Vendel swallowed as quietly as he could and looked the tough Sea Captain in the eye.

“Basil, go.”

The captain looked confused for a second until Basil practically flew up the man’s arm and to his neck. Right as Basil was about to claw the Captain’s throat out Vendel stopped him.

“Hold, Basil.”

Then Vendel cleared his throat and addressed the sailors around him,

“If you don’t want your captain dead, then kindly let me leave.”

The sailors all took a step back and hesitated to come closer. Meanwhile the captain considered his options and managed to come up with a few sentences.

“Hey now lad, I never threatened ye did I? I jis wanted to talk about a potential agreement betwixt us. I do applaud yer caution, but it’s a bit misplaced yah? Let’s talk this out.”

With this speech, Vendel blinked a few times and had the good grace to be embarrassed by his blunder. He called Basil back to himself and followed the Sea Captain when he walked to one of the tables in the pub. When they were seated, the Captain swiped one of his men’s drinks and took a swig.

“So, ye can make monsters tame eh? Quite the useful skill. How’d you get it?”

Vendel coughed and replied,

“That’s neither here or there. Let’s get straight to the point. What do you want?”

Vendel was not about to give up his secrets to this man. It seemed that no one knew about Beast Tamers in this world, which was strange, considering the utility of such a class. The Sea Captain nodded and motioned to one of his crew. The crewmate, a big burly bald man stepped up to his captain and handed over a sheet of parchment. The Captain looked the sheet over and handed it across the table to Vendel.

“Ere, lookat this. I need you to get one of these to hold still long enough for one of my crew to harvest from it.”

Vendel peered at the sheet with surprise.

‘It’s a cow?’

The creature shown did indeed look immensely like a cow. It’s shape, the legs; it even had the black and white splotches. Except the cow was red, not black and white. Vendel decided that it was probably just the ink that was used and that the cow couldn’t possibly be red. He looked up from the sheet to the Sea Captain.

“I could do that. Why the need though?”

The Captain blinked. The answer was obvious. Yet the lad didn’t seem to be joking. Obviously he was the perfect man for the job.

“What else would we need it for? We need to milk it and get at least three casks full. Now, I can send two of my men with you to help hold a Blood Flecked Grazer down for you.”

Blood Flecked Grazer? That’s what it’s called? And hold it down? Wait. Why would he want someone who could tame a monster to catch a tame animal? Unless it’s a monster. Who am I kidding? Of course it’s going to be a monster.

So went Vendel’s thoughts as he, Basil, and two of the crew left the pub and then the city. The two men sent with him looked like every pair of henchmen ever. One was the bald guy from earlier, and the other was a small weasel look-alike. The weasel guy had greasy black hair down to his shoulders, and wore a red bandanna. His name was Dwezel and he openly boasted of being a Lvl 14 Knife Thrower. The bald fellow was Dorcas, and Dwezel claimed that the big guy was a Lvl 18 Basher of very little brain.

On their way to find one of the blood cow monsters Vendel decided to check his status again so that he could be sure of himself in facing the beast.

‘Menu’

Acknowledged

Vendel Wane:

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  Class: Beast Tamer  Level: 5

  Skills: Human Language Comprehension: Max Lvl  Running: Lvl 3 Tame Beast: Lvl 2 Command Beast: Lvl 5 Instruct Beast: Lvl 2 Bond: Basil; Lvl 5

  Monsters Tamed: Basil: Lvl 7; Skills: Quick Slash Lvl 1

Perks: Blessing of the System

  Titles: Otherworlder  Dreamfruit Snatcher

‘Well,’ Vendel thought to himself, ‘everything is working out okay. Considering what they told me about this Grazer monster, I can be sure that it isn’t going to be that easy to tame it. It eats meat, and is very hostile towards people, not to mention it’s apparently really fast.’

Vendel considered his options, and decided on a plan that would hopefully work. He made his final decision none to quickly, for soon after Dwezel spotted a Grazer. Whispering, Vendel, Dwezel, and Dorcas set the plan into action. Basil was sent to grab the Grazer’s attention, while Vendel and Dwezel readied meat and a net. Dorcas took the net and got ready to tackle the Grazer when Basil would lure it by.

