[Kennel] You actually have to work in your job?(Bob)

[Darik]

Timestamp: 35th Summer, 511 Darik walked into the stable part of Killroy’s Kennel. Can you guess who owned this establishment? No not Darik silly. A man called Killroy. So what exactly is Killroy’s Kennel? Why am I asking you? Because I have no idea either! On one side it’s a self respecting business and on the other it’s a robbery. There’s no way to combine those into one idea! Ohh wait nevermind, that’s the definition of a business. Now, Darik was doing something extraordinary in Killroy’s Kennel on the 35th. He was… working! I know such a surprise. Usually Darik would be out in the Sunberth streets doing thief stuff, like trying to mug a fit warrior! Every one in Sunberth is battle trained except Darik. Poor, poor Darik. Anyhoo, Darik was doing his job quite well. He had come to work late with an excuse ready and primed to utter. He could just say he was doing his “on the side job” and they wouldn’t call him out. Most of the time he was unsuccessful anyway, so it didn’t matter that he didn’t bring in any animals. Killroy did say after all only the best of the best wou,d be his stock. The best of the best animals never got lost. Darik is an eyewitness to that fact. Also he didn’t even think about stealing animals right under someone’s nose, that could get him killed! Darik surveyed the kennel looking for something easy to do. He saw a horse that looked like it had recently been run. He walked up to it to observe it more. It had more perspiration on its skin than normal. Also there were some of these prickly things stuck into its hide. He bent over and picked up one of the little round balls. He rolled it around in his hands feeling it. It seemed like it had spikes all around it. Interesting… There was one thing he was certain though, it was part of a plant. The plant helped Darik conclude his suspicions were true. Hannah had recently ridden the horse to train it, so he needed to start a long complicated process to get it ready for the next day’s ride. It seemed a really long and stupid process, but they were paying him to do it. Trust me, he wouldn’t be doing it if he wasn’t being paid. Hell, he hated animals! Standing by the horse stall he probed the room looking for an excuse not to do his work. Sure it was within his job description, but it’s not like he would do it today. He was tired from all the fun he had in the pits earlier. He saw a boy, no a man, using a shovel over by the dogs. He didn’t even know the man worked in the stables, he must’ve been hired recently. He was also doing a job that Darik found quite detestable. Darik didn’t have the particular job so their professions must be two completely different things. His profession must be more specialized than the man’s so he must be paid higer than the fellow. That means that he was superior to the other stable hand. The world does revolve around money. He needed to be sure about the chain of money before he started to act like an obnoxious brat. “Hey you,” He shouted towards the man trying to get his attention. “ How much money are you getting?”

[Bob Barton]

Bob went up to the kennels for the day again. Work? Yeah, its all about that stinking test...but he didn't have to do it everyday. Just do it once in a while and do it sooooooo well that the next few days even with all the crap that he'd have to put up with can be left alone until it gets significant. The dogs were barking at him, what else is new? But at least now that they were used to him that they stopped after a while and Bob went to the shovel. "Ahhh you worthless hunk of metal" Bob greeted his opponent. But after thinking about how he hates the crap and that he only cleans the place up once every few days, Bob tossed the shovel away and stretched his fingers to prepare to clean up the stables his own magical way.

Then the dogs started to bark again and Bob shouted "Stuff it you!" when they did he was only able to hear the last half of the new person's shout. "Money? What the heck is this guy on about? Is he about to mug me for all I have once I answer?" He sounded familiar. Something about his obnoxious tone of voice and unrefined words told Bob that they had met before. But in Sunberth, most of the people he knew were real scum, losers or nimrods. People Bob preferred to ignore and so he went on thinking he should do just that.

With a spectator around, Bob cannot really clean up the way he does. The minor distraction annoyed him, not to mention what he had reminded Bob of. Bob turned around and saw the bratty fail thief from the docks and the Crimson Edge camp and mumbled to himself "Of all the rotten luck, I run into him here..." And money huh? Does he really think he is better just because of it? Bob didn't have the time or patience to put up with Darik today so he stared at Darik intensely as he growled just like every other dog in the kennels "Hmmmm, maybe more or maybe less than you. But if its the latter, I don't mine beating you up and taking yours. You have already shown me before your "capabilities"." All the while Bob was saying that, he put some djed into his words. Djed which would help alleviate the fear in Darik to make his threat a little more convincing if Darik bought it. As if some sort of signal those dogs which have been on the receiving end of Bob's hypnotism started barking, knowing what Bob was trying to do to Darik.

