Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Aravis' explanation.

[Originally posted at Ana Mardoll's Ramblings as the coda to a rambling post.]

Given how they look, a good cover might be that they're taking the horses to sale because master can't afford them anymore after falling on hard times and was worried that if they weren't sold now the value would drop too much when the animals started to starve (food isn't cheap.)

We could actually work more on filling in the details to make the story fit better.

Why the ragged tails? The groomer was the first one to get booted when the money dried up and these two lowly jerks took over grooming duty. Once. It was after seeing how badly they'd fucked up, that the master realized he'd better sell the horses before A and S accidentally killed the things.

Bonus points if buying A and S after selling more competent slaves was an early cost saving measure back when the master still thought he'd be able to keep the horses, and the groomer, in perpetuity. They've had time to show their loyalty, and also their total lack of skill. Unfortunately the slaves who would have trained them properly were amoung the ones sold.

The master tried for so long to keep the horses at the expense of everything else, the horses were his prized possession and in the end they were eating better than the humans of the house, but finally the denial bubble had to collapse and he realized he wouldn't have a an estate anymore if he kept on trying to keep the horses.

A and S weren't sent to sell the horses because they were the most trusted, but because they were the ones the master could most afford to lose if, say, armed bandits decided they wanted to take the two horses for themselves (he's really needing the money from selling the horses, but he couldn't afford a someone to guard them until they reached sale any more than he could afford to keep his slaves clean.)

All of this, and more, Aravis will tell to anyone who listens in a hideously fake, "'Ello gov'na," Cockney accent. It'll work; she knows her marks. In their eyes slaves are naught but lowly creatures who talk funny, think all the wrong details matter, and are prone to running their mouths if not kept in check by a good strong strict master.

The provincial noble-wannabe she describes is just the sort of dimwit who would let useless slaves take valuable horses on a long journey.

She's also prepared to go on a three volume epic about how she always thought that horse could talk but everyone dismissed her as imaginin' things if either of the horses should break character again like they both did when the four of them all met.

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