The girl cocked her head at the man when she told her to take some time for herself... well, what exactly did that mean? She didn't have any hobbies per say, not other than cooking, and she couldn't very well go stealing the castle stock, now could she? And most of her friends had gone off with the royal family, so it wasn't like she could go and gossip with the likes of them. She understood well enough why people in the slums did what they did... she'd been lucky in that she never had to do anything particularly horrible, but she'd been the victim of some not-so-amazing crimes. Because of that, it wasn't... easy to forgive a lot of things. Verbally, then she might, but mentally she'd always hold something against the person. Still, she'd give this boy the benefit of the doubt. He'd done nothing to her and that was what mattered, and if he needed some friends then she'd be up for the job. She turned off with a slight wave to the doctor, then wandered out into the halls, where she kind of just... stood as she contemplated what she was going to do.

Sage eventually woke up, and looked out the window th check the time before sighing and sitting up with a yawn. He didn't really want to get up, at all, but if he wanted to have any hopes of sleeping that night, he'd better drag his sorry butt out of bed sooner rather than later. He sat there for a minute before deciding to go down to the barn and get everything there done. He'd have to at some point anyway, and if just sat around thinking his brain would turn on him. He still had nasty blisters from drawing so much, so he didn't particularly want to sit and draw all day right then. He sort of got to his feet with a sigh and stretched, taking a quick drink of water and his morning meds before sliding out of his room.

The young woman looked out the window as she quietly contemplated what to do with herself... she could maybe go home, but it was a good half an hour walk from the castle, and that was without running into any trouble. She couldn't just pop home and hope she'd back for the evening rounds. She'd watch the guards on a normal day, but there wasn't really anyone to watch. The only people that were left were the ones who had a job to do, like guarding the very broken down walls. She'd noticed they already started trying to rebuild some bits, but they weren't going to be done for a long while. Even the not so bad bits would take a while.

(kinda short, I'm out lol)

(it's all good!)

Sage wandered down the hallways, heading around all the guards and sliding through the less occupied corridors. He saw the girl..Mari was it?...staring out the window, and as he walked past the girl, he sort of just commented "if you're doing nothing you can come help me take care of the horses." She could stay there being boring and staring out the window if she wanted, or she could come be useful. He still got really tired working for very long...so she would definitely be helpful, but he wasn't going to force her to come, either. He didn't really care what she decided. If she wanted to help, she could follow him...he wasn't going to stop and wait for her to decide.

The girl jumped slightly when the boy started to speak. She really had been very consumed by her own thoughts, which she considered to be more than usual. She watched him walk a couple of steps before deciding it was better than nothing, so followed along more than willing. She wasn't amazing with animals... mostly because a lot of them scared her, but it wasn't like she'd ever admit that. Not that anyone has tried, though. She walked next to him in the quiet for a moment before huffing out a breath. "I'm afraid I might be a bit useless when it comes to horses... they don't like me," she chuckled lightly before shaking her head at the thought. "I can deal with the little ones though," she hummed lightly, though there was a hint of amusement in her voice... she knew very well that barely any of them were ponies.

Sage was fine with walking in silence, but when the girl spoke up, he found he wasn't annoyed at all, which was really quite surprising. He threw an amused glance in her direction when she said they didn't like her, and snorted at her later comment. "You can stay in the feed room and measure out grain then," he told her. "There's only like three ponies out there right now." He shrugged slightly, not really caring what the girl did. Even if she just sat there and made a small conversation happen...it was better than being alone all day, he supposed. He didn't really like to be alone...that's why he was always near the doctor or one of the horses. The garden seemed too ..quiet. it was too easy for someone to sneak up on him there. He knew it wasn't likely to happen, but as far as he knew his father was still alive and the rebellion was still a thing. Plenty of groups could take advantage of the ruined castle either way, and he wasn't too keen on getting attacked or kidnapped again.

Mari nodded lightly. She'd helped with feeds once or twice over the last few years, and in truth, she rather enjoyed something about it. Maybe it was the repetitiveness. Doing the same thing over and over again, something about that almost seemed... Safe. She liked it. Knowing she wouldn't do anything wrong, knowing there was no way she could upset someone, that was what she liked. She glanced over to the boy with a cocked head and a crooked smile after a moment or two. "I can do that," she chirped brightly. She kind of took in that the only reason he'd asked was so that he wasn't alone... the doctor had explained well enough that he'd had it rough, and he didn't need to say much for her to understand what she needed to. The slums were a nasty place, especially in the lower villages. You'd feel bad for most people that lived down there. And having someone behind you, watching you, making sure you were okay, well, that was of course a comfort of sorts, and she was happy to be that if that was what he needed.

Sage grunted when she said she could measure out feed. He hadn't exactly expected her to say no to it, not now that she was following him out to the barn. Though, he did wonder if she was annoyed he was bringing her on such a long walk to get to the barn. Well, he shouldn't care, but he did kind of wonder what the girl thought of him. He'd kind of been acting like a prick to the girl, and she was still friendly towards him. Maybe he should make a point to be nicer. No...he'd get to close if he did that, and he definitely didn't want that. He had rarely seen the girl before the attack, so if he got close and things went back to normal, he might barely see her no matter how much he may want to. No, it was better to keep his distance and deal with everything himself. It wasn't fair to the girl if he brought her into everything. She was happy...and he'd much rather keep it that way. He could be friendly, he could respond to the girl and help with chores in the doctor's ward ....but making a new friend was out of the question. It hurt a bit, but what did it matter? Everything hurt, and it would hurt more if he got close and then she was taken from him. Like everyone else. Something flickered in his eyes, something that made his eyes look almost like shattered glass. But then he blinked and it disappeared.

Mari followed the boy down to the stables, the slight smile that she always seemed to have resting lightly on her face. They made it to the feed room, which had saddles in the corner... well, what was left of it. A lot of it had been taken during the rade, and really they were lucky to have any tack at all, along with the feed. The room had been cleaned up, though, and it all looked pretty neat - other than the missing saddles of course. She looked up at a chalkboard that had the measurements and then the horse's names next to the feeds, along with how many feeds a day and roughly at what time. "God, these horses live better than I do," she hummed lightly as she went to grab the buckets that had been collected that morning, each having the stable numbers and horses names on them.

Sage chuckled slightly and nodded with a shrug. "I suppose they're important," he hummed. "Everyone seems to think a good horse is more important than a lot of things," he sighed, thinking back to when Anya had first met him. The girl had said horses eat every day, and he'd responded with saying that the horses meant more to them than his rank. It seemed so long ago...he supposed it was. He realized a clouded look had overtakes him again as he remembered that time...the tavern, the starving, his father...and Liz, when she was still here with him. He blinked hard and shook his head, forcing himself to open se bags of feed and buckets. "Add some of the white powder to snowball, mickey, and Jenny's feed. They need the supplements...they're all with foal," he commented before starting to scoop feed for all the horses that weren't in the first tablet the girl had. He'd memorized what horses needed what....he didn't know how, but he did care for all of them a lot. Chaos was special...he'd become a dear friend...but he loved all the horses all the same.