Ridahne blinked. "We had chickens and goats, and once or twice we had a pig...but once our cat before Mitaja, Rhunin, he ate half the pig before we ever got to slaughtering it." She laughed a little. Rhunin was a rascal, and Mitaja was much more even tempered. "But what is...ducks? Duck? Is it a..." she paused, making a little frustrated noise as the word in this language escaped her. In fact, she didn't know if she ever knew it. "Um, does it have fur or feathers?" She finally asked. Ducks, being chiefly wetland animals, simply didn't exist in the deserts and high peaks of Azurei, and no one had thought to bring them in via the sea. 

"In Azurei, we don't always use all of the animal ourselves. Unlike humans, we do not think the liver is good to eat..." She made a face, her tattooed lines distorting and wrinkling with the expression. "But we live in a desert and everything is scarce...especially if you live in Atakhara like I did. We are not wealthy people. So nothing can go to waste. We give these parts to our hunting cats so they can eat too and get a reward for their work." 

Ridahne did grow up rather poor, and they had to scrape together everything they could to get by. When she was very young and grew rapidly, she never wore any kind of shoes since she would only outgrow them, and her clothes were very simple and often tattered. Ridahne learned early on to hunt, in addition to the fish her parents brought home. And she and Hadian both were very good at scaling palm trees for coconuts. When she was young, Ridahne did not picture herself sitting in side-rooms of the palace at large tables (less grand than the ones for the court but still opulent) laden with food and drink of all kinds, but somehow she'd ended up there. It was surreal, her first meal there. She'd been so confused, and the others laughed good-naturedly at her inexperience, as they had mostly come from more prosperous regions. 

Darin had a point about the Tree. Evil was such a broad, nebulous thing that was so often subject to perspective. Ridahne was living proof of that. If the Tree prevented any and all evil, Ridahne would likely not exist. Then again, she considered, if there was no evil at all to begin with, perhaps she wouldn't have become the person she was now, and done the things that had led her to exile and shame. And was there such a thing as necessary evil? Ridahne personally thought so, as she'd been rather convicted of her decision to commit the crime that led her here. She'd been asked many times if she was sorry. If she regretted what she'd done. She had been brought before the Sols and was expected to grovel, to repent of her deeds. She did not. No, her resolve on that matter was like iron, unbreaking and unmoving. So maybe there was such a thing as greater and lesser evils. But maybe the tree would not see it that way and would condemn her harshly. 

She was going to find out soon.

Ridahne nodded. "There was something truly deeply wrong with Mark. I...know something of evil people," she said, though what exactly that meant wasn't abundantly clear. "And he was almost as bad as they come. Something about him made my very spirit want to breathe fire and burn him down just to rid the world of him." She shuddered. "Don't ever ignore your senses on those things. You, I'm sure, have a keener sight in these things than anyone, now." Absently, Ridahne wondered what Darin felt about her. Nothing too horrible since she'd agreed to travel with her, but she hadn't seemed overly enthused by the idea either. "But there are other things about this idea of 'evil' and what it means. It can get very muddy very fast. Lines blur, exceptions are made, seemingly arbitrary lines set. It's confusing. Something I wish I understood more of when I was younger."

They rode on and on but Ridahne didn't feel like they'd really been getting anywhere due to the similarities in the scenery around them. But a quick check of the sky assured her they had made progress. "You know," she began after a lull. "It's going to be...awkward going back home to Azurei, whenever we get there. But to be honest I am excited to show it to you. It is very different than what you know in so many ways, and you may not like it." Ridahne shrugged. "But I love it. I am excited to share it with you. Eluri is different too, but maybe more suited to your tastes. Not as...harsh. And I mean that in every sense," she laughed.  "The Eluri are more soft-spoken than the Azurei, and because of their rains they have much more plant and animal life. Is that where you plan to go after the tree? Down south to Eluri, east to Azurei and Orosi, and then north again to Siren coasts?"