[Darik]

The person must be inducing his animalistic side because a low growl emitted from his throat. Usually Darik wouldn’t let this bother him, he had dealt with worse people than the short man. However, his words seemed to escalate in Darik’s mind. The man’s threat blocked out all reasonable thoughts. His head must have been out of wack, because the man’s image started to become distorted. Through the blur Darik could see the general shape of the man but something wasn’t right. The pipsqueak had grown three feet taller and put on an extra two hundred pounds. Someone definitely not to mess with. “Sorry sir, for questioning your money making abilities. I can see easily that you are higher on the chain of command than me.” Darik turned around so he didn’t dare attract more attention from the man. He wasn’t thinking rationally but he didn’t care. His main goal was to survive another day. He was so scared, so guess what he did? He worked meekly. Yep, Darik actually worked to the best of his abilities. Sadly, that isn’t very good. He grabbed a robe in the horses stall with the intent to a tie a knot around the horses neck. What kind of knot was he thinking of tying? Wait there’s different kinds of knots? The robe ended up being all around the horse’s neck connected by a mess that Darik would call a masterpiece. It had taken him twenty minutes to formso it had to be a masterpiece. When Darik tried to move the horse, it didn’t budge one bit. Once Darik had wasted all of his energy trying to move the horse, he just gave up and was going to follow the horses wish. He would go in the stall and groom it there. He took the robe and replicated the squiqle knot. Yes, Darik was so brilliant he invented a new knot. Once the horse was as secure as Darik’s best capabilities allowed him, he racked his brain trying to think of the steps Hannah had told him. She had told him to write all of them down but he didn’t have paper with him at that time. So, all he had was a vague set of directions. He decided to not ask her again, she scared him. Anyway it’s not like she gave a huge important warning about what not to do. It wasn’t that big of deal if he didn’t follow it exactly anyway, it’s just a horse. He was so caught up in his work, when he turned around the man was short again. It seemed like he had been tricked by some master illusionist. Or the man was a shapeshifter. Either way it wouldn’t be the smartest idea to continue acting arrogant. So Darik took a neutral tone almost sounding friendly. He didn’t want to piss someone off that could do severe damage to his face. ”So whats your name? We are working here together so I figure we should take the time to learn each other’s names. Mines Darik.” Darik figured the man already knew that. He was the most well-known kid in all of Sunberth. Just not for the right reasons.

A great reference site I want to remember.

[Bob Barton]

The threat did not work because the boy still stayed on and started doing his work on the horses eventhough it seemed that Bob has scared the willies out of him. Great...he gets to do his work but Bob can't do it, unless...he took up the shovel. No, no way thats going to happen! With nothing else to do, he just crossed his arms and watched the boy intensely as he started grooming the horses. As he was watching he looked closely at everything the boy did. Laughing at the failure of moving the horse Bob tried out to do the knot which was done. "Hmmm...never seen a knot like that before. I should try it." Bob said to himself as he went and took up a rope of his own and went to another horse.

The horse neighed and started kicking around as Bob moved in closer with the rope. It probably did not help that he held the rope in front of him really widely. Bob tried to hypnotize the horse, gazing into its eyes. Focusing his djed in his eyes, Bob collected what little he thought was enough for an animal's simple mind and shot it at the horse. Getting into its mind with the message "Calm down, I am only taking care of you!" After a few minutes of trying to approach the horse with no success, he gave up and coiled up the rope before going to another.

For the next horse Bob hid the rope behind his back as he approached. This horse was indifference to Bob so he took advantage of it. First he brushed his hands on the horse to calm it down before suddenly coiling the rope around its neck. Then he tried to replicate the squiqle knot. Putting one part of the rope over and another under over and over again while going through funny hoops and loops. When it was done it looked even worse then the original and Bob sighed shaking his head before trying to unravel it.

The silence among the pair there was broken when the boy introduced himself as Darik. Bob was struggling with the knot but he was right. They were working together so they should at least do that much. In a harsh and gruffy voice to keep up the fearsome facade he used to try to get the boy to leave earlier, Bob replied "I am Bob. I've seen you before especially when you were getting dunked in the river if you can remember that." Bob smiled when he said that since it reminded himself of the funny scene.

