Chapter 75 - Ilsa [4]

Thunking the large metal pail onto the counter. It was as long as Noah's forearm with two thing metal handles welded onto the side of it. "First, most important for holstaurs is a place to keep the milk." Ilsa slapped the pail and it rand, "not much to say about them, it's a pail, one of these will be good for about half of what you'll get out of a m.a.t.u.r.e holstaur in a day. Considering you've got about seven I'd say a good twenty to thirty of these should keep you stocked up for a while. I've only got fifteen on hand right now so I'll have to put in an order for those." She looked to Meira and narrowed her eyes to daggers, "which you'll be paying for."

Meira simply sighed and nodded her head, unable to refute or even unwilling to.

"Right," Noah pulled the pail over the counter and popped off the lid to peer inside the dark innards. It was a bucket with a lid essentially. Little else to it. Ilsa then turned her gaze over the storefront and slid herself around her counter, making quick work of the room she arrived by a pile of stacked wooden buckets and pulled from the top two.

"You'll need these to catch the milk. Good to have two in case one break. If you start diversifying out into species other than Fraerian's it's also good to just keep the two apart from each other."

Giving him a chance to check the bucket, Ilsa was already on the move. When she came back she was setting down an assortment of tools. Lifting the first Noah inspected the curve handled dagger-like tool with intrigue. It was a knife, though it couldn't stab as the tip had been curled backwards into a half-moon shape, one edge fell to a knife-sharp edge.

"Trimming knives," she met his gaze and said, "the auctions trim the holstaurs hooves before the show but once they get back to your farm that'll be up to you. You'll need these, a few of these actually, as well as sharpening stones to keep them ready for work. I'll get those in a bit." Setting the hoof trimming knife down she didn't give Noah the chance to pick one of the three up and inspect it before she was lifting the dark iron end cutter pliers the size of Noah's forearm. "Hoof nippers, better for the larger chunks of horns around the edge of the toes and giving their feet a bit of shaping. Of course, you'll need a few files to round everything down and get it all level but otherwise, these will be a big part of your arsenal."

He could hear Ilsa's feet tapping behind the counter as she fell into thought. Soon perking up as she remembered something. Noah looked over his shoulder to Meira, met her smile with his own strained one and waited for Ilsa to return from the backroom she'd escaped into. Bringing with her a thick leather apron and some heavy-duty gloves.

"Protection. Some holstaurs can be particularly feisty, especially if you hit something s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e. These'll help keep you in mostly one piece." She turned once more over her store, "should have a few crooks around here as well, Those'll be good for keeping them in line." She mulled.

"Anyways, there'll be your main tools for keeping holstaurs well enough. I've got brushes as well that you can use to dust and clean them off every now and then but so long as you provide them with a decent amount of water they'll clean themselves off." Biting the tip of her thumb she thought, "what else, what else… a whip? Mmm, don't have any in stock after my last order…"

"Uh," Noah gaped at the slue of items presented before him. Wood and metal, knives and nippers. It wasn't much, but knowing how every one of them had a specific use and a specific way to use them, it was already proving to be a daunting task as reality was quickly setting in on his heart. "Thanks, I guess?" he lifted one of the hoof trimming knives and watched its polished silver sheen glint in the evening light.

Glancing over the assortment, he couldn't help but lament how there weren't any automatic milkers like he'd seen back on earth. Meaning he'd likely have to do it by hand, to the b.r.e.a.s.ts of women shaped cows.

"Don't thank me yet. We've still got feed to deal with but that's something Meira will order from a farmer up the ways." Crossing her arms she looked up to Noah's features and bobbed her head to the side, "you've also gotten a harpy yes?" he nodded at that, "there's something's you'll need for that as well."

"Is it as much as this?" he paled.

"Not particularly, the gloves'll be the main thing you keep between them." Digging somewhere beneath her counter she rose and set down a pair of oddly shaped scissors. Large, large enough for his finger to fit into its oddly short tip. Pushing her fingers into the holes, she opened it and the two sides opened crafting a sort of oval shape between the blades. "Nail clippers. They clip nails, no more, no less."

He eyed them up, picked them up and inspected them with a few curious openings and closes. Though intimidating, Noah realized that in reality, it wasn't that much compared to other occupations. He couldn't imagine what his life would be if he'd been thrown into a world to become an engineer and suddenly be lumped with dozens of different tools and parts. 'Suppose I should be grateful, huh?' he silently chuckled.

"Is this it? I mean, everything I'll need?"

"Good heavens no. These are the tools and from what I heard you've only just gotten into the ranching game so I doubt you even have the proper buildings for all your monsters. But that's something Meira will have to deal with."

"Indeed," Meira stepped up besides Noah and took his attention. "When we head off to the ranch I'll be bringing with a carpenter friend of mine and he'll see to putting up some fences first and a barn or two once we've got all the livestock secured."

Noah pursed his lips and nodded along but paused as he noticed something, "we? You're coming with?"

"Of course," she puffed sounding almost offended… almost. "I'd like to check the land out myself. Just to give me an idea of what I have to deal with in the future."

There was a lot, Noah internally remarked. He wasn't sure how large it was but from what Liora had told him, the Rostrea's owned a large, almost gargantuan chunk of that countryside. Though much of it went unused baring the farmland itself.

Stepping off to the side, Ilsa plucked from the wicker weaved baskets the largest she could and brought it back to the counter where she stuffed what she could inside, the pails and buckets left off to the side. "All of this would cost six hundred normally but considering I'm to sponsor you and you're just beginning, I'll let you have these for free. After this though, I'll be expecting payment upfront for any other tools."

"That's not in the oath-"

"For cheap." Ilsa hissed, silencing Meira upfront. "I still have a business to run and I can't live off of earnings you get once the product is out. You want equipment, I want pay." She accentuated her words making it abundantly clear she wasn't going to budge on this position. "This should be everything a beginner'll need. If Meira gets you a mentor to show you the ropes they might have some more niche things for you but I don't."

"This will be perfect Ilsa," Meira said, "and on the topic of mentors, I was wondering if you could teach Noah here how to properly milk a holstaur."

It took a second for that to process in both Noah and Ilsa before Noah took a double take and Ilsa sighed.

"Pardon?"

"I'm not a cow Meira," Ilsa grumbled and glared at Meira's abundant c.h.e.s.t. "If anything the one teaching him should be you."

Meira fell into low, harmonic laughter, "I've trained myself as a merchant. I don't have the know-how of such a thing as you do."

In response, Ilsa's expression narrowed like she was s.u.c.k.i.n.g on a lemon. "Then why don't you get your t.i.t.s squeezed and I give him tips, huh? Instead of having to deal with it myself."

"Uh," Noah trailed with cheeks faintly a darker red shade, "I don't think that's necessary."

"My, that sounds perfect to me. What do you say, Noah?" Meira turned to him beaming brightly with a glint to his eyes that he could only construe as saying 'finally.' She ignored what Noah had said only to smile as if she knew the answer her question would end with. She puffed out her c.h.e.s.t, swayed it just barely side to side but enough to draw Noah to her bosom's pendulum swaying. He gulped, swallowed a thick clump of spit and physically felt his pupils dilate as he trailed through her sheer sari and over her bikini top that left open her warm, chocolate belly and how he could see that beautiful V form groin and t.h.i.g.hs created with her weakly accentuated muscles formed through whatever holy exercise she did.

"Uhhhh," like any good man, Noah malfunctioned.

"For the love of," Ilsa muttered, "are all otherworlders this annoying?"