Aetherius heads to the oasis with Aslal, one of the Berber shield grogs who speaks Latin, along with several other languages.
You have been there a week now, studying amongst the dunes by day and retiring to the oasis shelter by night, when you notice something that looks like a man with reptilian skin watching you. Aslal as always stands nearby, with a couple of large jars of water and your mid-day meals at hand- you have found that studying amongst the dunes is thirsty work.
Aetherius is slightly reserved, but his curiosity is peaked nonetheless. "Hello there, stranger." Aetherius tries in Latin. He will ask Aslal to translate if the reptilian men doesn't understand Latin.
The reptilian man starts when you speak to him and then waits with his head cocked as Aslal translates the words into several tongues before darting away into the dunes. "He either does not speak Latin, arabic, Franco-Provençal, Greek or Coptic, or he chooses not to respond to any of them. He looks meaningfully at the tracks in the sand, clearly wanting to know if the magus wishes to give pursuit.
Aetherius is momentarily disappointed the reptilian men doesn't appear to understand him. He hoping Arabic, at least, might work if he's a local. He will close his book and stash it prudently within a cloth wrapper within a backpack, to ensure sand and wind doesn't damage the precious tome.
"Let's try and see where he's going."
Aetherius nevertheless ensures he leaves with his meal and plenty of water.
aslal tracks the creature, or man, to where a crude shelter is under the edge of one of the dunes, with the sand blown against it and over it leaving one side open. within the shelter a trench has been dug into the ground where the reptile man lies peering at you over the edge. Within the small artificial cave it is much darker than it is outside, and looks cooler as well.
As they wander the desert, Aetherius will have cast a doublet and gift of the bear's fortitude on himself, for security. On arrival to the cave, seeing the reptilian man, Aetherius will show his hands when he first sees the creature to show he has no weapons, staying at a certain distance. He will then break some bread pronouncing the word in latin "Bread", eating some to show it is safe, and offer some to the creature with one hand without getting too close "Want some bread?", and watch how it reacts. "I am Aetherius" pointing at himself.
The reptilian man shrinks away as you reach your hand forward with the bread in it.
Aetherius withdraws his offer of bread, not wanting to scare him.
Would Aetherius know anything of this type of creature? (Magic lore)
He has heard nothing about this creature specifically, but he does know that the magical creatures of Africa are very different from the ones he learned about in Europe.
When you say he shrinked away, did you mean he recoiled or he left? If he's still there, Aetherius will try and offer some water in a bowl instead.
As soon as you let go of the bowl and withdraw your hand the creature? Person? dives at the boal, placing its mouth within and the water level drops until it is below the mouth, at which point the entity retreats back into its shelter again, though more languidly.
"Do you speak?" He's not quite convinced he'll understand Latin, but he's still wondering if he can get a reaction of some kind out of the creature.
The creature makes noises that sound like hissing, but of a cadence that sounds like it might be speech, or an animal trying to mimic human sounds.
Aetherius smiles even though he doesn't understand the hissing. He makes gestures even as he speaks, trying to get accross the language barrier by pointing at himself, taking a step forward and pointing at the hole. "Can I come in? See where you live?"
It's head does a bob-waggle combination that could mean just about anything, but it at least understands that you are trying to communicate, then it starts to move forward, hissing.
Aetherius follows.
It only travels a few feet, sitting atop a dune.
He sits nearby, trying to see what he's looking at.
It sits calmly, though one eye turns to look at your package of food.
Aetherius does offer him some food again. While there, he will cast a spell to analyze the local magical aura (using the Base 2 guideline - Determine the power of a mystical aura), since he figured if the creature is magical, there must be a local aura for it to live in.