Jannali remained silent. Her father had always erred on the side of caution around Kwilana, in that he tried to speak as little of her as possible. Once, he had mentioned that on the day of Kwilana's return from the mountain, the tribe was sent into a frenzy. He refused to say any more to Jannali, other than that he thought that her supposed power, while potentially dangerous, might also have been blown out of proportion by the Ansharin.

Whatever the case, Jannali needed to know more. She weighed the options; the first and most obvious one was to go straight to Kwilana. Judging Kwelek's hesitation to even speak of her, Jannali doubted that option would be agreeable with the others. She was certainly afraid of approaching Kwilana, as well, but she had to learn more. If she had to, Jannali would go alone to Kwilana's hut.

The only other option Jannali could foresee was, again, taking Kwelek's finding straight to the elders. But if Kwelek was right, and if this was tied to Kwilana, the elders would certainly take it from them and they would never know more. Jannali shook her head; that was unacceptable.

She shifted uneasily, as she prepared to speak up. "I think..." Jannali paused. Her heart began to race as she struggled to find the words she needed. Taking action was not a strength of hers. She swallowed, hoping she would be able to speak through the dryness of her throat. "I think we should take this to Kwilana, then. Otherwise... we might not ever get to know more." Jannali quickly looked down at her feet, avoiding eye contact with the others. She braced herself for the worst, fearing that they would shoot her suggestion down harshly.

The witch named Kwilana..she was treated the same as Alkina if not a lot worst. But just as Alkina, many rumors and stories shroud her name, hiding her true nature. As long as Nortooga has been part of the Ansharin tribe he has never witnessed or heard of a cursed tribe member or mysterious deaths and/or disappearances. Although they talk about past happenings, before Nortooga was part of the tribe, he doesn't believe them, same as he doesn't believe what they say about Alkina. He uses his own judgment to label people but different from Alkina he has almost never seen the witch in person, except that one time where he got a glance of her body and features when her brother was leaving her tent. So even if the rumors surrounding her, describing her as a wicked monster are exaggerated, there could be some truth behind them. If they chose to consult her they should proceed with caution.
"Whatever your decision is, you better make haste in following it. The hunt will start any time now and there are a considerable amount of tribe members gone "missing". Furthermore I will be held responsible for delaying the hunt as I volunteered on bringing you back. So if you want to follow trough with this, visiting the witch, we should go now."

The day slowly crept along its specified path, not minding anything around it for they were too minute to have any influence on such a large entity that was life itself. In the small tribe life followed the same path as the day had set it up to: different groups hurried along their short lives in order to prepare for the festivities later on in the day - however, among these busy little individuals sat an alien-looking girl alone in her tent, well, she wasn’t really alone anymore as a small group of her fellow tribesmen had huddled up right next to her tent and out of sight from the rest of the tribe.
Alkina had stayed silent ever since the group of tribesmen had gathered near her tent. She used the silence to focus her attention on whatever the group was doing - and while she might have been blind, her other senses had been honed to such a degree that even without the ability of sight she could understand what was going on, albeit without the same clarity of someone who could actually see what happened in the world around them. Because she didn’t require her eyes to follow what happened half dozen feet away she didn’t have to turn her head towards the group in order to ‘see’ what happened. Instead Alkina used her heightened senses to follow what the group were doing without showing any signs that she was indeed following every little detail of what was happening - in fact if you were to look at her you would only see a helpless blind teenage girl sitting straight up in her tent, with her head turned towards the sounds of the ceremonial preparations, while her hands were folded around a simply crafted clay cup.

However, Alkina was in fact buried deep in her own thoughts. It had soon come to her understanding from what she had observed that the group couldn’t be much older than herself - and one of them had discovered something - something which had filled the others with mixed emotions, though in their huddled voices Alkina could easily hear an undertone of excitement in most of their voices as they discussed this, apparently, odd object the one called Kwelak had found.
Now, because Alkina had lived most of her short life imprisoned in her own little routines set up by the Elders she hadn’t had much contact with the rest of the tribe, so while she had a good idea who some of the people in her tribe were, she really had no close connection to any of them, but this small group of youngsters around her own age had caught her attention as they continued their discussion surrounding this foreign object.
Alkina could barely sit still as she began to understand what was going on: the object had been discovered outside of the tribe - and it possessed traits that neither one in the group understood. Perhaps this was an ancient artifact? She had understood from the Elders that now and then odd objects had been discovered which all possessed signs of an ancient culture too different from their own - and ever since she had first heard of this her jailed spirit had ached to follow whatever trail one of these ancient artifacts would lead her on.

