And now she's in a desert. It's pretty extensively irrigated and farmed for a desert, almost like there's a spring somewhere nearby, but it is a desert. Someone a little older than Dosk is intrepidly trekking home with some old plastic cards, a plastic-wrapped book and an opaque package of what might be incredibly stale bread. He looks startled to see her and asks a question in a language she doesn't speak.

Woah.

She signs, and the crow on her shoulder - a healthy-looking glossy black creature - croaks a few similarly incomprehensible words.

That language doesn't sound familiar but someone older might have heard it before.

He says more things. He's trying to sound welcoming. He mimes that he's heading past some fields and toward the houses. He points to her and looks questioning.

She shrugs dramatically (the crow flaps up to sit on her head in protest) and mimes that she was going somewhere and then... got eaten? By something very much larger than she is? That makes no sense.

He says something. He sounds very exasperated but doesn't seem to be speaking to her.

Yeah.

She puppets the scooter forward a foot or so, demonstratively.

Now more than none of his annoyance is at her but he is still mostly annoyed at some invisible third party.

He asks her something else in his language.

She shrugs again. The crow's assertion - possibly a translation of her signing - is no more understandable this time.

He hesitates, then points in the direction he's going. There's gotta be some way to ask her to come with him and see if anyone there speaks her language, right?

She nods, and sets off, keeping the scooter to a reasonable walking pace.

Walk walk walk. At least the scenery's nice. There are cliffs in the distance and some drought-tolerant trees. Right now they're almost to a path between a field of corn and a pasture with cattle.

He points to some things on the way and names them. "Corn. Cow. Grass. Sky." He looks questioningly at her, in case she has signs for them or turns out to be deaf or something.

She shows him the signs for them, a little awkwardly since she doesn't want to take both hands off the scooter's handlebars at once. The crow produces words, too; it's obvious enough at this point that the bird is translating for her.

He tries to copy the signs. He's still not sure if she can hear but that seems like a question for later. He keeps offering his words just in case. Hands. Person. Artifact (her scooter). Money (the plastic cards).

She's confused at the cards, and doesn't seem to have a word for them.

That's weird but not shocking. He tries asking her a question with her signs. "Sky person?"

She's still confused, but gives him the word 'fly', having the bird - Nawi - demonstrate, and then "Nawi can fly. Person can not fly."

He would check that he understood if only he knew any more verbs.

"Artifact person..." he tries to say, assuming whatever she called her scooter means artifact. He makes a wobbly not-quite gesture. "...can fly...?"

Nope, still confusing. More so, even. "Person can not fly," she repeats.

Okay, maybe he just can't discuss theology with ten shared words.

He mimes eating, then going to sleep. He points to himself. He points in the direction he's heading. He points to her and raises his eyebrows.

Yeah, that's concerning. She shrugs.

He points in the direction he's heading. He mimes giving her something.

He could try to overcome the language barrier well enough to point her at every possible settlement and let her pick, but he has no idea how fast her scooter goes and if this is its top speed he expects she'd die of thirst trying to make it to Iron Heart, let alone anywhere farther.

She relaxes considerably at that, and launches into her own language lesson - that's 'give', and her name is Dosk, and the scooter and the crow and the two sleepy mice she extracts from a pouch at her belt and the bit of cardboard scattered with moving dots that she has the mice retrieve from the bundle on the back of the scooter are all examples of something - maybe that's the word for artifact, actually? - and the sandwich the mice bring out next is food, and if people give Dosk food and sleep she'll give them artifacts.

That's a really good deal.

The animals, though. He points to the scooter and the cardboard with moving dots, then points back the way he came, at a ruined city of glass and metal. He points to the mice and the crow and looks puzzled.

She's confused too, starting when he points at the city. But she points to the crow and mice and a hawk circling overhead and gives the word for animals, and gestures to the sandwich and (awkwardly, one-handed) mimes making one, and gives the word for make - "People give animals, Dosk make animals artifacts."

"...Dosk make people artifacts?"