While travelling is a rather fun activity, it still takes a lot of time to get from place to place and people and creatures do get tired. Even if the creatures are magical dangerous monsters.
Eventually, Jordie and his friends decided to set up camp a little bit off the beaten path for the evening and prepare supper.
"So what's on the menu folks?," George asked as he got off his wagon and unhitched Duros. The Tusked Panda immediately took this opportunity to roll into a ball and roll away until he was under the shade of a nearby tree. Duros promptly fell asleep once he reached his destination.
"Lazy bones..."
"I got some wild veggies and traveler's bread in this thing," Jordie stated as he dismounted Bessie and patted his backpack. The khalkotauroi promptly laid on her side now that she didn't have to walk so much. This gave Minos the opportunity to dismount from her head and almost tumble to the ground. Thankfully Jordie caught him in time before he could bump his head. He then made sure to roll out a blanket that came with his starting equipment and place Minos on it so that he had somewhere soft to play. Not that the little minotaur noticed, he was too busy playing with his new toy.
"Well I do have some cheeses that should be done fermenting by now," Marianne added. Her Holstiger Molly took this opportunity to let out a big mooing yawn before shaking off the wagon lead and napping as well. Unlike George, she thought this was adorable.
"I mean those are good sides," George said while pointing his spear behind the group, "but I'm thinking a main course."
Jordie and Marianne turned to the direction that George was pointing and saw a gathering of creatures in the distance.
"Are those...giant boars?"
"If you mean dinner, yes."
_________________________________________________
Classification: Beast
Species: Boar
Subspecies: Giant Boar
Level: 5
Grade: E
Attribute: None
Description: Van-sized hairy violent pigs...not sure what else to tell you. Some of them have magical abilities, I guess?
_________________________________________________
The road between Jade Spire City and Golden Bamboo Village was usually safe, but it did cut through wild areas where monsters would regularly congregate. Thankfully, a majority of these monsters that were near the road would be low grade and low level so it wouldn't be too much of an issue for any adventurers or guardsman to deal with if they happened to attack.
"Now then, while you two go get us a hog, I'll prep the fire and stew pot," George said as withdrew his spear. He made his way over to his wagon and began to extract a large pot and some firewood.
"Wait, us? Aren't you the one with the stabbing implement?," Marianne protested, "Why ain't you the one hunting?"
"Well someone's got to keep watch over these prisoners and prepare dinner," George retorted while gesturing to his set-up, "besides, I know a mage when I see one and Jordie there got Bessie. Y'all are more than capable of taking down a single Giant Boar."
Marianne was about to protest, but then thought better of it. Going hunting would probably serve as a way to bond with Jordie better, maybe she could get more khalkotauroi milk out of him or figure out which bigwig's umbrella he was under.
"Aight, sure," Jordie agreed, "Just lemme grab Minos and-"
"Whoa, hold up partner," George interrupted, "A hunting ground is no place for a baby, even if it is a baby minotaur. Just go hunting, I'll keep watch over him."
"But-"
"But nothing. Besides, Minos is busy playing with his new toy, you don't wanna disturb him, right?"
Minos was happily shaking his rattle, unaware of the conversation Jordie and George was having.
"But...baby-"
"Jordie, it'll be fine. And the faster we get that hog, the faster you can come back and take care of Minos," Marianne said to placate Jordie.
Jordie hesitated a bit longer before making a decision. He couldn't help but look over at Minos, who was now teething on his baby rattle.
"Gah...fine...,"Jordie reluctantly relented, "Just make sure he doesn't get hurt, okay?"
"Pssh! He's a baby, what's the worst that could happen?"
[Oh joy, the panda cowboy decided to tempt fate,] the System commented in Jordie's head.
_________________________________________________
As Jordie and Marianne left with Bessie and Molly to go hunt down a Giant Boar, George decided to check on baby Minos for a bit before heading back to his pot.
"Now don't get into too much trouble, ya hear?," George said as he squatted down to Minos' eye level. The baby minotaur didn't really hear or cared what George had just said, he was too busy throwing his rattle and picking it up again. It was honestly kind of adorable in a "baby why" kind of way.
"Huh...no wonder Jordie dotes on you so much. Well, back to prepping."
As George left Minos alone with his new toy, the only ones left watching him were the three criminals in the cage. Well, Sarah was at least. Dorado and Jacobs were still trying to figure out an escape plan.
"Well, the guard is at least distracted by cooking at least,"Dorado pointed out, "but no way we can escape without our disks and not without taking that baby minotaur. Jacobs, you come up with anything?"
"We could just fake a medical emergency and then rush him. There are three of us."
Dorado shook his head at the idea.
"Bad idea, he'd sick that tusked monstrosity on us in the blink of an eye. The first step is to get our disks back. You see where he put them?"
"Ummm...no. But I think Sarah did. Hey Sarah, you see where that guy put our disks?"
Sarah however did not respond to their query. In fact, she was unusually quiet.
"Sarah? You okay?," Dorado asked.
"Guys...are baby rattles suppose to have teeth?," she asked in a weirdly shocked tone.
"I know some nomad clans fill them with teeth," Jacobs answered while scratching his head, "Why?"
"Because I think that baby's rattle is about to eat our meal ticket."
"What?!"