With Minos snuggly held between his arms, Jordie returned to the bed and positioned himself as to provide Minos a place to rest on his chest. He made sure to position Minos' head to rest over where his heart would be, recalling an old lesson about how the sound of a Beating heart helps babies sleep.
Once he got comfortable, Jordie closed his eyes and returned to sleep.
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"Umbo you okay?!"
"Slick, what happened?"
The Triclops Macaque and Slime Phantom were panting due to the stress and exhaustion of everything that had just happened. They didn't expect the baby minotaur to be their worst natural enemy.
As Sarah and Jacobs attended to their respective monsters, the mustached man looked at them with a hint of disdain and disappointment.
"Alright then...if being sneaky won't work, then we'll have to do this loudly."
"Yeah...don't think so," an authoritative yet casual voice called out.
The three robed ne'er-do-wells immediately looked to where the voice originated from, only to he greeted by the sight of a man chewing a cinnamon stick while resting a spear across his shoulders. Standing by the man's side was a Tusked Panda.
"Now what in tarnation do y'all think you're doing?," George asked in a rhetorical tone. He took the spear off his shoulders and spun it around once before slamming the bottom into the ground. The intimidating sound of the earth cracking echoed through the night air as he did so.
"Ah. Well, you see we were-"
"Attempting to kidnap another tamer's monster?," George answered for them.
Sarah and Jacobs grimaced at the guardsman' accurate implication, but made sure to keep mum so that their boss could take lead.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about sir," the mustached leader while keeping a calm, friendly tone, "we were just about to check into this lovely established and rest for the evening."
The mustached leader began to slowly place a hand behind his back, preparing to summon his own monsters.
Not noticing the mustached man's actions, George gave a small smirk at the mustached man's words.
"Uh huh..." George nodded in a mocking fashion.
"Hear that Duros? Were your eyes lying to me?," he asked the Tusked Panda at his side.
Duros let out a small snort and shook his head in disagreement. He knew what he saw, he made sure that his master could see it.
The mustached man's hand finally made contact with his habitat disk, a dark smile growing on his face.
"Well...maybe you should check again!"
The image of a large crab-like monster began to project from the mustached man's disk, moments before turning into wisps of mana that flowed into the man's arm.
His arm began to twist and grow in size, until finally transforming into a massive crab claw.
The mustached man swung the claw downward and slashed at the guardsman.
George let out a small snort as he jumped backwards to avoid the claw attack.
He made sure to ready his spear once he safely landed several feet away.
The mustached man's companion proceeded to walk forward to join their boss, their monsters joining shortly after them.
"Well then Duros," George readied a fighting stance, "Time for us to earn our pay!"
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As the sun rose over the horizon and illuminated Golden Bamboo village, golden rays of morning light made their way into Minos and Jordie's room.
"Mmm? Morning already?"
Jordie stirred to consciousness as the rays of sunlight began to poke at his closed eyes. He was about to just get up, but stopped when he felt the weight in his chest start to stir.
Minos turned his head towards Jordie's face, still looking sleepy.
"Mmmoo?"
"Morning Minos, how'd you sleep?"
"Meh." Instead of answering Jordie's question, Minos scrunched his head downward and went back to sleep.
Babies sleep as babies do, Jordie thought to himself as he patted Minos' back a few times. He laid there for about a minute until deciding it was time to get ready for the day.
Unfortunately, that required him to lift Minos off of his chest.
"Jeez...no wonder why some of my cousins just laid there as their babies slept."
Jordie snorted a bit as he laid his head back down and stared at the ceiling. It was gonna take him a while to get ready for the day.
"Wonder what the going rate for these materials are,"Jordie thought to himself, "Gotta earn that bread somehow."
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[Wanted: Dorado the Claw, Bounty: 30 gold]
[Wanted: Slippery Sarah, Bounty: 10 gold]
[Wanted: Eely Jacobs, Bounty: 10 gold]
George looked over the wanted posters again as he made sure that their pictures and descriptions matched the three idiots who were currently tied up and beaten up in his office.
"Huh...Looks like dealing with you lot just earned me a nice bonus this month. I'll be sure to buy a bottle of nice wine in your name. Haha-ow."
George held his bandaged side as he tried to not focus on the pain.
Last night had been a rather gruelling fight but he had managed to win out in the end.
Nobody ever expects the Tusked Panda to be that strong.
"You okay buddy?"
"Mrrr," the Tusked Panda grunted as he rolled over to sleep more.
"Yeah...wonder how that kid's doing anyways..."
_________________________________________________
"What the heck happened last night?!," Jordie exclaimed.
Up and down the street, signs of a devastating battle had marked almost every inch of it. There were huge gashes, craters and even scorch marks.
He didn't know who or what could cause such destruction, but he was confused as to why he didn't hear any of this taking place.
"Do you know what the heck happened last night?," Jordie asked the System.
[Nothing you need to worry about it.]
"...ominous."
Jordie shook his head at the System's nonchalance. He honestly couldn't tell if it was actually meant to help him or just mess with him.
After tiptoing around the destruction, Jordie made his way to the first of many material exchanges.