Basil was most displeased. He was being used as bait! How could his wise master betray him like this? No doubt master desired to be rid of the weak Scritch Mouse so that he could have a powerful Blood Flecked Grazer as his pet. However, Basil was a good mouse and would obey his master. So he took his meat piece and ran out to the Grazer. The powerful beast noticed Basil immediately and Basil began to shake. Surely he would die, and would meet the great mousey maker! But! He was strong, he could endure! So Basil turned and waved his tail in disrespect at the Grazer.

The Grazer could not believe its eyes! Such an impudent whelp of a mouse was insulting it? Unacceptable! With a bellow of rage, the Grazer got up and charged after the fast fleeing mouse, intent on catching it and ripping it to pieces. After a couple of yards, the Grazer was tackled by an enormous lump of meat. It turned its gaze to the attacker, and was shocked to see a human almost as big as it was. The Grazer tried to turn to face its assailant, but a net had snared its hooves! Falling to the ground, the powerful Grazer started to roar in rage. It tried to get up, but was beaten down by the large human. Soon a much smaller human came close, and it bore meat with it! The Grazer stopped to smell the delicious scent of raw bloody meat and waited to see what would happen. Soon the small human started to throw pieces of meat into the Grazer’s mouth. It was confused, normally the smaller humans would milk it while it was held down, but this one fed it? Suddenly the Grazer heard a voice it had never heard before. It asked several questions, and the Grazer understood it without having to know any language. The Grazer listened, then it accepted the voice’s deal.

Vendel finished feeding the Grazer and stepped back, waiting to see if using the Tame Beast skill had worked. He was rewarded after a minute or two, when he heard,

Acknowledged.

You have tamed a Lvl 11 Blood Flecked Grazer.

Assign a name to this beast?

“Yes. Name it Daisy.”

Acknowledged.

Lvl 11 Blood Flecked Grazer is now named ‘Daisy’

Skill: Tame Beast has leveled up. It is now Level 4

Vendel grinned.

“Alright! Dwezel, Dorcas, let her up. Let’s get back to town.”

Dwezel paused, and shook his head.

“Naw mate, we’s headed down to the beach to meet up with the capitain. Come on!”

Vendel, though confused by the change in plan, agreed to follow Dwezel, and after grabbing Basil, followed the two crewmembers. When they reached the beach, Vendel saw that a ship was waiting for them. As they neared, a plank was dropped, and Dorcas led Daisy up the plank onto the ship, followed closely by Dwezel and Vendel. The Sea Captain strode up to Vendel and, laughing uproariously, clapped him on the back.

“Hahaharrr! I like yer thinkin’ lad! Why just milk it, when ye could take the whole beast! Why, yer just the perfect fit for my crew! Thinkin’ o’ loopholes in the law to make a profit! Ha!”

Vendel started to have a sinking feeling about this whole affair.

“Wait… What do you mean by loopholes in the law?”

Dwezel shook his head.

“So ye didn’t know? Did ye live under a rock until recently? When Grazers are milked, ye can get a wine that has more addictive properties than most alcohol, so all the powers that be outlawed the harvesting, buying, and selling of it. But there ain’t no law sayin’ ye can’t jis sell the whole Grazer.”

The Sea Captain jumped in,

“We were just goin’ ta sell the wine to our buyer, but I reckon he’ll pay a lot more for a permanent source. Ye solved our problems easylike lad! Here’s yer payment.”

The Sea Captain handed over a small bag that jingled with plenty of coins. Vendel was still in shock, however.

“Wait, hold on a second, go back. Do you often break the law?”

The gathered crew and the Captain all broke out laughing. Finally the Sea Captain got his laughter under control.

“Yeah laddy. We are what wee little gentlefolk like ye call Pirates. Ye made a deal with us and fulfilled yer part o’ the deal. Thankee kindly lad.”

Upon hearing this, Vendel fainted.