That Pregnant Glow... of feathers.

[Faith Augustin]

57th Zi'da 717
following this & this

"Thank you so much for coming," Faith said, opening the door and ushering him in. "Down Cosmo!! To your bed. Go on. Bed!" The over-excitable blue and white dog, roughly the size of a small horse seemed keen to find out who was with her, but he let out a good natured wuff and went to lay down in front of the fire, his tail thumping against the floor when she said "Good boy." Turning to Arlo she offered to take his coat and hat and so on, which she hung up.

By this point, there had to be the real consideration that Faith was about to pop. At any given moment. She certainly felt like it, but she was comfortable and so she did not complain. "Have a seat," she said, leading him into the living room. "Be careful of the cat, she gives shocks if you try to move her and she doesn't know you." The dog, it seemed, was glowing slightly and the cat, which was pure white and beautiful, had four tails and sparks of electricity jumping between them. "Would you like a cup of tea, or a hot chocolate?"

He'd come in to work for a staff meeting and Faith had asked him if he knew about horses. When he responded in a vaguely positive manner, she'd explained that she had a new horse and wondered if he might help her with caring for it. It appeared that someone in the family liked animals, judging by the dog and cat in here and at least one horse out the back. The living room was comfortable and well appointed and there were small touches throughout the room which added to it. It was about comfort, though, there was no doubt. "Padraig's at work," she said with a smile, bringing in whatever drink he'd wanted. Cosmo lifted his head at Padraig's name and Faith smiled at the dog.

"So, it's a bit, well. odd, I suppose." It was probably best that he understood that this wasn't a usual horse, she explained. "Did you hear, a few trials ago, one of the Inns in town burned down?" It had been talked about a lot, it would be hard to miss it, she supposed, but then, maybe he didn't know, so she told him. "The man who rescued the baby from there? He was.." Quite how to describe him? Well, honestly, she supposed, "He was my best friend. I saw him, I was going to meet him there. The.. creature.. who murdered him is an Avriel with one wing, his name is Noth and he calls himself the Prince of Eternal Mercies. I meet him, semi regularly, in dreams." It was worth to tell Arlo that, as a dreamwalker. She had no idea that he'd met Noth, just a few trials before, in an Inn in Almund. "I took care of the baby, a couple have adopted him. But I had to take care of Aeon's body." He'd understand that, she knew. He was as devout a follower of his Immortals as she was of hers.

"While I was doing that, I saw my friend. Not a ghost, not like usual," it was strange, Faith thought, being quite so commonplace about spirits and souls, but there it was. "He was there, and sort of glowing. He didn't speak, but he was there, off and on, the whole time. Then, yestertrial, they put the headstone on the grave and he was there. He glowed, really brightly, and then the horse was there. I know how it sounds." It didn't change that it was true.

When he was ready, she'd take him out. There was a stable in the garden next door, she said, because Padraig had bought her a pony called Snowflake for her seventh birthtrial. In the stall next to Snowflake was a creature unlike any other horse Faith had ever seen, certainly. Pure white and glowing, much like a Brux, not that Faith had ever seen one. The horse stepped out as soon as Faith came out of the house and walked over to her, it's wings spreading as it walked. She reached up and touched it, and it looked at her with intelligent eyes. "I don't know his name, yet." Smiling at Arlo she shrugged slightly. "I've never seen a horse like him. Can you help?"

Off Topic

It's a legendary mount approved via PSF because of Faith's fame an' all.

[Arlo Creede]

"It's no trouble at all. I'm happy to help," Arlo insisted when Faith invited him into her home and he pulled off his hat, shrugged out of his coat and surrendered them to her. He grinned a little when he spied the familiar Cosmo, and would have given him a pat on the head, except that he didn't want to be in the position of rewarding the creature for a behavior that Faith clearly wanted him to stop doing. As for the cat, well, that was one of the strangest creatures he'd seen before. Interesting, looked friendly enough, but a shock however mild combined with a stubborn temperament, so he was told, left him inclined to bypass the possibility and to choose a different seat entirely.

But he was alright thank you, he'd said when she offered him a warm drink. Instead Arlo smiled a little, maybe a little awkwardly when he asked, "You're not planning on doing that t'trial, right?" His gaze was vaguely cast in the direction of her middle section. He was joking for the most part, it had become sort of a standing joke between them. But each time he saw her, she'd grown rounder, and admittedly there was also a bit of genuine concern laced through the question. If she was going to be doing it any time soon, he'd rather not be present when she did.

