Three Stars Stable and Hire (Petrichor 365)

Sometimes, you need a horse or another sort of mount or pack animal.  One such place to buy such, or hire for local use, is the Three Stars Stable.  They have been in business for around five years, continually adding to the building and their stock.

Their business model is simple, they sell mounts and pack animals to those going out at slightly inflated prices and then repurchase them on the cheap when the venturers return and do not want to pay to keep them stabled and cared for.  Or they make money stabling them, in either case, profit!  As an additional sideline, they rent out wagons and carts to locals who need to move things but do not want the expense of owning their own.  They will also sell such vehicles to those going out of town.

Since their founding they have worked with a variety of animals, while horses, donkeys, and mules are their most common animals, they usually have a few oxen and a goodly number of pack goats.  But over the years they have also had camels, pack dogs, flightless birds, llamas, giant lizards, reindeer, water buffalo, yaks, zebra, and even an elephant, once.  The more exotic animals, they try to sell on as quickly as possible as they often cause trouble with the other animals and sometimes require special diets.  Neither of which is good for business or profits.  But if customers want a particular kind of mount or animal, they will do their best to locate them.

The stables cover quite a bit of ground with multiple buildings, several exercise yards, and their own smithy for shoeing horses and making repairs to wagons and carts.  The waste from the animals is carted out to local farmers who always need more fertilizer.

Alizon Star is the chief trainer and animal specialist, there is no animal she has met so far that she cannot train or ride (if it is of the proper size).  She is a talk and lanky woman with, perhaps, some Earthkine in her bloodline, who wears her blond hair under a large hat.  She favors boots and tough clothes.  Alizon prefers spending time with animals than people, but anyone who is good with animals, especially riding them, can earn her respect.

Lazry Star is the primary salesperson, a younger woman with frizzy pink hair (no one is sure if it is dyed or natural) and an easy way with animals.  She has a knack of knowing what people want when they come up, even if the buyer is not sure, she will find what they need (within the limits of what the stable has available).

Takrin Bluestar is the smith and general repair person for the stables, one of the Sapphire Gemkine, he is of above-average height for that group and wears his blue-black hair in tight braids with steel beads.  Takrin always has a weapon or two on his person, just in case.  Always happy to talk about making and repairing things.

The stables employ between five and eight other people full-time and occasional day workers as well.  The three stars share a hose that is part of the complex (and attached to the smithy) while the workers have places to sleep above one of the storehouses.

Notes: The Three Stars are more of a corporation or found family than anything else.  Characters have acquired animals, especially pack goats, from them on more than one occasion.

Petrichor 365.  Previous: Commodore Pharos.  Next: Arrun the Fisher

Image Pack horse and donkey in Hortus Deliciarum, found on Wikimedia Commons and in the Public Domain.