"An... egg?" he asks, saying it carefully, like a person who has been told something that sounds completely stupid but doesn't actually want to say that.

He understands that avian eggs are calcium carbinate casings that house their embryotic forms when they reproduce. He also understands they're also delicious to eat.

But what does that have to do with backing himself up? He has to be missing something, here.

"...Like the eggs used in the cookhouse?"