Wint walked forward with such a spring of confidence to her step, as though the whole park were her property. Then again, Linda reminded herself, it seemed this was just how the woman was - self-assured and straightforward, even if that sometimes coincided with cynical crudeness. Linda made another effort to speed up her pace, although it seemed her heart was already straining from pressure.

“So, Alaiah, huh?”, she managed, slightly out of breath already. “Interesting name.”

“‘Tis the name of our Goddess-Mother”, Wint replied simply, with a tone suggesting this was the most natural conclusion anyone could ever come to and how the hell hadn’t Linda done the same.

“Oh, is that so?”, the girl pressed on. “Could you tell me a bit more about your religion?”

“Most is ol’ men’s tales if ye ask me”, the woman cut her off without even looking at her. “Religion is opium for the weak minded, ye see - them folk that have a desperating need for something beyond ‘em to solve their problems.”

Linda fell silent a moment. She wasn’t going to get anywhere at this rate. She needed to carefully pick her next words if she ever hoped to learn more about the place she suddenly found herself in and its strange new culture.

“Oh, I completely agree!”, she said finally. “But see, I have this more scientific approach to these cultures, religions and myths. Seems to me you know quite a bit about a lot of stuff, so I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t mind telling me more.”

“Well, if ye went an’ said it like tha’ - what can I make of ye?”, her condescending tone slightly contrasted with the smile that suddenly found its way to her lips. 10 points for creativity, Linda. “So, according to them religious folk, see, Alaiah got born from the five elements - air, water, fire, earth and ‘lectricity - like sun and lightning.”

“Sun and lightning?”

“Yeah, for it produces them electro-magnetic waves - them be ‘im rays, see?”, Wint clarified.

“A-ha…”

“And so the Goddess be born of all them forces, but she be real tired, see, cuz she just went and got herself created, so she decided to rest a bit on this ‘ere planet.”

“And?”

“Don’t be forcin’ me, lass, we learnt this a looong time ago…”, Wint’s brow furrowed in thought, to reinforce her words. “Now ‘ere, see, we have them few schools of different Alaians - the ones who be most fanatical claim Alaiah was never tired, cuz she be perfect and see perfect beings don’t do that. So as soon as she be born out of ‘em primordial Chaos and Forces, she rushed straight to creating the whole of this planet and the first woman - Ariah, which meant “I can” on that ancient language, ah think. But Ariah was so lonely, see, that Alaiah decided to make ‘er a companion. So she took one of ‘er ribs and that be why we don’t have thirteen, but only twelve… Wha’s so funny to ye?”

“No, no, don’t mind me, I just remembered something else”, Linda shook her head, trying desperately to push down the bout of hysterical laughter, which was bubbling inside her chest.

“Well ain’t ye precious - ahm tryin’ to ‘member dis here stuff and you be messin’ about.”, Wint chided her, but to her relief, went on. “So in the beginning, see things were all good - Ariah and Enni (delicate was this or gorgeous, ah’ll mess it up), together on Alaiah - wha could go wrong? Ye, but from them Forces which birthed Alaiah, got born ‘er sister - Kriya. She too was much powerful, ye know, but evil, like a poisonous legless. And just as such, see, she present herself one day to Enni and tells ‘im - ye take yer wife’s cloak an’ ye go to Alaiah’s well an’ ye tell ‘er - Alaiah, ah be yer daughter, come ‘ere to grant me part of yer strength. And ye drink from the well, she told ‘im, and ye’ll have not only eternal life, but knowledge and power. And ye shall bring to yer wife to bring as well.”

“Wait, let me guess”, Linda interrupted. “Alaiah had forbidden them both to drink from this well under any circumstances, right?”

“Well look at ye, all knowledgeable!”, Wint retorted, one eyebrow raised. “It be exactly so. And when Alaiah found ‘em out, oh, she be furious! So furious, that she take both ‘em everlasting lives. But cuz Ariah herself ‘ad done nuthin’ wrong on purpose, she told her so - ye and yer daughters shall carry part of me strength in ye. Some will carry fire, without burns, some will make hurricanes, some will raise monstrous waves upon them seas and some shall make them plants grow and the earth tremble as they please. Ah grant ye these powers, so ye be strong, but be very reasonable! For if ye act as nimwits, ah shall take yer gifts! An’ she went and made them three moons - one fer air, water an’ fire an’ the earth daughters she linked directly to the earth itself. An’ to Enni she told, for being such a sucker, that ‘im an’ ‘is kin will be weak and powerless like small animals and they will ‘ave many troubles and should listen to their wives’ every word, so no further consequences come to ‘em.”

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Somehow, Linda sincerely doubted that these were the exact words of a higher deity, but she remained silent, for the last thing she wanted was for Wint to find out her laughter was partly caused by the wind storm’s unique means of expression.

“Very interesting, indeed. And the other schools of Alaians?”

