“She’s not who she says she is,” I whispered to Hal, glaring toward the lady before me, stood tall and proud, the dark curls framing her slightly weathered skin, most likely from constantly travelling…no, wandering.

Hal’s eyes locked onto mine. “And what if she is? What then?”

His eyebrow twitched, a usual occurrence when he seems to be solving a problem as if he was trying to grab something he just can’t reach.

The lady seemed to hear and bent down slightly to become level with us, a habit she most likely had developed even before we had met. “I don’t lie ya know.”

“Everyone things you’re evil. You’ll be dead soon if you don’t find a good way of convincing us or our tribe you aren’t a traitor, outlaw or any type of threat,” I spat, pleased with the forcefulness of my voice but fearing I may have overdone it.

She smiled at that. It was quite a nice smile actually. I hadn’t seen a genuine smile in ages.

“Now is my death going to be my fault then, or is it going to be your tribe’s since they’re too paranoid to welcome strangers,” she chuckled.

I had no response. Luckily Hal did.

“We aren’t paranoid. We are careful. You wanderers are the ones who are afraid of their future, deciding to not set it down before them and improvising instead.” Hal folded his arms, but only making the woman seem even more amused.

She ruffled Hal’s hair playfully before responding. “We are not afraid of our future. We are merely cautious of what may get in the way of it. What is the point in a future that you can’t alter? That you can’t bend to your will? That you can’t change once things go haywire?”

The lady was surprisingly wise. And still she laughed. She didn’t even seem to be mocking us; she was just genuinely enjoying her experience, which was a reaction we weren’t used to getting. I was starting to realise how are people had taught us to make others scared and never taught us what to do if that didn’t happen. Maybe we are arrogant and paranoid like our enemies say.