they couldn't be mad about a secret they never discovered. But she somehow didn't want to just leave these nekos and who knew what reasons they would come up with to explain her disappearance. Then her instincts told her that she could just eat them and solve the whole problem with a pleasing result. But something deep inside her made her hesitate. Of course, she could do it whenever she wanted to, she was the stronger party and therefor had the right to take what rightfully belonged into her tummy. What has changed that made her so... Weak? Or wasn't it even weakness? Maybe there was more strength to this than to taking whatever you wanted just because you can.

Nhale had no time to think about it any further, as somebody pushed the curtain, that blocked the sight into her new home, aside. A few moments later Rika slowly stuck her head through the small hole and looked at her a bit uncertain, yet happy.

"Good evening, Nhale," she said, a slight smile forming on her lips "may I enter for a brief moment?"

Nhale didn't say a word, unsure herself of what she actually wanted from her, but nodded her "Ok".

"So uhm, I've got some good news I thought you might wanted to know," she began as she sat down pretty close to the entrance, signaling that she only intended to stay for a short while "first of all I wanted to thank you for... Well you know. I was asking our former leader, Basroel, for a ceremony for my daughter and he agreed on doing it, he didn't know about the one you held for us. And I also noticed that Raquo was looking at me in a strange way all day long, so I told him about what you did for me when he was on his own. I hope I didn't do anything you didn't want to, but I figured what he was trying to tell me all the time and I wanted to releave him, you know?"

Her voice became a bit more quiet at the end, as if she was expecting some kind of punishment for what she had done.

"Thank you, I already thought about going and telling him," Nhale said with a kind smile "and I'm glad that you're going to have a real ceremony now"

"Yes me too... Well that was about everything already, I didn't mean to disturb you or anything, I'll see you around," she said to break the awkward silence, then she slightly bowed her head and left.

While she curtain was still moving from Rika pushing through it, Nhale chased her with her eyes, until there was no more space to glance through anymore, seconds before she entered her own home. This was the thing that had changed her! The fact that she actually got to know this little tribe, no matter if it was a mistake to begin with or not, it had changed her in an unexpected way. They trusted her, even those who knew what she really was and she now respected their trust, so much, that she didn't want to abuse it. And she wouldn't do that, she was sure in that. There was only one exception, the fact that only two of them really knew who she was, while others believed that she was a godess. And that, she decided, had to change. And she would get to it right on the next day, she thought, as she looked up into the nightsky she hadn't even noticed through the small hole in the ceiling.

Realising just how much time she had just spent with nothing but thinking, she figured that this might actually be just the thing she was meant to be doing. If things would work out well tomorrow, Nhale determined, she would try to remain in such a position.