While Jill did have a very vivid imagination, the experience she could draw from was not yet very large. Trying to imagine an animal that looked like a horse, but yet more lovely and ethereal, she ended up with a mental picture of some sort of ghost horse. Her brother had used to tell her stupid stories of the ghost horses that hunted the Sorrel farm, their large eyes empty and bodies see through like morning mist. Jill had never believed him, merely scoffing at his ridiculous attempts to scare her, but at this moment, she half thought the Halla that the girl spoke of were something similar.
Staring in front of her, sweetbread raised halfway to her mouth before her brain had distracted her, she must have looked a sight. When the word 'deer' was added to the explanation though, understanding suddenly dawned on Jill. The vision of ghost horses banished, her eyes started shining as she instead envisioned knights riding into battle on light-stepping, antlered deers the size of horses. "They sound beautiful!" she breathed reverently, this time having enough self control to lower the hand holding the treat, before speaking. "Did you ever ride one?" She wasn't sure if the last comment was meant for her or for Salma, so diplomatically she let it slide. "I never cared much for stories of battle when I was little, if they didn't have animals in them," she added thoughtfully, speaking a stray thought aloud to fill the silence. The girl seemed sad suddenly, atop of the shyness, and talking about animals usually cheered Jill up (the thought that it didn't work like that for everybody didn't strike her).