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Lucas steps into the cat people's midst. Perhaps dangerous, but its a show of trust. Then he sits, crosslegged so he could not be ready to fight and arm himself even if he wished to.

"Thank you Elder Shadow. I wish we had met under different circumstances where we might have had a better sense of one another. I see much that is good here, though you have made yourselves our enemy. This makes me sad, but it is so.
When the white men first came into my people's land, many of the people of the land thought there was food enough for everyone, for the herds were great. But some of the tribes knew of the tales from the East. They said the white men would destroy our land and the herds and the wolves and all else if they did not fight. And so they would not talk, they would not ask, they fought. And for the act of our neighbors, the Cheyenne too suffered. The white man's soldiers did not want to see us, they wanted to see savages. For if you can make every man the same in your eyes, then it is easy to kill them and never question if what you have done is right or wrong.
And then the white men came with settlers, and still they did not see the Cheyenne. They saw a thing that was not like them. We would not bow before their God, and we asked if their God was good, why do his servants shoot buffalo they will never eat from trains, just to shoot them? Why do his servants kill the wolves even far away from their sheep and cows? Why do they grow so much and not share their food? This did not seem right.
And they told us that their God was good, and their way was good. And they sent their preachers and soldiers to make the Cheyenne and others of the plains good. They took friends and family away from their lands, away from their family and friends, because their way was just and holy and good. And because in their eyes, we had committed great evils. And they were right, and they were just, and they were holy because they were more powerful than we, and could declare themselves right and hear no word in response if they did not wish to.
I have dedicated my life to the ancient medicine. To the healer's path. And first it is to healing the hearts and wounds of my people. The wounds inflicted because someone who was powerful wanted to either see us killed for our sins against their ways and values, or those who sought to make us men like them, right and just and good. And who took friends from friends, and family from family.
You make me sad, Elder Shadow, and all of you. Because you are powerful, and just, and right... and angry, because human's ways are not yours, you declare yourself justified. You found one that in many ways was like you, and now seek to make her 'good' in your eyes. But she is my friend. So now I can only imagine how my ancestors felt when their friends were taken. Chris has a mother, a father, friends so close that they may be family - but because she shares a form with you, you believe you are right in making her a thing like you.
And like the white men who believed they were justified, you point to mother Gaea and what has been done to her, and call it a crime against all the tribes of men, seeing them not as individuals, but as a whole, just as the people who took our land did not see the Cheyenne, did not see the First Nations... they saw savages. You are strong, and so you take what you wish. Your ways were offended, so you take what you wish. You do not care what her will is, you do not ask. You take, you blame, you destroy, and when you see a thing like you that you can make good in your eyes, you claim yourself holy and justified.