Solo Imitation game (Job thread)

[Akilah Windsong]

1 Spring, 515 AV

The goats in front of her were covered in mud. Covered in mud and grass and who knows what.

To be fair, Akilah did know what--she had been watching them all day. The pregnant ones were easier to keep out of trouble--as wild as the queens were, they didn't try anything too risky now that they had a heavy belly to contend with.

Most of the time, at least.

The goats in front of her, however, were not queens nor pregnant queens. Instead, they were youngsters, still growing into themselves from winter's kidding. More leg than body, really, though some of the had gotten pretty big by now.

And pretty adventurous too. Akilah had lost count of the number of times she had almost lost the older, more adventurous kids.

The pair near her were old but nervous, and she carefully approached them. Grothous had wanted her to clean them up--sale to a Drykas family planning to leave the city.

Fortunate for them this pair were the tamest of the bunch.

Another step, and the pair froze in front of her. The slightly taller one, a brown tail sticking out unblemished from the much, started to twitch.

"Come on, you know me..." she softly said, reaching out with the halter. Fortunately Grothous had already penned the two--it was bad enough she had to give them a bath before grooming, but imagine catching them as well?

She shivered at the thought.

It was slow, ever so slow--her hand reaching out more by instinct than thought.

Within ten minutes, she had managed to tie pair up to the pen's wooden posts.

Good, the easy part was done.
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[Akilah Windsong]

1 Spring, 515 AV

Unsurprisingly enough, the kids the bath badly. Not that it was much of a bath, water was precious enough as it was out here in the grasslands.

But their fur had to be cleaned a little--she tried to run over the list in her head again. Lice, ticks--what else was she supposed to look for?

The goat butted her again, disrupting her thoughts. "And you, could you stop that?"

It was hard enough to do this without the interruptions. She half suspected Grothous had foisted this on her so he could avoid doing it. Maybe when she was better at this, she could actually tell what parts were annoying and avoid it.

For the moment, though, she had two antsy goats on her hands, neither of them liking the sponge in her hands.

"I only need to clean you enough for seeing," she promised, firmly grabbing the goat's body and forcing it to still. She was lucky, so lucky, that these kids were still young and not yet adults. If they were, she probably couldn't do this.

But they were and she was planning to take advantage of the situation.

She rubbed the dirt off, enough to see the hairs beneath. There were not obvious signs of disease or lice, nothing that hit her straight off.

"Good enough?" she asked herself, staring still at the goat's long hairs. "It's not like I know any better anyways..."

The kid bleated at this and she took that as a sign of agreement. "Ok, good enough."

Quickly, she finished the second one--maybe that goat learned a thing or two from her first sponge bath, and now a quick grooming was all that was needed.

Pulling out a few brushes, shears, and a hoof pick from the bucket next to the pen, she set them out next to a stool near one of the goats. His fur was nearly dry, enough to start, and she pulled up his hooves.

Or tried to. It was the kid's first grooming and clearly he didn't understand what she was trying to do. It made him nervous when she tried to grab his hoof and he tried to pull away as far as he could.

Akilah froze, and backed away slightly. She had forgotten that the kid wasn't used to this and had reacted like she always did when she had to take care of another goat.

And as young as this goat was, his hooves would still hurt if she made him nervous enough to hit her.

In time, he would know what to do, but not right now. While two of his hooves were already loosely tied to the post, his left hooves were not and she eyed the front hoof warily.

Maybe she should do that one first, it's not like he could reach her easily, tied up like that.

Making up her mind, she slowly edged forward and started to reach for hoof again. Only this time, slowly, making sure the kid could see her as she reached for the front hoof.

Securing it, she gently encouraged him to raise it up, to let her see it easily. It didn't take easily, he kept trying to pull it back down, but as she firmly held it up, he gave up after some time.

"Good boy, you got it," she praised him. "Just a little longer."

Quickly, she examined the hoof for rocks, removing any loose dirt as she did so. Did it smell? She wasn't sure--she didn't even know what sort of smell she was looking for beyond manure and dirt and who knows what else.

It was probably okay, Grothous wouldn't have picked them if they had problems.

Now she felt the hoof with her hand, trying to assess how even they felt. She wasn't allowed to cut hooves, not yet. It was a complicated task, one that needed a lot of practice.

