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Pietro


The squire of Rames felt no unease or hesitation in meeting the Lady of Attera or her female companion (for a moment he wondered about the third person, the one who had disappeared as they had passed around the big rock and his hand went to his sword hilt).

He was, however, very surprised at seeing them appear from within the Dirkwood.

"Certainly we should meet and greet them, Miss Lyric," he said and lifted a hand in greeting as they approached the pair.

Bekkah

"Of course, I always enjoy meeting new people. I assume neither is anyone you've seen here before?" she said to her companion.

As the others caught up to them, she immediately saw the markings of one of Rames followers.

*Please don't make him another one come to protect me.* she thought groaning inwardly. They'd see none of that for they were greeted by a smile, framed by her golden hair.

"A good day to you both."

Lyric

But Lyric was already walking ahead of Pietro as the squire was agreeing. She had quickened her pace now to match her mood.

"New people and new stories," she added, almost pleading for him to hurry.

The one in white issued her own greeting when they were closing the distance, Lyric at a quick-step pace, sometimes adding a skip. and looking back to her comrade who led a horse, with his gear and her pack, at a more normal and respectable pace for an adult.

Lyric returned the wave, with a beaming smile and wide, bright eyes that were trying to take in everything at once. This was a first meeting, in the Now. Things like only happen once in any relationship, good or bad. She was genuinely excited.

Keiko

Keiko shook her head at the healer’s question. As she watched the others approach, her smile grew as she watched the other girl as she skipped, almost danced toward them. So much happiness! She didn’t really look like someone from any of the Families, but she knew one of her fellow Waveriders somewhere out on the High Tarn didn’t fit the Rhoni stereotype either. She stepped forward to greet her, stopping a respectful distance away.

“Hello! Are you and your knight journeying to Waverider’s Watch or merely passing through? Have you come for the market? I’m Keiko and this...” She gestured back toward the woman wearing white. “...is Lady Bekkah.” The Colonial she spoke was easily understood, with a lilting accent that hinted at the far north area of the Black Mountains.

Her violet eyes reflected the happiness in her smile. With her cloak hanging open, it was easy to see that most of the bright trim around the edging of her tunics was embroidery of seemingly random geometric designs, while the sleeves were dyed various colors — almost as if she used her tunic as a test surface for different pigments. One would not need to be rudely staring to note the daggers at her waist. Keiko knew her hair was less neat than usual, so the red blaze was scattered more haphazardly through her black hair than the usual orderly stripe.

She looked toward the Forest, despite knowing she wouldn’t see anything but the Forest itself, before turning back to the other girl.

“Will you share your name? And that of your companion?”

Lyric

The Tarnan girl was still wearing her lightweight over and under tunics. The over tunic done in thin layers to pretend to a gossamer nature. She also had a heavier hooded cloak in a tartan pattern draped over her shoulders to ward off the morning chill as She was not high enough overhead yet to warm the day. Her thick, long, chestnut brown hair was roughly parted in the middle and she wore a circlet made of flowers and their stems woven together like a fine floral wreath. Her features were attractive, and certainly not plain, but she had made no efforts to accentuate any of her features with powders or rogues or dyes. Her eyes were very blue, and with that wide-eyed child-like look of wonderment and joy she certainly appeared innocent enough.

The openness of the cloak revealed she was neither armed nor armored, not even wearing leathers. As the one who called herself Keiko introduced herself and the Imperial Lady in White, Lyric couldn't help but get caught up, to the point of mezmerization, in the patterns of the Rhoni girl's brightly colored clothing. She smiled broadly as she cocked her head slightly, considering angles to look at the embroidery and shapes.

Lyric didn't immediately answer Keiko's first questions. Instead she seemed wholly focused on seeing everything there was to see about these two new acquaintances.

It wasn't until she heard the exotic girl, Keiko, ask her to share her name that Lyric realized she was letting The Now slip by too much.

She made a quick glance to Pietro and Djinni, only to see them a few long steps away still but coming close now. She returned her attention to the new arrivals on the trail.

"If you wish to be called Lyric as well, then YES, we can share my name," she said with a Highside Tarnan accent "But I think your own name is very pretty... very expressive in the harshness of using the same tone for each of the two parts. Simple in its parts to make a more complicated whole..."

As Pietro was now close, she let that thought slide away and spoke her own form of introduction for her friend.

