"I never realized how small they are," Fern says wonderingly. As the little thing scissors its sharp little teeth through the dried meat, she gingerly reaches out one hand to touch the soft fur on his back; when he doesn't try to escape, she smiles a little and gives him a gentle stroke from behind his enormous ears to just before his tail. "He might have bigger ears than you," she mumbles to the mule, who has taken to lipping at her hair from boredom.

After a moment, she stands up and turns back to Kattrin, only to look startled by her use of magic. Rather than frighten her, this seems to catch her interest immediately. "You're a mage?"