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Shaheen was making her way quietly through the forest, pausing on occasion to tilt her head and listen to the sounds of the world around her. The soft crackling of underbrush as a minipet would go scampering past, the soft sound that the leaves made as they brushed together in the wind. It was all so peaceful, and for a few blissful moments she could almost close her eyes and imagine she was back home, on the Isle of war. Sure the tempertaure was wrong, and there was no humidity to speak of, but many of the sounds were the same, and the damp smell of earth and greenery was at least similar.

But that was just it. It was similar, and not the same. It was a lie, and she was only fooling herself. Her amber eyes would flicker back open, her chest tight with an unfamiliar feeling. Sadness, lonliness. These were things that Shaheen had never experienced before, and she didn't like it one little bit.

Anyways, she had a job to do. All this reminiscing nonsense could wait until later, in private, not out in the open all exposed as she currently was.

Reaching up, she began to run her hand back through her tangle of blonde hair mixed with grey, pushing it back from her face, revealing the grey scale that was working it's way across one cheek, when a sudden sound caught her attention. Her wings, which had been tucked in firmly behind her up until now, unfurled as she crouched down, instantly on guard. Her gaze shot towards the direction of the sound, a dagger suddenly in hand, ready to be thrown, or put to some other use, but she saw nothing of consequence. Still, one could not be too careful. She shifted her position slightly, tilted her head back to look skyward, in case her assailant should be attacking from above.

“SHAHEENNNNNNN!”

Oh.

The horsewoman blinked as she rose from her crouched position, her face stern, her lips pressed together in a firm line. Of course, she recognized the warrior girl as she drifted towards the ground. "Jay." She said, her tone a little cold, the one word clipped and short. The dagger that had been in her hand, the one that had probably been split seconds away from drawing blood, was now gone. She was irritated, but the irritation was more towards herself then the foolish carefree horsewoman who had recklessly thrown herself out of a tree down towards a very tightly wound up Shaheen. She knew her war-sister well enough by now to be used to her childish antics, and so, while she was still slightly annoyed, she shook her head, rolling her eyes skyward before placing her hands on her hips with an exaggerated sigh, then leveling that gaze down on the much shorter woman in front of her.

"So you survived." Her lips curved up into something more akin to a smirk, though it was not an unfriendly one, it was just the way Shaheen always smiled. A cocky look that she never could quite soften into a normal smile. She didn't say anything else, didn't add on an 'it's good to see you,' or any other such sentimentalities. She didn't feel as though it were really needed. Though seeing another war woman, a warrior like she herself had once been before being raised to Chieftain, did bring a warmth to Shaheens chest, and chased away the cold lonliness that had been residing their recently. She'd always liked Jay, even if she was a total bird brain, even if they were never really 'friends'.

Lips pursed again as Shaheen frowned down at Jay, as though in thought. "You don't look particularly busy." She stated. "I'm looking for building materials, and I think you'll do just fine for helping me out."

Nope, she didn't ask. She assumed she didn't need to ask. She was used to people doing what she told them to do, and that was that. A quick glance around, and she was nodding towards some thick branches that were lying on the ground near the base of a tree. "We can start with those."

Shaheen visibly grimaced at the spew of words that came tumbling out of Jay's mouth, and though she may have been curious as to what it was the other horsewoman was actually saying, she decided it was far too much work to try and decipher. So, instead, she gave the warrior a long, suffering look, one that hopefully came across as 'please do not do that again'. Because as much as she might like Jay, too much of that nonsense and she would be taking to the skies as quickly as possible in an attempt to get away from her.

Though when her sister of war bent immediately to the task of gathering up the branches, he look may have softened a bit as a smile tugged on the corner of her lips. That was much better, if Shaheen could just keep her busy, and maybe this little run for supplies would be bearable.

She gave the other horsewoman a nod, her curls of blonde hair mixed with grey brushing across her face as she did so, before she reached up to push it back behind one ear, and turned to glance around while speaking. "Thank you, Jay, you are most helpful." she murmured, even as she moved off further into the forest, searching for more materials that might be good for building.

It didn't take long before she came upon a large, hollowed out piece of deadfall, and she lifted a foot to place on it's side, giving it a push and turning it over. It was old and dry, so it wouldn't be too heavy, but it was rather large. Still, it was something that could be worked with. She doubted minipets would be able to move it very easily, however, so she frowned at it in thought, before turning towards Jay. "Maybe we can put the branches, and any other materials we find, inside of this for now. Then the two of us could carry it back to camp when we're finished." Again, it wasn't a question, though Shaheen was not the sharpest tool in the shed, so if Jay had other suggestions she would have no qualms about listening to them.

As long as she said them in a manner that was slow enough for Shaheen to actually understand, of course.

Did Shaheen feel clever? Not really. She was painfully aware that while she might be most excellently skilled in the art of armed battle, she was not exactly what anyone might call smart. Still, the eagerness with which Jay presented herself at the Chieftains idea did give Shaheen a small, warm fuzzy feeling inside, and she provided Jay with her signature smirk, which was actually meant to look more like a smile but for some reason, coming from Shaheen it always looked like a cocky smirk. Always.

