Sleep, wake up, eat, go to the bathroom, spend time with her family, and go to sleep again.

That had been her constant routine since her birth, and as each day passed from the day of her birth, she found herself taking in the world around her with ease.

The tall brown objects that had green, and sometimes brown, orange, and red canvases were called trees, and she was in awe to find that they were everywhere. Some of the native people lived in these places, which she later learned were called forests. Other creatures inhabited them as well, and they looked nothing like the native people or even herself.

She had stared at them from her mother's arms for a long time, in awe at their beauty and majesty. So distracted was she that she didn't notice her mother chuckling at her.

But then there was most of the people themselves, and her mother also noticed these looks.

They eyed her and her tiny older brother with fear and--sometimes--disgust. Once more, she didn't understand why they were acting this way towards her and her brother, for there were other children their age around them.

But from the sad look her mother had on her face, this wasn't the case.

She couldn't speak, so she couldn't ask the older woman on why she had such an expression on her face. Frustrating too, because there were so many things she wanted to ask her mother, and yet she couldn't even ask them.

Her brother had more luck with speaking, and she guessed it was because he was bigger than her.

So, she supposed the first thing to do was to be patient. In the meantime, she was going to have to learn everything she could about the life she lived, and how to communicate with her family when the time came.

~~~

Another month passed, and things haven't changed.

She was watching from her mother's arms as the people moved their bodies around a giant moving entity that she later learned was called a fire, and they were making sounds and playing instruments that created a unnatural appeal to her as she watched. Beside her and her mother, her brother sat, also watching. He clearly had seen all this before, but its appeal never left him.

But where was he?

She looked up at her mother, and the movement of her head caused the older woman to look down at her, her warm brown eyes loving but sad. The latter confused her, until her mother looked between her and her brother, then looked around, clearly searching for someone before she deflated and sighed to herself.

Why wasn't her other brother here? Where had he been since the day she had been born? Most of all, why did he look so out of place among the people and his younger brother and sister?

She wanted to hear his voice, somehow more than her other brother's, and see his brown eyes gazing down upon her with love and kindness. And she wanted to see his smile, to have him touch her like their mother had.

He never touched her after she was born, not like her other brother, who allowed her to grasp one of his tiny fingers the day after her birth. Who stayed close to her to provide warmth and comfort to her whenever they both were sleeping under their mother's protective presence or the warmth of the fire in the tepee they were in.

She didn't realize she was whimpering until her other brother turned to her, his wildflower eyes filled with what she would later learn was concern.

"Migisi?" he asked. He then said something else, something she didn't understand, but she had a good idea that he was asking her if she was alright.

And, somehow, that only made more tears stream down her face as she continued to whimper.

That was the first day, since her birth, that she cried, really cried. Out of loneliness, out of longing.

Out of something that she feared she would never be able to touch for a long, long time.