Exhausted from her day of running through the forest, Kitherit slept deeply despite the less then comfortable circumstances.  She was just beginning to return to consciousness when she felt the gentle touch and heard the musical voice.  It brought her awake immediately, and her eyes flew open to gaze up at the other woman in surprise.  She hadn't understood a word Ildra had spoken, but she immediately registered her apparently gentle nature.  Kitherit gazed at Ildra in awe, taking in everything from the slender points of her ears, so similar to her own, to the woman's beautiful long pale hair.<br/><br/>As she sat up slowly, she registered how cold she was.  A shiver moved through her body, and she glanced down at her torn clothing.  She was fortunate enough to have worn heavy clothes the previous day, and the dew covering the ground hadn't penetrated deeply into the cloth.  The rain that had threatened the day before had never come either, which was a blessing for her.  Her feet still ached dully from her flight through the forest over uneven terrain.  For a moment she wondered how she had managed to run for so many hours without twisting an ankle or coming to greater harm.<br/><br/>Then she looked back to Ildra, and bit her lip for a moment, before speaking.  "I'm sorry, I... I don't know your language."  Kitherit bit her lip again as she remembered her cottage that had been her home since birth, and knew there was no way she could return to it now.  Suddenly it hit her that she had nowhere to go now, and as she looked at Ildra she saw her only chance of some hope for her future.  "I...  I need help.  I've been cast out, I have nowhere left to go.  Please, can you help me?"  As if in response to her pleas for help, her stomach suddenly growled with fierce hunger.  A sound which needed no translation to understand.