Kit-Quaza became my best friend and the only company my age.
Each time we ran out of supplies my mother would go to fetch them and Grandmother and I would sneak off.
"It's like our own little adventure!" I told her one day, I still rode in her hair but it was starting to get hard. I tipped back and forth trying to hold on.
When we reached the rock wall I hopped out of her hair and sprinted to the door.
"Its us, Kit!" I cheered.
Kit threw her arms around me in a huge hug, "You've gotten bigger again."
"I'm growing," I smiled, "Soon I'll be big enough to tackle you but for now..." I started to tickle her behind the knees.
She fell over in fits of giggles, "I give up! You win."
"Girls, please don't be so loud," Kin-Quaza said tensely. She had her arms wrapped around her body and her head held at a low angle.
"Sorry," I said looking down at my feet.
Kin gave me a thin smile, "You're a good girl Lit-An, just like your Grandmother here." She petted my head, "One day you'll make a fine Licnine lady."
Kit sighed from beside Kin.
As soon as Kin finished speaking, Kit took me by the hand and ran inside.
She took us into an alcove, the walls were green with moss and it smelled like wet plants. On the floor was a pink blanket made of a rough material.
"I got my own room!" Kit smiled widely.
I smiled back.
"It's got a blanket and walls to paint! At night you can even hear the creek," She continued, "It reminds me so much of home." Her face froze a bit at the last part.
"It's a pretty room!" I offered, I could see the tears in her eyes though. I put my arms around her and she leaned into my hair.
"Are you ever scared?" Kit asked in a tiny voice. Tears began to trickle down from her eyes hitting my skin.
"Of course I am," I replied, I thought of my mother's strain and agony at the thought of losing me. "I'm scared of losing my mother."
"It wasn't always like this for me," Kit whispered, "Can I tell you my secrets?"
"You can trust me," I whispered back.
"Where I was born there were berries of all flavours and colours," She said.
"Even blue ones?" I asked.
"Blue, red, green, any colour," She started to smile wistfully, "I had a sister and a brother who were older than me and we used to go out berry picking. I was so tiny then that my sister had to hold me up so I could reach."
"You have a sister?" I asked.
"I had one," She sounded bitter, "She went missing. We never saw her again, then they arrested my brother for something he didn't do. More and more of us just vanished and that was when Kin-Quaza took me away with her."
I hugged Kit even more tightly as she shook with sobs.
"I never got to say goodbye."
We fell into silence for a beat. Then Kit continued in the most monotone voice I'd ever heard, "We traveled for some time, at first we had more of us, but we split off at some point," She closed her eyes, "I don't know what happened to them."
"So this is why you are in this cave?" I asked.
"Your Grandmother found us one night, she took us in and hid us away," Kit replied, some life trickled back into her voice, "She saved us, she is a good woman."
"They took her sons, her seven sons," I said quietly, "They nearly took my mother."
"The Others will take anything until there is nothing left," Kit said.
A tiny spark went off in my head. A very distant memory. Some kind of spirit in the void and her words. My old life flashed past my eyes in rapid succession that I could only make out a few things. I remembered that I died to save others and that I had come to this world with something different.
I scratched at my palm.
"Woah, your hand! It changed," Kit said jumping up in alarm. She jumped a bit too hard and hit her head on the ceiling.
She yelped and began to rub her head.
I looked first at her and then at my hand.
There was nothing.
"Do it again," Kit begged.
I tried to replicate the scratch but nothing seemed to happen.
"I've never seen anything like that," Kit gazed as I held out my palm. Then she darted off.
Before I could think of anything to say she'd brought Kin and Grandmother.
"Her hand was glowing!" Kit exclaimed.
"Let me see," Kin offered her hand for me to rest mine on. She began to rub circles into it and slowly the glow returned.
"What is going on?" Grandmother asked. She leaned over my head to peer down at my palm.
Kin let my hand go and clutched at Grandmother's skirt.
"This child is a miracle, brought to us by our Watcher herself," She spoke softly with reverence, "That glow has been talked about in legends about great warriors and saviors. She is fated to save us all."
Grandmother looked between me and Kin.
"Are you quite certain this is true?" Grandmother asked.
"In our old texts they have written of the ones with the glow, shapeshifters they call them," Kin smiled.
"I'm a shapeshifter?" I asked.
Abruptly Grandmother took my hand, "This isn't the place Kin-Quaza, she is a child. She's not some fable from your books."
"Can you change into me?!" Kit cried out in delight.
"I-I," I wasn't sure what to do.
Grandmother scooped me up and carried me out. On the way back home she said nothing.
Finally, I gathered my courage, "Is it true?"
She stiffened.
"Is it true about being a shapeshifter," I asked.
"Never speak those words, not to another soul, do you understand me?" She said. She held my hands in hers.
"I-I," I wanted to know the answer but I looked down instead, "Yes Grandmother."
She wrapped me in a huge hug.