Solo Kidding (Job Thread)

[Akilah Windsong]

80 Spring, 515 AV

There was too much to do, this spring. Too much to do and too little time. Breeding season was open them and there was a short window to get the queens and bucks ready for mating.

Akilah sat on a stool in the middle of the goat pen, surrounded by a group of bored queens.

No, not just bored. Bored like a little kid was bored, constantly wanting something new to do. Unfortunately, chewing on her clothes and hair was the fun, new thing.

"I can't let you out just yet," she told them, her arms headbutting the goats back whenever they tried to nibble her. What did they see her as, she wondered--a bigger queen? Or just another food source?

She wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer to that question. "Okay, which one is next?"

None of the goats answered. It wasn't like she expected an answer anyways and she looked at the ears of the goats nearest to her. She had managed to tag some of them, using the small bowl of coloured powder that her boss had given her. A spot in the ear, a place they were not likely to rub off onto others or mysteriously lose.

"You!" she quickly grabbed the neck of the black goat beside her knee, ignoring its started baa and how it turned in her hands. She had wrestled with cats before. She had wrestled with these very queens before.

She could handle this.

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[Akilah Windsong]

80 Spring, 515 AV

Experience was not her friend.

"Ouch," Akilah yelped, the goat's hooves hitting her knee for the nth time. There would be bruising tomorrow. So much bruising. Maybe she could take the day off.

"Come on, it's not like you even hate this--you're just being difficult," she grumbled, sternly, as she dragged the reluctant goat to the side. "If anything, you are almost happy when I'm doing this."

The goat baa'd piteously and she rolled her eyes as she tied the queen up to the post. "You are so lucky we're not going to eat you."

The halter was tight and she let go of the goat, leaning against it in exhaustion. Just how many did that make today? She couldn't remember the number but it was marked on her in small hoove-shaped bruises.

"You were so much cuter as a kid," Akilah muttered as she set herself down and pulled up the forehooves for inspection. The goat, true to form, was relaxed as she examined each one. No trouble now, of course.

Perhaps this is how her father felt when she was younger and he was trying to get her to bathe.

She apologized silently for the years of trouble. Hopefully the others weren't having as hard a time with the bucks.

Examining the goat's hooves, she pulled out shears as started to trim the excess growth on the hooves. The right hoof looked a little loopsided--how did the goat manage to walk with it like that? Trimming it away, she smiled at the smooth surface after.

And that was a close enough cut for her--she had yet to master this properly and she was too scared to cut any deeper. Grothus would have to do it if he wanted a closer cut.

Dirt was caked on the left hoof and she rubbed it off before continuing the job.

"And of course you don't put up a fight now." She shook her head, she couldn't even pretend to understand these goats, despite having herded them for so many seasons. "Of course not. The next one will do that for you."

Behind her, she could hear bleating--long and loud. Turning around, she stared at the sight in front of her.

A doe trying to climb onto another doe--a third doe ready to fight for the right. "I can't even leave you alone for five minutes."

Quickly, Akilah moved to the goat mass and tried to startle them apart. It worked this time, which was good--she often didn't quite manage to get it done the first try.

Took the third, usually, for the message to sink in. Third and a little fighting, because what were the queens without a little fighting?

Returning to her patient, she quickly finished the hind legs and painted the goat's ear a bright pink.

"There. Get lost now," she said, releasing the goat from the halter.

Another down, another dozen to go through.

Still, it was a encouraging to see so many queens ready for mating. After losing so many of the herd during the storm two years ago, the herd really needed to regrow and expand.

And this summer, hopefully, they would be three quarters of the way back to the herd's original size.
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[Akilah Windsong]

80 Spring, 515 AV

Fortunately, the goats didn't require a clipping yet. Not that she would have been able to do it well, surrounded like this. The goats would have bumped her clippers at the wrong moments, she was sure of it.

As it was, she was almost done them all. The last goat just had to get a brushing and then she was ready. Akilah grabbed the curry, scrubbing roughly on the belly of the doe. She had dirt matted there, dirt and pieces of rock and the hairs were just tangled up in them. Her arm was already tired from all the scrubbing before and there was still this to deal with.

It took a good ten minutes of hard brushing to get rid of them all.

