With every movement and word, every sound that dripped from his tongue, every muscle that slid plainly beneath the skin, Levani watched with utmost curiosity, golden eyes ablaze with inquisition. Even as he had pulled the string from his flesh, where the skin had lost its red tinge and would undoubtedly bind completely together once time had had its way with it. As the sore spot in his life had been brought to the surface, revealing the foundations of a wall. A wall that she did not know how high it rose, gilded with wariness, built by pain. There were shadows that shifted in his life as well, though it appeared as though they still loomed over him, still flanked his steps with every whisper. Intriguing as a story to uncover, to read with patience through every page, along every word, until she reached the end. A mystery to unravel, as it were. And if Levani was anything, she was patient, so she did not pry, did not push. She allowed a thin veil of trust to implant itself between them, hewn perhaps only of vague similarity, of a single commonality.<br/><br/>They were both Chosen, with or against their wills.<br/><br/>After Levani watched the man scarf his food down in moments, she snorted softly at his question of a payment. It did not seem so obtuse, as even the merchants asked her price when she offered them something rare. The tribespeople sought to give her things when she found them resources or fended off the black. It was an odd thing - a human thing, but she had come to accept it. She had to, if she wanted the creature comforts of books and chairs and a bed filled with plush furs of creatures she had never known. Softer than anything she had found in Asdenni.<br/><br/>She did not answer as she pondered this trade, to what was proper payment. Levani couldn’t really consider it a life debt, as the man would not have died without her aid, simply would have remained bleeding beneath the stars and woke little more than hungry in the morning. There were the predators to consider, who would have accepted moving within the outskirts of the kamuna for a chance to tear open into vulnerable prey, but one could not be certain of that. So what did he owe her for then? Shelter and food? That was simple enough.<br/><br/>A name brought her from her thoughts and Levani repeated it softly beneath her breath. “Kallo…” she said quietly, the ‘l’s rolling pleasantly off of her tongue. “<i>Sul’ima</i>?” She said, regarding his question of her, watching him stretch his body and thereby reveal more of his odd markings. Very unlike her own. They boasted of ownership or dedication.<br/><br/>“It means…” She paused, drawing her brows together, too familiar with the word. She rose as well, this time turning to grab his bear cloak and tossing it over her shoulder, then burdening her hands with the two buckets. One sloshing with scarlet water, the other clear as day. “It means stranger, I suppose. But not… Nicer than that,” she pondered, thinking aloud. As she moved towards the spiderweb of roots that guarded the entrance, they parted, opening up like the tongues of a lily to the sun. Beyond, the sky could be seen, the dawn threading orange with gold. Levani motioned back at Kallo with a nudge of her head, encouraging him to ascend with her.<br/><br/>Along a supporting snake of root that extended out to the forest, thicker than Levani was tall, sat her clay fireplace and a small wooden chest at its side. The guardian awaited just a little beyond that, the gutted and skinned body of a hare dangling from a shoulder of rock. She moved out to these things and placed the cloak next to the chest.<br/><br/>“It means ‘a stranger to Asdenni that is not my enemy’,” she finally determined, raising her voice if Kallo had not chosen to follow her. There was a sense of satisfaction that brought together her features, by the way her brow rose and a hint of a smile defined her lips. It was a word that she had learned from many of the tribes of Asdenni. Though they were numerous, their language often drew them together, and they had<i>many</i>words for different types of people. This one was not a word that she was privileged to use often, as it was rare to come across one deserving of it. “At least, I do not think you are my enemy, seeing as you slay them,” she determined.<br/><br/>Retrieving the rabbit from her stalwart guardian, she freed her dagger from her thigh and sliced it into the thick fillets and its meaty back legs, with all the precision of someone who’d been doing it too long. It wasn’t much for two, but it would be something for the morning. “My turn,” she deduced, putting the meat down on the chest and moving back towards her burrow. “You keep calling me a word…” She paused, slipping inside to retrieve her staff and a jar of sprouts with oddly colored flowers. “Lass…?” She said, feeling the way that it rolled from her mouth, the sound as though that of a snake. A hiss. Was it derogatory, then? “What does that mean?”<br/><br/>From the outside chest, she retrieved another jar with a thick, white substance within. She scooped some out with a wooden spoon into a pan already on her fireplace, then closed it back up and slipped it away. Then a small box of tinder emerged next, added to a stack of slightly burnt wood. She placed her hand there and felt a burst of energy, frantic and ravenous, burst from her fingertips, catching the dried fuel aflame. The rabbit meat was then added, along with the sprouts.<br/><br/>Levani seated herself on the ground with the cloak in her lap, dipping one hand into the clear water and using it to gently clean the congealed blood from the fur, tender as to not ruin it. “You can help me fight the black,” she offered, coming to a conclusion as the means to his payment. “Help me protect Asdenni for a time, if you wish.” She paused, brow drawn together. “You will have to tell me what happened with the black that you fought. Show me where they lie dead.”