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Amitai's foundling kittens waddled like ducklings in a row behind him, imploring him with pitiable mews to slow down, or wait up, or hey, you're really big, why don't you carry us? It was in his nature to want to help creatures big and small, but it wasn't in his guardian's to take in a trio of stray cats just because they had followed him home. He tried in vain to explain this to the tiny, dirty little kittens, but had received only sad eyes and pleading mewls in return. He couldn't keep them, as much as he wanted to, and they hadn't tired of following him--the alley he had found them in was back in town and miles away, by now--so maybe, if he was clever about it, he could lose them!

That was the only reason Amitai was anywhere near Bass'ken Lake. He normally didn't go this far out of town and, as a result, had gotten himself lost in an effort to ditch his noisy, fluffy shadows. However, if he hadn't taken the unnecessarily long way home, he wouldn't have heard a vaguely familiar voice shriek for help. He stopped as the screams cut through the underbrush, and the kittens took that opportunity to dart around one large foot. They scrambled just as fast to get out of its way as Amitai started moving closer to the lake proper, bounding through the grass and leaf litter as their clay savior pushed aside grasping branches. Finally, Amitai found himself with just grass between himself, the lake, and the screeching voice, and he strode purposefully over to the man-eating vines but hesitated once he reached the edge of the muddy pit. He couldn't go in there. He'd sink like--well, a really big stone!

"It's okay! Stop with shouting, and stay still!" Amitai told the screaming figure, trying to find a way to get her out of the mud without having to go into it himself. He paced behind the tree holding her captive, and if one looked close enough they might have been able to see a lightbulb go off over his head as he came up with what anyone else might have deemed a really bad plan.

"Hold on, okay? Very, very, very tight," he instructed the captured girl, wrapping his arms as far around the tree as he was able. His fingers dug into the trunk with a crunch of protest that grew steadily louder as Amitai stepped back and pulled. The tree groaned as if in agony as Amitai's strength slowly won out over its deep-rootedness, finally giving in with a deafening CRACK as it slowly lifted into the air. Amitai staggered backwards with his incredibly heavy load, pulling the tree--and, more importantly, its captive--out of its muddy home. A few feet was all Amitai could manage before gravity won out over brute strength. Amitai carefully released the tree trunk, and the willow found a new resting place a few feet behind its old one. It wasn't much, but it was just enough to pull the girl out of the mud.

"You're okay?" Amitai called around the tree, sounding almost tired. Exhaustion was a new one for him; he had never lifted something that heavy before! Several feet away, the kittens huddled, finally quiet, in the grass and watched with something akin to awe.

Amitai looked down--very, very down--at the mud-covered girl he had just uprooted a tree for and frowned. "But," he protested, perplexed and bemused, "you did, yes. You said, "Help, help, the plants are eating me, oh no," very loudly, and so I came to help." Felt compelled to help, was more like it. Amitai's innate desire to help people wasn't entirely due to his good nature and sheltered upbringing.

His head turned to follow the point of Caoimhe's hand, watching as the kittens overcame their fright at all the noise and movement and started meowing and shuffling towards him. "No," Amitai said the kittens affectionately attacked his foot. "Kind of, not really. I found them earlier, and now they are following me all day. I save them, too, but they didn't yell for me to help. I am saving lots of things today." He watched as the black kitten scratched ineffectually at his unfeeling clay foot before a thought struck him and he looked at Caoimhe meaningfully. "You can't follow me home, though, okay? Kitties will be too hard enough to explain."

"Well, okay, good," Amitai replied, oblivious to Caoimhe's glare in the face of his relief that he wouldn't have to explain why he had come home with a trio of kittens AND a mud-covered girl. "Mama would say no I can't keep you. She'll maybe probably say no I can't keep kittens, too," he added sadly. He watched as the gray kitten tired of Amitai's feet and deserted them in favor of batting at the other Fa'e's.

Amitai's casual gaze turned more intent at her question, and his craggy brow furrowed as he struggled to remember where and when he might have run into the not-quite-damsel in not-really-distress. His memory was spotty even at the best of times, however, and after a moment of quiet contemplation, he shook his head. "No," he said slowly, "I don't know. I don't remember too good. Do you know me? What is your name?"

"Kee-veh," Amitai parroted, trying to place the name to the face. "Oh! KEEEEE-veh!" He exclaimed happily as his moth-eaten memory provided him with a picture that looked very much like the girl standing before him. "I remember now. You look different, a little. Littler and lower and..." he trailed off, pointing at the cheek that mirrored Caoimhe's muddy one. "All dirty."

"I didn't know," he continued, "except with where I'm a Fa'e thing, like you. All the people in the Fa'e-place said, 'Hey, you, you're a Fa'e, except you're not from here, but that's okay.'" Amitai looked down at the frolicking kittens, idly pleased that one of them, at least, he could maybe escape without. "I never met any of the other Fa'e peoples like me and you and the girl with the...things, neither," he continued, gesturing vaguely at his own arm. "You have been here longest. Why are only me and you and girl-with-the-things different?"

In the interests of efficiency...

Amitai proves his worth to Caoimhe by freeing her from the tangle. They chat and play with the kittens for a few hours, eventually determining that they are the same kind of Fa'e -- which is different from what all the other Fa'e seem to be. Neither understands much of their history, or what it means to be a Fa'e. Though Caoimhe is normally terrified of masculinity, Ami's gentle cluelessness puts her at ease (as well as his endearing love of kittens), and she decides that she can trust him... a little. They leave with a casual friendship, which is to say not friend-friends but certainly close enough to wave at each other in the street or grab a cup of coffee sometime.