Sam and Xander followed behind the girl as she led them to the village.

She said her name to Sam but he already forgot what it was. He tried to remember it by saying it a few times in his head, but it didn't do anything. Sam figured he just needed to listen to Xander saying her name a few times to remember it.

The girl looked to be slightly older than both Xander and Sam. Her features were more developed and she had a mature air around her. She wore a skit that reached all the way down to her feet. She had a shirt on, that looked a little loose. There seemed to be several other layers of cloth underneath that they couldn't see. Her cloth shoes were worn out with use.

Her facial features were good. She wasn't a beauty, but it certainly wasn't bad to look at.

When Xander woke him up, Sam noticed the throbbing headache very quickly. He could tell that it was coming from somewhere near the back of his brain.

Then after looking around him, he noticed something else, everything had another name to it. He first noticed it when looking at the rocks below him. Nothing was different but, Sam could come up with a different name for a rock.

He looked around and noticed that he had different names for everything else as well. The trees, clouds, the river.

As Sam took it all in, Xander told him about the girl that he saw running away.

Sam told Xander to sit down and he did. It would only make it worse if they followed behind her and someone would come to them eventually.

As they waited, Sam and Xander started talking. At first, it was just the different names for things, then it was simple phrases. After a little bit later, Sam and Xander could talk to each other in a different language as if it was English.

When the girl came back to them, Sam wanted to talk to her alone. If it was both himself and Xander taking to her it might have seemed a little bit intimidating.

Sam could guess that she came back halfway because of the time between her running away and her coming back. It would have taken a lot longer for her to go all the way to the village and come back.

"Good afternoon, I'm Sam and you are?" Said Sam.

"Laina" the girl replied

"May I and my friend come to your village, Laina?"

"You see, we are both travelers from far away. We got lost on our way back from a sea voyage," said Sam. He was trying to come up with a believable lie but it was hard since he knew nothing about the surrounding land. "We don't exactly know what would happen if we entered the village ourselves, but I can guess a few bad possibilities. We would just like for you to make sure that the other villagers don't have a major problem with us. We have a small amount of money we can give for your troubles."

Laina remained quiet for a few seconds while she was thinking to herself. In the end, she said, "Fine, but you have to follow me the entire way and don't talk to anyone, alright?"

Sam didn't have a problem with it, but someone else might have a harder time with that. He turned around and looked at Xander. Xander nodded his head and Sam turned towards Laina, satisfied. He said, "Thank you for your help."

Xander carried Stratus in his arms. It was sleeping when Xander woke Sam up and they decided to not try to wake it up. Neither of them wanted to disturb just a cute thing sleeping.

They remained quiet as they walked. Xander was not good with new people and Laina didn't know what to talk about. Sam thought that it would be better to ask questions when they reached the village and were alone, so he remained silent as well.

It was a while later that the silence was broken. They had been walking for a little bit more than half an hour and they reached the fields of the village. Sam couldn't hold back his curiosity as the girl a question.

"What are these crops?" Asked Sam, looking at the field to their side. They were walking around the field, away from the lake.

Laina looked back at Sam. She was surprised and confused at the same time. As far as she knew, there were only two crops and those were the only crops that people farmed. The only way that he did not know what they were suggested that he was from very, very far away.

"The green plant is called the healing plant, while the golden one is called the Taking plant. " She said.

"Healing plant?" It was Xander that spoke this time. Laina had gotten his attention with the words healing plant. Right now, in this mind, he was thinking that these plants were used to make healing potions.

"Yep, they are also called the giving plants. They heal the ground so that more Taking plants can be planted. The food that Taking plants give is used to feed everyone." Laina said.

Xander's hopes of getting injured in a fight and then healing and then turning the fight were crushed. To him, they seemed to just be plants that put back the nutrients into the ground. He didn't know too much about farming, but he knew that soil could be overfarmed and run of nutrients.

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Sam was also having similar thoughts. Additionally, judging from the girl's expression when he asked his question, Sam could assume that this is very common knowledge.

It, also, seemed that the new words from the language only applied to words that he already knew about. For example, he knew the English word for rock, so he also knew the translated version. He didn't know what the crops were called in English, so he didn't know what they were called in the new language.

They finally reached the village. The village was not very big, it only consisted of around thirty houses. The houses were mostly made of wood. They were small in shape, with enough room for only two rooms for each house.

"Thank you for leading us." Said Sam. He was trying to be as respectful towards the girl as possible. He didn't want to scare her off. "Do you mind showing us to a place we can stay for the night? We have money we can pay with."

"Umm... we don't really get any visitors so there aren't any taverns you can stay at, but..." She looked to be hesitating. "If you want, you can spend the night at my house."

