Hello everyone. This is my first fanfiction, but don't spare anything. If you feel like it's going too slowly, please stick with it. This first chapter will probably stink, but it will get better with experience. I don't own anything in AC, just my OC's.

Thanks for viewing and please enjoy!

August 3rd, 1761

Fires burned outside in the village center, causing my eyes to water in the summer heat as I peered around the corner of my longhouse. All around, members of my tribe prepared for the ceremonies that would take place tonight: warriors showed off a large buck they had taken down this morning, women mixed meat and vegetables for the feasts, and a large group of children rushed back into the tribe, brandishing the variety of feathers that they had found in the forest. Some feathers were those of songbirds, but I noticed that Lalawethika managed to find an eagle's feather, large and dull against the smaller and more colorful feathers. A few men and women of the tribe sat at the edge of the fire, passing around the large firewater bottle and taking sips in turns. Even at this distance, the smell of it made me gag.

"Kunishoka, please come back in here! You need to help me mix this poultice!" I heard my father call from deeper inside our longhouse.

I suppressed the sigh building up in my throat and turned away from the entrance to our home to answer him. My father is a kind man, but always busy. Being the tribe's only healer has taken its toll on his bones. He rarely rests because he has to constantly take care of one ache or another. I sit down beside him as I think and pick up a mashing rock.

"Tell me, young one, what do you use to calm a stomachache?"

I snap back into the longhouse. My father is quizzing me. He always does this. Even though my memory is sharp, I can't help but glance at the large piles of leaves in the back, stacked neatly depending the aliment.

"Devils claw, father"

"Correct, what do we use for burns?"

"Wasn't that a poultice of oak bark?"

"Yes. How about poisoning?"

That one was tricky. Poisoning of any kind was rare in our village. "Mint leaves?"

Father shook his head and laughs slightly. "No, Kuni. We use dock leaves to purify the blood of most types of poison. Do you know who this poultice we are mixing is for?" When I shake my head, my father continues his work. "It is for Cathaecassa. His fever broke this morning, and these herbs will give him strength for tonight's festivities."

My father's words remind me of our recurring argument we had this morning. "Why can't I go to the festivities tonight? There is food, and there will be dancing. Now that the colonists have settled so close to our lands, there has been hardly any cause for celebration! All the other children are going! Please?!"

"But there is also firewater. The adults of our village lack any kind of common sense. I have seen firewater's effects firsthand, young one. It destroys people. As long as that foul drink is in our village, I cannot permit you to attend a celebration. Please understand, Kunishoka. I'm doing this for your own good."

"But I-" I'm unable finish this sentence before Methoataske appears at our entrance.

Methoataske is a kind woman, young and beautiful. Although she has none of her own, she is like a mother to all of the children in our tribe, especially me, considering my lack of a mother. She seems to be the only one who does not care that my mother was a colonist, except for my father, of course. She is next in line to be the Clan Mother, but her mother is still young, and my father says that Methoataske will not get the position for a long time.

Methoataske's face is furrowed with concern, and she speaks quickly and quietly. "Tenskwatawa, Cathaecassa's temperature has risen again. He did not heed your warning and decided to participate in the hunt this morning with the other warriors. He refuses rest before the feast. Do you have any more feverfew to cool him down?"

"Kuni," My father turns to me. "You brought the feverfew to Cathaecassa last night. Is there any left?"

"I don't think so."

"Fair enough." My father sighs, puts down his mashing rock, and stand up. "I will need to gather more feverfew at the top of the Highpoint. Would you like to come with me, young one?"

My eyes widen. Children as young as I am normally are only allowed to go as far as the lake, and the Highpoint is over the lake and up the north path. Methoataske looks skeptical now, and for a heartbeat I wonder if I should stay in the village, but the thought leaves my mind as soon as it enters.

Methoataske speaks before I can. "Kunishoka is still small. Can she handle a journey such as this?"

"Kuni is five," my father replies, placing a hand on my shoulder. "And she will need to learn where the herbs grow in our territory if she hopes of succeeding me when I pass on. Besides, we all need to get out in the fresh open air and stretch our legs every once and awhile. So long as she stays close to me, she won't get hurt."

For a moment, Methoataske's eyes flash with an unknown emotion, so brief I thought I may have imagined it. But she shakes her head and laughs, her eyes bright once more. "Very well. I'll tell my mother where you have gone. But don't be gone for too long. Or I will send a search party for you." With that, she exits.

Father and I are left alone. My excitement is threatening to bubble over. I was really going out to see some of our territory! I would be going farther than the children who were 10 years old were going. "Did you really mean that? I can really come?"

