Aurin, Luna, Snippet and Dopefish sat on the back row at the top of the double-decker bus, enjoying the light breeze of the bus rolling through the streets of Ludonia on the hot summer morning. Having had a rather miserable tower run that morning, they decided to clear their heads by taking a tour of the city.

“Sit still,” said Aurin as Snippet tried to cut the railings of the bus with his scissor pincers. “If you break that, I’ll leave you as payment instead of money.”

Snippet sat down and cut the air instead, unable to fight the urge to snip. Luna giggled at the ant warrior while Dopefish stared vacantly at the tour guide with the megaphone.

“If you look to the left,” he said, “you’ll see the famous Spire Bridge. A work of marvellous engineering built a little over a hundred and fifty years ago. Each day over twenty thousand vehicles cross over the river, imagine that.”

Luna listened intently as Aurin held back a yawn while the tour guide droned on and on about the bridge. It was a nice bridge, sure, and it had a fascinating history, of course, but Aurin just wasn’t that interested.

“…powered by a pair of Grakadon who raised the bridge with their earth magic to let the ships pass underneath.”

Now Aurin was listening, and he raised his hand.

“Yes?” asked the tour guide.

“How old are the dragons?”

“Hmm…I think it’s been the same two Grakadon working the bridge for at least four decades now. They replaced older Grakadon who had pulled it for the better part of a century, I believe.”

Luna rolled her eyes as Aurin asked more and more questions about the dragons that pulled the bridge. She wanted to hop off the roof of the bus out of embarrassment as he started asking if they were ever made to duel each other on the bridge.

“Guuuh!” exclaimed Dopefish as Luna’s grip on the fish grew too tight him to bear.

“I’m sorry, Dopey!” she said, releasing him.

“You really need to be more careful sometimes,” Aurin told her, finally finished with his questions.

A short while later, the bus pulled up outside the Grand Clock of Ludonia. The tour group disembarked, and the assorted travellers took countless photos until they were shooed inside by the tour guide. The odd assortment of people and their Minakai plodded up the endless parade of stairs—something particularly difficult for Luna as she carried her Dopefisih—until they reached a room with both a large bell and a large Gorunze.

“Shh, shh,” said the tour guide as he handed out ear protectors. “It’s about to strike ten o’clock.”

The giant clock face was visible backwards through the panelled glass, and the hands crept closer and closer to the top. As soon as the minute ticked over, the Gorunze raised a fist and clanked it against the clock.

“Agh!” yelled Aurin, the only one naïve enough to think he could withstand the toll of the bell without using the buds to plug his ears.

“It serves you right,” said Luna, shaking her head. “Honestly, sometimes you seem so smart and others…well, enough about that.”

Aurin got over the pain quickly as an idea popped into his head. He pulled a loose summoning stone out of his bag and summoned his own Gorunze. The tourists started taking photographs, measuring Aurin’s monster against the guardian of the clock tower; Aurin’s was about two thirds the size of the hulking toller.

“Yes, I raised him from a small rock,” said Aurin proudly, responding to an old lady’s question.

Snipper hopped onto the back of his teammate and tried to scale the bell, but the guardian Gorunze reached up and threw the armoured ant to the ground. Aurin scolded his Minakai again, knowing that the mischievous little monster was going to try and cut the bell down.

“If you try anything else, you’re being sent back to that ranch,” he warned Snippet.

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Everyone returned to the bus and the tour continued, passing by the wondrous cathedrals, the towers and spires, and finishing off outside the home of King York, Whiteshire Palace. Aurin and Luna both stared in awe at the majestic palace, curious to go inside, but it was off limits to the public except for special occasions.

Standing tall by the gates alongside the human guards were a number of Chopchop, the evolved form of Snippet. Aurin’s Snippet wandered up to them, but glanced back at his tamer who was watching him carefully. Aurin didn’t want to know what would have happened had he not been watching.

“Does the king have his own Minakai?” asked Aurin.

“Yes,” confirmed the tour guide. “It is customary for royal family members to only have one personal Minakai, the rest are owned by the royal family as a whole. King York has had his Guilgon since he was a little boy. Back then, of course, it was an Innogon.”

“You’re just like the king,” said Aurin, giving Luna a nudge.

“He has great taste, doesn’t he?” said Luna with a proud smile.

“I like Innogon too much to tease you, so I’ll just say yes,” chuckled Aurin.