When she told him though how she'd come to own an unusual sort of horse, the smile disappeared. He'd heard about that fire, though he'd been back at camp when it had happened. It was a terrible thing though, judging by what he'd been told. "I'm sorry," he said, "for your loss." But as she went on, Arlo realized there was something familiar there. "An Avriel called Noth?" he said and frowned deeper. "I ran across him just a few trials ago, in a tavern on Almund." Hadn't liked the man much. Mostly based on first impressions but still, hadn't liked him. "Do the guards know it was him and that he's still around?"

When she told him about her horse though, well it did sound a little strange when he considered that it might mean there was something of her friend's spirit in that horse. But Faith didn't strike him as the sort to engage in wild flights of fancy. If she said it then she could only strongly believe it was the case. And he wasn't about to guess that it wasn't. He'd seen and experienced stranger things after all. Arlo followed her out to the garden then and while the pony wasn't anything unusual, the creature beside it couldn't help but stop him in his tracks. It was a marvel, that was for sure. He smiled and uttered, "I've never seen one either. Not in the flesh, but only in books." Drawings and nothing more than that.

"I can help, sure, and I'm happy to," he said, looking the creature over head to toe. "Keep in mind though that I know a little about regular horses. Riding, caring for them. But if there are differences outside of the wings, I'm not familiar with those." He guessed though that at the moment she wasn't interested in learning to ride. So maybe later for that? "It looks like that pony gets plenty of brushing, so I guess you're familiar with that. You have a halter with a lead rope?" She'd need a larger one for the pegasus. But if Faith didn't have one on hand, if she had a bit of narrow, soft rope he could knot and tie it in a way that would make a halter and rope for more immediate use.

Did she take care of the pony's feet or did her husband do it? Maybe she hired a local farrier? Either way, Arlo bent down after letting the creature familiarize itself with him, and ran a hand gently down its front canon bone, the one between the knee and the top of the hoof. When he reached the dip on the back, just above where the hoof began, he pressed in his fingers gently to encourage the animal to lift his foot off the ground. "You'll never be able to force a horse to lift his foot. But this usually does the trick. Some horses have shoes put on, others don't. Depends how they're being ridden, where, how often and depends a little on horse itself."

His mare Peg for instance, never needed her feet trimmed and she didn't need shoes. Her feet maintained themselves natural over the terrain that they traveled. "It's different for him though isn't it?" Arlo offered. "A lot of his traveling will be through the air. But his feet look a good length and in good condition. Probably something about him that keeps them that way." At the least, Arlo didn't think the animal would need shoes. "You ever blanket the pony in winter?" he asked then before he explained. Ordinarily a horse didn't need blanketing, especially the ones that got shaggy in winter. There were those times though, when the weather dropped freezing rain for trials on end and the wind howled. Other times, people tended to think that because they were cold, the horse must be too, and ended up causing them to overheat.

"You sew, right?" Faith might make a blanket for the pegasus, accounting for the wings. Something that would shed water with straps to help it stay on. "A horse's own coat does most of the work. It might be wet on the outside, but not to the skin. They're fine then. The best way to know though is when it snows, or at least when ice forms. If you see ice on the horse's coat, or even snow along their backs, it means their skin is dry and warm underneath. Don't blanket them then unless they're shivering. But if that stuff melts, it's probably better to dry and blanket 'em."

But did a pegasus eat like a horse, he wondered? Arlo had no idea, but it was the only approach he knew, having grown up with Peg to a large extent and having learned to care for her. "Natural grazing when they can, hay when they can't and a little grain is usually all they need," he considered. "But when it's really cold, you might offer them both a warm mash, even better with some cut up apples in it. It'll keep 'em warm, and keep 'em happy."

Belatedly, another problem that frequently occurred in winter occurred to him, and turning back to the feet he added, "When there's snow on the ground or even mud when the weather's frozen, snow, ice, mud will collect on the bottom of the hoof, compact itself and bulge outwards like a half globe." Uncomfortable, could even get painful, caused them to slip and slide, limp or refuse to walk and so on. It paid to check and knock that stuff out in the winter. It was a lot to take in of course, and Arlo was happy to answer any questions Faith had. And if she had a halter or at least a rope he could make one with, if she couldn't ride she could at least learn to manage the creature on the ground.

