"Digging."

"I saw that. What for?"

"Wanted to."

"Okay. Ready to get going?"

"I'm not done." Dig dig dig. "You can help."

"Don't really feel like it."

Segda digs and digs. "I'm hungry."

"Well, there's - one more egg."

Segda eats it. "I'm still hungry."

"We should be able to make it to Yarisong today."

"I'm hungry now." It starts prowling the undergrowth.

"I think that probably you'll end up fed sooner by waiting till Yarisong than by wandering around here."

"Mushrooms!" shouts Segda over its shoulder, and it resumes prowling.

- well, she'll give it an hour.

It doesn't find mushrooms but it does find some berries and eats one and hates it and gives up and sulks back to the horse.

Off they go.

"Do humans sing? Sing me a song."

Sure, she can do that. She doesn't have an amazing voice or anything and she runs out of songs she remembers the words to after a while.

Segda is bored of singing before she runs out of repertoire. Segda wants to collect pebbles and try to throw them at things as they ride and has to stop a couple times to replenish the pebble supply.

Segda is not really a fantastic travelling companion and she wonders if she can get a flying carpet or something in Yarisong so they can make it to Amilu faster.

Eventually they reach Yarisong! Segda is fascinated.

Phew.

She more thoroughly investigates Yarisong. Is there a temple, and if so, is healing free? How much is a room that comes with a meal, how much is a change of clothes, how much do people stare at Segda, are there regular caravans to Amilu.

There are temples. Nobody seems to understand the question when she asks about healing there, although someone tries to direct her to a doctor. She can afford rooms and meals for a few weeks if she isn't too picky. People stare at Segda a lot, and someone asks Iris if she wants to buy a leash, and there are large expeditions every couple of months but people go in smaller groups more often.

And the road's pretty safe? She'll do healing, if no one around here does healing. It will not be free. 

Are the local gods familiar?

There's occasional trouble, and she looks kind of rich, so she might want to bring more people, but there's not trouble every time and she looks armed too.

The healing around here appears to take the form of poultices and smelly tea and clumsy surgery with sewing kits and such.

There are two competing local religions, Tiaobu and Yi'a; Tiaobu, the one with the larger temple, which reportedly also has a monastery two days' travel east, involves a lot of meditation and incense and chanting. It's possible the various statues are of a god; he looks friendly and is depicted holding an empty bowl or holding out his arms as though to hug you. Yi'a's temple is smaller (though reportedly it has more traction farther south) and it does pantheism with a specialty in ancestor worship, with little wooden tokens and praying in uncomfortable-looking positions and calligraphy-decorated temples. They're vegetarians; they have a vegetarian soup kitchen. The closest thing to divine magic about is fortune-telling with sticks and tea and planchettes.