Completed [Unstable Stables] Better day

[Nemori]

29th of Winter, 516

The smell of horses distracted Nemori. For a moment she stood still in the streets. Was it some kind of illusion? She dared a peak from under her hood. They was a grand stone building, larger than any of the others. It took out to her. Now that she was paying attention she could hear the gentle braying of animals. A bubble of joy built inside her and she looked down, attempting to hide the change in her eyes to a gentle pale blue. She closed her eyes, attempting to force the feeling to go away. The fact that they were animals around did not mean she was safe, she could not know if the stable was going to be receptive to her in general. They was a hesitation now as her eyes returned to the pale green and she opened them. Was it worth trying to connect with animals? She felt so out of place without them. A pang of loss ran through her, she missed Whisper and all the animals at the stable back in Avanthal. She missed her job and responsibilities. With a gulp she started to step towards the stables, keeping her head careful down and covered. She did not trust her eyes around the animals.

Through the massive arched doorways the inside was fairly scarce. A desk that sat empty. She glanced around worriedly, she had expected to have to talk to someone immediately. They were a few large enclosures she could see, some with horses and others lay empty. Slowly she started to take an amble along them, some of the empty stables looked recently used and she wondered where their outdoor enclosure was. She had not been certain the building was big enough for such a thing, but she was slowly learning the tricks the city played on her mind.


She walked past one horse that snorted at her and she turned to look at it.
“I’m sorry, did I disturb you?” Nemori questioned, her eyes turning into orange as she spoke. The horse snorted once more, flicking their eyes and staring at her. It took a second for the language barrier to sink in.
“Oh, you don’t speak mine. Sorry” She switched to common, reaching out a hand careful towards the horse. They did not seem bothered by the intrusion and she gently stroked him along the side of his muzzle. Another snort, but it did not sound dissatisfied this time. Common was not her natural language and she hesitated a few moments, trying to piece together her knowledge of the language. “You are nice” She stated, her eyes sunk into the deep blue that they used to be semi-permanently. “Do you live? Or waiting?” She wondered out loud, she knew he would not reply properly but it still felt comforting to be talking to someone. After a few moments she stopped petting the horse. “Please have a nice day” She stated as a goodbye, stepping away carefully. The horse snorted once more, twisting itself around to pull at some nearby hay.

[Nemori]

As she continued to look around she noticed that the horses were more confined then she was used to, the horses that were stabled were locked into their enclosures. The enclosures themselves were large and well cleaned. Each had suitable access to food and water, but it still felt unusual to her. Her hood was still covering her hair, but she had almost forgotten to hide her dark blue eyes as she wandered through the stalls, occasionally greeting the more curios of the horses. A few of them shied away from her offer to pet them, and she apologised to them before moving away and finding another to pay attention too. They was a large selection of different breeds and colors, some that she had never seen before. Large muscled cart horses mixed in with slender fast horses. She wondered where they were from, what they were naturally good at. What kind of personality they tended towards. They were lots of variation in horses she knew.


In her distraction she did not notice the dark haired man carrying bundles of hay, nearly colliding into him. The hay covered his face and he seemed to be balancing it precairously.

“Sorry. I did not see” She jumped out of his way, glancing at the pile carefully. She tried hard to modify her voice slightly, attempting to take on an accent more like Alex’s then her own. Her eyes shifted into pink and she was glad that his face was hidden. The hood was carefully pulled over and she glanced down at the floor. Hiding herself once more. So much for the freedom of the horses, she lamented mentally. “Erm…want help?” She questioned, watching the pile from under the brim of her hood. The attempt at hiding her accent made her speak slower and with less certainty. Attempting to translate the words and then modify them to suit the accent was difficult and she wondered how long she would be able to maintain it. Was it even a good idea? The thought was pushed from her mind, she would decide later.

