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[Wikus]

40th-Fall-515

There wasn't any doubt for Wikus - this donkey was going to stick by him until both of them fell dead. Even if the whimsical animal perished for whatever reason, it'd haunt him day and night, perhaps hearing it's brays in the middle of the night, or sniffing it's breath in a soup.

The afternoon would soon arrive, perhaps in time for everyone's lunch to be depleted. Meanwhile, the starved man was bound to drag the insolent donkey around, hoping to find a place to both get rid of him and secure the wagon that the animal was dragging. One could think it was an easy task, but after the experiences he's had so far, he was not so convinced. The donkey demanded quality now, not a simple stall. Perhaps his reasoning was that of 'If not the Sea of Grass, then somewhere similar', and that had proven to be a challenge.

Wikus had entered Riverfall seven nights ago, but he was shy to stick around. Instead, every night, he'd return to the open land and camp there, away from people and the noise, away from rules and traditions to instead provide for his own comfort. But it was a waste of time - the roads were busy, and the usual paranoia he enables whenever in the wilderness didn't allow him to rest nor enjoy the peace of solitude. Furthermore, he had to take on a job somewhere if he wanted to pack provisions for the winter, or perhaps to sustain his lifestyle while staying for the harsh season to pass. After all, the days were already getting colder, and it wouldn't be too long before the snow begins falling.

And that's why he was here, before this somewhat fancy building made for animals. That's the only place he'd expect the donkey to find comfort - at least while he attempted to sell said animal. It costed him only 8 golden pieces, and he wasn't worth anything more despite their mutual loyalty. The grey clouds covered the sky thoroughly, and the ground was colder than usual for the bare feet that bought him closer to the gates. Halting the donkey with a commanding gesture, only a bray came out as an answer from the animal before he obeyed stoically.

The man, whom lacked any useful communication knowledge in Common, had to improvise. Halting just at the edge of entering the massive complex, he'd seek help with a loud, orotund expression.

"Hoy!"

Thankfully, someone would come sooner of later without any more need of vocalization. And perhaps before it started raining as the skies seemed to hint.

[Alea Davenport]

Sometimes, when Alea didn't have a lot to do in the barn, or when she just needed to be above the world for a while, she would help Larik with watch duty. She'd figured out that, if she arranged the bales right in the hayloft, she could stack them into steps, which would get her up to the rafters, from where she could crawl/climb along them until she reached the gable window, which, after a bit of scrambling and not-looking-down, yielded access to the roof.

She sat perched on the end of the barn looking out at the road, so she could spot anyone approaching. Before too long, Larik spotted her, and the eagle kelvic spiraled down from the sky to land on the roof next to her. The sat in companionable silence for a time, keeping watch over the Sanctuary. But then, Larik ruffled his feathers and nudged Alea with his beak.He was peering out toward the road. Alea couldn't see anything, but she trusted Larik's eagle eyes. She went back toward the window, and gulped as she looked over the edge of the roof. She was stuck for a tick on how to get down, but finally faced away from the edge, got down on her stomach, and inched backwards, feeling for the window ledge with her foot.

She got into the rafters, and was nearly back to the hayloft when a loud shout from outside made her lose her footing. She yelped and slid off the beam into a pile of hay. Grumbling, she checked herself for injury, found only bruises, and made her way quickly out into the yard. She looked rather disheveled in her grubby work clothes, and the straw sticking out of her same-colored hair gave her a slightly wild appearance. She was oblivious to all of this of course.

She soon found the source of the shout, a bearded man (not blue) with a cart and animal. "Yes, hello?" she said, slightly out of breath. She absently rubbed her elbow where it had smacked against the beam when she fell, revealing a black half-sun tattoo on the back of her right hand, and a bracelet of pointed teeth encircling her wrist.

[Wikus]

The wait was none, as ruffling inside was certain proof of movement. Of course, nobody came outside for a while, time in which the skies decided to give in and begin dropping a few warnings across the region, being obviously drops of water. Not wishing to cause any kind of problem, or bad impression for that matter, he'd not yet step in as the roof was partially blocking the gentle rain that was slowly gaining intensity. The donkey, of course, brayed in protest before quickly returning to his usual silence as he now focused on the hay that was in sight. He'd eat that.

Almost a second yell came forth from him before he spotted the movement - a teenager whom approached swiftly. The clothing was simple and somewhat shabby for her to impress such demanding man, but her features were becoming somewhat clearer and more appealing as the distance between them decreased. The crown of hay around her head was perhaps a bit exaggerated, surely one of the fashion trends that were perhaps made for those of lesser social status, and couldn't afford anything that wasn't something as cheap as hay. The donkey surely found it appealing as, if not for his owner standing by him, he would have immediately jumped to give it a taste.

