Alright, I don't even care that I only got about three reviews on chapter one! I'm inspired, dammit and I WILL write more of this! Harrumph!

So, in this chapter, we'll get to know some more about Pepina and the so far mysterious Nakito people…

AND BIG NEWS! The first future-of-the-story-determining question! Goody! ^-^

Disclaimer: The funny stuff has been so overdone, it's cheesy, so I'm going to deliver this plain and simple… I'm not making any money off of this, for god's sake!

***

 Well, Pepina said to herself. Sitting here isn't going to get me back to Vegetasei, and the people outside her pod weren't looking any more patient, either. On the count of three, she would open the door and hope the air would kill her.

1… 2… 3…

The door hissed open, and immediately, the most beautiful and magical sound flooded into her pod. She could hear unearthly, mysterious and undoubtedly amazing sort of keening noises… She was awe-stricken. The people never even stopped to think about the sound, and they all at once began twittering to each other in some kind of foreign language.

Oh, splendid. They don't even speak the same language I do! Isn't that just Yankee Doodle friggin dandy!

The white-haired one's horse took another steps towards her, and she froze up. She'd seen pictures of these beasts before, and heard stories, but she thought they were just stories to scare small children with! Horses were… murderous beasts that could deafen you with one shriek, put a hole right through you with one of their burning hooves, and send you flying with a single flick of their whips-for-tails. Pepina had to admit, though, this horse wasn't exactly how she's always seen it portrayed, but you never know. So there she sat, staring and the horse with her breath held, slowly powering up in case it decided she would make a good snack or something. Suddenly a low voice penetrated her thoughts. It was coming from the rider. She gasped and looked up to him. Yes, definitely a him.

"Is there something wrong?" His brow wrinkled a little as he spoke the words in one of the universal languages of the galaxy. This was reassuring, and made Pepina quite glad she'd studied this language. She wasn't totally fluent, but put her in a considerably better situation than before.

"C-call off your monster." She tried to sound imposing and tough, but she really just sounded weak and silly, and even more so as she heard a considerable portion of the assumed Nakitos began to laugh! This wasn't funny! Someone should teach them a little empathy! "Call it off!" Then the man she had been talking to began to laugh! What was this, taunt the alien day?

"Not to worry, Du'roth is a peaceful creature. Please stand, I should like to get a better look at you." She snorted. Who was this guy? 'Oh, yeah, sure, my horse, he's perfectly harmless, just don't feed him, look at him, touch him, taunt him, talk about him or think about him.'  And he wants a better look at her? Quite cocky indeed. Despite all this going through her head, she warily climbed out of the cramped pod and stood up to her full height of six feet even. Everyone stood and gawked at her… her hair, her tail, her clothes… It was a change though, from ears to tail. Maybe not a welcome one, but a change.

"You can see me." Well, what else was there to say?

"Oh, forgive me, we all know who you are, but I do not believe you know who we are. We are the Nakito people, and I am the leader of the tribe, Dorin. I am your father. And here, we have…" After that, she just tuned out and stared. Hey, they all had a turn, now it was time for her again. She was concentrating more on looking him over… she knew she'd meet her father, but she had no idea it would be anything like this! He was tall, really tall. She was tall, and he was easily a half a foot taller! He had pale, wistful, blue eyes and a face full of character. He had muscles packed into every nook and cranny of his visible body, and his whole bare chest and arms were laden with the blackest tattoos she'd ever seen. Never mind the other people, this was her father! That mysterious man she never knew…

"Hello?" She quickly snapped back to reality, the second time he had to do that today. "Were you paying any attention?"

"Sorry, I was not paying attention just then. Please repeat." A kind of curt response, but she didn't know how to put it any better, really.

"Never mind," Dorin said with a sigh. "Follow us and we shall take you to our village. There is so much to show you, so much for you to see!" Just like that, the people quickly turned their horses around and started galloping off and away.  She took to the air and floated after them, considerably slower than she could go… just to keep good distance from those dangerously flippy tails those horses had.

***

Pepina was glad when the riders left their horses to roam upon reaching a clearing, and let out a long breath. One less ting to worry about, let's hurry and get the other over with, whatever it might be. She watched silently as one of the females whistled through two fingers and looked way up into the treetops. A yell came down in that foreign language again, and she yelled up another thing. Ina few seconds, she could spot and unreliable-looking rope ladder being slowly lowered from way up in the canopy, and watched as the all climbed up one by one. He father lingered, and when all the others were gone, he motioned for her to climb the ladder. She stopped and took another look at the feeble construct, then a look at her heavy bag. No way in heck was she climbing that. And with a grunt, she picked up her back, and flew up along the ladder, Dorin following close behind, beaming up at her.

