“I don’t know why you thought this time would be any different,” Kay said to Jackson as he stuck his fork into a pile of Djinn manure. The tines sunk in with a squelch and when Jackson pried the mess up it gave off an odorous wave of alcohol and mulch. She was in the stall next to him, engaged in the same glorious task. “I know you really want to be a tamer, but whining about it won’t change anything.”

“Yeah…” Jackson’s train of thought derailed and he shoveled the last forkful of crap into the wheelbarrow. He could always count on Kay to state the obvious when he refused to see it. He groaned in frustration and jabbed the manure fork into the heap. “If she’d just give me a chance I could make her see — I know I could.”

Kay stood up and wiped her sleeve across her forehead, pushing at the strands of sweaty strawberry blonde hair that had fallen out of her bandana headband. “Maybe she’ll come around after you go to school? Who knows — maybe you’ll actually like it?”

“Hey, you’re the bookworm. Not me.”

“I’ll try to pretend that wasn’t condescending,” Kay said with a sideways smirk. “Hey, come on. I’m kidding!” she said when he didn’t smile back.

“Are you, though?”

“About which part? The part about liking school or the part about you being a condescending ass?”

Jackson gave her an irritated glance.

Kay shrugged. “In all seriousness, maybe you will like it.”

“Can we talk about something else? It’s not like I even got in anywhere.” Jackson vented another sigh of frustration and wiped his forehead with the back of his glove — just about the only semi-clean spot available for the task.

“You’re right. Because I totally love standing here and listening to you complain.”

“The Roktar Rumble was last night. Did you know?”

“Of course I did. You’ve only been talking about it for the past two weeks nonstop, you nerd. And you do realize I’ve been trying everything in my power to keep you from talking about it, don’t you? Let’s talk about your terrible grandma some more. Please.”

“Shut up,” Jackson said with a smirk.

As Kay finished her stall, they both pushed their wheelbarrows out into the alleyway and dumped the contents onto the cement floor in a stream of plopping stench.

Now that they’d finished the final stalls, the self-driving scraper tractor (or shit-shover, as Jackson so eloquently nicknamed it) would come along and clear the refuse from the alleyways in the barn, leaving the floors as clean as if they’d been scrubbed for hours by humans. On their way to the shed to return the wheelbarrows and shovels, Jackson recounted the Mayimbe-Devereaux fight to Kay. If he noticed her thinly-veiled disinterest, he ignored it.

“And then he just threw in the towel!” Jackson said (“Oh, no. Not the towel,” Kay said dryly under her breath) as they hung up the last fork and shovel and closed the equipment shed door behind him. His incredulous tone caused Kay to roll her eyes.

“He still had a Djinn in fighting shape and he gave up!” Jackson continued. “People have been freaking out about it on the feeds all morning.” He raised his holo-watch and shoved the screen in her face.

“Please don’t make me read that, Jackson,” Kay sighed in exhausted resignation.

Jackson closed the screen and frowned. “This was supposed to be his year in the Gold League, now everyone’s wondering if Mayimbe’s even fit to compete in the league at all.”

“Mayimbe?” Kay asked, actively participating in the conversation for the first time. “I’ve heard that name somewhere before…Mayimbe…”

Jackson scoffed and it was his turn to roll his eyes. “C’mon Kay, he’s only one of the biggest tamers out there right now! Of course you’ve heard his name! He’s sponsored by Kradu Corp, he’s been to the league finals each of the past three years. Who hasn’t heard of him? I mean, I’ve probably brought his name up before.”

“That’s it!” Kay said, snapping her fingers as she ignored Jackson’s admonishment. “Mayimbe…I’ve helped him with a couple of Djinn here! He’s the one with a Unistang, isn’t he?”

Jackson stopped in his tracks and stared at the red-headed girl. “You actually met Ricardo Mayimbe? The Ricardo Mayimbe from the DBL?”

“Yeah, sure I know what DBL is,” Kay said, her eyes half-open and her tone annoyed.

“Djinn Battle League!”

“I know what DBL stands for!”

“Sometimes I can’t tell! But do you know who he is?”

“Yeah, I saw him. Haven’t you been listening? He seemed like a pretty cool guy,” Kay shrugged.

"Why didn’t you tell me?” Jackson said, voice rising to shrill pitch as his inner fanboy burst free. “When was this? What was he like? What was he wearing?”

Kay snorted. “Okay, I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that last part. Weren’t you just talking about how everyone hated him?”

“Hate is a strong word,” Jackson said. “I mean, I certainly don’t hate him. I’m just disappointed. I was really gunning for him. Now I’m not so sure he’ll have what it takes to push his Djinn in the coming season. Maybe the casters were right. I mean, it was the Roktar Rumble! If you don’t go big there, can you be expected to go big in the season?”

“Says the boy who doesn’t even own a Djinn to go big with,” Kay said. Jackson stiffened and she gave him a light shove. “Oh chill out, you know I’m kidding. Man, you’re sensitive this morning.”

Their conversation brought them to a tall gate buzzing with light blue bars — an electric enclosure to protect the Djinn from outside predators or enterprising thieves. Kay pressed her hand to the access pad and then typed in a pin code. At first, it felt like overkill to Jackson, but Sato raised, bred, and boarded some of the premiere Djinn in the world and didn’t take any chances with who had access. The gate beeped open and the two employees crossed into the grassy enclosure.