But she could at least learn to recognize the need. The hoof didn't feel flat in her hand, the right half a little bigger and she made note of that. Grothous would have to cut it after

Releasing the hoof, she smiled as the kid baaed happily as he set it on the ground. "Good boy, just three more to go."

Or seven, in her case. She could feel the other kid staring at her, and grimaced to herself. This wasn't going to be fun.


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[Akilah Windsong]

1 Spring, 515 AV

The sun was rising higher and higher in the sky, and she was starting to feel a little warm.

It was still a little nippy out, the weather still cool from winter's grip. She was slightly thankful for that. A hot day was nice but not on a day like this when she was surrounded by sweaty animals. At least with the weather like this, she wouldn't have to smell of it all day.

The hooves were all done, with only three of them needing to be cut.

All that was left was a light brushing and clipping and she was safe. The brushing was easy enough, now that the goats were dry. Pulling out a hard brush, she gave firm, quick strokes on the side of the goat.

Dry dirt started to fall off, along with some hairs. The goat wasn't sure if he liked the feeling or not, and he made a nervous grunt as he shifted under her touch.

"Oh please, you should appreciate this," she reprimanded, rolling her eyes. "You'll like it soon enough."

Almost all the adult goats leaned into her touch when she did this. She wasn't sure if she liked that yet, but it was better than this nervousness.

Switching arms when she switched sides, she rolled her right arm slowly. It was tiring, sometimes, doing all this brushing. Especially with the curry brush, and she had to use that when she got to his belly. There was no way the hard brush could handle that.

It took the better part of an hour, but both goats were ready for a short clipping. Their hairs were growing long and with the summer months approaching, they needed a cool coat.

She was about to start cutting the first kid when a voice spoke behind her.

"Grothus?"

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[Akilah Windsong]

1 Spring, 515 AV

Akilah jumped, startled. Fumbling with the scissors in her hand, she dropped them on the ground, narrowly missing her feet.

"Don't do that!" she hissed, calming herself down. Taking deep breaths, she picked up the scissors again and turned to stare at the person who surprised her so much.

It was an older man, in his late 20s. Not Grothus--a customer, then.

A customer.

And she was so rude to him a minute ago.

She flushed, turning a reddish-brown. "Sorry about that! You surprised me and..." Her voice died, she wasn't sure how to finish that sentence.

The customer laughed, rubbing his cheek awkwardly. With his dark hair and dark skin, he could be mistaken for a relative of hers. But his clothing was green, a sign of the emerald clan, and as far as he knew, she had no direct ties to them.

A distant relative, maybe, if there were any connections.

"I tend to do that sometimes--I'm a little too silent." His voice was deep, deeper than she expected, and he gave her a comforting smile. "Don't worry about it."

"Oh, that's a relief," she sighed, relaxing. She returned the smile. "Still, I'm sorry."

"If it makes you feel better, I always thought you were an old man," the client confessed, smiling sheepishly. "It's just the name, Grothus...any reason you picked it?"

Akilah blanched--hadn't the customer already talked to Grothus when he bought the kids? Or maybe someone else bought them for him.

Either way, she quickly corrected him. "I'm not--"

Or at least tried to. For a stealthy, silent man, he sure made a lot of noise as he interacted with the kids.

"These are mine, right?" He tried to examine the nearest goat's teeth, prying open the kid's mouth as much as possible. Staring at the weight teeth, he shook his head. "I really can't tell anything at all."

"I can't either," Akilah admitted. She hadn't been trained there yet. "Still, they're young, healthy kids, you'll be fine."

"That surprises me, I thought you ran this place," he commented offhandedly, releasing the goat.

"I just joined it recently," Akilah replied, before adding, "And I'm not Grothus."

She wasn't sure if the stranger had heard her as he was examining the kids from all sides. The way he smiled at her as he looked at the goats again made her think otherwise.

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[Akilah Windsong]

1 Spring, 515 AV

The man was holding open the black goat's teeth, flinching in surprise at the sight. "Its missing teeth!" he exclaimed, letting go of the mouth entirely and backing up slightly.

Akilah stifled a laugh, Grotus would never let her hear the end of it if she laughed at him. Besides, she had done the same thing when she found out.

Though, her reaction was a little better--she hadn't backed away so much.

"No, it's not that--they just don't have any upper front teeth." Akilah approached the kid and firmly pushed the lips away, revealing a large pink mass on top of a row of teeth. The pink mass was the same as those on her own teeth, she was told, though it was hard to think of them the saw. To be honest, it still creeped her out a little.

