Open Post: Hard at Work

[sporesprouter]

Yes, Tress might have been up late charting stars, but that doesn't mean that she can't get up at dawn to start doing other work on the continued Operation Get Us Out of Here.

So it's barely light outside when she tucks herself into an out of the way workroom that she's decided to repurpose as a sprouter's workshop. She doesn't have much in the way of spores, just what she arrived with, but that was no reason not to use some. What was the point of hoarding a potential resource? Sitting on something that might be able to help? Not a great idea.

So she currently sits at a table with some supplies laid out carefully before her, carefully taking water from a bowl in front of her with an eyedropper to some pink-red spores and shaping the crystals that spring up from them with a small iron shield-shaped plate and a steel trowel. She's working slowly and incrementally, but several finished spheres sit on the table away from her active work.

On the floor to the side of the table are several full drinking water bottles that she found and commandeered, knowing they'd come in handy if she decides to move on to her next idea.

For now, though, pink crystal spheres.

Comments

[sagramore]

"All right. We'll put the reins on her first so I can tether her, not that she's going anywhere." Indeed, she is not. It's easy to see why Sagramore judged her a safe horse to have a seizure on.

[sporesprouter]

"All right." Tress nods, attentively waiting instruction.

[sagramore]

Sagramore retrieves her tack from where he's hung it in the stable -- since he appears to be the only person using the stable at all, he doesn't really feel bad about taking up space. He puts the saddle on the ground for now, and holds up the bridle for Tress to see. "The bit, here, goes in her mouth. The rest of it goes around her head. That's how I tell her where to go."

[sporesprouter]

She studies the bridle. "So the bit goes first, then?"

[sagramore]

"Exactly. I slide it in--" Fenyes dutifully permits the bit to be pushed between her teeth, at which point it's easy to follow as he pulls the rest over her head and fastens the buckle on the side. "Some fellows pull the mouth too hard and can hurt a horse, but there's no need to pull with her. She knows what she's about."

[sporesprouter]

She nods, studying Sagramore's movements. "Definitely wouldn't want to hurt her."

[sagramore]

"Now the reins go over her head like this--" demonstrating, "and when you're on her you can lead in the direction you want to go. If you bring your arm out to the right, turn her head, she'll go that way, and the same with left."

[sporesprouter]

She nods slowly. "So she'll go in the direction her head's facing. That makes sense."

[sagramore]

"Now, the saddle." He picks it up and lifts it over her back, the girth dangling. "I'm going to reach under her and buckle the girth, but then we'll wait a moment. She always blows out so it doesn't fit at first." And indeed after a moment her stomach sort of deflates a few inches, and he tightens the buckle.

[sporesprouter]

Tress laughs. "Does she do that on purpose so it's looser at first?"

[sagramore]

"That is precisely what she's doing, yes. If I didn't wait for her and just mounted up like that, the saddle could slide off her back and leave me upside down beneath her." It would not be that funny, but Sagramore is good at making things sound like they'd be funny.

[sporesprouter]

She laughs almost despite herself. "Oh no."

[sagramore]

"Exactly. It would be catastrophic." He pats Fenyes' flank. "So, the saddle, you can see, the stirrups give you somewhere you can put your feet -- that is an invention of the Avars, by the way, who brought it to Byzantium long before I was born, and certainly not dreamed up by the Britons, who are largely uncultured savages -- and if you need to convince her to move faster you can nudge her in the flank with your heel."

[sporesprouter]

She nods slowly. "Do I have to remember the origin of the stirrups, too? Or just how to use them."

... Honestly, she's probably going to remember the origin anyway.

[sagramore]

He laughs. "You are excused from the history lesson. Do you want to help me take it off and put it back on again to practice, or would you like to try getting up on her?"

[sporesprouter]

"I'll help you take it off and put it back on again. Good foundations, right?"

[sagramore]

"Foundations are crucial. All right, work backwards for me."

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "Okay. Backwards. First would be the saddle, then. Just... reach down and unbuckle it?"

[sagramore]

"Exactly. Try it."

[sporesprouter]

She nods and promptly walks up, crouching down and reaching over to unbuckle the saddle.

[sagramore]

He watches approvingly. Usually by the time a squire gets to a knight he's been a page for quite a few years already and knows how to do most of these things, so he's never had the opportunity to do much teaching (and also he's never had a lot of boys interested in being his page in the first place, not when there are knights with better skills and better reputations). He's not surprised that Tress is a quick study; he would have been more surprised if she weren't. But it's still satisfying to see her moving so confidently around the horse she was frightened of a week ago.

[sporesprouter]

Well, she has been back a few times to brush said horse, just to keep getting used to being around her. She has the benefit of the experience of having frightening things become less frightening the more you get to know them, and it's carried through here.

She reaches up and carefully pulls off the saddle. "Where should I put it?"

[sagramore]

"If we had just taken her out, we might clean it first, but as it is now, just put it back on the wall."

[sporesprouter]

"All right." She walks to the wall and hangs it back up, before returning to the horse and sizing up the bridle.

[sagramore]

"Do you remember the last thing I did?"