"Sienna, you need to wash your hair"

"Sienna, feed your brother!"

"Sienna, your supposed to be collecting berries for dinner!"

"Sienna, why aren't you looking after your brother?!"

"Sienna, where are you?"

"Sienna this, Sienna that! why can't I play any more?" Sienna grumbled from outside her tent. Her mother had called her again, amongst all the other times that she'd called her daughter throughout the day, Sienna had got more and more fed up.

"Here I am mother." Sienna announced as she was walking into her family's tent.

"Ah good." Sienna's mother turned away from a fire in the middle of the tent to face her daughter.

The mother and child could of been twins if it wasn't for their ages. They both had long black hair, though Sienna's mother's was turning grey with age, and blue eyes that seemed to stare into you a little too much at times.

The only difference in their faces was that the mother's face was covered in wrinkles and was usually set into a disapproving look. Just like it was now. The firm and annoyed look that seemed to constantly inhabit the mother's face was back, and this time she was even more annoyed with her daughter.

"Sienna! I called you back only a few minutes ago, and look at you! all filthy from mud! What did I tell you about playing with the pigs?!" Sienna's mother scolded.

Sienna just looked down. She had heard her mother scold her too many times now and knew that it was best just to let her rant on. "Go was your face and hands at least - and be quick! dinner is almost ready!"

"Yes mother." Sienna nodded and scurried quickly outside.

Sienna looked around her village. Consisting of about twenty tents in an cone shaped shapes, the already fading light made the fires inside begin to show. Only the older children and the young were outside with a couple watchful eyes of the adults.

"Sienna!" A younger child cried happily when she saw her.

"Holly!" Sienna greeted.

"Play with us!" Holly asked pointing to the pig's mud where three other children were waiting.

Sienna looked wishfully at the mud game but shook her head. "Mother wants me back after I've washed, perhaps tomorrow."

The girl's face looked crestfallen at the news but nodded her head. "Ok then." Running back to the mud she began to throw some at her friends who threw some back.

As Sienna finished washing the last of the mud off her arms one of the village elders joined her.

"It's going to rain tomorrow." He said taking a sip from the water upstream from her.

"I hope not." Sienna said. "How do you know anyway?" She asked.

The old man laughed with a smile. "When your my age, you'll know Sienna." He said.

"I will?" Sienna gasped. "But I am not filled with the knowledge you are Jonjaho."

"You'll see." he said walking back to the camp.

Sienna realized that she had taken a long time washing and rushed back to her tent expecting to be scolded again by her mother.

But she wasn't, instead praised about how good she had been getting all the mud off. "Still, we can't do anything about those furs tonight, you'd better put your night furs on early."

Sienna quickly got out of her clothes and into her night furs and sat in front of the hearth at the centre of the large-ish tent.

The fire soon warmed her and her shivering shoulders stopped from once they'd started when she'd changed.

"Igdf" Her one year old brother said to her.

"That's right Ihil, food." Sienna grinned.

Their mother poured out a stew containing a few vegetables found around the camp and the last of the Ibex that had been killed a couple days ago.

When they all were settled with their bowls and spoons they ate in silence each contemplating something different.

Sienna was thinking of the mud game she had been playing before and how fun it was, but her mother thought about how her daughter, seventeen summers that year, was close to becoming a woman of the tribe. She knew she needed to teach her daughter her ways, if only to help her, but her lively spirit was still a child. Until the day of her womanhood ceremony, the child's spirit would be exactly that, a child. The mother wished she could think of a way to get the girl to make her own decisions, not of her spirit.

They ate for longer than they did normally. For as they weren't going out, they wouldn't have to rush.

As they got into their sleeping furs Sienna closed her eyes and drifted off to the beat of the drums that began to start of the tribe's dance.

The next day Sienna sat scowling at her tent's entrance, inside as it was raining hard.

"Jonjaho was right." She thought to herself in annoyance. She wanted to go out and play, but she wouldn't be able to in this rain. She could go to the community tent, but she would have to bring her mother, and she didn't usually go there.