Wikus offered a small wave before using his free hand to smack the back of his companion's neck, a clear signal of the irritability gained over time with such a tiresome animal. Looking back at the female, it was now that he realized that crown of hay was actually her hair in the most part, some of said hay being actually there to perhaps adorn it with disaster or, who knew, perhaps to compose the hair with the help of those magic arts he was ignorant and irate about. Lastly, he'd point a thumb over his shoulder towards the wagon, and would accompany the gesture with an intelligible muttering - meaningless, yet added to increase his messy request's charisma.

Once his chaotic social interaction was complete, he'd instead use his free hand to dig into the basket full of flowers that hanged in his right extremity, and after some browsing, he'd pull out a yellow tulip before offering it to the female. Perhaps she could also add it to her hair, as she appears to like those kind of adornments.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea absently scratched her itchy head, dislodging a few strands of hay as she stared, puzzled, at the strange man. He pointed towards the wagon and grumbled something that didn't sound like words. Did he want her to see something in the wagon? She started to move towards it, edging around the donkey to stay out of biting range, but he apparently wasn't finished.

She look dubiously at the flower he held out. Was he here selling flowers? She didn't have much money, and she certainly wasn't going to waste it on something she could pick up off the ground. A thought occurred to her then, and she spoke it aloud, "Er...did you want to stable your donkey here?" She glanced at the flower again and added, "We take payment in mizas, not flowers."

She hoped he actually had money. The only time Kavala made exceptions was if the person did some work in exchange, and Alea was pretty sure she didn't have the authority to negotiate that sort of thing.

[Wikus]

The man kept his gaze fixed upon the female, whom of course kept her distance from both owner and owned, the donkey delivering a huff as the meal on the female's head slowly dispersed on the ground. The rain was gaining intensity, falling upon the camouflage tarp that wrapped the wagon and protected the contents that stood inside from the weather, and the teenager didn't seem to clearly receive his message as, instead, she carried on talking or discussing with ciphered words the man couldn't interpret. Some words came through, yes, as they were common on the mouths of people, but the whole message would never be known by him.

Seeing his golden tulip was rejected, he felt somewhat sorry for the plant that, instead of being returned to the basket like a outcast, it made it's way to the man's beard where it would gently be entrapped by the darkly hued facial hair that would now be it's home until further notice. His shirt, open as usual, was moved aside by the left hand in order to reach for the leather pouch that held his currency, and giving it a little shake for the coins to rumble inside, and therefore proved his capacity to pay. He only wished it didn't have to be much.

Clicking his tongue in order to gain her attention, or an animal's attention for that matter, he hopes he can once again direct her heed back to him, as he once again mumbles something and directs a hand from the wagon, to the donkey, to the interior of the building, hoping she'd understand his silent message.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea ignored the rain. It was only water, and it wasn't hurting anything, so she wasn't terribly bothered by it. In fact, getting rained on was almost like having a bath without going to the trouble of taking her clothes off, and as for getting dry, well, there were always warm dry places somewhere in the Sanctuary. She stared and then shook her head as he put the flower in his beard. She couldn't even begin to guess what the point of that was, except maybe that he enjoyed being dirty...

Alea hoped that the bag he pulled out contained mizas, and not just a bunch of rocks he'd picked up off the side of the road. His refusal to speak plainly had her worried. She glanced up toward the roof, pleading with her eyes for Larik to come down and help her. In response, he stared his fierce eagle stare for a moment before pointedly lifting a wing and preening his feathers. Clearly, Alea was on her own with this.

"Well," she said dubiously, "How long were you planning to stay? For the whole season, or just a few days?" It seemed reasonable enough to assume he wanted to house his donkey, since he had come to the stables after all. "And did you just want a stall, or do you also want him fed and groomed and such?" She didn't want him to be annoyed if she overcharged him because she did not bother to pin down which of the Sanctuary's pricing schemes he fell under. There was nothing more unpleasant to deal with than an annoyed customer.

[Wikus]

Wikus couldn’t help but roll his eyes covertly, given that the female seemed more interested in asking questions rather than saving both of them from the rain. Unlike her, whom probably had more than one change of clothes, he was entirely reliant to the ones he had on him – and the last thing he wished was to move around with smelly rags on top. Her constant questioning didn’t help either – not only he couldn’t understand him, but she couldn’t understand his clear and precise attempts of clear communication throughout gestures. If he didn’t do something, she’d keep nagging him until both of them were nothing but wet mannequins. Finally, he’d raise both of his palms as much as his basket allowed, and would attempt to halt her speech with said gesture.

