Lucinda had a bit of a struggle on her hands.

A lot of the firewood was old and rotted. It looked like Athena had scavenged the few good pieces that were there for the fire she'd built before. Lucinda was also having a hard time trying to sift through the pieces without getting splinters. She kept stabbing herself until she decided that her gloves, though meant for the snow, could be used here.

Slipping them on, she dug through the large pile some more until a scaly and taloned hand appeared beside her and took the current piece from her lap.

Lucinda turned her head and spotted Chopper examining her piece of wood before setting it aside and cocking his head at her curiously. Luci pointed towards the fire place. "Athena's out getting snow for water, and we'll be heating it up there. We just need to get the fire bigger." She explained.

Behind them, Celtic had heard this information and went out the back door to go help Athena, and maybe even make things right with her.

Chopper pointed at the pile of wood and then pointed to the fire. ". . . .help?" He verbalized. Lucinda blinked at him. "You want to help me?" She asked. Chopper nodded and picked up a chopped log. He held it up to his mouth and spread his mandibles wide, inhaling a deep breath as he did so. Lucinda suddenly stared as the smallest blip of a forked tongue peaked up from the back of his throat and waved in the air in front of the log.

Then Chopper broke the log in half over his knee and showed the insides to Lucinda. It was completely hollowed out by rot and dead maggots.

Lucinda cringed. 'So he's got a tongue like a snake then.' She thought to herself. 'He's got no nose, so a sense of smell has to come from somewhere else.' She concluded, though her knowledge of how a tongue could smell ended there. His tongue didn't reach past his teeth anyhow, and he handed her half of the log. Lucinda wrinkled her nose at the log. "I don't think we want to use that one." She said, tossing the rotted wood into a separate pile.

Chopper picked up her method of organization quickly and helped her separate the good wood from the bad wood.

Lucinda was grateful for the help and the pair of them got it done in record time.

Athena was about to carry the cauldron full of snow inside when a familiar hand reached out and grasped the handle for her.

Her heart stopped as the heavy pot was easily lifted up by a muscular and scaly arm. She did not want to face him right now! Not when her head was in turmoil about whether she wanted to forgive him or not. Not when she was still angry about his ungratefulness for her saving his life!

She reluctantly turned to look at him, heart still pounding.

Yautja had extremely good hearing, and Celtic could easily pick up on her heart beat increasing. For a moment, he thought it was because she was scared of him. He didn't know why that bothered him, though in his defense he'd never been good at expressing his emotions. He'd never felt the need to.

Now he realized he'd have to. At least, for this to work.

He also realized his other problem would be communicating this to her. He was terrible at speaking their language and he had too much to convey for him to try. Then he looked at the helmet in his hands and the same idea Yeyinde had earlier clicked with him. He held it out to her and waited patiently for her to take it.

At first, Athena thought of refusing. She wanted to childishly scorn him and toss off his attempts at reconciling with her. But she remembered Yeyinde's words and reluctantly gave in. He was finally coming to her and she didn't like this burdensome feeling she was carrying around from his actions.

She took the mask and slipped it on. Celtic immediately began to clack at her once she did.

"I'm sorry! . ." Athena blinked at him as the mask translated his clicking and Celtic fervently tried to think of what else to add to make his apology sincere. "I. . .I don't hate you." He thought of the things he had admitted to the Ancient earlier and tried to go for that. "I was just. . .mad. . .because I had to mark you as my equal. . ."

Athena scowled from inside the mask and took it off. She handed it back to him and he tried to push it back towards her. Athena shook her head and pointed at herself then back at him. Celtic realized she was trying to talk to him back and clicked the buttons in his mask to switch translations before slipping it back on.

"Your equal?!" Athena exclaimed as soon as the metal face protector was on him. "Why is me being your equal such a bad thing?!"

Celtic took the mask back off, clicked the buttons again, and handed it back. Athena realized this would have to be their way of communicating for a while as she took it back.

The mask came on and Celtic explained. "Because we. . .don't like humans to be our equals." He clicked. Athena thought that the way the mask said the word 'human' was a little weird, but brushed it off as Celtic continued. "We don't like anyone to be our equals really. . .and I. . .thought I was being a disappointment to my clan because I had to be the one to mark you. . ."

