The ogre had taken Jane by surprise, and now it holds her with ease in one giant hand. Try as she might, she can't so much as bother it with either of her dual abstrati. She is its prisoner, and she fears this strife is fated end painfully.
"Do you require assistance?" A voice sounds far beneath her. She is too panicked to respond coherently, but the noise which issues from her mouth sounds not dissimilar to "Dear God, yes!"
She hears the whirling sound of a motor, and suddenly she is falling towards an enormous pile of grist. Jane just has time to squeeze her eyes closed and wish she had thought that through when she feels two arms catch her mid-fall. She opens her eyes again, eager to see her rescuer – eager, in fact, to see any other human.
She is a little disappointed. The being holding her looks somewhat like a girl, but she is glowing brightly and two orange horns protrude from her skull. Jane supposes she is another of the strange creatures that seem to inhabit this place, albeit not one she has encountered so far.
"Please don't say glub," she says automatically, a little dazed.
"I was not intending to," the girl replies, setting her down. "I apologise if I have intruded at all, but you appeared to be –"
"No!" Jane says. "You saved my life. Thank you very much!"
"I am quite sure your sprite would have intervened if your life were threatened."
Jane has no idea what this means. "My sprite?"
"Ah." The girl looks rather uncomfortable. Jane hears the scuffling sound of an approaching imp, and is somewhat glad of the distraction.
"Do you mind if I -?"
"Not at all."
Jane sets about the imps with gusto, eager to show that she is not normally so easily defeated. Soon, there is yet more grist littering the ground, and she quickly gathers her spoils before turning back.
The girl has retrieved a small mirror from somewhere, and is carefully applying jade lipstick to her pursed mouth. Something about her focus is alarmingly intense, and after a moment Jane realises she is staring. Before she can look away, the girl meets her eyes, and hastily stows the mirror.
"I hope you do not object to my non-interference," she says. "But I always found my own strifes rather relaxing."
Jane had been thinking something similar, but she suddenly finds she is not nearly relaxed enough. She catches herself watching the girl's lips again, and forces herself to look away, in the process recalling yet more manners she has forgotten.
"I beg your pardon, I completely forgot to introduce myself." She smiles, and holds out a hand. "My name is Jane Crocker."
"Kanaya Maryam." Kanaya's handshake is firm, and she looks Jane right in the eye, as she asks "So, Miss Crocker – what do you want to do now?"