Could this be the one…?

She could barely keep the excitement inside of her. Perhaps this was her chance to try something new? Perhaps she could finally experience the outside world? Perhaps this artifact was a way for her to experience what it felt like to live? If it truly was, she couldn’t shy away from the opportunities it presented - that would be a grave mistake, she determined for herself.

“You know,” she interrupted their little talk as she moved one side of the tent’s canvas out of the way, “you guys are quite loud…” she added with a teasing smile that surprisingly were aimed directly at them with a precision that only one with the ability of sight should possess.

“It seems to me that you guys are trying to hide from something - or someone, perhaps?” she continued before they could interrupt her little speech that she had gathered enough courage to begin on and while she couldn’t see their specific individual features from that distance, so she could only hope that her sudden intrusion hadn’t scared them too much.

The small shifts in their individual postures more than confirmed this for her.

“My guess would be… perhaps the Elders of the tribe?” She kept her cheeky smile painted on her face as the words sprawled from her mouth, as she made sure that her face was always pointed in their general direction so not to creep them out - she had for the longest time had the problematic habit of not looking directly at the individuals she spoke to, which had often had the unfortunate result of creeping said individuals out: it was apparently hard for others to converse without looking directly at them, young Alkina had mused after noticing the differences in speech patterns of the Elders she spoke to. Needless to say she quickly got rid of this habit, but she still caught herself in the act now and then.

“Ah,” she commented without thinking about the repercussions of her own actions: no one in the tribe knew that she could ‘see’ to such a degree in her own special way. “It would appear that I was correct” she added quickly with a smile.
“Well, it is a good hiding spot I will agree - but you mustn’t stay here for too long: the Elders tend to keep an eye on me and my surroundings - but I heard you guys speak of Kwilana” she quickly added to not be interrupted, “I’ve heard various things being mentioned by the Elders, sometimes they mentioned her name in the same conversations as strange artifacts or phenomenons… If you want to speak to someone about that,” she waved her free hand towards the item the group had gathered around - though she kept the gesture vague enough not to draw too much attention to it: who knew what they would do if they knew she wasn’t completely blind? A chill went down her spine from the memories of last time someone had found out.

“Then she might know something even the Elders do not know…” she added before anyone would notice anything odd in her speech pattern.
“And…” she continued her speech, feeling like she had spoken too much already, “and if you want… I can perhaps be of help to you…?” The last part was added with less authority as she began to realize how stupid it sounded: who would want help from the blind ‘Snow Demon’, though she did share a few traits with Kwilana so she could more easily connect to her.

The very mention of the Witch's name brought up feelings of uncertainty and caution among the small gathering. Kwelek had feared this would be the case, preemptively hanging his head in preparation to be berated by the others for such a foolish claim. Then the timid Jannali spoke up,
"I think..." Kwelek lifted his head towards her soft voice, his eyes widening in shock when she offered a suggestion that he would never have expected her to, "I think we should take this to Kwilana, then. Otherwise... we might not ever get to know more".
"Jannali," Kwelek began, though he couldn't bring himself to say any more. Right from the start he had known that involving Jannali in something like this would make her uncomfortable. He would have felt just awful if she, or any of the others, got into trouble with the elders because of him. To see that she was just as curious as he was was such a relief.

Kwelek reached out and put his hand gently on Jannali's shoulder as a sign of gratitude. Before he could think of the right words to say, Nortooga spoke up.
"Whatever your decision is, you better make haste in following it. The hunt will start any time now and there are a considerable amount of tribe members gone "missing". Furthermore I will be held responsible for delaying the hunt as I volunteered on bringing you back. So if you want to follow trough with this, visiting the witch, we should go now". Kwelek rubbed the back of his head with the hand he had used to reach out to Jannali, offering the older hunter a shy smile.
"Right. Yes, we should definitely go see Kwilana" Kwelek nervously looked over to Yala for her approval. Despite the stern yet anxious look plastered across her face, the painter offered a sigh of defeat. Kwelek started to feel a bit better about seeing the Witch with Yala and Nortooga along with him. Not to discredit Jannali, but the calm, level headed nature of the two older Ansharin was quite comforting.

