...fine. The lizard-thing grumbles grumpily at her and then stops making noise.

"Thank you!"

She knows how to say that just fine.

"..... I don't speak the local language and burst into flames in direct sunlight, so I'm a little handicapped with my ability to communicate with you right now. I would appreciate it if you didn't upset my castle by poking it with - whatever that was, it's still sore about being banished to another dimension."

That is, obviously, in her native language, but, well. She can't not talk to the strange thing, and this will get across that there's a language barrier.

Language barrier? What's a language barrier?

Inquisitive chirp. She bounce-walks over to the window and croaks, and the sun momentarily dims around them.

????? what.

Iovetra pokes her head towards the window opening, to behold the dimming of the sun.

"Wait, do you understand me? Even in this language?"

Approving chirp!

"Oh! Okay! Well, hello properly, then! I'm Iovetra, and this is my castle. Um, this is a bit of an awkward way to have a conversation -"

Is her castle willing to -?

:(

Got it, letting the strange scary thing that poked it inside would be asking a bit much of it, yes castle, sorry for asking, castle.

.... Would the garden be okay? Since there are still the walls-that-were-outside between the now greenhouse and the rest of the castle?

:(

"........... I guess."

Is it sure, she can have the conversation awkwardly through the window if her castle feels it's safer -

...

Well, see, if it lets the little pokey thing into the garden with its mistress, out of the sunlight, then maybe its mistress could make it be dead. This would be very nice, in this castle's humble opinion.

So. Yeah okay.

She is probably not going to make the little pokey thing be dead, but having that as an option available to them is indeed reassuring!

This whole 'conversation' didn't take very much time at all, but there was still a noticeable pause.

"- So would you be okay heading down to the greenhouse for a conversation? I'll have my castle shade things a bit more so I won't catch on fire. It'll give you a door to enter through."

Bounce chirp.

She doesn't immediately travel to the greenhouse, instead wandering off towards the other humans in the area. (If Iovetra is watching, she may notice that they don't seem to understand what the lizard is saying either, or at least not as well as they would if they spoke its language.) She spends a little bit of time with them before bouncing over to the greenhouse.

That's fine, the windows in the garden need to be covered, so that the local vampire does not burst into flames inside. This takes time.

Are the humans visible to vampiric eyesight-in-daylight, such that Iovetra can be aware that they are also there?

The humans are camped out in a large group of tents and platforms. They are far enough from the door that it is easy for a human to exit the castle without feeling like they are trespassing on the camp, but close enough to be easily seen by a human. None of this is adapted for, or in fact designed with any knowledge of, daylight vampire vision.

Then she can, with much squinting, tell that there's something there! A human something. A large group of human somethings, camped out in front of her castle. In the middle of the day, when she is at her weakest and most vulnerable. In a desert, where there is really not any kind of cover to protect her from bursting into flames immediately if she goes outside. Ha. Hahaha. That's terrifying.

... They do not seem to be trying to lay siege to her castle, at least not yet? Tiny lizard thing doing strange things to her castle's walls notwithstanding, but the tiny lizard thing did stop when asked. So, uh. Maybe this'll go okay??? Maybe she won't be set on fire??? This seems like a big ask, but Afra did not seem to know what a vampire even was. The local hyenas are weirdly friendly towards vampires, maybe... humans might be, too? Possibly??? Or maybe she's just lying to herself and final death for herself and her castle at the hands of an angry mob is imminent.

There will accordingly be an anxious vampire fussing over her flowers, in the garden. The flowers do not by any stretch of the imagination need to be fussed over at this time, but she can do it, so she is.

And eventually, chirp! Chirp chirp inquisitive whistle.

(And is anything in here an illusion or invisible, or does she directly enter the area of any magic? She doesn't even need to poke for those, they just happen automatically.)

The door is sized for her, and set with a little flap of cloth instead of a proper door.

Nothing in here is an illusion or invisible! There is magic available, but it's in the walls and in the plants and in this red-haired, fanged woman who is (anxiously) misting down some flowers. Spritz, spritz, these flowers are getting properly hydrated.

