To earn the tribe's trust through heroic deeds

Okay... so, for now, it isn't so much a plan as a general idea.

Looking at things from the perspective of the tribe, their reaction is not really so surprising. They can't accept me until they are able to trust me. They don't trust me because they see me as a man, and men as natural enemies. Not to mention that I started off by trying to hide my nature from them. Before I can make any progress joining the tribe, I have to earn back their trust, and prove myself an ally.

Every group has problems that need solving, right? If I'm the one who solves their problems, then they'll have to realize I'm not their enemy. Fortunately, I've already been asking around for years, hunting for every scrap of information about the Amazons I could find, so I already have a few leads.

One in particular stands out as being a "heroic quest" if ever I've heard of one: a young Amazon girl, it seems, has been kidnapped by a dragon. At least, that's what the locals in a certain village claim. The dragon apparently lives on a nearby mountain, and carries off any woman who wanders onto the slopes up to its lair, where it keeps them alive for unknown purposes. The girl in question heard the legend and decided to go investigate, then disappeared. When the villagers tried to explain this to the rest of the tribe they were unsurprisingly met with skepticism, but even if they lied to the tribe, why would they tell the same lie to a stranger?

I'm not sure what would happen if I went up the mountain alone. It's quite possible the dragon would simply eat me - such a creature might well be able to determine the sex of its prey by smell. If it took me for a woman, though, I would presumably end in the same predicament as the one I was there to rescue. Supposedly dragons are intelligent and capable of speech, and can therefore be reasoned with, but they're so rare that it's hard to say if there's any truth to that. On the other hand, what I do know about dragons is that they're very dangerous and large. If **** is even a possibility, I would need to have seasoned fighters with me - and how would I get any to come along?

A second possible lead is the story of a certain local highwayman. Apparently he's begun to yearn for bigger things; he's hoping to sell his "services" to one kingdom or another, which will pay him and his crew to cause trouble for it's rivals. In order to build his legend as a master of stealth tactics, he's been harassing one of the few groups no one else dares to mess with: the Amazons. So far he definitely hasn't pulled off anything major, but he has done enough that the Amazon man-hunters would have paid him a visit in the night... if they could find him. The longer he manages to stay hidden, though, the bolder he's likely to get with his attacks.

I might be able to convince the man that I held some grudge against the amazons and wanted to join his crew to get ****. Then, hopefully, I'd be able to get close enough to him to kill him. Regardless of his current campaign, he's an established bandit chief, so he's definitely done enough to deserve it. The one problem is that I would have to get someone apparently skilled in subterfuge to believe a lie, and to trust me enough that I could get the chance to kill him. Well, that and the fact that I'd have to get away afterward without being caught or killed by his subordinates. And that I would have to find some way to prove to the Amazons that I was the one who did the deed. So... three problems.

Perhaps there's a less dangerous alternative. The king of Rhemia - to whom I suppose I was technically born a subject - never did rescind the bounty he once placed on the Amazon queen. After what happened nine years ago only the most **** or foolish are willing to take the job, so at this point it's more of an annoyance than a true threat, but the bounty being active does tend to limit the tribe's ability to trade or resupply when in Rhemian territory. Getting it revoked would definitely help my chances.

Since I'm not a member of the tribe I can travel in Rhemia as easily as anywhere else, and the Rhemian court is generally known for it's openness. If I could convince someone at court that I survived the massacre nine years ago, that alone might be enough to get me a brief audience with the king, or at least one of his advisers. If that didn't work I could still probably learn something about the cause for the bounty just by asking around. Perhaps if I found the cause of the king's ire, I could do something to help calm it.