Before anyone could say another word, the sound of a loud, deep drone filled the air. From where the group was sitting, it was clear that it was coming from the Moodja. It was the signal that the Ansharin gave when the hunt began. It would also be the signal for when the hunt came to a close in a few hours. The group would have to make haste to Kwilana.
"Alright then! Let's be qui-"
"You know, you guys are quite loud". Kwelek spun around to the source of the interruption to see the pale moon beauty Alkina staring at them from underneath the canvas of her tent. The young man froze in place, mostly from embarrassment that he hadn't even noticed someone had been sitting so close to them all this time, but also at the sight of the mysterious, incandescent treasure of the Ansharin. While it seemed odd that Alkina was cloistered away as some precious jewel, Kwelek would be lying if he had tried to deny that the blind young girl was not something of an infatuation with him and many other Ansharin.

Thankfully, Alkina had taken Kwelek's stunned silence as an opportunity to continue her speech about the group's rather dishonest intentions. There was even a pang of worry that she would rat them out to the Elders now that she had heard their ploy. Then Alkina's confidence started to fade and her voice trailed off towards the end of her smug lecture,
"And if you want… I can perhaps be of help to you…?" Kwelek could feel his muscles begin to ease up a little, though his mind was still racing. Alkina, the Elder's pet and most cherished dancer, wanted to join their little escapade? Kwelek couldn't help but grin at the idea of this beautiful, cloistered, blind girl having a bit of a mischievous streak to her. He almost felt rude, but then he remembered that she wouldn't have been able to notice it anyway.

Kwelek slowly approached her, making sure not to get too close as if she was some strange exhibit and not a person.
"Of... Of coarse, we'd be happy to have you with us". There was a slight hesitance in his voice, though he figured nobody would object to having Alkina with them. Though it was a strange feeling, being in her company. With the group assembled, they quickly made their way in the direction of the Ngarlak field where Kwilana resided in her segregated hut.

---

---

Kwelek had to admit, he was feeling a lot more eager about speaking to Kwilana right up until the point where he was staring down her hut right at the edge of the Ngarlak field. The large, scaly beasts grazed peacefully while various workers tended to them. Occasionally one would shoot them a curious look, only adding to the urgency of their task. No doubt word would get out around the tribe that the group had been seen near Kwilana's hut. With that in mind, Kwelek knew there was no point going back. He took a step forward and reached out to draw back the tarp that separated the group and the witch. His hand faltered and Kwelek found himself standing there stunned when suddenly a strong, feminine voice drifted from inside the hut.
"Enter, little ones. You won't find the answers you seek standing out there in the heat". If Kwelek had been nervous before, he was absolutely terrified now. Just hearing her voice address him and the others sent shivers down his spine. He swallowed his fear, thinking about the others and how much they wished to know about this journal. With a burst of courage, Kwelek pushed the slit in the canvas open and entered. Kwilana's hut didn't have much to speak of. It was empty aside from the witch herself and a series of strange markings etched into the walls and dirt. Kwilana sat in the corner, as beautiful as she was rumoured to be. Her bewitching eyes settled upon the group of youngsters as a warm smile spread across her face.
"So, you hear the call of the mountain as well?"

---

Yala remained quiet as the others discussed their options but an unsettling feeling began to curl up in her stomach. This was becoming more involved than she had first anticipated. She was surprised when a soft but clear voice reached them from inside the tent, and the pale figure of Alkina appeared at the entryway.

She had never actually met Alkina until now. The small, pale dancer's path and hers had never cross before and now she was to come with them. The elder's prized child, the mysterious Nortooga and the Kwenda catcher; this discovery has seemed to bring all the odd ones of their tribe together and Yala wasn't sure how to feel about it. Nevertheless, Yala smiled down at Alkina as they left her tent, even though the girl wouldn’t be able to see it, and offered her arm to use as a guide so she wouldn't trip or stray as they walked. She did have some reservations about bringing her, but she new Alkina was often trapped in her tent by her affliction and felt sympathy for her. She felt some escorted time about the village wouldn't be too out of line, as long as they brought her back in time for this evening's ceremony.

