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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 13:31:30 GMT -6
It wasn't often that Briar had a chance these days to take on odd jobs outside his current 'employment' at Gracehaven. Early on, when he had first taken up the job, he'd had more time -- and more freedom. Neither was true anymore. But things had been quieter now for some time, so he finally found an opportunity to make his way to the job board again. He wasn't sure how much he would be able to accomplish in the space of a day, but any time spent away from the confines of the estate helped set his mind at ease. Even his occasional trips into the city on errands for Noa were starting to become more enjoyable than not, simply by virtue of giving him a change of pace. He had elected to ride the Galabex. It was an innocuous way to travel in this city, where creature transport was the norm. 1
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 13:35:59 GMT -6
It would certainly have attracted less attention than Briar flying under his own power, either with magic or with his wings. Not that he would have done either of those things, but walking here would have been slower, and now that time was a more precious resource than it had been in the past, the speed offered by a mount was more valuable.
Besides, he needed to... Was 'socialize' the right word for this? The Galabex didn't have a particularly high-strung nature for a Galabex, but she was still a prey animal and wary of strangers and new situations. In a sense, Briar understood where she was coming from. Actually, if anything, he understood it too well. His first instinct was also to avoid anything that seemed dangerous, which made it all the more ironic that he had ended up in his current situation, working for a man that he hated.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 13:40:39 GMT -6
But that didn't mean she could stay like this if he needed to work with her for anything more than a little light riding, especially if he wasn't the one making the decisions about what they would be doing. The best use of his time with her now would be to desensitize her slowly and gently while he still had the chance to do so on his terms, so she didn't hurt herself later when they inevitably found themselves in more stressful situations.
That said, with her present, he wasn't about to take on any job that sounded genuinely dangerous. Once they arrived at the job board, he slid from her back and... immediately regretted his decision. The board was made with adult humans in mind, and his own height was rather less than idea for easy reading. From the Galabex's back, he would have been able to reach the postings near the top of the board.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 13:46:03 GMT -6
On his own two feet, however, he was stuck with the ones closer to the bottom, unless he wanted to try hovering while he read. And given the fact that he didn't want to attract any untoward attention, he wasn't about to reveal his wings if he could help it.
But there were still postings within reach. Some of the folk who used the board were Kappers and Fae, who didn't have a great deal of height themselves. And sometimes children posted jobs here too, though the kind of compensation someone could expect from that kind of job varied even more wildly than the job board usual.
Perusing what was available took some time. Briar wasn't a fast reader, having only picked up the skill later in life. Printed books were also easier to decipher than handwriting, and the scrawl used for some of the postings were very messy indeed.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 14:01:23 GMT -6
In fact, in the time that it took him to muddle his way through three or four job postings, someone else came along and skimmed the board before picking out a job and leaving. It had been posted higher up, so Briar wouldn't have gotten to it anyway, but he envied the stranger their ability to just read in seconds what took him ages to process.
Eventually, reading started to give him a headache and he had to stop. Of the few jobs he'd managed to look through before he got to that point, one had involved fighting, and some of the others seemed like they would involve a lot of talking to people. The latter wasn't technically impossible for him, but not everyone knew sign language, and he wasn't good at talking even with those who did. If he could find something else to do, he'd rather go with that instead.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 14:09:14 GMT -6
There had been one job for the herbalist in the shopping district, which had caught his attention... But the posting was sparse on details, and he didn't know what it would involve. He was doubtful as to whether it was a good idea to take it, but in the meantime nothing else he'd read had been better, and he didn't want to waste the whole day here trying to figure out a job to take.
He supposed he might as well try this one. He had been to that shop a handful of times, and the woman who ran it had seemed kind, though there was always room for appearances to deceive. Still, he doubted she could be worse than his current employer.
He took the job from the board, then got back onto the Galabex's back. This time of day, the shopkeeper ought to still be at her shop, right?
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 15:11:35 GMT -6
Finding their way there wasn't difficult. It was just past the busiest time of the morning, and the streets, while not empty, weren't crowded either. No one paid Briar any mind as he rode through, and before too long they arrived at the Herbologist's Delight.
The woman at the counter greeted him warmly, though the pleasantries felt a bit awkward for Briar. When he was buying, he generally got what he came for and left as quickly as he could. But if she recognized him, she mercifully didn't mention it.
He showed her the job posting, and she took him out to the back, talking about Nyssa all the while. The Galabex followed, but the herbologist didn't seem to mind. She could probably tell that the Galabex was trained, and at any rate, the Galabex had better manners than to immediately make for someone's prized roses with the hopes of taking a bite.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 19:14:49 GMT -6
As she explained what she needed him to do, however, Briar frowned. Looking for an 'imposter' among her Nyssa saplings... Maybe this wasn't going to be as harmless a job as he had thought. He had honestly been hoping for something... well, not easy necessarily, but relatively non-dangerous and low stakes. Work wasn't supposed to be relaxing, and he knew that, but even so--
"Oh, I'm not asking you to exterminate anything, dearie," the woman said. Briar blinked, then flushed slightly at having been so easily seen through. She smiled comfortingly at him. "I just need you to find these little ones. My eyes aren't quite what they used to be, you know how it is."
