Minecraft: Normal Mode

Chapter 7: Similarities

Jesse was about to reply teasingly again, when suddenly a squeal rang out in the air. Immediately, her attention snapped away from Aiden as her eyes scanned the crowd. "Reuben?" she called out, hesitantly.

"Get your porkchops here!" a man at... what appeared to be a butcher's booth called out. "Fresh from the bone!"

Okay, Jesse got that people sold everything at Endercon, but who wanted porkchops at a convention? ... then again, she might've just been biased since she hated pork.

Aiden arched his eyebrow at the butcher's booth himself. "Who sells porkchops at a convention?" he asked, under his breath.

Okay, so maybe Jesse wasn't that biased.

Jesse automatically began to approach the butcher's booth, although she didn't realize it at first until she heard Aiden let out a surprised exclamation and started after her himself. "Hey, where are you--?"

The butcher lifted up a little pig onto the counter-- a little pig with a mark on the side.

There was only one pig that Jesse knew that had that mark.

"Nothing sticks to your ribs quite like a juicy porkchop!" the butcher continued, drawing out a stone axe as Reuben-- Jesse's Reuben-- let out a terrified squeal.

"REUBEN!" Jesse yelled, breaking into a run for the stand. Behind her, she could hear Aiden letting out his own alarmed exclamation and running for the stand after her, but she didn't care, in this one moment she'd forgotten about Evie and Ivor and and Aiden Petra's deal and the only thing that mattered was that if she didn't get there in time Reuben was going to die.

Reuben turned at the sound of Jesse's voice, letting out a terrified squeal. The butcher also turned, scowling at Jesse. "What's the big idea? I'm trying to run a business here!"

"That's my pig!" Jesse protested, as Aiden managed to catch up to the girl.

"Oh really?" the butcher asked, in a voice that practically screamed that he didn't believe her, "Well, I found him out in the woods, so I think that makes him my pig."

"Oi, Jesse," Aiden hissed, trying to catch his breath a little from where he was standing a little behind her, "I thought you were--"

"Not the fattest pig I've seen," the butcher continued, ignoring Aiden, "but he should still cook up nicely."

Jesse fought back the anger rising in her chest. "Please?" she asked, a little weakly, "he's my friend."

The butcher shrugged-- a motion that made the anger swell up in Jesse's chest even more angrily. "To me, he's inventory. I... might be amenable to some kind of trade." His tone implied that he was certain that she didn't have any item worth trading.

As if Reuben himself was an item.

The dam holding back Jesse's rising temper broke.

The scrape of stone on the sheathe, and the butcher stepped back in surprise- before getting dragged back forward as Jesse seized his collar and hauled him towards herself, noses an inch apart, teeth gritted in anger. She was vaguely aware that Reuben had let out an alarmed squeal and Aiden had taken a step back in surprise behind her. "Give. Me. Back. My. Pig," she snarled.

"Alright, alright, you little maniac," the butcher growled, and Jesse released him. He stepped back, smoothing out his rumpled shirt, before smacking Reuben off of the counter over onto Jesse's side. "Take your pig."

"Thank you," Jesse snapped, turning away from the butcher and stalking off deeper into Endercon, Aiden hustling to keep up with her and Reuben moving into step beside her. "C'mon, Reuben."