Solo Rearing Up

[Cin-Cin]

TimeStamp: Fall Day 45, 512 Walking through the halls, Cin-Cin thought back to her meeting with the Stablemaster. Hansi was as strict as ever, he wanted the stalls cleaned. Of course Kami just nodded her tiny little head in agreement. Cin was fuming. Hansi barely ever set foot in the stables, let alone took personal care of each horse. All Kami did was prance around like she owned the place and tried to order Cin around like these were her horses. Just because good ol’ Kami healed the darn animals when they were hurt and taught riding with the horses, didn’t mean they were hers. Then Hansi, well he just tickled her pickle, didn’t he? When was the last time Hansi brushed a horse, let alone fed one? Mr. Nadar may be the highest ranker in the stables, but Kami was on the same level as Cin. Only Nadar could boss her around, but he barely did that anyway. Kami couldn’t even order around the groomers. She could boss the Deks, but that’s because they’re Deks, any one can. The groomers though, looked up to Cin for orders. Cin-Cin walked swiftly through the stall hallways, mumbling to herself, her hands in fists and her face red. Did Hansi really think she could get all the stalls cleaned in one season? Was he joking? There were over fifty stalls that need cleaning, only two Deks to do it. Plus those same Deks had to feed the horses daily and clean their stalls daily as well. Once empty, inhabitable stalls took at least day to clean. Doing the math it would take two Deks about a season and a half to two seasons to get all the stalls pristine. Cin could just punch something. Gods, it was loud in here wasn’t it? Cin could only just hear herself think. Breaking out of her rage she looked around. The horses were whining all over the place. What was their problem? They must be having a bad day too. Looking outside Cin say that the day was almost ending, another few bells here and she would get to go home for the night. The horses would calm down and go to sleep with full bellies and clean stalls and brushed fur and… wait. Sniffing, Cin became confused. It smelled like a bunch of crap. Cin had been in that meeting almost all day and wasn’t able to check on the Deks work. What was going on? The horses were freaking out, the place smelled like shit. Petch, Hansi Nadar was going to kill her. Investigating, Cin-Cin held her nose to her collar and walked over, cautiously, to a nearby stall. Holding her hand up to calm the poor mare, she stuck her head in and encircled the room with her eyes. What she saw almost made her faint. Quickly she ran over to the next stall, looked in and cried out. The next, the next, all the same. Petch, petch, petch, petch! She needed to find Vart and Warv. There was going to be hell to pay. Muttering calming ‘shhh’s to the horses as she ran past them she headed for the Hay Hall. This was the hall that held all hay and other food for the horses. Vart, Warv and Turka like to hang out and rest there when they are on their breaks. The hay provides soft chairs. Based on the condition of the stalls Cin knew that’s where they would be, but she almost hoped they were dead. Being dead would be the only excuse for what she witnessed today. She stormed down the halls, even angrier than she had been coming out of the meeting. Her nails were digging holes into her palm from clenching her fists so hard. And she was sure her head was about to blow, she could count her pulse just by her forehead bouncing from her pulsating veins. Cin was imagining different ways to punish the two Deks, flinging them off the Edge of the World, or letting them loose in the Underground Forest would suit them well. What about Turka? She knew that whenever Cin was away Turka was in charge of those two idiots. She was the brain of the triplets and for Gods sake, what happened to her doing her job!? What happened to everyone doing their job?! She was almost at the Hay Hall, heads were going to fly. Looking up, she noticed a scurrying Toffin. No doubt he had noticed her mood and tried to hide. This just made her a bit angrier. Shouldn’t he have gone home by now? Groomers only work half the day, unless called in for special events. The wary groomer looked up and caught eyes with the boss who called him over. He quickly scurried over, silent and head bowed. “Toffin,” Cin began slowly and softly, “Where are the triplets?” “In the Hay Hall, Ma’am” He replied quietly. “And why, may I ask, did you not inform me of their ‘rest’?” She