As they walked towards the outskirts of the village, Yala's thoughts went back to the brief glimpse she got of the picture which sparked this new turn of events. She had never seen the mountain, never had a cause to travel that far into the Moodjar, but she knew the stories well. It was a place of spirits that humans were not allowed to enter. Most who did never returned and the Ansharin took this to mean the penalty of that transgression was death. When the Witch came back though, beautiful and unchanged despite the long years of her absence, the Ansharin thought it the worst of omens. Kwilana's brother was all that was keeping her within the tribe and not cast out into the desert.

Every so often, the duty of bringing Kwilana food would fall to Yala and she would have to visit the elderly woman. The encounters are almost always wordless on her part but Kwilana would always thank her. Yala felt rude for never speaking to her but there was something about the woman that made her voice seize in her throat every time she went there. It was more than just her beauty, it was the way the older woman looked at her, like she knew many a great and dangerous secret. Yala didn't doubt that she did.

Now standing outside Kwilana's tent, Yala felt the same feeling creep into her lower chest. She tried to ignore it as she followed Kwelek inside.

Alkina let out a small sigh of relief as the others either appeared to accept her request, or at least didn’t seem to mind it too much - or at least that was what she imagined their facial expressions and silence should be interpreted as. She tried to smile encouragingly to the small group now surrounding her, but she wasn’t sure how they would take it. Afterall, she did have a rather specific reputation within the tribe and she could only imagine how it felt to have her suddenly interrupt their meeting and ask to be able to join their little adventure - she knew that if she was in their place she wouldn’t allow her to join.

Throwing these negative thoughts out of her mind she smiled encouragingly at the small group once again, before she took Yala’s outreached hand graciously, adding a thin “thank you” as she led Yala lead her out.
With each step that they took towards Kwilana, Alkina could feel a sense of excitement envelop her: each step lead her away from the prison that had been her home for 17 years, and closer to the adventures she had dreamed of for so long - and yet, with every step she felt an uncertainty growing within her. Afterall, she had never tried to stand on her own two feet; she had always been guided or handled by the Elders in the tribe. This was her first time that she actually did something that made her feel alive - however sad that truth was.
Yet a smile had appeared on her face without her knowing it - she felt that she was doing something worthwhile for once, something exciting.

As the small group stopped outside the hut of the witch known as Kwilana Alkina could almost taste the group’s sudden uncertainty in the air - and it wasn’t because of her heightened senses, no, it was clear that it had suddenly hit their small group who they had just hurried towards and who they were about to interrupt.
Luckily before they could regret their decision a voice interrupted the silence and uncertainty that hung heavily in the air.

"Enter, little ones. You won't find the answers you seek standing out there in the heat", a voice spoke from inside the hut. If she could, Alkina would have glanced between the different group members in order to see who dared to move first - luckily even without her ability to see, Kwelek decided to move first and entered Kwilana’s hut, and as the others followed him the voice spoke again: "So, you hear the call of the mountain as well?"

No one answered for what seemed like an eternity, the silence in the small hut was deafening - and perhaps even more so for Alkina as she couldn’t technically ‘see’ the interior of it. Because of the silence that threatened to deafen her, Alkina decided to do the second daring act of the day - only Kedalup knew what made her do it, but nonetheless she licked her dry lips and opened her mouth.

“They-...” Her voice was even weaker than last time she had spoken, but she swallowed and started over. “We have discovered this… object that…”

She stopped, how was she supposed to explain the current series of event that had lead them to this moment? Would the lady known as Kwilana even trust her? Her? The perhaps most alien and odd individual in the group, that was also blind?
Alkina closed her eyes behind the white clothing piece that covered her eyes, and as she opened them again - something that was purely psychological as it didn’t actually help her to see any better - she started over.

“We have discovered this… object, or artifact-” she motioned towards the object that was still held by Kwelek without thinking, “and it seems to speak of the forbidden mountain, which has lead us to your hut: we seek guidance…?”

The last part of her sentence began to disappear as it escaped her lips and without thinking about it Alkina had turned it into a weak question that echoed towards the others in the group - after all Alkina had only eavesdropped to their initial discussion, so she really wasn’t sure if she had understood the situation completely. Because of this she decided to wait for someone else to speak up and clear the situation.