[Darik]

Bob did the unthinkable, he insulted Darik. He brought up a painful memory that should be shunned in polite conversation. What a bully. So Darik needed revenge. He chose verbal, even though physical would be easier. But there was also a chance that the man really was super tall and could kill him with one hand tied behind its back. No matter how sweet it would be beat the crap out of bob, getting destroyed isn’t on Darik’s to do list. With a voice thick with arrogance Darik tried to belittle Bob. “So how did you arrive in this fine establishment? Killroy personally asked me to join him, and he isn’t one to refuse.” Ha, Bob joined recently so he wouldn’t know if this was true or not. He would have to believe Darik’s fake boast. And it’s not like Killroy or Hannah would come in and prove him wrong. They were much to busy to do that. Now, Darik focused back on his work. The sooner he got done, the sooner he could leave. Now, he tried to remember what he was supposed to do next. It was either using a curry comb or a dandy brush. Did it really matter? They both sounded like they did the exact same thing. Wait, there was something else behind those steps. It was something involving the word pick in it. Darik left the horses’ stall looking for something that looked like a pick. Meaning something with a shaft and a big long metal head. After five minutes of searching, Darik figured he may have remembered the wrong word. He delved into the deepest parts of his memory looking for the real word. Navigating the murky depths, Darik realized there’s an H at the beginning. And then a…a…o! So it was the word Hoe? No that sounds wrong. There was something about the o. It seemed like it went longer than usual. So there must be two of them! So the word was Hoo. Wait, that makes no sense. There must be one last constant. Its end letter is the starting letter of a bad word. So hoob, hoow, hooa, hooc, hoos. None of them sound right. Wait, how about hoof? That sounds right! So Darik was looking for a hoof. Wasn’t a hoof connected to a horse though? You can’t use a horse’s hoof as a tool. Unless the word is describing something. Darik being a genius combined the two words, hoof and pick to get the word, pick hoof! I mean, hoof pick! So he was looking for something that could pick out a horses’ hoof. He looked at the tools and his eyes picked out the likeliest one. It was completely metal with a curved end. It had some symbols carved on the end but Darik didn’t observe them. He didn’t appreciate art, it was just a waste of money. With the tool in hand he walked back in the stall. So because the tool was called a horse pick, it must be used to pick foreign objects out of the horses shoe. He bent down by the horses’ leg inspecting the foot. How would he do this, could he just lift the horses’ foot up? It was a four legged figure so he figured it could stand with three legs on the ground. He grabbed one of the horse’s shoulders and lifted up. It didn’t seem to pay attention to him or the attempt to lift the leg. Darik tried so hard he lost his holding and fell under the horse. I won’t describe you what he saw under there, but it wasn’t pleasant. Once he was standing again, he tried again. This time the horse actually raised her foot when he just gently touched her shoulder. Wait, it had played with him. Dam horse. When the horse lifted its shoe Darik inspected it. A thin layer of mud had covered everything. Not caring about being careful he started to take it off. It seemed to ignore everything till it hit the middle part. Its foot jerked, hitting Darik in the stomach. He had foolishly stood in front of it. He regained his in front of the hoof position and figured out why the horse had kicked him. The spot he had hit was lighter in color than the rest of the hoof. It must be some kind of nerve or something. He used his free hand to poke it and it was quite squishy. So don’t touch the sensitive parts. Got it.But Darik didn’t know how much of the horse’s foot was sensitive. He used his hand and in a slow manner picked all of the grime off. It was unbearable but he didn’t want the horse constantly kicking him when he groomed it. When he was done with that one foot, he saw it made a V shape. Did all the other feet have that? Most likely, and Darik wasn’t going to check. He wasted enough time using his hand on its hoof.

[Bob Barton]

Thats a fine boast to use, to say that he was personally invited to work over here. But Bob already knew that this pompous teenager had some self esteem issues. He really needed to make himself feel good about himself at the expense of others hence the money question previously and the invitation question now. Bob laughed at himself thinking of all the ways he can twist and use Darik's words against him.

"Invited you say? Thats nice. So is that for work or for satisfying Killroy's appetites? Wait...you do know about those right?" Bob said with a satisfied smirk on his face. Again as he said that he put some djed into his words. Djed which would work into Darik's head and make him a little bit more scared if he still didn't know yet that Bob was toying around with him. The little question of Killroy's appetite should give more than enough a reason for the fears to be realistic.

Then Bob watched Darik struggling through his work again. This boy was bad at this. He should be doing something else if he could. Bob still couldn't work with his magic with a witness around so he decided to do something else with the horses. No, not their shoes. If anything Darik showed that it will be dangerous especially with his little height disability and get injured.

