Naani is a Spirit Guardian, one of the pillars of divinity. She was once a regular snow leopard but she was blessed by the gods with specific duties to perform. As part of her blessings she has access to magical abilities that make her unique. Although semi-intelligent Naani still isn’t as intelligent as a human being, so her descriptions of certain things are unique. For instance, Naani does not choose to learn the names of anything younger than two-hundred years. She also describes people and objects using non-traditional ways.To her, a horse is a bald reindeer because reindeer are native to her environment and an ungulate without antlers is considered a bald version of the species she knows. She identifies people by their hair-color and those she is close to are described by their personalities rather than their names. Without further ado this is the chapter that I cut from the book because it was the only chapter from Naani’s POV:

Naani had learned to become wary of humans since they took her eye. The nice man told her she was not supposed to kill humans because she was a guardian. A spirit beast blessed with abnormal size by the gods and tasked with keeping the land. He told her if she killed them, she would no longer be Naani and become something else. But they had started to hunt all her little brothers and sisters and now they wore their fur on their backs. Usually, if she roared at them to leave her forest they would run away, and that is exactly what she was going to do. But she saw one of the flower-haired ones, and she practically danced. They had come back, and they brought a big wagon and bald reindeer as offerings.

And it was the nice man’s friend. She was back as well. And she came back as a human and not a whale like Naani thought she would. The nice man was going to be so happy. He was always sad, but he was miserable ever since his friend went swimming but never came back.

Naani followed, overjoyed at her luck and waited for them to drop off her offerings, but as she got closer, she noticed the unmistakable stench of fear. They were all afraid, the mud-hairs usually were when they were outside their dead tree caves, but the flower-haired one was terrified.

She had learned to tell the different people apart because of their hair. Mud-hairs were bad, except for the nice man. He was the only nice mud-hair she knew. Flower-haired ones were the best. They used to come every fall and bring her lots of things to eat. They would give her the offerings and watch her dance, and they would laugh and tell her stories of their hometown. She would escort them to the mountains so the wolves would not bother them. She would wait at the bottom for them to come back then take them home. This was her most sacred duty, the only other one that came close was protecting the forest.

Naani had only met one other golden-hair. It was the nice man’s friend. She couldn’t talk to Naani like the nice man, but she was nice as well. They would catch her crunchy water snakes with thin bones on the outside. They were too salty, but food was becoming scarce. She would be so happy to eat a bald reindeer and taste red meat again. So many reindeer were gone, she was afraid there would be no more.

So, Naani stalked them; the nice man would be mad at her. Naani forgot a lot of things nowadays, but she remembered her most important job was to defend the flower-haired ones. The golden-hair seemed to protect the flower-haired one as well. The flower-haired one was less afraid when she got on the bald reindeer with the golden-hair. And the golden-hair yelled at the mud-hairs, and they ran around like little ants. It was funny to see. Naani was not quite sure what they were doing, so she would wait.

At night, they stopped and built a fire. Maybe they were waiting for Naani to come and dance for them and give her the offerings? The golden-hair and flower-haired one left the camp, were they looking for Naani? But when she got closer, she smelled the golden-hair was not the nice man’s friend. She was not sure if she was a nice one anymore. All mud-hairs were bad, except for the nice man, so that meant some mud-hairs were nice and some mud-hairs were bad. Maybe some golden-hairs were good, and some were bad as well.

That night when they got back to the camp, the golden-hair hurt the flower-haired one. Naani knew she needed to get the flower-haired one away from the mud-hairs. She could yell at the mud-hairs and they would run, but maybe they would hit the flower-haired one more. If only she could get them apart. She sat there trying to decide what to do, how to separate them, unable to rest because she was hungry.

They had so many bald reindeer, they wouldn’t miss one. Then the flower-haired one would know Naani was there, and try to escape. Naani’s soft purr would lull them all to sleep, even the bald reindeer. She snuck up and put the animal in her mouth before running off. Naani’s purr was powerful, so her dinner stayed asleep.

The next morning the golden-hair and the flower-haired one left the others. This was her chance; she could split them up. The flower-haired one was still less scared with the golden-hair, so maybe she was nice. It was so hard to keep track of who was nice and who was not. She watched and then the golden-hair started to look for Naani. Of course, the golden-hair and flower-haired one were escaping from the mud-hairs and looking for Naani.

Once they were far enough away from the mud-hairs, Naani yelled at them. “I’m over here. Come with me.” But they began running back to the mud-hairs. Did they not hear her? “No you’re going the wrong way. I’m over here,” she shouted louder. They were now returning to the mud-hairs faster. The golden-hair must be bad, Naani needed to save the flower-haired one.