A Birth day

Ruby heard Minos and nodded " that sounds like a great idea , it would be like Khaat's pendant that alerts her to werewolves." she said as she watched Angus tuck the bracelets into the dish cloth draw and she chuckled " just don't forget they are there." she said as she looked at Aria who nodded as he spoke about getting the blood from Pricilla " be like getting blood from a stone" she said.

Aria heard them talk abut getting blood from Pricilla so they could make a magical piece of jewellery for angus to warn him that she was around him so he could be warned. " that's a great idea, but how would you collect it?" she asked " with out killing her that is?" she asked looking from Marcus to Angus and back.

"Yes, it seems it would be," Marcus agreed with Ruby. "And that might give me a bit of an advantage to be able to better protect Angus from her. "

"I don't have a plan yet," Angus told Aria. "We have time, though. it isn't like I have to put a particular rush on it."

"I'll give it some thought too," Marcus said. "We'll come up with something." As he spoke, Sam and Victor came in from work, and Sam looked particularly rough tonight. Angus knew that look, and he recognized the particular pattern of smudges on Sam's shirt.

"Go shower, Victor," Angus said quietly. "Come with me, Sam. We'll be back. Supper will be just fine while I'm gone, Ru. Just leave it alone. You don't need to do anything with it. This won't take long." He led Sam out the door and over towards the main house.

"I guess that means I'll be back too," Marcus said, following Sam and Angus.

"Not sure how Angus knew, but he knew, didn't he?" Victor asked Ruby. "Sam's hurting. He was out in the corral, and one of the hippogriffs had a temper tantrum. Sam was trying to get out of the way, and he fell. I don't know if he got kicked or what, but he's been hurting since. I told him to tell Jack, but Sam figured we were just an hour or two from quitting time, so he wanted to finish his shift."

Ruby watched as Sam and Victor walked in she could see from Sam's face something was wrong, when Angus said for her to leave it she nodded she would let him deal with it. Aria nodded to Marcus when he said he was going too. Now with both out side Ruby heard Victor tell her about what happened " those hippogriff's kick hard" she said now a little worried " can't say I don't want to rush out there an check on him but I won't , I'll leave it to Angus." she said and smiled worriedly to Victor " now please go wash up you smell like a hippogriffs backside." she said and chuckled trying to lighten the mood.

Aria moved to the kitchen and made a tray of fresh ice and dug out an ice pack just in case Angus asked for it for Sam..

"Yeah, don't tell Jack, but there's a new guy on the day shift, and I really, really don't like him at all," Victor told Ruby. "I found him in the closet where Kate keeps the potions and such for caring for the animals, and I don't know what he was on besides firewhiskey, but he was stoned on something. I told him he needed to cut it out before Jack caught him, and that nimrod followed me out of the closet, into the barn into a pile of manure from the freshly mucked stalls and he chucked me in it and made a real mess. I had to go muck two stalls a second time because of his shenanigans."

"You need to tell Jack," Edward said, coming over, and he had Simone with him. She was carrying a casserole. "Anyone who is in that sort of compromised state is a massive safety risk to themselves, the entire crew, and the animals. My own thought is you should go see Jack before you shower so he can see the evidence for himself. You cleaned the barn, so he doesn't have that to see anymore, but he can see the mess you're in before you shower it off. If you tell him after you shower, then it's just your word against another worker's. Jack can't take care of what he doesn't know about. I just saw him near the barn not two minutes ago. Go find him and then come back and shower."

"Okay," Victor sighed. He turned around and headed back out the door.

Simone put her casserole. Edward found a trivet and put it down on the sideboard so she could put her casserole there.

"Found some fresh early peas while I was out at the village farm market, so I made a pea casserole to go with the chicken and the potatoes," Simone said.

Ruby listened and was about to tell him to go see Jack but Edward spoke before she could she looked at Victor and nodded to him. Once he had left to talk to Jack she looked at Edward " thank you, I was about to suggest the same thing, but I think coming from you made it have the weight it needed." she said then looked at the casserole " Angus and Marcus are out side , Sam had an altercation with a hippogriff and is now feeling it I'm guessing, they kick like a boxer on full force, I do hope he's not too badly injured" she said glancing at the door " but I will leave that to Angus" she said smiling at Edward " I can worry but I'm not interfering."

