[D5 EM] Wet Wool

[Matsu Yurio]

Yurio showed the camaraderie of those controlled by their pets.

"Neko can get out of anything I put him in. Tent, basket, closed room. He'll find a way. I do wonder where he's gone this time. Haven't seen him since the egg hunt."

He looked at all the livestock. The amazingly alike livestock.

"What does your goat look like? Any obvious marks?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"She is a white doe-goat with a long coat. Fiyanggu is her name," she says--which is probably not very useful information since a) it's unpronounceable to most Rokugani and b) it's not like there's a big NPC nameplate floating above the creature's head.

"Neko is your cat's name?" she asks, rummaging in her belt pouch. "Ah-ha!" She produces a piece of half-stale flatbread from last night's dinner. "Bribery is sometimes effective."

[Matsu Yurio]

"Yes. A grey tabby. He likes fish so I guess he might be about the camp somewhere begging for scraps. He'll come back to pester me when he's properly hungry."

He scanned the pen trying to see if there was a white long haired goat standing out somewhere.

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Hm. He may not find many fish scraps here," Saksaha comments. "But maybe he likes milk? My grandmother's cat liked milk." Grandmother's cat had also been an elderly holy terror, a one-eyed black tom with a foul temper and a howl out of Saksaha's most creative nightmares. But in exchange for milk or butter he'd been almost civil. Almost.

She ranges over toward the fence of the livestock pens and, putting two fingers in her mouth, lets out a long, looping whistle. "Here, little goat! Come here, here! Treats!"

Looking back at Yurio, she adds, "There. That may bring her."

[Matsu Yurio]

As the priestess starts mouthing unintelligible words Yurio wonders if she's speaking goat or something.

"Never once given him milk. He likes rabbit and whatever bird he can get his paws on. Even eats butterflies."

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Rabbit?" She raises an eyebrow, a little impressed. "Must be a strong hunter, then."

Just then, from somewhere in the midst of a nearby clump of the tall, hairy yaks sounds a ululating series of... squawks? bleats?... and something quick and white darts from under the fringed belly of one yak, between the legs of another, and comes bouncing toward the two samurai.

[Matsu Yurio]

"Well I hope that is your goat, as if it isn't we're being charged . . . "

Typical kitteh reaction, dropping in to a prepared stance.

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Ah! There you are, little trouble." Yurio's scout instincts may have spotted the charge first, but Saksaha is the one to recognize her own not-technically-a-pet, of course. "Yes, that it it, Matsu-san. No need to defend yourself. Well, unless you have carrots," she adds in the interest of full disclosure.

The white goat hops nimbly straight to the top of a fence post and then, after a moment, down on the other side. Saksaha rolls her eyes. "Show-off." The creature ignores this criticism and trots over to her to receive the promised bribe of bread.

[Matsu Yurio]

Yurio is obviously impressed by the animals agility.

"Wow . . . I know a whole lot of people who couldn't do what your goat just did."

Yurio, of course, could as Kitteh could do anything.

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Saksaha laughs and reaches down to scritch the beast between her horns. "If only she would learn to use these skills for anything but mischief."

The white goat seems to regard Yurio with some interest through her sideways-slitted pupils, perhaps sensing a fellow being whose self-confidence almost equals her own.

"Now, if she will hold still, I shall have my morning milk." She fishes a small cloth bundle out of her belt pouch and spreads it open to reveal that it holds a handful of grain, then sets in in front of the goat.

[Matsu Yurio]

The goat's stare is coolly returned by the way too overconfident Lion.

"Does it take long to turn this milk into cheez?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

As the goat allows herself to be distracted from the staring contest by the handkerchief full of grain, Saksaha grabs her bucket and crouches down on her heels in the grass. After a little bit of preparatory business, she quickly begins filling her bucket with milk, her small hands working with neat efficiency. Fiyanggu barely seems to notice

"Some kinds are quick, those ones I could finish this afternoon," she answers Yurio's question as she milks, head bent over her work. "Some others take longer, if they are aged or dried. Days, weeks. Sometimes months, but these kinds I do not have the knowledge of making--more difficult. My grandmother only taught me how to make the fresh cheese, and how to dry it for traveling. These things everyone should know, especially women."

[Matsu Yurio]

It took all of three seconds for Yurio to decide he wasn't going to watch what was going on at the back end of the goat. In principle he'd known what was going to happen, just his brain hadn't bothered to tell his face.

A face that was blushing slightly, so he looked at the yahhkks instead.

"So many different kinds. I guess they all taste different? Was that one we had at the banquet made that same day?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

(( ))

"Oh, which one at the banquet?"

Milking noises continue for a little bit longer. Poor Yurio. Fortunately for him, Saksaha is slightly too preoccupied to notice his discomfiture.

"If it is quite soft or crumbly and all white, that is usually a fresh kind. If it is a little harder, or the outside and inside are different looking, an aged one. If it is very hard, dried." She thinks back for a moment and then giggles. "But I don't think the Ide served trail cheese to guests. I do not remember seeing it there, and I think they would not want anyone unsuspecting to hurt a tooth."

[Matsu Yurio]

"It wasn't that hard . . . but not really crumbly. I guess they knew the banquet was coming and prepared ahead. Obvious really, as they had shellfish and the sea is far from here."

He kept looking at the yahhkks,, beginning to wonder how hot they were under all that hair.