3 Cylus 724
Wealth skill: Fieldcraft
Inside the stables, it was warm but dark. Dan lit a lantern and hung it on a hook, out of the way. Then he headed for the stairs to the hayloft. All the animals had been moved into the stables for Cylus, to maximise warmth and minimise trips through the ice and rain, and their contented sounds filled the air.
Once in the hayloft, Dan tossed enough hay and bedding for all the animals down to Linnet, who was also on stable duty and waiting below, and then climbed back down to the main stable. They then divided their attention, with Dan heading to deal with the ponies and Linnet heading to deal with the other animals.
Dan gave the ponies a quick once over with a brush to make sure that there was nothing in their coats that would chafe and hurt under a rug, then retrieved their saddle blankets and rarely used horse rugs. They needed layers almost as much as he did in this weather, and the work of grooming them also warmed him up a lot. He cleaned the hair off the brush, and stored it for later use, as he always did. It was useful for a number of things.
Cloud and Smoke were both shaggy with their thick cold-weather coats, and most of the time, that was all they needed, but right now, he was not in the mood to take any chances with their lives or with his. His ponies were steadfast and trusting as long as you did right by them. They were never going to give you up unless you did something to lose that trust.
He started with Cloud, since she was the older and steadier of the ponies. With any luck, she would accept the coverings placidly and her calm would soothe the younger and more skittish Smoke. He hissed softly between his teeth so that they would know where he was as he swung Cloud's saddle blanket over her shoulders and drew it down her back in line with the way that her hair grew. Doing it that way meant that her coat was smoothed down rather than ruffled and messed up in ways that would grow increasingly uncomfortable as the saddle rubbed against it. He didn't intend to include the saddle this time, but the habit remained strong.
Cloud remained a steady four-square as he straightened the saddle blanket so that it lay evenly and without wrinkles from her withers to her hips. He eased her horse rug, cut to her size and shape, over the top and made sure that it didn't create new wrinkles in the saddle blanket before he walked around to fasten the buckles across her chest. There were two sets of buckles there, and two more under the pony's belly. As he bent to fasten them, Cloud lipped at the edge of his hood and snorted warm air down his neck. Dan tucked his cold fingers under the strap for moment, pretending that he was checking the fit and tightness of it, even as they warmed again against Cloud's warm neck. He murmured wordless thanks and patted her, a gesture that she both understood and liked, before fastening the second one and then shuffling sideways like a crab to get to the belly strap just behind her forelegs. Cloud turned her head to watch him, but didn't resist or try to avoid his move, for which he was grateful. "You know I'm never going to let you down, don't you?"
He fastened that strap, and the one closer to her hind legs, patted her, and moved on to Smoke, who was eyeing him more warily. She twitched her shoulders as he laid the saddle blanket across them, sending it sliding crookedly rather than hanging straight, and he had to take extra time to straighten it and soothe her. When he brought out her rug, he showed it to her and let her snuffle it before he created movement in the corner of her vision by flipping it over her back. She still startled a step, but not so far that he couldn't reach her. Her tail whipped round as if to swat a bothersome fly. If it had hit bare skin it would have stung badly, but it hit only his shoulder, and with all the layers for warmth he hardly felt it. He fastened the buckles on her chest and hissed soothingly through his teeth as he bent to fasten the belly ones. Smoke shifted her weight, fidgeting uneasily, as he worked, but he finally got them done, and moved on to refilling the hayracks and water troughs before making the slog back to the Hall.
Once he was thawed out, Dan slipped into the Gardening workshop, hung a candle lantern up to give himself a dim light to work by without overwhelming some of the more light sensitive plants, and pulled on a pair of thick leather gloves. Once his hands were fully protected, he lifted one of the boxes down off the shelf and onto the workbench and opened the lid. Inside was a pot plant that looked for all the world like a very ordinary, very commonplace, bracken in shades of dull yellow and dull green. Fronded leaves drooped slightly over the edge of the pot. It was, Dan thought, poking under and lifting up the rough leaves to investigate, getting too big for its pot, which made it the perfect plant to split into two new pots, each with half the current sprouts in.
He put the pot on the workbench and then left briefly to put a bucket outside where it could catch some of the icy, freezing rain. Many of these plants liked ice better than liquid water, when it came down to watering them.
He beckoned Linnet to join him in the chilly room, since she was Rosebay's head of things involving clothmaking. Some of the tunawa were also good with making cloth, but the tunawa didn't handle the cold as well. Linnet raised an eyebrow, but followed him back into the gardening workshop without complaint and pulled on the spare gloves that he handed her.
