Lashan adjusts her shawl against the slight chill. Well, if he’s going to be open to it this time, she’ll just go ahead.
“Do you remember losing your milk teeth before your adult ones came in? How it didn’t hurt as much as getting a tooth knocked out usually does but it didn’t feel good, either?” Guts can’t have had someone teaching him to bury them or throw them on the trail behind him or any of the other traditions about shed teeth. Lashan’s not going to wonder how it went for him instead.
She frowns, realizing that she has a better metaphor. Kai is more irritable lately, gumming on things and drooling, being harder on his parents. “Actually, my Aren’s boy is teething now, isn’t he? He’s all fussy because his teeth are cutting up his gums on their way out and it hurts him. It’s the same principle. When you grow there’s always something in the way that has to give way or be destroyed. Sometimes you don’t even notice but it can be hell, ‘specially if it’s fast.”
Recently the enclave has been busier, as the Sisters who’d gone together on pilgrimage returned with salt and goods and stories, and young women more combat-capable than most who had stayed behind. There’s no sign of that now. A few people flit past on their own errands. An owl calls, windchimes murmur. It’s very quiet.
Lashan makes her home quite near the forge. It’s modestly sized, barely larger than the guest cabin where Guts is staying, but taller. There’s a porch with, yes, a rocking chair and a cowhide vessel of fluid that she pauses to shake before going to the door.
no subject
“Do you remember losing your milk teeth before your adult ones came in? How it didn’t hurt as much as getting a tooth knocked out usually does but it didn’t feel good, either?” Guts can’t have had someone teaching him to bury them or throw them on the trail behind him or any of the other traditions about shed teeth. Lashan’s not going to wonder how it went for him instead.
She frowns, realizing that she has a better metaphor. Kai is more irritable lately, gumming on things and drooling, being harder on his parents. “Actually, my Aren’s boy is teething now, isn’t he? He’s all fussy because his teeth are cutting up his gums on their way out and it hurts him. It’s the same principle. When you grow there’s always something in the way that has to give way or be destroyed. Sometimes you don’t even notice but it can be hell, ‘specially if it’s fast.”
Recently the enclave has been busier, as the Sisters who’d gone together on pilgrimage returned with salt and goods and stories, and young women more combat-capable than most who had stayed behind. There’s no sign of that now. A few people flit past on their own errands. An owl calls, windchimes murmur. It’s very quiet.
Lashan makes her home quite near the forge. It’s modestly sized, barely larger than the guest cabin where Guts is staying, but taller. There’s a porch with, yes, a rocking chair and a cowhide vessel of fluid that she pauses to shake before going to the door.