Purrrrrrrrr. 

Awwww! Happy giggles. 

Aza can demonstrate how to nicely pet a gryphon. She is not a professional gryphon-groomer but she has been friends with Skan for years.

Skan is very happy. This is much less awkward! 

And about a candlemark later, the men and older boys - where 'older' includes ages eleven and up - trudge back to the camp. Emptyhanded; apparently the raid was unsuccessful; but at least none of them seem to be injured more than scratches and bruises. 

Ta'ana marches out to meet them before they have a chance to panic about Skan, and explains. There's a lot of suspicious shouting at each other. 

Ma'ar rolls his eyes. 

:Why are they yelling so much?:

:- Oh, this isn't even 'much' yelling for them, trust me. This is just how people talk here: 

:Why??? It's so unpleasant!:

:It really is! I don't remember finding it as bad when I was little, I guess you grow up used to it. ...Being hit with a stick was worse when I couldn't shield, though: 

:I bet!!:

Eventually Ta'ana seems to have the men and boys convinced that Skan is, one, real and not a demon trying to trick them, two, a person, and three, friendly. 

They join Azabel and Ma'ar at the campfire. The adult men greet Ma'ar stiffly and ignore Azabel completely; the teenage and preteen boys also do, but sneak a lot of curious glances at her. 

:I'm really sorry they're being so rude! They, uh, we don't have any customs for how to interact with women from other clans, let alone from off the Plains: 

:Ignoring is pretty tame especially since I can't directly talk to them anyway. At least nobody's hitting me with sticks. There's never peaceful times when you can like, visit other clans?:

:I think maybe there was once? I suppose you could ask Ta'ana, I think I remember it was her telling the story. Fifty years ago, when - when there wasn't a drought, when no one's babies were starving...: 

:There's been a drought for fifty years?:

:Not continuously? And maybe it wasn't drought the whole time, maybe at the start it was some other problem. Things were good when I was born, in terms of rain I mean - gods, I think that's probably why I'm - smart, and stuff, I had enough food when I was really small. But...it takes longer than that for people to really feel safe enough to change how they do things, right? And - then it got bad again: 

:You need weather mages out here. Like, more often. I can do it some? - how big is this part of the Plains:

:- A few hundred miles across? Uh, I mean all the clan lands, not just Kiyam. I - don't think there are any weather mages focused on here? The King of Predain must have some but - it's not like they'd care about nomadic cowherders: 

:I don't know how much of that I can cover myself but I can make a dent... if you're doing it too that'd be better. Or - would they not stop attacking each other and stealing stuff from each other if the weather were better and there weren't a drought, are they stuck like this now?:

:...I don't know. Probably it'd help? After a while, at least. Maybe I should go try to find some mages who live nearby and teach them proper weather magic, so we don't have to keep Gating out here: 

:Yeah. Wonder if you can Gate a tent door that isn't where you last saw it...:

:...I don't know. I guess maybe we should test it before we leave, while it's short-range: Ma'ar makes a face. :Although then we'll have to do even more weather-magic to compensate for it: 

:Sometimes Gating causes storms instead...: