"Is that better?" Neena's voice was a little strained but not through frustration or emotion. It was purely a physical impact on her tone from standing as straight as she possibly could, on her toes, with her hands high above her head. "I don't think I've quite got it, there's a gap..." Her voice came out puffy as her chest was stretched and unable to draw deeply from the air. She heard a voice from inside the hawe but with several layers of tapestry and blanket between herself and the elderly Thanelaya, it was hard to hear the distinction in her words.

Neena frowned as she looked over her work to try and assess the issue herself. Sand was getting into the hawe from a gap in the layers somewhere and the last sandstorm had seen old Thaneli nearly buried in it, as it had seeped in through the creases. As it was, they hadn't had strong winds in months, so she had been safe for a while but now it was happening again and even small amounts of sand irritated the old woman's skin in her sleep. Grabbing hold of one of the blankets, she tugged a little and managed to cover up the space she had noted but it only made another on the opposing side. Who had put this together? Tugging again to try and see if she could bring some more of the fabric across, it was then that the sheet came undone entirely and Neena - who had been relying on the tension of the tapestry to remain upright, immediately feel from the camel saddles she had stacked three high in order to reach the roof of the hawe. With a sharp yelp, the windmilling of arms and the firm thump of butt on sand, Neena went from being stretched upright like a bow string to being flat on her back in the sand. She coughed as the air was shoved unceremoniously from her lungs.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Neena's head turned upwards and around where she lay, scooping more sand into her hair no doubt, to spy a woman in a brightly coloured kaftan approaching at a great rate of knots. Fantastic. It was just her luck that her blunder would be witnessed by Faruss. She was one of the more... uptight of the Somalus.

"You've knocked over Thaneli's stitching, girl!"

Glancing over to the wooden structure teeming with threads and stretched sewing sections, Neena's upper lip curled a little in distaste. Oh no...

Coughing a little in a sputter to get her chest working again after the shock of hitting the floor, Neena didn't bother getting up. She was in for a telling off anyway.

"Technically," She told the woman with one finger in the air. "The universal force of gravity, knocked over Thaneli's trellis. I was the innocent bystander to its greater powers." Neena's informative nature was rewarded with a kick in her direction that didn't make contact but sent sand over her face. She squeezed her eyes shut and sputtered, blowing her tongue out. Lovely...

"What are you babbling about? Get up and fix Thandi's hawe and then you can shake the sand from the trellis. You're not going to expect her to do it are you?"

"No." Neena offered shaking her head and still on the ground. "But neither should you expect me to do it." This last was muttered under her breath and was thankfully not heard. When Faruss simply stood there with impertinent fists on hips, Neena sighed. As there were no incoming offers of aid, it looked like she was getting back to her feet under her own sweet steam. With a loud exhale of great effort, Neena was up to sitting position in no time. Hard though the thump was, at least sand was mostly soft.

By this time, Thaneli herself had hobbled her way to the door of her hawe and pushed the fabric aside. Her eyes widened when she saw Neena on the floor and her elderly wrinkles drew together across her brow and puckered at her lips with concern.

"Are you alright, child?" She asked Neena, her kindness reaching beyond the divide of free woman and slave girl.

Neena smiled brightly.

"Never better, Thaneli! She assured the woman, without an ounce of issue on her face. "I just need to get back up there and fix that hole. After which I'll dust off your trellis. I'm ever so sorry, but I knocked it over." Neena pouted her bottom lip in the hopes of appeasement. "I promise I didn't mean to - it was an accident."

Her response was a gnarly old hand patting her softly on the cheek and a kind smile.

As if it were the only energiser she needed, Neena hopped back to her feet and set to work once more, offering a pointed look towards Faruss.

"Are you helping, mistress?" She asked the woman with an innocence that could not be denied. And soon, the two of them were working together to set old Thaneli's house back to rights.

By the time the hawe was back in working order, the old woman had thanked the both of them, and Faruss had stormed off clearly upset that her moment to crow over Neena's misfortunate had resulted in an hour’s work she had not counted on for herself, another slave of the Somalu had run through the encampment and skidded to a halt before Neena.

"Ahanti has asked for you." The boy demanded, already turning in order to run back in the opposite direction.

"What does he want?" Neena asked, freezing the slave kid in his tracks.

"What?" He asked, a little dumbfounded.

"What does he want? Why does he want me?" Neena repeated herself, with a tone of innocent curiosity.

The boy just blinked blankly. It was clear that he had never asked a why or how to any instruction he was given and he had not ever heard another slave barring Neena do so before. Though she recognised the kid and knew they had shared a few tasks together and that he should therefore be used to her by now.

