STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

50. BEHIND THE NAME

"Hey cold human, do you like your name?"

South considered that question oddly. "My name, dragon?"

He was working in the stables, brushing the horse, and the dragon was inspecting it all curiously from one of the wooden beams abovehead.

"I haven't thought about it much," South said. "I was named after Mama, so..."

The dragon frowned. "You should have an opinion on your name! Names are powerful, and powerful beings need powerful names!"

South chuckled, "I am not powerful, so, I think a single-character name like 'South' suits me just fine."

The dragon seemed to pout.

"You are always like this. You give names without much regard," he said disapprovingly.

South thought fondly about that. "Names should be given with love and care. I understand. Has Young Master not chosen yours yet?"

That seemed to be a sore spot, "he will come up with one soon!" he argued, soaring down, perching on South's shoulder, "he is thinking up a good name for this great me! Of course he is taking some time. It has to be perfect and great just like me, after all!"

South huffed out a laugh at that.

"I'm sure it'll be a good name, dragon."

"Yeah! Better than anything you could come up with!"

"Of course," South told him. "Ah, that's it. Do you want to see the youngest foal of this place? He's big enough to not slip through the fence anymore, so we're putting him with the mares in the grazing grounds today."

The dragon seemed to perk up at that.

-

While he was the youngest, South noticed the dragon seemed fairly excited at the aspect of not being the baby of the family anymore, even as the strongest.

He wasn't sure what kind of younger sibling he wanted yet, but the idea of creatures even newer to the world than him? It's utterly fascinating.

"On and Hong are good names," South said. "One character, easy to remember."

The dragon disagreed, "they're too simple. They're good names! But they're too simple."

South hummed. They passed by the knights and he perked up, "oh, that over there are Julianeigh and Horsejamin. The one you see that's not being ridden is Steedphanie, she doesn't like anyone except the Count riding her."

Now the dragon was frowning for a different reason. "Now these names are too long and sloppy. I do not like them at all."

"You are a harsh critic, Black Dragon."

"You are just bad at this. Names should be sacred!"

"Yes, yes," South dismissed. He turned to the first horse by the fence and nuzzled him on the snout indulgingly. "And this is Sir Mustang."

The dragon blinked at that, "that's not a bad name!"

"I didn't come up with it," South said. "Sir Hillsman did."

Dragon deflated instantly. "No wonder."

"But he is a stray horse we picked up, so he is a Mustang horse," South explained, "and since he is Sir Hillsman's personally-raised horse, he is Sir Mustang. I had nothing to add, he came with a name that's already in my tastes."

"Your taste is too annoying," the dragon commanded, "stop it."

South laughed heartily.

-

"Ah, South!" one of the other stablehands called. They were leading the new foal out into the grazing grounds, watching over him as he interacted with the older horses.

"Good timing, we were thinking of what to name the new foal."

"Haha," Coachman Leon was there too. "You've been naming all the horses so far, so we thought it would be perfect if you named the youngest now too."

Well.

"See?!" the dragon, invisible, raved from on top of South's head. "This is an important decision, cold human! That horse is so small and frail. So you must give that little toddling creature a name that will make him grow up strong!"

That's a lot of pressure, dragon.

South's gotten used to giving things silly nicknames, mainly because of his power. It always worked better when real names were used, so he had the habit of never referring to people directly by their real name, or just their name. The best he could do was add an honorific. It was just a boundary he didn't dare cross.

Even then, in his past life, he didn't really have a real name.

Definitely he didn't have a family name either. He just had what he called himself, and what he called the one that wasn't himself. Everyone else was just the extra letters and alphabets in the world.

So, 'South' is his first name, ever.

And he was named after Mama Northford, so from birth he was named with a promise that he will be protected by Mama for the rest of his life. It may be short, simple, and didn't sound much like a human name— but he couldn't hate it if he tried.

Names were important. Of course South understood that, very very much.

"Okay sure," South turned to look at the foal for a moment.

He's grown up stronger than a few weeks ago, of course.

He's a little bigger, and his legs are stabler now, and with lots of energy. As the bigger horses nosed him he was still nudged around though, because it was too small. So what ensued what the foal charging for the horses for attention, getting knocked back by their size, tumbling back to the ground in a rolling heap.

The foal then jumped back up and did it all over again, clearly having fun.

"Okay, let's name him Plinko!"

The dragon yelled, "COLD HUMAN, YOU ARE AWFUL AT THIS!"

"Oh, that's cute!" Leon said, brightly, "let's go with that then. What does it mean, though? It's not a horse pun this time."

"Uh," South hummed, "it's hard to explain." 

"Well, as long as it's not a horse pun!"

"...well, that's the thing..." 

The dragon's very affronted, "DO ALL OF YOU HAVE BAD TASTE HERE?"