"Here, let me help you." She said softly, gently pulling the socks from his wrists and hands and gently stroking his shoulders. She was more nervous with him human because there was only one man she'd ever undressed. Horses she'd tacked up a thousand times. "I ask if you are bonded because that means you belong to someone and they to you. It would not be appropriate for you to be here if you were bonded, nor for me to ask you what I'd like to ask you." Carefully she opened the shirt and shipped it over his shoulders, having to stand on the tips of her toes to do so. Scaled hands slid across his skin for her flesh was not like other humans, pale opalescent scales ran across her palms and backs of her hands, even across portions of her face in an elegant pattern that would never allow her to truly fit in completely with the Drykas.
She fed one of his arms into a sleeve then another, and carefully fastened the shirt by knotting it across the front with the type of knot that would slide free with just one pull. "No, I do not wish to mate with you. It is not because you are not strong or handsome, but I'm with c...foal already. I won't be ready for that until Spring and until the child is born." Kavala carefully avoided staring at parts of him she shouldn't, though moving around him she did brush him a time or two.
The socks she placed on his feet one at a time by bending down and grasping his ankle, quietly saying 'Pick it up'... and sliding the sock on. First one, then the other, until she turned to the pants. She did the same thing until the pants were over his legs and then slide them up to fasten them at the waist and across the front. Kavala could have blushed, easily, but inside herself she was chanting 'He's kelvic. He's a stallion. He's kelvic...' reminding herself it was okay.
"I don't mind you not wearing clothing, Vahn, but this time of year this shape will get sick if you go without something to warm it. And it is nice, sometimes, to come in out of the cold and be with people and not everyone understands, like you said, the lack of clothing. Now, down... sit down." She said firmly, pressing on his shoulders and urging him to sit on pillows. The Konti treated him like a stud, being firm but giving no room for him to say no to any reasonable request. If he did indeed settle on the pillows, she'd take out her own comb, carefully show it to him so he could get a good look and let him sniff or lip it, then she'd began pulling the tangles from his hair.
Grooming, she knew from past experience, settled and soothed even the meanest sort.
"I bet you don't have mares here yet. I know all the stallions here about, and they guard their herds jealously. They are older than you... you look two, three at the most? You aren't ready to take them on yet, are you? But you will be. They tolerate bachelors here because of the humans, but I bet they won't tolerate you long or closely when the spring happens and all the mares out there want attention. The stallions will be busy and I suspect they will drive you out of camp. You'll have to fight the entire season just to be close to here and the Drykas. I know kelvics. You need to be close to people." She said, soothing him by running her fingers through his hair and then the comb, pulling long strands of knotted hair from his 'mane'.
"I have sixteen mares, thirty two horses altogether, and several stallions at my facility. I no longer want to use the stallions for breeding, only for riding. Half my horses are under two, so they can't be bred, but sixteen mares would keep a young stallion like yourself busy. It would be enough too, I suspect, until all the rest grew up. And we could get you more as well. I'll need more for what I am trying to do." She added. "There are six special mares coming in too. They are bloodbanes. You've probably never seen them, but they eat flesh and have sharp hooves. Most stallions who are not bloodbanes would not look twice at them because covering them would be dangerous, but I want to breed them for their good qualities. They are intelligent, like you are, far more than other mares. But if I had a stallion who was as smart as they were, he'd find a way to make things easier for them, smoother, so they would catch and be in foal faster. She outlined carefully.
"So that would give you twenty two mares this year, if you agreed to come with me and be the stallion that could convince them to do their duty and breed. I told you I came to Endrykas looking for one. I think I've found one in you... a perfect combination of the traits I am looking for in the bloodline I want to start." She stroked his forehead this time, then ran her hands down his back, hitting pressure points that were designed too soothe and relax.
"I would expect you to protect the herd, for often they roam free around the facility. Your job would be to bring the mares in during storms, protect them from predators like any normal stallion would, and make sure they are all in foal during the breeding season. When you are not busy with them, I'd like to start training you to fight like a human and like a warhorse. I will need to be able to show buyers how you move so they will know your offspring can move in a similar manner. You can also have the run of the facility, which is a place of healing and horses. There are people there, maybe someone you can bond too as well if that's what you want. I'll teach you to move among humans more comfortably, and feed you, cloth you, and whatever else you want to bargain for while we are talking about this. If you don't like where I live, you can always return to Endrykas in the fall after you've bred the mares, so you don't have to feel tied down or obligated." She said and seemed to flinch a little at the last word.
Her eyes met his for a moment, filled with sadness and pain. It only happened for a second then she masked the look and moved on, glancing around the room. "While you are in Sanctuary though... I'd love to be able to ride you daily, see if I can't get you in better shape. You are in good shape now, fine shape really, but you couldn't carry a rider and fight in battle with one as it stands. Your back muscles are underused and I could help with that tremendously as well as show you a great many moves that warhorses know which normally stallions tend not too." She added, tempting him or at least trying too.
Then finally, when there was no more grooming to do, she carefully sat down next to him and poured each of them some mint tea. She set the cup beside him. "Try it if you'd like. Its sweet mint tea, a little hot though, so don't burn your tongue." The woman cautioned.
She should have told him she would help him find a bondmate or that there were people around Sanctuary that would give their eyeteeth for a kelvic as fine as he. But she wanted him to make up his mind all on his own, or maybe ask to see the place and the mares before he actually decided.
And so she waited, letting him think, and giving him time to respond as she snipped her tea.