"Ser Pietro isn't my Knight. He is Lord Rames' Knight... and he isn't a Knight, he's a Squire." She didn't say that in a way meant to demean him, but it was more like she was repeating the distinction she had been told, and treating the difference as though one were still an equal to the other. And thus the rambling, carefree, whimsy could not be escaped. "A very nice one too... generous and kind... and very honorable too... and good measure of cute to look as well... and so, if'n you have an interest then know I am not his doxy and you are free to pursue him in courtship if'n you wish."

Never once did her genuine smile falter. Nor did she seem to realize she was speaking too much.

Keiko

She watched the other girl studying — intently, and yet not — her tunic trimmings. Keiko understood the desire to sometimes get lost in the patterns, especially those that had been stitched by Grandmother on the hem. But when Lyric finally did share her name, Keiko giggled.

“No, thank you. My name, I think, suits me better... although only because I have become so accustomed to it, and I like it, too, for my mother gave it to me. That is only the short part of my name, though. The whole of it is Keiko kha’Chiyo kha’Masuyo kha’Tsukiko kha’Chouko khal’Nakano Hoshiko. It sounds like a song, don’t you think? I often do.

“But Lyric is a lovely name, as well. Does it mean just exactly as it sounds... that you are a singer? I love to sing, and am always happy to find others who would sing with me.”

She looked over at the squire.

“Serpietro... a squire. An unusual name, that is. And I can never remember how to tell the difference between squire and knight... something about belts, or some such. Not all my lessons stick in my brain as well as others, and that might be one of them. I do know of the Lord Rames, and the Lord Hastur, and the Lady Attera — Lady Bekkah serves her — and the One Who Isn’t Named. The Imperials. Lady Bekkah’s sister is a Knight, but she is a Knight of the Lady Sun. I’d like to meet her. She sounds very nice. But she is not here.” She glanced over her shoulder at Bekkah for a moment before continuing. “Lady Bekkah misses her, and her voice sounds sad when she talks about her,” she murmured.

But then she nodded at the further information about the squire. “I have heard of squires and knights who were not very nice, so it is a good thing that Serpietro is a good one. But I’m afraid I’m not allowed to court him, so he is free to be unencumbered by us both.”

Keiko was wholly aware of how much she was talking and, as it was her nature to be talkative except for when listening was a better alternative, it didn’t bother her in the least. Right here and right now, this felt to be a comfortable balance in the currents of the World. Although it was not her habit to attend the Restday market, it would be kind to let Missus Miller to let her know she was well. But hospitality was also important, as she learned from the Miller himself when first came to the tiny village.

The time for returning to her little room would arrive when it did. Until then, Keiko would ride this wave.

But she did note that she probably had a tiny pot of pigment that matched Lyric’s eyes.

Bekkah

The new girl, Lyric introduced herself and in a flurry the two younger women seemed to take off in chatter as if it had been stored up for ages. The innocence of it made her smile and as the squire approached, she winked up at him as she glanced from girl to girl and back to him.

She said nothing else, letting the man have a chance to speak himself as she knew he would want to properly introduce himself, probably not from atop his horse.

Pietro


Walking along behind the singer of songs, leading his mount, Pietro put his right arm across his chest, fist clenched over his heart, and opened his mouth to greet first the Lady of Attera, but then Lyric and the other young woman started conversing back and forth almost two quickly for him to follow. He closed his mouth, leaving his greeting - for the moment - unsaid.

When a brief pause gave him opportunity, just as the Lady Healer surprised him with a perhaps conspiratorial wink, the squire spoke.

"I give you greetings in the name of Lord Rames the Protector," he said in a not quite formal tone. "Lady Bekkah," he nodded toward her. "Miss Keiko."

"My name is not Ser Pietro," he continued with an almost embarrassed smile toward Lyric.

"That is the form of address Miss Lyric uses for me. My name is Pietro. More fully, Pietro Keir Hansson, son of Hans Keurig, late of Tantalal, and squire in the service of Lord Rames the Protector."

"And uh..." he paused and cleared his throat. "I am not ah... currently seeking a lady to court."

Keiko

Tilting her head to one side, Keiko regarded the squire intently for a moment, and then blinked slowly.

“Well, then, you have my apologies, Pietro Keir Hansson of Talantal. How is it that you prefer to be addressed? And it is likely a good thing you are not seeking to court anyone, as I doubt there is anyone here to court, unless Lady Bekkah has a desire to be courted, for Dama Kadri is already married to the very fine Lord Dominic Korie, also of Talantal, and the farmers’ daughters...”

