Brit yawned and stretched briefly before she waited for the new employees. She was giving them all the introduction to the Menagerie and then handing out assignments. It wasn't something she really wanted to do, since she didn't have much experience with people, but she'd do it none the less.

Plus the winged snake breeder was supposed to be showing up sometime today to pick out the two snakes he wanted to take back with him as his half of the exchange.

Hazel was already in the main building of the ranch taking care of some paperwork. She was back to wearing her 'grungy' clothes for the ranch, rather than one of her gowns, and had Lyra in her lap. She had to update the payroll and everything for the new employees, after all. And she was waiting for the snake breeder to arrive. While Brit was the one who oversaw the animals, Hazel had a file to keep track of them.

Seamus hefted his bag over his shoulder and followed his brother. It was early in the day, by all rights past time to be working, but it was the first day and they'd been asked to arrive a little late so that the owner would be there. Or rather, Hazel, since Seamus still wasn't convinced she was the real owner. He glanced at his brother as they arrived.

Kaladin just glanced at his brother before he rapped on the front door. He figured they'd be shown to whatever rooms first and then they'd get shown around and assigned to work. That was how it normally worked, anyway.

Brit looked over at the house when she noticed the first two arriving, and then she yawned again and went back to swinging her legs idly as she sat perched on the fence of the unicorn corral, the dogs all keeping watch. Hey, it wasn't her job to let people into the house, just to show them around outside.

Hazel looked up at the knock on the door. Before she even moved to get up, Lyra jumped up onto the desk to see what was going on. Getting up, Hazel went to open the door. She blinked slightly when she saw the brothers. Or rather, she saw the older brother. She couldn't get over how green his eyes were. She gathered her wits again.

"Good, you're here."

Seamus looked in over his brother's shoulder when the door opened. He blinked to see Hazel there, wearing actual almost-normal clothes. They were still nicer than anything a ranch hand would have, but it wasn't a gown either. He glanced at his brother to see what Kaladin's reaction was.

Kal just blinked once at her choice of attire. She worked here, then, definitely. And she'd been the one to answer the door, so either she didn't keep people to work for her in the house or she really was just that short-handed.

"We weren't sure what time exactly you wanted us to arrive," he said quietly after a moment. "Shall we put our things away now or should we wait until after the tour?"

"Go ahead and put your things away," Hazel replied. She gestured down the hall, where the main building branched into a side building, connected by a small breezeway. "Rooms are down there." She glanced at them, noticing the looks they were giving her. "What?"

"Nothing," Kaladin said hurriedly. "We're just surprised no one else is around." There. That was a diplomatic way to put it, as opposed to outright blurting that they didn't think she ran the place. He motioned for his brother to go find a room first.

Seamus hesitated for a moment, wanting to see how his brother handled this girl. This was going to be interesting, he could tell.

"I told you Brit was the only one working here at the moment," Hazel pointed out. "My grandfather let some things slide when he owned the ranch, so I had to get rid of quite a few people who thought I would pay them for sitting around doing nothing." She looked at them both. "So for now, I take care of things in here, and Brit takes care of things outside, and we needed more hands to do it all."

Kaladin nodded after a moment. "Of course," he said quietly. "I'm surprised you don't have a parent or an aunt or uncle helping you out."

There. That was fairly diplomatic without outright asking. Of course, he'd always been better at that sort of thing than Seamus.

Hazel shook her head.

"Just me," she replied just as carefully. She didn't know them anywhere near well enough to explain just why it was only her rather than another family member. "Anyways, you should put your things away. I'm sure Brit is anxious to get a few more people out working in the Menagerie."

Seamus nodded, and started down the hall ahead of his brother. Let Kaladin say whatever else it was he was going to say on his own. Seamus had seen what he wanted to.

Kaladin nodded and glanced around. The place wasn't bad. Nothing like the manors he'd seen in his time, but not bad for employee housing. He'd certainly lived in worse.

"Let me know if you need anything else," he said after a moment, dipping his head to her before he slipped off after his brother to pick a room and put his things away.

Hazel watched them go, and then reluctantly turned back to her paperwork. She tried to focus, she really did, but her mind just wasn't with it anymore. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Kaladin. With a sigh, she set down her pen and got up. She petted Lyra briefly on her way to the door, and then went outside to see if anything interesting was happening.

Brit had gathered up all the new people, Kaladin and Seamus included, and was taking them on the tour. She'd made signs to put up in front of each place, giving a few details about each individual and stating the daily chores that had to be done. She'd figure out who was good with what first, and then she'd assign them all to the creatures.

Kaladin was only keeping half his attention on the job. This was pretty routine stuff, nothing out of the ordinary. The animals so far all seemed well-tempered, for the most part, so he wasn't worried. Mostly he was busy thinking about Hazel, trying to puzzle out the situation.

Seamus noticed, about two stops into the tour, that his brother was distracted, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why.

"Focus, Kal," he said. He grinned a bit. "You're missing all of the lovely information on the unicorns."