Athena glared at him before handing the mask back. "Scar and Chopper had no problems with marking Lex and Luci." She snapped at him. "They had no problems with admitting that they were 'equal' to them!"

Athena took the mask back when he handed it over.

Celtic was admittedly silenced by her words. He had no ready response for why Chopper and Scar could happily mark their oomans and he couldn't. He couldn't explain why he had so much more pride than them and why he did the things he did. Not just to her, but to others as well.

With drooped mandibles, he gave an answer that pained him to admit out loud.

"Because they're. . .better than me." He looked at the floor in shame and embarrassment. Athena cocked her head at him, a gesture that he recognized, and continued on. "They. . .they're better at. . .being themselves than me. . .I've always felt I had to uphold the clan's honor, but they. . .they never let the possibility of dishonoring the clan bother them. . .where as I always did let it bother me."

Celtic felt beyond uncomfortable admitting all of this. He hoped the translator in the mask was good enough for this, because he already had a hard time finding the right words to convey. It was irritating him that there was a situation that he didn't have a firm idea of how to approach. Give him a fight and he could come up with a basic strategy to follow along the way in battle. Give him an argument and he could easily come up with the harshest things to say that could cut his enemy's moral down.

But give him someone who he had to apologize to and his mind was suddenly useless. Add to the fact that she's a ooman and he certainly didn't know how to fix anything. Especially with their big cultural differences.

Athena was stunned by his confession.

Amazed would fit the description better. She knew he had a pride problem. She knew he was trying to set aside that pride to fix the problem here. She just didn't expect that he would go so far as to admit he was flawed for that pride. She didn't think he expected that either.

It was kind of impressive, she had to admit.

Athena sighed and handed the mask back. Celtic reluctantly took it and waited for her response. He pushed away the hopes that it would be anything good. Athena tapped her foot on the ground and pondered on what she wanted to say.

"I. . .don't know if I can forgive you. . .or trust you. . ." She finally responded.

Her response hurt worse than Celtic cared to admit. He still couldn't fathom why he was feeling put out that a ooman was mad at him, but with her around he just did. Athena took a breath and continued. "What you did hurt. . .not just physically. . .I don't know if I'd ever put myself in your hands again, because now I'm afraid of how you're going to act out. I'm. . .afraid of you taking your anger out on me again because of something stupid."

Celtic flinched at her response and she continued on.

"And the forgiveness part. . .that's going to take a long while. . .not as long as the trust will, but. . .I'm not ready." Celtic's shoulders unintentionally slumped and he handed the mask back to her. Athena slowly slipped it on and Celtic tried to put on a brave face.

"I promise. . .I'll work to try and make it up to you." The mask translated to her from his clicks.

Athena didn't have many ideas for how he could do that, but listened as he continued. "I'll do whatever it takes. . .because what I did was inexcusable and I need to amend it. . .and if you never forgive me or trust me, then that's my fault for what I did in the first place."

He dropped his hands to his sides and stood up straight. "Athena. . .I'm sorry." He repeated, eyes showing the truth of his claim.

Athena was moved by his words. He wasn't the first prideful person she had met, and she knew apologies were some of the hardest things to do for those people. She could feel the burden of her anger and distrust of him slowly lift from her shoulders, but not fully.

She handed the mask back to him and spoke her piece as well. "If you try to make it up to me. . .then I will try and trust you again." She responded. "I promise."

Athena watched as Celtic's shoulders lifted as if a small burden was lifted from him as well.

Author's note: Translation time!

-oomans: humans

I swear, having a cold is affecting my ability to write. This took three times longer to write than it normally would have. It's going to take at least twice as long to edit as well because of it. Gahhh!

I also hope you all aren't too angry that I gave the yautja a tongue. I'm not going to lie, some parts of their anatomy bug the hell out of me. Like their vision. Or in this case, their ability to mimic our words or even eat meat without a tongue for help.

So I'm sorry if that pisses some of you off, but they've got tongues in this story now.

And yes. . .I, a 'professional' fanfiction writer, had to resist the urge to put in some "hard wood" jokes in the Lucinda and Chopper scene. Trust me, it was hard not to put some in parenthesis.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this. I honestly enjoy writing fanfictions, and wish I had as much craving to write my own books as well. Sadly fanfictions seem so much easier to do.

See you all in the next chapter!