The twang of an arrow sounded as Ourupadia fired an arrow at the target. A child Charlie sat under a tree, looking on with amazement as the arrow hit the centre of the target. Noticing the boy smiling, Ourupadia fired another arrow into the target. Like the first it hit the centre of the target. Smiling, Charlie clapped. She wasn’t sure why he did the strange motion, but it seemed to be his way of showing he enjoyed her archery.

She was eight, and she made even some of the older huntresses jealous of her early skill. Wanting to show off to her knew friend further, she ran to his side. Seeing her approach, Charlie quickly grabbed some of the arrows brought to them by the lead Huntress. Putting out his hands, he offered the arrows out to her.

“Do you think they will get along well?” Nolkonoe questioned the lead huntress as they stood under one of the many trees. Smiling, they watched Charlie and Ourupadia from a distance.

“Probably, that outsider is easy to entertain,” Pycleia responded. Nolkonoe slapped her on the arm.

“He has a name,”

“An outsider name that has no meaning behind it,”

“Well, that’s why they have last names,”

“And what does his last name even mean? Black-Quill! What does that mean? Their family has a treasured headdress of black feathers, the feathers being from a slain wild beast. No! it means that they are pirates turned merchants!” Pycleia said, getting her another hit in the arm from Nolkonoe.

“Be nicer to him! the Chiefess says that there is a high chance she may have him marry her daughter!” Nolkonoe said, knowing that higher status was the only way to make her stop her comments.

“Any way, the boy is still a boy. A male outsider who is weak. I love caring for such an adorable little guy such as him, but even you have to admit that it will have little to no use in the future,” Pycleia said, again getting a hard hit into the arm by Nolkonoe.

“He may be useless, but he brings joy to us. I saw the look on your face when he cuddled into your arms,” Nolkonoe said, smirking as she knew that Pycleia also enjoyed caring for the puppy like boy.

“Our children grow up so fast, I have to admit it is nice having some one who relies on us so much,” Pycleia said, smiling as she stared at the young boy.

Very few women gave birth to Children, thus there weren’t many men in the tribe, let alone male children. This environment had led many to wonder what it was like to have such a rare specimen. With this knowledge in mind, it was easy to explain why several large groups of the native women sat at distance, staring at the boy as he enthusiastically watched Ourupadia firing arrows at the target.

“Amazing,” Charlie muttered with a smile as Ourupadia walked back towards him.

Grabbing the remaining arrows, he offered them out to her. Even though she had been firing arrows for two hours now with Charlie sitting patiently the entire time in the scorching sun, she still wanted to show off to him further as she saw how excited it made him. Taking the arrows, she stopped as she noticed how red his face was. Her eyes darted around until they landed on Nolkonoe.

Waving to her, she quickly caught of Nolkonoe. Noticing the look of concern on her face, Nolkonoe walked swiftly to her side.

“Is he meant to do that?” Ourupadia questioned as she pointed to the sun burnt Charlie. Gasping, Nolkonoe swopped him into her arms.

“OH Goddess, how could I be so negligent!” she said as she quickly hurried Charlie off to the shade of the tropical tree line.

“What’s happening?” Ourupadia said, gripping her bow tightly as she ran after her.

A frown started to form over the girl’s face as she saw Nolkonoe sit the boy in the shade of the tree. Under the tree, it seemed as if all his sun burns were now highlighted on his pale skin. Ourupadia’s eyes widened as she saw this. Sprinting over to Charlie, she dove to his side.

“Nolkonoe! What’s happened to him? why has he gone that colour?” Ourupadia pleaded to Nolkonoe.

“Don’t worry about it, this kind of things happens to the outsiders a fair bit. Since there are from the west and north, their skin is far paler and not designed to stay in the Desert sun like this,” Nolkonoe explained as she lifted Charlie into the air before sitting down and placing him onto her lap. Ourupadia threw herself onto the legs of Charlie, doing her best to prevent the sun from touching him.

“I’ll help keep him safe!” Ourupadia said, using her body to hide him from the few rays of sunlight that managed to penetrate the treetops. Laughing, Nolkonoe tried to convince her that it wasn’t necessary to be so protective, but Ourupadia was having none of it as she refused to relinquish her grip of her new friend.

By the entrance that separated the training grounds from the rest of the village, Etasose crouched on all fours. She had slipped away from her guards and now sniffed the air furiously. His scent was strong, the scent of her friend, Charlie. Smiling, she smelt his lingering scent in the air. Mindlessly, she sprinted after the smell.

Stopping in her tacks, she stared on at Charlie under a tree. Ourupadia and Nolkonoe were wrapped around him, both using wet cloths to tend to his burns. Why was he smiling? That was all Etasose could think as she stared at his grinning face. Why was he enjoying himself with someone that wasn’t her? Again, Etasose felt rage flow through her as she saw Nolkonoe smiling.

Was this a trick? She hadn’t wanted them to go out to see the nest because she had wanted Charlie for herself. Etasose stared blankly at Nolkonoe. She had betrayed her… Storming over to them, Etasose locked eyes with Nolkonoe.

“Mine,” she said, leaping past Ourupadia and grabbing the arm of Charlie.

“Etasose!” Nolkonoe shouted as she pulled Charlie away from her. She could see the look of anger spreading across the girl’s face.

“How dare you play with him! he is my friend!” Etasose shouted back, maybe even a little louder than Nolkonoe.

