The woman gave a squawk of surprise that wasn't unlike the caws of her animal form and hopped back nimbly once more. Her face face contorted briefly in that moment, a snippet of pain dancing across her youthful features and one foot lifting in the process. The girl looked away from him fully for the first time and hunkered down into a perched position, balancing deftly upon one leg as she contorted her other to look at the bottom of her right foot.
"Ouch, that hurt. It's not like my cage. There's no tacks sticking out there, or nails, or splinters. Just smooth wire and lots of perches and a hard shelf and my water and my food and I hope it doesn't get infected..."
She was looking at a cut on her sole, a nail that had been caught briefly when she jumped back. It did not seem to really bother the girl yet, though, only a kind of fascinated surprise at the sight of the crimson droplet rising from where she'd been cut. Finally, however, the bird-like maiden looked back up to the now harsher man and canted her head in that comical way, regarding him carefully. "Uhm, I don't understand what you mean, mister. What's payment?" She continued in the hastened speech, more like a rodent than a bird might, methodically answering her own question as she went. "Oh, you mean those funny flat circles I see the handlers trade sometimes if one of the others has done something worth noticing. I think they called it a bet. But that's not what you want, is it. You don't want a bet, you want 'payment'. I don't have any of those funny flat circles, mister, but I'm a good helper! Are you hurt? Maybe I can make you better?" This latter seemed unlikely given the absence of clothing and any other object on the Kelvic. Mending an injury was not exactly doable.
"I've never been asked what I can give to someone else. The others think I'm too talkative and the handlers too. I thought I heard them joking that I must have a mouse for brains, but I know that's not true because mice aren't that intelligent and I can count and sing and I see all kinds of stuff. Like that kid there." She pointed uninhibited at the boy at the top of the dock behind Garron who was staring open-mouthed at the scene occurring below. "He looks pretty scared. Maybe you should put your sword away. I'm not gonna hurt anyone and I'd really like it if you didn't hurt me. Uh oh, I think he might scream." Yonega was staring fixedly at the child now, younger than she, clothed for certain, and filthier by far. A street rat most likely who happened to catch sight of the wrong thing at the wrong time and looked like he might call for the guards.