Closed Will Work For Money

[Alea Davenport]

1 Winter, 512

It was deja vu all over again. It seemed like just this time last year Alea had walked into the Frostfawn stables, her cash trickled away to almost nothing, looking for a way to replenish it. If her parents had been around they would have told her to get a job fishing; it was more lucrative and she was better at it. But while she enjoyed fishing as a hobby, she could not stomach the thought of having to do it every day. And so it seemed she tended to seek jobs working with animals, which, to her surprise, she enjoyed a great deal, to the point that even shoveling manure was only a minor annoyance.

And so, now that her living space had been taken care of and her money was again at the point where she would not last the season, she wandered over toward Jakobi's Yard, where her Gilding was kept and cared for when she was too busy to visit him.

A lot had changed in the last year; namely, Alea was much more confident that she knew what she was doing. She had been here to visit Beast often enough that she at least know how to recognize Jakobi, even if she hadn't taken a lot of time to talk to him. When she found him she caught his attention and got straight to the point. "I'm here for a job. Think you could put me to work?"

[Capricious]

Location: Jakobi's Yard
Purpose: Hiring Thread

Jakobi was dealing with a horse who had laid down on a muddy patch of ground and gained matted hair. With gentle fingers, he was prying the strands apart. Warm water was used as encouragement and a strong bristled brush was utilized at the ends of the strands, never near the skin. The horse stood patiently, head dipped low and eyes half closed. One hoof was held on tip and a hip cocked. If horses could snore, this one would have been sawing logs. By working with the horse, Jakobi's fingers had gathered grime and dirt, easily smeared.

Jakobi said nothing as Alea approached. The woman walked like a shod horse on rocks: loudly. He continued working, only reaching out to steady the horse whose head jerked up at Alea's unexpected arrival. This was the only sign of Jakobi acknowledging Alea.

"You do not come here often enough. Your gilding misses you and yet you ignore him to first deal with me. Did you not notice the way he whinnied or did you ignore it? Horses come first, woman, and you have put yours second. Go deal with your horse. I will come see you soon enough." With that said, Jakobi resumed ignoring her. The woman would have to learn that all things come in due time and only after Alea handled her horse would Jakobi give her his full attention.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea wondered briefly if perhaps Jakobi was crazy, thinking that her Gilding, who did nothing but make her life miserable, could possibly miss her. But then she realized that he probably just assumed that all horses automatically miss their owners. Rather than argue with him, she decided it was easier (and more likely to get her a job) for her to humor the man. And so she wandered off into the field, looking for Beast.

At first, she almost approached the wrong horse. She had seen the shimmering tawny flanks and just assumed the Gilding was hers, but halfway there it occurred to her that this one's mane was a pale gold, whereas Beast's was on the darker side of brown. She almost smacked herself. Of course there was bound to be more than one Gilding in the Yard. It wasn't as if they were rare; if they had been she would never have been able to afford one. It was embarrassing that she couldn't even recognize her own horse.

Hoping Jhakobi hadn't noticed her almost error, she took a wider look around. There were several Gildings in the Yard, but none which were her horse. Finally, she spotted a dim glow in the shade on the far side of the Yard. Walking closer, she found Beast trying to get at a small apple on one of the higher branches of the tree. It was an odd sight, seeing him stetch his neck up as far as it would go, making short hops off his front legs in a vain attempt to reach.

He gave no indication that he recognized or even noticed Alea as she approached, which only confirmed in her mind that Jakobi had been mistaken. If Beast had truly missed her, surely he would care more about her return than about a silly apple. But if she was going to get a job here, and make a living without having to resort to fishing, she was going to have to convince Jakobi that she cared about her horse. Probably more that the obnoxious creature deserved.

