Darin instructed the pair of taja to allow children through their guard, so they nodded and wordlessly waved a few children, who had stopped short when the pair had initially moved to touch their weapons, to come forward. They mostly grinned, though a few were a little shy and bashful, and would skitter away after they'd proffered their tokens to Darin. Most of the children were poor or from a family of middling status; There was very little traditional grandeur and wealth to be found in Azurei as a whole, as desert life did not lend itself to excess. It said something of Ridahne's temperament, too. She and her people had to work very hard for a living, and most of them were a little hardened and weather-worn for the experience. 

Ridahne led Darin to one of the leaning, branchless trees and gave no advice as she watched. Not only did Darin not need much advice, but the young dust-rat of the streets came out in Ridahne as she adhered to the childhood tradition of letting newcomers struggle with the trees at least once before aiding them. The elf laughed. "The darker green ones!" she called, pointing. As Darin cut one down, Ridahne spun on the ball of her bare foot and, with a flourish, caught the falling fruit with one of her knives. She intentionally dropped the blade down a little as it hit, slowing the momentum of the coconut so her blade didn't slice clean through. She pried her blade out of the green husk and after a few practiced strikes, she peeled away the fibrous outer husk. "Come down, now it is time to taste the spoils of your climb! And then I will show you how [I]we[/I] climb them." Ridahne hacked once at the shell with her blade and twisted it, prying the two halves apart. She did this carefully so as not to spill the milky liquid inside, and distributed the water between the two halves. 

This was the flavor of her childhood. This, and fish. She remembered many a hot day when she and a few other children would scale the trees and retrieve a few coconuts to pry open, drink, and then eat the flesh inside. Most visitors didn't like raw coconut--they said it required more chewing than they were willing to put up with--but most of them enjoyed it when it was used in a recipe. And coconut was used a lot in azurei cooking. It was found in curries, desserts, as a breading for some seafood, and even mixed into rice. It was enjoyed by the poor and the wealthy alike.