Rathazul nodded his head and hobbled over to his wagon.  Opening the side he pulled two stools from it and set them down, handing them to Leanna, he gestured to the ground.  "Set those down and then take my ox down to the waters edge.  You can leave him there, he'll drink and graze.  Then come back and we will chat."<br/><br/>Leanna did this, the ox was huge, much larger than she was used too, it's shoulder eye level with her, and the ox's mouth looked as if it could eat her whole arm.  She was glad to be away from it as it began drinking from the lake's edge.  She returned to the wagon and found that Rathazul had made a fire with some small brush and dried grasses, and was setting up a table next to his wagon, full of glass beakers and various equipment.  When he saw Leanna returning, he gestured to the scrubby bushes with the small pink berries.  "Go, gather a few handfuls of those berries while I make tea."<br/><br/>His voice was raspy and made Leanna think of the elders that she'd known from a nearby village.  She bristled a little at the rodent man's attitude, but he wasn't aggressive and she did need help.  So she did as he said.  By the time she returned, he was sitting on the stool, poking the fire with a stick to get it going.  "Don't need a fire for the heat," he explained, "It's always warm here even at night.  But it keeps away the night time predators."<br/><br/>He gestured up at the sunset and Leanna noticed that the sun was riding very low on what she thought of as the horizon, though it was impossible to tell.  Rathazul held up one knobby haired finger and said, "You can sleep near my fire tonight if you promise not to be any trouble, and I'll tell you some things you need to know about this place.  Do we have a deal?"  Rathazul looked to her and held out a cup of what looked like tea as he waited for her answer.  She couldn't help but notice that he didn't ask for the berries... maybe he was expecting her to eat them?