Of course, Beast was obviously not going to do anything else until he got that apple, and Alea did not have time for him to get bored. She approached the tree, ignoring her Gildings antics. The lowest branch was about a foot above Alea's head. She grabbed it with both hands, then "walked" up the trunk of the tree until she was able to hook one leg over the branch. This got her stable enough to reach the next branch up, and she was able to put both feet solidly on the top of the first branch. From there it was fairly simple to climb a few more branches until she got to the one that held the apple.

She made sure to keep a firm grip on the branch above her as she leaned out away from the trunk. But the apple was rather far out on the limb, and she couldn't quite reach it from her current position. Eventually she decided to hook both legs over the branch she was on, let go of the branch above her, and crawl upside-down until she could reach the apple. The branch swayed precariously under her weight, but it held. She plucked the apple with a sharp yank, and then looked below her to find Beast.

There was no one below her, or anywhere around the tree. Frowning, she looked further around, and from her upside-down vantage point, she could see Beast's rump, casually strolling away from the tree, toward Jakobi. She scoffed in indignation, and after securing the apple in a pocket, she began her climb back down. Once she got back to the lowest branch, she felt a bit unnerved. It was a bit high to jump from, and there was something about moving herself from a solid branch to thin air that made her jittery. But she was not about to be stuck in this tree forever, so after some cautious and circuitous rearranging of her limbs, she ended up in a similar position to that she had used to climb up in the first place. With both hands gripping the branch and at least one foot against the trunk of the tree, she took a deep breath and let her body fall to the side.

It was a bit more of a jolt than she had expected when her arms jerked her falling body to a stop, but now that she was closer to the ground, it was much easier for her to drop her feet to the ground. She took a few deep breaths and waited for her heart to calm down a bit. That had been fun. She might have to try it again sometime.

Remembering why she was here, she ran to catch up with her horse. His slow plodding had not yet gotten him halfway across the Yard, but sprinting even such a short distance left her winded. She offered him the apple as she tried to catch her breath, but he ignored her completely, plodding toward Jakobi as if Alea weren't even there. She couldn't restrain a noise of frustration. "I go to all that trouble to get you this apple, and now you don't even want it anymore? What is wrong with you today?" Not that she would have preferred his usual antics, but being ignored was just plain hurtful.

[Capricious]

Perhaps if Alea had taken the time to spend more bells in the pasture, she may have noticed how horses tend to congregate in one area whenever something attracted their curiosity. And when the grooming tools came out, this attracted horses like flies to a foul pile of turds. Given Jakobi had been grooming one creature, he had sent the rest away. However, upon completing his task, the first horses circled around him. Some whinnied and nickered, others affectionately nibbled on his clothing, and yet more craned their necks to see what was going on. Yet in the middle of it all, Jakobi stood with a sense of confidence oozing out of him.

Seeing Alea's progress with her gilding, Jakobi smiled. They were an interesting pair and fought more often than not, but the gilding held affection for her. Perhaps because they were so similar? Currently, her gilding was ignoring her like she had him.

"Girl!" Jakobi called out. Without saying anything else, he threw the brush at her. The horses surrounding him watched it fly before turning their heads to watch the progress. "Groom your horse." The task was relatively simple in sense, but given the curiosity of horses it would be relatively difficult. This would show Jakobi whether or not she could handle horses in any sense and hold her temper long enough to complete a task. "Go on. Your gilding is waiting." How long would it take for Alea to realize the apple she held would only make her job more difficult?

[Alea Davenport]

Alea bristeld at being shouted at, and addressed at "girl", and when she caught the brush it was more because she'd flinched into it than on purpose. She was already annoyed at Beast, and Jakobi wasn't helping, with his completely unsympathetic, and, she might add, rather arrogant attitude. She would have loved to unleash her violent rage on him... but she was hoping to get paid at some point, and violence might hurt her chances of earning enough to live.

She was not all that great at suppressing anger-related feelings, so her fury was plain to see on her face. But she managed to channel enough of it into her expression that there wasn't much left over in the rest of her. So after pocketing the apple and take Beast's reins, she was able to lead Beast to a grooming station without yanking him...even if her hand was gripping the reins hard enough to leave a rope-shaped impression in her palm.

