You disintegrate under infinite possibility, and as you reform you see Gold and Silver and Bronze standing about taking bets from Greed on just how long you'll survive in this next world. They're betting parts of their memory, which in this case is pieces of peppermint candy....

One piece of peppermint escapes to fall in the long grass and you dive after it...

To wake face down in long grass with the smell of peppermind in your nostrils.

Its hot, nearly ninety-five degrees, but very dry. You feel heavy as if you're wearing a thirty pound backpack or something.

PT

I try to get up and I check myself and the world around me.
I also check within myself to see if the power I got from Humility is still with me or was it removed when her body was distroyed.

The shard of Humility is still there, but its like you're reaching through a curtain of falling molasses to touch it.

You stand up in the waist-high grass and see that you're in a bowl valley in the mountains. About a mile away in the base of the valley is a small lake of perhaps fifteen acres in size. On its right side, and your side is a village of twenty two thatched huts of slightly peculiar proportions.

They seem wider and shorter than they should.

On the hill high to your right is a small stone or clay brick building.

There are trees and bushes scattered among the grasses.

You see some brightly colored people fishing in the shallows of the lake with nets and clubs.

The sky is blue and clear, except for the line of white dots and occasional flashes that runs across it.

PT

I stand up and slowly head towards the brightly colored people fishing.
From the looks of it and how I feel I am assuming this is a high gravity planet I landed on. I will walk to them and say," Hello nice day isn't it?"

The gravity is about 120% of Earth's gravity. Its enough to be noticeable.

You walk down to them, and at first you're thinking...What odd pants and shirts these humans have....and then your perspective shifts.

They're avian humanoids with brightly colored feathers in blotch patterns.

The first one closest to you replies in perfect English.

"Hello nice day isn't it?"

PT

I look at then closer and then reply," Yes could I ask where exactly I am right now, I am a traveler and I am lost?"
I want to get information but I have learned to be a little more careful on how I ask.

"Hello nice day isn't it? Yes could I ask where I am right now, I am a traveller and I am lost?"

"Hello"

"Hello, I...Yes...I...I am...I ask..."

It stops and the others begin to babble the words you have spoken in several dozen different orders.  And hearing them all, you realize they are speaking with your accent, and intonation.

There is a shrill cry, and everyone stops. They all turn and stare fixedly at you.

PT

I look to where the cry came from and then when everyone stares at me, I say,
" I didn't do anything honest."
I pray silently, "Lord please grant me the courage and knowledge to help these people and find my way. In Jesus's name I pray Amen."

"I didn't do anything honest...I am...I didn't..."  They start talking again.

Confused, you pray, and you're struck by an impulse to read the Bible to them.  Even more confused, you do so, beginning at Genesis and skipping around, occasionally explaining things as they babble and listen.

Thirty minutes later one of them speaks to you....

"Please, stop, we understand your words now. Mostly. I am...Redfeather. That is a good simple name like the ones your kind prefers. We are...The People of the Valley, and you are....Daughter of Eve? What is your name? Why have you come to our valley?"

Suddenly you realize they've learned the English language in about thirty-five minutes.

PT

I am amazed they learned it so fast, I stop reading and respond,
" My name is Amanda and I am a traveler of worlds, I have traveled here from a faraway place, but I believe I am here for a purpose, I just don't know what."

"I am Redfeather, and my purpose is to catch enough fish for my wife, and my two daughters and my one son. I also lead my family and keep the hut built, and give some occasional catch to the people on the hill.  However, for pleasure I sing, tell stories at the campfire and slide on mud paths into the lake."

He pauses, and some of the others talk to him.

"One of the others says you could talk to Old Woman Whitehead in her hut." He points a stubby wing at it. "She knows much, and gives good advice. Maybe she can tell you your purpose. Of course...do you like to fish? We need to go back and catch mid-day meal. You are welcome to do as you will, but stay inside the valley."

And with that they, except for Redfeather, start wandering off to the lake.

PT

I smile at Redfeather and say," Thank you and no I am not a good fisherman, I will see Old woman Whitehead, maybe she can help me, also how did you learn to speak my language so fast?"

"We listen, we mimic your words, we feel the relation between them. Then we know. You can't do this? Everyone we know can." He pauses. "Except you, of course."

He takes you to Old Woman Whitehead, and babbles at her at high speed for about three minutes. During this time, you can see why she is called her name.  She's obviously a lot stout, and she has a hard time standing up, and apparently she mostly sits on the stoop of her hut and enjoys the sun.

Her feathers at the top of her  head have turned white.

She turns to you while shooing him off.

"The Daughter of Eve who wishes to know her purpose. Are you warrior, teacher, farmer, shieldmaiden, healer of wounds, fisher, hunter of vermin? Do you come to tell us a message, or show us a new way? Or perhaps you come to learn of us? Do you come to free us from the Ring of Doom, the hair of the goddess?"

PT

I then respond," Old woman Whitehead, I was teacher in my first home, I also follow the one true God and he in his great wisdom has blessed me with special abilities to help people.I do not know why I am here, and what is this Ring of Doom and the hair of the Goddess.

"I do not know this One True God. I do know that Before, there was the Mother on which we stand, and the Daughter was in the sky, and they quarrelled bitterly. And so the Mother sought to slap her child, who was grown, and hit her too hard, and her child shattered into uncounted pieces.  But the glittering fragments of her hair we can see in the sky now."

Old Woman Whitehead points up to the sky where you see the white sparkles very far above.

"And the hair began to punish the Mother, and she was grieved by what she had done, and then my ancestors came to the Mother and pointed out to her what suffering they had for her deed, and the Mother gave them a gift so that they might survive, and then the Mother took herself away and put herself into sleep to forget such evil days. And my ancestors came to this valley, and made it their home, and we have lived her ever since."

PT

I listen intently and some of it is a little hard to comprehend, but I get most of what she is saying. Then I say,"Very interesting story Old Woman Whitehead, I wish  could rescue you from the hair or the ring of doom, but I do not know how, can you possibly point me on the right direction I will help you any way I can."

"Well, we can always use teachers, but if you wish to help protect the village from the hair of the Daughter, then step up that hill to the Ancient House."

She points her arm uphill to a couple thousand square foot adobe house with a thatched roof, and outbuildings.  Its stands alone from the village.

"They are the ones who have brought the gift of the Mother to fruition."

PT

I nod, and smile then head up towards the house.
When I arrive I knock on the door waiting for a response.

The door opens before you hit the door.

"Greetings, Amanda." Says another very old avian. "We've been expecting you."

He steps past you, and five others of his kind trundle on past you as well.  He's looking into the sky.  You see lines of fire plunging earthward. Smoke trails behind them.

He points at one, and the avian next to him nods.

"Yes, Master."

And you realize that the meteor is heading directly toward the Valley. The others are missing the protected bowl.

It gets closer, and larger. Part of your mind is sure its heading right toward you.

And then it starts curving away, and plummets into the hills beyond the Valley.

They count, and at five seconds, there is a mild earthshock.

"Well done, student." The Master pats his student on the shoulder, and turns to you. "I am Master Brokenfeather." He points to one of his feathers in his arm which looks like it nearly broke off and then healed wrong. "You are Amanda the Human. We are the Parakeet People in this Valley. And more specifically these are my students, the guardians of the Valley who with the gift of the Mother protect us from the Hair."

PT

I look amazed, then I say," One of your students redirected the meteorite from hitting this Valley, how did you do that Broken feather?"