"No," she agrees. "I understand that now, more than I ever did before."

"The tribe worshiped many gods, but the greatest among them was the goddess of the forest. The stories paint her in different ways. In some tales she is more of an entity to be feared, appeased. The tribe lets their own blood for her as an offering from time to time, and when she is very hungry a person of the tribe might be devoured outright, vanish in the forest. In others, she is gentler most of the time, but can be angered greatly by disrespect, by not receiving her due from humankind."