Some days later Roshan was taking a walk with most of Manny's herd. Only Peaches and Louis stayed behind to spend some time alone together. Aponi was nearby collecting edible plants for dinner. Then some women from the tribe showed up.
"Don't get too comfortable being around Roshan Scarface." One woman said. "He's going to end up with one of us some day."
Aponi blushed but recovered before turning around. Truthfully she was starting to fall in love with Roshan, but didn't want to admit it.
"Uh, we're just friends." She shrugged. "There's no reason to feel threatened."
"We're not, there's no way Roshan would ever love an ugly person such as your self." Another woman said.
"In fact, you don't even deserve to wear this!" A third woman snatched Aponi's necklace, which was made out of a rainbow of stones.
"Hey!" Aponi cried. "Give it back!"
No luck, the women played Keep-Away with the necklace. Aponi tried getting it back, but she was outnumbered. She was also very close to crying.
Suddenly, a white trunk snatched the necklace from midair. Aponi and the women turned and saw an angry Louis holding the necklace. Louis gave the necklace back to Aponi as Peaches showed up and also glared at the women.
"Thank you." Aponi said, trying not to cry.
"What is going on here?"
Startled, everyone turned and saw that Roshan was back with the rest of Manny's herd.
"How dare you treat Aponi that way!" Roshan glared. "She is a very good friend of mine! You all should be ashamed of yourselves! I want you to leave her alone from now on got it?"
"But Roshan, come on, she's just a loner freak with an ugly face." The second woman protested.
"She is not!" Roshan snapped. "She is kind and cares about others which makes her more beautiful than the rest of you!"
The women dropped their mouths open, hurt, and with tears in their eyes left.
"Thank you Roshan." Aponi smiled. "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me."
"What are friends for?" Roshan smiled.
Aponi then sighed.
"Contact your tribe, it's time you all know why my face is scarred." She said.
"Good." Roshan left to talk to the tribe.
See Roshan had asked Aponi about her scars but Aponi didn't want to tell the story. Obviously Roshan was still curious.
So the tribe and Aponi gathered around the campfire. Manny's herd stayed behind the tents.
"Back when I was a little girl bandits raided my tribe." Aponi explained. "I was supposed to go with mom into the woods and hide, but I saw my horse Swift Deer being stolen by one of the bandits. Without thinking I ran to try to save Swift Deer, but I tripped and fell face-first into a campfire. Even after I put out the fire I was so badly hurt that I just sat there and cried. Finally I remembered about Swift Deer but it was too late, he was gone and so were the bandits. I then went back to look for my mom...only to find her dead. She had been running after me earlier and was killed by a bandit. I was devastated and the rest of the tribe scolding me for my carelessness didn't help either. I took mom's necklace to remember her by, the necklace you see me wearing now, and went on my own. Since I lost my dad years before I left in hopes of at least getting Swift Deer back. I never found him, nor even found the bandits, so I just lived on my own and have been doing so ever since."
Everyone looked at her sympathetically, and the women who bullied her even felt bad for doing so. They weren't going to admit it though.
"I'm sorry about your parents and horse." Roshan said gently.
"It's okay, I stopped blaming myself a long time ago." Aponi smiled slightly. "I realized that mom ran after me because she loves me and cares about me, which is why I ran to try to save Swift Deer. So, I just took comfort from that fact and moved on with my life. I still care about Swift Deer of course and would love to have him back, but I can wait. I know someday we'll be reunited."
A few weeks passed. Aponi was being treated a lot better in the tribe now, which made life easier for her.
But then misfortune: bandits attacked! The women ran into the forest for protection as the men fought. Most of Manny's herd fought too. Sid and Granny didn't partially because of Sid not being a fighter and partially because he wanted to keep Granny safe. Instead they stuck with the women of the tribe. Crash and Eddie didn't exactly fight, but they didn't run off either. They just hung around the front trees of the part of the forest Sid, Granny, and the women hid in and tossed rocks and nuts and such to keep the bandits at bay. Diego and Shira didn't want to kill anyone, so they only pounced bandits off horses and scratched them to weaken them. Manny, Ellie, Peaches, and Louis batted bandits left and right with their trunks and, along with Diego and Shira, had the most success. Only Roshan fought better thanks to his magic, fortunately by this point he had become very good at it.
Aponi was the only human woman who didn't hide. She did start for the forest, but stopped when she saw a bandit on a horse. The horse was Swift Deer, Aponi recognized him instantly! She then knew that the bandits were the same ones that attacked her old tribe and killed her mother. Not thinking about her own safety, she ran towards her horse. The bandit nearly hit her but she started to sing a song from her old tribe, a song that made Swift Deer back away with shock, causing the bandit to miss. The bandit angrily tried to make Swift Deer move closer to Aponi, but Swift Deer had recognized Aponi through the song and her eyes and fought back, even trying to buck the bandit off.
Roshan then saw Aponi and the bandit, and used a blast of magic to knock the bandit off Swift Deer. Swift Deer went to Aponi and nuzzled her, causing Roshan to realize who he was.
Thanks to Roshan's magic and the mammoths and sabers, Runar's tribe won. The bandits fled and Aponi got Swift Deer back.
"So, you are friends of my mistress?" Swift Deer said to Manny and his herd after things calmed down.
"Yeah, we met Roshan a long time ago when he was a baby." Diego confirmed. "We were reunited with him quite a while back and had been staying with him."
"Aponi then visited the area recently and befriended Roshan." Ellie added.
"I like this Roshan." Swift Deer smiled. "He's a good human. Powerful too, in a good way, and a really strong heart."
He looked over to Roshan and Aponi. Roshan was making sure that Aponi was all right, which she was.
"I think he'll be a good mate for my mistress." He added, seeing something between them. "Thank you for helping me return to Aponi, I've missed her so much. She has grown into a beautiful young woman, just like her mother...I'm only sorry she got hurt that badly."