At the very top of the ladder was an enormous wooden floor that must have spanned half of the forest. It was so beautiful! It was built around the trees, and the huts were all hollows in the biggest branches. These trees had to be zillions of years old! About twenty people were all clustered near a fountain and watching the hole on the floor she had just came out of, and they all began to cheer. She could sense her father come up behind her and place a hand on her shoulder, but she jerked away. Sure he was her dad, but he was still a stranger! Alright, she could admit she felt a little sorry about flinching when she saw the frown spread across his face, but... but still! She waited patiently as she was introduced to all of what turned out to be her 'tribe'. But at the moment, Pepina had a solely two-track mind: Get me to a hut to sleep in and then bring me some food! She had no interest in these people, no interest in their names, not in their horses, or their beautiful…. Her brain stopped working and she spotted a giant bluish thing came flying through the sky, only about ten feet above them! It was a positively colossal thing that looked more built for water than the air, but despite that it gracefully swooped, almost floated, maybe even wafted by them, and then she head that keening sound again. It was so beautiful and so horrible, all at the same time. She would have to figure out what those things were. She was still gawking as it flew past, until she noticed no one else was staring. Embarrassed, she closed her mouth and looked to the ground, and politely muttered a request for a room.

At the moment, Pepina figured she was either going to sort of like this, or was going to all-out hate all of it.

***

 Okay, she decided. This wasn't so bad. It could be worse. No it couldn't! She'd been dragged kicking and screaming onto a horse, only after having had to change into some ceremonial dress. They'd carted her off on this terrifying thing to a fire pit by the lake. Said they had arranged a ceremony for her to be an official woman in the tribe. It was really something for once you turned fourteen, but since she was not living here at fourteen, she got it now. She had no idea what to expect.

First off, they were all seated by the fire, and some shaman or whatnot came out and began performing an offering to the gods. He was basically plodding around the fire, shaking some weird doohickey, making grunting noises and shaking around his head. He was wearing a horribly stupid-looking mask, with leaves for hair and big, ugly horns, until she was summoned to come to the shaman... oh great… now what was he going to do? Stick two flaming sticks up her nose and shave her head? Well, she hoped not, at least.

She jumped when the guy whipped out… a big ugly knife! Oh sheets, what was he going to do with that? She screamed and got up to run, but he quickly grabbed her wrist. She tried to squirm, tried to write or escape, but she was suddenly completely frozen in place. She couldn't even move her eyes to watch what he was doing as he went with the knife at her right arm. Pain shot through her body, suddenly. Hew as cutting her! In some sort of insane tribe-woman pattern! And she couldn't move! That's it, she said to herself, first chance I get, I'm getting off this stupid planet.

Finally, he stopped picking at her arm and let go of her. She fell to the ground, and was inexplicably limp. She lolled her head to look over at her bleeding arm. He'd carved some sort of zigzagged pattern all around her forearm. Finally her father aided her, and had her arm bandaged up, then he scooped her up and carried her back to his seat, keeping him held in her arms. She just didn't understand. They put fourteen year olds up to this? This is how they become a woman? This kind of made her wonder about what the becoming a man ceremony was like… But she wasn't left to wonder much longer, because her father whispered to her, that this was the part when she was picked a husband. Well, that certainly livened her up for a second. She went stiff as a board in shock and began flailing and trying to scream complaints at him, but her tongue just wouldn't work properly, and she began babbling some kind of incoherent nonsense. Didn't she have a say in this? Well, apparently not. Three men who looked to be in their very late teens were summoned to the middle of the circle. She'd been introduced to them all before, they were all part of the first group that came and found her.

One was named Roit, who was a lean man who looked fairly good-natured, with a black tattoo of an eagle on his chest, much like those of Dorin. He had short brown hair and warm brown eyes. The second was Yusi, a curly-haired hulking brute with cold blue eyes and a horse tattoo on his chest. Third, was Oua who was the stockiest of the three. Not stocky as in fat, no, stocky as in short and muscular, but without being positively bursting like Yusi, but with more muscles than Roit. He had the silkiest black hair she'd ever seen, mysterious green eyes, and a tattoo of a snake that wrapped all around his torso and neck.

Well, now everyone was waiting for the shaman to come back. He went off into the trees to get something, and was taking a little while. A little while? He took forever! She was getting pretty restless, but she didn't have the energy to even twitch, so she decided it would be best to keep an eye on them. On was going to be her future husband! Well, here at least. He didn't have to know about anything that might happen back on Vegetasei, now did he? Yusi was looking restless, walking around in little circles and stretching from time to time, while Roit was curiously eyeing her tail. She looked over to Oua now, and caught him checking her out. When he noticed he'd been found out, he winked at her. He didn't seem to have any shame.

Finally, Mr. Shaman-guy returned holding some kind of… animal. It was the size of a cat, with long ears, a long snout, two sleek tails and blue fur all over. He set it down and started chanting some other song, and the critter began wandering around from man to man, looking each of them in the eyes, until it finally turned and sat right back where it started, and the singing stopped. The witch doctor-man-guy nudged its behind, and it took a small step towards each of them. Now she understood. It was going to pick for her.

***

Well, so comes the end of this chapter! So, what will the funny blue thing walk to? Will it be…

A) Roit the curious

B) Yusi the big and strong

C) Oua the charismatic

Leave your vote in the comments! I won't write another chapter without a decision! I'm givin' you guys a week, and then I'm writing based on that! There isn't any stopping me! By the way, the week I'm will be over Jan.13 might not be exactly a week, oh well.

Ja ne!