NOTE: This is derived from the "Swept Away" RP continuity which started in 2007 and has continued in various forms and spinoffs ever since, first on the old Hillbilly Hell forum and presently in Wingnut City. I'm sure it's not the first or only "Humans in the Carsverse" thing that ever came up, but boy, has it had staying power. By the in-RP timeline, the events of Planes 2 would be taking place perhaps 6 years after the humans' arrival.

Disclaimer: Don't own no canon characters. They belong to Disney. Weesa be makin' no money offa dis!

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Mii'auww found N'sheki after approximately ninety minutes of creeping through the pines and cutting sign under near-pitch-black conditions. The mare had broken her tether, wandered almost a mile off, and was found in another small clearing, pinning her ears and snaking her neck at a gaggle of deere which were doing their best to keep their distance from the snorty, sharp-hooved terror now monopolizing what grass there was. With her mount (reluctantly) back in hand, Mii made a wide circle around the site where the smoke jumpers were camped. The voices carried far at night; apparently one of them was getting texts from someone at the party and re-reading them for the amusement of his teamates. At least that would cover the crunching of dry pine needles under her and the mare's feet. Dry, dry, dry.

Nick, as usual, scouted on ahead, until they found another place to safely make camp. There was a stream nearby, though with the drought it was reduced to a trickle. Mii filled up a skin and gave it to the mare to drink before getting a cupful for herself. She then gathered stones from the banks of the stream and arranged them in a small fire ring. The next part would have to be done with exceeding care, so that no sparks would escape. Then, lichen, dry moss and twigs for tinder, and a few sticks for fuel. Mii's fingers struck flints together, and her breath blew a few small flames into life. She hoped that they were sufficiently far removed from any other set of ears that the next step wouldn't draw any attention, as the next step did require some "noise."

While Nick's mote paused and waited over the flickering tongues of fire, Mii'auww chopped the cinnamon stick into progressively finer pieces, until it was near dust. Then, she commenced the first bar of warm-up notes prior to the full incantation. The vocal training had come from Mother. The incantation had been learned on the sly from Grandmother. Its proper execution required both the voice she had been born with, and the "spirit voice" that came only with the modulation of the mouth and the tongue.

First, a deep breath, from the abdomen and not the chest. The base tone, from the vocal chords, was almost an "OHHHM" sound, not unlike that known to yogis. Mii's lips and tongue shaped the overtone progression, almost like subtle, high syrinx tones against the droning of the base. It was, in fact, a process of using the shape of the mouth and the acoustics created inside it to filter out certain frequencies and emphasize others. The normal voice was, in essence, a range of overtones over the fundamental. She'd even seen a computer analysis of her own overtones and how the mid-range tones had been effectively cut out to leave only the fundamental and a high one. This was not unknown to the vehicle-folk; in other parts of the world there were those with a like school of singing.

But in the school of the Nomads, the right progression of tones, from the throats of the spiritually connected, could open portals and clear veils of separation.

On the fifth progression, Mii'auww deposited one-third of the now-powdered cinnamon into the flames. Its scent tinged the air, and she inhaled. The other significant physiological difference that distinguished Nomads from other humanoids, aside from the reversed organs, asserted itself. At the Mountain, they had to be careful when feeding Nomad children who were attending classes there, to make sure that whatever they ate did not contain cinnamon, or at least, not nearly enough to trigger the effects it had on this particular race of people that could be described as... psychedelic.

But when it was taken in prescribed amounts by someone with training in the traditional spiritual disciplines, it became both tool and medicine.

It seemed to Mii, then, that time stretched and slowed like cold berry syrup, and her eyes began seeing things. The flames and their reflected light took on colors she'd never dreamed could exist in them. Could fire also be green and purple? Could the firelight have indigo at its edges? Could her mare's blaze also vibrate with mauve and mint?

Nick hovered around the periphery, flaring a bit in that way Mii had learned to recognize as "concerned". There was a gust of wind that made the flames flare up, then Nick's voice shouting, though not at her. "Get out, Wally. Don't blow any sparks or the jumpers'll have another goddam fire to deal with!"

