[Job Thread] Animal Instincts

[Quzon]

31st Day of Spring, 517 AV.
The Pride: 10th Bell

The thunder clouds rolled over head with a cackling rush of light, illuminating the muted dull gray hue of the sunlight hidden behind the storm clouds. Quzon strode atop his obsidian colored Seme stallion named Zokoztli. They both absently strode along the outer edges of The Pride, keeping an eyes out for any trouble or frightened animals as the storm waged on above them. He jostled lightly where he sat on Zoko's back, letting his legs nestle gently against the stallions sides. He sat as upright as he could, trying to keep a stable position as his fingers firmly grasped at the handlebars of the Yvas.

Quzon did not mind the rain, he kept himself relatively warm by wearing his hunter's armor. The cured bear pelt offering him some manner of heat, aided by the fact he wrapping himself in his black tilmatli styled cloak to avoid the rain. To keep from frightening the animals, he wore the cloaks hood as a cover over the bears head on his head that kept his him dry. As he rode forward, he is emerald eyes set on his own personal wagon that he had parked at the edge of the Pride, using it as a makeshift headquarters for himself and other animal handlers to escape the rain if they wanted to take a break.

Tchick, tchick! Tchick... He called out to his horse by clicking his teeth. Then shifted his weight to the left, only using his left heel to pat against the stallions side to cause it to walk to the left slightly while still moving forward. Another animal handler on duty with him was riding in his direction, and they both turned to avoid each other as they passed by. He gave the Drykas Woman on the horse passing by a head nod, then received the gesture right back as they continued on their way.

Quzon gave another nod to a Male Drykas who appeared to be in the process of trying to lift one of his barbells with heavy weights on either end. "Working?" He said curiously from some distance away. "Just taking a break and enjoying the rain." The main said in common while lowering the weights, then flashed him a random hand sign. Quzon did not understand Pavi, so almost always ignored the hand gestures that the horsemen used as they spoke.

A smirk crossed his lips as his horse walked past them, only turning his head to call over his shoulder. "Use legs, not back. Tight grip, rain make fingers... weak." Quzon knew the world 'slippery' in Myrian and Isur, but couldn't quite find the word to say in common. "Weights go missing... I burn you alive." He added as Zokoztli meandered over towards the heard, his voice did not waver at all since it was no threat, but a real promise. If his most prized possessions went missing, then he would burn Endrykas to the ground to find them. The man lifting the weights glanced back down at them, then carefully started to put them back into the Myrian's wagon after preforming a set of barbell curls.

[Quzon]

"I used to love berries for breakfast." It was a random thought that fluttered across the forefront of his mind. It was a random thought that he spoke aloud in his native language of Myrian. He lifted one of his hands to massage a palm lightly down the side of Zokoztli neck while horse started to walk through a small collective of bleating goats, snorting alpacas, and an endless confused cacophony of hoofed creatures trying to get out of the horses way. From the Myrian's vantage point from atop the tall Seme, he let his gaze drift across a sea of woolly backs in an effort to spot anything out of the ordinary.

"I miss it. But on the plus side, I've been eating a lot of eggs to help sustain my body since I started a new daily weightlifting regiment." Quzon always had a tendency to speak to himself when he was alone. But now that he had a mount, he spoke to the beast while enjoying the one sided conversation. "I should purchase livestock. A chicken; maybe three chickens, a cow for milk, and a hunting cat. I don't need one, but I like them more than horses." A smirk pulled at his lips as he pulled down both his hood and bears head helmet to allow the rain to soak his head.

""Does that truth annoy you, Zokoztli?" Quzon spoke as he leaned back, shifting his weight while pulling at the handlebars on the yvas to slow the horses walk into a slow meandering. Zokoztli finally stopped in its tracks once Quzon pressed his calves against its sides.

"Where are you going?" He thought to himself as he saw approximately five alpacas cross in front of his horse, traveling in a direction that would take them out into the Sea of Grass. Click-click He clicked his teeth loud enough to get one of the beasts attention. He stared it down for a brief tick before it returned to walk away with the others.

