The Stables [Job]

Mission:

"Oh my god. I don't think I brought nearly enough cleaning supplies!" Lillias exclaimed in frustration, dropping the large bucket she carried onto the ground. It toppled over, bottles of cleaning agents and the like rolling out onto the stone pathway that led to the stables. At the entrance, a quaint little sign read, 'La Stableu', and Lillias had to refrain from snickering at the name. She wasn't sure what inspired it, but it sounded awfully pretentious.

'La Stableu' was a small stable, located on the outskirts of the East Forest in Magnolia. Apparently, there had been a large party that passed through town, and said party's horses had left quite a mess. It had gotten so bad that they had to resort to puting out a request for a mage to aid them. The owner? A man whose name was... something in French. She could care less - she didn't need to know his name to sway him.

She returned her attention towards what she could see of the stalls, wincing and inwardly gagging at the sight. Truly, it was a sight that would inspire fear in the hearts of even the darkest of Fiore's mages.

She'd heard of shitholes but this... All this was a very, very literal version of it. The stench of manure was overpowering - so very, very overpowering that Lillias had caught scent of it from a mile away and currently had a white cloth tied over the lower half of her face. While she had signed up knowing that there was lots of cleaning to be done, she hadn't expected it to be this bad. And it was completely desolate! She'd thought the employer was exaggerating when he mentioned in the request that all his staff had fled. It seemed she had made the wrong assumption. She looked at the flyer again, hoping to find another address and realize that this was the wrong location.

Unfortunately, it was not. Brilliant.

"Ah, young miss, you're the one who took up my offer! But... Where is your friend?" An aged, lean man hobbled his way over to her. It appeared that his left leg was quite stiff - an injury, perhaps. She handed him the flyer she'd torn down for herself. "Hello, sir. I came alone - and trust me when I say I am all you will need. I'm Lillias Noel. May I know where the equipment and supplies are kept? It seems I have prepared insufficiently." she informed gracefully, extending her hand politely and offering the man a slight smile. Stunned and, quite frankly baffled, he shook it dumbly and struggled to find his words. He directed her gaze towards an enclosed stall, barricaded by stacks of hay and abandoned pitchforks. Next to the stall was a black mare, desperately trying to reach for the hay over its fencing, teeth clicking together as it's mouth opened and closed repeatedly. Irked, she turned her gaze away from it.

"Of course, young miss. Storage is over there in the last stall - and are you sure you don't need any help? I could help you myself if you'd like, dear, this is too much of a job for a sweet g-" Lillias stopped him before he could continue in what was in her opinion, belittling her. If he'd completed that final word, she likely would've rendered his other good leg useless too. That way, he'd have a matching set!"Oh no, dear sir, I can't trouble you with my job! You may rest, or attend to your other matters. Leave the cleaning to me - and please trust that I am very good at what I do." she assured smoothly, indigo eyes crinkling up from what was a well-practiced courteous smile, and gently guided him out of the area. Then, her face fell, and the horses grew eerily quiet as she turned around, blood boiling and fire burning in her enticing purple eyes. For a thousand jewels, the job was far from worth it. Hopefully, if she did a good enough job, the owner would raise the pay more. The thought of it fueled her flames, and she put her hand on her hips, running a brief plan through her head and taking a deep breath to compose herself.

"This place is absolutely unacceptable! What irresponsible, disgraceful staff they have." she hissed vehemently, folding up the sleeves of her blouse. She'd worn a simple white blouse, a corseted vest and black pants for the job, which were also folded up neatly. Pulling on a provided apron, a pair of latex gloves and a scarf over her newly braided hair, she began the first task - cleaning out manure and old hay.

Her first try got her unwittingly kicked backwards into a stack of smelly, half-eaten hay - the horse clearly did not appreciate her invading it's already small space. She wheezed at having the air knocked out of her unexpectedly, gripping the wooden gates to the stall as she let herself out. Muttering a string of curses beneath her breath, her gloved fingers glided over the creases in the apron with distaste, picking off strands of hay as she stepped out of its stall, deep in thought. The image of a fenced space outside flickered into her mind, and she opted to lead the horse outside to allow it to roam in the empty pen whilst she cleaned. Ensuring that there was water and hay, she closed the gate and locked it, shooting a glare to the creature and promising death should it leave the enclosure. It froze, eyeing her with great caution, then lowered its head and slowly trotted off.

'Foolish mule. Know your place!" she harrumphed, a triumphant smirk spreading across her pale pink lips.

Satisfied, Lillias entered the first stall, shovel and pitchfork in hand and began the tedious process of cleaning it, noting that there were only two horses there at the moment (likely the owner's, because honestly, who on earth would allow their horses to stay in such unsanitary conditions if they truly cared about them?). One outside, and the other at the end, in the stall next to the storage. Wonderful; that made her job that much easier. Hopefully, the second one was intelligent enough to have learned from it's fellow stable-mate.

Otherwise, she could not promise that she wouldn't end up killing and brutally maiming one of them. Or both. Getting a little horse blood on her hands was a small deal.

