2

Her feaures were delicate as if painted by a very thin and careful brush. Her bright green eyes were almond-shaped. Her light brown frinze hid half of her tan forehead letting only one of her hard angled eyebrows show. Her nose was long and triangular and her upper lip was thinner than her lower lip.

"ǷǷǷǷǷǷǷǷ" Her voice was soft but urgent as she tried to tell me something and move off of me. I kept staring at her like an idiot not realizing that I hadn't understood a word she said not because of my surprise and her hastiness but because I hadn't heard of this language before.

"Huh?" I was very eloquent, I know, but this whole situation felt like a fever dream and I still felt a bit confused and dizzy. I saw her light brown eyebrows furrow as she kept staring into my eyes intently like she hoped that if she put more feeling behind her words, I would finally get their meaning. 

"ǷǷǷǷǷǷǷǷ!" She repeated almost shouting this time and she moved more frantically on top of my body until she managed to get free and get up. Before I knew what I was doing, I was up on my feet as well, ready to follow behind her as if hypnotized. The rest of our surroundings started coming back to me like our bubble had burst and then I managed to feel more clearly the people that were approaching while I could hear their angry shouts in a language I still didn't recognize. They must have said something that made her change her mind because one moment she looked like she was ready to bolt and leave me in the dust but the next she looked back at me almost helplessly and with a bit of exasperation before seizing my arm. 

As if the contact woke me up, I blinked slowly and moved my head to clear it. I had no idea where I was and I was suddenly ready to follow a stranger, beautiful stranger but still a stranger nonetheless, to God knows where. I was better than that. Before I could afford to ask her what was going on or where she wanted to take me, the ominous crowd that was after her came too close to us and I was stripped of the choice to decide what I was going to do next. With remarkable strength from someone of her size, she went up to my chin and her figure was slim, she dragged my hand with enough force to pull it out of its socket and we took three big steps before she extended her free hand in front of us and a circle of purple light made its appearance. For a second I was mesmerized by her bouncing brown curls so I only realized that we were going straight towards a wormwhole, when she had already disappeared inside it, pulling me after her mere moments later.

"Come on! Not again!" I had just been out of something similar to those things! And I wanted to explore the other town a bit more. Wait! That wasn't the biggest problem anyway! Where had that thing come from?

In contrast with my previous landing, my face was the first thing that hit the ground and I groaned in pain and frustration as I tasted the grass and dirt underneath me. I slumped for a moment and it took me a few seconds to pull myself together and fist the grass so that I could find a stronghold to support my weight and get up. My luck was getting worse and worse as this day progressed. At least, this new place was much quieter than the town where we had been a moment ago so I could come to my senses easier and more quickly.

I dusted my ruined black jeans and black shirt and looked up at her to see her watching me with interest while her shoulders shook in her effort to reign in her laughter. My look steadily morphed into a glare, at least my misery was making someone else's day. She pointed at her forehead and cheeks and I realized that most probably I had soil all over my face. Great, just great. I was dirty and disorientated while she had to stand there and look like that. I tried to brush the dirt off with my hands but must have ended up making it worse because she shook her head and looked away to hide her chuckles.

"So what do we do now?" My voice seemed to force her out of her reverie and she looked back at me in confusion. 

"ǷǷǷ ǷǷǷ ǷǷ?" It sounded like a question and that was about all I could get from what she was saying. I tried to strain my ears hoping that I would catch any of it but I failed. That must mean that she really did speak an entirely different language. The problem with that was that I was familiar with many foreign languages and even if I couldn't speak many of them, I at least knew what they sounded like. Her words and intonation was different than anything I had ever encountered. The way her tongue rounded around her syllables and her vocal chords hummed after a every word in an almost musical way was beautiful but still very unusual.

I mean, that's not the most weird part about- 

No. I refused to think about that because there was no way that it had happened. Either I was still hallucinating or there was a perfectly logical explanation. There was no way that she had used mag-

I felt a shiver go down my spine at the mere near thought of the word. I wasn't going to go insane and start believing in absurd and impossible things just because my brain created these images or someone was a good enough trickster to make something that wasn't exactly there look so real. I had just hit my body on the pavement after our encounter so maybe we walked all the way to the- I looked around to take in my surroundings- forest and I just had a concussion or didn't remember. I could get really lost in my thoughts after all. And I mean, who would use mag-ahem- that to come in a forest in the first place? It would be such a waste and so anticlimatic.

She looked at me expectantly and I noticed from her open posture that she must have said or asked something and was waiting for my reply. If that didn't serve as proof for my previous statement about attention, I don't know what would.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand you." I spoke slowly as if that would help her understand a language she probably hadn't encountered before. When her brows furrowed even further and she tilted her head in confusion and deep contemplation, I decided to try a few words from other languages I knew to speak at least a little. German, Italian, Chinese, even a bit of French. She had no reaction to any of them apart from some mild fascination on how my voice and words changed each time.

"ǷǷǷǷǷ" It was like my brain decided that it didn't understand anything so it gave up every time she opened her mouth and didn't even let me discern the different sounds she made. It sounded like a stream of buzzing. I was ready to shake my head to show that I still couldn't understand but then she repeated her words with more emphasis and pointed at her self. I needed her to do it a third time and very slowly before it dawned on me that she was trying to tell me her name so that we knew at least what we could call each other. "Ma-leek-a"

"Malika?" It sounded rough and hoarse in my voice. It was like I had a rock straight out of the mine while she held the finished and perfected diamond. She shook her head and chuckled at my pronunciation.

"Maleeka" She repeated and I tried again.

"Maleeka" It couldn't compare to her voice but it was better than before. She nodded with vigor at me which made me smile and feel a bit proud of myself, even though I was used to accomplishing far bigger and more complex things with no praise whatsoever. I could sense the question in her expression and I pointed at myself "Ki-yo-ta"

"Kioto?" I had a half thought to change my name because it sounded much better the way she said it but it was my turn to shake my head and repeat.

"Ki-yo-ta" She concentrated hard and stared at my lips intently trying to note all their different movements. I tried not to dwell on it too much but I could feel my pulse accelerate a little. Our languages seemed to be polar opposites. In my case, the vowels and consonants needed to be heard and sometimes they were a bit heavy on the tongue. In her case, her language sounded like the whistling of the wind. It was light, gentle and you couldn't tell if it was really there once it stopped. It had no echo and leaved no trace. It was entrancing and I wanted to learn as much as possible for this country and its culture.

"Kiyota" She managed to say and the moment I nodded, she gave me a gentle smile that made my face feel warm.

"That's right" I tried to dispel that weird feeling. I pointed at her. "Maleeka" I pointed at myself. "Kiyota" Instead of going away, the feeling intensified and for a split second, it was like it took form. A transparent and fragile form but a form nonetheless. I felt enegry buzz between us, originating by me and reaching her and then coming back at me like a cycle. My stiff shoulders relaxed and I felt safe at her presence. As if I knew I could trust her. I saw a glimpse of surprise in her features but it was gone almost instantly. She opened her mouth to say something but she either didn't know how to express it or she remembered that I wouldn't understand anyway because she closed it again shortly after. She reached for my wrist and took it before starting walking. I tried to find my usual doubt and worry for this situation but there was none and I followed her willingly. I knew nothing about where I was and she was the only one there so I would have to trust her at least a little if I wanted to make sense of all this and find a way to return home.

Or so I told myself