[Faith Augustin]

Looking down at her stomach as Arlo asked if she was planning on "doing that" today, Faith sighed. "I've told you, Arlo," she had deadpan down pat, it must be said. "If it does, I'll help you all the way. Just remember to breathe." She shook her head. "Not until mid-Cylus. I just look fatter because I'm normally a pocket-sized person." Besides, she assured him. Considering where they were, namely, her home, if anything started she'd be asking him to run to the Order of the Adunih, stopping at the University on the way, not decide that they were fine and could manage in here without telling anyone. She laid it out as a plan and added, again deadpan. "Nothing personal, hope you don't mind." Her eyes wrinkled in mirth at the thought of Arlo's face and for a moment she considered a sudden grab of her stomach and corresponding ouch, but Faith was far too much herself to do that.

But he knew Noth? She didn't say anything when he told her he was sorry, just shook her head. He'd recently lost his mother she knew and besides, there was nothing to be done or said. Considering the Immortals she worshiped, Faith had seen a lot of grief in her time and she'd felt it, too. It would just make him feel awkward, she thought, and so she said nothing, but shook her head and smiled her thanks. "Yes, they know. I know him through dreams." She said, with a quirk of an eyebrow. "He has been in my dreams a number of times. Always as an opponent. Or an owner. Not surprising, I suppose, I was trained in Athart. But the serial killer, Slim Jim, he was found and killed by "the Prince of Eternal Mercies"?" That was Noth, she explained. A name of his he used in dreams, a lot. "I've given them every bit of information I have, including where he lives. I'm going to tell the wold." She smiled slightly, although there was no humour in it. She would see Aeon's killer brought to justice.

Then, she remembered that Arlo was a traveller, too. "He's from Etzos. It's where he lives. I believe him to be... Aeon was a swordsman the like of which I have never seen before. I believe he is incredibly dangerous." She looked at Arlo with a very serious expression, then. "I would rather limit the number of friends I lose. The guards in Etzos will know. If you... just be careful?"

She had to admit, she was pleased to get outside, although she apologised for how slowly she was moving. It was the little legs and excess weight, she assured him, earnestly. Then, the pegasus came out and walked to her and Faith beamed. "I.. he looks like he understands me when I talk, Arlo. I know how that sounds," she considered just how Cyrus has reacted, but decided against sharing the caustic comment from her grandfather-in-law. "Oh, I brush her, them both now, every trial." And she looked after the feet, she said. Padraig, she admitted, tried to do it so she didn't have to, so these trials it was more of a joint effort or a case of who got there first.

"Yes. I don't think I could get up, let alone down and the bit in between sounds remarkably uncomfortable right now. Riding later. Though, if the baby is late in arriving, a quick canter might encourage, who knows?" She didn't have a halter with lead, no, but she would get one if he thought it necessary. Thus far, the horse had been very happy to do what she asked, she said and then added, "I know how that sounds."

No, she said, they hadn't blanketed Snowflake thus far. Though, they'd talked about maybe needing to in Cylus, but then they thought that they'd see how she was. Listening to Arlo she nodded. "I can make blankets for them both, yes. Would that help?" In terms of eating, she'd said yes, thus far, the pegasus had eaten hay and seemed to like apples and almost all fruit in fact. She rather sadly looked at her small garden and then shrugged.

She got him a rope and watched as he worked on it. "I'm concerned that he'll need exercise that I'm not giving him," as she said that the pegasus nuzzled into her neck and Faith leaned against him with a grin. "But, he seems to be here because he chooses. So, if he needed it, I guess he'd go. Maybe he's just a sedentary pegasus?" She more or less said that to the horse. "So, what should I do with the hoof?" At least he was a taller animal than Snowflake. It was getting to the point that Padraig needed to deal with her feet, because getting down there was difficult and back up? Well back up was more or less impossible.

"If I made a blanket, like yours that keeps warm or cool. What sort of one should I make or would that not help?" Faith wanted to know. If one or the other would help, she'd be happy to make one for Peg too, they really weren't a lot of work, she assured him. The horse watched Arlo as he made the halter and there was no doubting the look in his eyes.

"You see?" Faith said, with a glance at Arlo as though to check that he didn't think her having some kind of pregnancy episode. "He looks amused."

[Arlo Creede]

She'd told him before, she was right. But so far as Arlo was concerned, there was no harm in reminding her, and clarifying it all over again. She shouldn't be getting any funny ideas about giving birth while he was in seeing or hearing distance. "Maybe you're willing to sign some sort of contract in that regard?" he'd joked. Mostly. He was young, and that probably colored a number of his views on the topic of babies, and everything, well almost everything that was involved in bringing them into the world. "Babies are kind of weird you know," he'd added as an apparent aside. At least from his perspective. "When a foal or a lamb is born, they're up on their feet in a break or so, quiet mostly, coming to their mothers when they want to eat. And in a half an arc or less, they're mostly on their own already."

