Jacobs and Dorado rushed to the edge of the cage that Sarah was staring out of to see what she was talking about.
Lo and behold, the baby rattle had somehow ballooned in size and turned into a oversized monster mouth lined with razor sharp teeth that was about to chomp down on the baby minotaur like a chicken nugget.
The baby minotaur however was oblivious of the danger he was in. Evidently he found chewing on the ring end of this rattle monstrosity much more important and entertaining.
"Crap, crap, crap, what do we do, what do we do?!," Jacobs asked while nervously darting his head back and forth between Sarah and Dorado.
"I don't freaking know, we don't got any monsters on us!," Sarah answered in exasperation.
"Hey! Guardsman!"
"What do you want?"
As soon as Dorado called out to George, the rattle mouth thing immediately turned backed into a normal rattle. The trio looked taken aback at the sudden transformation. They didn't expect that to happen so quickly.
"Why did y'all call me over?"
"We...middle of cooking dinner?"
"Gee, what gave that away?"
"Uhh..."
Dorado was going to tell George that Minos' rattle had turned into a giant mouth earlier and was about to eat him, but was thrown off when George arrived wearing a bright blue apron while holding a golden bamboo shoot and a knife in both of his hands. It was kinda hard for him to mentally match up the cutesy apron with the guy who had kicked in his teeth a few nights prior.
Luckily, Sarah and Jacobs could pick up the slack.
"That kid's rattle is cursed man! We just saw it turn into a big ole mouth and try to eat him!"
"Yeah, yeah! I saw it with my own eyes."
"Really?," George asked incredulously with a raised brow.
Turning his gaze towards Minos, all he saw was a happy little baby minotaur shaking a silver toy rattle, well...teething on the round part of the rattle like a lollipop.
While staring at Minos and his rattle, George made a measuring gesture with his fingers and compared the two sizes.
"Yeah...the rattle tried to eat him," he said dismissively, "I'm going back to my stew pot."
"But! We..."
George promptly ignored the trios' cry for alarm, assuming that they were just trying to pull the wool over his eyes in an attempt to escape. The moment he left however, the rattle mimicking monstrosity started acting up again.
"Boss, the rattle is doing something again."
"Oh what now?"
As Minos began to teeth on the round end this time, the ring end began to elongate. The tail end grew long and longer and longer until it had surrounded Minos. While the tail itself didn't coil around Minos, the very end of it began to rise up like a cobra and then change from a ring into a fatal looking stinger!
Dorado, Jacobs and Sarah's eyes all grew wide at the sight. The fact that a sickeningly green liquid began to drip from it didn't help their nerves either.
"Boss..."
"I know Jacobs."
"It's about to give him a lethal dose!"
"I know Jacobs!"
"That venom is melting the ground."
"I see that Jacobs!"
"What are we gonna do?!"
"I don't know Jacobs!"
"Hey guard guy!"
Sarah was the one to call out this time and right in cue, the rattle mimic tail suddenly stopped and retracted itself.
George came back to the cage, only this time he had no apron on and a potato.
"What do you want this time?"
"I need to use the bathroom," Sarah said in a straightforward.
"Why...oh right," George said as he grabbed a pair of manacles hanging off the side of the wagon. He grabbed his spear and pointed at the Dorado and Jacobs.
"You two, arms out together."
"..."
George pointed his spear through the bars.
"Do it."
Jacobs and Dorado reluctantly complied and stuck their left and right arms out respectively. Once they were out, George shackled the two of them together. He then went back and grabbed another pair of manacles, but this time it had a rope attached to it.
George opened the cage and proceeded to place the manacles onto Sarah's wrists. Once they were locked on, he directed her to get out.
"Now then, while we're gone, you two stay here...not that you have a choice! Hah!"
Dorado and Jacobs were not amused at the jape at their expense.
As Sarah exited the cage, she mouthed "Do something" at her two compatriots.
George then left with Sarah in tow, not bothering to lock the cage due to Dorado and Jacobs being locked together.
"Now what do we do?"
As the two tried to come up with a plan, the rattle began to act up again.
_________________________________________________
Meanwhile, while the above scene was happening.
Jordie, Marianne, Molly the Holstiger and Bessie the Khalkotauroi made their way down the fields and towards the Giant Boars. Once they got close enough, Jordie and Marianne gestured their respective monsters to hang back and wait, while the two of them snuck closer.
"Shouldn't we have done this with bow and arrows?," Jordie asked as they crawled in the grass.
"I don't think any of us are trained and no normal arrow is gonna pierce the hide of a Giant Boar," Marianne whispered back, "besides, our monsters can make short work of it once we get them in range."
"Right...wait, don't you know magic?"
"Nothing effective from long distance."
"Great..."
"Quiet! we're here."
Marianne and Jordie popped their heads out of the grass and stared down their target: a sleeping Giant Boar.
"Huh...how mundane...," Jordie thought to himself as he stared at the van-sized wild hogs. Honestly, aside from the lance-sized tusks, he kinda expected more from the thing.
[Convergent evolution is a funny thing.]
"Now then," Marianne said as she readied her wand, "prepare to be amazed at my awesome power."