She hadn't always been a slave. When someone wanted something from her, she usually attempted to ask why. It had gotten her three hard labour punishments and one slap across the face so far but she refused to quit the habit. As soon as you decided that you weren't entitled to a reasoning in your own behaviour and life, you became a nobody. Someone without individual thought or purpose.

Exhaling again, Neena offered a friendly wave and smile to Thaneli and followed the boy - whose name she didn't remember - back through the camp, towards the main hawe. The boy kept attempting to run, slowing when he realized she wasn't directly behind him and then having to wait for her to catch up, as she simply walked at an efficient pace. She didn't dawdle but neither was she about to speed off to answer someone’s beckoning call.

Her delays in getting to Ahanti's side, however, appeared to have made her presence superfluous by the time she got there.

"I have no need for you." Ahanti commented when she finally reached the hawe he was exiting.

Neena made a face over his shoulder at his two daughters who sat outside the hawe tent flap and started to giggle at her obstinance when their father wasn't looking.

What Neena was not aware of was that Somalu scouts had spotted travellers on the dunes, headed towards the encampment. With no knowledge on what race or origin the men were, Neena had been sent for as a translator. By the time she had reached the man, it had been established that the visitors were men from the Zaire tribe - a tribe of Bedoans whom they could communicate with without the need of an interpreter. So, she was being unceremoniously dismissed.

With a shrug of her shoulders and an expression that lacked caring but suddenly turned bright with inquiry, Neena scooted around the head of the tribe and headed towards Linah's tent. Linah was a woman of intelligent mind that Neena liked greatly. But her husband was a little too interested in her in return for her to visit Linah often. Instead, she waited until her husband was out hunting and supporting his wife and two young children and then would sit with Linah and learn from her. The relationship was a new one and had only been going on a few months which meant that there was always something new about the woman.

"What are you doing?" Neena asked the woman, as she walked over and gracefully dropped into a cross-legged position. The interest in Linah's work was genuine but so was Neena's natural curiosity over the visitors and, from where she was sitting, she could see the men moving closer to meet one another and even hear most of their conversation, so long as they spoke clearly.

Shaking out the sand that was still caught in the curls of her hair, Neena watched as the other woman mixed a paste the colour of wet mud or roasted pig around in the little wooden bowl.

"This is vlek." Linah said with a smile. "It's Illah's birthday today so we're celebrating."

"What do you do with it?" Neena asked, keeping a close eye on the meeting to her left where the men were reaching to touch hands and grasp wrists in greeting.

"You paint with it. On skin." Linah smiled. "Depending on the occasion, it might be symbols of fertility, for a wedding, or of wisdom for a birthday."

As the woman spoke her youngest Illah came toddling out. Aged four, the child sucked on their fingers as she peered into the bowl.

"Can I try some?" Neena asked with an enthusiastic grin that was reciprocated by the woman. She held out the bowl.

Dipping her fingers into the bowl, Neena caught the little Illah's eye and had an idea. Distracted for the moment from the visitors to the encampment, she dabbed her index and middle finger into the paste, which was surprisingly warm from all the stirring it had been given and then began splodging and smearing it all over her face, neck, the top of her chest and down her arms.

"What in the spirits, are you doing child?" Linah asked, agasp at the lack of precision and decor in her painting. There were no symbols, no artistry in what she was doing but she was still pleased with the end result nonetheless.

"Look!" She determined to Illah and her elder brother Huni who had come out to watch too, spreading her arms wide. "I'm a leopard!"

And with a roar, the creation of claws with her hands and the gnashing of her teeth, Neena elicited a laugh from Huni and a yelp from his little sister.

"Run, run, run children! Leopards like to eat little ones!"

And that was it, the game was in action. Within minutes, three or four other children from the surrounding hawes were in on the game and Neena was running, jumping, and leaping about in the sand. No ladylike grace to be seen and all vibrant energy in each shift of her being and every play swipe at the children. Her features shifted between laughter and smiles and mock savagery.

It wasn't until one of the older boys in the group grabbed his bow and, arrowless drew back the string to "fire" an arrow at the carnivorous beast, his lips pursing in the "pew" sound of a projectile that Neena clutched at her side, stumbled dramatically and catapulted herself to the ground, deliberately landing on at least two of the children. Wrestling became the new game, until Neena was panting from laughing so hard, crying out that they had killed her, that the children had felled the wild beast.

From her position - once again on her back in the sand - Neena could see the upside-down figures of Ahanti and their visitors, their conversation clearly stopped in order to watch the distracting kafuffle happening only a few metres away. Ahanti's expression of annoyance only served to have Neena laugh harder.

Whoops.

