Daisy is sitting at the table, turning the crank on a small machine. She looks up when the girl comes in: "Hello."

"Hello," she replies politely, eyes fixed on the machine.

"It's a butter churn," she explains. "It turns milk into a different food."

She perches on one of the other benches, ready to retreat if she needs to. "You...can do that? Make one food into another? Beyond...cooking it?"

She nods. "We do that a lot with milk, and a little with other food. For butter, it's - " she launches into an explanation of how butter is made, culminating in offering her a tiny scoop of it on a spoon.

She listens attentively, before taking the spoon cautiously and first sniffs it, then eats the butter. It is...rather different from the milk. Not necessarily unpleasantly, but also sort of like it's missing something.

"Does this...get put on something?" she asks, flinching slightly at her own voice, before looking to Daisy for the answer.

Nod. "Lots of things. A little bit of it goes into your potatoes."

She makes a quiet noise in her throat. "Those taste...good." She's pretty sure she's said that before.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" she asks, half-reflexively, half because she wants to help (not just thinks she should).

"Not really. Pradnakt and I are the only ones here, so everything is set up so we can take care of it ourselves. But I am going to look for things for you to do when I go to town."

"I- Thank you," she says. Then pauses. "Is there anything I can do for- to help Pradnakt while you're away?"

"You could help with the garden or the animals, if you want. It's not very hard."

That gets a slight smile. "I would like that, I think?" she says. (And there's that continuing flinch at expressing opinions on things.)

"All right. I'll do it a little early tomorrow so you can come with me."

"Thank you," she says, and falls silent. She can't really think of anything else she needs to ask, and she has no real idea how to hold a conversation.

Oh.

"How long are you going to be gone for?" she asks quietly.

"Two days. I'll leave at sunrise the day after tomorrow and be back two sunsets after that - maybe a little later, but sometime that night."

She falls silent again, and this time, doesn't think of a questions she wants to ask - she's too busy trying to plan how to least inconvenience Pradnakt, because she's knew she wouldn't survive on her own, but she hadn't realised just how bad she would be at it.

"- Pradnakt will leave you alone, she knows you're scared of her."

She is...strangely conflicted on that. Because... It's been nice, interacting with people who aren't Ma'am. But if she doesn't have to interact, the less chances she has of doing something wrong, and Pradnakt realising that Ma'am was right about how to get her to learn.

"...or not, if you'd rather not? She's still reading your mind; she might not do what you want, but she'll at least know it."

"I-" she starts, and then stops, tries again. "I never got to talk to many people," she admits. "It's...nice? And I like learning new things." The last is forced out, like she's having to fight herself to say each word.

The droid nods. "We've noticed that. But it - balances," she makes a demonstrative hand gesture, "with not being scared, and Pradnakt isn't very good at not scaring people. So it's okay if you don't want to be around her very much; I won't be gone long."

She thinks about that for a moment, and then nods. "Thank you for explaining," she says politely. "Um...she won't mind if I...do want to be around her? So, so long as she's not...busy? I wouldn't bother her, I promise." The last is rushed out, a tad bit panicky.

"She probably won't mind. And if she does she still won't hurt you, she'll just tell you."

It's probably pretty clear that she doesn't entirely believe that - part of her wants to, because not being hurt would be nice, but she's trying to ignore that part of her, it will make things more difficult if, when they go back to normal. But... if she does get a warning, she can minimise the possibility.

She nods her understanding.

The droid sighs. "I can tell you more about that, but it might scare you. But she has a reason not to do that, it's not just that it wouldn't work and that you don't - want it or need it."