Ah, okay. Too bad she can't properly apologize. But she will follow. And talk. It sounds like that, even if it doesn't come across as communication, it at least conveys that she is different and unusual.

Where are they leading her?

One of the new crows is curious about her noises, but quickly scolded by the others for mentioning it - he can talk to her when they're out.

They seem to be circling around something, rather than taking the most direct route, but they aren't avoiding all landmarks; a few times they pass small clearings with platforms and furniture or garden beds built up off the ground - the waxy material she encountered in the river seems to be the primary building material around here, in a variety of colors. Eventually they come to a place where the path is flanked by two small pillars of the stuff; the crows identify these for her as territory markers.

Two of the crows fly back, once she's past them; the other two perch overhead and wait to see what she'll do.

The material is interesting, but she doesn't want to be rude and stop to take a closer look.

She waves goodbye to the departing crows and crosses the territory markers. Looking upwards for the birds' response to this action.

They're watching, but they don't seem to have anything to say about it.

She goes further along the path. Are they going to follow?

Yep!

Oh, good. "Thank you." She follows, matching their pace.

......well if she's just going to sit there they'll hang out, then?

What's the deal with those noises, anyway?

Huh... how about this. She points at various things and naming them. "Ground. Tree. Sky. Marker. Crow. Giant." She snaps her fingers while using the other hand to point. "noises." then to her mouth, "talking."

That sure is a lot of sounds! The crow still doesn't understand why she's making them. They're pretty cool, though, people-like-her don't usually make so many different sounds. - maybe she's playing?

Phaidra very visibly deflates (exaggerating her body language to see if that helps). Though the playing gives something of an idea. She sits on the ground.

She points. "Rock. Rock. Rock. Tree. Rock. Tree. Marker." Then repeats this, with a slightly different order. Then she points at a rock. Seeing if the crows have an expectation.

Ohhhhh! How clever!

"Clever," Phaidra repeats. Then she reiterates the meanings of Giant and Crow to see if those come across.

Yep, those are different sounds for the different species!

Maybe, the other crow thinks, one of the birds who picked up a little bit of writing will want to come and learn her sounds. But none of them are very good at it compared to her species, remembering all those fiddly samey things is hard.

Maybe. She tries to mime walking and pointing down the path beyond the territory markers.

The crow less interested in language lessons flits down the path a bit.

She starts walking for real. "Moving." She provides the word. She keeps moving and pointing "Here" and "There". Seeing if they get the concept of relative position.

They seem to have lost interest in the language, now. They do stay fairly close to her, though.

Do they make any comment about where this path leads?

Not immediately. After a while she comes to another set of territory markers, and they identify these to her as belonging to the person they call dog-friend for all the dogs he keeps.

Ooh, dogs. Phaidra goes in that direction.

They think this is maybe a bad idea? Also super weird for her species. ...is she sick, does she have one of those illnesses that makes creatures act weird. She should leave dog-friend alone if she's sick, they don't want him to get sick too.

Pout. She dejectedly steps away.

Oh, good.

They keep following her, identifying territory owners as they go - loud-whistle and chicken-foot and long-ear, clatter-house and bright-feather and hawk-friend. There are more berry bushes, too, and they point these out as well.

The sun rises to its zenith and begins to fall.

Phaidra might try to go into those territories a couple of times, but it will become pretty obvious that there is some etiquette issue here. Or something else? She picks up the berries. At some point after noon, she will gather some non-edible berries, plus some leaves and even flowers. She then turns it all into a paste and uses her purification to turn the paste into water. Less than she would've liked, but she is thirsty after all those berries.