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building quickly warmed.
    “Where does the water come from?” Ash looked around for a source.
    “A small stream has been blocked for our use here,” Enat said, stripping off her travel-stained clothing. She plunged into the water. Ash stood on the edge, unwilling to follow.
    “Have you never taken a bath?” Enat asked.
    “No,” Ash said, dipping her foot into the icy water and withdrawing it immediately. “Not like this. Only with my hands.” She dipped a hand into the water and rubbed it on her arm to show Enat.
    “That is not good enough. You can’t wash your hair like that. It’s only cold when you first jump in.” Enat picked up a handful of sand from the bottom of the pool and rubbed it on her arms.
    Ash pulled off her cloak and the cloth she wore and jumped in, immediately sinking over her head. She sputtered and coughed as she came back up. The water stung like a thousand nettles pricking her everywhere at once, but, as Enat had said, the stinging lasted only a little while, and then the water felt almost warm. Emulating Enat, she used sand to scrub her skin, though the sand had quite a bit more dirt to scrub off in her case. Soon, Ash was pink as a newborn cub.
    “Let me do your back,” Enat said.
    After some scrubbing that left Ash wondering if she would have any skin left, Enat inspected her work. “That will do.”
    She reached for a small jar Ash had not noticed and scooped out a fragrant handful of thick liquid that she rubbed all over the short hair on Ash’s head and then she did her own. She showed Ash how to duck under the water to rinse her head. With more sputtering, Ash wiped the water out of her eyes.
    “This is not worth saving,” Enat said, lifting Ash’s old cloth. “But this is.” She pulled the cloak into the water, scrubbing it and rinsing it. As she lifted it, the colors woven into the cloth had new life, red and blue and yellow. Enat inspected the design more closely, and looked at Ash. “This will do as well.”
    They clambered out of the water and wrapped themselves in the clean cloaks Enat had brought from the cottage. Ash was reluctant to leave the warmth of the bathhouse, and her teeth chattered as they made their way back to the cottage. On the way, Enat pointed to yet another small building.
    “It is called a latrine. We use them to relieve ourselves. Of course, we do not have them everywhere in the forest, but we use them when we can.”
    Ash nodded. “Badgers, also. We do not soil our setts once we are no longer nursing cubs. We always have a place far away for such things.” She looked at Enat. “But I have never seen things such as these among the villagers near our sett. Nor your chimney.”
    Enat smiled. “Some of our kind have traveled to far-away lands, and have brought back here the best of what those people have discovered or built.”
    Enat hung Ash’s cloak to dry and sat her on a stool pulled up close to the fire while she rummaged in a carved wooden trunk sitting in a far corner.
    “I think these will fit you,” Enat said, holding out some clothes.
    Ash pulled on a pair of leggings and a tunic. The tunic hung to her knees, but Enat cinched it with a length of braided leather and nodded.
    “Better.” She donned clean clothing of her own and joined Ash at the fire where she put a kettle on the hook and swung it over the flames. “Now, we can have some things we could not have while we traveled.”
    Soon, Ash held a steaming cup of tea. Her eyes widened at the aromatic liquid that warmed as it slid down her gullet.
    “Good?”
    Ash nodded, taking another sip. “It tastes of… of summer.”
    Enat laughed. “It does. It has many grasses and herbs that grow in summer. I will show you how to make it.”
    She mixed water with some ground flour and nuts and, explaining as she worked, placed the cakes on a flat stone and slid it into the hot coals. Ash’s stomach growled hungrily as this new aroma began to fill the cottage. At last, the cakes were