Introducing: Electric Mayhem

“Why are we here, again?”

Ellah - well, Harmony today - looks up at the sign for the stables with a scrutinizing expression, her arms crossed. ‘Greyson & Hatch’ it proclaims in flowing white script on a dark, smoky background. While it’s certainly no Grimvelt estate, the building is wide and clean on the outside, with big, high windows letting in plenty of natural light. One of the double doors had been propped open to let the cool autumn air blow through.

“Because they're looking to clear out some space for new boarders and are willing to sell some of their stock. Technically, they were planning on starting that endeavor tomorrow, but I really do know all the right people,” the other demonkin says back, flashing her fangs at Ellah in a quick grin. 

“Hm,” comes Ellah's reply, sounding doubtful, or perhaps just bored. She takes a moment to glance over her shoulder, still a little paranoid about being back in Athelen after the whole Jack Incident™️. ‘Course, better paranoid than having a knife slipped between her ribs. Again. She lets out a huff and shakes her head slightly, trying to dislodge the unpleasant thought.

“Miss Sinclair! So nice to see you,” comes a new voice. Ellah’s gaze snaps towards a half-elf with a mess of curly brown hair as they step forward from the shadow of the doorway to greet their guest. They wear a clean tunic with rolled sleeves, riding breeches, boots, and a polite, professional smile, one hand outstretched and posed ready to take Cassandra’s. They pause when their gaze lands upon Ellah, but their smile doesn't falter.

“Oh, you've brought a friend! I'm Asher Greyson and I look after the stables.”

The half-elf offers Ellah their hand to her next and she takes it, quickly managing a smile of her own as she stamps down her internal dislike of physical contact and replaces it with a dose of professionalism.

“I’m Harmony. Harmony Decresent of the Thorn Rose Stables. Miss Sinclair and I have started quite the partnership,” Ellah says smoothly by way of introduction. She leaves the details of the partnership up to Asher’s imagination, instead wiggling her eyebrows suggestively and shooting a glance towards Cassandra. The other demonkin looks amused at this joke, but opts to quickly get down to business (as is her right), taking up Asher’s attention in the usual pleasantries that often precede a good deal. Ellah/Harmony follows a single step behind the pair as they all enter the building, happy to let Cassandra do the talking for a change. Might as well let her play to her strengths, Ellah tells herself, trying not to let the insecurity of not being in charge take over.

Ellah looks up at the tall ceilings and around the hallways and stalls with a curious and critical eye, multitasking internally: habitually mapping out escape routes and doing her best to not gawk at any of the more unusual creatures kept here. To be honest, she still wasn't really sure how she ended up in this particular situation. When she'd taken up the apprenticeship contract with Cassandra, excursions like these weren't really what she'd had in mind. Cassandra's love of animals had come as a surprise and certainly wasn't something Ellah shared. As long as none of them ended up in the yurt, it didn't seem like any of her business though, and learning about abyssal creatures wasn't a completely useless endeavor. Neither was learning about how much some of these exotic critters sold for on the black market.

Asher goes on about their facilities, giving a general tour of the stalls, tack room, riding arena, and the like while Ellah half-listens. As they move down another hallway Ellah catches movement behind her. She turns quickly to find a horse, his head leaning faaaar over the stall door, attempting to nab the end of her scarf in his mouth. Her sudden movement startles him and he jerks his head back, his eyes a bit wide. He huffs, nodding his head to shed off some of the spooked energy and turns to make eye contact with her. She turns, her hands on her hips, examining the creature with an annoyed expression. The horse is tall and lithe, his mostly dark brown coat shiny, healthy, and speckled with gorgeous spots in a leopard blanket. As she looks at him, he likewise appraises her with light brown eyes. She raises an eyebrow and tilts her head, squinting at him, trying to suss out this horse's deal. Upon seeing her do this, the stallion’s ears prick towards her and after a beat he similarly tilts his head at her, leaving him looking mildly unhinged. Ellah lets out a huff and steps backwards, unsure of the situation she has found herself in with this strange horse. Again, a beat passes and the horse mimics her, snorting and stepping backwards. 

“Are you mocking me?” Ellah asks of the horse, only to be met by a loud neigh that sounds vaguely like a cackle as the horse nods vigorously. Momentarily forgetting that she was indeed talking to a horse, Ellah bristles.

“Everything okay over there?”

Cassandra's voice carries from the other half of the hallway. Ellah turns to see the other demonkin and Asher staring back at her. She makes one more quick pass of eye contact with the horse, letting him know that he is on thin ice with her, and turns on her heel to regroup. She tries to use the short walk to cool her head.

“Everything alright?” Cassandra repeats as Ellah rejoins the pair.

“Fine,” Ellah says, her tone still a bit sharp.

“Did you make a friend?” Cass asks, her tone amused as she tries to suppress a grin.

“No,” Ellah says flatly, doing her best to not sound petulant. 

Cassandra glances back down the hallway towards the horse who now simply has his head turned to stare at all of them.

“He yours?” Cassandra inquires of Asher, who now jumps back into action.

