"Now your reprimand is over, but you aren't out of the woods yet," she said ominously.
"Until you leave for Academy in 3 days, you'll be mucking the horse stables." These words came out with an air of finality, like words that would not be tested.
"Yes Ma'am," was all I could croak out, before she gave me a pat on the shoulders and started to leave the room.
"By the way, you were asleep for a few days so you missed first enrollment, which was today, and dinner will be ready soon." With that the door closed.
"Well that could have gone worse" I say shakily "But I've never mucked a barn though..."
I fell asleep shortly after dinner.
___________________________________________
I awoke the next day, but as I followed Brimiri around the grounds, I found breakfast to be unmemorable in comparison to the unfamiliar quiet of the halls and gardens. The whole time I’d lived at St. Perri, these places would still be full of kids running around, and church staff sweeping behind them. Today, there were only the gardeners, and half as many Sisters as usual.
.I tried to scratch my head to figure out why, before it hit me. St. Perri usually only handles up to 26 boys, most of which turned 12 this year, so everyone else has left for the academy, or were in classes with the Sisters.
"Seems in trying to get a head start, I got left behind instead," I sighed. "I gotta start taking this seriously, just not too seriously. Now where were the Stables?"
It didn't take me terribly long to find the stables, there was even a stable hand there.
"Hello!" I waved as I approached.
The man actually seemed surprised.
"Sorry kid, horses can be dangerous, you'll need to go play elsewhere," he said, barely looking up from his work.
I cleared my throat.
"But sir," I said hoping he would look up at least, but seeing he wouldn't.
"Brimiri said I had to help in the stables until I go to the academy," I said. He seemed to mill this over in his head, and finally he spoke.
"So you're what, 11? Unless I'm wrong, I'd have you for a year?" He looked me over.
"No sir, I turned twelve two days ago, but I didn't make the smartest of choices, hence why I'm here." I said, shame in my tone.
This seemed to draw him short. After a while of silence, where I thought he was just going to blow me off and keep working, he seemed to have come to a decision.
"Grab a pitchfork, I expect you here every morning before the sun has even risen till you leave, am I understood?" He made sure to speak while holding my eye contact. He stared intensely enough that I felt the need to flinch away, but I held his gaze and nodded.
"Yes sir!" I quickly replied, and went to grab a pitchfork.
___________________________________________
After a while, I learned the name of the would be stable hand, Kyle. He didn't like talking about himself, but I could tell he'd seen a fair bit before he ended up here. He seemed to be in his early to mid 40's, with salt and pepper hair. Though, as I've learned so far, appearances can be very deceiving.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
We spent the whole day Mucking the Stables with only a few mishaps. Mainly me slipping and falling in some muck, or one time I accidently poked my foot with the pitchfork. Kyle was very patient with me, no matter how often I clarified something about the task ahead of me, and let me voice my disagreements. Overall, I felt like I learned something during all that. In my past life you'd never catch me doing such a dirty job, heck I'm barely willing to clean dishes I make, but something almost dying put my life back in perspective, made the task seem almost relaxing in comparison.
With that thought I was pulled to a halt, as a System message appeared.
-System milestone met-
-Requirement for a new quest Generated-
-Quest: Take the day with humility!
-Requirements: 1/? Met.
- Learn a valuable lesson and grow from it.
2.?
--when further requirements are met the quest will update!--
--- Rewards: Variable ---
Somehow I'd gained the System’s attention yet again, but I'm not quite certain what lesson mattered for this quest. Was it finally waking up from my delusion that this was some kind of dream? Or was it the steady rhythm of mucking the barn, a task I'd have avoided like life was on the line before? And why are the requirements hidden? 'It's kinda hard to clear a quest you don't know the requirements to.' I let out a sigh, "I guess I'll eat for now and return to my room for the night."
______________________________________________
The next morning, I awoke to the soft knocking happening again at my bedroom door.
"Thank you Brimiri!" I called out as I got up and prepared to get dressed.
