Lampfire brushed out the ponies mane, reassuring all of the others nuzzling his hands and shoulders that it would be their turn soon.
These were the workhorses of the circus, the jobbers who pulled the wagons and caravans. The animals who took people into town and back. The ones who pulled the residential caravans between cities. The ones who were hired out when a nearby field needed ploughing or a stump pulling up.
The herd ranged in size from almost comically small ponies to full-size draft horses, bigger than any he'd ever met before. There were more of them than he had had time to count, but they were all eager to tell him about themselves.
It was odd, he thought, as he untangled a particularly difficult knot from the ponies mane. He had never before met horses who could speak, but the circus animals were much more of a herd and much wilder than any others he'd encountered. Horses in the streets tended to be focused on their work, those he’d met in stables were sleepy and obtuse.
These guys rarely went indoors and weren’t often apart. They all had their own little friendship groups and intricacies, and he was enjoying learning about them all.
The one he was combing at the moment called herself… He took a moment to translate it in his mind. She called herself something along the lines of ‘All the Colours of Grass’. It wasn’t a very original name, but she was the smallest in the herd, not even big enough for an adult to ride.
He listened to her gossip as he brushed out her coat. She hadn’t been brushed in some time, so it had taken some convincing to get her to stand still, but they were all quickly coming to trust him.
She had been with the circus most of her life, which was a long time indeed, and had taught many different children to ride over those years. He wasn’t sure who, as she didn't know human names, and he didn’t know anybody here yet, but she reassured him that there were many. The only people he'd met so far were two older kids, Brightfeather and Dreamspears, and they were both so grown up!
Lampfire had only been here a week, and he had only tried talking to the horses a few days ago. He didn’t have much experience with horses, to be honest, but they had all been groomed at some point in their lives and were very vocal on how he should do it.
He was done with the mane, and stood back to admire his work. It had been a matted and grubby mess when he'd started, but now it gleamed.
Onto the tail next. One of the horses said something about feet, but he wasn't feeling confident about that yet, and he suspected he might be missing the right tools, so they let him be.
He was only here because his dad had been hired on as a carpenter after the previous chippy had disappeared and had to be quickly replaced. There were rumours that he’d run off with a whole week's takings, but, Lampfire considered, that was none of his business. Between the two of them, they had a small and rather dingy caravan, and it was rather like being on holiday.
He finished brushing the ponies tail out, leaving it shiny and clean. He had already done her coat, but he decided to give it one final polish.
She looked very neat and proud when he was done, standing next to the others. He hadn't done anything with her hooves yet, but they all told him they were fine, and it was mostly just a wash-job that was needed. Somebody came through once a month and clipped their nails and checked them for sores.
He had never considered that horses had nails like people, but they insisted it was true, and he wasn't going to argue with lived experience!
He held out his hands, selecting his next target. This horse introduced herself as ‘The Taste of Oats in Summer’, and Lampfire smiled. The old woman who normally looked after her simply called her ‘Oats’, and he wondered if the two names were related. It was very unlikely she could hear the horse speak, he had never met anyone else who shared his talent, and he figured that was probably the reason most horses were so dull. Lives spent dedicated to nothing but work wore their voices down to nothing.
-
Once he’d finished grooming Oats, almost an hour later, he had to recruit help. The next horse was named 'Clods of Earth' and was much too big for him to handle alone.
He sought out the older girl who had welcomed him on his first day, Dreamspears. She had shown him around and told her all the names of her goats. He was impressed she could remember so many!
She had insisted on helping when he asked if she knew anybody, and had found somebody else to do her job for the afternoon.
Between the two of them, they got it done. She held ‘Clods of Earth’ in place, while he stood atop a borrowed ladder and attempted to groom the old boys back.
‘Clods of Earth’ was one of the circuses largest horses, used for the heavy loads and general work that the smaller animals couldn’t handle. The biggest jobs were handled by the Lumpox, but she was overkill for most jobs.
The old horse would have stayed still without Dreamspears' encouragement, but her being there made Lampfire feel much more confident. 'Clods of Earth' was taller than even the tallest adult that Lampfire knew, and despite his friendly and docile nature, his size was simply overwhelming. His coat was a light grey and he had big furry feet that had taken the two of them almost an hour to wash and comb. His sides were scarred from ill-use, but he reassured Lampfire that it had happened long before he had joined the circus, and that everyone here had been nothing but nice to him.
If anything, ‘Clods of Earth’ mused, shifting a little on his feet, he wished they would give him more work. He wasn’t getting any younger, and the exercise would be good for his old bones.
Lampfire made a note of this, maybe he could drop some hints to somebody. He still wasn’t sure what the system was for working the animals, but probably there was somebody in charge and he simply hadn’t met them yet.
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There were still three more horses of a similar size for him to clean, and Dreamspears couldn’t help him all day, but together they got a good amount done. She seemed as pleased to see them clean as he was, and he decided he liked her a lot, even if she was a bit deaf.
He had spoken to her goats, on his first day here, and they had told him all about her. She was attentive but distant. She couldn’t hear their words but she was good to them. She made sure the food came on time and never once forgot to let them out in the mornings.
They still missed their previous human, and there was an air of collective mourning hanging over the herd, but it wasn’t the first time they had lost somebody, and they were bracing themselves for Dreamspears to leave too.
He tried to reassure them that she wasn’t going anywhere, but their words were all spit and bleating and he was mostly drowned out. He hoped that over time they would come to trust that she was going to stick around, but for now, they had seen it all before.
-
It took him three days to brush and clean all the horses, and at the end of that third day, he got a summons from ‘The Man Himself’, Rosesweet. The owner of the circus.
