Two Eyes Cenote calling the scarlet sands

the search for astera and miette had taken chani further from home than she had ever gone in her life. she had gotten beyond the rise when she turned and called to @Chacal and to mireille, telling them she would be gone for a time. there was a determination in her voice that asked them to trust her, and then the red girl delved into the unknown land, headed across the mountains she had never traversed.
it was by chance she came to the desert at all, exhausted, thirsty, and almost charred by the sun!
it was by further chance that odd creatures she did not yet know as coyotes reached out to her, calling her guest, offering some drink that chani gulped with the trust of the young, surrounded by a growing number of strangers.
queen. royalty. kingdom. chani knew none of these words; she was buffeted along, swept beneath the world into glowing rooms her mind scarcely comprehended.
here she found the scent of sea in a boy (@Raiyuk) and a woman (@Heph). they were accompanied by a girl almost exactly her age (@Seal), and chani found herself shyly aligning near the trio as the presentation began.
there were many words she did not understand, a beautiful woman standing above them and a man beside her. chani garnered the importance of the event, but the sea was the only god she recognized.
almost bored, she brightened when the long-winded sentences ended and charged up enough courage to whisper, "what do you be thinkin' of all dat?" to the girl her own year.