Yawning as I sat up from my makeshift bed of blankets and my lone solitary pillow, I gently touched the side of my head. Nyko had made two tight braids on the right side of head that ran over my ear to keep it out of my wound that he had stitched shut for me - not before a long lecture on the dangers of going out into the forest alone though. He parted my hair above the two braids and flipped it to the other side wildly. I thought I looked ridiculous with my hair all wild and untamed, but Nyko quieted me telling me instead that I finally looked like I was starting to fit in with them. Which I took as a compliment from the normally quiet and slightly bossy healer.

Content that the braids had stayed tight throughout the night and that the stitches hadn't pulled, I finally stood up from my blanketed haven. Along with a new hairstyle, I had also received new clothes even though Penn had eventually returned with my backpack. A woman had brought new clothes over while Nyko was still lecturing me, dropping them off wordlessly with only a nod in my direction. Apparently running around in nothing but a blanket was frowned upon even on Earth. But I wasn't going to complain, anything - even just a blanket - was better than returning to my old ones that despite being washed were still filthy. Luckily I didn't have to now.

Adjusting my new forest colored canvas jacket, I made my way outside. Typically I would have already been on my way to the healer's building to work, however, Nyko insisted I rest for at least a day despite my protests.

"Maybe I should just explore a little bit," I muttered to myself as I ran through different ideas in my head. But as I watched people move past me to go about their day I realized that minus the area around the healer's building, I wasn't very familiar with the village itself.

"Has to be safer than the forest," I rationalized, as I started to follow a group of people heading towards the center of the camp. The healer's building was on the outskirts of the village, so I decided that I would start in the center and work my way out, that would also help prevent me from getting too lost.

I followed the group in front me for a few minutes, trying to look as if I already knew where I was heading. However, as we neared the center a commotion from a few buildings next to me caught my attention. I wonder what all the yelling is about? People here were normally pretty quiet.

Others had heard it as well and had went over to investigate. I must have came in on the last part of the argument I thought as I saw two men angrily walk away from each other. I looked around trying to figure out what they may have been arguing about but nothing looked out of place. I was lost in thought when I was suddenly shoved to the ground.

What the hell?

"You shouldn't stand in the way of a gona, little fisa," the man said with a growl. I looked up and vaguely recognized him, he was the man with the nails embedded in his gloves. The man who had scratched my cheek the first day here!

"What?" I replied hazily still trying to figure out what had happened. And what is a fisa? Did he just insult me? Not expecting him to reply I sat up on my knees as I started to stand up off the ground.

"Being on your knees in front of me suits you little fisa," he said menacingly with a slight chuckle.

"Excuse me?" I asked disbelievingly. How dare he, I thought to myself as I made a mental note to ask Nyko the meaning of the word he kept calling me.

"Leave her be Delano," a man's voice called from behind me. The man in front of me just snorted in amusement before turning and walking away without another word.

"Are you okay girl?" the man asked me as I finally stood up and turned around to face him. He was an older man, with a white beard and a fuller figure than others I had seen here. His face was laced with concern though as he waited for me to answer.

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright, thank you," I told him as I dusted the dirt off my new black pants, wishing that they were a little looser and didn't hug my skin so much.

"Good. And ignore Delano, he always seems to be angry at something and you happened to be in his path. He means no real harm," the man told me gently.

No real harm my ass, I thought as I finished dusting myself off.

"I am Botts, I am the town's baker," he told me.

"Botts?" I questioned, before catching myself and realizing how rude that must have sounded. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that!"

Botts just chuckled before waving his hand aside, "No I understand. It is an unusual name, but it is a nickname I received many many years ago."

"Oh," I said dumbly.

"And what is your name girl? Or should I just continue to call you that," he asked pleasantly.

I mentally slapped myself. I was off to a really bad start with this man, he must think I have absolutely no manners at all.

"No, I'm sorry how rude of me! I'm just a little shaken from what happened I guess," I tried to explain. "My name is Collette, but you can just call me Cole if you'd like…"

"Cole it is then," he said, cutting off my nervous rant. "Here take some of this, it will help quiet your nerves and settle your stomach."

I just looked at the small loaf of bread he was handing me that he had pulled off the stall behind him. I shook my head shyly.

"I couldn't take that, I have nothing to pay you with," I told him sheepishly. I hadn't received payment from working with Nyko, and I wasn't sure I was ever going to. I would have to ask Nyko about a job that paid when I saw him next…

"No, no, no," he told me, chuckling again softly. "Here we trade for items, but this, this if for free. For having to deal with Delano and for being so pleasant to talk to an old man."