Keiko paused for a breath, and to think for a second.

“Perhaps their mothers might think them of an age to be courted but perhaps not, even though you are a squire of Lord Rames and, according to Lyric, a fine and good squire, too.” She nodded decisively. “Have you met Lord Dominic? I have recently come to learn what a good and honorable man he is. He is well-respected here.”

She looked beyond him, behind him, along the trail he and Lyric had traveled.

“May I ask, Pietro of Talatal, from where you have come that you walk the Path of the Waveriders? I am merely curious, and certainly would never chide one of your esteemed position for traveling the Path of my long ago kinsfolk.”

Although the currents remained calm and the wave she rode was gentle, this was an interesting new pebble that could cause ripples... great ones, small ones... there was no way to know. Yet.

Pietro


"I do not worry overmuch over how I am addressed but, given my preference, I would prefer being called Pietro."

The squire looked a little uncomfortable when Keiko started analyzing his courtship prospects, but he had met women before who, once they started talking, had no ready ability to slow down or stop the river of information which tended to run unchecked from brain to mouth. He had learned to cope with it, not perfectly, but well enough to get by.

His eyes did widen, though, when Keiko mentioned that the new wife of Lord Dominic Korie was present, here in this out of the way hamlet on the edge of the Dirkwood.

It is still in Lord Dominic's domain, however, so mayhap the coincidence is not too great..." he thought after a moment.

"My father serves Khorall Korie as Knight Marshall and I was raised and received my early training in and around Talantal. So, while I am not personally familiar with Lord Dominic, I have seen him from a distance and, of course, have known of him near all my life."

He paused just a moment.

"I had just recently learned of the Lord's nuptials and would wish to offer his bride my congratulations and felicitations."

The Waveriders? Pietro frowned for a moment in thought. He wondered if this had something to do with the Rhoni's fabled ability to read the fates of other people. Instinctively, he reached up and touched the darksteel wagon wheel shaped ornament which dangled from the silver chain about his neck.

"Just recently, I have arrived here from the lands of House Montague and Brockman's Holdfast, but I have been wandering the lands of the Heartwood for over seven years now... doing my best to learn to serve my Lord Rames as best I can."

OOC: Inserted above where Pietro clarifies he is not seeking a lady to court- My writing got interrupted by the arrival of unannounced guests- sorry




Lyric

The name she thought sounded like a song. Maybe she was right, but even if it wasn't a song, it was long and had a poetic rhythm. More likely, Lyric believed the name told a story. And that alone intrigued more than anything else. A lineage told through names. In fact, Lyric almost missed the entirety of what Keiko was saying next as she tried to remember the whole name. She couldn't but she was hopeful that in adopting just two syllables by her own choice Keiko would not be offended if she couldn't remember the name that told her only one time thus far.

Pietro had introduced himself and clarified a few things as well, especially the part about his availability. It didn't offend Lyric any, for she knew Pietro was the one best suited to tell his own story... she only offered a prologue. Besides, what harm could it cause to

"Voice," she replied. "It means voice... and Yes, I have been gifted with a fair one I have used to sing."

Bekkah

She hid her amusement at Pietro's discomfort about seeking a lady to court. She wondered if the other two women were simply toying with him.

The last part of his statement caught her attention.

"You've been wandering the lands for years. I undertook a similar expedition on my own for years to see the people of the lands. It truly shaped who I am, I'd be interested to hear of your experiences if you have the time."

Her smile to him was genuine and not flirtatious. She was clearly not teasing him.

Before he could answer, she turned to Lyric.

"I would love to hear you sing. While I am a fair dancer, I've little singing talent, but I do delight in hearing those gifted with a lovely voice."

OOC: This will follow Pietro's latest- best I can do so that I am not speaking to everything in one long post



Lyric

After she responded to Keiko, the Rhoni girl in the brightly colored clothing directed her attention to Pietro. Lyric listened for a time. Still there were clarifications and the apologies for misinterpretations. Lyric was sure that such miscommunications were her fault, but she meant no disrespect and hoped none had been taken. Such things as they discussed though were hardly the most important things Lyric could imagine though. It was as if the details were more important than the experience. To Lyric the experience was the most important aspect of this, and the details were less so, especially to a storyteller.

