"..Evia." Alexa thought it sounded like a pleasant name. However the girl's strange pronunciation and hesitant response prompted her to ask,

" Do you understand English?" Evia's frowned, but she nodded.

" Well, our village is kinda remote. A train comes through here every so often. But, we don't get a lot of outsiders. Not sure the village elders will know what to do with you."

Evia cocked her head as if to ask a question. " They're a bunch of old geezers that just like the sound of their own voice." Alexa laughed at her own joke, seeing her amusement Evia smiled too.

Alexa continued to talk as they made their way back to the village. Even though Evia preferred to remain silent, she still seemed to understand most of what Alexa was saying and communicated through her facial expressions. However as they approached the village gates, the mood died.

The gates surrounding the village were made of dark wood and had been standing for as long as Alexa could remember. Alexa couldn't help but groan as she noticed a familiar face stationed at the front of the gate entrance. Malvic was her dickhead cousin, that couldn't find his way out of a paper bag even if he wanted to. He smirks as I approach, he loves holding his position as guard over me. Then his eyes land on Evia and his smile grows, he asks in a taunting tone,

" Alexa have you finally made a friend. And such a pretty one at that." He winks at Evia and my skin crawls. I look over at her and it hits me for the first time, that she's not just pretty, she's beautiful. Which isn't always a good thing.

" Just open the gates Malvic. I have to see the elders. "

His smile turned into a scowl as he begrudgingly pulled a lever and opened the gates. Alexa walked through and Evia follows. Alexa picked up her pace, while Evia lowered her head, even so, the people stared at them and whispered. Some shouted out for Alexa´s attention, but, she just ignored them. Only stopping when they made it to the town hall. It was a modest structure not so big as to be imposing but not so small, that you could miss it on your way to the market.

As they stepped through the door, three old men looked up from the large table at the center of the room. Alexa bowed formally and said, "Greetings Elders, I found an outsider in the woods today and I wish to seek your guidance on the right course of action." She hoped that she had been able to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. The men straightened and inspected Evia, who hunched her shoulders and let her hair fall over her face, trying to look as unassuming as possible.

¨Who are you?΅ one of the men barked. Evia shuffled nervously. Alexa answered for her.

"Her name is Evia, she seems to know much English, but she also doesn't seem to be any sort of threat.¨

The elders once again looked Evia over and then began to mutter to themselves. Alexa leads Evia outside to give the elders some privacy while they discussed what to do with the outsider. This all might have seemed like a lot of trouble, except Alexa's village was very wary of outsiders. They were a closed-off community and were quite protective of their more traditional values and customs. The two girls waited nearly an hour and Alexa had a sneaking suspicion that the Elders just wanted to draw out the suspense. Finally, they were called back into the room and Elder Pollock was stood before them. The other two were sitting father away and seemingly not uninterested in what was to be said.

"We decided that until we can find the girl's family and original home, she may stay in our humble settlement. However, you must provide for her and feed her as she is your responsibility. We will not be held responsible for a stranger." Turning his back to them it was obvious that they were being dismissed. Grinding her teeth, Alexa grabbed Evia's now unbound hand and pulled her outside.

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The human girl named Alexa, lead her through the tiny human village. It seemed as though the houses were built better. And the clothing had changed quite a bit. The humans wore sculpted boxes on their feet and each person was fully clothed. What a strange and somewhat disappointing sight. The humans stared at her. Normally she would have given the mortals something to look at. She would have ridden an obsidian chariot pulled by hellhounds. In her glory, the weak-minded villagers would fall at her feet and offer sacrifices to her name. Her human guide finally stopped at a small house, that hardly seemed fit for a former goddess.

She entered the house and kicked off the leather consuming her feet. A man was sitting in an old sofa chair. There was a strong stench of alcohol in the air, and one of the man's eyes seemed to twitch more often than normal. His gaze hitched on us as we entered. He pointed at me and barked,

"WHO THE HELL IS SHE!?"

"Her name is Evia, I found her lost in the woods the village elders said she should live with us," Alexa replied calmly. Her previously expressive face has become cold as stone. The man's energy seems to leave him and he slipped back into his chair mumbling something under his breath. Alexa quickly leads the other girl up the stairs.

"Sorry, about him. He's me my uncle and my legal guardian until I'm of age. And the guard you saw coming in, is my cousin Malvic. Try to try to stay away from him."

It took Evdokia several minutes to figure out what the girl said. On the way out of the woods, she had listened to the mortal and had acquired a grasp of the language. It was easy for Gods to learn these things quickly, however, such a thing still took time.

Evdokia shared a room, with Alexa. Who had offered to sleep on the floor, however, Evdokia knew that she would need friends in this world, and so she offered to share the bed instead. It was nearly night when Malvic came home. The brutish human gorged himself on the meal Alexa had so graciously prepared for him, without even thanking her. Much less, setting aside an offering for the gods. Evdokia was cruel and chaotic, however, that did not mean she lacked proper manners. She found these human's mannerisms to be quite distasteful. In fact all through dinner, she was thinking about the different ways in which she might kill the man.