over and over again

M  A   E    A I talked to God to no avail Said, "If you won't save me, please don't waste my time." "Oh, you have no idea how much of a pleasure it is to meet you, Amun" she replied, with quiet laughter in her voice. "I'm Maea." Her smile warmed slightly as he spoke. With each word her wariness faded. It was difficult to keep her guard up against someone who smiled at her, so while some small voice inside her mind suggested that this was the time when she really ought to be careful, the young woman disregarded it. When he offered the cloak however, she declined it with a quick shake of the head. "No, please, you keep it. I have no need, I'm not cold." She ought to be, of course. Dressed in nothing but a thin dress with that ragged black shawl wrapped about her shoulders, as though she'd been about to attend a Fiat Lux dance rather than hike about in the wilderness... but her hands showed no signs of frostbite, nor did she have any trouble walking in those thin shoes of hers as she fell in to walk beside Amun. If she sometimes stumbled, if the skin beneath her eyes was shaded it was more due to fatigue... and maybe hunger. Maea hadn't noticed before, but she was really hungry. Ravenous, even. As though she hadn't eaten in... forever. "Halo...? I don't... know" she said, and felt another trickle of cold dread trickle over her skin. "There was a storm, and I got lost. I've come from... from the Hollow Ground. Have you heard of it? Do you know where... it is?" What if he didn't? What if she had been whisked away to some other world entirely, like the outsiders had? If she was now the stranger, in a strange world with new rules... But no. Ludo's rags still kept her warm in the bitter cold, and they spoke the same language, she and Amun. And... well, she couldn't really have gotten that lost, could she? Belatedly she realized that it perhaps wasn't the wisest thing, to reveal where she came from. The Hollow had been isolated for a reason, after all. Now that the barrier had fallen... maybe not everyone would be thrilled about those who had been locked inside for all those years.