Ah-huh. And can she see who is creating these footsteps?

Not very well, yet, but there is maybe a person-shaped shadow between those trees. 

"- hello! I hope we're not trespassing! Between us we speak English Latin Español Français 普通话 Português Hindi Bengali -"

There is abruptly a shimmering hemispherical barrier around all of them! 

...are they shielding out Thoughtsensing. 

Well, two of them are still asleep, or mostly asleep. Bella, as soon as the dome pops into existence, is rattling off her metamagic poem again to see what the hell it's doing, and will incidentally in so doing notice attempts to read her mind and crush them in her metaphorical hands.

That is not how shields going up normally feels and it's much more painful!!!! There is an alarm being raised, though depending on the range on her metamagic spell, Bella may or may not be able to detect private directional Mindspeech originating a dozen yards away from her and pointed away.

The shield is...a shield. It's not identical to any specific spell she knows but it mostly doesn't look like a different kind of thing? It's a little more sophisticated than just a force-barrier; it blocks physical force from both sides, and allows projective magic in but not out. 

- which Bella is going to have separate confirmation of a second later, when a very startled Tayledras Adept throws a levinbolt at her. 

No she does not want a lightning bolt thrown at her!? She shouts, to wake the others, and bats the lightning back, where it can spatter off the shield - she's not scared enough to attack back, yet - but then she's going to slurp up more ley-line and shred the shield to make it clear she could have done these in the other order, and she is going to stand up and speak loudly and clearly in English in the hopes that "loud and clear" gets across even if "English" doesn't.

"Caio, Aadhya, I think we may be trespassing. I want to deescalate but you need to be ready, they don't seem to like trespassers."

Aadhya scrambles to her feet and puts her hand on her pike.

Caio pulls his boomerang.

The Tayledras indeed do not like trespassers! They generally kill them! It's sort of their sacred mission from the Goddess to do so! (If you interpret 'guarding and repairing the Pelagirs' liberally.) 

...Autumnsong is also curious about these particular trespassers, who for one thing seem - really young? She's not even slightly worried yet about whether she and the other Adepts can take them, and so she's not in a hurry, though she's shielding herself now. 

Are either of the other two possible to mindread without getting her Thoughtsensing bitten? 

Yeah that works fine!

Aadhya is thinking that she ALSO HATES THIS FOREST and also should maybe try her languages too in case Bella's renderings of "Hindi" and "Bengali" were inadequate? She does not want to have to spikey-pikey a real live human bean who is not a mal, even if they're kind of dickish human beans who attack sleeping teenagers.

Caio is mentally inventorying his potions but he did not pack extras in case they failed to graduate normally because that's not a thing. He has more of the spritz he gave the cute mal that might turn itself inside out or something. Is it a familiar? Is it this lady's familiar? Is she mad that he spritzed it? It's going to be fine, it's just sleep potion!

This is very confusing! 

(It's significantly more confusing to an Adept of k'Onsoya Vale, which is the most remote of all the Vales from the border with Valdemar, at the very far western rim of the Pelagirs, actually nestled in the foothills of the coastal mountain range that separates them from the western sea. Autumnsong has never ever heard of the concept of schools.) 

None of the languages are even slightly familiar, but - it seems fairly clear that the young people are here by accident? Which means that maybe all they need is a warning to leave. 

She reaches out with Mindspeech. :Who are you, and how did you come to be in the territory of k'Onsoya Vale?: 

"AUGH??"

"Bella did you antagonize this lady just because she's a telepath - I'm sorry, we are here by accident, we don't like it here at all and would rather be home and don't know how to get there ma'am!"

Maybe they're Haighlei? The boy and one of the girls are darker-skinned, like they say the Haighlei are, and the Haighlei are - big, and strange, and an Empire. The other girl isn't Haighlei, though, she looks like an inlander from one of the kingdoms of farmers. 

(Autumnsong has only the vaguest knowledge of what those kingdoms are. She thinks one of them is called Rethsomething?) 

...Either way, how does one end up in the Pelagirs by accident? It doesn't make sense.

:Did your Gate go off course?: she asks, because it certainly looks like they're mages. 

"Yes something like that kind of. We are so lost. Where even is this horrible forest we do not want to be in and did not mean to visit."

:The Pelagirs: she says, faintly dubiously, as though talking to someone very dull. It's not surprising that a foreigner hasn't heard of k'Onsoya Vale, but surely everyone on the continent knows of the Pelagirs. They were spread over a quarter of its land area, at one point, not that Autumnsong has seen many maps in her life. 

The mindreadable members of the party have not heard of the Pelagirs. "See, yeah, we're very lost and don't even know what a Pelagir is," says Aadhya. "We're supposed to be in America? - well, Caio's supposed to be in South America but I'm sure we could manage the plane ticket if we could just get to literally anywhere in America. Honestly anywhere with an airport or an American embassy would probably be all right."

"I don't think an embassy actually gets us home without having to whammy any mundies," mutters Bella, but not loudly.

Normally Thoughtsensing someone more or less works even if you don't share a language, but in this case Autumnsong has no idea what half of that meant, even the concepts aren't translating.

She can't read the pale-skinned girl at all, but can pick up the content of what she's saying, and - what - 

:Are Gifts secret where you are from?: she sends, disbelievingly. She's never heard of that being a thing even in the Haighlei Empire. 

"- yes? All us wise-gifted children of the world don't work so hot when we're doing it in front of a mundie."

That...isn't a thing? These children seem very confused. 

:I have never heard of any of those places. Are they on islands or something? ...Also what is a - the thing you were calling a 'plane'?: 

"It's a flying vehicle? Goes real fast?"

"Is this an island or something? We're from two separate continents and knew people from more."