[Day 1 - Early Morning] Close Encounter

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Um... a pet?" Saksaha tucks back a strand of hair that had escaped from her braid at some point during the Sheep Incident. "I keep her for milk. But she is more like a pet than most. Perhaps that is why she is so pettish." She looks over the flock again, still failing to spot the miscreant beast. "I meant to milk her early this morning, but she had other ideas. Spoiled creature," she adds fondly.

[Usagi Tomoe]

"Sounds like you like her very much," Tomoe chuckled. "It's strange to think how fond we can be of our animal friends... one of my sensei gifted me with a small tortoise a few years ago, Ganko-chan. Even for such a stoic little creature, she's good company."

The Hare looked around for a goat too, hoping to help out the Iuchi, and maybe meet the little thing.

"Not that I could keep her for milk or anything, but she has her uses too. Very handy as a paper-weight."

[Bayushi Hotaru]

Hotaru was rather perplexed at the notion of milking an animal for anything, much less a pet for that matter. What exactly was she milking this animal for exactly, milk? Her gaze wavered slightly from the two women as she scanned the horizon the fields to hide her befuddlement over such a possibility and yet, she suspected the answer wasn't an appetizing one.

She smiled back at the two women, as her attention return to them. "I can't say I have a pet of my own. The temple just demands too much of my time to keep one for long. My days are so very busy, unfortunately. I just have to contend the occasional cats or squirrels that find themselves on the steps of the temple. They are nice to pet once in a while, but I have little idea of where to begin when it comes to caring for them. Is keeping a goat around usual for the Unicorn? Also, a turtle is slow, but doesn't it walk away sometimes?"

[Iuchi Saksaha]

Around this time Saksaha seems to see what she's looking for in the mass of woolly critters. She puts two fingers to her mouth and lets out a vibrating whistle. "Here, here, come, come!" After a moment, a slightly different-looking animal emerges from the flock and trots toward her.



"A paper weight?" Saksaha echoes Hotaru's question. "Does it stay on command?"

The goat reaches the three women and starts nudging Saksaha's leg with its muzzle. Without breaking her focus on her human conversation partners, she reaches down and scritches it between its horns.

"I am sure I understand, Bayushi-san. I may not always have the time for such hobbies, either. But I nursed this one when she was very little, and you get... attached." The goat butts her thigh a little more eagerly, and she sighs and flips open the leather pouch at her waist, extracting a lump of something which she offers to it with her palm held flat. Whatever the snack is, it disappears almost too quickly to be identified, and the goat snorts contentedly and starts cropping a weed near her feet. "Besides, it is good to have milk whenever we want it. Now that we all are settled it matters less, but there were many mornings on the ride when this little one had to give breakfast for our whole tent."

[Usagi Tomoe]

Oh my kami, it's so cute! Not only did Tomoe adore animals, perhaps due to her family's supposed lineage from Chikushudo, but she always felt at ease around most animals.

"Oh, she doesn't really stay on command, but if I place down a lettuce leaf or a similar snack, she'll stay in place for a long time. Though I think my sensei intended for me to learn patience or something when he gifted me with such a slow-moving companion," she laughed softly at that and squatted down to be more at equal height with the goat. "You said her name was... Fi-- yanugu?"

[Bayushi Hotaru]

Hotaru felt rather obligated to take one step back, putting Tomoe at the forefront. It was one thing to tolerate the creature but another to do nothing to give her some measure of security from the grown goat. Her Bayushi instinct demanded some paranoia for caution's sake.

"Wow, she's certainly not a young lamb, isn't she?" She tittered with an open smile. This one has horns!

"Oh-uhm." She looked dumbfounded at the prospect of milking anything for milk. Surely, the Unicorn misspoke and it was a part of her imagination. She leaned in slightly as if to share a secret and mouthed her question curiously without emitting any sound and only making the motions. Milk?

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Fiyanggu," Saksaha confirms--giving the name a distinctly alien pronunciation--and nods. "That is..." she thinks for a second, "'the littlest one,' in an old speech of the Moto. Not so little now, though."

Indeed, the goat seems to be a pretty average size for her kind, though a bit smaller than the full-grown sheep who fill up most of the pasture. Under the long, silky (if slightly muddy) coat, one can see from the size of her udder that she probably hasn't been milked since yesterday.

Saksaha looks a little confused about Hotaru's confusion, but ventures a guess about its source. "You've never milked a goat, Bayushi-san? It is a pity I left my bucket in the tent. I could have shown you how."