The night before, I'd found Brimiri at dinner and asked if she'd help me wake up at least, to which she agreed. She actually seemed a bit surprised that I'd asked for help, or maybe because Kyle actually agreed to let me help in the Stables. Thinking that Brimiri had already left to attend to her other duties, I almost ran into her rushing out my door, thankfully she stepped just out of the way bringing me to a bidding stop.
"My bad Brimiri, I thought you'd have to get straight to your duties."
She seemed to giggled at this.
"I woke you up a bit earlier than you asked so you could eat, silly." She spoke with one hand covering the smile on her face while the other hand had a bowl in it.
"I brought you some boiled grains and ebben fruit." She started to pass the bowl my way.
"Can't have you working on an empty stomach." As soon as I took the bowl she winked at me and went off to start her day.
I took my time eating so I didn't choke, and took the bowl to the kitchen so I could rinse my dishes before making my way to the stables. Kyle was already waiting for me by the time I got there.
"You're late," was the only thing he said before he stabbed the second pitchfork in his hand into the ground and turned to walk into the stables.
'I don't think I'm late, there isn't even a speck of orange in the sky,' I thought to myself, but all I did was shrug, grab the pitchfork, and follow him without complaint.
Kyle seemed to be in a better mood today, even after his earlier comment. He ran me through so much more than yesterday, when all we did was mucking. He told me it was because I came on one of the two days of the week he does actually muck the stables, Though yesterday was about mucking and laying fresh hay, on the other days he just cleans and turns the hay for the horse. He started with having me show him what I learned yesterday, by going through the steps on a stall we didn't do the day before, on my own. He watched my actions, only correcting me a few times during the process, but overall he seemed happy with what he saw.
"Okay, enough of that for now. That was the only one that needed a good mucking still, though your hay laying could use some work. You use a little too much, but not bad for your first time alone, and after only a few other times."
He beckoned me forward with a hand brush.
"You're going to groom the horses today with me, just brushing though, we haven't booked the bath to clean them completely. Now watch me."
Kyle walked up to one of the 5 horses, one with a near solid white coat if not for the speckles of brown in several places. He approached her slowly, with one hand out. He waited for permission to approach, which he received quickly,
"You'll always need to show them respect, to receive it in return. If I had to guess, this is the lesson Brimiri sent you here for."
I quickly caught up and followed his instructions and put my hand out, the other one visible at my side. Though, it seems in my excitement I approached too quickly, the horse rising slightly off its hooves.
"Woah, woah there." He quickly got the horse under control, but it still showed reasonable weariness.
"While you had the right posture, you were too impatient Syilten. Horses are easily spooked if they don't know you, especially if you were out in the wilds. It's important to be able to keep any beast of burden calm. Now come, try again."
This time I approached slowly, stopping when it seemed I was about to spook her. I waited with my hand outstretched and my head bowed, and for a time I just stood there in the same position until I felt something soft and warm, but a little wet, pushing into my hand. The horse had nuzzled up to me, forgiving me for scaring it earlier. Kyle seemed surprised too by this fact, which he voiced.
"She usually has a stubborn streak and doesn't forgive easily, you only had your head bowed for 10 minutes, bloody new record that." This was the first time I'd seen anything other than a neutral expression cross his face.
After our initial hang ups, not another issue seemed to arise, and I took my lesson from earlier and applied to the brushing, to which Kyle only gave me a smile to encourage me to continue. Today ended before 5 in the afternoon, a nice change to yesterday's 7 in the evening.
On my way back to my room I got another pleasant surprise from the System.
--System Requirements Met--
-Quest: Take the day with Humility!
-Requirements: 2/5 Met.
- Learn a valuable lesson and grow from it. Met
- Keep to your word! 2/3 Met
- Prove your dedication in a craft you find undesirable. Met
- ?
- ?
--when further requirements are reach the quest will update!--
--- Rewards: Variable --- Deadline: 1 day 6 hours. ---
"Well at least I know there are only five requirements, but these again seem very targeted." With a sigh, I resumed my path to my room.
"Guess I made the System worried too, somehow.”