"Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed."

― Kahlil G.

River can't help but feel paranoid. The tribe she has seen loitering around the streets were elders wearing capes with silver wolf insignias over their leather tunics. And they were all looking wary at her.

Terror gripped her hard at their guarded looks, wishing she hadn't seen one too many thriller movies. A strange foreigner walking among their tribe, what could go wrong?

She suppressed a shudder, remembering that no one actually wanted to see her dead. Far from it, actually. They wanted a gift. But if she made one wrong step, one misstep that indicated that she might not be what they thought she would be, then would they call her a witch and punish her for fraud?

U'tu led her down the avenue and upon reaching the end of the block, it opened up to a clearing paved with wide open space and pale-brown rocks were tiled together on the floor in a manner that resembled a giant sun. It was close to looking like a central square park where few tribe elders were out in the sun doing lectures to enraptured students. Without missing a beat, the boy strutted down the pavement with the unmatched moxie of a king. No worries pulling him down or even fear holding him back. For a kid, he radiated confidence.

She had always wondered what it was like to live without fear. Therapy, independence, and a stable job didn't do it for her. Each day would bring new worry, new questions — did I do enough for the day? What do I have to worry about tomorrow? Is there something I need to remember?

Her smartphone is blown up with reminders, due dates, and organized lists that lived rent-free in her mind everyday, its shadows never brooking vacations. There was always something to be worrying about.

Even now, new worrying questions were forming in her head. Am I really what they think I am —a behagthi?

U'tu made a beeline towards the entrance of the grandest tent in the entire village. It was seated at the heart of the whole tribe and its sheer size was colossal enough as if it might pierce the heavens itself. Circling around the massive main tent were tons of smaller tents adjoining it. The architectural style reminded her of a milky way in space where a singular giant center has hundreds of smaller planets circling around it like a full-blown galaxy.

Then, the cocky kid greeted an obnoxiously tall guy standing guard at its entrance "Early morning to you, warrior. Have you done something new with your hair?"

"Who are you here for, U'tu?" the guard asked.

He shrugged, "It's my business to know."

He sighed, opening the flaps with a sweep of his arm, "Put her hood up, I can smell her from a mile away."

"I'm called River." she said point-blank to him, entering through the door.

His jaw was set, determined to look in the distance like he hadn't heard her.

"Good seeing you, warrior." U'tu called out from afar then gestured for River to follow.

"Unbelievable." she muttered as she raised her hood "The guy talked about me as if I wasn't right in front of him. Whose duty is it to teach about manners around here, anyway? They aren't doing a very good job."

The boy's steps didn't falter as he kept on walking forward, leading her to a long winding hallway with a series of open-arched doorways, "It is not for us to be speaking to anyone outside the tribe. Keep your hood down, teh?"

She saw and heard elders keen on hashing out lectures from every doorway they passed, voices of kids murmuring questions and strangely the noise didn't echo like an overlapping crow of a racket.

She licked her lips, tension thrumming on the back of her neck. It was strange how their voices aren't echoing in the empty spaces like it would in a normal building. Maybe it's because the walls are made of fabric? Was she in a normal building?

Or worse, this building could be a serious hazard for disaster.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked, her mouth dry and feeling like the building could collapse at any moment.

"I wanted to see the wolf, my sun prince."

"Why?"

"They are taking him away to the Snow tribe later. This might be the only chance I'll be getting to see him."

"Should we be doing this? I mean, won't we get in trouble for this?"

"Do not worry so much about that. The sun tribe is a teaching culture. The worst thing they can do to you is have you write scrolls of texts or listen to an hour long lecture about rules."

"That is a punishment? We used to do that everyday for 18 years called school —by force or else we starve and die on the streets." she said, remembering the lecture she received from her grandpa about taking school seriously.

"I'm so sorry to hear that." he said, "That must have been hard. I can't even imagine having to do it everyday. I'll go mad."

"But, isn't this a school too?" she asked, looking up and up and up. The sight took her breath away. It was like being in a grand cathedral where ceilings stretched upwards in grand heights but instead of stone and marble, the ceiling was an upward dome of a tent made with a thick stretch of beige fabric. And sunlight from outside brightened the wall fabrics of the tent making it glow in golden light.

"Vella Kiniste Mue," he said, "It means "Meeting of the minds" in our first language. No one is here by force."

"Unless they are being punished?"

He laughed, nodding "Yes."

"I imagine you get punished a lot?" She teased.

"I do not mind it so much. I get better every time. It makes me the best."

She rolled her eyes, "The trouble you must find yourself in."

"It is not my fault." he said lightly. "Trouble has a way of finding me."

"Yeah. They all say that."

"Who?"

"Trouble-makers."

"Not a trouble-maker." he said, disappearing into a double door open archway.

Inside it was the center of the domed tent where the top-most point of the tent shot up at a towering height, she had to crane her neck way up to see it and she marveled how the glow of the sun outside had brightened the paintings up on the ceiling.

"A gift from a behagthi." the boy explained as she followed where her gaze went. Then he disappeared as he slipped right in between rows of bookshelves "Come on, they're right over there."