Laina knew that the two people were stranger and even worse they were foreigners, but they didn't do anything that made them seem bad. If they wanted to do something to her, they could have in the forest when she was leading them. They were also so respectful. They were nothing like the foreigner she heard a rumor about.

The other reason, the biggest reason, was that Laina was curious. She wanted to know they were from. She wanted to know more about the outside world. She never left the village, but she wanted to. This could be a good opportunity for her.

Sam and Xander stared at each other. Xander nodded his head and Sam looked back towards Laina.

"Thank you very much," said Sam. He didn't really trust Laina too much, but she didn't really look like a bad person. If they chose not to go to her house, they would have to end up sleeping on a tree for another night and neither of them wanted that.

After a while of sleeping on a tree, Sam and Xander started to wish for real beds more and more. They were certainly not going to give up this chance.

Laina started to walk towards her house and Sam and Xander followed her. Her house was near the middle of the village. As they walked, they saw other villagers looking at them strangely. There were people of all ages. Sam and Xander saw kids playing around and people with white hair walking about. The only thing they had in common was that they stopped whatever they were doing and just watched them.

New faces were rare and especially so at this time of the year. The direction they were coming from was wired as well. Instead of coming from the road leading away from the village, they came from the direction of the fields. One of them was also holding onto a white Carbo, which certainly stood out.

Laina led them to a house on the left side of the street. It was the same as all the other villages, small and wooden. She opened the door and headed inside.

Sam and Xander paused at the front door. They looked at each other, then headed inside.

The entire house was one room. The floor was just packed dirt. To the far right were two large beds and to the left was a furnace and several barrels. On the walls were several tools that people used to farm with. There was also a shelf near the furnace filled with various bowls of different sizes. There were two windows to left the light through which were opened.

Laina went towards one of the beds and sat down. She gestured for the other two to sit on the other bed.

Sam and Xander were feeling uncomfortable. They didn't really know what to expect but this was surprising. They had never been in a house like this. They headed for the bed and sat down. At least the bed was softish.

"Are you hungry?" Asked Laina.

"If it isn't an inconvenience." Said Sam. He didn't want her to feed them if she didn't' have enough food for herself. She looked like she had enough food but he could never be sure. Sam and Xander were both feeling very awkward at this moment.

Laina got up and headed over to grab a bowl. She then went to where the barrels were and opened them. She reached down with her bowl and scooped something out. She then grabbed two of the stones near the furnace and used them to create a spark, which started a fire. She put the bowl on top of the fire and came back to the bed.

"It's going to take a while for it to cook." She said. She sat back down onto her bed and looked towards Xander and Sam.

Xander put down Stratus on the bed and looked around the house. An awkward silence stretched out. All of them wanted to say something but they didn't want to be the first.

"So, you live alone?" It was Xander that spoke first. There were two beds, but he didn't hear Laina mention anything about another person.

Laina looked towards the ground and answered, "Yes". Xander thought that he heard some sadness in her voice.

After that another there was another moment of awkward silence. Sam and Xander didn't know what to say.

"Where are you two from?" said Laina. She tried to stop thinking of her father and asked them a question.

"Somewhere very far from here. In a place where the skies are filled with iron towers." Before Xander could say anything, Sam gave a reply. He didn't want the girl to know they were not from this world, that would be hard to prove and make them seem suspicious. He didn't mind telling her in the future when he trusted her more and she trusted them more, but now was not a good time.

Laina started to imagine that place that Sam spoke of. Iron was somewhat expensive so she assumed that the place they were from was either very rich or had large iron mines nearby. Sam didn't seem to want to talk about it too much so she didn't push him.

"Laina, can you describe the nearby cities," Xander asked. "And can you talk about these guys?" He said pointing to Stratus.

"Well, we're on a fairly large island. The island is called Carthage, named after the largest and only city on the island. Towards the east is the city and the west is the forest. There are serval smaller rivers that flow east and there are several other villages that are close to them. This is the farthest village to the west." Laina paused her explanation to take a deep breath. "The animal that you are sitting next to is called a Carbo. Most of the Carbo is black, but sometimes white ones are born which they give to the village. We kill them as painlessly as possible. We think that the Carbo want to get rid of the white Carbo but they don't want to kill them themselves so they give them to use. The adult Carbo can get pretty large at twelve bricks tall. They don't attack anyone from the village unless they go too far into the forest."

Laina didn't know how much Sam and Xander knew so she simplified everything and said it. She didn't know much about the island outside the village but her mother and father taught her these things when she was a child. She also talked to merchants to learn a little bit more about her surroundings.

After that Sam asked Laina for more specific information, like how was Carthage governed and things like that but Laina didn't really know too much. She answers his question the best she could but she had to say that she didn't know for some of the questions.

Laina noticed how quickly time passed and realized that the food was finished cooking. All three of them could smell it coming out of the bowl.

It was now time to eat.