{1084/2250}

Lillias was many, many things, but never complacent. The young girl would settle for no less than perfection - not on her watch, not when her reputation was at stake - and she would not relent until every inch of the place was sparkling clean and the stables looked like they came straight out of a feature article in a magazine. She signed up for this, the least she could do was ensure she did her best and see to it that the request was properly fulfilled.

She spent the first quarter of her time clearing out hay and manure, toiling through the warm weather despite her loathing for it. It was sickening - the manure had been left untouched for so long that not only had it piled up and hardened, but there were also flies and maggots on them. While Lillias was used to cleaning, it was exactly because she never let her residence reach such a poor level of hygiene that she was not used to this. Nonetheless, she was not fazed - Lillias had to much pride, and she was far from being a pansy. She was used to doing dirty work - back when she had nothing to her name and had to build her wealth up from scratch. Plus, if one hadn't realized by now, the blonde was incredibly passionate about cleaning. She swept through every nook and cranny, shoveling the horse manure into its designated carts, and neatly lined up the old hay in a few other carts. She swatted away at pesky flies, grossed out, heart nearly stopping when a batch of a maggots hatched right before her horrified eyes. She shrieked and stumbled back, urging herself to gather her wits and man up. When the owner came to offer his aid, she clucked at him and chased him off with a broom, keenly insisting that he leave it to her, repeatedly assuring him that she was more than capable of cleaning. She stopped for water breaks or to catch her breath every hour or so, but soon went back to work.

As time passed into the late night, the foul stench began to intensify because of the unusually warm weather that night. She had to stop and head outside for a moment when it got too much to handle, away from the stifling heat and intense attack of acrid stenches. It was a wonder she was still breathing, because the owner had taken a step in, then stepped out immediately, gagging and choking on the smell itself. She looked to the few bottles of cleaning agents and buckets she had purchased, as well as supplies provided by the owner himself. It wasn't much, but it would do.

Cracking her knuckles, she tightened her headscarf and the cloth mask around her face. A low grow rumbled in her throat."I'll make it work. No. Exceptions."

The first horse she had led outside was back in it's stall by the evening. She had decided to wash up the stalls that had horses in them first so that she could quickly return them and left the empty stalls for later. She worked from the floor to the walls, and hosed down each stall with a regular garden hose, tampering with the speed of the water with her magic such that it became a power-hose and redirecting stray droplets, such that she did not wet the horses. Tempting as it was, considering how the first one had dared kick her, but she was a kind, generous and benevolent person, so she would not.

Sneering, she glared at the offending horse and tightened her grip on the hose in a valiant effort to maintain her self-control. The more she thought of it, the more humiliating it felt.

When it was down to the final stall, the blonde was both mentally and physically exhausted, and she wondered if it was the workaholic in her that kept her going, or an underlying masochism she wasn't aware of. She'd gone through 4 pairs of gloves, and she smelled horrendous. She'd likely have to bathe at a public bath or a river before returning home, and there was absolutely no way she was keeping her current attire, covered in hay and traces of filth. All the shoveling she'd done had left a few splinters and blisters on her hands, too.

By 5 am, the stables were thoroughly cleaned, and the stench had lessened infinitely. The flies had taken to the cartfuls of manure as well, said carts having been relocated. It still smelled like a stable would, naturally, but it was much easier to breathe, and no one would be sinking ankle-deep in manure anytime soon. Painstakingly, she dragged the cleaning supplies over to storage, and kept them away neatly. Tired as she was, Lillias simply did not half-ass things. She could not stand it when things were untidy, or out of place. It was just far too unsightly!

Thereafter, the young blonde removed her headscarf and mask, delighting in the cold morning air that lightly kissed upon her face and caressed her platinum locks. She felt unspeakably proud of herself as she gave her handiwork a final check just as the owner (whose name she still couldn't remember) stepped in, payment in hand. He'd gone home for the night, and confessed that he thought she would've left by then and abandoned the job, but was thankful that she had stuck through with it. Lillias gave a faint smile - she was tired, incredibly disgusted, and unbelievably famished, and she just wanted to leave. She nodded and nodded as the old fart spoke, smile increasingly strained as he went on before finally, he paid her duly. She accepted it like the graceful, sweet-tempered girl she was when she first met him, and bid him goodbye, smile slipping into a deep scowl as she turned and left, heeled boots clicking on the stone pathway.

All that slaving and toiling just to clean someone else's mess, and for a mere payment of a thousand Jewels. Her grip on the money tightened, crushing the paper beneath her fingers. Pah! Imbecile. Clearly, her services were worth much more! If anything, he should at least pay her with the entire's staff's worth of money - she'd done the entire's staff's job in just one night, after all. She hoped he liked the carts full of manure sitting out back - she hadn't been paid to be rid of them now had she?

'I ought to burn his stables down.' she thought, huffing, but paused as she actually took it into consideration and ran the process of it through her head. She could, and no one would know it was her, much less suspect her. Albeit, it would be quite wasteful of her to burn down 'Le Stableu' after all the effort she had put in to clean and sanitize the place.

Either way, there was absolutely no way in hell she was ever returning (unless the pay was to her standards). She had had more than enough of horses and shit - Lillias Noel seen her fair share of atrocities, but this one truly took the cake.

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{End}