Cleaning the Runnerbeast Stalls

[Shikai]

((Calling Sun Yew, Kanamar, and Deverel!))

Aclaryn surveyed the runnerbeast stalls with a look of dismay. What luck he had! Of all the possible chores, he had surely been assigned the filthiest job. While he had had a runner at his previous home, the less pleasant aspects of caring for a runnerbeast had fallen to the hold’s beastcrafters and those in charge of tending to Dawnfire’s stables.

He looked blankly to the brooms and various tools used for cleaning the stalls, trying to fathom which was to be used first, and how. “What do you think, Valera?” He said absently to the green firelizard at his shoulder. “How do you go about cleaning these things, hm?” He asked, smiling down at the flitter as he scratched her small eye-ridges. Weren’t there supposed to be three other candidates helping him? He hadn’t recognized any of the names, but whatever their backgrounds were, they were likely to be more useful than him! His education had been chiefly preparing him to be a Lord Holder, after all, and it seemed that none of what he had learned was helpful here. Well, tact was always useful, he supposed, but most of the skills he had been taught were hardly applicable.

Deciding he should probably get started, Aclaryn moved purposely toward the brooms. The sooner he got it over with, the better, after all! He awkwardly picked up the nearest one, and advanced upon the closest stall.

[B'kay]

Caltrain wandered into the stables, a contented firelizard trilling tunefully on his shoulder. He was looking over the list of candidates who had been assigned to muck the stalls. He was a bit surprised to find one there already, and with a broom in hand.

Rapture warbled a happy greeting toward the young man's green firelizard as they approached.

"Good morning!" The Beastmaster said, looking again at the list. He'd seen this candidate before, and though not quite 100% certain he was correct, said, "You're Aclaryn, aren't you?"

Caltrain grabbed a bundle of cleaning tools under one arm and a muck basket in the opposite hand, and set them down at the opening of the first stall. "Since you're first here, I guess that makes you the team leader." He smiled as Rapture waved his wings happily, sending out pleased emotions through the stable. "Here, let me show you how I like them done ... sorry to say, I'm a bit picky about my stalls. It's pretty simple, though ... heh heh, well of course it is, isn't it?" He rubbed the little brown flitt's tummy.

"First, I like the manure and wet straw picked out ... " He took the fork, and demonstrated how to lift out the dirtiest part of the bedding and pile it into the large two-handled basket.

"Once you get out anything that's dirty or wet, take the clean straw that's left, and bank it against the walls, like this....

"Then, you can take a rake and a broom and sweep up any debris from the center of the stall." He swept the crumbles of dirt and manure, bits of wet straw, scraps of old grain, into a pile, and shoveled them into the basket. --

"Next, if the floor of the stall is really wet, there's a bucket of crushed limestone out in the aisle. Just take the little scoop that's in there, and sprinkle the lime lightly on the floor." He had walked quickly to the indicated bucket and done exactly that by the time he'd finished describing the task.

"Then, all you have to do is spread the clean straw back around," he did so and exited the stall, heading for a large stack of straw bales down the aisle. He grabbed a section of a bale and returned. "Then you just replace about as much straw as you mucked out, and you're done!"

The "demo stall" was clean and fresh in two shakes of a dragon's tail, and Caltrain was grinning in the center of it, Rapture happily singing away on his shoulder.

"Once your team is done with the stalls, take the water buckets outside one at a time, to that gravelly area to the left of the main stable entrance. There are scrub brushes hanging with the tools. Scrub them out, refill them at the pump, and return them to their hooks. Then, the last step is to grab a few flakes of hay -- " here he pointed to the other end of the stable, where fresh green hay was piled almost to the roof, "And fill each runner's hay rack. Each runner gets four sections of a bale. I'll dole out their grain before I bring them in at dusk."

He was still grinning, which he seemed to do all the time since Rapture had chosen him as a companion. "Any questions?"

[[OOC: can you guess who used to clean race horse stalls for a living?]]

[Flamewolf]

Ah, chores. The universal ring that this word caries is like doom to every child in Pern. Even for this twenty year old, whom was much past his childish ways physically, but certainly not personally. His shoulders were slumped and his gold-brown eyes which normally sparkled happily were now dulled. His arms were crossed across his chest and he stomped into the Beast stalls with a frown.

His gaze grazed over the candidate and Runnerbeast Master, focusing on the lines of stalls that had to be down. He groaned quietly, making sure the other two wouldn't hear. But, alas! His eyes brightened considerably as his gaze focused on the pitch forks, the bales of hay, the buckets full of water and the piles of crushed limestone outside. This could be fun.

Fun was mentioned, right? Good. Because the first ounce of fun was beginning riighhtt....NOW! A blast of cold air and a startled squeak rippled in the Stalls as a brown blur flew out of nowhere. The fire lizard bounced off the bales of hay, bounced high until the air whilst doing somersaults, and landed in one of the water buckets with a splash.

Oops?

Now, normally this ash-brown flit was fairly good with his trips /between/. But he'd been so startled he went straight to his handler without thinking, and he'd been flying fairly fast. So, he appeared in the stalls without enough time to stop before one thing led to another and now he was soaked in a bucket full of dirty water.

Sun Yew's eyes widened and he quickly rushed over to the bucket just as gray-brown paws grasped the edge of said bucket. He stopped as the large, awkward flit pulled himself up to the edge...just to fall in again. Giving a sigh, the candidate plucked the flit out of water, his tail curling around his wrist immediately. The flitter's eyes were wide and whirling fairly fast. "Elm..." he groaned and just shook his head. Elm scuttled up his arm fairly fast to rest on his shoulder, then shook water at him. "Elm!" he exclaimed, and the brown squeaked in surprise and ducked behind his neck. "Ugh..."

((Oh my gosh, that was fun to write. Teehee.))