Brit sat down where he guided her, shivering a little. She knew the dogs had control of the men who had done this, so they wouldn't get away with anything. Now she just had to remember to breathe properly.

She looked up at Seamus briefly and turned pink before she looked back down at her knees.

As soon as the water was hot enough, Seamus fiddled with the tea and the strainer, and then brought it to Brit. There were a few tea leaves still floating in the tea, but he'd gotten most of them. That had to count, right?

"Here," he said.

Brit smiled a little at the tea before she nodded her thanks, starting to sip the tea. It was pretty good, and she deftly avoided the leaves left in there. She appreciated the thought.

Hazel was more than a little miffed at being woken in the middle of the night. What in the world was a messenger doing at the manor in the wee hours of the morning? When the messenger delivered the message, however, her irritation vanished and she rushed back into her room to dress. She hurried into a plain satin gown, barely taking the time to pin her hair out of her face, and then rushed to the ranch.

Kaladin had already arrived with the authorities, and he was showing them back to the gryphon enclosure. He paused by the house to look in on the other two.

"Everyone's here. We might need you two." He looked at them.

Brit nodded and got to her feet, feeling calmer now, and walked next to Seamus.

Kaladin paused when he saw Hazel and looked at her. "You know what happened?" he asked quietly, waiting for her to catch up.

"The messenger only said there had been trouble," Hazel replied, lifting the hem of her skirts slightly so they didn't drag on the ground. "I don't remember if he tried to give me details or not."

Seamus kept pace with Brit, going with her to deal with the authorities. More than likely, they would see the body again, and that wouldn't be pleasant.

"Your former employees came about an hour ago," Kaladin said quietly, nodding to the group of men, who were confined off to the side by two officers. "They started causing trouble, trying to make the animals leave. One of them ran into the gryphon enclosure and got himself killed."

Brit led the way to the enclosure, but she didn't get close to the body. She just made sure the gryphons left the officers alone.

Hazel gasped and stopped walking, reluctant to get any closer to the gryphon enclosure. She didn't want to see the body, didn't even want to know it was there. She'd never been exposed to anything of the sort; her grandfather's funeral had been open-casket, sure, but he hadn't been killed by anything. Somehow, the killing part made it worse.

"Are..." she swallowed thickly for a moment. "Are the animals all okay?"

Kaladin nodded. "They're all fine. For the moment, anyway. The authorities don't look kindly on animals that have been... overly aggressive." He'd noticed her reaction and so tried to think of a better way to put things while still telling her what she needed to know. Because she definitely needed to know this.

"Everyone knows not to upset gryphons..." Hazel said, trailing off weakly. As they got closer to the gryphon enclosure, she could see the group of people there, along with Seamus and Brit. That set her slightly more at ease; she trusted those two to look after the gryphons while there were people around. She made sure to keep the group between herself and the rest of the area, though. She didn't know where the body was, but she didn't want to see it.

Kaladin shifted her a little so she wouldn't be able to see the body. The officers were starting to inspect it, and Brit silently pointed out the gryphon that had killed him. Kal shifted Hazel again so she wouldn't have to see what they were doing.

One of the officers walked over to Hazel, seeing that she was dressed differently than the others. "Ma'am, are you the owner of this ranch?" he asked, keeping his voice bland and professional.

Hazel jumped a little at being addressed so suddenly, but nodded.

"I am," she replied. She was grateful Kaladin kept himself between her and the body, and she made an effort not to look at it.

Seamus stayed near Brit, answering questions about the gryphons. Yes, the creatures were a little skittish sometimes, no, nothing was out of the ordinary when work on the ranch stopped for the day, no, the gryphons have never hurt anyone intentionally before. Then the same questions all over again, worded differently. But he still gave the same answers.

The officer nodded. "When did you come into possession of the ranch, ma'am?" he asked, watching her. He had been elected to ask her basically all the same questions that Brit and Seamus were being asked.

Brit stayed there, answering what questions she could without the use of pen and paper. She was already getting tired of the questions, and her head was starting to pound. It had been a stressful night. She just hoped that they'd be done soon.

"I inherited it recently from my grandfather," Hazel replied. "He was Nicholas d'Loncré." She felt like she should have been annoyed that he was calling her 'ma'am', since she was young enough to be his daughter, but at the moment, she didn't care. There was just too much else going on.

The officer nodded again. "Alright. Did you notice anything strange about the creatures when you inherited the ranch? Were you warned about any aggressive animals? Moreso than is normal for the breed, I mean."

Hazel shook her head.

"No," she replied. "None of the animals were behaving oddly. And I was here earlier in the day, I didn't notice anything strange." And she would have noticed, since she'd walked around the ranch a bit. Aside from being a bit wary of the new hires, none of the animals had behaved any differently than normal.

The officer nodded again. "Alright. Is there anything else you can think of we might need to know? Any history of violence with your employees or anything?"

"I just had to replace most of the staff around here," Hazel replied. She kept her expression carefully clear. "I ended up firing most of the people my grandfather had working here, because they weren't actually working. I know they weren't pleased about being let go, but I never expected anything like this..."

The officer hummed quietly. "They didn't make any threats or say anything?" he pressed. It was important to him if the group hadn't made any real threats. And this had clearly been a premeditated attack.

Hszel shook her head. The men she'd fired had been unhappy, certainly, but they hadn't made any sort of threats towards her or the ranch.

"Not that I recall," she said. "Like I said, they weren't pleased about being let go, but they didn't threaten me with anything."

"Alright. I think that's all we need from you right now. Ma'am. Sir." The officer nodded to Hazel and dipped his head to Kaladin before he moved off.

Kal blinked when the officer nodded to him before he hid a smile. Oops. Okay, so the officer had sort of gotten that one wrong, but oh well.

Hazel caught the misunderstanding immediately, but the officer left again before she could open her mouth and correct him. Well, that could potentially be embarassing... Hopefully, nothing came of it. After a moment, she steeled herself and glanced towards the gyphon enclosure. Time to find out what was going to happen to her animals.

The other officers had tucked the body into a bag, keeping it from view, and two of them carried the bag away. One of them was now talking quietly to the officer in charge, the one who'd been talking to Hazel. They both looked at the gryphon before the officer in charge sighed and nodded.

Brit blinked before looking down quickly, absolutely devastated at their decision. But she couldn't do anything to stop them as the two officers approached the gryphon slowly, managing to get a muzzle on her to keep her head controlled for the moment.

Hazel blinked when she realized what was happening.

"Now wait a moment," she said, stepping closer. "Why are you taking her?" Where Brit wasn't able to do anything, Hazel might be. Besides, the gryphon was hers, and wouldn't have done anything if she hadn't been provoked.

"Sorry, ma'am, but we can't allow a gryphon to stay that's killed someone. She'll come with us, and if she's well-behaved for the next week or so we'll return her. We just need to be sure the incident won't be repeated." The officer looked at her. This was not something he was going to budge on.