My cheeks flushed and I grinned slightly, "Oh well thank you Botts."

I took the loaf he offered and held it closely. The aroma instantly reached my nose and I could feel my mouth salivating. This was surely going to be better than the saltine crackers and jerky I had been hoarding from my backpack.

"Anytime, now I have to go grab the other loaves I have baking. But stop by again Cole," he told me and I promised I would. How could I say no to the nicest person I had met on Earth so far?

After leaving Botts' little store I continued to wander through the village munching on the loaf as I went. It was delicious and I decided that I would have to come up with something to trade to get him to make me some more soon.

I stopped when I found a sawed down tree trunk nearby to sit on. Resting, and still eating, I realized that I had stopped in front of what looked like a training field. Various wooden targets had been set up in different places, some with painted faces or markings, others without. I tried to take everything in when I noticed that I wasn't the only person here. A young boy who couldn't be older than 18 was shooting at distant targets not to far away from me.

He's really good, I thought to myself as I watched arrow after arrow imbed itself into his chosen target. If I could shoot like he does I wouldn't have had to run form that stupid cat.

"Is it not rude to stare in your culture?" the boy suddenly asked harshly, turning to face me.

"Uhhm?" I responded, embarrassed at being called out. I hadn't meant to stare.

"Do you have a reason for being here?" He asked, obviously annoyed with me.

"Uh, sorry. I was just sitting down to eat for a second when I noticed you practicing," I tried to explain, though he looked unimpressed.

"You're really good," I muttered quietly. The boy's expression softened slightly hearing my praise.

"How long have you been shooting?" I asked hesitantly, taking advantage of the fact that he hadn't turned away or insulted me yet.

"All my life," he responded immediately. "Since I was old enough to hold a bow."

"Uhm," I hesitated, dusting the crumbs from the bread off my lap. "Do you think, maybe, that you could teach me?"

It was a longshot and I knew it, but I smiled slightly when he didn't automatically say no. He seemed to think it over for a moment, but kept his gaze trained on me.

"Why?" he asked shortly.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I want to learn how to protect myself, I had a run-in with an animal in the woods the other…."

"No," he interrupted. "Why you want to learn is clear. I meant why did you ask me?"

"Oh, well, I'm not sure," I told him honestly. "I wasn't going to ask anyone at all until I started watching you practice. And like I said, you're really good…"

I realized that I hadn't really answered his question, but I wasn't sure myself what made me ask him. I didn't even realize I wanted to learn until I saw him shoot.

"I'm alright, but if you want a good teacher you should ask Penn or Jaxon," he told me, his voice losing its harsh edge.

"Why would I ask them?" I questioned. I doubted either of them would have the patience to deal with me anyways, especially after yesterday. But the boy started laughing at my question.

"You're not serious are you?" he fired back. But my blank stare quickly stopped his fit of laughter.

"Wow, you are….Uhm well Penn is the best archer of our clan, and Jaxon, he's the best warrior from the North. They're both lethal with a bow, and Jaxon could teach you how to protect yourself with just about any weapon if you were interested," he explained.

I thought that over for a second. I had no idea that they were both such great fighters, but the boy's tone as he described them held nothing but ultimate respect and reverence for the two.

"What do you mean from the north? Is Jaxon not part of your clan?" I asked him.

"Man you really don't know anything do you?" he replied shaking his head. I narrowed my eyes and glared at him.

"No need to be rude," I responded huffily. It wasn't my fault that I landed in the middle of some complicated radioactive warrior tribe. It's not like there's a manual for survival down here…

"It's the truth though," he said, continuing quickly so I couldn't respond. "But, to make it simple Jaxon is part of our clan now. But his people originate from the northern territories, but after a harsh winter they were forced to move and came to join us. We have always had an alliance with their clan, and now we have merged the two. Haven't you noticed that they look a little different from us?"

I nodded slightly. I had noticed slight differences, but still it was hard to differentiate when everything down here was so foreign. That must be why some of their tattoos are red and the others are navy I noted though.

"Yeah, they wear their hair funny, it's all braided and brushed. And they talk with a different accent to," the boy rambled. But I made notes of everything he was saying, it was definitely useful to know.

"Yeah but to me everyone here wears their hair funny and talks with a weird accent," I explained gently, not wanting to insult the boy. But he just laughed.

"You're different than the other sky people," he told me as he moved to rest on the end of his bow.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I scrunched my nose at him. I was just like everyone else on the pod…

"I don't know how to explain it in your language, but you just are. Not in a bad way though," he said, quickly clarifying.

