"Saltlick," she explains, and lowers it to let him have a closer look, then holds out her hands to pick him up.

He sniffs at it, and then reaches his own paws out to be picked up, cuddling into her arms.

She checks the manager's office, and when it turns out to be empty, goes back to where the trader's wagon is being unloaded and glares at the workers until someone comes over. "Is something wrong, ma'am?"

She shifts One to get her arm free for a moment and brandish the saltlick. "Somebody put this - in with my goat."

    He's confused. "Yes, ma'am?"

"He could have broken a tooth - hard salt's not safe for goats, they chew."

    "Huh. I didn't know that, we don't get goats in often. Is he all right?"

"I'll want to double check."

    "Okay. Why don't you do that now, and I'll make sure the boys know not to put it back." He takes the lick from her.

"Good," she nods. "Thank you." And she heads back to the stall.

One shifts accomodatingly when she shifts him, and listens curiously, and once they're making their way back, gives a curious chirp, if Deka wants to explain?

Phantasm answers, when it becomes obvious that Deka isn't going to. "You have to be careful with goats, they like to try to eat things they shouldn't and it can make them sick or hurt them. I don't know why they gave him the salt but they didn't know it was dangerous."

    "Horses," Figment puts in. "Remember there were ponies at the clan meeting last year? Horses need salt."

"Right, I remember now. So they were trying to help, but they still could have hurt him by accident."

One nods. "I...see. That's...not good but...not bad?" He wrinkles his nose, obviously trying to work out where this falls on the spectrum of actions people can take.

"Still pretty bad," Deka mutters, and Phantasm shifts to preen her hair.

"Kip's important, we need him for money. For the college, and to do anything really."

She comes up a little short at that. "Broken tooth's not that bad, don't worry. Still not okay if they hurt him, just because he shouldn't be hurt."

One twitches a little at Deka's mutter. "I- yes. Still bad. But...accident not intentional? Just- trying to-" Makes a tiny gesture, tries to encapsulate 'figure out where things sit on the apparently sliding scale of what's good and bad', it probably doesn't come across very well.

"Yeah, that matters. Not going to - yell at them, or anything. Unless it happens again."

Another nod. "If again, more...cruel? Intentional?"

"We're paying them to do this right. Accidents happen but they need a way to stop them once they know, that's - basic kind of thing to expect, place like this. Would be different if it was just some family doing a favor."

One hums agreement. "Should've maybe...asked? About salt lick? Given they don't know goats?"

"Mmhmm. Would have been fine." They're back at the stall; she puts him down and goes in to check on the goat.

"...yeah, little chip. Not - big deal, don't think he's bothered, just need to watch it."

One trots forward a little to the door of the stall. "So he's...okay? For now at least?"

"Yeah. Chance it'll get infected later but not likely, he's pretty healthy. Don't think it bothers him eating, he wouldn't be calm if he was hungry. Guess it could be too new for that-" she offers him some hay from the rack, and he takes it readily. "No, he's fine."

One perks up at that. "That's good! Wouldn't want him hurt. Being hurt isn't nice."

"Yeah," she grins. "Okay. Go tell the manager and I can give him a brush-down." She scoops One up again on the way to do that; he's in his office, now, checking records.

    "Hey, is the goat all right?"

"Little chipped tooth, but he's eating fine."

    "Oh dear. We'll give you a refund for that, of course. And..." he runs his finger down the ledger... "Naer had that stall; he's usually a good worker but I can reassign it if you'd like."

"No need, it was an accident."

    "All right. I will make sure he knows to check with you before putting anything else in."

"Good."

He gives her a handful of coins, and she heads back to the stall to brush Kip.

One continues to watch curiously, but also explores a tiny bit up and down on either side of the stall - not going far enough that he can't see Deka, or wouldn't be able to hear her.

The nearby stalls are occupied by horses, fairly similar to Kip but with much shorter hair in a variety of colors, no horns, and very different eyes, all-black to his blue with horizontal pupils. Most of them are at least watching the little group; one horse two stalls down and across the aisle from Deka reaches out over the door to her stall to try to sniff at One when he gets close.

One twitches a little away, a barely there move, and then creeps forward and extends towards the horse to sniff at her in turn.

She can't actually reach him over the stall door until he reaches up, or even quite make contact when he does; she's close enough to snuffle at him, though, large nostrils moving enough air to thoroughly ruffle his fur.

He shivers a little under the attention, and gives a little giggle-like sound at the sensation. Then he drops down, and pads back to Kip's stall to groom his fur back into place.

Phantasm lags behind to play with the horse.

"Doing okay?" Deka asks when he gets back.