Almost directly below her, a quaint village sprawls against the shore of a lake. Wooden houses intermingled with gardens and open spaces, all built along the beach of a cove. A road curves away through the woods, leading in the direction of outlying farms just visible through the hills.

Some boats — sail boats, with triangular sails — are making gentle progress around the lake. Several people are just visible as specks in the boats and in the village; they seem not to have spotted her yet.

Maenik smiles wider. It's a pretty looking place, she can start there. Hmm, what kind of show should she put on this time? Mysterious stranger wandering in on the road, flying woman, walking on water. They were all good options but perhaps not this time. With a thought she turns herself invisible then she let herself fall at a sedate pace down to the surface of the water before submerging and propelling herself through the water. With a bit of extra care she soothed away the evidence of her passage. Being invisible in the water is a bit trickier than being the same in air so there's some chance someone might notice something but there's no reason for them to guess the truth.

When she's close to the beach she drops the attempt at invisibility and the propulsion and swims the rest of the way into shore.

A young woman sits naked on the beach, her legs dandling in the water next to a pile of softening strips of willow-wood, a half-completed basket resting on her lap.

When she sees Maenik swim up, she lets out an exclamation of surprise and sets her basket aside.

She says something questioning in a foreign language.

She's close enough now that she can stand, so she does. The water seems to push itself out of her hair and her clothes leaving both dry even as droplets of water trickle down her face. She smiles with closed lips and then says gives a greeting in one of the languages she knows, just in case, coincidences are possible.

The woman on the beach gives her clothes a look of confusion, but rallies a moment later. She gathers her willow strips and sets them in the half-finished basket, and then stands and steps into a plain brown skirt set a few feet up the beach. She ties it closed with a cord, and then tries to indicate with gestures that Maenik should follow her in the direction of the center of the village.

She can follow. She's wearing a floral print blouse made of a thick but also very fine fabric and a pair of darker pants made of what looks to be the same material as well as a pair of thin black shoes that come up high enough that there's no skin visible around her ankles.

The woman leads her down a wide dirt street. She pauses when they reach the edge of a garden, and calls out to one of the people working there.

The man that heaves himself up from inspecting the stalks of one of the plants wears the same kind of skirt that the woman does. From their similar faces, Maenik might guess that they're related.

He says something back, and then turns to focus on Maenik. He says something — probably in three different languages, judging by the sound and the pauses he puts between them.

Ooh, multilingual. Always a good sign. She gives greetings in three languages of her own including the first one she used on the beach.

The man and the woman look at each other in confusion, and exchange a few more words.

Finally, the man places an open palm on his chest. "Genilha," he says. Then he points toward the woman. "Ðani."

That might be names... it could also be ranks or occupations but regardless it seems to be identifiers. She repeats the hand on chest gesture, "Maenik." Then she uses the pointing gesture while repeating what might be their names.

He smiles and makes a gesture. "Maenik," he repeats, pointing at her.

He turns back to Ðani and says "Gu dosak Genilha Ðani?".

Ðani rolls her eyes and replies "Dosak".

Genilha taps her on the nose.

"Gu dosak Genilha Ðani?" he repeats.

Ðani mimes offense. "Kado!"

Genilha folds his arms behind his back and does not tap her on the nose.

He turns to Maenik to see if she has a reaction to this.

She tilts her head a little. It seems like they're trying to teach her something. The statement, perhaps a question is repeated twice and what tentatively seems to be identifiers are included. Touching someone's face is generally something that requires special permission and the dramatic gestures support that guess so maybe they're trying to teach her terms for acceptance and refusal?

This is a bit public for her usual hovering in the air illusions so she'll kneel down and touch the ground. A patch of color hovers above the ground and then two animated characters move in from the edges of the frame.

She'll pause there for a moment to gauge their reaction.

Genilha's eyes widen, and then he digs his fingernails into his shoulder.

Ðani starts bouncing in place, and says a long, complicated utterance that Maenik has no hope of following.

Whatever Ðani said, it makes Genilha relax a little bit. He repeats one of the words she said.

She smiles at Maenik and then turns and runs for the center of the village.

She gives a small smile back then returns to a more neutral expression. They... probably want her to wait for someone or multiple someone's to be fetched. And probably more official people. That's always a bit of a grab bag.

She considers for a moment then stands back up, maintaining the illusion in it's current state.

Genilha seems to be out of things to say. He stands there awkwardly.

But not for too long. Ðani returns a few moments later, accompanied by another person — and trailed by a curious-looking blonde child.

The person she fetched is the first person to be wearing anything more than a skirt; they're wearing both a skirt and a breastband, with a sack of some kind slung over their shoulder. Depending on how Maenik parses local clothing norms, they might strike her as a man or a woman.

They press a palm to their collar. "Penþa." Then they point at Maenik. "Gu Maenik?"