I tilted my head, that didn't make any sense.

"I tell you what, I'll teach you how to shoot a bow and arrow if you give me the rest of that bread," he said suddenly, eyeing the half of the loaf I had left.

"I'll give you a quarter of it," I countered. I had been living off of boxed food for the past week, the bread was the first piece of actually cooked food I had eaten and I wasn't eager to just give it away.

"At least half or you'll have to find someone else to teach you," he replied easily as if he expected my resistence.

"Fine," I sighed, giving in. "I'll give you half, but you better be with it."

I tore the loaf in half and gave him the bigger of the two pieces. He smiled cheekily as he took a bite out of it. I tore a smaller piece off my remaining portion and ate it as well, savoring it now that it was all I had left.

"I'm Cole by the way," I told him after a moment. He swallowed the bread he was chewing and smirked.

"Aritgas."

"Why can't any of you have normal names? How am I ever supposed to remember that?" I teased, even though I was semi-serious. He looked at me shocked, but he was still smirking.

"Well what kind of name is Cole?" he responded.

"A normal one," I told him as I rolled my eyes. He just laughed in response.

"Well what would you know? You're like ten," I continued, starting to laugh also.

He put his hand on his hip and narrowed his eyes trying to look intimidating, but I just started laughing harder. He looked like a little boy just told he was going to be in time-out.

"I'm sixteen for your information," he replied, still glaring but starting to smile a bit too.

"Sure, sure."

"Look, do you want to learn or not," he said, pointing his bow out towards the target with his arrows still resting in it. Not wanting to miss this opportunity I stopped laughing and stood up.

"Yes," I said determinedly.

He spent the next few hours teaching me how to stand and properly hold a bow. He had me notch the arrow and pull back as if I was going to shoot it over and over until my arms burned, each time correcting my posture and grip. But he refused to actually let me shoot until I could hold it properly. At what seemed to be the hundredth time of pulling back the string I waited for him to correct me on something that I had missed, at this point I was getting irritable. I was still hungry, my arms felt as if they were on fire and to make it all worse others from the clan were starting to make their way to the field to practice themselves - all of them eyeing me with some degree of uncertainty.

"Ignore them and focus," Artigas told me as he moved my hand in the front down slightly. "If your hand is too high then when you release the string it will snap back on your wrist."

I tried to imprint where he moved my hand to memory and gently released the tension on the string.

"Do it again," he commanded. I groaned but did as he said. This time he didn't correct me.

"Good, now aim and shoot," he said as if it was the easiest thing in the world. I let the tension ease in the bow as I just stared at him excitedly.

"I can actually shoot an arrow now?!"

"Not now, you just dropped it," he said, his tone teasing as had become common throughout my training.

He picked it up and handed it back to me, "try to actually hold on to the arrow this time."

I ignored him and placed the arrow back on the notch and pulled back, going through the checklist of everything he had taught me. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and saw him nod in approval. I took a deep breath in - like he had told me to do - and focused on the target. It was only maybe 15 feet away, I could do this. I released the arrow and watched it soar wide of the target by at least five feet. That wasn't even the worst part, the string had snapped back and whipped my wrist and I groaned partly in pain and partly in embarrassment.

"Shit that hurts," I whined holding my wrist to my chest after thrusting the bow in Artigas direction. Behind me I heard someone clapping. I turned and instantly glared.

Penn was standing a few feet behind me with his bow across his back clapping slowly while laughing at me. A few others were near him, including Jaxon, they were minding their own weapons but watching me none the less.

"That was excellent," Penn taunted as he stopped clapping and moved towards me.

"Why didn't you tell me my hand was to high?" I asked Artigas accusingly, still cupping my wrist. He just shrugged.

"I did, about twenty times. I figured it would finally get through to you if you learned how much it hurt."

"Smart kid," Penn added.

"No one asked you," I barked at him, embarrassed that he had witnessed that. I mean, Penn of all people. No one else would have said anything to me, but it just had to be Penn.

"Are we done for the day," I turned and asked Artigas.

"Oh don't stop now, it was just starting to get good," Penn interrupted. His tone was teasing, but I was too embarrassed to not take it personally.

"No," Artigas told me, handing me his bow again before I could just walk away. "Do it again."

I turned my glare on him. He couldn't be serious.

"Penn was bad at it when he started too, so was I," he explained. "No one is just automatically good at anything, you have to practice. So, do it again."

I sighed but gave in, picking up another arrow out of his quiver laying near us. I ignored Penn as he walked away, muttering to himself that he wasn't nearly as bad as me when he started.

"Fine."