Briar nodded, unable to come up with anything more to say. Mostly he was relieved. He was still looking forward to the part where she left him to do the job, but her words had set his mind a little more at ease.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 19:22:43 GMT -6
-What do you want to do with them?- Briar signed. Surely she wasn't just asking him to ascertain that they were there. It was clear that she was already aware of their presence.
The old woman looked thoughtful for a moment. "If you can catch them, that would be best. I have a pen set up for them over here." She showed him to a part of the garden where a temporary pen had, indeed, been set up. "But if that's too hard, just putting this around their necks is fine. At least then I'll be able to tell which is which." Hanging from one of the pen posts was a collection of ribboned collars.
Right. Okay, he could handle that. Maybe he could even get the Galabex to help... somehow... Though as he thought about it, he changed his mind. That would probably be more trouble than it was worth.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 20:43:10 GMT -6
Her purpose there began and ended at being his ride, but that was fine. Other people might have trained their creatures to be this or that, but Briar was content with her simply being a riding animal. If he had his way, she might not even be that. It would have been nice just to have her around, even if she wasn't useful.
After making sure he had everything he needed, the shopkeeper went back to minding her storefront. Briar looked out at the garden before him, and tried to figure out a plan of action. He also tried not to dwell on the garden itself. It was a very nice place, with a layout that was at once cozy and functional, a far cry from the large and formal garden that he currently tended. He couldn't reasonably compare them; he didn't design the one he worked on, for one.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 23:07:58 GMT -6
And for that matter, obviously he wasn't going to be as experienced as someone who had done the work for longer than he had. If he had the time, he might have examined the setup more closely to see if there was anything he could emulate, but that wasn't what he was here for.
Briar approached the Nyssa saplings. He was actually a little uncertain as to how to deal with them. He hadn't ever raised Nyssas himself, and the idea of ambulatory trees that responded the way an animal did... It felt a bit hard to wrap his mind around. But they were slow moving, as far as he could tell, and they didn't look particularly startled or wary of his presence. They must have been used to having people around, raised as they were by the hand of an attentive keeper. It was kind of touching to see.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 23:18:21 GMT -6
He didn't notice anything immediately unusual about them though. He was looking, but they all looked fine to him... Maybe this was where his inexperience with Nyssa would prove to be his undoing. He reminded himself to be patient, and not to give up at the first sign of something going wrong, but the longer he examined them, the less sure he was about anything.
He was just about to bring the Galabex closer after all, to see if anything unnerved her about this lot -- her senses being more acute than his own -- when a movement at the periphery of his vision caught his attention. At first glance, it wasn't anything remarkable, just rustling leaves among several sapling creatures who all had leaves. But then he saw it again, and something about the way the creature moved didn't seem quite right. Frowning, he moved closer -- or at least he tried to, anyway.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 23:20:47 GMT -6
Perhaps the creature had sensed that he had zeroed in on it. The next thing he knew, something dashed out of the little throng of Nyssas and made for a different part of the garden. Cursing in his thoughts, Briar sprinted after it. Whatever it was, it probably really wasn't a Nyssa, if only by virtue of how fast it was going. But he hadn't spotted it any sooner than this, so from a distance, it had apparently blended right in.
That gave him a better idea of what he was looking for, so it didn't take him as long to find it as he had feared. Once he cornered the creature, he was surprised to find a... What were these? He hadn't seen one up close before, though he remembered seeing a few in passing around town at some point. Not very many; they must not have been a popular species to keep.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 23:23:20 GMT -6
Perhaps his pride as a gardener ought to be more wounded that he wasn't familiar with a lot of plant-based creatures in the city, but right now he was more preoccupied with the challenge of wrangling this... not-Nyssa. It was colored very similarly, and the skin of its body even resembled bark, but the shape of its overall frame wasn't the same. Having lost its chance to escape, the creature hissed at him. This wasn't necessarily an empty threat, but Briar was counting on the idea that it didn't want to fight him either. He waited for the right moment, and as soon as he saw its attention lapse even a bit, he sprang.
It was tough work, wrangling this thing. He was fast, but he wasn't very strong, and he didn't have a lot of weight he could bring to bear either. But somehow he managed, if only by virtue of tiring it out.
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Post by Briar on Aug 11, 2023 23:25:46 GMT -6
After that, it was another struggle to get it to the pen that the shopkeeper had set up. In the end, he had to use a bit of magic to lift it into the pen, since he had neglected to ask where and how to open the thing.
From there, he found a few more of them, though this time he opted to just collar them with ribbons most of the time. It was easier, and he didn't really have it in him to wrestle them all.
Eventually, he had to stop. It was almost past time for him to be back at the estate, and the Galabex had also grown restless. He wasn't confident that he had found all the not-Nyssa creatures, but it was the best he could do, and it had to be better than nothing, right? If he had another chance though, maybe he would come here again.
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