38 Ranchers and Breeders

At night, Haggar's tavern began to bustle with the hustle of the village. Women and the few men all congregating within its walls to enjoy a few pints before sauntering a bit tipsily back home. Often there'd be a strange moaning noise that echoed and drew the noise to a still for but a moment as eyes were turned to the newest dishevelled woman who was shivering while the person sitting next to or across from them only smiled giddily.

'People really do just do it in public,' Noah blanked as he watched two women actively drooling over themselves while their hands crossed to each other crotches and began to fiddle with the other buttons. All the while he was 'calmly' munching away at a shank of meat Haggar had dished up. Thankfully finding that there were animals shaped like animals shaped like actual animals and weren't technically monsters. 'Wasn't there a saber toothed squirrel a while back?' he though thinking back to when he'd first made the trek to Alder to get Caina and encountered just that.

Turning back to the girls sitting by his table, Caina had long since dried herself and dressed in something less soaked. He found it strange how much she disliked being dressed in wet considering not long ago she'd sauntered back to Alder after a bath with her clothing still soaked. 'I don't get women,' he shrugged and looked to Liora, still soggy all around, though not as drippy as she was when they first entered the tavern. Give her a bit more time and she was likely to dry off completely.

They didn't speak much as they ate, just keeping silent and enjoying the shank and the vegetables on the side. Noah was the first to eat, thoroughly enjoying the rich and nutritious meal, feeling it already empowering and fattening up his bony body and refilling his stores of 'energy.' He was the first to finish, having done so by the time Liora and Caina were halfway through their plates.

Not wanting to disturb them, he glanced to the basket lain against the side of their table, seeing the first volume of the Almanac of Monster Shaped Girls strewn atop his clothes and Liora purchases, the bottle of milk having somehow dug its way into the basket at some point in time. Parting his eyes from it, he checked on Liora and Caina, seeing they were still eating. He shrugged, he could just skim it quickly and get an idea about what's in it at least.

Reaching down for it, he plucked the red leather-bound book and flipped it over, finding no blurb on the back so that wasn't going to help him. Pinching the front of the cover on the edge, Noah opened it to the first page of yellowish parchment and found a few short lines written at the centre in neat typewritten font.

[Written by Klive Kalabic.]

[Born on the 19th of December, 1996.]

[Died on the 19th of January, 2013.]

[Reincarnated on the 19th of Valus 1303 of the Minasian calender.]

It was simple, if not curt and provided enough information to let Noah know that arrival on Minas was instantaneous and death related. 'At least I know I died. Somehow, did I die in my sleep?' he pondered, he hadn't felt ill when he'd gone to bed. 'Please tell me I didn't sneeze and crack my head open on the floor.' He truly hoped not, he couldn't look himself in the eye if he did.

Turning the page over, he was met with a larger font and bold text, below which was the regular sized writing.

[Likely if you are reading this copy of my Almanac, you have been reincarnated. Currently, I have several dozen of this book circulating across all of Minas though how many have been claimed by Artemia's church, I am unaware.]

[Enclosed within its pages is every bit of knowledge I have been able to discover about the monsters that call this world home as well as information about several quirks to this world, organizations, countries, and the like.]

[Protect this book with your life, whoever you are.]

[It was a pain in the ass to write.]

A decent opening, all things considered. Turning to the next page, it immediately went into describing the most mundane of creatures on Minas, the human. Basic things really, nothing of particular intrigue.

Noah shot a look up from the book, the girls were getting to a quarter left of their meals. Deciding he'd rather just skim it for now, he held the book, slightly curling the pages and began to flick through them, seeing the hordes of words and the illustrations that would show off their forms, their intricacies and strange additions of horns, claws, serpentine lower halfs and on and on. Up until the last portions of the book when the images faded away and the descriptions of the monsters was no more, instead falling into a new section about various things around Minas. One of which took his attention up right.

[Ranching and Breeders]

[The act of raising animals on large tracts of lands.]

[Originally, on earth this was mostly done with cows, sheep, pigs, and so forth. To harvest from them various products such as milk, wool, leather, etc. Here on Minas, it is the same, but it is to be noted that there are two forms of ranching. One for animals, the other for monsters.