"It doesn't stop them from chewing?"

"Nah, they chew with the back teeth and those have both a top and bottom. I guess for some reason they just don't need that for the front. It hasn't really stopped them from eating more than their fill, so I guess they're just fine like that." Akilah let go of the mouth, and the kid butted her hand lightly, annoyed. "Oh, but these two are still young--they're going to lose some of their teeth in the next few months."

The man whistled, surprised. "Just like us? They'll grow it back?"

"Yeah, they'll grow it back, just like us." Akilah nodded, remembering back to when she lost her own teeth. She could barely remember it, just that she liked pushing the loose teeth with her tongue. Her father kept trying to get her to stop doing that, though she never understood why. "It's really weird isn't it?"

He nodded, still standing a small distance from the goat. "I really didn't think their mouth would look like that--I thought it was more like a horse."

"Oh, but you can still tell age like a horse, with the teeth" Akilah added. She didn't know how to do that herself, of course. That was a little advanced for her.

But she already knew the kids age, so she could fake it if asked.

"Huh. That's good. So, Grotus--"

"I'm--" Akilah stopped herself, thinking it over. She had been doing good so far. Really good, in fact. So if she let him think of her as Grotus and was able to help him--wouldn't Grotus think she was getting better? And maybe give her some of the more harder jobs--he still looked like he was holding back sometimes.

And maybe, just maybe, she could impress him. Which was a hard feat, Grotus was rarely impressed, but still.

"What did you want to talk about?" Akilah asked instead, smiling broadly. Yeah, this could work.

"I was hoping to buy an older female goat as well--I know one of these are female, but they aren't able to give milk yet, right? And two females are better than one." Her customer looked at her eagerly and Akilah felt her stomach drop.

She could have handled almost anything else.
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[Akilah Windsong]

1 Spring, 515 AV

"Another female," Akilah repeated slowly.

Another. Female.

"Sure, that...can be arranged." Akilah's smile was strained now, and her mind was running circles trying to find a way out of this. A way out that did not involve revealing her lie.

This was precisely why she never lied in the first place. She wasn't even good at it and it never ended well.

Ok, she could handle this. She knew the queens, she knew which ones were already set aside for breeding later in the season, which ones were to be sold.

There had to be a few left over. Maybe even one that wasn't a queen. But still milkable.

"When do you want this by?"

"Good, I was worried it might not be possible." The man rubbed his hands eagerly, sighing in relief. "Our pavilion is leaving the city in a month, I just came early to check on the goats. And to get any advice on raising them. I've never taken care of goats before."

Akilah almost nodded sympathetically, she had been there herself. Only, he came a month early and now she was in this situation and no, no sympathy from her.

"Well, I can let you know about the extra goat after, then. I need to find which one is free." Akilah nodded her head slightly as she spoke, hoping to get a responsive nod from him.

A stay of execution, at least. Though Grotus was not going to be happy if she said this and he didn't have any goats to spare.

The herd was smaller than usual due to the storm, after all. Not fully recovered in the least.

"That's fine." The man's posture relaxed, clearly relieved, and Akilah felt a pang of guilt. Clearly this was something her customer had worried about for a while and here she was, offering a false relief.

Her fingers clenched tightly, as though she could just suppress the guilt with pain.

"What cost though?"

Akilah's smile dropped, and she hastily returned it to her face. "Price....."

She didn't even know how much the kids were sold for, let alone an adult female goat.

"How much--" Akilah cut herself off--she couldn't ask him how much he paid. He expected her to know. This was suspicious.

So was not answering and he was starting too look at her curiously.

"It depends on which goat we end up picking--it might even be double the price of the kids depending," Akilah lied. Hopefully that wasn't too far off the mark--surely an adult cost more than a child.

"My budget isn't that high that double the price is something I can just do..."

The man looked troubled and Akilah quickly added, "We'll look for cheaper ones, though."

"Oh, that's great." Her customer relaxed once more, and Akilah felt herself slowly stepping toward the gate.

Time to change the subject before he asked anything else. "So, you want to know proper goat care, right?"

Akilah tilted her head slightly toward the pen door. "Most of my stuff is outside, so I can tell you what to get. I can even show you some of the care after."

This would buy her enough time, she was sure, for him to either leave or to forget the topic entirely.

It had to.
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