"Skan once told me that I should become a full-time feather artist," Amberdrake says with wry amusement, "and that I could work on actual birds when there weren't enough gryphons with snapped feathers to keep me busy. I suggested he start pulling carts."

He really does do better when he's able to use more than one set of talents. Doing massages all the time, discouraged from even talking to clients, forbidden from going over the allotted time, and gods forbid he get someone to discuss what made them so tense to start with...

Well. It was a lot like making a gryphon pull a cart.