The oldest woman Tuya ever saw emerged through a thick patch of the feather-leaf not-bushes. This talking woman—red-skinned with way more wrinkles than Yaha, naked with breasts that sagged like fruit that had overgrown the branch, her belly skin loose as if there was too much of it for her body, with arms and legs covered in scars, as if she'd been beaten by many thorny branches— was certainly Atmana. Not a tamer. Nor did a tamer consciousness flow from her.

Tuya still held empagong stance, her silver eyes on the woman's bent stick and vine that held an arrow. She wasn't pointing it at Tuya, Batu, or the other Atmana, but that didn't mean one should lower their guard.

Neither Wolf nor his sister reacted with alarm. While the older woman pulsed with anxiety, the two younger Atmana minds gave away no fear.

Wolf's sister leapt toward the new arrival, making one of her animal noises, then several gestures, pulsing with her usual excitement. The older woman gestured back, no more words issuing from her. Wolf looked from his sister and the older woman to Tuya and back, his tongue lolling as he reclined against a multicolored tree covered in moss.

This must be their mother, Batu projected, guessing the same as Tuya.

I can see the resemblance, Tuya returned, studying the mother-daughter duo.

All two-legs look the same except for different colors, shapes, and sizes.

Just besides everything that makes us look different? Tuya thought back, her amusement battling with her anxiety. Still, she held empagong and her hands didn't shake.

You don't look nearly so different as my kind, Tuya.

Tuya couldn't speak, or rather think, to that. Batu was the only great eagle she had ever seen except in his memories which were prone to distortion as all memories were. Yet, even in those memories she could only tell the difference between Batu and his young or mate by their shapes and sizes whereas she could identify a person by myriad other ways. The more you knew about something, the easier it was to identify the small details that made the thing unique.

Will you talk to her? Batu asked.

Tuya mourned her hopes to fly away, knowing that this wasn't an opportunity she could justify fleeing.

"You speak Celegan?" Tuya asked.

The older woman stilled her hands and sighed. "I speak Gidiite. And my children seem to think this makes us family to you."

Tuya didn't need to have godly empathic powers to receive the hint that the old woman disagreed. But sensing that she felt as much warmth toward Tuya as a tamer toward a khorota made the blow sting worse.

Is she wrong though? Batu thought. You are not her family.

Not wrong, Tuya projected, but I'd rather be wrong and kind than right and harsh toward someone who has done me no harm.

Tuya held to her spear, backstepping toward the river while the Atmana mother argued with her children. While Tuya didn't know what they said, it was clear by how much they pointed at her and how their gestures became more agitated, their minds more frustrated, that a true argument this was, and she was the heart of it. Sensing the daughter's rebellious tenacity and Wolf's dour sadness reminded Tuya of her bigger arguments with Yaha. Yet, this woman would never be her mother, even if she was giving off the same degree of stubborn rigidity.

When the daughter transformed back into an orange strong-tail, the mother expanded, becoming a massive black bear with deadly fang and claw. The daughter's bestial shrieks subsided, and she shifted back to her human form as the mother bear gestured toward the river, roaring like she was about to fight. Wolf barked at them, staying in his human shape. He emanated such sorrow that Tuya wanted to go to him and tell him it would be okay.

But the wiser part of her knew that was at best foolish and at worst a lie. She held her ground on the good water's edge, eager to be away after she told this Atmana bear woman what was coming.

Sensing that the mother and daughter were only getting angrier and Wolf sadder, Tuya interrupted. "I bring warning of danger."

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In one step, the old woman was back, the behemoth bear hidden. "You have brought it yourself, Celegan. Now we have to say goodbye to the best home we've had in seasons and keep running." She growled, her voice that of a bear rather than a woman.

The words stung again, Tuya feeling like a little khorota being howled at for not getting enough berries. "I'm sorry," Tuya said, barely more than a whisper. She let out a cry. She ruined things. That was who she was. Batu tried to mute her pain, to make it small, but Tuya wished for oblivion. She craved the numbroot root and a brief respite from this self-hating misery.

