She does seem to have acquired the ability to speak her language. Or they at least do not comment on her accent or anything like that.

"You are in the Exiled Lands, and this is Muriela's Hope, our humble camp. We are followers of Mitra."

"...and who's that?"

They look at each other and the one who's been speaking is the one who replies, again: "Mitra is the sun god. He is the defender of the good, god of truth and healing and leader of the righteous. You have never heard of Mitra, stranger?"

"We have different gods where I'm from." It's true, in a manner of speaking. Hopefully they won't immediately try to kill her about it.

The mood does become warier but there's something in the man's expression... pity? "All peoples should know of Mitra. It is a tragedy that there are places his goodwill has not yet reached." He takes a step to the side and gestures towards their campfire. "Do you wish to join us, stranger? You look like you could use friendly hands."

She hesitates. People are dangerous, people whose culture she doesn't understand more so. But as far as she can tell, they're not going to stab her in the back all of a sudden. And she could probably fight her way out if they did. Probably. No guarantees.

"...Yes, all right. I have some food to share."

"You should keep it. We have food to spare, and would not want to take away from your own supplies." He turns his back to her and walks back to the camp, and while the others are still eyeing her warily they do not object. "What is your name, stranger? I am Atiel," which she knows means 'Builder of Mitra' in whatever language it's from.

"April. I'm not going to eat this whole giant snake by myself before it spoils; I might as well share it. I can trade you for some things that'll keep longer, if that's better."

"Very well." He looks around at the rest of the camp and says, "I believe April's arrival is as good a sign as any that we should cease for the night. Brothers and sisters, come." The others stop what they're doing, putting down their tools, and walk towards the campfire to sit in a loose circle around it. Except for the praying woman. "Muriela is in her nightly prayers," Atiel explains (and Muriela's name means 'Artisan of Mitra'), "but she will be done anon."

Wow, religion is unnerving. Probably it's fine, right? She sticks by Atiel.

"Why don't you all introduce yourselves to April?" suggests Atiel, once he takes a seat.

He gestures to his right for April to sit, and his left is immediately occupied by a woman, tall and pale with long orange hair. "I am Ganela," she says, 'Muscle of Mitra', and the name is pretty apt, as even though she dropped the tool she was using to forge something next to a wooden bench she is still carrying a large iron warhammer attached to her back.

"Harriel," says another man who was working near a furnace, throwing the leather gloves he had been wearing in a corner and kneeling by the fire. His arms are also strong and he has the slight extra muscle on his right arm that is typical of blacksmiths, and his name means, aptly, 'Forge of Mitra'. His skin is bronze and his hair is intricately tied into cornrows along his skull. "It is always good to meet someone new who doesn't want to kill us," he says, grinning a shiny grin with several teeth that have been replaced by metals.

"Tendarel," says a third man, 'Spirits of Mitra' but also 'Brewery of Mitra' and 'Essences of Mitra'. He is small and dark-skinned and has his hair cropped close to his skull and his hands have what look like chemical burns. "Nice to meet you," he says, using a phrasing that is more polite than usual.

"My name is Akendela," says the last one of the group, another woman, who seems to hold a family resemblance with Tendarel, especially with her hair also cropped short. Her name means 'Architect of Mitra', or also 'Planner of Mitra'.

"We all changed our names when we joined Muriel, here," explains Atiel with a slight smile. "Mitra has changed our lives in different ways, and we have dedicated them to him in gratitude. We abandoned our old selves and are born anew in this project... which I believe Muriel is better equipped than me to explain."

Harriel is the one who fetches the ceramic bowls he starts distributing to people.

"Well. Good to meet you all too," she says, and she even kind of means it. What relatively nice people they are compared to the baseline she was expecting. "Does anybody want some snake steak?"

"Send them over, friend, I'm starving," says Harriel, grinning.

She shrugs off her pack, opens it, and distributes snake steak. There's plenty; it was a big snake.

They don't seem surprised; living here, they've probably seen more than their fair share of rather big snakes. Harriel helps distribute, and adds some berries and cactus fruit and leaves to the servings. Ganela does not get anything but the meat, but the others all accept non-meat stuff.

April is happy to eat fruit and leaves and berries along with her snake steak. She wishes she had any idea of what constitutes appropriate dinner conversation around here. She wishes she knew where here is; it's definitely not the Earth she started on but it doesn't seem much like the Wilds either, hostile megafauna aside. The Wilds are... brighter.

After a minute, she tries asking, "Where's a good place to get water near here? The last oasis I found was guarded by angry rhinos."

"We get it from there, too," says Atiel. "Ganela usually guards our back and draws the attention of the rhinos while the rest of us collect the water."

Ganela nods, at that, but doesn't say anything.

"Good to know, I guess."

She's gonna have to fight a rhino, isn't she. Unless she stays with these people, but she... kind of doesn't want to.

"There's other places," says Harriel, "but they're all wayyyy farther away." He shrugs, and takes a bite of his meat. "Nnt wrth eet," he adds, with his mouth full.

"How did you find yourself here, April?" asks Akendela, her eye falling on April's left wrist. "You do not seem to bear the exiled bracelet."

"It's a long story and I don't know how much of it I want to tell. The short answer is I got lost. Ended up wandering in the desert with no idea of where I was or how to find my way back to where I'd started."

Akendela raises an eyebrow but Atiel nods. "We all have our stories and our demons," he says. "It is enough to find comfort in each other's kindness, even if only temporarily."

Harriel rolls his eyes but grins and keeps eating.

"Yeah." That's one way of looking at it.

This is when Muriela opens her eyes and stands up from her prayer. She stretches a bit and turns around, smiling at April. "Hello, stranger, and welcome," she says, walking over to a spot between Akendela and and Tendarel and taking her seat there. Harriel offers her a bowl with some food in it and she accepts it with a dip of her head.

"Hi," she says. "I hear you're the person to ask about," she gestures vaguely at the statue, "all this."

"Yes, that would be me. Do you have questions, traveller, or do you want to hear what I have to say?"