“The Narwari have to haul wagons up here? Every day?”
Bash glances down at me with a measuring stare. Probably wondering if the elevation is going to cause me to expire on him. To my delight, he looks a little worried at the possibility rather than relieved. “Mostly only empty ones. Their stable is on the rise.”
When we top it, I know. Because I lurch forward on the wagon bench, no longer glued to the bench’s back like I’m sitting in a theme park ride, for one thing.
For another, the land spreads out in front of us for as far as the eye can see. But the horse barn I was expecting is nowhere to be found. Instead, the Narwari have a stone palace.
It is to alien horses what the royal elephant stables in Hampi was for the Vijayanagara Empire. Impressive. Massive. Crazy.
A round building, it has tall arched doorways ringing what looks like all the way around. Ahead of us, Narwari are being led through these doorways, where they’re unhitched, brushed out, and stabled in domed chambers. Thick slabs of stone form the walls and from the wide open main door, I see the slabs were also used as stall divides.
The outside of the building is flanked by paddocks, which Narwari bustle in and out of.
The top of the building is covered with colorful tiles that stack one atop another, with layers of bright, mismatched color in places and swirling colors in others. It has a lot of flat roof between pitched areas. As I take it in, a massive swooping shadow lands—and it isn’t a bird. It’s a hob. He waves to Bash and I before he walks through a smaller ring of domed doors that sit on top of the tiered roof.
As we roll into a wagon-unhitching area, I look up to find perches and cutouts for the roof entry-using employees. It’s like what a barn would look like if it employed gargoyles.
Speaking of the gargoyles here, their colorful likenesses adorn the place in breathtaking surface-detailing. Etching or engraving or relief sculpting, I’m not sure, but designs of what look a lot like them, their wings, their wing patterns—and flowers and landscapes and horses with far too many teeth and scary eyes—cover every inch of the walls. It’s pretty and really ornate for an animal barn.
“This is different,” I say to no one.
Because Bash is beside me though, he hears. He takes a moment to assess me, then he turns his attention to the building, I think trying to see it as an offworlder would see it for the first time. If he’s only ever lived here, I wonder if he knows what a regular barn looks like. Then again, ‘regular’ is a relative term when we’re talking about alien galaxies. “Gryfala appreciate impressive things. There are hundreds more structures like this all around the planet.”
The air is thinner than I’m used to, enough of a change that I begin to pant for oxygen. “I’ve heard the Narwari aren’t from here. How do the animals get used to this?” I flap my hand. “The change in atmosphere?”
One of Bash’s ears lift and drop in a type of ear-shrug. “They adapt.” He gestures to the ginormous building. “Give yourself a moment and you will too. Would you like to see inside? Gryfala,” he says, his voice going a little harder on this word, “tend to collect the most colorful Narwari. The collection here is a sight to see.”
“You bet,” I gasp. “This is like visiting some sort of zoo.”
He sends me a glance. “This is a good thing?”
It’s my turn to shrug, although I use my shoulders instead of my ears to do it. “Whew,” I suck in a breath. “Basically. Earth-people pay to see exotic animals. A free tour of alien critters? I’m so for this. I just… need… to breathe...”
Looking a little perplexed by me and maybe, maybe a little amused, Bash leads the way into the barn.
Turns out, there’s not much difference in raising alien horses from Earth horses. The floor is the same quarry-derived stone that I know so well and is abundant in this area. Stalls have straw or shavings on the floors. There’s a fountain in the middle of the barn that spills into a wide basin. Raceways take the water to each stall to provide the Narwari a drink.
Unlike horse barns, even the ceilings in this place are all-out decorated. If there weren’t animals in here, you’d never know this wasn’t some