Her self-confidence boosted to all new levels of ridiculous, Shaheen nodded her approval at Jay scrounging up some sap, before she turned away from the old, hollowed out tree to survey their surroundings better. She thought momentarily about gaining some height, giving herself an opportunity to scan the area from a birds eye view, when something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. A flattened stone, laying on the ground, all but buried under a tangle of weeds and undergrowth. She made her way towards it, light on her feet, her wings twitching behind her and unfolding ever so slightly before settling back down once more. "Here, help me with this. I'm sure it could be useful." She said, bending down to pull away the weeds and dig her fingers beneath the stone before attempting to wrench it up out of the ground.

If nothing else, Jay's enthusiasm was something she should be commended on. The warrior just seemed so eager to please and took commands like a champ. Shaheen would definitely remember how helpful her war sister had been this day. "Very good. Thank you!" she praised the other horsewoman, lugging the slab of stone up to tuck beneath one arm while holding on to it with two hands. It occurred to her that Jay was keeping rather quiet for the most part, which was nice, yet also slightly unnerving.

As she made her way back towards the hallowed out log that contained the rest of the supplies they had collected, she decided to break that silence. "Have you been able to settle in here without too much difficulty, Jay?" She asked, placing the slab against a tree and reaching up to wipe at her brow with the back of her wrist. She eyed the woman, perhaps a little curiously, before looking beyond her at some thick and hefty looking bark that appeared to have slid down a tree. That also looked as though it could be useful, so she strode towards it to gather it up while listening for Jay's response.

Shaheen kept an ear out for Jay even as she stopped in front of the bark, weighing it up in her mind and deciding upon it's usefulness before lifting it up and carrying it back to where the other supplies were gathered. "Oh?" She answered, actually interested to hear which other war clansmen had made it.

"That is good. I've only been here a short time. I..arrived a little bit later then most of the others, it seems." She gave a small shrug, not really wanting to explain further. "Are there any others? I thought I caught a glimpse of Shikoba." The incredibly tall and muscular executioner was hard not to notice, and if it was indeed him, Shaheen made a mental note to harass him later. She so loved aggravating him and pushing him into a spar, even if she didn't have to push very hard.

With Jay's question, Shaheen lowered her gaze to the bones she had unearthed. She couldn't imagine how they could really be useful in building, with how small many of them were, but she supposed many things had uses one might not realize at first. "Keep some, but pack up the rest. Every little bit helps." It seemed like a good answer to give., anyways.

She felt like they had gotten a good haul so far, and that there wasn't really much else that they needed. She had another quick look around, her lips pursed, hands going up to rest on her hips. Wandering off without a word as to what she was doing, she began gathering up some dried moss, only to bring it back and stuff it into the hallowed out log as well.

Shaheen had time to reflect, while Jay was going on and on about how she`d come across the brother and sister, how nice it must be for the two of them to at least have each other after everything that had happened. She herself had lost all of her closest friends and family members, as far as she knew. At least, she hadn`t come across any of them yet, but there was still hope, right? No, there wasn't much point in getting her hopes up.

Sigh.

It was somehow surprising to Shaheen that Jay didn't know any of the other war members that had made it. Maybe the chieftain just felt like Jay was such a socialble being, she should know everybody. But that was silly, wasn't it? Shaheen herself, while being chieftain, had made it her point to at least try and get to know everybody of importance by name at the very least, but it she would have been hard pressed to get to know absolutely everybody on the war isles, really.

And now the were all a part of the same clan, the lost clans, and she was going to have to start all over again. Somehow it seemed like getting to know all of the horsemen that were left was going to be an easier task then the one she had set herself before. There were just so few of them.

"Well, nevermind, what's important is that you are here, and have survived to battle another day." She replied, even while bringing her newest discovery back to the hollowed out log and depositing it within before going to stand near the other horsewoman.

Leaves? She supposed they could be useful, so she bent down and gathered some up herself. They did look rather flammable, actually, so maybe they wouldn't be so useful? Oh well, she'd let somebody else make that decision.

"No, I don't believe I will." She replied with a sigh, tossing her head back to get rid of the few strands of curly hair that were sticking to her forehead. "Though perhaps one of these nights we might be able to have a bonfire, for everyone to attend. That might be a nice way to have a chance to meet the other lost clans members as well as who is left from war."

Shaheen found Jay's enthusiasm to be quite refreshing. Also, it was kind of nice to have somebody constantly agreeing with her and making her feel like she was actually smart for her ideas. The chieftains face might have darkened a little at the mention of hunters, but it was quickly replaced by bemusement as Jay went off about something else. She may have even chuckled a little, though it was very quiet and she hoped it wasn't heard. She had a reputation to upkeep, after all!

The problem was, however, that since everything had changed, Shaheen could feel herself changing with it. And it wasn't just the soft whispering in her head that she couldn't understand, or the sudden, sometimes almost crippling feelings of self-doubt. She found herself caring more about others and less about herself. Felt herself wanting to be in the company of anyone who would let her. Found herself wanting to make new friends, perhaps just to replace those that she had lost and fill in the giant, empty void.

Also the students of Amityville. She wanted to know things about them, and felt a strong sense of curiosity towards them. She had actually spent some brief amounts of time watching them when they had been on the Isle of War, and was surprised by just how strong several of them appeared to be. They had potential.

"Good idea." She said, as she made her way over towards another tree and began stripping off the dried moss around it's base. They had a lot to carry back between the two of them now but she was loathe to leave the forest and go back to the mundane activities of the camp so she continued on.

"Have you spent much time around the school yet? Spoken to any of the students? Do you know what the general feeling is that they have towards us being here?" She somehow doubted she would get the answers to these questions that she was hoping for, but maybe Jay would surprise her.