"So long as you behave yourself. Do what I say, and don't wander off. We'll leave when the sun is at its highest point."

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Our tribe is the last tribe remaining in the east out of the Shawnee. When the colonists came to close to their territory, the rest of the Shawnee moved. Some say that they moved west, where there are less settlers, and the French were rumored to be much kinder to Natives like us than the English. They hunt the beavers that populate the rivers and sell them to get by in an unfamiliar land.

The village we live in is located at the bottom of a large mountain, one that we refer to as the LakeRock. Few people can scale it: only those who can climb up cliffs as easily as an eagle can fly have ever made it to the top. Mothers like to tell their children that the great spirits make their homes at the top of the LakeRock so they can watch over us and bless us with good weather and harvests.

South of the LakeRock is its namesake. Our lake is located not far from our village, and children are taught to swim in its shallows at a young age. When children reach the age of ten, they are taught to climb trees: men to hunt, and women to gather the leaves and such that grows towards the highest parts. The lake also provides water for our crops.

To the east and the west lie our hunting grounds. Father says that as long as we follow the path the sun takes, we will never be lost. Warrior men usually take their bows and go hunting for the tribe in either direction. I have no appetite for hunting, but sometimes they take the boys on a hunting party, and they will manage to bring back a small animal.

To the south are were the colonists are. Methoataske says that they built large longhouses made of rocks and hunt using sticks that shoot fire. People from our village may sometimes go into town to trade the meat or crops for other colonial made items, like the firewater.

To the north, over the LakeRock, is a valley. There is another tribe that lives in the valley, but father says they like to keep to themselves.

In order to get to the Highpoint, father and I start our journey by canoeing south across the lake. It takes a while, but we eventually reach the other side before we head up the slope towards the Highpoint. Along the way, my father tells stories about when he was young and his father would take him here to gather herbs. One time, he wandered off and nearly got trampled by a herd of deer. Another time, we nearly fell off the cliffs at the Highpoint. I know they are just stories to scare me, but I wouldn't run off anyways. Walking in the woods alone scare me. I can't even walk to the lakeshore without someone with me.

As we talk about my father's adventurous youth, I feel the need to ask a question that had been on my mind for a while.

"Father, can you tell me about my mother?"

My father's eyes soften at the mention of her. "She was a beautiful women. Patient and smart. Beautiful as well. She wandered into the woods one day not far from here, and I lead her back to her town. We continued to visit each other for almost four seasons, until she said she had to leave, and gave you to me. I haven't seen her since." He slows his pace to allow me to catch up to him as we march up the steep path through the woods along the cliff.

"You have her eyes, you know. I have no doubt you'll grow into a fine young women, like her." He finished as we approached the Highpoint. I wanted to question my father more about my mother, but our arrival at the top of the Highpoint delays my thoughts.

The Highpoint was, no other word to describe it, beautiful. The aroma of the place was enough to make a man cry. Flowers and herbs of all colors bloomed in the sweet summer breeze, and at the edge of the cliff, you could see for miles. A twisted trunk grew on the edge, and I walk over to the edge to see what was below. If someone climbed onto the tip of the trunk, they could dive into the lake. The sun was gradually making its way down, turning the water golden.

"Do you like what you see?" My father calls out. He is behind me, no doubt picking the feverfew Cathaecassa needs.

"Father, is it a bad thing that my mother was a colonist?" I ask.

"Of course not, Kuni. It does not change who you are. Why would you ask?"

I hesitate. "A few days ago, Lalawethika pushed me into the lake. He said that I shouldn't be in the village because my mother was a…'paleface', and because my skin is lighter than everyone else in the tribe. He said that I should go back to my mother. I've seen some of the ways the older men look at me, and I know they agree with him. Is he right? Do I really not belong here?"

The look in his eyes nearly made me cry. Sadness and understanding burn in their depths. "Come here little one, and sit with me."

I obey, sitting on the grass as the flowers tickle my skin and my father kneels behind me. He uses his gentle hands, a product of many years of healing, and takes out my braids. He talks to me while re-braiding my hair.

"They are wrong. One day, I will pass on into the other world, and you will be the new healer. If they need a healer, they will come to you. I will not lie to you; some people are upset because of my actions, but I will never consider you a mistake. Your place is here, and you will not be leaving for a long time."

He finishes my hair in silence, and we embrace silently. I rub my eyes as he gathers up the feverfew. "You're tired?" he asks me. I nod.

"Good. I'd imagine so. Let's go back to the village."

That's the first chapter. Sorry if the names are a bit confusing. Kuni's gonna get another name later, but how will be a mystery for now.

In case you were wondering where I got those herbs, here is the link: .