“Well, them other’s say that she be very tired see, so she came ‘ere to rest herself, but one of the women, dis in ‘em olden days, see, went and gave her some water. So Alaiah be so impressed and grateful, that she told ‘er, for bein’ so kind, ah shall give ye powers over the elements and ye and yers shall carry them in yer blood, so long as ye be so noble. Some others say that Alaiah be no Goddess at all, but the first woman to achieve control o’er the elements - she could use them all, see, and then she thought the others from ‘er tribe to do so as well, but they be not so ‘chen’ or what have ye an’ managed to control jus’ one.”

“And what does the science say about all this?”, Linda was careful to phrase her question so as not to betray her inner doubts about the scientific development of this planet, because she was sure this would do nothing, but irritate Wint.

“Well, the science thinks that all our tribes be havin’ a common ancestor who could do all ‘em things we do, but somehow things diluted and now we can do but one. They also believe what we can do is somehow related to some genes we got mixed up from them tall, purple trees ye saw up there - they be called bru'ankh'ai, but tha' be an even longer story. Be this enough for ye, for now, cuz me jaw got sore from all dis talkin’?”

Linda just nodded. She honestly didn’t know what more to say or ask at this stage, she was still assimilating all she had just heard. Wint nodded in turn, and added:

“Com’ on then - let’s find ourselves something nice to drink and young to fuck, cuz it be gettin’ dark soon, and ah am tired of this cave, see.”

Linda made a face, which thankfully went unnoticed. There was a lot to assimilate, for sure...

The trees were thinning out and they descended from their shadows onto a road of some kind, which again looked surprisingly like the asphalt covered strips the girl was used to from back home. It was the sort of winding single lane in direction road which was typical for mountainous regions like the one they were coming down from. Still, there were some signs of civilization which seemed to indicate they weren't too far from a settlement.

One of them caught her attention and she ran down a bit faster to study it up close. It was a bilboard of some kind. On its large poster she could see two men, or perhaps boys, straddling the fine line between late puberty and early adulthood. They were beautiful! One had hair so blond it was almost white and the same kind of green-blue cat eyes Wint had. The other one had raven hair and deep brown eyes which had an elegant, distinct shape to them that reminded her of East-Asians back on Earth.

The young men stood facing each other and had one end of something she hoped was some kind of food caught between their lush rosy lips. Was this some form of advertisement for the local cuisine? Their body language looked rather provocative and their clothing could be described as skimpy at best - perhaps it was underwear, or swimwear? Begrudgingly, she had to admit it was working, though she couldn't guarantee which part of the image made her mouth water more - the men or the alleged food item.

She jumped a little when she felt a heavy hand land on her shoulder - she was so enthralled by the ad, she hadn't noticed Wint approaching her at all.

"Ah see yer hungry, ain't ye, little one?" The woman said in her deep voice which sounded a bit softer now, perhaps a bit wistful even. "Not to worry, just a wee bit of a hike more down this 'ere road and we can get ourselves one of these tasty morcels to munch on. If we're lucky - there might be food, too."

Wint winked at her confused face and let out a short bark of a laugh as she saw the girl's expression change from surprise to realisation. Linda tried to surpress the blush that was threatening to bloom on her cheeks and attempted to focus on the less provocative bits of the bilboard. There were large, wavy-looking letters on the poster itself, but there were also flyers pasted onto the men's private parts which had a very different shrift.

"What does it say?" Linda asked, finally giving up on trying to decipher the alien scripts herself.

Wint took a moment to respond, casting a long, impenetrable gaze at the girl. Did the woman forget Linda wasn't from around here? Did she expect the girl to somehow be able to read?

"It says - 'Come try Hagal's famous spicy stick-meat - get it while it's hot' ", the windstorm finally said.

"And the flyers?" Linda insisted, her gut telling her the messaging on those might be slightly less welcoming.

"What do ye care?" The woman snapped suddenly and turned to continue her walk along the winding road.

Linda sprinted a bit to catch up to her and grabbed her forearm before she could think better of it.

"I want to know - what does it say?"

Wint's eyes glinted a bit in warning and the girl dropped her arm, as if it had electrocuted her. They stared at each other for a bit, until Linda felt her eyes begin to water from trying to not blink. Finally, a shadow crossed the woman's sharp features and when she spoke, the disappointment from a while ago was back in her voice:

"It's protest flyers, vandalism. But if ye must know, they say - 'Men's bodies are not objects for the pleasure of the female gaze. Big Brother is watching'" . Seeing the budding questions in Linda's eyes, the woman raised her hand to stop her, before she could say anything. "Nuh-uh, we get to Braize first and get some good food in our bellies and then ye can continue yer innane questioning, yeah?"

The girl's head dropped in defeat, but she sped up again to keep up with the windstorm's crushing pace. Big Brother is watching? Female gaze? Yup, she thought to herself, we're definitely not in Kansas anymore...