“I got these. What do you want? Quickly, I’m busy” He seemed irritated and Nemori felt herself shrink. Certain that her eyes would shift into pale green now, if they hadn’t already. She disliked talking to people who were irritated. She gulped, attempting to summon some courage.

“Nothing, I miss… animals. I heard… and…” She gestured around her uselessly, the sentence falling on her lips. The word horse was not one she could translate across and she hope animal was enough to explain her thoughts to the stranger. He sighed, continuing to carry the bales. Nemori found herself following, not really sure why. “Do you not own help?” He was the first person that she had seen, was he running this massive stable on his own? No wonder he was so overworked.

“Own? The stable hands are busy today, just me for now” She felt herself hesitate. The language barrier beginning to cause problems. She had almost gotten used to Alex not understanding her, but a stranger? Talking to him at all was dangerous. Any moment he could notice her. Despite this fear, and partly because of it, she lingered around him.

“Is space for… stable…hand?” The person who has a hand in a stable? The stable hands? Did hands mean helping? She was unsure and resolved to inquire with Alex later. He started to store the bales into a slot between some of the enclosures. The nearby horse, a black tall creature with long legs, took an interest attempting to move towards the hay as it passed. Nemori found herself intercepting without thinking, allowing the horse to sniff her hand.

Languages :

Common
Vani

[Nemori]

“Space for stable hand? What?” Nemori worried that she was frustring her, but continued nevertheless.

“Me, space”

“You want a job?” He sounded uncertain, it did seem a strange sudden request. She wondered how much the linguistic barrier hindered them. She started to stroke the horse along the snout and they responded happily. She considered the words. This was a dumb idea, it made her interact with people. It made her have somewhere set she had to do. It was dangerous. The horse snorted, leaning into her hand and she smiled. She missed this, and it felt familiar. It felt safe for the first time. Her eyes turned blue as she looked at the horse.


“If space. Help animals. Not good at…. Desk? People.” She hoped it would be obvious not to put her on the desk dealing with people. Her common was broken, clearly unstable. Any shop owner would be hesitant to put someone like that interacting with customers. They was a pause and she held her position, not daring to turn around and look at him lest her eyes betray her.

“Are you good at looking after horses? What experience do you have?” She wondered what he meant by experience, it was a new word to her. A complex word. She instead decided to answer the first part, she was used to looking after horses and knew no better way to highlight this then her years of practice.

“I do at…home. As child. Years” She closed her eyes. Terrified they were an unusual color before turning around to smile at him. Hoping to be reassuring. She was careful not to lift her head too much, just enough to meet his eyes but not enough for him too see her hair. His height helped, he was taller than her. Dark hair. She could see some tattoos running down one of his arms. He was looking at her uncertainly, the hay bales half forgotten.

Languages :

Common
Vani

[Nemori]

“Prove yourself.” He pointed towards the black horse. “Clean his enclosure, walk him and sort his food and water.” He folded his arms again, staring at Nemori. Nemori listened careful. Horse, clean, walk, food, water. That seemed easy. She nodded, attempting to smile again. She turned around quickly, fearful that he would notice what she was. The horse clopped a foot on the ground.

“What name?” She questioned, twisting slightly to glance at the stableowner. He had gone back to packing the hay, much to the interest of the horse.

“His is Shadow, people are uninventive” Nemori simply nodded, hoping that it was not really a question to her. None of the words were familiar enough to even guess the sentance. Shadow was another word she didn’t know, the unoriginality of it being lost in the lack of translation.

“Hello, Shadow” She petted him again. Clean was the first task. She frowned, how was she supposed to clean his enclosure without him getting in the way? She did not want to risk being kicked. She wondered what the rules were on free roaming, she doubted it was allowed. It was too easy for them to get to extra food for it to be reasonable. They was a rope and lead hanging on the door and she guessed this was what she required. She dragged it and the horse snorted unhappily at her, clopping a hoof once more. “Be good” It still felt weird for her to be speaking common to the horses, but it was likely all they knew. And with the stable owner around it would be dangerous to do anything else.



