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He dips his fingers into the pigments again, and leaves a near identical mark on the other cheek and side of her muzzle. "The second part of the request has been answered. And for this favor, Tehya has agreed that for the span of the sun or moon each day, she will lend the wolfdaughter of Asgard her voice."

He again chants for a time, speaking stories and listening to the spirits and recovering his composure for the next part of the ritual, continuing to carefully channel the bond between worlds. At last he begins to speak again.

"And while her many days were filled with happiness and song, the white men settled the same lands. Though the Penawapskewi often moved from one camp to another, one year they came to find their spring homes near where many fish grew and spawned surrounded by houses, and the river dammed and channeled to best use by the white men. And so for the first spring she could remember, her sixteenth, she could not visit her friends and sing to them and hear them singing back. They camped in a colder place than usual. For a time, she was still happy. The white men had a great church where she could listen from the woods and hear new songs. She had new places to explore, and the church gave them blankets. Despite this friendly gesture, not all of the people were friendly, and often they warned the Penawapskewi not to come to the waters and steal 'their' fish, or gather 'their' water. At first the Penawapskewi were amused, for how can one own a fish? How can one own a river? But the men kept them away by force, whatever the church said. And so long away from her friends and their songs, and knowing her friends were bound and claimed by these men who did not sing, did not thank the fish, did not praise the waters, Tehya grew very sad. And then she grew very sick. And all the blankets and warmth would not take her sadness from her, would not take her sickness from her. In her last days, she remembers only her mother crying often, for in delerium, Tehya would ask to visit her friends, and her mother and father could not take her there. She died on the first day of summer, when the strong waters flowing from spring runoff turned to the quiet babble of summer, and even from afar, she could not hear their song. She asks then, the greatest favor, that once each season, with my help, we visit the graves of her people and their neighbors. That we start with her parents, and bring them cool water and clean graves, that I teach you their songs so we can sing to them, and so I can tell her mother that she is ok, and there is no reason to be sad for her. I swear on my oaths as a shaman of many peoples to accompany you in this, and see this task done. Will you attend with me, to carry out this greatest of favors she will ask?"