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"I have no idea. But he does."

Shee pointed to a dirty little boy that had just come up to her and tugged at her skirt. He was swathed in a heavy, woolen shawl, and carried two more in his hands. He offered the significantly cleaner one to Shee, which she accepted and threw over her shoulders, wrapping it around her body.

The little boy turned and walked up to Shane, looking up at him with a strange expression on his face. He held out the shawl to him.

"Oh, I've been here. But just never without Wraith. He always takes care of these sorts of things. And of course, Mani here always helps us along as well."

She ruffled the boy's hair fondly. Mani ducked out from beneath her hand and stuck his tongue out at her. Seeing Shane's gestures, he grabbed Shee's hand and pulled her along towards a particularly large mountain; turning back to look at Shane, he gave a sort of grunt that could be taken to mean anything.

"Not too far, thankfully. Maita doesn't live that far up in the mountains, so we won't have to do any sort of climbing. Walking will suffice." Shee replied.

They had reached an ancient trail marked into the rough, Peruvian landscape.

Mani opened his mouth to speak. "There is trail all the way to Maita's door. Follow trail and we should reach house in few hours."

His eyes drifted towards the trail; it snaked up the dry, hard mountain side and disappeared into the distance. Stunted olive patches of vegetation spotted the ground around them. Taking a deep breath, and then coughing on Shane's cigarette smoke, Mani started his way up the path in front of both Shee and Shane.

"Auqui Maita is... hard to describe. He's very old, and very smart. He always know exactly what to say and when to say it. He was offered an appointment onto the Peruvian Council, but Maita turned it down. No one really knows why, but I suspect it's because he enjoys his peaceful life up in these mountains.

He's always striving to reconcile the Incan way of life with inevitable modernization. He recently made great strides in the field of agriculture, which was a traditional Incan strength. By genetically altering certain vegetables, he's made them able to grow high in the Andes, providing food for people who live here, since it's so cut off from the rest of Peru.

He's also taken quite the interest in LOTUS lately. That's probably why he's written this letter, and why he asked that we courier it personally. Anything else you'd like to know?"

As Shee was talking, Mani was staring at Shane's ash tray in amazement, as if he'd never seen one before.

Mani looked up at man's face. He was surprised that he'd asked of his age, since Mani had gotten the impression that this big man didn't care about a boy as small and unimportant as him.

"I have nine seasons." Mani was making an extra special effort to speak in the way Maita had taught him. At first, he hadn't liked this man at all. But maybe he wasn't so bad. After all, he did seem to be paying more attention to him than most people.

Mani's face split into a grin just thinking about it.

"We chase each other- us friends, I mean. Many families who live in the Puna live close together. We often go to the water and play with the flamingos and the teals. Us friends go visit Maita a lot too. He's always doing something interesting; always has something for us to do. Maita's an adult, but he's a good adult. He cares about us."

They were a good ways up the trail now, and the brilliant cerulean sky was stretching out behind them like a fourth member of their little party. Mani pointed up and to the left of where they currently were trudging up the path.

"Maita's house is there, by a wide lake with many pink flamingos." He stretched his arms out as wide as he could, trying to show how big the lake really was.

"Oh it is!" Mani exclaimed, then quickly clamped a hand over his mouth. Surely, this much talking wasn't good manners.

"The Andean Flamingo used to only be in the Chilean Andes, but many have come over here to Peru because of the humans in the Chilean part of the Andes. They are always making so much noise" Mani wrinkled his nose in disgust. The way the Chilean people were behaving in his precious Andes was horrible to him.

It seemed this man really wanted to see a flamingo. Mani could hear it in his voice. He would get his wish, since there were always flamingos in Maita's lake.

Watching the man look back, Mani grinned at his surprise. Shee also seemed quite amused.

"Many llamas around these parts. We use llamas to carry our things when travelling long distances in the Andes. They are very useful. There's the alpaca, vicuña and guanaco too. Your shawl is an alpaca shawl; very warm. Many birds here too. The flamingos are my favorite, but there are Huallatas and Teals as well. Condors too; you must be careful of them- they're not nice birds."

Mani was quite enjoying himself now. He was proud of knowing so much about the Andes.

Another group appeared around the bend, going in the opposite direction they were. An aged old woman was leading a llama by its reins, and a slim, young man was following her. The woman's crinkled skin stretched taut over her bones as she smiled at their group.