For a split second, Liana stood there as if nailed to the ground, staring at the strange scene; and then she was noticed herself. The stranger had stopped talking to the birds and suddenly focussed her gaze at her, with a a strange scanning look in her eyes. For a moment she felt the urge to run, which she instantly suppressed. There was no real reason to fear this strange girl-shaped apparition which didn’t look dangerous and only radiated a kind of peace and calmth. She'd come across much more negative things in her life, both visible and invisible, so she had a good sense of danger, and that radar wasn't signalling any risks now. So she walked up to the driveway of the old factory ruins, overgrown with small succulents, to meet her.

The strange girl stood there waiting for her now, with the birds still circling around her head. For a split second there was a strange pressure on Liana's brain and then she spoke. "Greetings Orranderan, I come in friendship." She spoke with a strange, unearthly accent, but it was definitely Dutch, her own language. On the one hand, she looked just like a girl of her own age wearing not much more than some sort of plain white dress, almost a tunica, and very simple sandals. On the other hand, she still seemed to be there and not there at the same time if you paid close enough attention. Was she even human, or was she a ghost or maybe something else altogether? Both options seemed equally wrong. She might not be human, but she was certainly not dim or shadowy and actually very visible once you chose to see her, which was something she didn’t have with the usual "invisible presences" as she sometimes called them.

And yet… Everything about her felt not human. Her complexion was extremely pale, almost pearly with no pink in it at all, maybe a hint of green even, and in features and colour palette she didn't seem to belong to any human race that Liana had ever seen: The blue of her eyes was almost light purple, lavender even, and the pure white of her long hair almost shone and lacked every hint of yellow that blond humans have, and had something greenish too instead. Plus as far as she knew normal humans usually weren't transparent if you looked at them less closely. The scanning look that was used on her also suggested that she was using senses which humans don't have, although the latter might also be true about herself, now she came to think of it. All the girl’s strangeness was, of course, made worse by the fact that she had obviously been talking to the birds. Liana had already experienced strange things in her life and talked to things that most people around her didn't even acknowledge to exist, but even she did not know how to communicate with animals in an actual language like that.

But even with everything considered the stranger also gave her an inexplicable sense of security. She seemed a lot more pleasant as company than most of the entities that she'd encountered in her life that officially didn't even exist according to science, and most humans too. No, Liana couldn't compare her to presences that sometimes appeared to her for some reason, especially when she really didn't feel like it, and which no one else ever noticed. But the fact remained that she was now supposed to react. Liana was a lot more introverted than most people, even if she wasn't necessarily more shy with strange creatures than with humans, whether they fit her categories or not. It still took a lot of energy to force herself to react now.

"Greetings, uh, unknown girl!" she finally replied, hoping she would not say anything wrong. She had no idea what an 'Orranderran' was supposed to be, but it didn't sound like a swear word or a slur. She decided she'd be open and frank with her second sentence. "Are you also a human, or a ghost, or some strange goddess?" Now the girl looked at her strangely, scanning her again with invisible senses. "Your language is strange to me here. I am not a Hmana like you, or what you would call a ghost, and certainly not a goddess. Though I may have powers that for you might belong more to spirits or to gods. But since there are no better words in your language and in your world, so I will have to use my own language: I'm Inaya the Nummerfil."

Liana stared at her. An explanation like that explained a lot, and really nothing at all. Why did a 'Nummerfil', whatever that was, looking more or less like a girl her age but transparent and apparently in possession of unknown divine powers, have to appear on the grounds of the old Doodzout factory, to casually chat with a swarm of jackdaws and a feral parakeet? That was just absurd!

She couldn't really think for long, because the stranger was going on with her conversation, frowning a little thoughtfully. "I didn't expect to find anyone here who is in touch with the gods and the spirits, and who could see me when I'm using the side dimension. I kind of assumed you Hmana-orr couldn't do that. Hmana in our world usually can't." she said, and something in her attitude changed, as if she had made a decision, and she made a strange bow and spoke more formally.

“Greetings, noble representative of the Hmana-orr in Orranderra. As I said before, I am Inaya, and I represent the oak wood council of Nummerfa, and also the general Council of councils of Nuanderra. My activities here concern the presence of the Onnobolda here in your world. None of us expected a possibility of any collaboration with the Hmana-orr, for our worlds have always been separate, until very recently. We only have one contact in your world, a person that we cannot involve in the current events, but maybe you can assist me, a nawa can tell me more than these birds here, or maybe the gods you can communicate with can help us?”

Liana felt herself turn red. This was clearly turning into one huge misunderstanding. She had by no means understood everything of Inaya's explanation, in spite of her unexpected knowledge of Dutch she used so many unknown loanwords from another language. To make it worse it appeared that she was now suddenly considered to be a representative of Oranderra, whatever that was, and also seen as a special person who could communicate with the spirits and gods. Technically, the latter was not entirely untrue given some of her experiences, even if she would never have described it even remotely like that herself. And it made it sound more interesting than she could ever be. That these expectations were placed on her by an important representative of grandiloquent councils on another world made her slightly claustrophobic. The pale slightly transparent girl with lavender eyes turned out not to be just anyone in her own world, unlike herself. What fiasco was this going to end in? All of those misunderstandings, and that just because she occasionally suffered from mostly invisible 'presences', without ever having asked for it… Whatever the stranger thought she might gain, she would be disappointed in her. Liana was used to the problem of people having very strange expectations of her, so a familiar panic came over her.