Artigas moved us slightly closer to the target and nodded for me to shoot again. I notched the arrow, careful this time to keep my hand out of the way of the string and focused on the target. Releasing the arrow it still flew crooked but hit the very edge of the target. Barely, but I would take it. Smiling I turned back to Artigas who just had a knowing look in his eyes.

"I did it," I told him, he just nodded. I paused for a moment, taking the time to pick up another arrow. "Are you sure you're only 16?"

He just rolled his eyes at me.

"No, I feel like I've just gained at least ten years standing here and waiting for you," he replied, donning his signature smirk. I just smiled back and shrugged my shoulders.

I continued practicing until it started to get dark, I hadn't even realized that the whole day passed. Looking around I noticed that most of the other warriors had left as well. Artigas, sensing my thoughts turned and collected his quiver and took his bow back.

"Not bad for a sky girl," he said cheekily before telling me he would find me later in the week to practice again and walking off towards the target to collect the arrows that I had managed to get in it and searching for the others that had missed their mark.

I sighed contently, happy with how the day turned out before turning to make my back home. I think I still had some jerky left, that would have to do for dinner. Walking back I noticed Jaxon still at the field cleaning his knives, or swords, or whatever they were. They looked long and sharp, so I had no intention of finding out how they were used. But before I realized it I was making my way towards him.

He didn't say anything as I approached but looked up at me as I stopped near him.

"Staring isn't considered polite in our culture," he told me, not looking up from his weapon. His voice was passive, and I noticed that he did have a slightly different accent than Artigas.

"Sorry," I apologized, before laughing to myself. "That's actually the second time today someone has had to mention that to me."

He just grunted and started to sharpen his blade. Guess I should get to the point.

"I wanted to thank you actually," I said, suddenly a little unsure of what I was doing. He looked up now, as if waiting for me to finish.

"For saving me yesterday. That cat would have killed me if you hadn't shown up," I added.

He continued to look at me for a moment. I thought I saw his eyes flash up to the side of my head, and I subconsciously raised my hand to finger the braids Nyko had done for me. Jaxon just turned his attention back to the weapon in his lap.

"I know," he said finally, his tone even and steady as if we were talking about the weather and I wasn't thanking him for going out of his way to save my life.

"Usually people say 'you're welcome' or 'no problem' when someone thanks them," I replied hastily, my tone having a slight bite in it. I hadn't meant to say it out loud, but his flippant behavior was starting to irritate me. Apparently I had his full attention now though as he stood easily towering over me with his eyes narrowed.

"Saying 'no problem' implies that it wasn't a bother to save you, when in fact it was. And to say 'you're welcome' might give you the impression that I would do similar favors for you in the future, when I will not," he replied, his tone now harsh.

"Then why did you even bother in the first place?" I asked, now fully angry at the fact that my life was obviously meaningless to him. My question must have caught him off guard though as his expression softened slightly and he looked off to the side.

"Well?" I pressed after not getting an answer. "If it was such a bother then why even do it in the first place? Why not let the mutant cat eat me!"

Jaxon sighed before turning his gaze back on me.

"I don't know," he admitted quietly. I was about to lay into him some more when I realized what his answer actually was.

"What?" I asked unbelievingly. He sighed again putting his weapon, which I had conveniently forgot he was holding, back into it's leather holster.

"You heard me," he said, raising his voice a little louder.

"Yeah, I just don't believe you," I told him, causing him to look up at me instantly.

"You learn to shoot a bow and you suddenly become very outspoken," he pointed out, though his tone wasn't accusing.

My eyes widened at his accusation before I realized how I was acting. Who was I to question him? I dropped my eyes to the ground and shrunk back into my shell as I suddenly became very shy and uncomfortable standing in front of him. This was a mistake.

Jaxon sighed and looked almost worried as he watched me.

"Yeah, uh, sorry," I mumbled. "I better head back, it will take me longer to find my way if it's dark."

My excuse sounded plausible, but I doubt it fooled Jaxon. None the less, he let me leave without another word.

It was completely dark by the time I found my home again. I forewent food, despite my growling stomach, and immediately sunk into my pile of blankets. Today was embarrassing. What was I thinking going out like that?

Between giant cats, Jaxon, Penn and men like Delano, how am I ever going to survive down here? I groaned loudly as I pulled one of the blankets up to my head. I feel asleep hoping that tomorrow would bring better things.

Some new characters for you guys! Plus more Penn and Jaxon interaction. Keep reviewing and letting me know what you like or want more of!
Also, a translation of the Grounder words I used will be in the next chapter!