Instead, they're on top of a bright, spacious roof! They can see other similar roofs, with something grass-like covering the roofs all around them. A quick look around reveals that they're extremely high up, but it doesn't reveal any way to get up where they are. Or any way of getting down, either.

Liron is a bit too out of it to do anything much besides flinch away from the sudden brightness.

Auria manages to hold him steady, but she is not exactly any less confused.

Esdras holds his nephew closer to his chest, but he is the only one capable of standing up, so he does so. Where are them? Are there any people?

After a minute or so, someone walks out from a hidden trapdoor in the grass, a girl with what looks like a gecko wrapped around her left arm. She looks at them in confusion. "Can you tell me what you're doing on the roof?" Her eyes move to the child with silver-blue scales.

"I don't understand what you said," Esdras says.

The scaly baby isn't the only sight to behold. Esdras himself is dark-blue with bright yellow eyes, albeit otherwise humanoid. His nephew is a metallic copper tone.

Auria's skin tone is also metallic, albeit dark silver with scales in patterns around her arms and shoulder. The scales are more reflective and almost shiny in this light.

And Liron has deep-red skin, which currently help disguise the many cuts all over his face, chest and arms.

The girl with the gecko doesn't understand anything that's in the reply! She has no idea of how to proceed. She takes a phone from her pockets, and shows them a picture of  2 adults and 2 children, all 4 of them clearly happy being with each other. "Family", she says, pointing to the picture and then the group of strangers on the roof.

The strangers will be very nonplussed by this device. Esdras approaches - his nephew still in his arms - and takes a closer look. "Family?" He repeats the word.

(Oh, he only now registered the gecko, it looks... normal enough, he supposes.)

She nods, and points to the group of them again. "Family!" She runs down the stairs again, before returning some 15 minutes later. She motions for them to join her down the stairs, as the first few raindrops hit the roof. She leads them into a corridor, and opens a door leading into an huge open room. She smiles and waits for them inside, motioning for them to enter. There are a few toys and dolls, lined along the walls.

They spend this time trying to coax Liron into a form that hasn't been harmed. He doesn't have enough presence of mind to inform them that there isn't one.

When they hear the first raindrop, they actually bolt down the stairs. And close the trapdoor like there is some kind of monster on the other side. Liron has trouble walking, but that seems to be mostly a matter of balance.

Once they are in the room, Auria points at her husband's injuries and mimes, wiping her arm.

The girl looks at Auria solemnly. She runs off into one of the bathrooms adjacent to the main room, and returns with a well-stocked first aid kit. She rapidly begins cleaning off and disinfecting Liron, before applying some bandages. The she puts a clip on his finger and sprays a drop from what looks like a perfume bottle into his nostrils, and things stop feeling painful immediately.

Liron takes a sharp breath and blinks. "Have we been rescued?" He manages to ask.

Auria caresses his face. "That didn't even occur to me. And I don't know. We just showed up somewhere else. And she started to help." She smiles at the girl.

"Do you think you can shift something unharmed?"

"They were... thorough, with all my forms. But didn't lose any."

Auria hugs him (very carefully, he isn't actually healed, just bandaged).

The girl smiles, even though she doesn't understand what they're saying. Then, reading their body language, she motions to show that she wants to give everyone in the family a hug.

Aww, she is a sweet. Auria does hug her. "You should lay down, Liron. Come here, Esdras."

Okay, they will hug the strange surprisingly-welcoming-and-helpful girl. This is a bit hard with two babies, but not infeasible.

Hug.

(Esdras is keeping a careful eye on the gecko).

A careful eye on the gecko reveals that it's a realistic plastic toy gecko. She gladly hugs them back, and walks out into a side room before returning with a crib for each of the 2 babies. She takes her phone out again, showing them pictures and trying to explain things. "I am Candace. You are parents. They are babies. We care for and help parents and babies."

Wow, Esdras feels silly now.

They aren't sure they got everything about that explanation (?) right, but none of it is shaped like "and we will throw you in a dungeon", that is good enough.

Auria takes turns pointing and saying names. Auria, Esdras, Liron.

The children either don't have names yet, or she declined to give them to her.