10 Breaking this Barrier Begins with an Introduction

The wind blew through the trees, birds chirped their songs, and the weather wasn't too hot nor was it too cold. Currently, Nastasia was resting under a tree deep in thought while strange fairy-like creatures played around her.

After waking, once again in that room, there was a servant with pale blue robes for her to dress into. She refused the help and -with great difficulty- managed to dress alone. Once the servant left, Nastasia immediately went to check the reflection of herself in that mirror, only to still have a young face looking back at her. She really wished that she could grab someone and ask, "how old do I look to you?" Yet, who could she ask? As of yet none of the people living here could understand a single word she spoke.

Throwing the matter of her becoming younger to the side, as she looked at her reflection, she noticed a strange marking curled around her left ring finger trailing down to her wrist. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was a bunch of symbols drawn closely together. It looked like she was wearing a ring and a bracelet connected by a chain.

Nastasia rubbed at the mark to see if it could be wiped away, to no avail. It wouldn't come off, so there was no helping it. As she let her arms drop to her side, she felt a small frustration building in her chest. She bit her lip and then took a deep breath to force it down.

There were too many things that she didn't understand. To top it all off she couldn't even communicate with the people around here to help her come to any kind of conclusion about her situation. The sheer amount of helplessness weighing down her heart left her limbs numb and her mind dizzy. This was the first time in her life she had ever experienced this type of enervating feeling.

Honestly, Nastasia was beginning to fear the sort of situation she may have gotten herself into. Dropping twenty-five years, this town and the people in it that looked like the insides of period drama, and the strange creatures she had been coming across in her walk of the estate were the stuff of fantasy novels.

Things like this just didn't happen in reality.

One of the little fairy-like creatures playing at her side wandered over to tug at the wide sleeves of her robe for attention. Looking down, Nastasia saw the little dark fleshed and wide blue-eyed creature holding out a small purple flower in a hand that sported four fingers. Its ears were pointed, its hair was a dark silk waterfall down to its feet, and its back sported delicate silvery-blue wings.

Nastasia accepted the flower with a grateful smile and watched as the little creature took off to its circle of friends. They all crowded around it and patted its back, seemingly congratulating it for being able to give her the flower. They sent her smiles when they noticed her looking at them, giving little waves with their little four-fingered hands.

Her heart warmed at their caring actions. Nastasia couldn't help but wonder if they noticed her being down and tried to offer comfort in this way as they could not communicate with words?

Many of the creatures wandering this garden had tried to speak with her, curious over the new being they had not seen before. After demonstrating that she and they spoke different languages, they took to communicating with her by silent smiles, gently inclined heads, and waving hands. It made her -who was suffering under the inability to speak and be understood- feel a mite less suffocated and trapped.

Looking down at the flower in her hand her mood lightened considerably.

So what if they couldn't speak the same words? So what if she's fallen into a fantasy novel plotline? Nastasia -though at the moment she was stuck here- didn't have to be rooted like a hare facing its predator. If she couldn't understand then she merely needed to learn the language. Once she gathered enough information, she could make a decision then.

Hopefully, she would be able to silently convince that demonic beauty to allow her to remain here until that could happen. With how the townspeople reacted to her appearance, Nastasia really wanted to avoid walking among them if it could be helped. There was no guarantee that she would be able to meet another who'd be willing to aid her from being chased.

Suddenly it had grown quite, she noticed that all the little fairy-like creatures that had been playing around her, made themselves scarce. Confused, she looked around to find that the demonic beauty was heading her way accompanied by two large wolves and another man. 'Ah,' she realized, 'they must have been scared off.'

Once they were but a few steps away, the wolves quickly bounded over, laid at either side of her, and placed their heads in her lap before she could rise to greet them. Hesitant on how to react to their suddenness, Nastasia finally decided to give into her urge to pet them. She had always wanted a dog, but her mother was allergic and so she hadn't been able to realize that desire. Once she got older she was always busy and would not have had the time to raise a pet.