"The Other" did not seem impressed. "I don't know scrap about humans, but she looks pretty goddamned young to me! How old is she, Mr. Hollywood?"

"Old enough to look out for herself." Nick asserted, his stubborn-set features taking shape in Mii'auww's enhanced vision. Her eyes widened, and she rose on her knees. It was certainly a helicopter's face, a descendant of the short-nosed upland and mountain species which evolved to land and rest in small, high places and didn't need a wheeled undercarriage to move about on the ground as did their larger lowland and savannah-dwelling cousins, the ancestors of Blade. "Old enough to make her own decisions."

"She couldn't be more than... fourteenish, by the looks of her." A much larger face had also condensed out of the air. "Still not an adult under the law. They're gonna go crazy looking for her, you know that! What kinda half-aft scheme are you up to?" Mii gasped sharply at the new entity's size. By the Jade-Eyed One, Wally must have been HUGE in life. With such an attitude, he would have smaller beings shaking on their treads.
"Seriously?" Nick smirked. "Their goddess put me up to it."

"What?" Incredulity crossed Wally's face. "What kind of mumbo-jumbo-"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that in front of Mii here." Nick warned smugly. "It's rude to offend someone's religion unnecessessarily. Didn't that get you in trouble at least three times while you were on the other side of the fence?" Wally bristled, but was silent. "Exactly." Nick nodded, grinning. "And please don't shake the trees, you'll spook her horse." N'sheki, in the meantime, snorted and pawed the ground impatiently. "She's already got enough attitude for all of us."

Wally made a dismissive snort of his own as he looked over the mare, and was rewarded for his curiosity by pinned ears, a snap and a kick. "Slag it, can she see me?" the Orion ghost recoiled in spite of being only air.
"She isn't much better with humans." Mii'auww frowned as she closed the ritual-space and doused the flames with the water-skin. "I've got the bruises to prove it. But my old pony wouldn't have made the trip."
Wally made a sound that was suspiciously like a stifled snicker. "Too bad that wasn't Spinner getting kicked. He'd be looking for new headlights, but the f***ing thief would probably take it out of the fire team's budget again. You'd think he'd at least see the sense of an independent water line for the base, that didn't have to run through the lodge line first, but NOOOOOoo... gotta get those damn champagne flutes and gold-plated sweepers and bribe those celebs to show up at his parties. You heard him, little girl, you now know all about his creative accounting." he paused as the noise of a jet rent the night air. "That's probably Mr. Reynolds taking his leave. Smart dude, but then boats have noses and ears just about as good as us aircraft, and they listen to us better than cars do..." He snorted again. "I never got on with cars."
"You hardly got on with anybody." Nick interjected, with a pointed glance. "EXCEPT Maru and a few other guys on the air attack team."

"Maru was worth it. Blade was somebody I hardly wanted to know at the time, but I admit he's getting better. Might even be worth talking to one of these days." He grinned as Nick scowled. "Look whose ox is getting gored now!"

Mii looked up, cocking an eyebrow. "I had no idea the Mountain People's sayings had spread this far, that even ghosts here would be using them."

Wally paused. "It just sounded right. Speaking of cultures, does yours just let kids go off on their own when barely teenish? Just wondering."

"For our people, childhood ends at thirteen summers." Mii answered. "We all go to live away from our families for a time, when we reach that age. When we come back in the fall, we're grown."

"Like a Bar Mitzvah?"

"Something like that, except the party's for everyone who turned thirteen that year and can last at least a week."

"Okaaaay..." Wally backed off then, eyes shrouded. Now it was Nick's turn to cock an eyebrow, though he said nothing. The Orion had gone into "processing" mode. Mii observed him discreetly. All that mischief in the lodge's main hall, the standee getting continually blown over, the rich kids getting messed with, all a working-off of pent-up frustration and resentment, like what that Thoroughbred stallion at the Mountain did - Mocha, they called him. He was always picking up any loose object and flinging it around, when he couldn't fling people around. And he didn't care very much for this world's cars either. He did better when on pasture, but couldn't be trusted with other horses.

So THAT was what a lifetime plus twenty-odd years of afterlife with a sour attitude and limited interaction did to a person.