"Your empty apologies won't do anything for my clan when those across the river retaliate for what you've done."

Wolf barked, frantically gesturing toward Tuya, tears falling from his eyes. The younger Atmana woman stood between Tuya and the mother, making wild movements with her hands that meant everything and nothing to Tuya. She didn't deserve their support. She'd gotten Wolf arrowed, their whole family in danger, and she hadn't done anything to stop Gurg. She was a mistake.

You're not a mistake, sister. Don't listen to this stupid two-leg.

Batu might as well have been back in Mirrevar across the sea soaring around his flower tree where he'd be safe from the danger she'd take him to. She couldn't agree with him.

Then you think I'm stupid?

Tuya couldn't answer that. Batu wasn't stupid but that didn't mean he couldn't be wrong sometimes. Nothing was perfect but at least most things, Batu included, didn't destroy everything they touched.

Just tell her about the danger. Then we can go before I peck her eyes out.

Tuya shook her head. She couldn't fly away now. Not if she'd ruined their lives. If there was anything she could do to make their pain smaller, she must.

"What would it take for you to keep your home?"

The mother scowled at her. "Our only option is to run."

"What do you run from?"

"Smiling Moasi's clan," the woman snapped, human teeth turning into bear fangs without the rest of her changing.

Tuya trembled now.

We should go, Batu said. She doesn't want your help.

Wolf cried, wolfish whines escaping him. Wolf's sister continued to radiate fury, a temper so profound from one who seemed to be so capable of feeling joy that Tuya couldn't even imagine holding within herself. Their conversation continued, though Tuya couldn't comprehend. She felt stupid. She was stupid. Even Batu was growing irritated with her.

Not with you, sister, but with what you think about yourself.

This is who I am, Batu. You could fly away and leave me here.

The bird smacked his wings against the river, distracting the three Atmana for a moment. I am not leaving you.

It will be the death of you.

I tire of this same stupid idea you keep having—

Then leave.

—It is just like you think about that red girl going to the hole trees. I'd rather die free, doing what my spirit wills, than live an empty life. Besides, I'm the strongest of my kind. The evil men will always come back for me. I need you, Tuya. Our lives are linked together until the one who sits atop the stone and tree is gone. Stop telling me I can leave. I can't. I won't.

Tuya sobbed. He was right. Now if only she could stop making his pain larger by trying to push him away.

"Celegan?"

Tuya lifted her eyes, sensing now that at some point in her battle with herself, she'd missed the waning of the mother bear's anger. Even her children emitted that weird compound of peace and agitation typical of heated resolutions.

She wiped the tears from her eyes. "Yes?"

"Brave Wolf says that you killed three moasi with your spear and the power of Celegana's spirit, tended their wound, and carried them with incredible strength and endurance. Dancing Tsonggo says that you saw them from across the river while they hid in the trees. Is this true?"

Tuya nodded. The truth was she could handle far more than three purple-furs and see much harder things from much further. As far as failures went, she was very talented. This she knew but that only made failing more painful knowing that you could do better than almost everyone else.

The bear woman smiled, giving off excitement like Yaha the day she met Tuya. Tuya remembered well those first feelings, the sense that she could be used for something. It didn't endear her to the bear woman, but perhaps, like Yaha did, this woman would soon see her as more than a powerful thing that could be used. Besides, she'd done wrong, even if she hadn't known it. The woman earned those feelings.

"I will do whatever it takes to protect your clan from Smiling Moasi," Tuya said, placing the spear back in its vine loop. She took a step toward the bear woman. "How can I help?"

Grinning, the bear woman picked up the bent wood with the vine, the arrow thrower. She removed the arrow, then handed the thrower to Tuya. "You will learn the ways of the Atmana. How to communicate without sound. How to attack from far. The very nature of the Great Forest. Then you will be ready for Smiling Moasi's clan."

Tuya didn't need to contemplate this. She took the weapon from the bear mother, accepting these terms.

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