Eventually, they start seeing the tops of skyscrapers in the distance, with blocky designs and huge windows. There's an expansive park separating the buildings on the very outskirts of town from the edge of the woods. There are several artificial looking lakes, and unusual birds that look like turkeys with the plumes of peacocks. There are only a few people in the park at the moment, all minding their own business.

"Skyscrapers?" Thea asks no one in particular. She hadn't really known what she was expecting, but a skyscrapers and well-maintained park certainly hadn't been it.

"I guess it's good that we got dropped off a ways into the woods," Rom muses. "If we'd shown up in the middle of this, the kids would probably have passed out."

"Hildre did say that it'd be safe on the other side, right? I guess he accounted for that."

The two of them wait there for a moment, resting from the hike here from the clearing, and straining their ears to see if they can hear anybody speaking, trying to tell if it's a language they recognize.

Neither is trying much at all to hide, so if someone's paying attention to the border between the parkland and the woods, it won't be too hard to spot a couple distressed, rough and dirty-looking thirty-somethings, a man and a woman both wearing fairly plain clothes.

The sounds of people speaking are remote, but it is very obviously a completely unfamiliar language. Nobody thinks to look over towards the woods, so nobody notices that there's anyone in them.

Rom and Thea share another worried look.

"Should we...try and talk with them? Even if the local language isn't one either of us know, maybe if they hear us talk they can find someone who speaks something mutually intelligible?" Rom asks Thea.

Thea in turn looks up at the sky. Assuming that they're at a similar latitude to where they were before, and that it's roughly the same season, it might be close to noon. "We've probably got a few hours before dark. Do you think they'll let us go back to the clearing with time enough to make it back before then? If they do, do you think people might follow us back and hurt the kids?"

Rom contemplates that for a moment. "I don't think we're going to be able to manage living out in the woods in definitely, not on our own. We've got over eighty people. Even if manage to make enough shelter and find a source of fresh water, feeding all of us would draw attention eventually, and if they just think we're a bunch of squatters they're probably not going to care much about what we say."

Thea nods in agreement. "Alright."

They share a moment of deep breathing to calm their nerves, before walking out into the park, looking for and trying to get the attention of anyone who looks like they might work at the park.

There doesn't seem to be anyone working in the park, just robots driving around and cutting the grass. They can see a few adults enjoying a picnic of delectable looking food, including a woman slowly eating through a plate of chickpeas. She eventually turns her eyes to the two people looking around in the park, although she doesn't say anything.

...Robots?

No, they need to stay focused. If there's nobody official, then they'll just have to hope that normal park-goers won't call the police on them for walking up and talking in a foreign language. They'll look for someone who isn't eating, though, since rudely interrupting a meal probably isn't going earn them any extra trust. If they can find someone who doesn't look like they're going to run off as soon as they approach, they'll head up to them and Thea will speak first, asking, "Hello, do you recognize the language we're speaking?"

They also discover a man dressed in a short white skirt, sitting down on a bench and enjoying the weather. He looks at them in confusion, before saying some words that they don't recognize in the slightest. He brings out a phone, confusedly looking through it, hoping to find a pictogram that's somehow helpful here.

Alright, it was pretty unlikely they'd just pick someone right off the bat who'd understand them, and it looks like they might be trying someone regardless, so Thea will nod hopefully to the man, while Rom keeps an eye out in case anyone else is coming up to them with an aggressive or hostile posture.

Nobody else shows up! The man eventually finds a very simplified image of two people talking, in VERY different scripts, hoping it gets the idea along. Then he points to himself. "Charon". He really has no idea of how bootstrap a language from scratch! But he'll try to make it happen, pointing at and naming one thing at a time.

Okay, this is workable. Thea nods again, naming herself as "Theodora" and Rom as "Romuald", and cooperating with Charon, naming the same things he points to. A moment later, Rom gets a surprised looked on his face, which quickly transitions to embarrassment and then to hope, as he pulls out a small ring-bound notepad and pencil from his pocket. The paper is a bit damaged from the rain they were running through before they arrived here, but it's dried enough that it's just about usable. Rom will do his best to phonetically transcribe the words that Charon uses, connecting them to associated word in Thea's language. He'll also continue keeping watch, though he's more so keeping track of the time now rather than anticipating hostility.