"To answer your question about walking this trail also means I should answer an earlier question. I am not going anywhere with any particular purpose. I saw a path and I took it. It was away from where I came in the Then and I am still walking it in the Now. I met Ser Pietro along the way, or rather he met me... and we agreed to walk together. That there is a village ahead was unknown to me, but not unwelcome. I will meet more people and hear more stories... maybe tell a story or two myself. And Songs. I want to hear every song there is while I journey wherever the roads, trails, and paths take me. Th journey is more important than the destination. The Journey is an experience. It is life. It is living."

She probably didn't answer a question or two to the fullest desire of the questioner, but it was the answer that she shared all the same.

The Lady of Attera gave her the fullness of her attention and that was a blessing in itself.

"I am a minstrel, and not of a worldly nature, but I would be honored to sing for you. I think my voice is fair enough to call myself a minstrel... but I hope I don't disappoint you."

Pietro


Pietro started to reply that, of course, he would be pleased and willing to share his experiences with her, but she turned to Lyric before he could do so.

He could tell her so later, he supposed.

As a squire of Rames, he could not imagine refusing a request from a Lady of Attera, but he was sure she knew that and perhaps was only being polite in phrasing it as a request.

"Miss Lyric has a lovely singing voice."

Keiko

“I would be pleased to sing with you, Lyric... and exchange songs, if you’d like. Some of the songs I know are in languages rarely spoken here, while some are not spoken at all.”

The conversation on the topic of traveling — by all three of the others — caught Keiko’s attention even more than the prospect of singing. Particularly Lyric’s phrasing of how she came to be journeying. The why and the not-where...

Her straightforward and unadorned words were used to explain a fundamental thing that was like and not-like the Rhoni experience.

Once more, the currents ran swiftly and deeply; the young Rhoni paused a moment, looking in the direction of the Forest, before choosing a propitious wave and balancing carefully.

“You expressed an interest in conveying your greetings to Dama Kadri, Squire Pietro,” she said as she fixed her gaze on him, her eyes twinkling with either merriment or mischief — or possibly both. “Perhaps now is the time to continue this journey so that you might achieve that goal.”

Her smile was somewhat rueful as she turned to Lady Bekkah. “And perhaps our friends, both yours and mine, will have their minds set to rest upon our return. It is an unusual thing, after all, to spend the night in the Forest.”

Lyric

She wanted to ask, what was a language truly if it was not spoken? And maybe, how could it be a language if not spoken? Gestures? Yes, maybe that was it. There had to be many ways to communicate beyond the conventional spoken and sung word. But, then again, maybe that was just her own naivete at work, for it might have been a figure of speech, or a way of saying something that Lyric simply didn't understand.

In the small villages and the out of the way places, places removed from the influences of 'civilized' things, far from the reach of Talantal, one could only know so much Colonial Imperial. To know more, to understand better, required she get out and experience this journey herself.

The conversation turned anyway. It turned so very fast. This would be another adjustment for Lyric. Her life to this date was so much less hurried and rushed... but it gave her a certain perspective on the immediacy of things she had been told.

At the mention of spending a night within the forest Lyric's eyes widened. It was both apprehension and wonderment. She glanced to the forest, as if to both reassure herself in the distance and to lament the notion she was not able to experience something so greatly unknown to her. Her own brief experience, all too short and yet far too long, left her with profoundly mixed emotions. It was something both terrifying and exhilarating to her. There was a deep sadness and a pain, but also an anger and a rage... She wanted to understand it but the wiser inclinations were to respect it more and from further away.

Keiko mentioned there were others ahead on the trail or in what might be a village just ahead, and that these companions were friends to the Girl in Colors and the Lady of Attera. A friend was good to have. But more than one? Now that was a treasure to be honored.

"And that is a story I would like to hear," she remarked with a note of wistfulness. "But these are your friends you speak of, and I have none... Well, I have Pietro but we are only just met. It would be wrong of me to speak for his sentiments toward me."

Pietro


The squire smiled and rubbed his mouth as if it itched or perhaps to cover an incipient grin or even a chuckle.

She was an odd little thing for sure. Nice, yes, he liked her, but she was more than a little strange. If nothing else, her different slant at looking at things was never predictable.

"I would be honored to have you as a friend, Miss Lyric."

Lyric

Lyric blushed a little, and then seemed surprised at the reaction itself. But that moment fueled a sense of happiness. Quickly though she looked at Pietro and then slightly away. "Thank you," she replied. A part of her was enraptured by the experience of how Pietro's words made her feel.

