DaevaKavala nodded.
“There are far more striders than there are Drykas. And yes, it is not a myth, it is the truth. Striders are the ancestors of the Drykas come back to be with their family. But sometimes they get the timing off or they come back to meet other family who isn’t aware they are family. People don’t always come back as horses. They come back as other people, other races, other cultures. You can buy unbonded Striders too. Not ever strider bonds with a rider and not every person who rides a strider is a Drykas.” Kavala said, smiling slightly.
“They just have one hell of a gait across the Cyphrus plains.” She said, knowing Daeva would understand if she ever rode the horse she was riding out on the grasslands. Very few non-Drykas ever got the privilege of doing so.
“And I sell them because my people know I won’t sell them to people who will treat them badly. They’ll go only to the best of homes.” She added.
Daeva’s skill list as somewhat … limited to what she’d need to handle things at Sanctuary. It’d be great to have someone with magic around and the ability to fight with Suvai, and the fact that she was willing to learn a new skill or two to stay meant a great deal. Kavala nodded.
“I can offer you a job as a groom and groundskeeper. You really need no skill for that. But if you are interested in learning medicine or herbalism or even animal husbandry, we have lots of projects ongoing to give you opportunity to do so. We’re trying to breed a city specific breed of hrose for the Akalaks and we have plans for a small kennel as well if you’d like to help with that. We’re not set on the dog breeds we’ll offer though. I think it will just be one or types, nothing elaborate. I have a fine Silkena male, so I might pick up some females for him and breed those. Does anything like that sound interesting? Until you cain some skill, I can’t pay you more than three gold a day. Grooms usually start out at one and simply clean stalls, but if your doing groundskeeping work as well, then it merits the higher rate. The rate can go up as your interests diversify and your skillset grows.” Kavala added, then clucked at the mare Daeva was riding so she broke into a light trot.
“How do you like her so far? Shall I fetch the other one?” Kavala asked.
Mizuriel
“It’s nice to meet you all. Especially a healer. I’m in need of a few assistants. We’re getting too big for just me. And foaling is coming up in the spring, with almost two dozen mares about to drop foals, we’ll be incredibly busy. I’ll actually need two or three assistants. Its best if you can do double duty though. I pay seven gold mizas a day and if you want housing here, I’ll cut that down to 5 and waive board for you, your daughter and your pony and provide all the food for everyone.” She said, knowing that the gardens of Sanctuary and the market trips could handle the extra mouths.
“Your daughter can even start learning skills here if she likes.” Kavala said, smiling.
“I’m thinking of adding a second story on the guest quarters we have now, so if you help build them like we did for adding the mews on top of Raiha’s quarters, you’ll be guaranteed privacy before the end of spring.” She said then looked thoughtful.
“I require five days work straight, then give you two days of free time. Then you work five more days straight. On your free days you can do whatever you’d like, but if you have chores assigned like feeding animals, then you need to make sure someone is doing them for you. If you take someone’s duties for their free days, they will in turn take your duties for your free days so the days are totally free. Otherwise, the animals still need to eat, still need worked, herbs still need collected, etc. How does all of that sound?” Kavala asked.
RikiA number of people greeted Riki, though he suspected it might be a groom that actually pointed him to a Konti that was in the later stages of pregnancy and struggling to carry to buckets of water. She looked stubborn about it, and though he could tell several other people in the stable yard were watching her closely, none moved to take the buckets from her. There was probably a good reason for it too.
Kavala nodded to him as he walked up and set the buckets down, glad to be rid of them for a moment and regretting volunteering to take Mizuriel’s watering duties so he could spend the day with Samantha on a picnic at the beach since for once it wasn’t raining.
“Hi there. I’m Kavala. It’s nice to see another healer. What can I help you with?” She said, even as a blond silkena wandered up and touched noses with Riki’s dog. The male dog was friendly but a bit pushy. He looked about a year old, much like Riki’s dog, and seemed to be interested in inviting the female to play. He growled slightly, wagged his tail, and bounced on his front legs, as if inviting her for a wrestle.
Kavala smiled, soothed by the other healers’ gnosis mark and his dog who seemed friendly as well.
“We’ve not got a kennels here, but it was one of the projects for this year. That’s a fine girl you have there. What’s her name? The Silkena is Savan which means courage in Pavi. He once tried to eat a Zith who attacked me. He was about four months old at the time.” She said with a smile.
Lakara
Kavala nodded.
“It’s nice to meet you too Lakara. Its always good to see other Konti around. I miss them since my visit to Mura. I do have positions available both working in the stableyard training horses and cleaning, and in the clinic doing healing work. I need to know what you are interested in doing and what your skills are. If you are a healer of Rak’keli then that’d be a bonus because I do need a lot of clinic help. But truthfully, working here, even as a groom you’ll be healing and as a healer you’ll be grooming, if you understand. The work is what it is, and we do whatever needs to be done as it comes up.” Kavala added, then smiled. She could feel Rak’keli’s mark on Lakara though, so there was no question she was either a healer or a person aspiring to be one. But she’d let the girl speak for herself.
“So tell me about yourself, your interests, and a bit about your history. What brings you here?” She said, wanting to know all about Lakara before she hired her.