William smiled, "Well, it's not exactly white tail deer, but it's not like we're above eating such small critters. Are we?"

William stood up, stretching in the late afternoon sunlight. He turned and looked at Katherine's unfinished shoes. "You, uh, going to finish those?"

The green-eyed woman smiled, "Yup, as long as it takes. I may never be able to survive long term in the desert, but I'm not going to let two strips and a cord of leather beat me either."

William nodded, "Ok, if you need anything, I'll be inside." Katherine nodded and refocused on her shoes. William walked around the side of the house and went in through the front door.

William didn't see Nicolas anywhere, but he did see Celestino's wife, Pavayoyqamtsi. She was sitting at the table instructing Amanda and Ansuya in some sort of repair and thread work for some leather clothes.

As he came in Ansuya looked up and smiled but Amanda had a sour expression on her face. That had been her normal expression since they came out here.

"Afternoon, ladies," William greeted them. He looked around, "Has anyone seen Celestino."

Pavayoyqamtsi pointed out behind her to the kitchen. "Yes, he's in there cleaning and gutting that tiny rodent for dinner. Honestly, sometimes I don't know what to do with him. That's not going to make more than two or three mouthfuls of usable meat, but he always insists on eating what we catch. It's not the wrong answer and I can't fault him for it, but sometimes it might be easier just to toss out everything and go right into curing the little thing's hide." She said this with a warm expression, there was no malice or sarcasm there at all.

William looked at Ansuya and smiled. Pavayoyqamtsi Had recovered amazingly well from her shock at knowing there was a monster living with them. He didn't know if Ansuya had helped to soften her shock with her Tracker techniques or not. Perhaps Pavayoyqamtsi had talked to her some more, and it could be just the initial shock had worn off and she had processed that Aceso was nothing more than a part of nature? It was impossible to really know what was going through her mind, but he was glad to see her smile and acting normal around them.

Ansuya softly asked the older looking woman, "how long have you two been together? Living out here?"

The old woman focused her sharp eyes on the dark-haired woman sitting next to her, "We've been together since we were both teenagers. This house was his parents and they gave it to us for a wedding present. We've been here most of our lives." She looked around the old place with a soft fondness that only old people can really express. The years of memories playing out through her sharp mind, as her eyes showed all the emotion of those years compressed into seconds.

"Did you always have electricity," Amanda asked. William shot her his, 'are you serious? look' while Ansuya looked at her sternly.

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Pavayoyqamtsi smiled mirthfully at the young woman. "What? Do you think we all live out in the boonies, so connected to nature, that we live in teepees and have never seen a lightbulb before?"

Amanda's cheeks stained red as crimson as she looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry. I..I didn't mean any disrespect. I was just asking."

The older woman laughed out loud. "Oh dear, I think I took the joke a bit too far." She focused on Amanda, "Sweetie, I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you feel bad." She smiled in good humor at the sensitivity of the young woman.

Amanda looked up, trying not to look too hurt and not sure how she should respond to what had just happened. She tried to smile, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to offend you or anything. I was just asking. I know life on some reservations aren't exactly resorts. I wasn't trying to be mean or put you down or anything."

Pavayoyqamtsi smiled warmly at the bluntness of the young woman, "In all honesty, when we moved here, we didn't have electricity. But we've had electricity for the last thirty or forty years or so, hard to remember when it all happened actually. But not everything comes from the utilities company, that's why we still have a generator and propane gas."

Amanda nodded and focused a little too much on her sewing project. William saw that she was lacing some kid of beads in a relatively complex pattern of red, white, and orange beads into the leather. He turned back to Ansuya.

"How was your day, young man," the old woman asked.

William smiled, "Oh it went well I think, I only got yelled at three times today for missing the track I was supposed to be following. Have you ever tracked a snake over rocks? It was impossible. But twenty feet away Celstino picked up the trail no problem. It was like he had some kind of…I don't know, Predator vision that allows him to see where the snake had left a signature on the ground. Watching him was amazing."

Pavayoyqamtsi smiled, "Yes he's been doing this a long time."

"There's no 'Predator vision' involved boy," Celestino said from the door to the kitchen as he walked into the room. He kissed his wife on the cheek and sat down heavily at the table looking up at the three visitors. "Out here in the desert, it's not about just being able to read the signs, you have to understand the behavior of the animals and what it is they are doing when they move. It looks easy for me cuz I've been doing it so long." He mopped his face and neck with his hand. Turning to his wife, "When is dinner, honey? I'm tired and hungry."

"Well, if you hadn't kicked me out of the kitchen to clean your latest kill, maybe dinner would be that much closer to being ready by now?" Pavayoyqamtsi said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

He took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips and kissed it gently. "I'm sorry if I encroached upon your sacred domain, my love. Would you like me to assist you in there?"

She smiled warmly, "No, dear. I can manage as I usually do." She winked at Ansuya who smiled at the older looking woman. Pavayoyqamtsi got up from the table and patted her husband's shoulder as she walked past him. She quietly moved into the kitchen and let the door close softly behind her.

Ansuya glanced over the table, "Amanda, why don't you go into the kitchen and help our gracious hosts, it's the least we can do."

Celestino almost laughed, "My wife may kick her out if you send her in there." Amanda got up from the table at a nod from Ansuya anyway and disappeared into the kitchen.

When she was gone and didn't immediately come right back out again, Celestino turned back to William and the Ansuya, "And for the record I didn't yell at you. I was just trying to tell you what I was thinking about and it came out a little garbled." William raised his eyebrows a little. "What? I'm old. I have the right to get a little discombobulated every once in a while."

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