Quote Originally Posted by Taalia 'Trollslayer' Giovanni
“I’ll try and talk to her, do you want to stay astride, my lady?”
"As a matter of fact..." Bella preens, swinging one leg over the horse to adjust herself to sidesaddle, straightening her back a little to project a posture of feminine dominion. It's undercut by the fact that she is clad in traveller's leathers rather than a dress, somewhat; but she enjoys the pantomime it seems.

The little girl takes one step back when she spots you; but she recognizes you from the earlier encounter that went so pleasantly, and that seems to be enough to give you a chance. You speak clearly and warmly to her, and she looks up with big bright eyes in incomprehension at your foreign tongue. But tone accomplishes much of what a lexicon cannot; and you ensorcel her with big-sisterly gentleness. And then with Milo, your sleep but willing familiar, who snoozilly dangles from your hand and takes in the girl to whom he is offered.

"Ooh!" She releases, at once caught up in the moon-eyed rapture that comes upon little girls who idolize their mothers and who are presented with a chance to mother something. You establish a temporary trade, chicken for cat, so she can hold the soporific feline in both hands and stroke his fur with her palm. She sings Milo a Breton lullaby and rocks him in her arms; and that suits him just fine. You're able to communicate your name, the cat's and Bella's. The girl is named Fanette. The chicken is Aloïse. She points back at the rabbit hutch and out to the field beyond where somewhere the sheep are, and releases a torrent of additional names that blur together.

The girl's mother - intuited both by a fair resemblance and her emergence from the adjacent house; joins you shortly as she overhears the conversational gabbling. You hear Fanette ramble what you hope is a glowing introduction to her mother for you, Bella, and especially Milo; and the child's contented demeanour does heavy lifting cutting through outsider-suspicions. You gather her name is Naemi.

But once that part is clear, and you are obviously not a couple of strangers passing through but a couple of strangers stopping and a very strange couple of strangers at that, half the bloody village seems to come out to meet you with interest. Most of them are housewives with children in tow and a few old men; the dearth of industry in the village suggesting the men work mostly on larger farms during the days rather than our of their storefronts as is common in cities and not vanishingly rare in Bella Collina. It's an effort for you and Bella to try to communicate what you want. None of them seem to speak Tilea in full, but several of them speak it in part. When you speak, there is a conference of rapidfire Breton linquistic debate and then one of them answers you in what is usually a simple, comprehensible Tilean sentence.

"How are you come here south-ladies?"

"Who horse is this of?"

"Are you wife for Lord Donallo?" (this one, to Bella on the horse, now somewhat overwhelmed by the attention.)

"You will eat soup yes no?"

"Have you see large dog?" (this one, accompanied by a gesture to your facial scarring.)

"How you are very tall south-lady?"

"Are l'orque dead south-lady?"

Bargaining here will be challenging. But you're used to challenges.

Spoiler: OOC:
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Well, you've passed the first hurdle. Now give me a haggle roll! There's a language barrier, but you've thwarted that with the earlier roll, so we'll call it +20% because these peasants are quite eager to trade. You have 40 Ecu from Briant's purse. You can spend as much or as little of it as you want on livestock. They have plenty of sheep; they can spare an ox, and a half-dozen rabbits and chickens at the price of chickens for both. If there's anything else you want, feel free to make a gossip roll (challenging +0) and I'll let you know if they have it.