Ashan 44, Arc 721
To be fair, the plan had existed since her younger arcs, changing and evolving over time as her knowledge grew and ideas formed. The pages themselves changed too, child-like images maturing over time into something…. less child-like. Stick figures mostly as her artistic skills were not fabulous but she could still see the evolution. Bound within a folder, golden eyes glanced through the folios, looking for a place to begin her planning.
"The beginning, my dear girl. That is the best place to start. Didn’t you know?"
Smiling, she remembered her grandfather’s words. He had helped her with some things, forever immortalized within the book. Perhaps that was one of the reasons the project was so important to her – the memory of those moments with him, laughing about some silly detail. He had been important to her and as such, what she held in her hands, pages from arcs gone by were significant. The man was gone, but his memory lived on in her.
Casting a gentle hand over the pages, she flipped through them, coming to the final set. There before her eyes, a crude drawing of a stable. Horses had always been a fascination of hers, long before her beloved Renaissance. They were such majestic animals and she devoured whatever information about them she could get. In fact, Renny was quite possibly her closest companion for all the time they had spent out in the woods, exploring and being with each other. Trusting him above all others, especially with her secrets, the young woman could truly admit that within the equine's presence, she always felt a certain measure of peace.
Natalia had been quite young when Matteas Gregorios had suggested they, as a fun activity, draw up a plan for a stable. It had been a rainy afternoon and with nothing better to do, she had readily agreed. They had talked about silly things first, but her grandfather sprinkled enough knowledge throughout that she had slowly learned what was required to run a stable.
Of course, it helped that there was a prime example of a stable on the grounds of her parent's estate. It was smaller, but adequate for her planning purposes. Skipping to the pages where a few of the important details were outlined, she noted the page where she had finally named her dream.
Twilight Stables
Twilight was the time of the trial where things slowly started to slow down, to calm and settle. The time between light and dark, where chaos was once again contained, bowing to the tranquility of the night. It was perhaps the young woman’s favorite time and as such – Twilight Stables.
Cutting away from the name, she noted a short list to the side. ‘Staff,’ it said. Beneath, carefully scripted in twelve-arc old handwriting, were titles like ‘Horse Groom’, ‘trainer’, and ‘stable manager’, along with a quick description of what each would do. For example: “Horse grooms – Clean stalls each trial. Also responsible for feeding, grooming horses, and making sure stall areas are orderly.” Smiling a bit, she remembered Matteas taking her through the Gregorios stables, talking to each staff member, and prompting her to ask questions. He had insisted at the time that it was simply good business sense to learn as much about something you were interested in as possible.
