It was the fourth day of her silent treatment, and Ai was fed up of it. Screw waiting around for the problem to resolve itself. They had lived together for practically the whole month and now Tal was going to screw it up? Screw her.

"You have a problem with me?" Ai finally confronted Tal in their room.

Tal looked Ai up and down then sneered. "What if I do?"

"Say to my face. Not my back." Anger burned like a hot coal in Ais gut.

Tal opened her mouth, but thinking better of it she looked down her nose at Ai instead.

"What problem?" Ai pressed.

"You...you come here like..." Tals mouth worked silently. "We good, now you come and Ermine...he was getting better. And you have no idea what you even doing! Did you even think to ask where he got those stones from? Or why he got this stupid idea in his head to keep the baby rats?"

How did she even know about the stones? Ai gritted her teeth. "No! I know nothing! I don't know what the stones do, I don't know what is wrong with Ermine and I don't know why you no like me! I thought we friends, then you invite me to see rats and no like me!"

"Then let me ou'nraqrhou'n you. He stole the stones from the Village Elder. My Grandmother. Do you know what she can do? What the punishment for stealing is? Of course not, you're just an aq'naro'n outsider. To steal from our people is to violate our safe place, and so you are violated as punishment. The Village Elder uses her magic to go inside the mind, and take a memory." Ai went a shade paler, she had no idea, but how was she suppose to know if nobody would tell her? This was not her fault. And Ai couldn't make it.

"NOT my doing. I don't know all this. You could have told me, but no. Too busy hunting, sleeping and ignoring." Ai countered.

"This is the problem. You don't know anything! And Ermine think, 'ooooh beautiful girl, let me make her like me like my mother never will'. And he do stupid things and you say 'beautiful'!"

Ai cocked her head, daring Tal to continue.

"He will get himself killed. To tame an animal...it is to enslave it's spirit to your desires. To take it's wildness and replace with orders. It is to take freedom. It is almost the worst sin you can do. Better to kill and release to spirit world to be born again than to make a slave." Tals eyelids fluttered, her eyes looking distinctly wet. "If village people find out...punishment worse than stealing. Take more. No person left, just shell that does what told."

Tal slowed down, working her fists as she tried to keep talking. "He my friend. My friend before you, and after you gone. You outsider. Gone soon. He...he the only person to believe in me. To help me when nobody else would. You can't understand...if I lost him...for a stupid thing like this..."

Tal broke down. She sat down heavily on her furs, gasping and hiding her eyes behind balled fists. Ai stood unsure what to do, all her previous anger just...wiped away.

She had no idea their culture was so harsh. And to take away somebodies free will for having a pet? The concept was mindboggling. Why the hell hadn't Tal just told her? She had just sat on the problem and made it worse instead.

Hovering a few moments more, Ai finally sat by Tals side. Slowly, she began to rub her back in circles, careful not to catch her with her claws.

"I...I can't lose..." Tal broke off on a sob.

"It is ok. We will fix it, yes?" Ai comforted her.

"How?! It is already screwed up!" Tal exploded.

"You save me. Let me stay in you home, eat you food, wear you clothes. Trust me, I will fix it." Ai wasn't so sure she wanted to, but she found herself unable to say no to a crying girl. Even a stupid crying girl. If this problem went away, then she could stay drama free. So she was going to make the problem go away.

Tal finally looked at her, red puffy eyes and all. Ai tried to convey what she felt with her eyes, and whatever Tal saw must have convinced her because she nodded.

What's this? You've started your first quest!

Quest: Fix the problems! Replace the stolen warning stones without anybody finding out they were stolen by Ermine. Take care of the rats without the villagers finding out.

Time limit : undetermined.

Reward : undetermined.

Conditions of failure: anybody other than Tal or Ermine finds out about the stolen stones or pet rats.

As always with the bloody inappropriate times for the messages. There had to be some way to turn them off. She doubted that anybody in the village would know though; they seemed to be all for worshipping (or fearing) the spirits wherever they found them.

Ai was curious about the 'warning stones' but she wasn't insensitive enough to ask Tal, who was still sniffing. And she hadn't seen Ermine in days. The guy was like a ghost. Appearing only when he wanted to be seen.

"Tal...what you mean when you say I will be gone soon?" Ai queried.

"You...you don't know?" Tal seemed shocked before she continued. "You are outsider. Not one of the people, my father save you life, so is responsible for it for a season and a day. Then you leave, find you own people."

Ais tail drooped, but she guessed she knew she was going to have to leave at some point. She never realised the gap between the spirit people and others was so big though. She had never really asked any questions about it, once she knew her own race was unfamiliar to them. And now she had a time limit.

"How long?"

"Leave day after first rains come. Dangerous so we teach you how to kill with respect. Mother teach you how to cook and make clothes. Then Kele will teach you how to make shelter and fire."

Tal watched as something went dark behind Ais eyes. For a moment, she felt guilty.

--

Ai wanted to put the stones back as quickly as possible. The rats could wait. She wasn't particularly sure what she was going to do about them anyway. The stones, though, would be noticed. She didn't know when, considering she still didn't know what they were used for, but she wasn't going to take the chance and wait.

She had already had them for days on end. She didn't know where they went either. Her plan was just to place them between some shelves or behind a table so the Village elder would just think she had misplaced them or they had fallen off somewhere.

All of which she would do without touching anything in the room. She still felt a little raw from the time glass with the fairy and mermaid. How was it ok for them to be put in that contraption yet not to have a pet anyway? Did the Village Elder get special privileges because of her standing in the village?

Not that it mattered that much. All those questions could wait.

Ai walked confidently all the way to the Village Elders hut. Project calm, and nobody would notice she was out of place. Except for the extra bits of anatomy of course, but she was hoping they were use to it by now.

She felt much more aware of the villagers now she was on her own. Usually Tal was with her, or she was already where she wanted to go. Now people didn't attempt to hide that they stopped and stared when she passed by. She never felt more like an outsider.

One scrawny old man she passed spat in her path and muttered something foul about fornicating with animals.

She waited until she was around a corner to run one hand self consciously over her pointed, furred ear. That wasn't a thing right? No. It couldn't be. Her status screen had said that she was Beast-Bred though. Surely that wasn't...literal.

She had one too many revelations recently, and shoved this latest in the back of her mind where her darker shadows hid. To be dealt with 'later'.

Soon after Ai arrived. She could smell the incense in the air, but couldn't hear anybody muttering or swearing, which was a good sign so far.

She pushed aside the curtain and stepped inside. It was just as magical as the last time, even if she was expecting it. The candle light, the colours. It was like she had stepped into a different world.

Quickly she looked for somewhere to dump the stones.

Heart pounding in her ears, she prayed to nobody in particular that the Village Elder didn't have any magical traps or the likes in the room. One step-nothing, two step threefourfivesix - she shoved the stones under some shelves, pivoting on her heel and rushing towards the exit.

She glanced back just before she left - and stopped. Shit.

Right through the middle of the room were some dusty footprints that looked suspiciously like they came from the bottom of her shoes.

Cursing silently she balanced herself on her knees as she crawled across the carpet, then backed away brushing away the footprints as best she could in the process.

Once again, she found herself by the exit. This time, she couldn't see the tracks. Not really. Nobody else would see the slight dust trail unless they were looking for it. If all went well, nobody would even know that she was there.

She stepped back into the real world. No torches. No pitch forks. No angry villagers.

Letting out a slow breath, she felt herself relax as she walked away from the hut, and wondered once again why she was doing this. Then she thought about Tal crying and the repurcussions Ermine would face.

One down, one to go.