Shadow was clearly unhappy with the rein but allowed her to fasten it on anyway. It took her some time to work and find the different buckles and when she was done she found that the stableowner was watching her, his own task being finished.

“My name is Tsavyn. I run this stable” Nemori jumped at the sudden voice, twisting to meet him with pale green eyes. He offered a hand out to her and she looked at it dumbly for a tick.


“Nemori” She shook his hand, part of her terrified that this was somehow a trick, that he was going to grab her and arrest her. His hand was warm. It was the first time she had interacted with another human besides her roommates.

“Walk him in the outside enclosure. I will clean his stable.” He nodded towards Shadow and Nemori found herself nodding too before looking down and pulling her hood down out of nervousness. “You are very shy” He chuckled as he said it, turning towards the horse and opening the door. It was a simple latch lock and Nemori watched as he unlocked it.

“Where walk?” She attempted to focus herself onto the task at hand, ignoring his comment on her movements. She felt slightly reassured that he was attributing her actions to shyness instead of her being a Vantha.

“oh, go towards the end of the stable that way. Turn right and you’ll be out there” He pointed towards the intended direction, taking the rein in hand before handing them to Nemori. She nodded again, taking the reins from his hands. Despite his previous irritability he seemed nice. She hoped that his niceness lingered and that she had merely met him on an unusual day.

Languages :

Common
Vani

[Nemori]

Shadow’s snorting drawing her attention back to him. He walked proud and towered above her, but she was used to this. Tugging gently on the reins she started to walk forwards, hoping that Shadow would follow happily. They was some reluctant at first but a few more tugs and he was following. Nemori glanced over at Tsavyn. He was focusing on cleaning the enclosure diligently, seemingly like she had been forgotten. This she took as a good sign. As she started to follow the directions she smiled to herself. Perhaps this was not going to be as bad as she thought. Perhaps this was somewhere she could find happiness while she was stuck in Alvadas.

It was not too long of a walk, even with the occasional resistance that Shadow gave her. The outside enclosure was a large circular place with grass. A track in the centre had been carved into the dirt through, what she assumed was, years of hoof prints. They were some jumping stiles towards the back but she ignored them, trailing Shadow around the dirt track. Part of her wished that she was able to ride them around, it would be easier to exercise them if she could. Instead she took to slowly building speed around the track until they were both sprinting around. It felt like freedom for the first time, the familiarity of it and unrestrained nature of the horse she was leading. Unfortunately she was not able to maintain it for too long before beginning to tire. Her chest starting to restrict and she began the process of slowing down. Shadow still seemed energetic and she puzzled. He was sleek and clearly full of energy. She wondered how she was supposed to wear him out. Once they came to a stop leaned over, attempting to catch her breath. Her chest hurt from the strain of running for so long.

“Hand me the reins” Nemori jumped at the voice, glancing up with pale green eyes. She held the reins out somewhat uncertainly. Was he doing something wrong? She gulped. “Don’t you ride? It’s much less strenuous then trying to keep up with him.

”Never learned to ride” She whispered, attempting to force her voice to work despite the screaming of her lungs.

“You will get used to riding in time I’m sure. I wondered why you didn’t saddle him. It meant you were either really good or used to riding.” Tsavyn petted Shadow before jumping up onto his back effortlessly. Nemori stared in wonder, was she going to attempt to ride him without a saddle? For a moment she wondered if he was showing off. “Go sort out some of the other horses, tomorrow you’ll have to do far more.” He stated before snapping the reins and starting to ride shadow around the arena. Nemori stood for a moment watching him. It was impressive, even if he was not deliberately showing off. Tomorrow, the word rung in her head. He had been satisfied with her ability enough to be content in keeping her around. She smiled as she walked back into the main stable. Things were definitely going to be better now, she mused.

Languages :

Common
Vani

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Grades Pending
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