Faye bit on her bottom lip with embarrassment. Kian had suffered, and Faye hadn't even suspected it. Now it explained his personality and attitude towards the world, but to imagine something so sad happening to such a confident and energetic person didn't make sense to her. He was a glowing human being, with wonderful and honest eyes...

"I..." Faye paused, clearing her throat, "I'm sorry. I didn't realise"-

"No," Kian half-laughed and dismissed her with a fling of his arm, "don't give me your sympathy. I don't need it. I haven't told people that part of my story, purely because all they do is look at you like you're some poor, abused animal that's expected to roll over and die."

Faye withdrew into a guilty and embarrassed silence as she watched him casually walk around the grassy clearing, kicking the earth and rubbing his neck. He was obviously distressed by the memories flooding back to him.

"Don't pretend like you haven't seen it, red," He sighed, looking at her, "people aren't good. It's that simple."

Faye's eyes glistening philosophically, "Why did they kill them?"

"Because we were robbed and couldn't pay our taxes," Kian snickered bitterly at his feet, "it was for money."

He went silent again while struggling to subdue his emotions from Faye by kicking the grass some more and pretending to show grand interest in the trees. Faye could see that he was upset.

"That's when I told myself, no matter what it took, I would always have enough money. I hate it, but it's what kills people if they don't have it. I learnt that the hard way when they were shot, dead, to the ground." Kian sighed in a moment of thoughtfulness and respect to his deceased family.

His outlook on life all made perfectly logical now that Faye had heard his story. No wonder he was so money-driven, demoralized and willing to commit crimes to earn himself a 'crust'. Maybe the world really was a cruel place, a place that Faye had dreamt of exploring for so long that she was ignorantly ignoring the obvious. Faye had wanted it to be so perfect... Eventually, Faye spoke again and walked towards Kian, "I will give you what I promised. You will be rich, Kian, and you'll never again have to worry about your fears of a poor

life."

Kian pulled his head up to meet his eyes with hers; the honesty radiating from her green eyes were like a pair of Angel wings floating towards him.

"I know it sounds strange, but the Priestess and I were... unusually close... Her father, the King, was like a father to me and when he died, it crushed my heart just as much as it did the Priestess herself..." Faye's eyes fell to the floor sorrowfully as she thought about her dad, "I cannot try to understand the pains of losing both parents, but one

is enough to have an idea. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that alone."

When Faye looked back to Kian she expected him to castigate her with his eyes again and accuse her of sending him unwelcome pity, but instead he was just staring at her in a warm, gentle phase of apprecition. He looked far from angry and deep in a moment of consideration. That strange, fuzzy feeling returned to Faye's stomach again and she feared for a blush growing on her cheeks. Kian, also, recognised the invisible electricity congregating between them but continued to watch Faye wistfully and wait for her next move.

CRACK

The snapping of a nearby branch caused Kian to immediately spin around, fists up, and Faye to stumbled back against the tree trunk behind her where she leant against it worriedly. They both waited, quite, to uphold their concealment from whoever or whatever was approaching them; the bushes ruffled and another few twigs snapped as the individual drew closer and Faye held her breath apprehensively in the intensity of the moment. She felt like her eyes would pop out of her head at any moment as she prayed for the 'thing' to be civil and friendly and-

A harmless deer broke out into the clearing, its ears flicking happily as it wandered past the horses. Kian's body relaxed and he sighed while rolling his eyes to the sky in relief and slight annoyance; Faye almost giggled. It was just when Kian had turned to face her that he recognised the sudden modification in her expression, for she now looked terrified.

"What?" The dumbfounded Kian asked.

He looked over his shoulder and, out of nowhere, the jagged tip of a spear shot out from the greenery to point directly at his nose. Kian froze with a nervous gulp and

held his hands up in an act of philanthropy and Faye, feeling something sharp prod her shoulder, looked back and gasped at seeing a tanned, half-naked jungle man standing there with a slender sword pointed at her; Faye almost fell over as she rushed out from beside the tree and over to where Kian stood. She grabbed onto his shoulder helplessly, using him as her shield, while allowing her eyes to roam all around them in a panic.

"Kian..." Faye whispered in fret, "who are they?"

"Jungle natives. The Wai-Wai. Thought to be a myth." Kian answered under his breath while staring at them menacingly.

"Huh," Faye sarcastically mimicked an impressed person, "what a nice surprise... Are they going to kill us?"

Kian tilted his head, unsure, "I hope not."

As they discussed their fate, a tall and muscular man stepped out from the trees and strode towards them with his head held high and shoulders pulled back nobly. His dark, platted hair trailed down his back and his dark skin was decorated in silver swirls, stripes and symbols from some sort of paint. He wore a golden arm-bracelet and only a thin piece of material around his hips to cover himself up. His eyes, grey and shocking, landed on Faye at once and he started to examine her like an unsure cat, bobbing his head up and down.

