"Easier than making beer and there's no fooling around with stills," Lashan says by way of agreement. She's pretty sure mare's milk ferments more quickly and easily as a gift from the Crafter-twin but it may instead be attributed to her favorite of the three animals held in most esteem. Perhaps horsekind wants the humans who care for them the most to feel loved and happy and it's a secret hidden by the extra work, compared to cows and goats, required to milk them.

She dwells on that a minute as she sinks onto her bed across from the boy so she can try and avoid thinking about yet another edge of the gaping chasm in Guts' life that has him taken aback by the most conversational kindness. Acknowledging it will do neither of them any good, he's grown up around it by now.

It's really bleak to fight to live and live to fight. Lashan grunts, "Smarter than I was. I spent my first winter off the Plains thinking 'it can't possibly get colder or snow more than this' and alienating housefolk. Bet there's still places where I'm technically wanted for stealing grain and horses."

After draining her cup again, she says, "I was gonna say, come by for a few weeks if you're in the area in the winter, but remote as this is that's not likely. The snowfall here gets absurd."