The man who had the animals and birds slung over his shoulder spotted the group, before walking towards the woman holding my wrist, wrapping his free arm around her, and lightly kissing the top of her head, before turning towards me, and smiling. Gina noticed that he looked just like Hottie, and was about the same age as the woman. He said something in their language, which of course she didn't understand. Gina opted to do what Hottie had done to convey that he didn't understand what she had been saying. So she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. She woman spoke some more soft words at the – she then noticed – incredibly tall man. He turned and gave her a curious, and slightly fearful glance, before turning back to the woman, nodding, and walking back in the direction he had been heading, towards a tent that had smoke coming from a hole in the roof of the structure.

The woman turned and spoke to the group of people, and then directly to Hottie. The group dispersed, while the woman and hottie walked her towards one of the larger tents, almost the size of a regular house. They walked her under this flap thing, before the blond woman gently nudged her towards one of the cushion-like things on the floor. Gina sat obediently, and waited. Now, in any usual situation, a normal teenage girl would be a) crying and freaking out, or b) going off somewhere to find a club, and calling up her parents the next day. But not Gina, no. She had what doctors referred to as sedative hormones. Basically, it's a rare type of hormone, only found in specific people. It mean that if your body is put under too much strain, or the hormones in your body are going slightly crazy (in this case, from the emotional trauma of finding herself lost), her body releases a hormone that shuts off everything but the most basic of thoughts, and sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. Plus of course the ability to move, and reflex, and of course BREATHING. But you get the idea. So at the moment, Gina was a sitting vegetable, with no over whelming emotion, such as loss, or fear, or worry. Just faint curiosity as to what the woman would do next.

Gina soon found out, when the older woman knelt down in front of her, before placing her hand gently on her chest, and saying in her quite, pleasingly deep voice,

'Ayla'

She turned to the Hottie, before pointing towards him, and saying 'Alanar'.

Hmm, so that was his name. Unusual – well, both of their names were unusual – but it suited him perfectly. Gina turned back to the woman, to see her looking at her expectantly, they both were. She realized that they were waiting for her name. She pointed to herself and told them. 'Gina, my name is Gina'.

They looked slightly confused, making me realize that a simple Gina, would have sufficed. So, just to clear things up, she put her hand on her chest, as the woman had, and repeated herself, 'Gina'.

The small creases on their foreheads smoothed out – they're expressions were so much alike – and the woman smiled encouragingly.

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It took a while, all day in fact, but in the end, Alya and Alanar were able to convey where Gina was, and that no, there were no other people around the area. Both of them looked incredibly worried when she started crying, but a hug and some hot tea later, Gina was on her way to feeling better, especially with Alanar as her babysitter. That was a big plus.

Gina just kept talking, knowing that he wouldn't be able to understand her.

'You know, you are actually really good looking, wonder if you have a girlfriend. I hope not, because that would be a waste, when you could be wasted on ME!'

Her general animation and joking expression caused Alanar to let out a small, low chuckle.

Gina's responding smile was astounding, and Alanar faltered for a second, before returning it. There was silence, until Alanar started talking. And this was how they passed the time. Both of them talking to each other, and neither of them knowing just what the other was going on about, but just loving the sound of the others voice. He even taught Gina a few more words. She now knew what 'cup' was, and 'drink', as well as 'wood', 'water',' food',' chair', 'table' and many other she was certain she'd forget later. Gina strained to remember the words, but knew before she started that it was a lost cause. She was the most un-linguistic person she had ever met (if you could even meet yourself), and the only reasons he knew French was because she had learnt it for the last 12 years.

So by the time night time had arrived, Ayla had returned, and so had the tall blond man. As soon as he arrived, Ayla brought him towards Gina, and pointed towards him, and spoke 'Jondalar' she said.

Gina struggled to remember what Alanar had taught her.

'It is good to greet you Jondalar'

Ok, so it was slightly off sentence structure, although she didn't know it, and the response didn't gave anything away. The man smiled, and repeated the greeting. Jondalar noticed that the young girl in fact reminded her of Ayla, with an accent that was not quite an accent, but more of a different way of speaking. It was intriguing, because it elicited many more questions about where the girl had come from. And that light she appeared in?

It was all too much, and could wait until Gina was able to speak their language well enough to have a proper conversation with.

Ayla turned towards Gina, after a few words exchanged with her mate, and make a small beckoning gesture, to which Gina responded immediately. Ayla seemed nice enough, and she felt safe with her. Ayla led her out of the tent, and towards the second largest one (aside from the huge cave). This tent had many patterns on the wood holding it up, and sitting outside it was a hugely fat, but still beautiful in her own way, woman. Ayla too exchanged a few choice words with her as well, the fat woman's eyes on Gina through the entire conversation, an expression of intrigue on her face. She woman nodded, before Ayla turned towards Gina, and pointed at the fat woman, before saying 'Zelandonii'.

Well I wasn't going to remember that any time soon, Gina thought, I thought the PEOPLE were called Zelandonii? Well whatever, I'll deal with it tomorrow.

The Zelandonii took her wrist and led her inside, and indicated to one of the beds lined in rows to the left of the entrance. Gina was sad, she was obviously expected to stay here, and this though brought her sadness. She was, for some inexplicable reason, missing Alanar. He made her feel safe, and made her forget, even slightly, about her situation, and her missing family. But as she curled under the sheets – furs??- Gina silently cried herself into a fitful sleep.