Pointing-and-calling introduces the duo of new arrivals to grass, benches, water, ponds, and buildings! He thinks about who to call for help, before eventually just calling the mayor. He starts quickly explaining that 2 people who seem to have lost the ability to speak have met him at one of the Hinterland Parks, and he wants them to get some kind of help to get back on their feet. He's very unsure about how to proceed from here. He tries to ask about how they'll get shelter, pointing at an illustration of a man standing inside a house during the rain, contrasting it with illustration of a man standing outside and getting wet.

Thea and Rom consider this, consulting the lexicon they've built, before doing their best to attempt to convey "get our people into house with help from your people". At least, they hope that the word they're thinking is for help actually means help.

The two of them will also occasionally check in with each other over the course of the lexicon-building exercise to see if they can figure out any ways to express the fact that they have seventy nine children who will feel physical pain and suffer physical illness if you pay too close attention to them or feel emotions too strongly near them. So far at least they haven't heard any words for the Affliction or the afflicted yet, so it's possible that these people don't really have a concept of it as a thing, giving Thea and Rom some hope that they won't have to deal with the same hatred that had them running out of a burning building earlier today.

Charon understands enough to get their idea. He's not entirely sure about where they'd end up; it's a parent city, with lots of big apartments for extended families. Presumably, they have enough vacancies for everyone, even if they might end up spread across multiple buildings. The vocabulary they've managed to amass so far doesn't come close to mentioning anything about anything remotely related to psionics, so Thea and Rom won't be able to explain the situation particularly well for Charon.

Getting into the why of it may have to wait, then. Is communicating that the kids with them need to be kept away from other people, for the kids' own health and safety, feasible to communicate?

Charon manages to understand the idea, but he's totally confused. He still nods and tries proposing some ideas for where the kids might want to live. He finds some images of unusually nice tents, as well as rural areas surrounded by vast acres of crops, seen from far above.

Thea will nod along, agreeing that these options seem better than anything especially dense or urban.

She'll collaborate a bit more with Rom, and maybe start actively seeking out words with the help of Rom's pencil and paper,by attempting to draw pictographic depictions of various sorts of scenes or arrangements. Her next goal is to try and communicate that it needs to be just them, Thea and Rom and the other adults who are currently taking care of the children, who directly interact with the children.

"Do you think they might assume we're just lying about this, if we keep trying to make sure no one ever sees the kids?" Rom asks Thea.

"That...is a good point. We might need to ask Malou about whether it would be okay to let one or two of these people come and see the kids for themselves," she replies. "We try and communicate that whenever the help this guy called for shows up, though."

Eventually, a car arrives. It's a van that's close in size to an ambulance, with 4 rows of amply spaced seats. "We take you there", he says, pointing at the city. "And get what you need."

Do they have the words to ask, "How long?"

Yes, they do. "When is too long?" is what Charon replies with.

"After sunset," Rom answers. Noticeably, despite Thea having done most of the talking so far, Rom's accent is improving as quickly if not faster.

Charon strokes his chin for a moment. "After sunset is more than enough", he eventually says. Then he finds an image of quite nice looking tents on his phone. "Get some of these, get food, get settled. Get started", he says. He moves into the second row of seats of the car, motioning for them to follow him. "Food and tents to start."

Thea and Rom give each another look, before nodding to each other and getting into the car with Charon.

The car drives off towards the city, accelerating very, very fast. It doesn't take particularly long before the two of them find themselves at an outdoor equipment store at the first floor of a skyscraper, with a wide selection of tents and jackets visible as they take a look around. One of the tents that they saw a picture of, a relatively large one with room for 4 or 5 people standing, can be seen arranged in a display together with a very thick and plush sleeping bag.

Neither Rom nor Thea have much experience with shopping for tents, but they're here now so they'll have to try their best. They'll look for tents that seem durable and good at keep water out, and with some ability to increase and decrease the ventilation, so that they can be used regardless of whether the weather is hot or cold. They're not too worried about weight or portability, since presumably if the group is moving they'll hopefully be moving to one of those relatively isolated rural places that Charon showed them back at the park. They're also going to need a bunch, since they're housing 84 people, though the fact that most of those people aren't adults might help.

84 people? That would be VERY impracticable! Are they really sure that not setting up within one of the skyscrapers would be better? In any case, Rom and Thea can find tents that perfectly fit the bill; they're made of ultra-strong fabrics, with hydrophobic coverings that make the rain just bounce off. They come with thin plastic films that can be added or removed to control the amount of insulation, making them fit for both summer and winter. They're going to need more than just one car if they want tents for 84 people; but Charon can get the logistics arranged without too much effort.