Menagerie Hubbub

The place was definitely not set up for a party, or at least not the sort of party it normally held. After a life like his, you learned to smell trouble, and what he smelled now was... manure.

Hastily erected barriers were all around, subdividing the space into smaller pens. Some were portable railings, a lot of boards and crates, bales of straw, even a few wooden doors from who knew where.

In between these were animals in a bewildering assortment: goats, cows, rabbits the size of sheep, graceful unicorns, Komodo dragons, a particularly moth-eaten and lazy old lion and a few flightless birds like fluffy footballs hopping around everywhere.

He leapt over a stack of straw and came upon Suitov sitting cross-legged. Suitov was not dressed for a party either; rather, he was in some tough-looking dark trousers and a pullover. He was not alone. Two lambs, one on either side, had their front legs resting on the mage's lap and were sucking at his thumbs, wagging their tails frantically in an attempt to pump some milk out.

He gave Suitov a long, sarcastic stare.

"I saw some bottles with teats over there somewhere," Suitov said, indicating with his head.

"Not my problem," he replied. But he went to look for them anyway.

"You know, that is kinda cute, but to be perfectly honest, I prefer lamb roasted," was the first thing Nico said when she came upon the wooly tableau, adding a likewise cheerful "Hi!" only as an afterthought.

She was not dressed for the setting. It had taken some effort to find a girlish dress in the same shade of bubblegum pink she had dyed her hair. She had even found an alice-band to match, so it was nearly invisible, apart from the small pair of white cat's ears.

Sylvie lagged behind her a little, trying to calm down Ayu-Asra, who was clinging to her shoulder, making nervous noises about one of the really big lizards. It seemed dubious if anybody had warned her about this year's decor, considering her trousers were mostly white and ready to get grubby.

"Ladies. Lizard," Suitov said by way of greeting. "You look splendid. Are you going to a party?"

One of the lambs stopped attacking him and wandered over, just in case the big white thing was its mother. The other was making a faint "ehm nem nem" noise.

"That was the idea," Sylvie said, stepping around the lamb, which then followed her on her heels. She looked around, transferring the dragon to the crook of her arm, where she could hold on to him if he got the idea to test if some of the smaller animals present were edible, and said, "The staff must really have taken a liking to mucking out this place."

Nico meanwhile crouched down to the lamb that had stayed with Suitov and said, "Pst, smallstuff. Can you say 'par-tay'?"

The lamb stopped trying to consume Suitov's thumb, which allowed the thumb's owner to take out a handkerchief and dry it.

The lamb said "Mlaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

"It seems there wasn't much choice," Suitov remarked. "No space at the inn, and all that."

The thought of the inn stuffed full of decoration and animals got an amused smile out of Sylvie. She ignored the lamb bah-ing up at her. They probably did not imprint like certain other animals, but, well, she was stuck with one, and that was more than enough. By the rather quiet "aaaaaah" sounds he was making right now, he apparently was trying to add some more animal noises to his vocabulary.

"Very good," Nico told the other lamb, and patted its head. That made it shake its head vigorously, ears flopping around.

Finally coming up with something to talk about that would not sound like complaining, hopefully, Sylvie asked, "I wonder what's the matter with the stables near the inn. I mean, if someone was overly optimistic when they decided to build them, or if there used to be more traffic around here, making them worthwile."

Basaltine returned, pawing a bottle of milk in an effort to keep it in his mouth, and finally dumped it on Suitov's lap. "They're stuffed full of rhinoceroses," he said with great delight. "You can run in and bark at them and they can't turn round quick enough to chase you. It's brilliant."

"The animal market was flooded out two days ago," Suitov said, holding the bottle up by the teat between finger and thumb. It was covered in drool and bits of straw where it had been dropped.

"With water?" asked Sylvie, frowning. He might be talking about a sudden influx of animals, too.

"What animal market?" added Nico.

"It... has a significant water content," Suitov said, not liking to specify and making sure he interrupted Basaltine before he did.

The hellhound leapt up onto one of the makeshift dividers and touched noses with a giant rabbit. "They got an animal place near here. Goblins or gnomes or gnoblins or something running it," he said.

"Slurry?" was Sylvie's first guess, going from "animal market". She didn't think to consider if Suitov didn't want to talk about it.

"Thanks, Mister puppy, now I'm imagining a market run by doorknobs. Wonderful image!"

One of the fluffy birds decided to interrupt proceedings by launching itself at Suitov's head.

An array of smaller ones took advantage of the distraction, lined up on the top of a gate nearish to Sylvie's arm and began to snap at the pair of interesting whippy worms that seemed to be attached to the base of Ayu-Asra's spine.

"Oi!" Nico reflexively swatted at the bird, backhand at fully extended arm. By the shrill call followed by clucking, the bird was a) some kind of chicken and b) not too badly hurt.

Startled by having a tail pecked and tugged, the dragon tried to jump, but since Sylvie has holding on to him didn't get far. In the attempt he dug in his claws, leaving small holes in her sleeve and scratches in her arm.

After a muttered curse she snapped, "You know what, I'll leave, before things get worse." She had been looking forward to a quiet day; a bloody out-of-control <i>circus</i> was too irritating, particularly with Ayu-Asra adding to the chaos. At least she only prodded the annoying lamb out of the way, rather than kicking it across the next barrier, as she turned to leave. "Goodbye."

Dejected, Nico looked from Sylvie to Suitov, torn between keeping Sylvie company or staying and helping here. She felt bad because this outing had been her idea and would have liked to make it up somehow, and for work in a stable she'd really prefer at least sturdier shoes...

The chicken watched them from a nearby fencepost, ruffling its feathers.