Then maybe this can be accomplished in a way that is tolerable for Iris's horse and maybe this will be the only thing the child is a tiny fanatic about.

When the horse is all braided Segda is cooperative about riding without further attacking it.

Well thank whichever god the strangers favor. 

They ride to Yarisong.

Segda wants to stop at various points and:

- eat more eggs
- braid Iris's hair
- climb an especially climable tree
- collect sticks
- demand a story (this one is permissible to do while still riding)

Iris isn't really sure if this is typical for a kid; her only younger brother is two years younger and there aren't any baby cousins yet. If it is it's a miracle that anyone ever has kids.

"Story story story tell me a story."

"Once upon a time there was a little girl who wanted to go on adventures. So she slipped away from her house in search of an adventure to have. She walked for a while and then sat down on a rock. It ate her."

Segda makes a stranger gesture of some kind. "Another story!"

"Once upon a time there was a little boy who wanted to be grown-up so he could have adventures. He took a potion to make him grow up faster. Instead it turned him into a mouse. He aged into an adult mouse in the space of about three months, and then into an elderly mouse, and then he died."

"Are all your stories about dying?"

"They're just at the top of my mind at present."

"Why?"

"Because you seem to be a very reckless small child."

"Reckless?"

"You take dangerous actions a lot."

"Do not."

" - yes, you do. You ran away from home, you annoy animals much bigger than you, you climb a lot of trees, you - do a lot of things -"

"I do what I want."

"Yep. The word for which is 'reckless', if you have adventurous wants."

"Rocks don't eat people."

"Some of them do."

"Do not."

"I am bigger and older than you and have seen more rocks and some of them eat people."

"That's not how rocks work."

"Some are magic or actually a critter in disguise as a rock, or cursed, or something."