Kai studied the herd for a moment. They seemed amiable enough. Had she been more of an animal-sort (ironically) she might have instinctively behaved in a way that'd have soothed them further--slowly moving up alongside them while also grazing, for example, as she'd been doing prior.

Hell, maybe that was why they were all right with her this close, so far; she'd been doing just that for awhile before Eleanora had shown up. Just... farther out. Maybe they'd seen her.

But as it was, her attempt to simply talk to them was understandably questionable.

When she saw what Eleanora was doing, she herself waded a little closer through the grasses and leaned toward what the witch had grown.

Further food sprouted up, with long grasses and grains and flowers, and Kai reached out to delicately nibble a piece herself. She watched as one or two deer hesitated before coming a step or two closer, snorting, to eat.

Kai turned to Eleanora, peering. "There. Can you get the milk, now?" she asked. Really, she had no idea how this was supposed to work.

@Eleanora

Eleanora stared at the deer, watching them hesitantly walk over to eat. To be honest, she wasn't sure what was supposed to happen next. She didn't think that the kind of relationship her people had with their animals is one she could form between herself and a wild animal in one meeting, but was it supposed to continue...like this? Consistently coming out to feed them and just hoping they'd let her...milk them?!

She looked over at Kai. "You know, I didn't really think out this far. I don't think it'll be like...a one day thing. Getting milk requires some...pretty intense trust I think." As far as she knew, the cows of the village had been domesticated over a long period of time. Not just one day. But Eleanora was gonna try her best, yes she would!

Taking some more of the berries, she softly, slowly walked towards them, holding out the treats for them, to see if she could get any of them to eat from her hand. She held herself low, unoffensive, trying to be as friendly looking and nonthreatening as possible.

@Kai and also tagging gm

Their reaction was very bland, which was probably for the best. There was no sudden nuzzling and affection or eating-from-hands from the wild beasts, but on the other hand they didn't stampede or attack, either. For the most part they stood, snuffling and eating, tails switching flies.

This close, their smell would be apparent: a bit of a stink, animal-like and strong. It was an odor of cow breath and unwashed wool.

Large eyes kept wary watch on Eleanora and Kai both, and bodies turned now and then to remain angled for flight or for attack, but mostly they appeared more interested in the food.

Kai remained quietly thoughtful for a time, studying the herd. At length she looked to Eleanora.

"Why did you want milk from them?" she asked, curious. "-And what is milk?" She looked to the Meadow Deer again, trying to imagine it. Part of their wool, maybe? she wondered.

"I'm not sure they need anyone to take care of them," she added, thinking back to Eleanora's description of the exchange. "But they do seem to like the plants." She bent delicately, snapping up a stem with leaves, chewing it. Her expression was thoughtful as she swallowed.

"They are good plants," she decided.

@Eleanora

She didn't expect any sort of nuzzling, or affection, or anything short of staring at her with mistrust. Which is what happened, and was a relief that they didn't start a charge or decide they were predators. As she approached, she kneeled down and touched the grasses and plants already growing and urged them into blossom. Further they grew, regrowing some that had already been eaten, and some popping up with all sorts of flowers for the deer to feast on. She picked a few and tossed them out for some of the others around to eat, so they did not all have to crowd one spot.

"Milk is, uh." She paused, realizing how strange and possibly gross it might sound to explain exactly what milk is. "It's something a mother produces to feed her young. They usually make too much. It can be harvested and processed to make lots of things - cheese, butter, cream, or mixed into other things." It was when she spoke this aloud that she realized it was quite possible, since gembound hatched from a chrysalis instead of being naturally birthed, that these creatures would have no need of milk.

She glanced towards the creatures, trying to subtly see if any of them had any sort of visible mammary glands. What an interesting day she was having.

@Kai

"...Oh," Kai replied, blinking owlish eyes into the middle distance as she tried to think this over. And then, belatedly: "I don't know what any of those things are." It wasn't said rudely, or dismissively. If anything it was oddly conversational, a matter-of-fact thinking-aloud sort of thing. And it was a hard paradox to address: she didn't know what cheese or butter were, but she didn't know what milk was either, so explaining them as something made of milk didn't enlighten her any.

