| Sival Sival headed over first to one of the younger baby herdbeasts, noting with pleasure that it was a feminie-looking heifer calf. She was, Sival noted, almost the same color as Twist, only with a roaning pattern of white on her belly and neck, and was quite striking with her markings. He quickly lifted the heifer over the fence into a smaller pen, and grabbed a few more of the smaller animals. The larger ones were too hard to control right now, and they might settle down some after they'd been in the pen for a while, so Sival was planning to work his way up in the sizes of the calves. He took the iron brand, and got Twist to growl at one of the larger calves to silence it, then stuck the brand in the fire until it was red hot. In one quick stroke, Sival pressed the red-hot iron onto the calve's hindquarters, then lifted it up almost as quickly. The brand mark was black and smelled of burned flesh, but Sival wasn't alarmed. He knew that it would heal quickly. He finished the rest of the calves in the smaller pen, then continued to lift more up and over the fence, branding them in trios. It took several candlemarks before he was done, and by then, sweat was pouring down his lean frame and Twist was looking just as hot. "Okay, boy, that's it until we get a fresh batch of calves," Sival said happily to Twist, opening up the door to the big pen and letting all of the large herdbeasts out to find their babies. He knew from working with the herdbeasts with his father for the past few Turns that even though it looked like the calves would almost never find their mothers in that big mess, it took only about thirty seconds. If that much. Pouring some water into his hand for Twist to lap up, Sival took two long gulps, then poured the rest over his head, laughing slightly as it dribbled on his neck, making him feel much cooler and refreshed. Then, he and Twist headed back to the main part of the cothold, Sival looking down at his records of how many calves had been born so far this Turn. "Those five new ones make a total of twenty-seven calves," He remarked happily to Twist, who just looked up, panting with his canine grin. Sival chuckled. "That's alot, boy, and we ought to be happy. Nineteen of those are bulls, strangely high numbers, but that means there'll be more meat. As Twist's ears perked up at the word "meat," Sival chuckled again. Next |