She stepped back and started muttering in her own special incoherent style. "No! No! I'm nothing! I'm not who you're looking for! I certainly don't know any gods. I hardly believe in the things I sometimes come across! Please, I don't have any special powers. I'm not a powerful or special person in this world, whatever you might think of me. I'm only Liana the invisible schoolgirl. Nobody ever notices me. And I like it like that." Inaya looked at her again, scanning her again, and she felt something enter her brain, like if the stranger was reading her mind. "And stop doing that, whatever you're doing now. My head is mine!" she added, a little more fiercely.

The invading feeling instantly left Liana's head and Inaya took a step back, a little startled, and for a split second she had a distinctly uncertain look in the blue-purple of her eyes. She was clearly shocked by something. "My apologies, Liana of Oranderra. Forgive me. I have gone too far. I should not have entered in your head, just to seek confirmation in your memory for your words with kah-yito. I should have trusted them. You have already proved yourself to be a nawa, and I introduced myself in kindness. So all the laws of protection apply to you, I shouldn't have broken them." Liana looked at the strange girl, and was completely thrown off balance by the sudden turn and change of subject, and still didn't understand what was going on, but she became curious again.

"What's a nawa? And why should I be such a thing?" she asked. "In my language that's the word for thinking and feeling beings. Like Nummerfa, Drotnira, and Hmana, including your kind in this world; despite the heavy shadow over Oranderra. But most of us have forgotten that last part, and I must admit that in the mythology of our world you are basically all seen as hell demons. Hmana-orr are known as the dreaded Gorchboldi who destroy worlds, only by just being present there even. In fact you could say that we have been at war with your world for thousands of years, at least according to some nawa in Nuanderra of different cultures."

She looked almost guilty now, and took a step back herself, as if she wanted to apologize but didn't know how. Liana understood enough of the story to make her dizzy. Wars with other worlds that she'd never heard of, people of her kind as dreaded mythological demons, and all those names of unknown creatures? What was she even to this strange girl? Was she a supposed point of contact with the Earth gods—which she largely didn't even believe in herself—or some sort of dreaded monster of a kind that still instilled great fear in other worlds just by existing?

Inaya apparently saw her fear "Don't be afraid. I come in friendship. I have indeed scanned your brain, as you would call it, and it is obvious that you are not a demonic monster, but an ordinary nawa like all of us. Our prejudices towards the Hmana-orr might be a bit extreme at times, although they are understandable if you know the history of the worlds"

Liana held up her hands in surrender and mumbled. “Okay, time out! My head is exploding!”

They looked at each other for a few endless seconds. Everything had been quiet in the deserted factory grounds except for a few bird calls and the distant murmur of highway traffic, but now the silence was suddenly broken by the sound of a moped somewhere on the street. The ring-necked parakeet flew away screeching, and Liana realised where she was again, and saw the area again. The wind blew in her face, and more clouds came up above her. Everything seemed normal, even the blue tit and the jackdaws. There just was a person standing in front of her now, who came from another world, even a girl who looked like she could just have been a friend. She was a lot more visible now, by the way, had she changed something about her appearance?

"Do not expect too much from me, honoured Inaya of the council of Nuan-thingy. I can indeed see you all the time so yes, you are not invisible to me whatever you do. Now you are completely visible by the way, I think to other people too. But sometimes I notice things that no one else sees. Sometimes I think I'm crazy, and I hardly ever talk about that with other people, with hardly anyone actually. And the gods, well... The Flying Spaghetti Monster is more of a frustrated pile of complexes in need of therapy and friendship than anything else. But there are strange memories that sometimes surface that sometimes seem like a dream." She wanted to explain but it would take too long to describe the memory. Inaya looked at her calmly.

"If you give me permission you can share memories with me through kah-yito, which is a normal form of communication for Nummerfa, although not even all the Hmana of my world are as capable at it as you are." Liana subconsciously understood what kah-yito was, and knew automatically what to do. She let the memory surface in her head and shared it. She felt indeed that someone was "watching" her head, although much more cautious than earlier, and it didn't seem threatening. Unexpectedly this kind of telepathic thought communication came quite naturally to her. "Hmm, very strange. You can indeed see more than most Hmana, that's clear. And you've already been through a lot. But don't be afraid. Like I said several times now I come in friendship for you. Even if you have nothing to offer us you still have my friendship. And that is not an empty word for our Nummerfa."

At that point in her life, Liana was rather sceptical about most humans, with maybe one notable exception, but she still chose to trust the weird Nummerfil-girl for now, with her talk about friendship. Maybe they were different in Nuan-thingy, and maybe people there didn't step on your heart without noticing it and then throw it in a thousand pieces in the trash.

A blackbird was screaming in the bushes, and Liana felt she'd better go home. She started to get hungry too. "Come home with me. It's easier to talk there, and there's probably nobody home today anyway. And otherwise you're just a school friend."