"Your up early." Sienna's mother said when she got up a little while later.

Sienna nodded choosing not to speak.

"Been up long?" She asked.

"No, only a few minutes." Sienna lied not wanting her mother to have a go at her for not making a fire or something.

"Alright then. Lets get breakfast eaten and when Ihil's woken up we'll go through some medicine plants and their uses again." Sienna's mother said.

Sienna groaned silently whilst rolling her eyes in annoyance. This was why she didn't like raining days. If there wasn't any 'you must learn these plants quickly' lessons, she wouldn't have minded the raining days.

When Ihil had woken and had his morning meal he was taken, quickly, to the community tent. As his mother was busy he was going to be watched by another mother along with others, baby and mothers alike.

"So, what's this one?" Sienna's mother started with a simple and easy plant from her newly collected collection of plants.

Sienna looked at the large green leafed plant. It had a circle of four leaves at each level and, as it was it's time, had a cone-like shape of small white flowers which, during the season, would turn to purple.

She then lent forward and sniffed the plant. The signature whiff of the plant made it obvious that it was peppermint.

"Peppermint." Sienna finally said.

Her mother nodded. "Good, and it's uses?"

"You can put it in tea and food for seasoning, but the medicinal uses for it are... to help relive pain and it's good for stomach aches?" Sienna asked.

Her mother nodded. "That's right." She said. "How about this one?"

The daughter looked at this plain looking plant. it's flat triangle yellowy-green leaf didn't look like much but was in fact a very important plant for many illnesses. The daughter knew a lot about the plant as at the moment it grew plentiful near where they were camped and was used a lot.

"It's Aloe, it can be eaten, so not toxic, and helps with ulcers in your mouth. If you have a wound it can be used to help clean and stop infections form occurring, it's very good for burnt skins and is good to use everyday for smooth skin." Sienna said.

"Very good, it can also help you have bowl movements if you struggle to do so." Her mother praised her but also told her of the lesser known or used medicinal use. "Alright, this one?" She questioned.

"Long pepper. It is most used in meals as it helps your appetite. People who have runny noses and eyes that sneeze a lot should eat this in their meals until they are better." Sienna said.

Sienna's mother was just nodding when a woman burst into their tent. "Doifis! please help! Sholo's been hurt!" She begged.

"Sienna, make a bowl of hot water, and make some teas separately." The mother instructed as she got up. Addressing the woman who was crying she asked where the man was.

When Doifis had gone the woman, who'd managed to stop crying, began to cry again. Sienna saw that she was in shock. The woman didn't seem to realize that she was soaking wet.

Sienna grabbed a couple spare furs and put them on the floor next to the hearth. She then grabbed some spare clothing and a drying fur and went to the woman.

"My Sholo! My poor baby! How could this happen to him!" She wailed.

"Don't worry Leigha, he will be fine." Sienna told her. Her mother had told her not to make promises that she couldn't keep when it came to healing the wounded, for sometimes even the Great One wanted to take her children, but Sienna wasn't the main healer, her mother was, an she needed to calm the woman down.

"Dry yourself whilst I make you tea." She instructed and turned to the large bowl of water which had been boiling away.

With practiced skill she tipped the large bowl into another that was filled halfway and made it slightly hotter than luke-warm for her mother. Then she got some more water and filled the heating bowl with more water to heat up.

As she'd put less water in to boil it wouldn't take as long. Sienna also began to add in plants that she knew that would help the distressed woman.

Chamomile went in first, it helped to relax someone who was upset and/or unable to relax.

 Lavender then was added, it also calmed people down but also served as a nice smell for the drinker.

Sienna also added things into the tea she was making for the taste, no-one would drink a tea that tasted of hot water with things floating around in it.

Stinging nettles went in, carefully as they stung before being boiled, for their cucumber-like taste.   

Fresh raspberry leaves were added for some raspberry flavour.

Sienna mixed them around with a bone ladle and then scooped up an cup that had been set nearby with many others for the woman.

Easing it into her hands she warned the woman to it's hotness and then opened the tent's opening to help get the injured person in when her mother was able to.

