"I don't know what the thing you drew is!"

Well, she doesn't know what to do with that. More conversation.

The child pulls at her mother's pant leg. There is a conversation held at a slightly different pitch, as her mother talks down to her daughter.

Her daughter pouts.

She points at the drawing again, and at the pocket everything. She says something, and points to her ear, and then to her mouth. Then the woman gestures outside the house, past Lintalai, pointing into the distance at another cluster of buildings.

"Should I go - there?" Lintalai takes a few steps toward the cluster.

She nods! She moves to follow her, rubbing the man's shoulder before she goes.

She walks a bit faster than Lintalai, though she keeps looking back to make sure the girl is keeping up.

Okay, Lintalai can follow her.

They pass through more fields of various plants, some that she recognizes and some she does not. This time, there are some people here. One reaches down to one of the plants, yanks on the leaves, and pulls up what seems to be a red carrot approximately the length of her head. This person also, unlike people she knows, has ears that are a bit too pointed.

...some people are just kind of weird looking. But wow that's a big carrot.

And eventually, they come to another cluster of buildings. These are longer than the Tiny Farmhouses she saw before, and there are plenty of people milling about- as well as things that look nothing like Amentans or these cheap hair-dye aliens. Some have grey-ish skin, some have pointed ears, and others still are about her size but resemble adults otherwise.

These are clearly aliens and are not even her kind of alien! Her kind of alien might have brown hair but wouldn't be gray or pointy-eared. - probably. She doesn't know what the natural variance is. But her kind of alien should speak her mystery language, right, which they don't - admittedly she didn't try it - "Do you know this one?" she asks in her alien language.

She seems equally befuddled by that one, but also somewhat distracted.

And then the people around them begin to gasp, and Lintalai can see an equine figure, taller than an adult Amentan and longer, too. It approaches them slowly, golden scales glittering in the sunlight. Its hooves and long, shining horn are pink, and the thick mane of hair around it glows faintly.

"Hello. Welcome to The Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia," it says in Anitami.

"...Hello, and thank you." It is probably not diplomatic to go "where the blazes am I".

"I apologize if your arrival was abrupt. It seems you have not come here in the ordinary fashion. Do you recall how you came here?"

"I don't know how at all. I walked in the front door to my school and then there were colors and I was over there." She points.

"You may have traveled to the Peaceable Kingdoms through a portal. Those do have the most wondrous colors, like the Astral Plane set free of its boundaries and spilling onto the canvas of reality..."

There's a pause while the quadruped is lost in thought.

"Returning is often more difficult. Portals within this plane are carefully guarded, young prime."

"Prime?"

"Prime. A visitor to the Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia, whose origin is the Prime Material Plane. That is the plane where most worlds that are home to creatures like you and the woman who brought you to me for translation originally hail from. Humans, halflings, half-elves, half-orcs...Amentans."

"I don't know what those other ones are." Also she's not an Amentan really, but that's just details.

"There is much your language does not know, it seems. Languages. You have more than I would expect from most your age, if I am guessing your age correctly. A very capable young woman. Humans are creatures such as the ones that you met. They quite resemble Amentans, excepting the hair and the- behavior during springtime. Humans behave that way throughout the year, but to a greatly reduced degree. Half-elves resemble humans, excepting the ears. Halflings resemble humans, excepting their height. You will come to learn if you make Arcadia your home."

"My dads will miss me if I'm disappeared forever."

"Oh, dear. I suppose primes do typically have families when they don't die before arriving."

The quadruped thinks about this.

"Who's guarding the portals?"

"The Harmonium, I'm afraid. They consider themselves responsible for eradicating...eradicating...eradicating evil...across the Peaceable Kingdoms in particular but also the world at large. Young prime, does this language lack the word for...yes, it would seem so. Evil. Selfishness. Myopia. Achievement. Supremacy. Determination. Hmm. My apologies, I am simply learning the deficiencies of Anitami. As I was saying, the Harmonium defends the portals from those who might choose to exploit them. They will hear your petition if you seek to ask them, but very few here are used to operating on timescales which take mortality into account. I will accompany you, if you wish, to help you make your case."