“Enter!” he’d say, the voice a little raspy for its lack of frequent proper use, yet still orotund and confident in his words. Pointing out at the whole baggage, which were both donkey and wagon, he’d slowly drag his hands across the air, from the exit to the interior of the barn, while staring at the female with wide eyes in case she was not aware of his message. The hands dragged as to signal a flow, and he’d repeat his word once again. The first part of the message consisted of that, of a gestured flow that went from the outside into the barn, which apparently was meant for the donkey and the wagon behind it.

Once again he’d gesture his halt, awaiting the female’s apparently slow assimilation of messages before he began a new gestured phrase.

Clearly pointing at the donkey, he’d now pretend he himself was eating something invisible, as he said the word ‘Meal!’ loud enough to be clearly heard. Afterwards, he’d point the donkey once again. Now, he’d remove his shirt, which was already damp, and would put it over his head, covering himself, as he pointed towards it with a thumb, before yet again pointing at the donkey. The word that accompanied the latter message was clearly not of his domain, his bizarre accent and badly placed lilt perhaps giving her a hard time. ‘Jhauzz’ he’d say, hoping she’d manage to decipher the gist of the whimsical conversation.

Now that it had been delivered, he simply stared at her almost desperate for her mind to brighten and get them all out of the rain.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was becoming increasingly bewildered, and more than a little annoyed with this customer's antics. Instead of answering her questions, like any sane patron would do, she just waved his arms about and said a few nonsense words. Enter? Where exactly did he want her to go? He kept pointing at his cart, maybe he wanted her to "enter" that? Yeah, there was no way that was going to happen. She crossed her arms across her chest and frowned, waiting for the man to start making sense. At least her frustration was being mitigated by the cool cleansing of the rain. She shook her head just to watch the gathered drops fly away.

Next, he was claiming that the donkey was a "meal." Alea glared at him in disgust and consternation and said, "I think you might be confused about what kind of establishment this is. We don't butcher animals here. Or, well, at least not donkeys." She wasn't actually sure about the cattle and chickens and sheep and such. True all those animals had a non-meat-related use, but they were also all good to eat...

....And, now the strange, probably homeless man was getting naked. That wasn't a problem in itself; she hung around kelvics enough to not be terribly perturbed by naked bodies. But his motivations for doing so now were unfathomable. "We don't take shirts as payment either," she said, dubiously. She was beginning to think this man didn't speak Common...

His performance seemed to be finished. Alea wasn't sure exactly what she should do. She was of half a mind to turn him away...but then the crazy man might eat his poor donkey. Even if Alea did not care about that, she knew Kavala would be upset with her if she let an innocent creature become something's dinner. Petch it, Alea thought. If he can't say what he wants like a reasonable person, then I'm charging him full price.

She did some quick calculations in her head. The daily cost for full care was 5 silver mizas, which it was easier to think of as half a gold miza. Today was somewhere around the 40th, so there were about 50 days left in the season. That meant that charging by the day would cost him (half of fifty) 25 mizas. The cost by the season, while cheaper than a full season's worth of the daily cost, was still 35 mizas. So, technically at this late in the season, it was significantly cheaper for him to pay by the day. But she wasn't in this for him. (She wondered, incidentally, how early in the season a person would have to arrive for the seasonal price to be a discount. She wanted to stand there and work it out in her head, but the stranger was still eyeing her with what might be increasing impatience, and she knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate while she was worried about whether she'd have to break his kneecaps and send him packing.)

"It's 35 mizas to stable your donkey here," she said, slowly and deliberately. When that received no obvious response, she glared pointedly at the bag of what might still be rocks. Then she held up both hands, opening and closing both fists three times, then one fist a fourth time. Ten and ten and ten and five. If that didn't work, she was ready to make a grab for the bag itself and just count out what he owed herself. She certainly wasn't going to let her into the barn with the other animals until he was a paying customer.

[Wikus]

How quickly can a man fall into despair when he’s not understood? The answer was being revealed this very instant, as Wikus was about to figuratively start crying. No matter how much he tried, even with the most basic gestures he could imagine, the female before him simply couldn’t make sense for his attempts of communication. Instead, she continued talking and commenting something he, of course, couldn’t understand. Strangely enough, whenever he ended up in civilization he managed to fit in just right, even the simplest commoners being able to eventually pin down the meaning of what he tried to communicate. Riverfall seemed to be distant from all logic, not only by their strange policies towards strangers, but also for their alien interpretation of Wikus’ words. Be it Riverfall, or this woman in particular, the situation was still the same. Wet, uncomfortable, and certainly desperate.

