"My kinsfolk would've given me a name from that and a few other things," Lashan says with a shrug. It's an academic question these days. "It probably would've ended up something like Akalykes, since I got to participate in a lykeblade ceremony."

She waves her hand, vaguely indicating something complicated that Guts wouldn't find interesting. It would be a terrible chore and ruin the mood, to have to actually explain lykeblades to an outclan boy. "The death and veneration of an elder. It happens about once every fifty years so it looks good, to have someone in your clan with that name. But if I hadn't liked it I could've tried my own anyway."

Lashan refills her little bowl, the liquid pouring less smoothly from the spout now, without draining it all the way first. Guts can have the last of the airag if he wants it.

"Heh. Might be. I've seen a lot of weird, impressive shit, but never anything like that. You might have named yourself 'Mishe' for the bear but we would've at least joked about calling you 'bloody burial'." Or something more flattering, honestly. She can't imagine the clan that wouldn't be proud to point to this boy as one of their own. "Do you know where 'Guts' is from? I've wondered. My firebug thinks she knows, but that doesn't mean she's right."