Lampfire was more than a little nervous. He was only a kid, well below legal working age, and he hadn’t been recruited to look after the horses. Nobody was paying him, he was simply doing something he enjoyed. He was only in the circus because his dad was a carpenter, and was a little worried he would be told to leave alone what wasn’t his to mess about with.
-
He entered the purple and gold caravan with his hat in his hands. He had brushed his hair and scrubbed his face in advance, and he was wearing his best clean outfit, the one his father said was reserved for funerals. He hoped he looked presentable.
Inside the caravan, the circus owner was sitting on a bed, his face illuminated by the evening light coming in through a small window on the opposite wall. The glass was stained different colours and arranged in a sort of geometric design, and it lit up the inside of the small room like a rainbow, making it seem warm and friendly.
“You’re Seafront's kid, right?” the owner questioned, and Lampfire nodded the affirmative. “Yessir, you called for me?”
The man gestured to a chair near the door, it was made of new wood and looked like his father's work. Lampfire drew it out and sat, placing his cap on his knees.
Rosesweet cleared his throat, “You came as a package with your dad, right? I hear you’ve been grooming the work-horses and ponies.”
Lampfire gulped, “It just seemed like they needed it…” he twisted his cap in his hands, looking down. He hadn’t done anything wrong, had he?
The older man shook his head reassuringly, “It’s fine, I’m not upset. If I had time to do it myself, I would, but,” he gestured in a circular motion around himself, “this place takes up all of my time.”
Lampfire relaxed a little, looking around the neat little room, and Rosesweet spoke again, “I talked to ‘Lumps of Earth’ yesterday”
He blinked, “the biggun?”
Rosesweet smiled a slow smile, “The very same. He said you can Speak, as well as Listen.”
Somehow those words seemed to have an odd intonation to them, the same as when people said Grow or Change. He had never thought about his talent that way before… He’d never met anyone who could do the same thing and therefore hadn’t needed names for it. Not even his dad knew he could do it, he had been scoffed at and mocked for trying to talk to animals when he was younger, and had learnt to hide it.
Knowing he might not be alone stirred a strange excitement in his stomach, “You…?”
The owner nodded. “If I’ve got an ear out, I can hear em." He looked at the window for a moment, and then back at Lampfire, "I’ve got a job proposal for you. And not just the horses.”
Lampfire waited to see what it was, but he was already starting to suspect he knew, and it was only confirmed by Rosesweet’s next sentence.
“The Lumpox, have you spoken to her at all?”
Lampfire shook his head. He liked animals, but he was a little afraid of the massive beast and hadn’t yet worked up the courage to go near her. “Not yet, she’s very… Big.”
Big was understating it. She was like every monster out of every children’s book he’d ever read, and he was finding it a little hard to shake that image.
Rosesweet smiled fondly, apparently not sharing the same fears. “That she is, she could move the whole circus by herself, that one.”
He lost himself in his musing for a moment, and then looked at Lampfire, who suddenly felt as if he was being assessed somehow.
“How old are you, kid?”
“Twelve, sir.”
He tried to sit up straight and attentive, like at school when the teacher picked on you. There was a pause at that, and then a nod from Rosesweet. Whatever the test was, it had gone over his head, but he seemed to have passed.
“The Lumpox." he began again, "Her name is ‘Moves the World’, and her keeper is getting on. The woman is in her sixties now, and we need an apprentice who can Speak and Listen. There aren’t very many of us out there, but I try and recruit all those I meet.”
This made the chattiness of the horses make a lot more sense. They wouldn’t be so amazed at his talent if they had been brought up amongst people who could do the same. “There’s more of us?” could it be that it wasn’t as rare as he thought?
“Aye, there are a few of us. Me, Bellgold, who looks after ‘Moves the World’, and one of the clowns, you’ll know him when you meet him. I’ve heard of one or two others over the years, but it’s a rare talent.”
He looked thoughtfully at the window again, and Lampfire considered this. The man had spent all his life seeking out people who could Speak and Listen- being able to name it gave him a little thrill- and he had still met less than a handful.
Rosesweet spoke again, pulling him out of his thoughts. “’Moves the World’, as far as we can tell, is the only one of her kind. My predecessor picked her up from the far, far north, and we’ve never found another. If we don’t have somebody who can speak to her, then…” he trailed off.
Lampfire understood. It would be a long and lonely life. Even cats had each other. To be the only one of your kind?
Rosesweet nodded, reading his face. “This is a job for life, you understand? I’m not having you bond with her and then leave when you get bored in a year or two. In return, you’ll be paid well, and you’ll never have to worry about where you live or how you're gonna get by.”
Lampfire thought about it. It wasn’t like being partnered, he would still be able to look after the horses and do other things around the circus. He just wouldn't be able to leave.
“What about my dad, sir?” He knew for a fact that his father wasn’t planning to stick around. This was an emergency job, and he was only planning to stay for a couple of months until a more permanent replacement was hired. He had been planning to go to the coast and get Lampfire an apprenticeship under a captain he knew there.
“We’ll talk to him. I want you here.” Rosesweet said, calming his fears, “it’ll be an official apprenticeship, with all the paperwork that involves. If it works out then he’ll be paid until you’re old enough, and then your money is your own, ok?”
Lampfire screwed his nose up, “I’d rather my money be my own now.” He knew his dad. The man was a decent carpenter, and not a habitual drunk, but he was wont to gamble away any extra pennies, especially those that weren’t his.
Rosesweet seemed to think about this, and then reached over to his desk, grabbing a pencil and making a few marks on a piece of paper. “We’ll put it in trust for you then. You’ll get an allowance, and can ask me if you need any extra, ok?”
Lampfire let his breath out through his nose. That was a relief. Just one last thing.
“I’ll have to meet her first then, Sir, what if we don’t get along?”
Rosesweet laughed, and the deal was done.