Gawking at the brief and violent appearance and consequent exit of the Queen, the boys were left in shock and unsure as to what they were to do next. The jarring awe they felt quickly faded into confusion, which in Nosal’s case then developed into joy.

“Weeee did it! Weee did iiit! We’re gonna get paid, I’m gonna get paid, you’re gonna get paid!” the boy chanted with his musk of joy as he started wiggling his hips and rocking his shoulders in a silly little dance.

Meanwhile Nosal’s sword was still left in the dirt as if the very recent conflicts have all but been forgotten with Dittat and Gelg quickly swept up in the joyous mood, as they too began to wriggle about with a wagging tail in post-battle joy.

But to Kano who still warily eyed the stragglers, the job was still anything but done.

The surviving Burrowers that were left in a catatonic state or weakly milling about aimlessly in the absence of their Queen were all that still stood in the way of Kano and his dozen silvers. The same silvers which quickly caused the young boy to start salivating drool from the corner of his mouth as he began to have an avarice-themed daydream.

Quickly cleaning away the stray dribble and shaking his head from his daydreaming of mountains of snacks, Kano ignored his brother’s ridiculous dance as he tightened his grip on his sword before marching towards the aimless Burrowers.

The poor Tin-ranked monsters that previously were a ferocious legion that worked in sync, now without their Queen to command them were left as nothing but vulnerable and rudderless drones. They barely reacted as Kano smashed down on his first Burrower and crushed it by its midriff.

At the sight of his brother’s macabre task, Nosal who was dancing about with his little impromptu troupe began to slow down before quickly coming to a stop.

“What are you waiting for?” asked Kano rudely before landing another overhead smash on another defenceless monster. “Come give me a hand or you’ll never get your three Silvers!”

Wincing at the thought of being left out, Nosal groaned before heading over towards his sword that was stuck in the dirt. With a two-handed grip that was powered by greed he then heaved, to no avail and nought to show except for a squeaky fart.

“Well? Is that it little Nose?” asked his brother in annoyance beside a few broken and motionless Burrowers, for his own younger brother had contributed absolutely nothing so far in the harrowing work.

“But it’s stuck!” whined Nosal.

“So what? I’m telling dad you did nothing so I can get all the money and you can be a poor refugee, if you don’t dig it out right now,” quipped back Kano with a musk of anger as he hefted up his sword that had grisle dribbling along its length onto his shoulder.

Close to crying at the unfairness of it all, Nosal bent down and started pawing at the dirt with renewed greed-fuelled vigour that helped him deal with his brother’s unfair and unreasonable threats.

“Come Dittat, there’s plenty left for you too,” Kano silently messaged his tiny green wurm even as his own brother huffed and puffed away whilst uselessly digging out his sword.

…

In the cool shade of their kitchen Joantack and his wife Evelain sat on gigantic stools in companionable silence as they chewed on stalks of Yesterhay. Before each of them was a large bundle of hairy Shiverbeans that they slowly each popped into a wooden bucket of their own to prepare for sale to the Firefly for the following morning.

“Hmm-Mooo… so hows them small Brownwhisker boys doing dear?” asked Evelain as she arched her sore back before standing up.

“I’m not too sure dear moo…. Maybe they’re dead already love,” joked back Joantack with a smile knowing full well that the boys were plenty prepared to deal with his pest problem with the loaned Beakhound. Not so much for the inclusion of the pup, but the Crow-wolf was plenty to deal with a few Burrowers.

“Mooooo! That’s nothing to joke about you silly fool! What if something did happen to the poor boys after you had jinxed them like that Joantack? What would you do then?!” complained his wife as she walked over to angrily grab a handful of beanstalks beside her husband before smacking him in the horn.

Grimacing in mock pain as he lifted up his own handful of stalks to defend himself, Joantack laughed in a booming fit.

Seeing that her chiding was taking anything but seriously, Evelain grabbed onto one of her husband’s horns that peeked out from his massive ginger head before shoving his head off to the side in annoyance before turning away in a huff .

“Oi oi, Mooo! There’s no need for that my spotted deary, the boys will be fine!” Joantack reasoned as he reached out to grab onto the side of his wife’s retreating leg so as to turn her back to him. He did not fancy the idea of leaving his wife in a foul mood and having to sleep in the living room by himself.