[The first is for all the same reason's as we did on earth, though the quality of provided resources is not as great as with the monsters. The second, the ranching of monsters is much more expansive, extending onto many species of monsters not otherwise considered livestock to us. An example would be the various dragon races who are bred for their eggs, scales, teeth, and more.]

[Ranching can be quite a lucrative occupation if you so deem to do it, if so, you will be glad to know that I'll have enclosed in writing the types of resource the monster will produce. BUT, I must inform you that Ranching is not a simple feat. For if you want the monsters to produce the best quality of resource, you will need to feed them fresh Ethos. Something which I'm sure you may have heard is a reprehensible thing due to Manos corruption and the risk of metamorphosizing into a monster. Luckily, as one of Typhania's summoned children, that should not be a massive risk to you. (See 'Aspects of Reincarnation' for more information on why that is.)]

[If owning a ranch on your own is not to your liking, you may otherwise seek to become a breeder. As much as the name sounds obvious, the tasks of a breeder as I have discovered are more nuanced. In themselves, breeders, or at least people who claim to be breeders are rare. For people born within the boundaries of Minas that is. Their tasks are in short, to 'breed' with livestock monsters to raise a new generation of monsters before the previous one can pass in full. But they also act as something much more complex, they act as the veritable wells from which the monsters retrieve their wanted Ethos. Essentially feeding them high quality grain to improve their delivered resources.]

[But, as previously written, this is a rare occupation for a single wrong move can take the breeder to the point of no return and ultimately make them fall into the cascading enthrallment of metamorphosizing. After which, there is no turning around.]

After that, the chapter ended and moved onto another form of occupation, and alchemist, though Noah didn't move onto reading it as he shut his book at the clanking of Liora and Caina's cutlery against their plates and turned to them. Both licking and wiping their lips clean of any residue before simultaneously sighing out in pure, unadulterated pleasure at having their bellies filled and their hunger subverted.

"You two look satisfied," he chuckled laying the Almanac back on the basket, pausing for a moment before pulling the blanket to cover up the book. The writer's earlier statements to protect it with his life and even that comment about the church claiming them already putting his nerves on a slight bit of edge.

"I haven't had food like that in a long time," Liora sighed pleasurably.

"Me either. Food back at the Banshee's is bland compared to this. Gods I swear that place is only good for being a pain in my ass," Caina in turn grumbled, practically hissing like a cat at the thought of working in the Banshee's bellow.

He couldn't right blame her, when he'd first met her, she'd permanently turned a mans face into a sculpture by impacting it with a metal tray. 'I hope he's okay,' he couldn't imagine the pain or the concussion he must have had after he fell unconscious after that.

"That's good…" a shiver followed by a groaning yawn suddenly erupted from him, leading him to covering his mouth for appearances sake. Lips smacking when it passed, only, when it did a tide of yawns coursed through the room, one after another people began to yawn like it was a plague going around because people weren't wearing masks or something like that.

Liora too was struck by the plague, "fuaahh… I think we should head to bed." She smacked her lips, "I'd like to get to the carriages before they leave in the morning." She stretched, an action that only drew Noah's eyes to her buxomness.

"Ohh, please, I can't feel my feet," whined Caina rubbing her calves.

'You spent an hour walking between Alder and the ranch and shopping is what makes your feet hurt?' Noah cast her a doubting look but felt his own lightly aching feet acting up. 'I'm not one to talk about that, am I?'

"Great," with another tense stretching of her body, Liora extradited herself from her seat alongside Caina and Noah who plucked from the ground the first of the baskets while Caina reached for her own and took it to her shoulder. Following behind Liora, they passed Haggar, his look sending the gaydar in Noah's mind haywire, screaming for him to stay clear, not because he disliked people who went that way, but because of the fear that the 'that way,' may just be his ass whether he liked it or not. And Noah was sure, he would not like 'that.'

Climbing a stretch of stairs into the second story, the three soon came to a stop at the end of the hall where two doors were settled across from each other, lacking any form of numbering to distinguish them. Liora reached out to the door on the left-hand side of the hall and opened it, pausing in the doorway blocking Caina from entering as she looked to Noah who was opening his own. Her focus Caina as she said, "you should stay with Noah and get this requirement from Ascleminia done."

Both Noah and Caina jolted to a halt, their heads spinning to Liora, then to each other to see the same surprised look in each others eyes before finally falling back to Liora. Exclaiming in unison, "huh?"