"Uh," Faye chuckled nervously, "what's he doing?"

Kian didn't answer and raised an eyebrow at the odd native as he watched him investigating Faye. He then suddenly pushed Kian aside and grabbed Faye by the wrist so that she cried out and Kian twirled around to attack him - but the natives grabbed him from behind and held him firmly in place. He struggled against them but they were too strong. Faye mightily tugged on the natives' grip as he held her wrist but her efforts were inefficacious against his muscles.

"What do you want?" Faye gasped up at him, leaning forwards as she tugged, "let me go!"

The native then bent forwards, arching his back, and leant down to start sniffing Faye's palm like a curious dog searching for his 'treats' and then delivered several sharp licks as if tasting her salty skin. Faye winced in discomfort and looked away in prayer that he wasn't about to bite off her fingers.

"Hey, stop that!" Kian barked at him, "get your hands off her!"

Faye's face wrinkled in disgust and she groaned to herself while desperately waiting for the man to stop covering her hand in saliva. When he finally did, however, his head cocked up to look at her with his wide and confusedly amazed eyes. Faye peered down at him fearfully. What on earth was wrong with him?

"Cujumba!" He gasped, suddenly dropping to the floor.

He pressed his face onto the dirt with his arms outstretched over his head and the rest of his klan instantaneously followed his lead and equally dropped into their own stance of worship. Kian looked around at them on the floor in wonder and Faye just blinked uncertainly at the reliability of her safety. It was bizarre.

Faye glanced to Kian, "What are they..."

"I think they... I think they're worshipping you." Kian scoffed in surprise.

"Worship?" Faye was stunned, "b-but"-

"Cujumba..." A milky, female voice spoke out.

A slender, tall woman sleeked out from the bushes with a wooden walking stick reaching above her dark, beautiful head, covered in feathered and beads that created music as they knocked together. She came to stand before Faye and blinked her placid but shocking grey eyes at her like a lethargic feline.

"In our tongue, this means 'the spirit'," She informed them in a gracious voice, "you are the spirit."

She inclined her head to Faye and tilted her cane forwards as a gesture of deference. Faye's jaw wagged up and down but she was particularly speechless at that moment.

"We have been waiting for you," The native woman smiled to reveal her pearly white teeth, "it is a joyous day. Come."

With that, the woman turned, flicking her beaded hair over her shoulder, and started walking back into the hot jungle; Faye and Kian looked to each other in an act of debate. Neither of them were entirely sure about the safety of going with her, but the fact that they hadn't killed them already was a promising sign. Faye finally took the responsibility of choosing their fate and, with a nod, stepped over the native man still bowing on the ground before her and followed the woman into the thickness of the forest. Kian hastily rushed off after her. They walked for a while until the female native came to a stop at the broad trunk of a mighty tree taking up a copious amount of space in the forest. It was ancient with strange markings in the bark and thick, entangled roots sweeping up and through the earth and then back down again to create arches and walls. Kian stopped beside Faye and accompanied her in gawking at the impressive yet ambiguous tree; they were equally stunned when they watched the native woman knock the tip of her stick against one of the huge roots, for it to then slither away and down into the earth to reveal an open doorway in the tree itself.

"Did that just happen?" Kian uttered with a pale face.

Faye could only nod, for words were a distant memory to her at that moment. The tree had actually moved, as if alive! The native woman looked back to them with a consolatory smile and a nod before entering the dark opening of the tree and leaving them alone as lost idiots. They were still totally shocked!

Kian glanced sideways at Faye, "Does she want us to..."

Again, Faye just nodded while being occupied on trying to organise her sanity. When Kian took the first step, however, she snapped back into reality and grabbed his arm protectively.

"I'll go first," Faye told him protectively, "they don't seem to like you very much."

As Faye passed him, Kian sent her an offended little wrinkle of his nose as he contemplated on her comment. He glanced behind him to see the rest of the Wai-Wai klan slowly treading through the forest, pushing branches and leaves back to clear their path while avoiding damaging any of the wildlife; Kian decided that, if Faye was right, it was a wise idea to hurry after her again and refrain being left alone with them.

Author's Notes: I want to apologise HUGELY about the mix-up of chapters; I have no idea how this happened but evidently I'm a dummy…

In response to KrazyKae's question about "fair eyes" – I meant what I had written. If you had read the rest of the chapter, you should have realised why Junyas has deceiving eyes… He looks nice, but is he?

And for NotKrazyKae – NO it did not suddenly change. Faye IS the Priestess but Kian doesn't know it. She lied to him, got it? XD