“How about I go check in on them in a bit and I’ll finish off these beans my love?” he pleaded to appease his wife from punishing him to a fate of discomfortable sleep and a sense of unreasonable nagging guilt.

Surely as if pre-meditated, she turned to look back at him over her shoulder on the threshold to the kitchen, with her face quickly morphing from spousal disapproval into one of benign mischief.

“Well that’s all great my love, there’s some juice for the boys and finish up quick my love,” she shot back quickly before disappearing into the depts of the house.

Joantack was left speechless and unable to redact his offer to finish the Shiverbeans prep alone.

Quickly realising that he had been thoroughly played by his wife, Joantack let out a distressed groaning moo which caused his curse to flare within his chest briefly before dying down. The Minos choose not to dwell upon his wife tricking him and quickly put the little episode behind him before quickly identifying the clay jug in question and resigning himself to a lonesome session of labouring.

But before long the Minotaur was interrupted by the quiet and furtive knocking of the doorframe leading into the kitchen from the outside.

He lifted his shaggy brows only to behold the Brownwhisker boys standing by his door, covered in gore and mud all over themselves and their overalls.

The boys were beaming with pride with their little chests puffed out whilst easily ignoring the Borrower gunk that matted their fur as they nervously fidgeted with greedy eagerness.

And as if infected with boy’s mood, their tiny monster companions hopped about whilst being unable to remain still as they excitedly ran in circles around the boys.

“We’ve fhe-finished the job Mister Joantack, we are here for the payment!” proudly declared Kano. Although his nervous clenching and unclenching of his hands upon the hilt of his wooden sword that he held before him belied his nervous nature that was at odds to his proud declaration.

Beside him his brother was nervously rubbing his suspenders on his thigh with his free hand with the same manic nervousness.

The sight of the boys being so giddy from their first prospective pay-day absolutely warmed Joantack’s heart and he could not help himself but smile with a happy Moo.

But Joantack was a kind-hearted Mino but no fool.

“Did you get the Queen?” he double checked before handing over the reward, for there was no point in paying the boys if the problem was to persist and come back to haunt his crops if the monster in question was still alive.

“Well you see… we didn’t but a Gildronfly did….. then we finished off the rest! So rest assure that there is no more Burrowers on your farm Mister Joantack!” Kano nervously answered honestly. The admission of his failure in ensuring that the Queen was slayed by their party was delivered with his head held in shame, but the subsequent promise of the destruction of the Burrowers was delivered with childish bravado.

All in all, Joantack was mightily impressed with how quickly the job was handled and how much he had managed to save on the job without having to hire a proper established Tamer. One whom he would have had to wait until the next wandering visit in a month’s time at best which would have ensured nearly total devastation of his crops. Plus the Tamer would’ve charged him with a prohibitively expensive premium for his services with a minimum of at least a whole gold that made the twelve silvers he was about to pay naught but a paltry comparison.

“MOOO! Boys am I glad your father recommended you, here let me get you your money,” Joantack declared before lifting himself off his stool.

Then with a fake show of rummaging about with the heavy jangling of the silvers in the recess of his pocket for the correct change, when he had already purposely counted out the money beforehand, Joantack then fished it out before holding out his fist before Kano’s chest.

“Here is a to a job well done young calf,” he declared as the boy leaned his sword on his side to cup both hands under his fist to accept the waterfall of silver coinage.

The look of glee on the boy’s faces was one that greatly amused Joantack, who sometimes found it hard to find enjoyment in life with the occasional flaring of the curse that plagued him.

He did note of how the youngest quickly frowned at the amount of coins he transferred over to Kano, but that was some assuredly brotherly misconduct that was none of his business but did nevertheless amused him.

“Boys if you wish, Evelain has also prepared you something drink after your hard work,” said the Minotaur farmer as he turned around to gesture towards the jug.

But at the sound of quickly receding pounding little feet and the raised voices of the boys in a heated argument, he quickly turned back around to find that the small party had already disappeared from his back door.

Calfs nowadays have no idea how to behave with a few coins weighing down their pockets, he thought with a small sigh before heading back to his little stool.