Quzon was not worried about them as they appeared to be casually taking a stroll in the rain. But as the ventured further and further closer towards the taller grasses that the herd had yet to feast on, he leaned to one side to turn his horse to follow after them. Tchick, tchick! The horse responded to the sounds by stomping its feet a few times before turning. He leaned slightly forwards and tapped his heels again to spur the creature to walk forward.

Quzon expected them to leave the area, but was surprised to see them all stop at the edge of the tall grass. And even more surprising was the smell that assaulted his nose even more so than the smell of rain. There was a vast pile of dung littering the ground where the alpacas started to loiter around. Then one by one, each of them started to defecate. They caused the smell in the air to grow more fowl, but Quzon appreciated the fact that the alpacas appeared to be very neat animals by all going in the same area, rather than all over The Pride.

With one smooth swing of his leg, he dismounted the Seme with a heavy thud once his boots hit the ground. Quzon walked over to the freshly made piles of dung and took careful note of which animals were the original creators of each pile. He started to examine each one with careful consideration.

There were many things that an animal caretaker could learn from the waste of any beast. That was why he used the hunting knife that was sheathed on his belt to prod at them. He used the tip of the knife to look for the presence of blood, mucus, or intact worms within the pile. It was a slow process that he took the time to preform on each fresh pile before the rain washed them away, only stopping if he found an odd piece of debris within some hard stool. He pressed the tip of the knife against them only to realize that one of the alpacas had eaten several rocks.

"Why? Why do you feel the need eat rocks when there is so much grass around? Stop it!" He said in slight annoyance while looking at one of the rain soaked fluffy beasts.

[Quzon]

When Quzon stood up to go pet one of the alpacas, the Myrian's fingers lingered on the alpacas skin for a long moment, seemingly disturbed by what he felt under its woolly fur. He ran his fingers along a series of bumps along its back and its breast. The more he rubbed, the more the bumps started to get rub off like white scabs in small fur-less patches. Then, as he went on, the inevitable confusion came, the lack of understanding that came with an unknown illness.

He wiped his hands free of the scabs, then moved to check the other alpacas to see if they had the same symptoms. He found the same thing on a few more, but only on the fur of their underbellies. Quzon made a sharp, sudden, and loud whistle that echoed out over the sound of the rain to gain the small group of alpacas attention.

He raised his hands in the air as he started to walk next to them, trying to corral them to The Pride's main pavilion to be looked over by other handlers. "Ah, No. This way." He waved his hands by the side of an alpaca's head to turn its attention back towards where he wanted it to go. When they all started to move in the general direction, he quickly went to his horses and pulled himself onto the seme's back by using the Yvas's handlebars. He clicked his heels against Zokoztli's sides while leaning forward to guide his seme to walk behind the grouping of alpacas.

"Yah!"

He yelled out in a soft but sudden matter-of-fact tone, using the yell to keep the creatures moving forward. He shifted his weight to one side while pulling the handlebars as a gesture for the horse to move along side the group, to tighten the grouping so they didn't wander off. Then pulled back on the handlebars as he squeezed his calves against the horses sides to slow it down and returned to his previous position behind them.

It took him several chimes to get them to The Pride's pavilion. Quzon dismounted from his horse and went to go find a member of the Grassmane. Within the confides of the tent, he found one of the operators of the Pride, Kyla Grassmane. He trudged his stocky frame over to her like a marching soldier then stood tall with perfect posture right in front of her.

"Yes?" The woman said in slow common. She'd grown used to the fact that Quzon was not the easiest person to speak too since he spoke hardly any common. "Kyla of Grassmane. I found sickness on alpacas. Come, I show you." The woman gave him a nod then followed Quzon back out into the rain where he'd left them.

"Here, here, here, and here." He slowly started to run his hand along their soaked fur to point out the accumulation of white scabbing on each of the alpacas. . "Oh, that's not good. But it doesn't look that bad either..." The woman said as she started to take a closer look at each of the animals. "What is happen?" Quzon spoke while petting a hand down the neck of one of the alpaca that Kyla started to explain what the scabbing meant.

"They have 'Rain rot'.

Since Morwen abandoned her duties, the past winter felt more like an early spring. And now that spring is actually here, the animals have been exposed to far more rain in the past two season than normally seen in a year. The prolonged wetting has made their skin too soft and small infections have set in... this is not a common aliment for alpaca. We usually only see this on horses."