Bob started off by taking the curry comb. Moving the brush up and down the horse as it removed all the crap stuck on the horse. At first the horse didn't seem to mind as bad as they did Darik and his job but after a while it started to move about uncomfortably. Something that Bob was doing was wrong but he couldn't remember what so he continued. Struggling while he was brushing the horse up and down to remove whatever crap was stuck on it while it was moving its head away from the brush.

Just when Bob was about to take the next tool he saw Darik getting kicked by the horse. It was so funny that he started laughing and a tear or two came out from his eyes. Finally regaining his composure he went up to Darik "Are you alright boy? I am really getting a kick out of this one."

[Darik]

As Dark heard bob mention Killroy he remembered his main thought when he joined. Why did Killroy have Hannah? She was extremely talented, but a girl working at the stables that long must have another reason. With this thought it meant something. Something very important. “EWWWWWW!!!!. No way! I am boy, weirdo.” He may have overreacted, but that was just creepy. Usually he would be fine with it, but something about the situation made it completely weird. Nothing worth dwelling on though. Bob was scary thinking that there could be another option. Then he went on to insult Darik’s grooming techniques. Bob wasn’t even doing it right. He even decided to enlighten Bob on the proper order. Darik is such a nice person! ”You’re one of the worst grooms I have ever seen!” Okay, maybe Darik wasn’t clear. His actions were though. He walked back Bob, giving a slight shove when they were close. He reached a place were a tool that was quite important was lain, a dandy brush. He picked it up and brushed his hand over it. The bristles were tough, perfect for removing the dirt from the dirt from the horses’ coat. He walked towards the stall with the tool in hand. Once in the stall, he started to use it. Up and down the horse it went. He went in a circular motion around the hide. With all of his strokes it looked like it was making the shape of a vortex. Maybe the tattoo on his hand was giving him subconscious thoughts, or it was the most efficient way. Eitheir way had had done the whole hide in just a few minutes. It was a very effect technique, because going up and down would have wasted more energy and took twice as long. But the results, well…weren’t impressive. It got no dirt out, it actually looked dirtier. Something was wrong. Was he doing it the wrong way? He tried to other side of the brush, the flat side, but that didn’t work either. Wait, Hannah had given him a warning about something. “Do all the steps in order, otherwise nothing will work.” But that warning had no meaning, because he the steps in order. Unless…oh come on! ”You could have told me that I was doing it wrong!” He probably did but Darik didn’t listen. What self respecting person would listen to Bob? With a grumble he threw down the dandy brush in the hay. He then picked up a curry comb for a shelf. He hoped it would work, because he was almost at the end of his patience. The only reason he was still here is because Killroy paid him for work not lollygagging.

[Bob Barton]

Hahahaha! Who is the weirdo now if they can get even such a vague reference? Bob might have suggested it but that didn't mean that Darik had to get it, unless it was really on his mind. It didn't matter whether it was true or not. Killroy did have a reputation of something along those lines in Sunberth and so what if Bob accidentally misstates it? It was Darik's fault for bragging first. Bob wanted to add a little more to the idea. Maybe something along the lines of "Who said it was just girls?" but decided against it. There was no point using up all his cards at this point and needlessly freaking out the poor boy.

Yes, the little sentence earlier was more than enough to get to Darik who got a little bit emotional and excited after that. Trying to pin the title of worst groom on Bob and use the size difference to push him around. At first Bob thought that maybe Darik was better in the job. Somehow the useless boy knows his stuff. He even took a different brush. Of course Bob could tell it was different. Just look at the bristles, Bob wasn't blind and Darik made a big scene of it. Only a blind person would miss something like this.

No one could take a risk of Darik being better than them. So Bob replaced his curry comb with a dandy brush much like Darik's. He even strained his eyes to look at Darik's hand in the stall to see if their brushes are the same. The words "Bristles..flat..." were repeated as Bob did the comparison. Then he went back to the horse he was working on to test it out himself. Again he looked back at Darik. Over his shoulder he could see the boy vigorously going round and round and round and round with the brush. "Please don't kick me around like Darik..." Bob asked the horse, as if it could understand and started. Circling the brush on the horse clockwise to get all the dirt out. Why clockwise? Because then as much as he did not want to he will be following Darik.

