Ridahne offered a little smirk. "You are a better patient than most. When I was younger I hunted for my family out in the Dust Sea. I got to know it very well, and I learned how to survive. So I made a living guiding people through it, for a while. Sometimes I would go out on a hunt and find some poor soul who tried to cross it themselves without knowing what they were doing.  Or some who did, but fortune was not on their side. One man was cut up badly and I had to sew him up in a couple spots. Both my cat and I had to sit on him to keep him still because he kept squirming and screaming." She laughed. "He was fine in the end. I saw to that. But he was a big strong man, and he did worse than you." 

Ridahne was cleaning her supplies and putting everything neatly into its place in her kit as she listened to Darin. She wasn't sure what she expected the girl to say the bird's name was, but 'Taja' was not on the list of likely possibilities. The elf's face went studiously blank as she stopped and looked at her companion. "Arm? You want to name him 'Arm'?" She blinked rapidly but quickly added, "I mean, you can. There's nothing against it and if that's really what you want to name him, then okay. But just as long as you know what it means." She smiled, actually showing teeth this time. "Ajoran might have a few things to say about that, but he doesn't get a say." Her tone was jesting, but as she thought of the man she loved, her smile faded. She tried not to think about him too much because it hurt when she did. It bothered her that Darin thought she'd abandoned him--it just wasn't like that. 

It looked like she was going to clam up as usual, but surprisingly she opened her mouth to speak again. "Did I tell you he carved this himself?" She hooked a finger around the necklace she wore and pulled the pendant up from under her shirt. The carnelian spiral glinted in the sunlight, and in the solid circle in the center was a carved design highlighted in white paint that resembled the seahorse pin that fastened the rust-red sash around Ridahne's waist. "In Auzurei, we do not exchange rings. We exchange [I]tokih[/I]." She tugged the large bone earring that dangled from her right ear and was embellished with fine scrimshaw. "See, the tokih represents your family and where you are from. It's how Tax knew I was a Torzinei without me telling him. Bone means I come from Atakhara. When a man wants to marry a woman in Azurei, he makes her a tokih to match his to show everyone that she is part of his family now. But he must carve it himself, and as he makes it he must think of her so that she will carry a symbol of his love for her. Carnelian is of Insmarr, in the mountains, but he wanted to keep my family name, so he put the Torzinei crest on it. If we marry someday, he will put one like it in his ear, and this one in mine, and he will be Ajoran Torzinei." 

Her cheeks went red, and she put the pendant back under her shirt. "I don't know why I told you any of that. Anyway...you'll meet him someday soon when we go to Azurei." She wrapped up her kit and stood. "Let's go see your bird, yes? I'd like to properly meet him."