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

[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?"

[sporesprouter]

"Oh, it was the buckle." She reaches up and unbuckles it before carefully extricating the bridle from Fenyes's head.

[sagramore]

She's only too happy to be rid of it, and when Tress takes the bit from between her teeth she lets out a deep sigh, lips sputtering, before lowering her head to inspect the grass.

"Perfect."

[sporesprouter]

Tress grins and gives Fenyes a pat on the neck before putting the bridle back where it came from as well.

[sagramore]

"There you are. You can practice that whenever you like. You can see she tolerates it well. Now you don't really need any of this to ride, but it helps." To demonstrate, he gets up on the horse just using her mane and his upper body strength, and takes his seat, patting her shoulder. "I know people who ride like this, and just pull the head using the mane. But you'd need a good horse, like her. Plenty of horses don't have the temperament for it."

[sporesprouter]

"Good horse and a good rider, too."

[sagramore]

He slides back to the ground again. "I think you'll be among that number soon."

[sporesprouter]

She smiles a little. "Thank you, but if I can manage not to fall off, I'll consider that a success."

[sagramore]

"All right, I suppose that's a reasonable place to start." Sagramore stretches. "Now I have a question for you. Do you know how to cook?"

[sporesprouter]

"Yes. I'm best at baking, but I can do regular cooking too. And thank goodness, because if the ship had had to eat what Fort was making for any longer than they were..."