The brushing was interrupted when Darik suddenly shouted and had a fit, throwing down his own brush. "You were doing it wrong? But..." Bob decided to stop the sentence right there. No need for Darik to know that Bob was actually following him. Bob looked at his horse. The dirt was out so what was wrong? Then he looked back at Darik's. Was his eyes mistaken? It looked even more dirtier than before. Something must be different for something like that to happen. But instead of thinking further, Bob could not resist throwing another insult at Darik for the previous one. "You haven't been looking at the mirror have you?" with a cheeky smile on his face. Then he continued to ignore Darik, going back to brushing the horse.

[Darik]

Bob was an odd fellow. He made jokes that even the most intelligent scholars wouldn’t get. Meaning, he made jokes that had no grain of sense. Come on, he expected wittier responses from a guy like Bob. Well not really, he was only in the stable to do all the jobs other grooms didn’t want to do. Yet he seemed to be copying Darik. Should Darik intently sabotage Bob? Na, that’s for another day. For now he needed to finish brushing the stupid horse. Ahh a curry comb. It didn’t even look like a comb! Whoever had named it a comb must have been drunk. The design of the comb was actually very clever despite the stupid name. It had a circular wooden shaft that was surprisingly devoid of splinters. Darik held it in his hand because the other part would screw up his hand. The other part was some type of metal, iron perhaps. Darik didn’t really know because he wasn’t knowledgeable in the art of metals. The thing he was knowledgeable in, was how things work. Out of the comb’s shaft came two metal triangles. The closet part of the triangle connected with the top slash. The farthest away metal shaft went through all three slashes. While the bottom on the triangle connected barely with the bottom of the last slash and connected with the shaft. So I bet you wonder what the things called slashes are. They are thin slices of metal that slightly tip down. They are all connected by the triangle’s metal rods. Also on the very side of the slash there’s another metal piece that goes up and down that secures them. It seems pointless at first glance because it looks like the triangle secures the comb, but in reality the triangle actually makes the metal tilt down. The up and down base holds everything together. At the end of the slashes are these indent’s that form many little teeth. Those were obviously used to groom the horse. That’s why Darik didn’t hold his hand there, those things could easily draw blood! Because of the nature of the comb it probably couldn’t be used against sensate areas. Probably over the parts that look the meatiest. Darik first tried it on the hide. He did very fast short movements. It seemed to work, dirt started to slowly peel away from the horses long hair. Once he was done with the hide he had to decide to do another part. The problem was he didn’t know which parts were tough and which parts weren’t. Maybe the belly part, that looks pretty bulky. He tried it there too, it seemed fine. Once he was done with one side, he slowly went to the other side. Not in the back of the horse, he had learned his lesson. He went through the horse front, keeping eye contact with it so it wouldn’t get spooked. “So will you answer my question now that we know each others names? How much money do you make, friend?” It’s very very very very important!

[Bob Barton]

Still not knowing whats going with the horse, Bob continued imitating Darik. On a new horse anyway Since whatever Darik would be doing after finding out his mistakes would be a new series of actions to begin with. So like the boy, Bob put aside his brush and took a comb on his way to another stall with a new horse. Again before he started he walked slowly to the horse like its the most normal thing in the world so he won't risk spooking it and spoke very softly so only it can hear. "If you want to hurt someone, hurt Darik. Not me." Trying to convince the horse that Bob was only doing whats best for it in line with his job.

Watching Darik studying the comb Bob did the same trying to figure out what the boy was thinking. Anyone could see that you were not supposed to hold the metal part so like Darik, Bob held on to the wooden part. "Mannn, these pointy bits look sharp..." Bob said to himself while he was looking at the metal rods like Darik.

Now with a rough idea on how it works and still watching Darik, Bob begun on his horse. He also went to the hide part and got to work. Combing in short bursts to flick the dirt off the horse. Oh wait...Bob was supposed to comb the belly too? That didn't look right. If someone tried to rub his own belly or whatever, Bob would have given that sucker a little punch to put him in his place. But since Darik did not get wailed on by the horse again, the boy was probably doing it correctly and Bob continued. Combing the belly area round and round in a circle to get the dirt out.

Again with the money question. Whats so interesting about that? Bob didn't care about it anyway. So to throw Darik off, he said "Well Darik, aren't questions like this only answered by friends who know each other very well? We are in Sunberth. I am afraid that once I tell you, you might mug me in some alley later." Well that could happen, but probably by someone bigger and stronger than Darik.