“Oh, I see,” Nolkonoe said, smiling sympathetically to Etasose.

“Don’t worry, it’s getting dark, and I’ll take him to bed soon. Now aren’t you meant to be with your mother?” Nolkonoe said, moving to calm the situation and swoop Charlie into her arms. Snarling and locking eyes with Ourupadia, Etasose nodded to Nolkonoe.

“Take him back to my house, I want to spend time with him,” Etasose said as she broke eye contact with Ourupadia.

“Of course, but don’t think you are out of trouble, you’ll still have to talk to your mother,” Nolkonoe explained as she began to walk off with Charlie cradled in her arms and Etasose by her side.

“What were you thinking!” the Chiefess yelled down at Etasose. Snarling, she turned her face from her mother.

Nolkonoe and the Chiefess scolded Etasose loudly, but Charlie sat distracted in the corner as two of the Vulture women played games with small wooden crafted toys.

“I’m sorry…” Etasose responded quietly as she kept her eyes fixed onto the ground.

“AH! Go to your room, Charlie will be staying in the guest room tonight!” the Chiefess yelled at her daughter.

“Sorry…” Etasose said, keeping her face turned down to hide her growing anger. Sighing, her mother rubbed her forehead.

“Go to your room, I want to examine the boy and make sure he isn’t hurt!” her mother yelled one final time before Nolkonoe ushered her off into the house and to her room.

Turning from watching her daughter leave, the Chiefess hurried over to Charlie. Dropping down to his side she ran her fingers through his hair, getting his attention. Flickering for a moment his large emerald eyes, this smile quickly spread over his face as he saw the woman who he had known for such a small amount of time yeah did far motherly to him than his own mother.

“Hello!” he said, before turning and allowing her to wrap her arms around him.

“I’m so, so, so sorry that Etasose almost dragged you into a mess today,” she whispered to him as she held him tightly. Still not understanding was so dangerous about him going off to play with his close friend, he only pulled back slightly from her and smiled.

“Don’t apologise, it was fun! I like playing games with Etasose,” he said ignorant too his almost near-death experience. Seeing this ignorance, the Chiefess decided it was best to just allow him to live in his innocent world.

“I know, but don’t always follow her. She maybe loving and kind, and fun to be around, but she has no sense of how fragile you are,” the Chiefess said, using her hands to cup either side of his face and make him look at her.

“Okay…” he said, his young mind not taking into account what she was saying.

“You’re a good boy, be careful, and stay out of the sun!” the Chiefess said, swooping him into her arms.

“Lets get you a cold bath and cool that scorching skin of ours, huh?” she said, smiling as she began to walk off with him.

Two hours later, and it was dark. Their bath hadn’t lasted long, and the Chiefess quickly tucked him into the fur of their guest bed. Standing over him, the Chiefess looked down lovingly onto Charlie. A warm and gentle smile spread the sub-consciously crossed lips. Entering the room, Nolkonoe went to speak, but stopped as she saw the Chiefess look down on Charlie. After a little while longer, the leader Forger, Ases entered and began to watch in silence.

“You want to say anything?” Ases said, finally breaking the silence.

“He is adorable, isn’t he?” Nolkonoe said from the doorway. Turning, the Chiefess beamed a smile at her friends. Getting up from Charlie’s side, she gave him once last wave. His eyes lids felt heavy as he struggled to keep them open, but still he gave a little wave back to her.

As soon as the Chiefess stepped out of the room, Ases threw her arms around her.

“Let’s go to bed, I have a little surprise for you,” Ases said with a smirk as she placed a kiss onto her cheek. Giggling, she grabbed Ases’s ass before walking with her two partners towards their bedroom.

Around a corner of a room in the hut, Etasose poked out her head. For a while she waited until she heard her mother beginning to do their weird dance, she did with auntie Nolkonoe and Ases. Once she heard them, she snuck into the main room, then around the corner and into Charlie’s room. Leaping to his side, she placed a hand over his mouth as she shook him awake.

“What?” a tiered Charlie groaned, but before he could resist, Etasose already had him dragged from the bed and dressed into a pair of shirt and trousers.

“Where are we going?” he asked sleepily as she dragged him out the room. Without a word, she dragged him down the stairs and out of the hut. Once out of the hut, she dragged him down the steps of their home.

The guards slept at the bottom of the steps, each of them having been drugged by Etasose. She may have been young, but she was smart and knew very well where her mother kept drugs for rituals. After slipping easily past the guards, they manoeuvred through the village. Every now and then they slipped into some shadows to hide from roaming natives, before Etasose slipped out and dragged Charlie towards the edge of the village.

Charlie’s legs stiffed as he saw the tall wooden pike that made a fence around the tribe. Quickly he noticed where they were. It was the same place they had tried to leave through before but for reasons unknown to him, she had stopped them. Noticing he had stopped, Etasose turned to look at Charlie.

“Come on!” she yelled, but she quickly realised that he couldn’t understand. Sighing, she got annoyed at her own forgetfulness that he couldn’t understand.

“Nolkonoe was just overreacting, you are safe!” she said, knowing he didn’t understand but she hoped that her soft tone could reassure him. Her plan worked as he calmed and began to follow her through the small break in the wooden wall.

Moonlight highlighted them against the shadows as they slipped out of the village and into the open desert plain. Giggling excitedly, Etasose gripped his arm tightly as she began to sprint through the desert.