“Oh! Yes. Sort of. I mean, yes,” Asher stammers briefly. They gather themselves and jump into a quick tale: apparently the previous owners had surrendered this particular horse to the stables a few weeks ago and the stables offered to find him a good home. He was actually slotted to be put up for sale along with some of the others tomorrow. The half-elf goes into general details about his age, health, and condition. Ellah's eyebrows raise when she hears the price - the number is far lower than she expected.

“What's wrong with him?” Ellah asks, as this horse clearly must have something wrong with him to be going for so cheap.

“Nothing!” Asher is quick to reassure them. “It just wasn't the best personality match between him and his owners. They wanted a racehorse, and he is quick, but had a bad habit of jumping the fence of the track. With a bit more focus on stamina training, he could be very good transport. I also think he's got potential as a jumper if you're interested.”

Ellah glances back over her shoulder at him. The horse has now got his tongue sticking out at the group. Racehorse or no, this one is clearly missing a few marbles.

“Could we take him for a ride?” asks Cassandra. 

Ellah whips her head around to give Cass an incredulous look. She cannot be serious.

“Sure! I'll get him some tack and meet you in the paddock out back,” Asher offers brightly.

Ellah allows the half-elf to move out of earshot before speaking to Cassandra in a low tone. 

“I swear, Aldalil consistently leads you to the most insane animals. You're seriously going to get on that thing?”

“Who said I was riding him?” Cassandra responds pleasantly, beginning to walk towards the back of the stables where they connected to the paddock they had seen during the earlier part of the tour.

Ellah stands frozen for a second, blinks, and takes a few quick steps to catch up.

“I'm not riding him!”

“Oh, come on. It's good practice for you. You did great with Aithne. Now you can't handle a mundane horse?”

Ellah presses her lips together, trying to decide if she wants to focus more on the compliment or jab in that statement.

“Fine,” Ellah huffs.

They reach the paddock and wait a few minutes for Asher to show up with the spotted hotblood. Ellah shifts from foot to foot, mentally hyping herself up for whatever she'd be in for. Animals weren't her strongest suit, but Cass had certainly been training her into a better rider, and for the most part she'd been able to handle Rapha (who had pretty much only ever tolerated her at the best of times). When offered, she accepts the reins from Asher, resigned to whatever fate awaits her. The stallion sniffs the air as she mounts up and before she can get fully situated in the saddle, he is on the move, causing Ellah to swear under her breath as she struggles to keep balance. 

At first, he simply dances around as Ellah tries to get him to slow the hell down to allow her to get her bearings, but the second she lets up on the reins, he has broken into a canter. They run along the edge of the paddock for a lap and Ellah loosens up a bit more, willing to see what kind of speed fiend this horse could be. Excited to finally be let out and allowed to zoom, the stallion gives a small buck before leaning into a full gallop, much to Ellah's chagrin. She grits her teeth and grabs a fistful of his mane for good measure, but manages to stay on. A few paces in, she is able to better match his rhythm, her heart pounding hard, filling her with the pleasant sensation of adrenaline. There's certainly something exhilarating about moving this fast in tandem with an animal; no wonder Siveria was a horse thief for all those years. 

Ellah signals him to take a hard right and finds him very responsive and quick, though it certainly takes some effort to stay seated. They race to the other side of the paddock and run along it before Ellah steers him to the left. Towards the middle of the space, he throws another small buck, causing Ellah to swear, this time a bit louder. 

“Can you not?” She growls at him, once again using his mane to keep herself in the saddle. She leads him in another hard right, steering him in a small circle and causing him to decelerate into a more comfortable canter. They do another lap around the paddock with Ellah doing her damnedest to keep him at the new, slower pace, which seemed to be getting easier now that he'd blown off some steam. As they pass Asher and Cass, Ellah glances at their faces: Asher seems mildly concerned, but Cass is grinning widely, perhaps with a hint of pride in her otherwise I-told-you-so expression. Ellah turns her focus back to riding - no need to unpack what Cass may or may not be feeling towards her at this moment. 

Ellah looks out across the paddock and eyes the half set-up jumping poles towards one end of the riding space. Asher had claimed this horse could be a fine jumper - time to test that hypothesis. She steers the stallion towards the center line of the space and allows him to canter directly towards the jump. She tenses a little, knowing that she could very well end up on the ground within the next several seconds or so, but the adrenaline in her veins quickly convinces her not to care too much. The horse likewise doesn't seem to have too many qualms about the structure he's approaching, and while he doesn't seem to react much to any jumping cues given to him by Ellah, he takes it upon himself to cleanly clear the jump with ample enthusiasm. Ellah can't help but grin ear to ear at this, especially once she is not at risk of eating shit during or after the jump, and they slow to a trot to head back towards the others. Asher looks relieved and speaks up first.

“So, what do you think of Mayhem?”

Ellah raises her eyebrows.

“This horse’s name is Mayhem?” She asks, her tone incredulous.

“Technically his full registered name is Electric Mayhem,” Asher clarifies with a chuckle.

Ellah looks at the horse, whose head is turned to look back at her, his brown eye locking onto hers. Ellah then glances at Cass, who is wearing a smug smirk. Ellah sighs heavily.

“I'll take him.”

Electric Mayhem nickers.