asked. “You were in a meeting, Ma’am.” “Then why did you not do something about their laziness?!” Cin yelled. “Ma’am, I tried, they won’t listen. Tarka keeps whispering and Vart and Warv keep not talking and they won’t do nothing Cin! They won’t listen to no one but Tarka! I’m sorry Cin-Cin.” Toffin quickly explained. “Come with me.” She ordered. Pushing Toffin aside Cin continued walking down the hall until she reached large wooden doors, the entrance to the Hay Hall. Pushing one in, she opened the door and strolled in, her feet pounding on the heavy stone floors, her steps echoing off the stone walls. Toffins quick steps were silent behind her. Cin-Cin was not a scary Inarta. On the contrary, she was very quiet and kind. She never gets mad or sad, Always happy, always soft. But these Deks caught her on a bad day. Kami had offended her work ethic and skill and Hansi just made it worse by angering her on the impossible task she was ordered to do. Not even begun to calm down she had discovered the treachery the Deks had committed and that just put her into a spiral of red. Poor Toffin had smashed right into her rage and now was being dragged along; lucky Avik had probably gone home and was safe from this. Finally Cin and Toffin reached the triplets hay-built den. It was a small circle of tall hay walls and a few makeshift hay chairs that the Deks used and a makeshift bed as well, for Tarka when her legs were hurting. Sure enough there they all were. Tarka was sitting in the middle, and Vart and Warv had their heads bowed in her direction, listening to tiny whispers Tarka was muttering. As soon as Cin and Toffin walked in Vart and Warv stood up, flanking each side of Tarka, who just looked up at them. The men were big, but stupid. Cin knew that she could take them. It was whatever Tarka was preaching that worried Cin-Cin. Unafriad, for she was the boss, Cin walked up to Warv, Tarka’s fraternal twin, and pulled on his shirt, forcing him to stoop down to her height. Getting right in his face, Cin spoke. “Why have the horse’s stalls not been cleaned?” Cin began. Warv did not answer, Tarka smiled. “Why have the horses not been fed?” She asked angrily. Same response. “And for the Gods sake, why are you sitting here, doing nothing!” She screamed in Warv’s face. Warv flinched back and Tarka put a hand on his leg. “We do not need to be ordered around by our own kind.” Tarka replied calmy. Cin-Cin let go of Warv’s shirt and turned to Tarka. “Who do you think you are Tarka? Do you think you are the boss here? Have you forgotten your job? Have you forgotten your place? Because to me, it seems you have, and it seems you have betrayed my trust. Are you turning my own workers against me Tarka? Are you trying to set an example? I am going to tell you something. Your mother was a Dek, your father was a Dek. You are a Dek! Learn your place dear and get the petch back to work!” Cin inhaled deeply, her face red and hot. Turning away from Tarka, Cin set her eyes on Vart, the emotionally weaker of the two men. Grabbing his shirt she pulled him and pushed him over to Toffin. “I expect you to go out to those poor horses and clean their stalls. You will not be leaving, sleeping, eating or resting until done so.” Then she returned to Warv, the bigger of the two, “And you will take these bags of grain and oats and you will go feed the horses. And you will do it now. The same applies to you as it does Vart.” Now all that was left was Tarka. Toffin had successfully led the men away, they had small minds, obeyed the closest person to them, had no choice of their own. It was easy to break them away from Tarka. Facing the disabled girl Cin frowned. “I don’t know what you are doing, but turning those men away from their duty only hurts the horses. I assume they have not been out to the pasture today? No, I guess not. It may have been an easy day for you, sitting on this hay all day, but those horses are dying. They are hungry and dirty and it’s your fault. If I see anything like this again, Tarka, I will personally see to it that Warv, nor anyone else picks you up again. You will be crawling around on your hands until they bleed. This business is not to be trifled with.” With that Cin-Cin turned around and walked away. She left Takra with that threat. She could make it happen and she knew that Takra valued Warv to carry her around. The threat was legit and it would put her back into her place. Cin now had to stay late though, to survey the Deks at work.

