"All right, lead on!"

Meelia is really good at exploring! Cheep also helps by finding cool things along the way and directing her towards them. 

"The peaches won't actually be ripe right now, but they might still have flowers. They bear fruit a few times in a year, when their pollinators have been active, and the white bees are working on them right now."

"Oh, that's also how it works at home but I didn't realize these ones wouldn't have fruit now."

She's a little disappointed, but maybe Cheep will find something exciting on the way.

"They will in a few more weeks! The white bee crop is my second favorite peach crop after the migratory bat crop."

"Ooooh. Do they taste different?"

Cheep returns, excited about something he found.

"I think so! A lot of people can't taste the difference, but I think tasting the peaches right off the tree lets you pick up on a lot of subtleties... Is he safe running off like that, I'm not sure someone with a tractor or a harvester would notice him..."

"He's pretty tough! Monsters aren't as tough as amaliens but they are still tougher than animals and Amentans."

Meelia follows Cheep to see what he found!

Cheep has found a dropped earring!

Pretty!

"Huh! I have no idea whose that might be or how long it's been there, so I guess you can keep it if you like it, though you don't have pierced ears."

"How do ears get pierced?"

"With a needle!"

"Do you have a needle? I sorta want to try it, this looks really pretty."

"If you want your ears pierced we can take you to a place where they do that, I wouldn't be sure I could do it right at home."

"Oh, okay. What direction is a place that could do it?"

"- that way, approximately, but usually I wouldn't walk, I'd call a jitney."

"What's a jitney?"

"It's like a bus but it doesn't come here every ten minutes, it only comes when someone wants it and around commuting hours, because we're not near much other stuff."

"Oh, so if I wanted to go to the city it would come and pick me up like a friendly monster?"

"Yeah, very much like that."

"How do I let it know?"

"Your pocket everything can do it. Do you want to go all by yourself or should I come along?"

"You can come along if you'd like."

So Tish shows her how to summon a jitney and one is along in about fifteen minutes, plenty of time for them to take a meandering route to the road.