"Hello. Uh, you seem to have a lot of humans camped outside, are they... just curious, or...?"

Whistle-TRILL and a current of wind rustles over some of the yet to be hydrated flowers. A few droplets of water are caught in the wind and drift along, spreading out between several roses. 

The lizard stands up on her hind legs! She hunches over and puts out one of her foreclaws as if holding a cane, and hobbles forward for a moment.

Next she curls up into a little ball, her tail as long as her body, and somehow sticks her legs out just far enough for a quick scurry across the floor. She squeaks a few times, and this time the tone is one Iovetra may recognize as similar to rodent squeaking.

Finally, she uncurls, streeeeetches her body out forward and back, and trots on limbs extended as far as they will go. She sniffs at the air, then snaps with the sort of crushing force that shatters bones. Her tail flicks lazily behind her. Some of this body language is recognizable from the hyenas Iovetra has been petting.

Finally the lizard points her tail at the vampire and quirks her head. Cheep?

She is absolutely certain she didn't understand most of that.

"I - don't think I understand what you're getting at? Though from context you seem friendly, or at least non-hostile, enough? Thank you for helping to water my flowers. Uh - it seems like you and your humans are curious about me, and - something about an old person, something about rats - I've kept rats in the past, but I don't have any around currently? - and - yes the hyenas have been remarkably friendly, though I don't know why."

......well in that case this is hopeless.

She points to the wall with her tail. A steady whistle conjures a wavering haze in the air in front of her. She walks up to it and presses her foreclaws against it, as if it was a solid object. (If anyone tests it, it is not.) Another tone makes the haze begin vibrating, and she pushes, pushes, and slips through as it is pulled thin. A second whistle, this time two-toned, calls up a new haze, and again she sets it to vibrate but this time she hits a second layer and flinches back instead of pushing through. Point to the wall again. Perk up! Inquisitive trill? Droop depressedly. Inquisitive trill?

"... I don't think I understand, sorry? Please don't break through the walls of my castle, it would be deeply unhappy with that state of affairs. My castle was forcefully evicted from the place we were previously in, and I followed it here. I'm not entirely sure how far we were shunted? I apologize if we've arrived somewhere we are not wanted?"

The small lizard thing is highly animated and deeply confusing.

Grumble grumble this is why she need to be older so she can talk to people oh well. 

Hmmm. Are there stones or other loose objects nearby she could use as props?

There's a cute stone pathway through the garden that she could in theory rip out of the ground, but loose stones are not really an available thing, no. Iovetra has put down the water spray bottle, if that counts.

Speaking of, Iovetra, being the one present able to directly use language, sees it as her job to talk instead of leaving her guest to continue doing charades.

"- I think you might have the wrong idea of how much I understand of the current state of the world, its inhabitants, and what is going on? Because I was asleep in a box for what was at least literal centuries, and I woke up in the woods entirely alone." In the desiccated bones of things she built herself, but who's mentioning that. "Before then, I was - not in much position to get out much, either, shall we say. And this is all before we even get into being evicted by who-knows-what for who-knows-why, which has not helped with my ambient confusion. I'm a vampire - am I correct in that vampires are not existent in this area, or have long died off?"

That does not count. She will not be able to illustrate her point with those tools. Oh well.

Evicted? How? Papa Numair can't push a castle into the middle of the desert from even the closest woods, and he is one of the greatest mages in the world! ...not existent or have long since died off...

Chirp! Nod nod. Draw in the dirt: one blob! Tail-jab at Iovetra. Arrow to this one, with a little castle sketched in it. A second blob under the first! This one has a flat horizon with some bumpy bits and then added dunes and a sun in the sky.

Whistle, and a haze forms over the castle. She draws an arrow down, and then the castle sketch on the desert sketch. Hop over to the first castle place. Look in every direction. Shrug  Hop to the second place. Look in every direction. Shrug. Whistle, and a haze appears between the two blobs. Jump across it! Shake her head.

Chirp?