Dan grinned and began to explain. He kept his sentences short and simple, in deference to the way that the thick gloves made it hard to shape some of the more complicated and subtle signs. "This is Fernfern." He spelled out the name for her. "It comes from Scalvoris. You can make silk from the leaves. Don't touch the box or the pot without gloves. They are very cold. Fernfern grows best in the cold. I need to split this pot. You can have the new pot of Fernfern to work with." He grinned wider at her expression. Her jaw had been dropping further and further open since he mentioned that you could make silk from Fernfern. "If you want."
Linnet stared at him for a moment, and then realisation that he was teasing her crossed her face. She snapped her mouth shut and signed vigorously, "I want!"
"Good," he said, and pointed to the spare pots and the sack of compost. "You'll need those. Copy what I do."
Linnet grinned and hauled them over. She didn't need to be told to only part fill the pot either. Dan turned his own focus to trimming off the largest and droopiest of the leaves, and setting them aside for processing.
Next, he slid the plant carefully out of its pot - it helped that the soil was dry - complete with that soil, and began to ease the shoots and roots apart. He liked plants, though before Rosebay he had never been in one place long enough to do much gardening, only with a few pots he could carry with him. Plants didn't just up and leave you, like the ponies, they were never going to turn around and desert you, they would still be growing in the same place when you came back to it.
There were four shoots, or plants, in this pot, none very big, and all tangled together at the roots. He managed to seperate the shoots after a bit of wrangling, and passed one pair over to Linnet,while he prepared another pot for the remaining pair. A layer of small stones in the base for drainage and to help prevent it tipping over, then a layer of compost. Then ease the roots into place, pack more compost around them and leave a hollow about the size of his thumb on one side for a lump of ice.
Linnet eyed what he was doing and then followed suit. "Would the tunawa be able to make seeds from it?" she asked.
"Most likely," Dan answered. "But I'm not letting them at it without full knowledge and precautions. I don't know how a plant that needs and likes the cold will react to a person that very much doesn't. I don't want to put them in unnecessary danger."
"Fair point."
Dan nodded, and then ducked outside to retrieve the bucket, which now had a layer of ice in the bottom, and his spear.
When he got back, he turned the bucket upside down on the floor, picked up his spear, and rapped the blunt end on the base of the bucket a few times until the layer of ice that had formed there was jolted free. It landed on the floor as a disc of ice that Dan broke up, using the butt of his spear to strike blows against it. He passed one of the resulting lumps of ice to Linnet, who nestled it next to her sprouts, and took one for his own repotted plant, then scooped the rest back into the bucket before they melted and left the floor in a mess. They would serve to water the rest of the ice loving plants.
"Signed words" Spoken words
Wealth skill: Fieldcraft
Inside the stables, it was warm but dark. Dan lit a lantern and hung it on a hook, out of the way. Then he headed for the stairs to the hayloft. All the animals had been moved into the stables for Cylus, to maximise warmth and minimise trips through the ice and rain, and their contented sounds filled the air.
Once in the hayloft, Dan tossed enough hay and bedding for all the animals down to Linnet, who was also on stable duty and waiting below, and then climbed back down to the main stable. They then divided their attention, with Dan heading to deal with the ponies and Linnet heading to deal with the other animals.
Dan gave the ponies a quick once over with a brush to make sure that there was nothing in their coats that would chafe and hurt under a rug, then retrieved their saddle blankets and rarely used horse rugs. They needed layers almost as much as he did in this weather, and the work of grooming them also warmed him up a lot. He cleaned the hair off the brush, and stored it for later use, as he always did. It was useful for a number of things.
Cloud and Smoke were both shaggy with their thick cold-weather coats, and most of the time, that was all they needed, but right now, he was not in the mood to take any chances with their lives or with his. His ponies were steadfast and trusting as long as you did right by them. They were never going to give you up unless you did something to lose that trust.
He started with Cloud, since she was the older and steadier of the ponies. With any luck, she would accept the coverings placidly and her calm would soothe the younger and more skittish Smoke. He hissed softly between his teeth so that they would know where he was as he swung Cloud's saddle blanket over her shoulders and drew it down her back in line with the way that her hair grew. Doing it that way meant that her coat was smoothed down rather than ruffled and messed up in ways that would grow increasingly uncomfortable as the saddle rubbed against it. He didn't intend to include the saddle this time, but the habit remained strong.
Cloud remained a steady four-square as he straightened the saddle blanket so that it lay evenly and without wrinkles from her withers to her hips. He eased her horse rug, cut to her size and shape, over the top and made sure that it didn't create new wrinkles in the saddle blanket before he walked around to fasten the buckles across her chest. There were two sets of buckles there, and two more under the pony's belly. As he bent to fasten them, Cloud lipped at the edge of his hood and snorted warm air down his neck. Dan tucked his cold fingers under the strap for moment, pretending that he was checking the fit and tightness of it, even as they warmed again against Cloud's warm neck. He murmured wordless thanks and patted her, a gesture that she both understood and liked, before fastening the second one and then shuffling sideways like a crab to get to the belly strap just behind her forelegs. Cloud turned her head to watch him, but didn't resist or try to avoid his move, for which he was grateful. "You know I'm never going to let you down, don't you?"