Hazel trailed several steps behind the group; not enough to be by herself, but not close enough to interrupt the tour, either. It was nice outside, and none of the animals seemed to be in bad temper at all, so she just enjoyed the day a bit and tried to ignore the insistent little voice in her head that told her Kaladin was about fifty yards in front of her.

Kaladin rolled his eyes and hit his brother in the stomach, albeit gently. Well. Mostly gently.

"Hush," he ordered. It wasn't like they'd never dealt with unicorns before, so he wasn't worried about that. The Menagerie was like half the other ranches they'd worked at. So mostly he figured Seamus would fill him in on the important stuff later.

Brit noticed the brothers not paying as much attention and shrugged. Maybe they were just bored and already used to dealing with creatures? Shrugging to herself, she moved on to the toy dragons. Gryphons would be last, so she could see who freaked out and who just shrugged it off.

She had a feeling she'd be putting one of the brothers with the gryphons, though.

"Don't blame me if you miss something terribly crucial because you're off daydreaming about floral gowns and hazel eyes," Seamus teased, shrugging off the brotherly smack. Because yes, he knew what had his brother so distracted and intended to take full advantage teasing him about it.

Neither brother so much as blinked when the tour ended with the gryphons. Well, no, Seamus ended up grinning. He liked gryphons, they were awesome creatures.

Brit noticed that and couldn't but smirk. Yup, as she'd suspected. One of the brothers. She looked at the group for a few moments before pulling out her pen and paper to write down assignments before moving over to have Hazel double-check the list. Just in case she had any major objections.

Kaladin rolled his eyes at his brother's enthusiasm over the gryphons. Yes, gryphons were neat, but he liked things like dragons and snakes better.

Which just made it all the more perfect when Brit assigned him to the winged snakes.

Hazel blinked a bit when Brit handed her the list without missing a beat. Glancing at the list, she mentally compared it to what she remembered of the employee papers, and then handed it back and nodded.

"Seems alright to me," she said. She gave Brit a little bit of a Look, but it was half-hearted at best. The winged snakes were her favorites on the ranch, so far.

Brit nodded, deftly ignoring the Look, and moved to pass the list around so everyone would have their assignments and could start working.

Kaladin looked at his assignment and blinked. Winged snakes, huh? That would be interesting. He'd probably be covered in them as soon as it got decently cold. He snorted at the thought and let his gaze stray back to Hazel briefly.

Hazel watched as the group dispersed, and then she moseyed in the direction of the winged snakes in a way that had Absolutely Nothing to do with tagging along with Kaladin. She just liked the snakes, that's all. Really.

Kaladin spent some time inspecting the cage before he settled in to check on the snakes, giving them some food while he was there. They all seemed pretty harmless, and she didn't have any of the giant ones like he'd seen once or twice. All in all, not challenging, but more relaxing. He liked that trade off.

Brit had stayed with the gryphons to supervise Seamus's first visit with them. They were known to be more temperamental as a whole, not very open to letting new people in. So she wanted to be sure nothing happened to him the first few days. Gryphon attacks were hard to recover from, if you even survived.

Hazel hovered around the entrance to the cage, watching. She would maintain that she was watching the snakes, of course. She stood there for a few moments, but wasn't sure what to do when one of the snakes she'd handled once or twice before with Brit drifted over to investigate her.

Seamus was in the zone. He knew how to handle gryphons, and he knew how to do it and get out alive. Gryphons were intelligent creatures, even if they were temperamental, and he did his best to make himself out to not be a threat. He was there to take care of them, not upset them.

Kaladin watched the snake to make sure it wasn't about to escape and then blinked when he noticed Hazel. He watched her for a few moments before he absently scooped up another snake, letting it get used to him and curl around his neck loosely.

Brit just hung back and watched for now. She could always jump in if he needed help, but he looked like he was doing well so far. One of the gryphons snorted at him and moved away, clearly disdainful of him. Brit had to hide her smile.

Hazel stroked the snake's scales a little before she let it go back to wherever it had been basking. And she knew it had been basking; it was warm under her fingers. Glancing up, she blinked and jumped slightly when she realized Kaladin was watching her. Quickly, she turned away to cover a rising blush and worked valiantly at stamping it out.

"Yeah, yeah," Seamus muttered when the gryphon gave him the equivalent of the finger. "Good to meet you too, Feathers." Not the gryphon's name, but good enough to get the sentiment across. Keeping an eye on the creatures, Seamus went around to check and see what had already been done today and what still needed attention.

Kal smiled a little and let the snake stay around his neck as he looked around again. The snakes seemed to be okay for the moment, since they had food and their enclosure was secure. But he wanted to keep an eye on them all the same and spend some time letting them get used to him. Especially since he'd be here a lot now.

Brit grinned briefly and watched him work, keeping an eye on the gryphons. The youngest female tossed her head and hissed at him when he got too close, dancing a few steps away with her wings half-flared. Brit watched curiously to see how he'd handle that.