As the gate whisked shut behind them, Kay whistled while Jackson made a similar action with a hand scan and pin code on the feed dispenser next to the gate. Although most of the Djinn were on a timed system, some tamers required their monsters to be hand-fed at certain times of the day.

A chime sounded and a series of thumb-sized pellets tumbled into a bucket. Jackson picked it up just as the Camelum bounded across the pen toward them. Seeing the familiar faces, it let out a bellow of joy and raced toward them, its long, knobby legs pumping as fast as it could will them.

“Well hello, Petunia!” Kay said in exaggerated excitement as the Djinn buried its large nose in Jackson’s pail. Jackson struggled to keep the bucket from overturning as the Djinn pushed harder, trying to reach every pellet all at once.

“I can’t believe somebody is paying to have this thing receive special treatment,” Jackson said. He waved a hand in front of his face. “And it stinks!”

“He didn’t mean it,” Kay said, patting the Camelum on its single large hump. She looked at Jackson. “You be nice today! And besides, you know what Mr. Sato says — every Djinn is a champion in its owner’s eyes.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jackson said as the Djinn finished the last of its meal. “I’m just wondering who in the world has enough money to keep a Camelum at the Sato Ranch.”

“That’s not really —”

Kay stopped mid-sentence, causing Jackson to turn as he returned the pail to the bin in the feed dispenser. Following Kay’s gaze, he saw a brown figure making its way across the enclosure. The medium-sized Djinn was feline in shape and hefty in stature. It hunkered low to the ground as it made its way across the field.

“Oh, crap,” Jackson said.

The Djinn drew close enough for him to recognize it as a Smilaguar. It had its yellow eyes focused on Petunia and was only about fifty yards away now. The wind shifted and the Camelum grunted as the smell of the predator caught her attention. Her long neck stood straight up and her soft brown eyes darted with nervousness.

“How did it get in here? Is it wild?” Kay asked.

At the same time, Jackson realized that the soft humming of the enclosure was gone, he glanced over his shoulder and saw the fence wasn’t live anymore. It wouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact that this area that housed the herbivore Djinn butted up against the enclosure of the carnivorous Djinn.

Jackson shook his head before he realized Kay wasn’t looking at him.

“No, I don’t think it’s wild.”

One look across the pasture confirmed the perimeter walls and their repulser field were still active — besides, there was no way even a Smilaguar would have been able to jump that high, the trees outside the ranch property line were cleared back to stop that very thing.

Petunia moaned in distress again and started backing away as the Smilaguar drew closer. It didn’t seem to notice the humans at all, as its attention was focused completely on the Camelum.

“It must’ve escaped its habitat when the interior fences went down,” Jackson said. His mind raced. Sato had backup generators to keep the barriers up and prevent this from happening, but it looked like even their system wasn’t perfect. The Smilaguar was obviously not wild — it wouldn’t hurt the humans, unless provoked. At the same time, because neither Kay nor Jackson were its tamer, Jackson didn’t know if they’d be able to call the predator Djinn off of its stalk, either.

“Do you know whose it is?” Jackson asked as Kay wrapped her arms around Petunia in an effort to calm her down. He placed himself between them and the Smilaguar, holding his arms out and moving slowly. Entry-level employees like he and Kay weren’t allowed to work with the predator Djinn at Sato. Although the breeding ranch had a strict policy about not boarding any once-feral monsters tamed in the wild, the predators were still tricky to manage.

“It’s okay, Petunia,” Kay said. Jackson could tell she was fighting to keep the panic out of her own voice. If the fully-grown Camelum tried to run, there was no way Kay would be able to stop it — not to mention that the Smilaguar would immediately give chase.

Trying to fight his pounding heart and nerves, Jackson reached a shaky hand over and quickly brought up the Sato Breeders app on his holo-watch. In the corner, he found the red emergency button and tapped it, all without taking his eyes off the Smilaguar.

Then, out of curiosity, he slowly pulled up his Djinncyclopedia app and analyzed the Djinn in front of him.

Djinn: Smilaguar

Element: Earth

Smilaguar is an Intermediate-Form, Earth Elemental Djinn. Like it is in every evolutionary form, Smilaguar is an aggressive predatory Djinn. In most cases, it’s perfectly content to avoid human contact, but it tends to go out of its way to engage weaker Djinn..

“Oh, great,” Jackson said.

He didn’t like the sound of that last part. He wracked his brain, trying to remember the various safety instructions he’d learned throughout his time at Sato. Different Djinn reacted in different ways when they were scared, hungry, tired, or angry. Jackson had no idea if he should shout and wave his hands to show the Smilaguar he wasn’t going to back down or if he should avoid making eye contact with the predator Djinn. Protecting Petunia was important, of course, but he also didn’t want to turn into the Smilaguar’s next meal.

The Djinn growled deep in its chest and hunkered down. Jackson’s mind raced, unable to come to a decisive action.

“Jackson!” Kay yelled from behind him, panic clear in her voice. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep Petunia here!”

“Hey!” Jackson yelled waving his hands at the Smilaguar. “Get back! Get back!”

The Djinn yowled again and sank even lower, baring its teeth. Jackson continued to wave his arms and shout as the Smilaguar pounced.