Hazel watched him for a few more moments (now not even pretending to do otherwise) and then moved off again. She was letting him distract her too much, that was bad. Besides, he worked for her. That was even worse. Wandering around for a bit, she eventually ran into Brit again.

"So, what say you on evaluating the pond for some selkies?" she suggested. Then her attention was grabbed by the handler in the gryphon pen.

Seamus moved slower around the more easily-upset female, making soothing noises and keeping his hands where the gryphon could see them. He made sure to give her space, only getting as close as he needed to to check on that particular area of the cage.

"Easy, sweets," he murmured to the gryphon. "I'm no threat to you."

Hazel was kind of impressed, and glanced at Brit. She didn't miss how her friend was watching the young man maybe a little too intensely.

Brit nodded her approval, watching Seamus for a few more moments before she turned her attention to Hazel again. She nodded and moved out of the gryphon pen. It looked like he could handle himself, and she wasn't too worried.

The pond would have to be expanded some, and sectioned off so that the selkies couldn't just swim away or go wandering around the grounds, but it wouldn't be too difficult.

Hazel made note of the changes Brit suggested, already mentally going over lists of contractors her grandfather had filed in the office. If nothing else, she could contact them and see what could be done. And she couldn't use regular contractors, either: she needed the ones who worked exclusively on ranches and knew how to work around animals.

Brit waited to see if Hazel needed anything else from her before she started walking around the ranch, just checking up on everything and getting used to having other people actually working there.

Hazel waved a hand to say that she had nothing else to asked, and meandered her way back to the main building. Time to get more paperwork done.

That night some of the disgruntled former employees came to visit. They waited until everything was quiet, coming in the middle of the night. A few of them went over and started unlocking and opening the cages, and then they all started making noise to see if they could scare away the creatures. A few of them started throwing eggs at the house, the whole group of them grinning.

Brit woke up as soon as she heard the noise, getting up and pulling her boots on. She didn't bother to get dressed; she just ran outside to go see what was going on.

Seamus woke up at the commotion, as well, and was pulling on a pair of pants before he even realized he was awake.

"The hell...?" he mumbled as he pulled on his own boots. Then he hurried outside to see what was going on. None of what he was hearing sounded normal, and he could hear some of the animals getting agitated. That was bad.

Brit glared at the men, whistling sharply. The four dog all pelted off after the troublemakers, snarling and barking loudly. Two of three of them bolted, knowing that the dogs could hurt them, and the others split up to go agitate the animals more, yelling at the unicorns and cyrenians. Brit swore silently and pelted off after one of the men when he headed towards the gryphon enclosure. A pissed off gryphon was bad for everyone.

Kal woke up and grabbed his pants and boots, heading outside. It only took him a few moments to realize what was going on, and he swore before he ran after another of the men. The dogs were rounding up the others, bringing them back to the house, leaving only the one Kal was chasing and the one Brit was chasing.

Seamus wasted no time in heading towards teh gryphon enclosure. At this point, he didn't care about what happened to the men who had riled the animals; what mattered was getting the gryphons calm again. They were the most dangerous creatures on the ranch when they were upset.

Brit followed the man into the enclosure, seeing who was still there. None of the gryphons had left, fortunately, but they were starting to get riled up.

The man headed over to the other end of the cage, hoping to lose Brit, and got too close to the nervous female. She shrieked and swiped at him, her claws catching in his middle before she pulled them free. The man fell, screaming, and Brit swore silently again.

It only took a moment for her to assess there was nothing she could do for the man. Instead, she focused on the gryphon, holding up her hands and moving closer, letting the gryphon focus on her instead. The gryphon danced in place before she shrieked again. Brit gently started to herd her to the back of the enclosure, away from the rest of the gryphons so she wouldn't set the rest of them off.

Seamus focused on the rest of the herd. They were moving about nervously, stamping their feet and fluttering their feathers. Seamus moved slowly, holding his hands up and making soothing noises.

