The awkward smile and shy blush drained from her face in an instant. The books and tales were right about the uncouth savages from below. No wonder the Shory soared the skies while others were chained to the dirt. She carefully stepped away as they advanced, making sure to keep herself a relative distance from them as she held her hands outward but low, showing no threat but also urging them to cease and desist. The guard's comment sparked a look of contempt and disgust and she shook her head in disappointment. These pigs would be the ones she'd have to rely upon to save Ulduvai? A part of her wished she wielded her father's magical power so that she could slay them all in an instant for their insolence. It hissed and slithered in her mind for her to make the lecher's death particularly brutal.<br/><br/>Discipline and common sense allowed her to push down those monstrous urges. They held the advantage. Gambling on them lacking in proficiency as mud-dwellers would probably be a fatal mistake. Whatever they lacked in skill was probably covered for in savagery. Still, she couldn't let them speak like that and anger seeped into her voice. "You speak to me as if 'I' am the foreigner here when it is you who arrived by ship and built your camp over ancient lands? Unbelievable! I came to you alone, in peace, no weapons drawn, and you respond like this?" She points out their drawn swords. "You lack decency!"<br/><br/>Why should she even deign to speak to them at all? "I -was- a friend. I -was- someone who intended to greet you warmly and ask for your aid. You are clumsy fools, stumbling blind and making threats at someone who could have told you about this land and what lies farther within!"<br/><br/>Maia wanted to turn on her heel and storm off to let them get mutilated by the twisted beasts and demons farther inland but she knew better than to turn her back on these louts. She seethed, her fists clenched as she felt the urge to hurl all the insults that could fit in one breath at them. That made it all the more surprising when the robed woman stepped forward, curtsied, and spoke kindly. Much of her tension fell off then and there, though the drawn weapons still gave her reason to be miffed.<br/><br/>She took a deep breath before she responded, her voice softened and filled with upset. "I can't accept that as an excuse but I appreciate your attempt." She returns the curtsy, though hers is markedly different, a relic of past times. She hesitantly bends at both knees, one slightly in front of the other while she stretches her arms outward like the wings of a soaring bird and lowers her head. "I am Maia Ulduvai of the Shory. A Skypalm and survivor of the Ulduvai Catastrophe. I would like to be on my way if it will not lead to more hostility."