"Hospitality is sacrosanct," Whispers quickly explained to her non-linowan friends.  "These people will feed and shelter and protect us with their lives for three days, but we must take very great care to offer no insult to their hospitality.  Even turning down a gift could be seen as a rejection of their hospitality and an insult to their good will."<br/><br/>The scantily clad girl saluted the head of household in Linowan fashion and gave a sincere but not fawning expression of gratitude for taking her under their roof.  She lead her horses to the home of her hosts, stabled them, and moved to carry her pack saddle to wherever she was to stay.<br/><br/>The copper skinned girl then offered the matriarch of the house a gift—a small porcelain sugar bowl inlayed with gold.   (She'd claimed several such pieces as loot when she lead a slave revolt in a dynastic city to rescue her clansmen held there.)