Those fur coats were the softest things she had ever felt in her life! Delighted she rubbed her cheek on the silver one's downy head while her hand continued to pet the black one. She looked up when the man walking with the demonic beauty fell to his knees before her, cupping a fist.

She looked up curiously at this youth that sported golden eyes and head of orange streaked black hair. She had noticed, while they were walking toward her, that he was a head shorter than the demonic beauty. Though height didn't tell of age, Nastasia felt that the other man was younger than the beauty behind him. She tilted her head, curious as to why he was kneeling before her like this.

"Zhuzi, wǒ bǎo zhèng jié chéng wèi nín fú wù! (Master, I promise to serve you faithfully!)" He cried out in a respectful tone with his head inclined.

Shooting a look toward the demonic beauty, he inched closer to Nastasia, leaning forward to whisper conspiratorially. "Zhuzi, bié bèi nà jiā huo yú nòng le. Tā kě néng bù kàn tā, chú le tā de yǎn jīng, dàn tā shì yí gè zhēn zhèng de è mó. Rú guǒ nǐ bù xiǎo xīn nǐ huì- (Master, don't be fooled by that guy. He may not look it, except for his eye, but he's a real demon. If you don't watch out you'll-)"

"Nǐ kě yǐ yòng nǐ de kǒu qì lái dǐ huǐ wǒ, tā tīng bù dǒng nǐ zài shuō shén me. (You can save your breath in slandering me, she can't understand anything that you're saying.)" The demonic beauty cut in.

The young man shot her a look as if trying to dig out some sort of answer. After a moment, he said. "Nǐ zhēn de bù míng bái wǒ ma? (Can you really not understand me?)"

Seeing the inquiring look on his face, Nastasia could pretty much guess at what he was asking. Rather than shake her head, she answered. "I don't understand anything you're saying to me." This way, the young man would be able to better grasp that the words they spoke were vastly different.

Drawing into a contemplative silence, the young man kept shooting looks at her as he seemed to be struggling with something. He also seemed incredibly disappointed. The demonic beauty barked a few words at him, to which the young man stood and left reluctantly. The two wolves also stood and followed after him.

Nastasia was sad to see them go, their fur was really soft and warm. It was very comforting to have them laying around her.

Snapping out of her melancholy for their leaving, Nastasia rose to a stand after the demonic beauty gestured for her to do so. He walked forward and straightened the robes she failed to put on properly, re-tying the sash around her waist after having done so. His abrupt actions left her stunned and before she could regain herself to shoo his hands away, he was already finished and smirking in satisfaction.

Rather than getting angry, Nastasia dropped the matter as she remembered the decision she had come to earlier. Pointing toward herself, she said. "Nastasia Mikhailovna Vasilieva." She repeated it a few times.

The demonic beauty seemed to understand what she was getting at and attempted to repeat her name. However, every time his tongue tried to climb over the sounds, they were squashed beyond recognition. Her name became a hodgepodge of gibberish falling from his mouth.

Russian names were difficult to pronounce. Even though to her, her name wasn't anything to get tongue-tied over, very few of her friends could pronounce it all properly. Albeit that they could be considered less than acquaintances, she decided to allow him to call her pet name that was reserved for close friends and family.

Once again she pointed toward herself. "Asya." This pet name, as she did with her full name, was repeated a few times.

"Asya." The demonic beauty gently breathed back.

Excited at the progress, Nastasia gestured for him to reciprocate. This would be the start of her journey into breaching this barrier of languages between them.

Reaching out to tuck an errant strand of red hair behind her ear, the beauty carefully murmured. "Li Yu Rong." His fingers lingered across her cheek as he let his hand fall back to his side.

She felt the flesh graced by his touch itch and tingle pleasantly as her fingers trembled. Attempting to hem the unknown feeling down, she swallowed hard and tried to speak his name in an unaffected voice.

"Li Yu Rong."

Ah, her voice, it shook.