He fastened that strap, and the one closer to her hind legs, patted her, and moved on to Smoke, who was eyeing him more warily. She twitched her shoulders as he laid the saddle blanket across them, sending it sliding crookedly rather than hanging straight, and he had to take extra time to straighten it and soothe her. When he brought out her rug, he showed it to her and let her snuffle it before he created movement in the corner of her vision by flipping it over her back. She still startled a step, but not so far that he couldn't reach her. Her tail whipped round as if to swat a bothersome fly. If it had hit bare skin it would have stung badly, but it hit only his shoulder, and with all the layers for warmth he hardly felt it. He fastened the buckles on her chest and hissed soothingly through his teeth as he bent to fasten the belly ones. Smoke shifted her weight, fidgeting uneasily, as he worked, but he finally got them done, and moved on to refilling the hayracks and water troughs before making the slog back to the Hall.
Once he was thawed out, Dan slipped into the Gardening workshop, hung a candle lantern up to give himself a dim light to work by without overwhelming some of the more light sensitive plants, and pulled on a pair of thick leather gloves. Once his hands were fully protected, he lifted one of the boxes down off the shelf and onto the workbench and opened the lid. Inside was a pot plant that looked for all the world like a very ordinary, very commonplace, bracken in shades of dull yellow and dull green. Fronded leaves drooped slightly over the edge of the pot. It was, Dan thought, poking under and lifting up the rough leaves to investigate, getting too big for its pot, which made it the perfect plant to split into two new pots, each with half the current sprouts in.
He put the pot on the workbench and then left briefly to put a bucket outside where it could catch some of the icy, freezing rain. Many of these plants liked ice better than liquid water, when it came down to watering them.
He beckoned Linnet to join him in the chilly room, since she was Rosebay's head of things involving clothmaking. Some of the tunawa were also good with making cloth, but the tunawa didn't handle the cold as well. Linnet raised an eyebrow, but followed him back into the gardening workshop without complaint and pulled on the spare gloves that he handed her.
Dan grinned and began to explain. He kept his sentences short and simple, in deference to the way that the thick gloves made it hard to shape some of the more complicated and subtle signs. "This is Fernfern." He spelled out the name for her. "It comes from Scalvoris. You can make silk from the leaves. Don't touch the box or the pot without gloves. They are very cold. Fernfern grows best in the cold. I need to split this pot. You can have the new pot of Fernfern to work with." He grinned wider at her expression. Her jaw had been dropping further and further open since he mentioned that you could make silk from Fernfern. "If you want."
Linnet stared at him for a moment, and then realisation that he was teasing her crossed her face. She snapped her mouth shut and signed vigorously, "I want!"
"Good," he said, and pointed to the spare pots and the sack of compost. "You'll need those. Copy what I do."
Linnet grinned and hauled them over. She didn't need to be told to only part fill the pot either. Dan turned his own focus to trimming off the largest and droopiest of the leaves, and setting them aside for processing.
Next, he slid the plant carefully out of its pot - it helped that the soil was dry - complete with that soil, and began to ease the shoots and roots apart. He liked plants, though before Rosebay he had never been in one place long enough to do much gardening, only with a few pots he could carry with him. Plants didn't just up and leave you, like the ponies, they were never going to turn around and desert you, they would still be growing in the same place when you came back to it.
There were four shoots, or plants, in this pot, none very big, and all tangled together at the roots. He managed to seperate the shoots after a bit of wrangling, and passed one pair over to Linnet,while he prepared another pot for the remaining pair. A layer of small stones in the base for drainage and to help prevent it tipping over, then a layer of compost. Then ease the roots into place, pack more compost around them and leave a hollow about the size of his thumb on one side for a lump of ice.
Linnet eyed what he was doing and then followed suit. "Would the tunawa be able to make seeds from it?" she asked.
"Most likely," Dan answered. "But I'm not letting them at it without full knowledge and precautions. I don't know how a plant that needs and likes the cold will react to a person that very much doesn't. I don't want to put them in unnecessary danger."
"Fair point."
Dan nodded, and then ducked outside to retrieve the bucket, which now had a layer of ice in the bottom, and his spear.
When he got back, he turned the bucket upside down on the floor, picked up his spear, and rapped the blunt end on the base of the bucket a few times until the layer of ice that had formed there was jolted free. It landed on the floor as a disc of ice that Dan broke up, using the butt of his spear to strike blows against it. He passed one of the resulting lumps of ice to Linnet, who nestled it next to her sprouts, and took one for his own repotted plant, then scooped the rest back into the bucket before they melted and left the floor in a mess. They would serve to water the rest of the ice loving plants.
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