Babies as people though, were often born hairless, they smelled and looked funny, and they spent most of their first few arcs crying, eating and sleeping. Not to mention you had to haul them bodily around for most of that time. None of it seemed very appealing to him. At least not now. As for this Noth character, Arlo was quick to admit that in spite of having run into him before, he knew very little about him. And didn't imagine he'd have much reason to run into him again unless it was by happenstance. He promised all the same that he'd be careful if he did.

As for the Pegasus, it did sound a little strange, but the more he observed the creature and how it interacted with Faith, well, he believed her. "You mean cleaning and picking out?" he asked when she revealed that she and her husband looked after the horses' feet. "But trimming?" He was curious to know if either of the animals was the type that had those kind of hooves. Like Peg's at least. "Some horses have the sort of hooves that wear off or break off in the right places naturally. Some don't. There's the frog too, and you've got to trim that back at least in horses that aren't being ridden a lot and aren't roaming." Lifting up the pony's foot this time to show her, he pointed out a v-shaped spongy growth on the bottom inside the outer ring off the hoof itself.

"This is the frog," he said. "This ought be just thick enough to make light contact with the ground, but not too much contact. If it gets too thick, trim some of it back." If the hoof didn't wear or break off on its own though, they could either hire a farrier to do it themselves. In the case of the latter, they'd need to purchase a rasp, which was a flat, metal serrated tool, and a set of nippers, a cutting tool that sort of looked like pliers but with cutting edges instead of blunt ones.

In either case when she brought him a bit of rope, it was just a matter of fashioning a halter out of it, twisted here, crossed there, tied in knots where necessary and a longer bit left dangling for the lead. "Blankets might be a good idea, at least for Cylus, unless you plan to keep them stalled and rarely let out in the weather." If they were stalled, they wouldn't really need them, he'd added. Was she to make one for Peg? Well he'd be grateful. "Thank you," Arlo was quick to say. "You just need something fairly light with straps to keep it in place. Softer on the inside, resistant to moisture on the outside." Or something like those she'd made for him? He figured that would work wonders as well, especially in the heat of the summer to help keep the animals cool.

"I think your pegasus could probably get the exercise he wanted, if he'd a mind to." After all the creature could just up and take flight. The pony though, without exercise would go lazy and fat. "You could either halter him and take him out for a walk like you would your pup on a leash," he suggested. "Or if you'd rather stay closer to home, you could use a halter with a longer rope than the one I've made here and lunge him here in the yard?" he suggested, wondering if they'd been doing it already, or if Faith knew what lunging was.

[Faith Augustin]

A contract? Faith shot him a grin and then listened, attentively, to his explanation of babies. Hairless, smelly and funny looking? Faith was very good at impassive, it must be said, but there was a slight glint in her eyes. Thankfully, it was humour. "I'm very happy to sign a contract agreeing to do my best not to go into labour around you. I'm quite keen myself, in fact." As they walked out to the garden, she added, "though, mostly it's because I'm embarrassed by my ability to only produce noisy, dependent, immobile weird creatures. Have you ever considered a career as a motivational speaker, Arlo?" She smiled at him with a slightly raised eyebrow and an amused expression on her face. "And to be clear, no matter what you think when you meet my baby for the first time, Bun will be, is, and will only be referred to as perfect. Words such as weird, smelly or other such phrases are forbidden." Just in case he felt the need to ignore that directive, she added, to be clear any such forbidden words would be met with clear, detailed and possibly exaggerated birth tales.

All humour left her, though, when they spoke about Noth and Faith simply nodded. There was no point in pushing home the truth of it any further, he understood and would take care. That was all she could do. He popped up in dreams, too, but then Arlo was more than able to protect himself there, so she just needed to trust that the young man would be sensible. Yes, she said, the took the pony to the Menagerie to have her feet trimmed. But that eyebrow raised again when he told her that there was a frog. "Isn't that a rather silly name for a part of a horse?" Or maybe it was where the dead frogs got squished, she supposed, if a horse stood on a frog. But then, why wasn't it called 'baby chick' or 'mouse' or ... Faith pulled her mind back to what they were doing.

Looking down at the hoof as he showed her, Faith nodded. "I think I might ask a farrier, you know. There seem to be less bits in the trial than there are things to do in it." She smiled, but the feeling was heartfelt. But when he suggested the halter and taking Snowflake out for a walk, Faith looked at him in amazement. "We could walk the pony when we walk the dog? That's very clever." But lunge him in the yard? Faith looked at Arlo and shook her head, slightly, "I'm very pregnant. I'm afraid lunging as I understand it might be beyond me." She got the feeling he meant something different, but she wasn't entirely sure.

