Beast of Burden
((27 February 2008))
Calsh didn't much care for mechanostriders. That he didn't really understand how they worked was certainly a factor; in a sense, seeing the gnomish mounts only stirred feelings of jealousy that many of their owners could probably take them apart and put them together again, while he was barely comfortable with his ability to ride one. More importantly, though, they weren't useful for large loads, which was problematic in his profession.
He hadn't owned a work animal since he'd been forced to sell his mule to Balkrin a few years prior; many of his recent consignments had been smaller, and for those that weren't, he'd been able to procure an animal for the duration of the job. None of those animals had been his to keep, though. The logistics of such arrangements had been difficult, though, and Calsh had known for a while that he needed to purchase his own pack animal once again.
Yet he'd been putting it off. He hadn't given much thought to his purchase when he'd originally bought the mule, and while he'd been lucky enough that the two of them had gotten along well, he intended to spend a little more time on his next purchase. The problem was that for a while, nothing had caught his interest. Rams, for some reason he couldn't quite explain, made him uneasy, and he somehow doubted that one of the elves' cats would much enjoy being hooked up to a cart. The logical choice was one of the horses the humans were fond of using. But somehow, he'd never quite warmed up to the idea of horse ownership, and so he'd gone on without purchasing anything of his own for some time.
That all changed with his first trip to the Azuremyst Isles. He'd made the journey to attempt to purchase some training in the art of jewelcrafting, but while he was there, he'd become enamored with the Draenei's mounts of choice — large, docile-when-tamed beasts who looked like they were more than capable of carrying large loads.
The Draenei didn't seem too receptive at first to the idea of him owning one of their elekk, but the businessman in him knew there was always a way. Despite their less-than-humble implications that they considered themselves above materialistic pursuits, Calsh found that the Draenei were not above accepting "donations" of supplies to grease the wheels of commerce, and after persisting with such gifts for a while, Torallius the Pack Handler seemed to suddenly realize that perhaps Calsh was worthy enough to purchase one of his mounts after all.
