Brit grinned when she finished negotiating the exchange of a pair for the moment, and keeping at least one egg batch exchange a year, so they could keep the populations strong and get more cross-breeding in.

Plus the other breeder was more than willing to let Hazel pick out whichever two snakes she liked, and they set a date for him to come see the Menagerie to pick out the two snakes he wanted to take.

Hazel looked at the snakes, watching how they behaved. She still liked the green one she saw, and she ended up getting distracted by a dark indigo snake with gray-banded white feathers. If she could have, she'd have wanted all of them, but for now, the green one and the indigo one would be just fine.

Brit took the carrying case with the two snakes and nodded to the breeder. They'd seen most of the expo now, and it was after mid-day.

Do you want to go look at the employees again? Brit asked. She wasn't sure what Hazel wanted to do now.

"In a little bit," Hazel replied. The day was already half-gone, and she wanted to just sit for a few moments. "Let's find somewhere to sit for a little while, maybe something to eat. Then we can go back and make final decisions on employees."

Brit nodded and looked around before she nodded to a little area with a few benches and some food vendors. There wasn't a huge selection, but the food all looked and smelled good.

Hazel went and claimed a bench for them to sit on.

"See anything that looks decent?" she asked, glancing at the vendors and resisting the urge to wrinkle her nose a bit. She was used to much finer fare than this, but she would take what she could get, for the moment. Hey, it hadn't killed anyone yet, maybe she'd be able to find something for herself.

Brit looked at the vendors before she pointed to one. He was selling fresh bread, and his wife was selling cheese to go with it. It wasn't fancy, but Brit hadn't had fresh bread in a while.

Hazel looked in the direction Brit was pointing, and after a moment she nodded. That would do. At least the bread was fresh, which was something Hazel was used to. Gesturing for Brit to stay there (since Hazel didn't think Brit would want to carry the snakes and phoenix eggs all over the place all day), Hazel went to the vendor and bought enough for them to share.

The bread and cheese were surprisingly good, Hazel noted. Simple, but good.

Brit enjoyed the bread greatly, her eyes closing briefly. The bread was still a little warm, and the cheese melted just a little into the bread. It was delicious.

Very pleased, Brit was content to sit for a few minutes and relax and just watch everything. The snakes were blessedly quiet, and the eggs still had a few days before they'd hatch. Life was good.

Hazel noticed how much Brit seemed to enjoy the bread and cheese, and made a mental note to bring her to the manor once or twice for a visit. Hazel got better food than this on a daily basis, and it wasn't as if she didn't have enough to go around. Quickly, she dusted off her fingers and brushed crumbs from her skirt once she was finished eating.

Brit looked over at Hazel to see if she was getting antsy to go again but she didn't make a move to get up until Hazel did. She figured they still had some time to just sit and relax if they wanted to. Things were winding down some, since the expo only went until dark. Plus there were still two more days.

After a few minutes, Hazel stood up and brushed herself off a bit. Lyra was still draped comfortably across her shoulders, and she knew the nekomata would stay there until they went home again. Never let it be said that nekomata weren't intelligent creatures.

"What do you say to going back to finish up with the employees, and then heading home?" Hazel suggested. She was getting tired, and home sounded wonderful.

Brit nodded her agreement. That sounded good to her. She had to get the snakes settled in, and she had to find a good, protected spot for her pheonix eggs. Plus she had to help Hazel decide about the new employees.

Already she was ninety percent sure she would highly recommend those brothers for employment.

With that, Hazel started to make her way back to the center of the expo to collect the employment profiles again. She wanted to look them over a few more times before making any final decisions, but she was pretty sure she would decide to keep the two brothers. They were too good to pass up.

Brit followed her, letting her look through the employees again. The brothers looked over when the two came back, watching them. Brit blinked and looked off to the side, leaving the decision up to Hazel.

Hazel noticed them watching her right away. She might be completely inexperienced when it came to animals, but she'd spent most of her teenage years going around to parties held by some of the other rich families, so she knew when guys her age were watching her.

She glanced over their files, barely checking anything aside from their ranch experience, before glancing back up and looking at them. After a moment, she gestured for them to come over.

The older of the two approached first, brown hair curling around his ears and the nape of his neck, bright green eyes appraising her before he inclined his head.

"You wanted to see us?" he asked quietly, looking down at Hazel.

Brit looked at him, then at his brother, and then shifted her grip on the snakes. They were still calm, and if she had to guess, she'd say they were probably sleeping. Silly things.

"I did," Hazel replied. "I was going over your information. I own the d'Loncré ranch, and I've been looking for experienced handlers to work for me." She looked between the two. "Would I be able to interest either of you in a job?"

The younger of the two, his short hair lighter than his brother's but with eyes equally as green, glanced at his brother. The girl was a bit young to own a ranch, but a job was a job.

"Possibly. What kind of creatures do you have?" He'd heard of the ranch before; most people in the area had. But he wanted to know what they'd be dealing with before he got into anything. "And what other help do you have?"

Brit looked at them both again for a moment. Those were valid questions, certainly. And they weren't being rude, either, which was good. She rather liked them already.

"Brit is the only one working for me, at the moment," Hazel replied, gesturing to the handler. "She has been taking care of the ranch so far, but there is always a need for more hands. And at the moment, there are unicorns, gryphons, toy dragons, winged snakes, and a few ceryneian in the menagerie." Those were questions she had no problem answering, and she neatly stepped around the fact that she'd had to weed out some 'bad habits' at the ranch, so to speak.

He nodded. "Okay. Do you plan on getting anything new here? Anything else we should know about?" That was always a good thing to ask. The last place they'd worked had failed to mention that the owner was getting a dragon in a few days. A rather grumpy, full-grown fire dragon.

Neither of them had been very pleased.

"A few more winged snakes," Hazel replied, gesturing to the container with the snakes in it. "And I'm considering having our pond adjusted for some selkies."

"Any personal pets we need to know about?" the younger brother piped up. It was also a good question, since there had been one ranch they'd worked at where the owner had expected them to take care of his bad-tempered toy dragons.

"Just Lyra," Hazel replied, reaching up to pet the cat. Lyra's tails swished a bit as she looked at the young men. "And I take care of her myself, so you don't need to worry about that."

The older nodded. "Alright. Sounds fair. We'll have to find a place to stay."

Brit poked Hazel gently and slipped her a note. We have some space at the ranch for employees to stay. And there's the house. The house has five bedrooms, I think.

The older, Kaladin, looked at Brit with some surprise. She'd managed to take care of all the animals like that? He wasn't sure if she couldn't speak or just didn't want to in front of them.

"And the house has been empty for a little while now," Hazel added, nodding in agreement. She looked at the brothers. "If you don't mind, at least."

Seamus, the younger brother, had also been surprised at the note-passing. He got the feeling that Brit couldn't speak, rather than wouldn't. Hazel had reacted as if it was normal, after all.

Kaladin nodded after a moment. "That's acceptable," he agreed. When do you want us to start working?" He raised his eyebrows at her. He figured they'd get paid, and if they didn't like the rates he could always try negotiating them up. That part he wasn't concerned about now that he knew what was going on.