Aria heard what Victor said and sighed shaking her head " he could be a problem come if Priscila starts something he does need to be spoken to, he could eve jeopardize the organisation with his slack ways" she said softly. hearing Edward she stopped and let Edward talk to Victor and saw him leave. Jack was by the feeders when he saw Victor walk over to him.

" what's got your face looking like some one swiped your favourite treat and smelling like you just bathed in horse manure?" he asked as he filled the hippogriffs feed bucket. Placing it down he turned to face Victor as he waited for the lad to tell him.

"Well," Edward said, "I can tell you where they've gone, then. If Sam was kicked, Angus likely took him over for Robert to make sure Sam doesn't have any broken bones. We'll hope Robert doesn't find much, but I have a sneaky feeling that if he does, Jack's going to have more to be irked about than a grounds crew member who's into the firewhiskey during his shift."

"Sorry," Victor told Jack. "That new bloke--Liam--he's a problem. I wasn't sure about saying anything, but Edward thought I should tell you. I found him hiding in Kate's closet in the barn. He was drinking firewhiskey, and he was pretty drunk, and I know he was using something else too. I know drunks. My dad was daily drunk. Liam was doing something else too because he wasn't just drunk. He was stoned too. I told him he needed to knock it off, and he followed me into the barn and chucked me in the pile of manure that we'd muck out of the stalls and chucked manure everwhere. I fixed it. I mean, I cleaned the stalls again, and shoveled out all the manure and washed the barn floor, but I'm not going to be happy if I have to do that job twice a shift because he's being an arsehole. And I honestly don't know if he was responsible for Sam's trouble or not, but Angus just took Sam to make sure he doesn't have any broken bones."

Ruby heard Edward and nodded " I know" she said "that's why I'm worried but not at the same time" she said an chuckled " that make any sense " she said and chuckled as Aria and herself got out the plated and bowls and cutlery ready for Supper that Simone had brought " smells wonderful Simone" she said with a smile.

Jack stood and listened and took in everything Victor had said " okay first , thank you for coming to me with this, second , I'm going to take you off barn duty you and Sam will be on Kneazle feeding, its easy" he said and then shifted on his spot " as for this new guy Liam , I don't like having guys who can't do their jobs but I'll talk to Robert about if he knows a rehab we can get him in both for his drinking and what ever else he is on too, no one gets fired from here but they do get help" he said placing his hand on Victors shoulder " starting tomorrow you go to Mike down in the west pasture he'll show you wants needed but its simple standing and feeding them once the all full your done, now go home and wash up, leave Liam to me." he said seeing Liam walk behind Victor walking to the staff bunk house. Seeing Victor head back to the Duplex Jack headed to the bunk house.

Aria looked down at the babies who were chewing on a teddys foot and chuckled . gently she pulled it away and accioed some teething rings that had been in the fridge cooling once they had them they happily chewed on them while she went back to reading her book on magical beasts.

Robert had gotten home about thirty minutes earlier, and he had gone upstairs and showered and was just coming down to the kitchen for a cup of tea when Angus came in with Sam. Robert immediately saw Sam was hurting.

"Oh, boy," Robert said, seeing Sam's filthy clothes. "You've had better days, I can tell. Come on, Lad. Let me help you feel a bit better."

"You need me to come?" Angus asked.

"No, but come anyway," Sam told him. Robert put his arm around Sam's shoulder and walked him downstairs, and Angus followed behind. Robert helped Sam take off his shirt, and Robert took a good look at him.

"When did this happen? How long ago?" Robert asked.

"Maybe an hour or so," Sam said.

"Next time you get hurt, especially if it's on the job, you come see me or see Jess straight away," Robert said. Sam nodded. "I know this hurts like the devil. Angus, stand behind him so he can lean back on you, if he needs to, while I work." Angus stood behind him.

"Broken?" Angus asked.

"Two," Robert said, laying his hand on Sam's forehead to cast a pain removal spell. Sam hadn't been ready for it, and he somewhat fell backwards against Angus. The whole thing had startled him.

"Relax. You're alright. I'm right here," Angus told him quietly.

"Sorry, Sam. Didn't realize you weren't ready," Robert said. "Close your eyes and give it a rest for a minute. I want to put your ribs back the way they go. Once I have them back in place, you'll feel better. Were you kicked by one of the unicorns?"

"Hippogriff," Sam said, slightly sleepy from the pain spell.

"Ah. well, yes. That would make more sense. Testy buggars, those two," Robert said. "Any idea what upset them?"