[Usagi Tomoe]

"Well she is still rather small," the Hare chuckled and held out a hand to the goat, allowing the animal to catch her scent. Sure, she had never spent much time around livestock, but Tomoe had a natural aptitude with animals and she understood they relied more on scent than other things.

"I can't say I've seen a goat milked before either... is it something that must be done everyday?" she tilted her head as she got a look at Fiyanggu's udder. Not that she had really seen such up close before, but it seemed like it was kind of full?

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Of course, every day, when she's in milk." Saksaha sounds a little surprised that this even needs asking. "Sometimes twice."

The goat leaves off its businesslike destruction of the clump of weeds to nose at Tomoe's hand. It seems to be quite at ease with all three humans, accustomed as it is to treats and petting from its young Iuchi 'mother.'

[Bayushi Hotaru]

"Milked a goat?!" She couldn't help but blurt out when presented with the opportunity, feeling like she was saying an obscenity. Quickly, she recomposed herself with an open smile and she shook her head, doing her best to hide the audacity that something could be milked for milk. The milk of another animal too. It gave her all sorts of reservation that made her a little queasy in thought, which she would learn first hand later tonight. "I can't say I've milked anything before either. I would scarcely know where to begin even. It's not something we do around here..."

Eep! Hotaru took another side-shuffle so that Tomoe eclipsed the approaching goat slightly so that it wouldn't have a clear charging lane if she wanted to go after Hotaru. She wasn't hiding behind Tomoe, not completely, seeing as she still made sure to face Saksaha fully.

[Usagi Tomoe]

"When she is in milk? So it goes in periods then?" The Hare was obviously new to the concept, but was approaching the whole issue with a willingness to understand and learn. "Hmm... as Bayushi-sama says, it's not very common to milk goats in the Empire. I've never done it before or heard of anyone doing it either."

She smiled as the goat butted its nose against her hand and she brushed over its head. "Aw, who's a cute little girl?" The Hare bravely defended the Bayushi maiden from the dangerous goat.

[Iuchi Saksaha]

"Oh. The Ide mentioned it is not common here, but I thought..." Saksaha shrugs apologetically, feeling awkward more from the sense of having embarrassed Hotaru by discovering her ignorance of this basic child's task than because she understands the real cause of the Bayushi's revulsion. She smiles as Tomoe attracts the little goat's attention, though.

Fiyanggu, wisest and mightiest of doe-goats (in her own self-estimation, anyway), notices and provisionally approves of the attention from this charming tortoise-equipped newcomer. She has some hope that Tomoe might be in possession of some kind of tasty goat treat--but failing that she will deign to accept head scratches, if Tomoe doesn't mind getting her hands a little goat-y.

"Well, yes, after another few months she'll dry up until we br--until, that is, um, she has another baby goat," Saksaha continues explaining, making a mid-stream course correction as she belatedly realizes that maybe this is one of those things you're not supposed to talk about in gentle company in Rokugan?

[Bayushi Hotaru]

Seeing as the Usagi had the goat under control, she stepped up forward once again. It was perhaps easily for someone of her stature to disappear from the conversation and she didn't want to risk that. She gave a small smile at the goat, as if she shared Tomoe's opinion...but she knew the truth, it wasn't something she was going to fall for twice.

"Ah, hah. Of course!" She quipped about the whole process, more as an automatic answer with an obligatory smile. It wasn't that she didn't understand the process she was getting at, just more of the strangeness around the fact that now she learned the Unicorn don't just milk other animals but probably make an effort to farm the process however they can.

"It's just a concept we'll have to take some adjusting to. We are rather set in our trends, however, and I don't see many taking to the idea of milking milk from other animals...Perhaps if we understand where we could apply milk in cusine first. Does it serve as an ingredient or just a small element that aids in flavouring? Over maybe even in medicine?"

[Usagi Tomoe]

Tomoe didn't seem to mind getting her hands 'goat-ey' at all and happily scratched Fiyanggu behind the ears. It was the first time she was seeing such a creature up close, and she took note of its horns, eyes and general demeanor... all to be added to her notes later!

"Well, we eat eggs... so maybe milk will become a new thing?" she suggested as Hotaru mentioned the culinary trends of the rest of the Empire.

[Bayushi Hotaru]

"Maybe!" Hotaru quipped with a chuckle and bright eyes. It wasn't her say where trends may go with the Unicorn's return and it could be a real possibility at this point, almost anything could happen. "That and along with more than a few other trends too I imagine, potentially. I wonder what other things might have taken root already in the last few months in exchanges like this one."