Peering out she saw and heard the rain had grown heavier but with a sigh of relief, saw that they were finally coming to the tent.

Four men carried the injured man into the tent and to the awaiting bed of furs.

At the sight the woman wailed as Sienna saw why.

Blood was seeping through bandages of furs. Sienna realized that her mother must have put them on.

"Sienna, I need a Yarrow, Comfrey, Chiraita, Henna, and Aloe poultice, quickly!" Sienna's mother demanded in her in-the-middle-of-healing kind of tone.

Sienna rushed around to the baskets that she knew contained the plants. The most important plants were labelled always.

After crushing the large quantities of herbs and mixing them with some hot water to warm it up Sienna took the poultice to her mother and one at a time helped take a blood soaked bandage off and applied the healing herbs onto the wound and then wrapped them back up tightly with new bandages.

It was mid afternoon when they were finished and the man, Sholo, was still unconscious, it was partly a good thing as the wounds were bad.

"He's lucky to be alive." Sienna's mother told the mother when the tribe leader, Spirit talker and the rest of the family had joined the tent.

"It's a good thing we have one of the largest tents" Sienna thought to herself.

"How did it happen?"

The hunt leader looked sadly off into the far distance as he remembered what had happened.

"We were going after a herd of bull reindeer, there was a weak old bull who had been injured battling his brothers so we were aiming for him. As we thought it was safe enough to go on foot rather than on horse, we circled around it and got closer. What Sholo found out, we weren't the only thing that was hunting the bull. A Lion was as well. A Lioness. When we heard his screams we came to his rescue and killed the Lion, but it had done a lot of damage already."

There was silence, except for the mother, who moaned with pain for her child, as we all tried not to imagine how the incident took place.

The Spirit Talker spoke next. "The Great One has spoken. She did not want the bull yet, Sholo was the closest and therefore was the one attacked. The fact that he is still alive, thanks to Sienna and Doifis, is that the Great One only wants to remind us that not all of her animals are for us."

"And of his spirit?" The mother asked.

"His spirit is scarred. He has come nearly face to face with the Great One. It is not often that you see the one who looks over you and return. But I feel that should he be fine, all be it more scared, he will no longer hunt, instead will be one of our protectors."

The woman sighed in relief, being a protector was a great honour, the Great One has helped another of her children.

"Sholo will still bear scars." Doifis said "However, with the herbs that we have at the moment, we should be able to reduce the scarring as much."

Sienna stood politely beside her mother not saying anything. As the daughter of the healer, she was expected to become the next healer, but only if the tribe agreed to it. Custom told Sienna to stand beside her mother and not speak, unless directly talked to. Like now.

"What does our next healer think?" The tribe leader asked.

Sienna looked up from the ground in shock. She was to speak?!

"Yes, what does Sienna think?" The mother nodded.

"Oh, err, well, his wounds are big and could be thought of being clawed, but with the injuries on his arm and stomach, I think there was one paw being used to hold Sholo down, and the other to claw his stomach, my guess is it is about, my heght, on all fours." Sienna said.

Doifis looked at her crossly as the mother looked shocked and told her off. "Your supposed to say how you think he will heal, not how he was hurt or how it was done!"

"Wait Doifis, Sienna, you are correct with the size of the beast, but how did you know what it did? I didn't tell you, and you wasn't told before." The lead hunter asked.

Sienna shrugged. "It was the injuries he sustained. See, there is one five clawed claw mark on his body in the middle, and then other similar scratches going in the same motion, not changing the side that it ended at." She explained to them.

"Thank you Sienna. Now, let's leave the healers to their healing, Minno, you too." The tribe leader said getting up.

"But my child, he's hurt, I can't leave him!" Minno cried.

"He is twenty-five summers, he is not a child, there's nothing you can do, right Doifis?" The tribe leader said.

Doifis nodded. "The best thing you can do for him is to look after his family. You can come and see him tomorrow if you want to, my tent is always open."

With this reassurance, the mother was persuaded to go back to her tent though both Sienna and Doifis knew that she'd be back.