"Might have been whatever that new guy was doing," Sam said. "One of Jack's new guys. Don't know his name. He was doing something out in the corral, and I went out there to put more feed in the trough. While I was minding my own business, all of a sudden, the hippogriff goes berserk and charges me, knocks me down and starts stomping and kicking the bejesus out of me."

"Sam," Angus said, "think. Did you see or hear anything?"

"Nah. Not other than he was apparently trying to cast some sort of thing because I heard wand fire a time of two before the hippogriff went nuts," Sam said.

"Wand fire?" Robert frowned. "Sam, are you sure? You're sure you heard wand fire?" Angus looked at Robert. There should have been no reason either of them knew of for anyone to be casting a spell around the hippogriffs. There was a sort of quick grinding and snapping sound as the ribs went back into place. Sam winced hard. "Breathe," Robert said. "Alright?" Sam nodded. "Good lad. Now, I'll send you with some pain potion. Follow the directions just as they're written. I'm going to send Andrew over to you in the morning to work with you on some deep breathing exercises. For tonight, get cleaned up, get some supper, and get some rest. I'll let Jack know you're going to need at least a few days without hard physical activity. When you feel like it, in the next day or so, you could go sit in the small animal room and work on refilling the potions bottles from the big bottles and restocking some of the small supplies from the big boxes. And you can work on learning how to repair some of the tack. The reins and such need tending on a regular basis or we end up replacing them way before we should have to. So there are some sitting jobs that get neglected. I'll tell Jack you're going to have tomorrow off and maybe the next. We'll just see how you feel. Angus, you can give him a dose of your sleep potion if he's restless at bedtime. And, Sam, if you start to have a lot of coughing or shortness of breath or chest congestion, you let me know straight away. Got all that?" Sam nodded.

"Marcus, take Sam home, please. I'm going to take Angus with me for a moment," Robert said.

"Certainly," Marcus said. He helped Sam put his dirty shirt back on but he didn't pester him about buttoning it.

"And, Marcus, keep an ear open for him while he's in the shower. He's not used to pain spells," Robert said.

"I intended to," Marcus replied. "Come on, Sam. Let's go home." Marcus took Sam and walked him back to the duplex.

"You want to go see if there's any marks on the hippogriffs as much as I do, don't you?" Angus asked Robert.

"I sure as hell do," Robert said. "Come along." The two of them headed towards the barn.

Jack was moving the hippogriffs to the barn for the night when he paused and walked around a female her hind quarters ere scorched " now how did you get like this?" he asked and ran his hand lightly down its flank. " get the others inside, I'll have to talk to Robert about this, Stormwing, now how did you do this" he asked again seeing and feeling burns.

He looked up and saw Robert and Angus " okay, I was going to find you Victor told me about some trouble he had with Liam a new hire , and I just found Stormwing like this" he turned her so they could see the burns on her flank. " was about to get the salve you made and tend it, you guys have perfect timing, not sure if she did it on a fence or during a battle ?" he said and looked at both. Looking at both of them he whistled to a man stood feeding the Thestral " find Liam , Now!" he said and the man ran out the door. While Jack looked at Robert Victor said he looked drunk and he looked like he was on something too."

Robert went to check on the female hippogriff himself, and Angus went over towards the feeding trough to check the ground to see if he could find anything at all.

"Sam told Angus he was kicked by a hippogriff today," Robert said. "He wasn't just kicked. I just took a look at him. Sam was trampled. Lad's got two broken ribs and a damned good bruising--multiple, deep hoofprint shaped bruises. He's lucky he wasn't trampled to death. He said he believed he heard wandfire and that it was the wandfire that spooked the hippogriff. If I find out who fired a wand while they were near the hippogriffs, there won't be enough left of them to put on a microscope slide. As it is, you're going to be without Sam for at least three weeks from any hard physical duty."

Angus was rooting around in some weeds near the trough, and he saw something glistening. He crouched down and was searching the long grass, and he found a gold pendant with a broken chain. He picked it up, and as he did, he had a vision of a man with reddish blonde hair, and there were some deliberate emerald green streaks of hair dye above at least one of the man's ears--almost an arrow shape, going from front towards the back. And then he realized that in his hand was one of Priscilla's voodoo symbols in gold, dangling from the broken chain. he balled the chain and the pendant up in his fist.

"He's mine," Angus said in almost silent rage, standing up and drawing his wand. "Whoever did this, I want the right man for the crime, and then he's mine."

"What did you find?" Robert asked.

"I found he's mine," Angus said.