Blankets she could, and would create for all three horses, she said and she would be happy to. Sitting down under the covered porch, Faith sighed slightly as she took the weight off her legs. It was a small gesture but, now that he worked where she did and so saw her more, Arlo would know that it was rare that she allowed herself to show any tiredness or weakness of any kind. "So, how often should we have their feet seen to, would you say? And, should we walk the pony as much as the dog? Cosmo is a big dog, he requires a lot of exercise." Thankfully, Cyrus and Luna enjoyed walking and did so quite a lot.

[Arlo Creede]

"I'd be alright with signing a contract," Arlo considered, then concluded. Though he knew it was only banter, and there was an edge of humor to his voice when he said it. "So long as we're clear on the terms. So long as you don't ask me to hold it, change or feed it and you don't leave me alone with it, when I see it I'll be sure to tell you it's the fairest and cleverest child that I've ever laid eyes on." Seemed fair to him, Arlo thought. Of course he'd like to add that he ought to be miles away from the scene, was she to decide that the babe should come earlier than expected.

As for silly names? Well, Arlo gave that a trill's thought when Faith mentioned it, and he gave a poke at the frog beneath the foot. "I've never really given each much thought," he admitted, so far as where the name might have come from, how it had come to be. "But when it's trimmed properly, it gives a little. A little spongy. And if you look at it just so, the shape sort of resembles a frog at rest." Probably better though, Arlo agreed when he'd dropped the foot and stood back up, to enlist the help of a farrier, someone familiar and experienced with caring for a horse's feet. "If you're going to walk the pony, every three or four trials might do."

But in honesty, he'd suggest that lunging would be a better choice overall. "It's not you lunging," he said and grinned, shaking his head. "Look here." Moving to a place where he was to the side of the pony and a few yards distant, but also positioned behind the creature's shoulder, Arlo lifted a hand and made a clicking noise, even taking a step forward. "You can do it without a rope. Don't need one." In response to his actions, the pony would have lifted its head, looked at him and started moving, first a walk then at Arlo's urging, at a trot, Arlo walked in a circle, the pony moved in a larger one until eventually he dropped his arm, stopped urging the pony to move, and the pony obliged.

"You don't have to move much yourself. But he gets his exercise. It's about you establishing your role as leader, and the horse acting accordingly." As for feet and frequency of care? "I'd say a lot of that depends on the horse itself. How his feet grow, whether they break off naturally or not, that sort of thing. I rarely need to get Peg's done but she's out in the open or on the road a lot, and she doesn't need shoes either. But keep an eye on 'em, and maybe every sixty to eighty trials?" he suggested.

[Neronin]

Review

Faith

Knowledges:
Animal Husbandry: How to get a horse to raise it's foot
Animal Husbandry:Check your horse's foot regularly
Animal Husbandry: A horse's coat does most of the work for it, it rarely needs blankets
Animal Husbandry:How to check if a horse is wet or cold
Animal Husbandry:Warm mash with apples on a cold day keeps a horse happy
Animal Husbandry: The frog: A part of a horse's foot that needs to be trimmed
Animal Husbandry: Lunging your horse = exercising him.
Animal Training: Equine: Getting the horse moving in the yard

Loot: None
Injuries/Overstepping: We all know Faith don’t play like that
Fame: Nope
Points: 15

Arlo

Knowledges:
Animal Husbandry: How to get a horse to raise it's foot
Animal Husbandry:Check your horse's foot regularly
Animal Husbandry: A horse's coat does most of the work for it, it rarely needs blankets
Animal Husbandry:How to check if a horse is wet or cold
Animal Husbandry:Warm mash with apples on a cold day keeps a horse happy
Animal Husbandry: The frog: A part of a horse's foot that needs to be trimmed
Animal Husbandry: Lunging your horse = exercising him.
Animal Training: Equine: Getting the horse moving in the yard


Loot: None
Injuries/Overstepping: None
Fame: +5 for helping care for an epic animal
Points: 15

Comments: Hehehe, my heart fluttered when i saw more good guys may be coming to Etzos! I loved this thread and must say I am jealous of the winged horse. Very epic. You two have a great dialogue and I could see past it to the relationship between the characters. I loved your writing and your characters appeared on the page so naturally. Arlo’s expertise and Faith’s learning all seemed natural. Loved it.

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