Minnow
A SILENT DROP OF OCEAN

Truth be told, when Minnow looked at the mare, she saw the sadness, certainly, but she also saw something the other aja at the fair seemed to be lacking. The knots and tangles made her look far more like the wild creatures at home than these other aja did. She looked like she might have been some sort of plant earth cross while the others just looked… well they weren’t precisely earth aja? And yet, they seemed to be the most common typing there was here in Shaman. She wasn’t familiar with the money in this world yet, but she was certain that such a fine, if sad, specimen was worth at least as much. Sadly, she didn’t have that type of money.

She would have argued with the boy leading the mare if it weren’t for the interruption of the small thin fairy boy and his bird and, whatever the thing with him was. She had seen him around the castle occasionally, usually sneaking around, but she didn’t know much about him. He seemed to be angry with the sales boy though, and Minnow took a step back to let the discussion unfold. Surely the boy who was actually a fairy was familiar with how such things worked, especially since he didn’t seem particularly upset that it was happening in the first place.

Minnow had a lot of questions, but she didn’t want to interrupt. Like the mare, she flinched with the reins were jerked and realized that the odd harness was actually inside the poor aja’s mouth. Why anyone would do such an inhumane thing, the ker didn’t know, but she too reached out a hand to comfort the poor thing. Her hand pulled away with the odd boy spoke like the wild aja did, and she turned to look at him curiously. Her mouth stayed silent, however, especially when the harness was snatched and the guard chided the boy. She didn’t really want any trouble with anyone. Not in a new world with a new species and culture that she didn’t didn’t fit into. She didn’t even fit into the clothes she’d been given properly.

She stood there, lost at what to do once the confrontation was over, but jumped to follow the boy when he snapped at her. She was filled with questions, and rather than thank him for helping the mare and Minnow herself, she let that gratitude go assumed and unsaid.

“What exactly is a thoroughbred? Is that an even rarer sort of aja?” she asked, stroking the mare’s cheek bones and wincing slightly each time she touched the leather straps. Leathers weren’t comfortable enough to spend much time in, especially if one was going to be jerked around. They were for protection. She felt the nose of the boy’s other animal creature friend, and glanced down at it. She didn’t have the slightest idea what to assume it was, although it seemed friendly enough. “And what is that?” she added, tilting her head to one side but not removing her hand from where the oddity could sniff. Even if she’d not learned that fairies had strange animals in place of their aja partners, and that she shouldn’t try to hunt things she wasn’t absolutely certain weren’t familiars, she wasn’t particularly hungry and had no idea if that animal would have edible meat anyway.

“Um, can we take that thing off her?” she finished, motioning to the bridle with a wince.