Aeva was beyond excited to see some magic. THIS was what she was wanting to see! She was upset that she couldn’t practice it immediately, but oh well. If she could see it, then that was awesome in and of itself.

Vashnoruk didn’t want to show her anything that would be too exciting, since that would doubtlessly spur the girl on to try magic on her own. It wouldn’t surprise her, given their conversation thus far, if she tried to figure it out no matter what she said. Because of that, something simple and non-dangerous would be best.

Dancing lights.

A cantrip at best, it was one of the easiest and only mildly useful spells in a mage’s arsenal. It didn’t let off a whole lot of light, but it made at least one little orb of color that could be moved around at will. Funny enough, it was a great trick to show a baby to get them to stop fussing.

Deciding to make it fancy at least, Vashnoruk decided to take a “gemstone” kind of approach. Though she could have just snapped it into reality, she slowed it down to build it before Aeva’s very eyes, creating a multi-faceted crystal that refracted and bounced light. To Aeva, it would somewhat remind her of a disco ball with how it released a bright rainbow, dazzling but not blinding.

Aeva was fantastically enthralled with the magic, eyes wide as she clapped her chubby little hands. That was amazing! Magic was amazing! “Oh my god that was so cool! It’s so sparkly! I love it. I want to learn it like yesterday!”

Vashnoruk chuckled. She was easily amused, it seemed. Maybe it wouldn’t be too hard for her to pretend to be a child for a bit? That felt like such a rude thought, but only children had that sort of wide-eyed appreciation for magic. It was simply a staple of life here, she couldn’t imagine a world like Aeva’s where there was little to none of it.

She cleared her throat, the crystal light orbiting around the infant as she spoke, “I’m not going to teach you magic yet, but I promise to in time. Now then, your parents are probably worried sick by now. I’d like to return to them to calm them of their fears. Do you have any more questions for me right now? I swear I will answer more later on. I can make up many excuses to see you.”

“Um… no? I think?” she muttered, still clearly distracted by the ball, “Oh! I need you to find my brother for me. I’m certain he ended up here too. The thing that threw us here, it said then there were two or something like that, and my brother was there unconscious. I clearly can’t look for him like I am now. His name is Lukas Ruiz. Please please please try to find him. I just need to at least be able to send him a letter saying I’m okay.”

The orc shaman nodded, “Of course. I’ll do my best. Luckily, the appearance of outsiders is a big deal. News shall spread if he’s somewhere public. Unlike this situation, most often others want to let it be known as soon as possible.”

“Is it dangerous for him, do you think?” she grumbled, worried now that she had gotten past the distraction and was fully focused on thoughts of her brother, “It’s going to be so long before I can see him… isn’t it? God, I hope he’s okay.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. You have a good head on your shoulders, so I’m sure he does too. Besides, he wouldn’t be put somewhere he’s in any significant degree of danger, more than likely. The Admins do have plans for them, after all, and it does them no good if they’re killed in the first day by predators or monsters.”

-----

The first month was… difficult.

Relying on others for every aspect of life was at best demeaning, at worse, it was maddening. Her new parents were very sweet, though. They were very concerned about her wellbeing. If she made so much as a disgruntled sound, one of them was there checking what she needed.

She was probably a pretty baby, considering how beautiful her new parents were. Her father, his name was Mar’Kir, had these glittering golden eyes with thin cat slits, deep tan skin, and incredibly long white hair he basically always kept tied up. His elvish ears framed his face nicely, and he had no facial hair to speak of so his strong jaw and pointed chin, along with his high cheekbones, were on full view. His nose was petite and pointed. Honestly, he was drop dead gorgeous and appeared to be in his prime.

Her mother, T’Kere, was much the same, though her white hair was shorter in a loose pixie cut. Her cheekbones were a little more pronounced, her gold eyes a little bigger than her father’s but they still glittered the same way his did. Her form was incredibly fit, though.

Not bodybuilder fit, but practical fit. Her father was clearly no slouch, but her mother put him to shame! The way her muscles moved as she worked around the house, her biceps when she picked her up, the contours of it all… If her father was stunningly gorgeous, her mother was stunningly built. It reminded her of professional athletes or soldiers back on Earth.

It was a little intimidating truth be told! She looked like she could break bones just by yelling at you, nevermind hitting you.

No doubt she’d be exercising as soon as she could walk, even if she wasn’t an outsider! The way T’Kere kept Mar’Kir in check, too; she was a stern but loving woman. She wasn’t one to take any buck. If someone messed up, they’d know about it, and she saw this in outings as well.

In the first month, she had had some opportunities to see the village as her mother and father took her around. They were clearly proud to show her off, even if she couldn’t understand a damned thing of what anyone was saying.

The language was interesting. It had no p or b sounds, and in general lacked a lot of sounds that used the lips. Contrasting that, it had a lot of harder r’s and t’s. A lot of stuff that used the tongue or the teeth. There were even a few different clicks used! It was really interesting to listen to, though it made Aeva a little more concerned about how hard it would be to learn.

How would you even spell a click??

She was starting to understand a few words, however. The words for mom and dad, the words for want, need, come, go, stop, etc. The basics. Their sentence structure being different from English didn’t help either.

The village itself was interesting in terms of architecture. Everything was made out of stone or dirt or some other earthen material - little to no plants. Vashnoruk explained this was because of the fae. To live in harmony with them, they couldn’t go chopping trees down willy nilly. They had to get permission for every tree they wanted to remove. That wasn’t really feasible for building, so they had been building with stone and other materials for as long as she knew. This wasn’t as difficult as it might be normally, since earth magic was very common and was often used to create the stone materials needed for the bulk of construction. One could grow trees for chopping the same way they could make stone, but apparently this was a difficult thing to manage, and still took a number of years to reach maturity. It was much faster to regrow it from a stump, but if a tree was around for too long, then one risked a more curious, social fae moving in and causing mischief in the town.

The style was reminiscent of Spanish missions back home, sort of Pueblo or Adobe. Stucco material insulated the stone in a lot of places, and the buildings were placed strategically to use the breeze and sun to their advantage. Not everyone had window glass, some just had wrought iron in place of it.

They were by some ocean or sea, too. She guessed it was the coast of an ocean since she couldn’t see the other side. That sea breeze smell was amazing. Small boats were always moving about in the shallows, fish were the mainstay of the village. She wasn’t sure they even had livestock otherwise.

It really, really smelled like fish.