The tour ended at midday, and Aurin and Luna decided to walk Snippet back to the ranch at the edge of Baxter Park before they had lunch. It was a pleasant ranch, notably bigger than Kyle’s, but it felt much more restrictive because it was within the confines of a public area. There were dozens of workers compared to Kyle’s one—and a half if Aurin counted himself—that tended to the Minakai at all times.

“Bringing him home the long way?” asked Martin the ranch owner as Aurin, Luna, Snippet and Dopefish approached the gates. He was on his way into the pens with a big bag of feed labelled for the aquatic Minakai.

“It’s a nice day, so why not?” said Aurin, as Snippet walked along and cut the grass with his pincers. The little Minakai couldn’t help himself. If he wasn’t cutting something, he got very agitated.

“Where is it you said the rest of your Minakai are being kept?” asked Martin.

“It’s a place called Kyle’s Ranch in Hazelton,” said Aurin. “It’s owned by a man named Kyle, if his uncreative naming didn’t make that clear.”

“Kyle? I know him very well.”

“You do?” asked Luna in surprise.

“Oh yeah, we go back years. In fact, we both competed in the national championships together. We had a bit of a rivalry going on, but he was better than me. I was the one who convinced him to take up ranching when he decided to retire from the competitive scene.”

“That’s odd,” said Aurin. “He’s never mentioned you.”

“Why would he?” asked Martin.

“I live in his house, so you would think it’d come up.”

Luna wrinkled her forehead. “We know Kyle well, but he never really talks much about himself or his past.”

“That’s true,” said Aurin. “I was there for, what, eight or nine months before he told me which of the Minakai at his ranch were his?”

Martin guffawed and tried to catch his breath. He drew a finger across his eye to wipe away a tear. “That sounds like him alright. That lummox hasn’t changed a bit.”

Luna brought out her phone and called Kyle. It rang a few times before there was an answer and she switched the audio to speakerphone. “Luna? Everything alright?” asked Kyle.

“Kyle, you daft goat, how are you?”

“Martin?” asked Kyle. “Did they find you on the streets homeless? You two, don’t give him any money.”

“Shut it, you second-rate rancher,” said Martin, but both men were laughing wildly as they traded insults back and forth.

“They’re even harsher to each other than you and Kyle are,” whispered Luna, while Aurin nodded in agreement.

“How did Aurin and Luna happen to find you? You’re still running the ranch in Baxter Park?” asked Kyle.

“Yes sir, Aurin here is keeping a Snippet with me until he heads back to Hazelton,” said Martin. “It’s a peculiar little one. He’s cut through the fence a few times already and doesn’t seem to learn his lesson even after the other Minakai have barked and roared at him.”

“You got a Snippet in Ludonia Tower?” asked Kyle.

“A couple of days ago,” said Aurin, “but we’ve had no luck since. We’re going to do our final run tomorrow because we’re only three days away from the tournament. How are things back home?”

“Everything’s good. I think I actually get more work done without having to fix your messes.”

“You liar. You probably cry yourself to sleep every night because you’re so lonely by yourself.”

“I go to sleep happy that I’ve got my house back to myself.”

This continued for a short while. “Boys,” muttered Luna, shaking her head. Dopefish blobbed up and down on the floor pathetically. “Don’t you start too mister,” she said, squatting down and poking Dopefish in the body.

“What do you mean you met Tobias?” asked Kyle, drawing Luna’s attention back to the conversation. “Luna, what’s he talking about?”

“Should we really be spreading this around?” Luna asked Aurin.

“It’s only Kyle,” said Aurin.

“And me,” said Martin.

“And Martin.”

“Can you keep it quiet, Martin?” asked Luna, wagging her finger.

“I’ve met Tobias a bunch of times,” said Martin. “I respect the man and won’t say a word.”

“Well,” said Aurin, “it turns out our national champion leads a double life as an underground fighter.”

“What, like cage battles?”

“No, not that sort of fighter. He fights in a literal underground battle arena with his Minakai. He wears a mask to keep his identity a secret.”

Kyle stayed silent for a short while, so Luna had to check that he was still on the line. “Is he messing with me?” he asked eventually.

“I’m afraid not,” said Luna with a small laugh. “Every part of that is true.”

“Wait a second,” said Martin, dropping his bag of feed. “Tobias is Sir Mask?”

“When you two are in Hazelton, you run afoul of criminals wearing masks,” said Kyle. “When you two are in Ludonia, you run into expert tamers wearing masks.”

“Oh yeah,” said Aurin, remembering something else. “We ran into Frederick in Ludonia Tower too.”

Kyle suddenly hung up.