Trouvaille (#featured)

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"What the hell do you mean by that?" Faye demanded, shocked. The thing was, she really didn't know how to respond to that comment. Of course she was a woman! Did he really think her anything less than that? And what was with that reaction? It was as if she had suddenly grown horns and a tail and demanded him to sell his soul to her in exchange for...well, nothing.

He scratched his head as if he confused himself with his own words. "Forget it," he muttered.

"Forget it? Oh, so you think it's that easy to forget after your sexual harassment?"

"That wasn't sexual harassment."

She screamed with her mouth closed in frustration, her hands balled into fists. "You aren't just an egotistical idiot, you've become a lecher too! I should just have stuffed those flowers in your mouth and let you die!" She stood up and stomped off outside heedless of the rain. She couldn't believe he would repay her that way after she had worried all night about him.

The walk served no purpose but to let her clear her mind, but as long as she was walking, she thought it would be a good idea if she went to where the river ran and check it out for herself. There could be a way to get around it and out of the native lands to catapult her back into civilization. But as soon as the path ended, she bit her lips in frustration. The rest of the woods seemed all the same to her and she knew that if she pressed on, she was bound to get lost.

Behind her, footsteps approached her tentatively, but she didn't move. Whoever it was would only get the silent treatment from her. The footsteps stopped beside her, but she still didn't move, keeping her hands in the folds of the tapa wrapped around her chest. Partly, the reason was she was cold, and partly, because she knew that if her hands were free, she would strangle whoever it was that was beside her.

A hand touched her shoulder, which finally persuaded to look at the newcomer. The chief's wife had a worried face on her. The old woman's hand touched her chest then her lips before cupping her ear. Then she touched her forehead then her chest and made as if she were rolling them in a ball. She finished by cupping Faye's face then smiling.

Try as she might, Faye couldn't figure out what the old woman was trying to say. She looked at the woman quizzically and she responded by pointing at her, then crossed her arms just below her shoulders as it gently waved. Then she brought her hands parallel above her head going down.

That left her even more confused than the first set of gestures. Sure, she knew that cupping her ear meant listening, but that was the only thing she really got. The rest were like a series of alien charades game to her. How was she going to tell the old woman she did not understand when their gestures were different in the first place. But she had to give her some indication so she shrugged slowly with her palms up.

She didn't know if the old woman understood her, but she started laughing. The next thing she knew, she was receiving a pat on the back and the old woman was leaving. There was nothing she could do but blink after her. What had just transpired sealed in her mind that language barriers suck and that she was going to learn something from Chinook even if it killed her. It would really help if she could talk to someone other than Nathan, especially if their host was often away on one errand or another.