[Cin-Cin]

All Cin-Cin wanted to do was go home. Try was probably getting worried that she hadn’t left yet. Soon enough he would get desperate and come inside. He didn’t like closed spaces, and even though the Stables were large, they were still closed in, with a ceiling and no view of the sky. But really, Cin thought that Try should come in sometime, he would probably enough some mice that lived in some of the stalls. Anyway, Cin had to look over her idiot employees until they finished their jobs. The poor horses hadn’t been fed all day, were standing in a pile of poop and had stiff legs from not being let out into the pasture. Leting the horses roam free would have to get passed today. There was no enough time in the day left for them to be watched and monitored and have fun. They would just have to deal with one day without freedom. Unfortunately Cin-Cin would have to help out in the feeding process. Warv would go and retrieve oat bags from the Hay Hall and Cin decided that she would feed them while Vart cleaned out the stalls and Warv got food. Luckily for everyone the horses were watered automatically. Each stall had a small hole above their water trough, this hole was connected to pipes that held warm water and lead it here to the Stables. As the horses drank their water level down, it would get filled up again. And each empty stall’s hole was closed off so water wasn’t wasted. This automatic water system saved everyone a lot of time. The three started off at the first stall. Warv had got a wheelbarrow and loaded it with a few bags of grain. When Toffin escorted the pair out of the Hay Hall, Warv got his grain and Vart got a shovel and another wheelbarrow. He would have to go back for a few more barrows. Varts part would be the hard part, and that’s the only reason Cin-Cin told Toffin to stay. He would need to escort each horse to the Underground Forest while Vart continued cleaning. Poor Toffin. As Cin ripped open a bag of oats and poured the dry food into the horse’s trough, Vart shoveled feces into his first wheelbarrow, thoroughly cleaning out the first stall. Two stalls would fill up one wheelbarrow. Cin-Cin’s work was fast and she quickly traveled through five stalls and emptied one bag by the time Vart cleaned out two. Warv went back to the Hay Hall to get a barrow full of hay. He would need to take several trips back as one barrow full of hay padded only one stall. Once Vart filled one barrow of feces, Toffin hooked up a Mountian Pony to it and started to lead it down the tunnel to the Underground Forest. The Inarta’s there would then unload it to be used for fertilizer. Then they would fill the barrow up with moss for food for the horses. Vart would work on the second wheelbarrow, first used to carry grain bags, and fill that one up by the time Toffin returned. Toffin would put the Pony back in her stall, freshly padded with hay that Warv brought back. Then Cin-Cin, who was very much ahead of everyone, would help unload the moss into each stall, filling about 5 stalls. Toffin would hook up the second Mountain Pony to the second wheelbarrow and repeat his task while Vart repeated his with the first barrow again. Warv would continue to wheel in hay, with a couple of bags of grain here or there to keep Cin supplied. Soon enough Cin-Cin would finish her part and would go and help Warv wheel in hay, putting everyone at an equal pace, with Toffin one or two stalls behind just because his part required two stalls emptied for one trip. With each trip of two stalls waste returning with five stalls of food, which ended up with a numerous amount of extra moss. This moss was kept in the Hay Hall, dried and packed in with the grain bags. The moss supplied important vitamins that were more potent when the lichen dried, while the when fresh, provided protein from small bacteria that lived within the lichen. Luckily with all four of them working as a team they would be able to get it all done, feeding, cleaning and collecting, done by the time Cin would normally leave. Try wouldn’t have to worry after all. But this did leave poor Cin exhausted, and well, pissed. She longed for her soft bed and warmth from her hearth as she placed hay and food. Just to leave the Stables and try and calm down in her home. To be away from these Deks that caused her great frustration. She was so mad at Turka, she couldn’t even think about her without seeing red. She couldn’t even blame Warv or Vart, they were so stupid, so easily manipulated. She just hoped Turka would come back to her sense, she was a great help when she was within her own mind. Truth was, Cin-Cin loved these horses. She thought of them as close friends and couldn’t stand to see them harmed, or forgotten. She felt that Turka, a trusted acquaintance, had betrayed her trust and these horses trust. But of course, after the few years she had been working with Turka she couldn’t just ditch her after once incident. This was the first incident she had ever had with her. Sure, she had problems with Warv and Vart before, but they were mentally challenged if nothing else. Turka mostly kept them in line, Warv being her brother and Vart he brothers best friend, they were easy to take care of. But Cin-Cin had to focus on the horses now. Toffin and Avik seemed to have done their job. Besides standing in crap all day, they seemed clean, brushed, like normal. Cin found it hard to believe that the Deks hadn’t listened to Toffin, although he was quiet… tiny and shy, quiet, unsure. Avik was more hard headed, sometimes had a temper, but he was not as adamant about this job as everyone else was. At least Toffin had stayed and tried to fix the problem, Cin guessed that Avik had ignored it and gone home. He would get yelled at for that tomorrow, but there was really nothing she could do about that. Technically it wasn’t his job. Just brushing and cleaning the horses was. It was easy to see that the horses were upset though. They kept stomping their little hooves, a sign of discomfort, and swishing their heads while making sneezing sounds, a sign of annoyance. They wanted out, they usually got out once a day, every day, whether Cin-Cin was here or not. Today they had to stay in their spacious, but surprisingly small stalls, with absolutely no exercise. Fortunately once day wasn’t nearly enough to go stir crazy, but it was enough to have someone be cautious around them and keep their distance. Toffin was okay with them though, as he had brushed them earlier and they knew he meant no harm. A few bells had passed and the horses were happily munching on crunchy grain and chewy moss. Their bellies were full and their stalls clean and fresh and smelling like hay from their new bedding. They had finally been brushed, fed and cleaned. Now they would go to sleep and be all happy once again tomorrow morning, where Cin would make sure they got out into the pasture. Cin-Cin was exhausted and quietly nodded goodbye to Toffin and the Deks. She had to push Turka to the back of her mind or else she would worry about Warv’s and Vart’s well-being for the rest of the night. Toffin smiled gratefully at her dismissal and scurried away, home probably, exactly where Cin headed. Leaving the Stables, Cin-Cin was met by a friendly squawk from the circling Try. She just smiled up at him and waved her hand, beckoning him to follow her. They gratefully headed home, Try staying unusually quiet, sensing her tiredness. Once home, Cin fell onto her bed, going out in a second, forgetting instantly about the Stables.

[Whimsy]

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Experience Award

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Cin-Cin

Exp
+1 Mathematics
+3 Horsemanship
+3 Leadership

Lores
Work Ethic
Confronting Dek
Horsemanship: The Feeding Process
The Moss: Provides Vitamins

Comments
Wonderful writing, and a very realistic portrayal of the differences between the castes. I hope Turka gets what-for! Please PM me if there are any questions or concerns.