Arthur was starting to get impatient, but before he could speak Maiara stood up abruptly.

"Today, I want you to listen to me."

"You think I'm an ignorant savage, and you've been so many places, I guess it must be so."

She walked towards him and pulled his rifle off of his back.

"But still, I cannot see, if the savage one is me. How can there be so much that you don't know."

"I hardly think that I don't know," Arthur stuttered, insulted.

Maiara gave him a firm stare, one a mother would give to her lying child.

"You don't know."

She gave him back his rifle and took a long stick, placing it firmly in the ground, mocking a flagpole.

"You think you own whatever land, you land on. The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim."

She picked up the trinkets she had been separating before.

"But, I know every rock and tree and creature, has a life, has a spirit, has a name."

She picked up Alfred and motioned for Arthur to follow her into the forest.

They both stopped as they came across a bear. Alfred jumped from Maiara's arms and ran into the bushes.

Arthur fumbled for his rifle.

Maiara gently lowered it.

"You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you."

She motioned for Arthur to come and see what she had discovered.

Arthur couldn't believe his eyes as he saw the mother bear sitting peacefully nearby, as Alfred wrestled with her two little cubs.

Maiara looked towards Arthur, "but if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew, you never knew.

She picked up Alfred once more and waved goodbye to the bears.

She walked on and stopped in another clearing.

She looked at Arthur and made his head look up.

"Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon, or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned."

They walked on to the edge of a hill.

"Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain, can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"

Arthur looked confused, unsure of what she was saying, but continued following her anyway.

Suddenly, both Maiara and Alfred sprinted off towards a field of flowers and he had no choice but to follow.

Maiara laughed loudly, "come run the hidden pine trails of the forest and taste the sun sweet berries of the Earth."

Maiara pulled on Arthur's arms causing them both to trip and fall onto each other.

"Come roll in all the riches all around you and for once never wonder what they're worth."

Arthur was shocked, he had never thought about it that way but before he could reply he was pulled into a nearby lake by Alfred.

"The rainstorm and the river are my brothers."

They resurfaced and saw little animals along the bank.

"The heron and the otter are my friends."

Maiara pulled Arthur out of the lake water and pulled him into a circular clearing surrounded by the tallest trees that Arthur had ever seen.

Maiara looked at Arthur, "And we are all connected to each other, in a circle, in a hoop that never ends."

She fell on her back and Alfred did too, so Arthur lied down, putting his head next to hers.

"How high does the sycamore grow? If you cut it down, then you'll never know."

She grabbed his hand, and Arthur blushed. With their intertwined hands she pointed to two eagles soaring high above them and landing on one of the trees.

"And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon."

She gestured to their hands, "for whether we are white or copper skinned."

A soft breeze began rolling the trees.

"You need to sing with all the voices of the mountain, you need to paint with all the colors of the wind."

She sat up and faced him cross-legged and he turned and mirrored her actions.

She picked a handful of dirt and he put his hands under hers. She let the rich, dark Earth fall between her fingers onto his. Arthur had never seen dirt so beautiful.

"You can own the Earth and still, all you'll own is Earth until, you can paint with all the colors of the wind."

She looked down and patted the Earth back into the ground.

Arthur stared at her intently. He didn't know if it was the heat, the exhaustion, or because she looked so beautiful under the setting sun.

He lifted her chin with his hand, and placed a chaste kiss on her lips.