For some odd reason, the horses previously surrounding Jakobi had chosen this moment to start crowding her, and as she ran the brush in gentle strokes on Beast's coat (usually a calming task), she kept bumping into other horse-noses. She glared at Jakobi, certain that he had done this on purpose. Well, fine, she would suffer his absurd little test. If he thought being distracted by a hoard of horses was going to distract her from her goal of getting a job here, well, he didn't know Alea Davenport.

She managed to get one side of Beast finished this way (luckily he wasn't all that dirty, for once). But as she moved around him to get his right flank, a small Gidling foal stuck his smaller nose straight into her pocket! "Hey!" she shouted sharply, grabbing the nose and pulling it away from her. Almost immediately, another horse nose appeared at the same pocket, though it was too large to actually fit inside. This horse looked like it was about to take a bite out of her whole pocket, and she yelped and twisted her hip at an awkward angle to avoid such a sad fate for her clothing. Before the scene turned into a truly comical farce, she rapidly stuffed a hand into that pocket, realizing that the horses were after the apple from before.

Suddenly feeling extremely defensive, she said with a stern almost-hostility, "Oh, no you don't. This is for Beast and no one else!" With that declaration, she held the apple in front of Beast's nose. But her horse just snorted and turned his head to the side. Her frustration reached a boiling point, and she said, "Fine, eat it or don't, I don't even care anymore!" She placed the apple on a post in front of Beast. It was now his choice whether to take the treat he had wanted so badly before she'd gotten involved, or leave it for the next-nearest horse.

Fuming at Beast's stubbornness, she went back to brushing, perhaps a little less gently, though still not quite harmfully. By the time the repetitive motions calmed her down, the horse crowd had mostly dispersed. Alea was about halfway toward his rear, and her short, tight circles had gotten slower and lazier, as she occasionally picked a twig or two out of his mane. She felt vaguely exhausted for some reason, and she didn't think it was from the climbing earlier.

She finished with the brush, and turned back to Jakobi. Did he want her to groom anything else, she wondered? Perhaps comb his main, or pick his hooves? Rather than ask, however, she merely stared at him, holding the brush, waiting to see if he would say something.

[Capricious]

Jakobi had not been idle while he watched Alea work. No, he had been scrubbing the buckets covered in horse slobber. They had needed to be cleaned for quite some time, but he had been putting it off. Truth be told, scrubbing buckets was not Jakobi's favorite task. He would rather be working hands on with a horse than spending time doing something menial. Despite this, Jakobi realized the smallest details were what lead to the greatest successes.

Alea had handled the horses with a lack of finesse. The girl most likely did not realize flailing hands and quickly moving limbs startled horses more often than not. Still, seeing the horses mob her was amusing. Even more amusing was how Alea handled the situation. Even though there was anger involved, Jakobi believed the girl could be taught in time how to best handle horses. Once upon a time, he did not smell of horses either.

Hiding a smile at the girl's childish behavior, Jakobi nodded at her. "You have potential, girl. Firstly, learn patience. A horse will only react as you do and, frankly, that is why your horse acts that way around you. Secondly, never carry food inside the fence unless you know how to handle the demands. You do not. I expect improvement, girl. Now, go clean some buckets." With that, Jakobi tossed the slobber covered slimey brush at her and walked away, throwing over his shoulder, "See you tomorrow at six bells after midnight!"

OOCCongratulations! You have been hired! You'll need to have at least two job threads per season to earn your wages.

[Vanari]

Alea

Observation	+1 XP
Horsemanship	+1 XP
Climbing	+1 XP

Lores :

• Spotting The Right Horse
• Jakobi: That Crazy Old Coot
• Grooming Beast

Notes :

Enjoy

Please don't hesitate to PM me with questions, comments, or concerns! Also, remember to either delete your grade request or edit it as "graded." Cheers