"I now have a friend," she said as she turned back to Keiko.

Keiko

She clapped her hands together softly, joyfully.

“Friends are wonderful. I’ve lived in the village since just before Midsummers. I stay with the Miller and his wife, and they’re my friends even when Missus Miller gets growly grumpy. And I like the farmers and their wives and their children, but I don’t know them well enough to say they are friends... just that they could be. But Missus Heatherson does make the very best meat pies, and I like to get one each week.”

Keiko nodded to the Atteran. “Lady Bekkah is my friend. But most of my friends live in the Forest, and I only see them on Marketday. Well, except for Renyard, who is quite scholarly. And Broke, who goes to the Larsens’ Village. Sometimes they visit on days that aren’t Marketday, but not today. Today is the day for regular folks to have their market.”

She sighed and gazed toward the west for a moment. “Maybe Broke will take me to the Larsens’ Village sometime. I have heard so many stories about the Sea of Opals and the Grand Cathedral there. Renyard has been to Trundle as I have, and perhaps has even seen the Sea of Pearls as I have. I wonder if he has seen the Sea of Opals. I must remember to ask him.”

Then she smiled brightly at Lyric. “Perhaps we might become friends, too... you and I. We will see where the currents take us. Sometimes one knows quickly if another will be a friend. Sometimes it takes a long time.”

Keiko shrugged, unconcerned about the amount of time it may or may not take to consider Lyric a friend.

“And the Tale of the Night in the Forest...” She sighed. “I think Bekkah’s friends will like to hear the story, too, so I will tell the whole of it to them and to you when we reach the village and they are ready to hear it. Of course, if it takes all day for them to be ready to hear the whole tale, then I will tell you sooner.

“But the summary of the tale is simply that one of my friends was... perhaps it would be accurate to say that she was not quite feeling her usual self. So Lady Bekkah and I traveled to my friends’ Home, I helped my friend feel better, stories were told, and dinner was eaten — as it was too late to return to the village. And so now... we are returning!”

Lyric

Lyric's eyes widened as Keiko spoke so rapidly and excitedly. She wanted to join in the sheer exuberance of it, but all the names and places and topic changes, all coming so fast began to overwhelm Lyric. Talk of becoming friends was a highlight and then there was the tale itself. It sounded like a wondrous adventure, this night in the forest did. But talk of currents like water and air dragged Lyric to think on that before Keiko went on to something else... she tried to pick things out and hold onto them... currents and Waveriders Reach... there was a harmony to be found, Lyric was sure but she had so little context to make sense of any of it yet. Keiko was, no doubt, the most frenetic person Lyric had ever known. The Now never moved so fast as it did right now for the Tarnan Girl.The thought of currents came again and there was only a moment to ponder it, for the metaphor seemed apt. Lyric felt adrift, pushed and pulled, and unable to make things slow down.

"Oh My," was all she could utter as thoughts slipped away and Lyric had to take a moment to close her eyes and find her place in the Now again. This might be harder than she thought. But she would have to try. She had to learn and adapt.

Keiko

“Oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh!”

Keiko’s eyes were wide as she looked at Lyric.

“Sorry.”

She bit her lip but, despite her first instinct, did not reach out to the other girl. That did not seem... correct. Not now.

“I talk a lot. Sorry.

“Um... I can try to talk less. Or... or... Well, is there something that would help you?”

Lyric

There was a moment or three of stillness from the point that Keiko's last word was uttered to when Lyric's eyes finally opened again. A broad smile spread across her face, lighting up her visage. She shook her head softly.

"No," she replied gently and evenly. "You must not change. This is who you are. Never apologize for that. You meant no harm and you caused no harm. I just had to remember who I am."

She reached out her hand to touch Keiko's face, but didn't make contact. She simply held the hand close to the Girl of Many Colors' face and allowed her to decide if she wanted to be touched.

"I am far from my home now, and far from the things I know. But that is part of the Journey. So, do not worry and do not fret. I will learn. I will get better at this 'friend' thing. I promise."

There was a child-like innocence to match her youthful appearance. She was very young to be travelling alone. Well, she had been alone until yesterday when Pietro caught up to her on the Rhoni trail so close to the Dirkwood forest, and now where all four of them had just met.

"If there is anything you could do to help... It might be a lot to ask, and I might be undeserving of it... Maybe I would hope you will be patient with me while we are together?"