Watching the men as they glanced her way, Neena had her tipped back into the sand and noted their profiles upside down. Ahanti looked almost as if he were smiling but, given her position, she knew that that would immediately flip into a frown as soon as she was right side up. The other man - a Meier she would guess from how Ahanti had greeted him, was harder to place from her perspective. He seemed to be frowning a little - perhaps in order to get a better look towards the source of the hubbub or simply against the midday sunshine - but also like he was trying to restrain a smile. Upside down, his appearance was tricky to read.

It was as one of the local children collided with Neena's middrift, creating an "ooph" noise from her, that Ahanti's voice was raised deliberately to a volume that would carry. Summoned to the Leier and lord almighty - apparently he did need her after all - Neena warded off the kids who were hard to dissuade before pressing her finger tips to one of the still wet vlek patches on her arms - one of the few now not stuck with sand - and then dashing one of the elder girls with a few splodges on her face.

"I dub thee, baby leopard." she told the girl, and suddenly the game had started all over again, Neena released from her responsibilities as monster and villain.

Dusting herself down a little, her linen tunic short and simple with a plain wrap around kaftan, Neena shook out her hair again and headed over to join the men, her feet bare across the hot sand.

Once she was brought before then, it became clear they had no need for a translator. So why they had called her over Neena had little idea.

The strangers were three a piece. An older man who carried himself with the assurance of someone set in their ways and defiant in their position in life, more from the fact that he was now too old to change it. The younger kept looking around, a hand on his weapon like he was hoping a wild animal might suddenly attack in order for him to play hero. The third was clearly the leader of the group. A man with the perception to witness all but stay focused on the task at hand. She kept her large, dark gaze on him. For he was the one who spoke.

With a frown at his words, Neena folded her arms across her chest. The Somali fed her. But only enough to maintain her at the weight she was when she arrived with them; a weight that was most definitely slight given had manner of living before she was taken by the Gesin. But the man before her wasn't to know that.

"I have strength enough." She answered, despite the question not being directed at her, and then turned to raise a questioning brow at her Leier. "What's this about?" she asked, showing no hesitation in outright questioning a Leier despite her position as his tribe's slave.

The man before her wasted no time in explaining what the business was that had been arranged between him and Ahanti. She felt a momentary spark of hurt that she had been sold on to another owner; a moment of injured pride and wounded self-esteem that she had been deemed either unnecessary or unwanted (or both) but a tribe that she had found a semblance of a place in. It wasn't like the Somalu were her home and it wasn't as if she had been the most perfect of slaves. But she was at least skilled and hardworking and, regardless of asking questions and speaking her mind, she did capitulate to instruction, for the most part. So, to be handed away like property and defined as unwanted was something that any human being was likely to find hurtful. Even one who wasn't actually bothered whether she stayed or went.

With a slight frown at the fact that she had been "sold" - for damnit did she hate the terms that were used to refer to slaves and their position as property - Neena gave no other immediate reaction. She had no issues with slavery. It was a significant, important and often required status of being for the Bedoan tribes to exist. She had seen slavery operate within many a kingdom appropriately and professionally without harm or injury done to those who were either subservient or master. There was nothing shameful about being a slave. She just didn't like the terms when they were applied to her. For slavery - right or wrong, regardless - was the last thing she wanted for her own life. It was, in fact, the exact opposite of the freedom and liberty that she sought with seemingly every breath. Perhaps that was why she rebelled in small ways the way that the she did. An outspoken statement here, a question there... walking at her own pace to comply with an instruction. It gave a mirage of choice that made her current lack of freedom bearable.

Terminology aside, however, it mattered little whether she was owned by the Somalu or this guy - whoever he was and wherever he was from. Slavery was slavery. And while things could always be worse with a new and different owner, they could also be better. So, there was little to fear. Neena wasn't someone who really dwelt on the maybe and the possible. Instead, she strode forwards just taking life as it came to her.

When the man stated that she was bought and paid for - that she would be coming with him and leaving the people of Somalu behind - Neena simply shrugged one shoulder, dipped her head and moved several steps forward, towards the man's camels and followers.

"Okay." She stated with a surprising lack of argument. Or, at least, surprising likely to the people around her, given her display of independent thought and intent only moments previously. But Neena had no concerns with being purchased by someone new. She wanted full freedom so, until she had it, it didn't matter who possessed her until then.

She didn't argue or turn back towards the Somalu encampment - mostly because she possessed nothing that she wanted to return to take with her. The tunic on her back was her only piece of clothing, her leather thongs the only shoes and she possessed only a single piece of jewellery - the silver bangle fused around her wrist. What would she turn back for exactly? She knew a few of the tribespeople and even liked some of them but they would be told she had been sold. It wasn't like she would just disappear without explanation.