A good ten minutes of ignoring all the bleating behind her. The bucks in the nearby pen let out a few calls, trying to attract a mate. The does responded, eagerly.

And none of them realized it was still a short while before the two pens would be connected. Akilah was surrounded loud cries and they showed no sign of relenting.

And least Grothus was herえ to suffer with her. That thought should have reassured her, but she could barely pay attention to her boss, let alone feel a camaraderie forming.

When she did finally turn back around, after brushing for as long as her arms would let her, she was surprised by what she saw.

The does were almost having a show for the bucks. Wagging their tails excitedly, they marched back in forth in front of the fence. At least, the ones that weren't jumping on one another were moving next to the fence. It was almost like they were performing a show for the bucks.

"Does this always happen?" Akilah asked loudly, knowing Grothus could hear her. He liked to pretend otherwise sometimes, covering an ear, pretending he was going deaf. Anything to wiggle out of answering her questions.

This time though, he couldn't escape so easily.

"A good way to show they're interested," he replied, barely audible over the does' bleating.

"I know that," Akilah responded, rolling her eyes. Nothing new from him, then, aside from stating the obvious.

"Did you finish cleaning them?" he asked, moving the topic back to her, and she sighed.

"Almost."

Though if she had anymore queen troubles, almost could become never.
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[Akilah Windsong]

80 Spring, 515 AV

Somehow, one way or another, she had managed to finish the last goat.

Somehow.

The does hadn't made it any easier. Restless as they were, they kept attacking each other and Akilah whenever they got impatient. And they were always impatient.

She was lucky she didn't have to wash them. While they did that rarely--water was precious, too precious to give livestock for anything other than drinking--they still had to do it once in a while. Just enough to check that there were no infections or strange bugs or anything in the goats. They got messy so often, so quickly, it was easy to forget their original colours sometimes. It was even easier to just want to forgo their weekly brushing.

The goats really didn't like baths, unless with warm water. Warm water was a little hard to arrange out here. The goats hated their baths with a passion and had gotten her most bruises from giving a bath.

Akilah's arm tinged in pain and she massaged it gently.

It seems switching from her right hand to left did nothing. Both her arms were sore now. Very sore and she felt like she was covered in a layer of dirt. Her lungs were coated in it and she wanted to cough out a mud puddle. At least she was done now, for the next good while. Maybe Grothus would delay the next brushing by two weeks. She could hope.

Grothus had finished the bucks long before her and now he came into the doe pen to check her progress. Not that he would ever label it in so many words. At least, so many nice words. Akilah looked at her handiwork--while she was confident about her brushing, the rest...

The rest was certainly not up to standard and she winced softly. Maybe he wouldn't notice. Or pick a good doe.

Fortunately he wasn't checking all the does--there just wasn't enough time before the does were out of heat. A short window, a little more than a day, was all they had.

As it was, the first doe he picked was her worst. "You could have cut deeper," he barked at Akilah, pulling out his own hoof cutters. Trimming away at the hoof, he removed the excess on the sides. The goat tried to pull her hoof way, but he gripped it firmly, refusing to let the goat set the foot down. Grotus trimmed one side, then the other, before finally approaching the center.

Akilah winced softly at how much was cut--how did she miss so much? And how did he know how much to cut? The hoof was a good deal shorter now. And a good deal flater. Her own work had been slightly lopsided and she was thankful he hadn't pointed that out.

Pulling out a small pick, he examined the hoof, poking it for softness. "No rot, good," he muttered and Akilah observed just how hard and where he poked. It seemed the center was his favourite spot to poke. She'd have to practice this later.

Fortunately, checking for hoof rot didn't require a specific time, so anytime is good. Unlike the hoof cutting, which would have to wait till next year. Hoof cutting, which would not improve all that much over the year. Maybe she could look at the other does and see if any of them need a deeper cut and try it on them.

It wasn't long before he was done the goat, his expression getting darker and darker with each hoof he had to cut.

Which was three--out of four. She had somehow, miraculously, managed to cut one of them properly.

"This is not hoof cutting."

Akilah shook her head softly. She knew she was bad at it, but surely a different, better goat could help. She couldn't have failed on all the goats.

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