Pietro


"It is my pleasure, Miss Lyric, and no thanks are needed," he said but the singer of songs and teller of tales were again enjoined in their back and forth pitter patter of conversation, much like, Pietro thought, the spattering of large drops of rain which tended to precede a thunderstorm.

He hoped their talk would not lead to a storm.

Pietro would have liked to hear more of this nightlong adventure into the Dirkwood. Perhaps later an opportunity would arise.

Bemusedly he glanced back and forth from Keiko to Lyric with an occasional visual visit to the Lady of Attera to see if she might share his reaction to the young women's talk.

Keiko

She watched Lyric, her smile returning a bit as the other girl spoke. Instead of leaning against Lyric’s hand as some might do, Keiko reached up and wrapped her small hand around Lyric’s. She listened to the words as she would listen to Renyard’s words… for there was often wisdom in tone and body language. That was a lesson from Grandmother, one that was most necessary to remember at Festivals. But here and now, on this Path, she paused after Lyric finished speaking, enfolding the other girl’s hand now within the cocoon of her two small hands held between them at the level of her heart.

Keiko waited for three heartbeats… for six… for nine as she studied Lyric’s features.

“I, too, am far from home. I understand being away from everything familiar.” Her smile grew to something more normal for her as she held Lyric’s hand – gently, softly, as delicately as she might hold her littlest sister’s hand, as lightly as she might hold her friend Tomomi’s very small hand.

“The Journey – walking the World – is, indeed, a time for learning. We are both learning, are we not?

“Patience is not too great a thing to ask, nor is it too great a thing to give. If you would tell me what caused you to have the need to remember yourself, I will try to do less of it while you are learning.”

Keiko’s smile was once more bright, causes the edges of her eyes to crinkle with her happiness.

“That is called compromise... it is a good thing between friends who are very different.”

That Lyric might lose herself for a moment – in Keiko’s torrent of words or in anything else – was not something the Rhoni found at all strange or unnerving. After all, Keiko could find the shifting colors of Her journey over the edge of the world or the flow of paint on pasteboard to be endlessly mesmerizing at times.

Lyric

It was Lyric's right hand, small of light of bone. Her fingers were long and slender. The nails showed that once they were well manicured, but not so much now. There was dirt under the short nails and even an abrasion across two of her knuckles where she might have scraped them across a rock. Her other hand had calloused fingertips and an abrasion on the heel from when she had tripped over an outcropping of rocks nestled in the grasses where she wandered off the trail to look at a butterfly. But that other hand was not the one Keiko held.

Her eyes were deeply blue but paler and not the kind of vibrant blue that made a person think the light they reflected was from within. No, Lyric's blue eyes were the kind of blue that might dull the sharpness of a glint of light rather than radiate it. Her facial features were such that those eyes did dominate and hold attention. She met Keiko's attentive consideration with equal resolve, making those blue eyes appear to be deep pools.

Her skin was a pale complexion and relatively free of marks. And she appeared to have all of her teeth, at least those that could be seen when she smile broadly as she often did. Her hair was chestnut brown and in need of washing, but it had been combed recently.

When she spoke, it was as if she were addressing all three of those around her. Her voice was deliberate and measured.

"I have found that sometimes things go too fast for me. I want to hear every word and hold onto every smell and enjoy every glimpse of something new, but then more things come, and ... well, if I let it, I get overwhelmed by it. But I am learning and getting better at keeping up with it. You were very new and so I needed to pause and remember who I am and what I am learning. I am sorry if I caused you to worry."

She paused as though she were mentally searching for a way to express her thoughts better.

"Let me explain differently. Life in my home was quiet and slower. It was all I ever knew. No one new ever comes to my home either. We lived far from any paths or roads so I always figured no one could find us. It seems like that has always been the way of things though. I had never been away from my home either... ever... until now."

She seemed satisfied with that approach. And then she focused more on Keiko.

"I understand compromise," she replied softly as Keiko was very near to her. "...although I have seen precious little of it in my life. It would be refreshing to see what that is like for a change. But again I must say that I don't want you to change. I want to experience who you are, just the way you are. All of you. Each of you. That is part of my Journey, part of why I am on a Journey. I want to meet people, listen to them, hear their stories and songs, and learn from them. But I don't want you or anyone to change 'because' I might struggle... be patient, yes, but not change."