Kai stepped a little closer to the deer, lowering her own head and flicking ear-tufts as she plucked at the grass with her beak. "They seem okay," she added, glancing to the Meadow Deer. "I didn't really have a mother." That delightful conversational bomb abruptly dropped, Kai looked to Eleanora. "Did you?" Was it normal to have one? Her own lifegiver had given her a few vague impressions of the world early on, after her hatching, but had since wandered off entirely. She'd been left to forge her own way, which had been... awkward. Was that not how others grew..? Kai felt suddenly worried at the prospect.

What if she was weird?

There were a few calves among the herd, and while one or two did have gemstones, a couple others did not--and stuck close to cows who did, indeed, have visible (if very thickly-furred) udders beneath their hind legs.

Though they weren't as prolific as a domestic cow would have been, they likely had a little to spare, regardless.

@Eleanora

Her careful gaze managed to spy some of the herd that was producing milk for the young. These, in particular, didn't have gemstones that were visible and she wondered if there were some Lessers down here that bore young in the same way they did on the surface. A relief that this little experiment of hers could continue.

She began focusing on those in the herd, moving the magic a little farther so that the grass and flowers grew tall near the mothers and their young in particular. She wasn't sure how all of this would really work in the end, if she would have to do this every time, or milk them all the way out here, or if she could convince some of them to follow her home. She was unsure how domestication really worked, but she knew enough to know that she had to act as a caretaker. That was the first step.

As she settled into the grass with the grazing deer, more comfortable now, she looked back at Kai. "I wouldn't expect you to know, without the means to get them. But if this works, I'll definitely have to make you some. I'm not the best cheesemaker, but I've done it before. Besides, we all have nothing but time down here." She smiled, despite the pang of pain it caused in her chest, knowing that there was simply nothing in the future, besides...well, the future. No going back, no leaving. Just infinity stretching before them.

And then Kai dropped a different kind of bomb into their conversation, and at first Eleanora felt sympathy. Sadness. That one could grow without a mother, or a guiding figure. But then remembering that it was different down here. Gembound were more spread out, oftentimes hatching alone. And they weren't born as defenseless. "I did have a mother. But I know my...people are a little different then what you might be used to. I don't really think gembound need mothers. Most that I know hatched alone." It was sympathy for all of them, then. She remembered her mother, distantly, and a sad, bitter taste welled in the back of her throat. They had been close for a long time, but she had disappeared on the same night that Lilith had.

@Kai

Kai was distracted from the concept of mothers and families for a moment by, instead, the idea of cheese. She pondered, ear-tufts flicking back in thought, the strangeness of consuming something made from another creature's udders.

It seemed... odd.

But she was hardly the one to say so.

Kai had spent much of her life alone; any socialization that she did now was a deliberate choice, an attempt to learn how to do something so simple as hold a conversation. Much of that was awkward and stilted, as Eleanora had likely found; whether it was or it was not, she had no idea whether things like drinking animals' milk (or making things from it to eat) was odd or not. It struck her as sort of gross, but she didn't say that. "I would... try it," she said instead, struggling with the idea. New experiences, and all that; they were good for her, right? "Maybe if you pretended to be a baby deer, it would be easier to get the milk." She said this as the thought occurred to her, but the moment it was out of her mouth she recognized that it wasn't a stroke of genius so much as rather silly. Eleanora looked nothing like a deer.

And suddenly she feared that she, who did look very much like a deer, might accidentally be volunteering. Mild alarm showed on her face as she looked sharply to the witch. "...Or maybe that wouldn't work."

Crisis averted..? She sure hoped so.

"I can help you with the flowers, though. Do we have the same magic? That's cool." She meant it, too. She didn't often run across others who could make flowers grow and bloom. She pressed one hoof forward, and from it a carpet of lush green rose and grew, unfurling into multicolored, sweet-scented blossoms.

"What was having a mother like? I--did have one but only for a very short time. I think she had other things to do," she added, and kept her tone perfectly neutral. She'd never really known why Isi had left. And... "...She didn't speak much." Isi had been kind, but had barely spoken: rarely more than a word or two at a stretch. She peered sidelong at Eleanora then, realization clicking into place. "Your 'people' aren't Gembounds?" she asked, wondering if she'd understood that right.