"It's okay," he said softly. "Nothing to worry about..."

Brit got the nervous female to the back before she worked on calming her down. She got a nice scratch on her arm for her troubles, but she took it silently, soothing the gryphon and stroking her feathers back down.

She waited until the gryphon was calm again, no longer prancing and moving to preen herself, before she moved away. Okay, yeah, ow, her arm hurt now that she wasn't faced with an angry gryphon.

Once he got the rest of the herd calmed down (even the not-so-affectionately-named Feathers), Seamus went over to Brit.

"Are you alright?" he asked her. "Did that one get you anywhere?"

Brit extended her arm slowly. Two scratches went from just below her shoulder to almost her wrist, shallow but starting to burn. She grimaced. Nothing life threatening. Good.

Kaladin jogged around the rest of the Menagerie to make sure none of the animals had escaped before he went over to the gryphons. Gryphons were not animals to be trifled with, and he wanted to make sure his brother was okay.

"Seamus?" he called, looking around swiftly.

"I'm alright," he called back to his brother as he examined Brit's arm. "Come on," he added to Brit, softer. "You should get inside and get that cleaned up." It wasn't a bad scratch, but it would get infected if it wasn't taken care of.

Kaladin moved over to them and checked them both over quickly before he focused on Brit.

"Come on. I'll go find some bandages."

Brit nodded, her cheeks pink, and headed after Kaladin. And now she was embarrassed too. Great.

Tonight was just not her night.

Seamus nodded after a moment, and walked with Brit back to the main house.

"How early is too early to let the owner know about this in the morning?" he asked her as they went. Because yes, they would have to let the other girl know what had happened. Especially considering one of the intruders was killed by a gryphon. That would cause all sorts of problems.

Brit shrugged. Hazel usually got there a few hours after sunrise, so she was guessing if someone got there maybe an hour after sunrise that should be okay. Which she'd write down for him once they both back to the house.

Kaladin handed off gauze and things to Seamus before he went to go find pen and paper for Brit to use so she could give them instructions.

Seamus took the medical supplies and started to patch up Brit's arm. It was familiar work; he and Kaladin had had to patch themselves and each other up more than once, working on other ranches. It was just part of the job.

Brit stayed stiff and still as he worked, not looking at him. She hadn't gotten hurt very often before, so this was flat-out embarrassing for her.

Kaladin came back and set pen and paper next to her. "So when do you think we should go get Hazel?" he asked quietly.

Hour after dawn, maybe. She might be up by then. We'll wait on the authorities until after she gets here.

"Any idea how she'll handle..." Seamus trailed off as he finished patching up Brit, glancing out the window towards the gryphon enclosure. "She doesn't strike me as someone used to something so extreme."

Brit shook her head. I don't know, but it won't be pretty. Hell, she wasn't even used to that. She'd dealt with it well so far, and she certainly didn't regret the death of the idiot who'd gotten himself killed.

But she really hoped that nothing bad happened to the gryphon. It hadn't been her fault, after all.

"Right," Seamus agreed. Already, it wasn't pretty, and it was bound to get worse. He glanced at his brother. "Should we call the authorities now? Best if everything is taken care of and cleaned up by the time Hazel is supposed to get here." If they didn't have to call her early because of the mess. Which was also very possible. "And that way they can't tell us we're in trouble for not reporting it right away."

Kaladin nodded after a moment. "Yeah. I'll go get them. You keep track of her. Make her a drink." He looked pointedly at Brit, who was looking a little more pale than normal. "I'll be back soon."

Brit was looking a little pale and unnerved. She'd never been that close to a dead body before. The night was starting to actually register with her now.

Seamus guided Brit to a chair and made her sit down.

"Just breathe," he said gently. "Slowly and steadily." Keeping an eye on her, he went and rummaged through some of the cabinets until he hit upon a tin of tea leaves. A little more searching rendered a strainer and a mug. That would do. Ducking into the kitchen, he set a kettle to heat, and then went back out to sit with Brit.