Giving herself an internal and mental shrug over it all, Neena was already moving instinctively towards the camels of her new owner when he offered her the choice of riding or walking.

Surprised at the offer - for not many people were considerate enough to ask or offer which mode of transport would be preferred for a common slave, Neena's eyes widened a little at the outstretched hand and arm that beckoned her to the back of the camel. Whilst she was a lean and average in height, Neena was by no means light. That being said, the arm extended to her was well defined and the hand large. He would have been able to lift her, were she to take hold.

Her eyes narrowing a little in thought, Neena eventually shook her head.

"I'm fine walking, thank you." She told the man and then turned to start striding in the direction she had seen the men approach from, regardless of whether or not her new owners followed; hopefully her determination to head in the right direction would encourage the man not to use that rope he held. She had always hated to be tied up. It made her nauseous.

Her stamina and endurance were particularly strong and she had already glanced over the possessions on the animals. These three had not made a long journey from their original destination. There were no hawe resources, blankets or coverings. They had never intended to journey far enough to require a sleep before returning. Ergo, their encampment couldn't be more than a few miles. Even in deep and hard-going sand, a few miles were nought to Neena. She had walked five times such a distance in a day before when food was scarce and she needed to reach a new destination by nightfall. She might not have been a sprinter or strong athlete. But her legs were capable and powerful. She could rely on them to get her from A to B, regardless of the distance between.

On the other hand, she also disliked animals. At least to ride. To play with, to have fun with? Sure. But to ride for long periods of time, getting blistered on your rear and then spending the rest of the day smelling like them? Not so much...

When the men caught up to her in a matter of seconds, Neena barely glanced around as she carried on walking, the gentle breeze over the dunes tugging at her curly hair and the material of her cinched tunic. Her kaftan flew out beside her revealing long and highly toned legs as she strode across the hot sands. She narrowed her gaze against the dust in the air.

As they walked, she started to hum a little under her breath. The fictional tune continued for a few minutes before she turned to look up at the man who had purchased her.

"What's your name?" She asked him point blank and without preamble. Neena wasn't one for small talk.

Hasani. Handsome.

Neena almost snorted. It suited him at least. But it seemed arrogant for a family to name their child such. Not that she could complain when she had chosen Neena for its meaning. At least the man had grown up just so. It would have been horrendously embarrassing to have such a name and then grow into an ugly being.

After the man had given his name, Neena had simply nodded. She would have normally offered her own in return but Ahanti had already spoken hers aloud so it seemed redundant to repeat introductions.

She knew the Zaire a little. Famed for their philosophy and science, they were perhaps one of the more accepting tribes of outsiders, understanding the way of the world and seeking to continue to learn about it in peace. She had heard some members of other tribes call them weak or pacifist (as if it were an insult) but Neena had never met anyone from the Zaire and therefore had not made her own decision on the matter. Neena was generally quite quick to judge but she never allowed another's gossip or opinion to affect her own. She liked making assessments based on her own experiences over anything else. But for that she needed her own experiences. And for that she needed freedom. How she was supposed to get it, though, when she kept changing hands, she wasn't sure... She could only hope that he Zaire were encamped close to a city or settlement and she could run for it when no-one was watching...

As for the man himself, it was clear that he was either the Leier of the Zaire or an eldest son of him. The amount of respect shown to him by Ahanti would never have been bestowed in that way were Hasani not so close to the highest point in the Zaire hierarchy.

Stewing on that idea for a little bit, Neena went back to humming. Not much of a singer, her voice was neither awful nor impressive. She could hold a note and tune and her creativity made the melody she constructed as she went something interesting to listen to if nothing else. But she was far from a revolutionary singer or talented songbird. She just liked the spontaneity and autonomy of humming to herself if she wasn't otherwise occupied.

Hasani was the one to break the pause in the conversation, mentioning her language skills. Neena glanced up and over her shoulder at him from where she walked at his camel's head.

"I do." She told him, pausing before she conceded to add further detail - what could it hurt to reveal that could be at least useful? "I know all the Bedoan dialects, Coptic, Greek and a little Hebrew." She told the man. She had never perfected the art of Hebrew given that she had spent such a little amount of time in Judea. It was only back when she had been a ship's bilge rat and they had occasionally docked in Judea that she had been able to pick up bits and pieces. She had never ventured there herself. She also knew a little Latin as one of her crewmates at that time had been half Roman. But she didn't think that to be of much use to her new owner so she didn't mention it. Her words were not spoken with any kind of arrogance or superiority at her language skills. More a statement of fact; laying out her abilities for her new owner to assess.

When he asked how she had come to be with the Somalu, Neena had given an awkward asymmetric role of her shoulders in a shrug.

"I was hungry and careless and arrested. Then I ended up with the Somalu."