“Let’s start over. My name is Infamous Biscuit.”

The flustered man in the doorway looked up at him skeptically, “I’m Kirin.”

“This is Heilong and that’s Freya,” Infamous Biscuit continued courteously. “Now, what can you tell us about this situation? We’re all foreigners to this land, so maybe we haven’t been told the full story.”

Now that the door was more open Freya got a better look at Kirin. He wore a simple tan-colored shirt and matching baggy pants. He looked young, perhaps in his late teens or early twenties.

[Kirin Divkar]

[Lvl 8 Date Palm Farmer]

Kirin huffed and moved his long black hair out of his face, “That Sibra, Anuji, only wants his gathering mouse back so he can continue exploiting it. The Sibra have been doing it for centuries. They’ve kept the mice under contracts so they can’t escape. I’m going to break the contract so it can be free.”

“What does he gain by having a mouse contracted to him?” Heilong asked, crossing her arms.

“Don’t you know what gathering mice can do?” Kirin said. “They can gather water out of the air. Before the Risak brought over mana stones, Sibras made gathering mice collect water and sold it to people. But now, even though we have mana stones, Sibras still want to keep them. They just don’t want to pay for mana stones.”

By Kirin’s foot, a small mouse appeared. It gave out a small ‘squeak.’

[Gathering Mouse]

[Lvl 10] [50/50]

Startled, Kirin quickly picked him up and held him protectively. The mouse had markings on its head, although he wasn’t black in color like Mr. Anuji said. Freya thought the mouse looked rather grey.

“It may seem like a small matter, but all creatures deserve their freedom,” Kirin said, looking at all of them.

“I understand the sentiment,” Heilong said, speaking cautiously. “But is gathering water something that gathering mice normally do on their own? Maybe working alongside people offers some benefits, like protection and food?”

“No, no, you don’t understand. It kills them! Being forced to gather so much water, many times more than they would ever need themselves, it ages them fast! Look at him!”

Kirin held out the mouse for them to see better.

White fur rimmed the mouse’s face, and his coat was a grey mix of black and white. One of its ears drooped, and a patch of fur was missing on its right hind limb. Freya also noticed something else.

Kirin continued, “His kind have been exploited for generations! The Sibra have kept them under magical slave contracts. But I’ve found a way to break it. I just need a little more time.”

Kirin scratched the mouse’s head with one finger.

“Please, don’t interfere in this matter. I’ll free him myself.”

Kirin shut the door. Heilong and Freya exchanged looks. Infamous Biscuit had a troubled expression and looked deep in thought.

They moved away from the house and into the strange tree grove.

“I did sense a contract seal on that mouse,” Freya said, breaking the silence. “It’s probably Mr. Anuji’s Squeak. I doubt wild gathering mice would have an expensive seal like that.”

Heilong frowned, “This dungeon’s main objective is ‘find and return Mr. Anuji’s pet within one week’...”

“Sorry, I don’t care if this means we’ll fail the dungeon objective. I can’t do it,” said Infamous Biscuit. 

He sat down and leaned against one of the trees. Using his sleeve, he wiped the sweat off of his face. Staring at the ground, he continued, “It just doesn’t seem right.”

“Maybe this is part of the quest,” Heilong said. “We have a week time limit. Maybe Kirin will break the seal, and then we can ‘return’ Mr. Anuji’s pet, but Squeak won’t have to listen to him.”

“What if he puts a new seal on him?”

“Well…”

Freya broke in, “We should ask Mr. Anuji about this.”

They both looked at her.

She continued, “He clearly skipped over some details, but we should hear his side too. We have a week to figure this out; the least we can do is ask some more questions.”

Infamous Biscuit bit his lip, “I suppose we should talk to him.”

He got up slowly. Freya looked at the hot desert ahead of them. She took a small sip of her water. 

Heilong led the way back to town. Freya walked by Infamous Biscuit’s side. He shaded his face with a jacket, making it harder to read his expression. 

“Does this situation remind you of something?” Freya blurted out, taking a page from Heilong’s tactic of saying exactly what was on her mind.

Infamous Biscuit looked over at her, “I’ve been to lots of deserts before.”

“No, I mean the situation with Mr. Anuji,” she said softly.

They kept walking. 

Infamous Biscuit shifted the jacket further over his head.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t get involved in this kind of thing again. Exploiting animals.”

They reached the top of a hill. A hawk screeched in the distance. Freya waited for him to continue.

“While I was growing up my family bred dogs,” Infamous Biscuit said.

“It started small, but by the time I was in high school, we had rows and rows of kennels with dogs. I loved spending time with them, but we had so many I don’t think I actually touched all of them. We just bred them to sell their puppies.

I thought it was okay because the puppies probably went to loving homes. We were bringing joy to people. But all the dogs we kept in order to breed and the puppies that we couldn’t sell... I don’t think they had a good life. We had to hire more people to help feed them and clean the kennels, but a lot of them didn’t even like dogs. 

I told my parents about some of the employees, but they didn’t really care. They just saw the money.

I think I just saw the money too.

If we had more money, maybe we could buy bigger kennels, maybe buy some toys for them. We could expand into other breeds.”

Infamous Biscuit took his jug of water out of his inventory and took a large gulp.

“Then, just after I graduated high school, I saw my mother beat one of our dogs. I don’t know what the dog did, but it was one of the old mothers. What could she have done? And then I realized that dog didn’t even have a name. We never even named her.”

He scrunched his jacket up.

“At some point, we didn’t even bother to give our dogs names! 

And here I was, wanting to expand into other breeds so we could sell a wider variety of dogs! 

They’re living, breathing animals. Sure they seemed happy to live their entire life in a kennel, because they didn’t even know any better! They never even had their name called in their life!”

Infamous Biscuit looked at Freya, “Squeak may at least have a name, but I don’t think his situation is that different. If what Kirin said is true, I’m in agreement with him. The contact should be broken. People shouldn’t exploit other living creatures.”