A sigh came through, as it seemed he would indeed ruin his clothes with the rain. He could only stare, blatantly unpleased, towards the female as she was the one to force him to approach the river either tomorrow or the day after, and yet again do so with stealth as to not to be spotted bare naked as he awaited his clothes to dry. Laundry was the worst, especially when you’re forced to do it. And today’s forecast wasn’t any better, as whenever the clothes he wore dried as he wore them, they’d begin to stink – and he’d have to smell them. There was nothing to be done now, as the female surely would misinterpret whatever he attempted. Which meant the donkey would be bound to be under his care, meaning he couldn’t sleep in the city as he’d have to drag the donkey with him, in consequence taking away his time to find a job. The two outcomes were pretty unappealing: homelessness, or an unpleased companion that was to be stabled somewhere he didn’t fancy. Certainly, Wikus had to choose himself over an animal, yet this animal was unique – he was a companion. There may not be communication between them, or any real emotional connection, yet they took care of one another when wandering the wilderness.

But luck finally showed up for the man. The female mentioned Mizas, a word any living creature was bound to know in this world. Eyes filled with hope despite not being able to understand the rest of the message, it was enough to simply hear the word ‘mizas’ for him to immediately reach for the pouch and almost tear it open, as a waterfall of golden coins came out in his vast hand. Having missed the female’s own gestures that explained the price to pay, instead he improvised with his own calculation. The idea consisted of giving her enough coin to secure the donkey for the whole season, enough time to consider his stay over the winter, yet also give her a bonus to not simply butcher his braying company when the coin ended. Not having paid stable fees in his life, the quantity needed to satisfy his demands was a mystery.

As any man would have done, the solution was an easy one this once. Forth came the golden shower, coins stacking in his hand as others fell from the sides into the gravel below. More than half of his pouch ended up spilled outside, unevenly split into the hand and gravel as he certainly cared not for money, but only for the objective that was soon to be accomplished. He also trusted the female to give him his change if there was one, given that her obvious young age wouldn’t have spoiled her honesty. And if it did, it mattered not.

At last, he’d move beside the female to offer the wet handful of mizas, which he obviously hasn’t counted and instead gave away in good will as long as the donkey, and himself of course, were safe from the rain. The coins that fell in the gravel were left there to shine, perhaps to be picked up later by either him or the fortunate traveler that came next.

Having paid his debt, hopefully, he’d snapped his fingers to call the donkey’s attention, and point inside the barn, a direction the donkey meekly obeyed while his master watched the female, whom was to confirm the payment. For a moment he considered pushing her inside the barn to avoid the rain, yet that would certainly affect her counting, and surely would cost him even more gold.

Coins :

48 Golden Mizas in his hand
13 Golden Mizas and 3 Silver Mizas dropped on the ground.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea had never seen anyone but the stupidly rich throw money away like that. She was speechless for a moment, wondering slightly what he expected her to do. Did he want the coins on the ground? Should she put the donkey inside now that payment was imminent? Luckily that last one was answered as it began to move inside of its own accord at a gesture from the man.

A sneaky idea began to enter her mind just then. He clearly did not care greatly about his money. He was unlikely to scrupulously double-check the amount she took. And, now that she thought about it, she had flashed her gesture rather quickly. Who's to say she hadn't help up ten fingers four times? Or five? Heedless of the rain spattering down in ever-heavier droplets, she painstakingly counted coins, taking them from his hand one at a time, and dropping them into her own pockets whenever she reached ten.

When she reached 35, she had already convinced herself to go for more. She didn't even have to tell Kavala about it; it wasn't as if this person was going to run about complaining about the price, so it was decent odds Alea could pocket the extra money and no one would be the wiser. It wasn't that she was greedy...not exactly...but she knew all too well that money was freedom, and sometimes food, and she'd too often had little of either.

The coins in his hand ran out before she reached 50. If she just stopped there, he might get suspicious that the exact number of coins she wanted ended up in his hand, so naturally she had to stoop and pick a few more up from the ground. She decided 55 was a good number, and probably all she could get away with for now. Maybe if he failed to gather the rest of them on his own, she could come back and acquire the rest of them.

The rain was really coming down now, and Alea was soaked through. But despite the cold of the Fall rains, the weight of gold in her pockets made her feel warm inside. She glanced at the man, unsure what she should do next, but after a moment of thought, she realized that their business was concluded. He had paid for stabling for the donkey, and she supposed she had better get to work! Not bothering to say goodbye to the man who wouldn't understand her anyway, she turned her back to him and went inside to see to the donkey. Alea didn't mind being went, but the donkey would probably feel better with a decent grooming.