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Today was a good day, Jesse thought as he walks through the open gates of EnderCon, dirt caked onto the bottom of his pants from the hours he spent picking multiple flowers from the field near his treehouse. The plants were spawning much more often recently that Jesse figured he could get a good deal out of selling them, he just hadn't expected to get so dirty.
He looks around the town and smiles- even when the building competition isn't taking place, the town was beautiful. The stands were perfectly organized for passerbys to easily navigate where to go for any essentials they desired. Produce, tools, slime balls- this place seemed to have it all! Jesse easily came across a crafting table and removed half of the freshly picked flowers from his inventory- pausing once he accidentally pulls out a spare carrot- to turn into dye.
After about roughly ten minutes, Jesse was on his way to trade in his dyes. He stops in front of a stand and smiles kindly at the wrinkled person behind the desk.
"What can I do for you today?" the old man asks, his voice was raspy from his age.
"I'd like to sell these." Jesse pulls the multi-colored eyes from his inventory and hands them over to the man, who inspects them thoroughly.
Jesse hums softly to himself, facing the beautiful blue sky. Today was going to be great, he could just feel it in his bones. The sun was shining, the clouds were fluffy, and the butcher was yelling.
The man in suspenders is awaken out of his trance by the butcher's shouting and turned his head to the direction where the booming voice erupted from. He finally saw the sweat-stained man, veins popping on his forehead, yelling at some poor man with a straw hat whose collar was trapped in the aproned-man's fist.
Curious to what was happening, Jesse inched closer, not hearing the annoyed old man calling back for him to finish off the trade. Once he's close enough, he flinches at the even louder volume of an angered man.
"-you find that damn pig!"
"Bu-but sir, it'll be night time if I do! He was a small thing, really! The runt of the litter!"
"Well he must have some meat on him!" the butcher argues back. "You promised me a pig, not my fault if you can't keep an eye on it!"
"Please sir, I'll bring another! Another pig! A bigger and plumper one! I reckon it'll make you forget all about this little mistake!"
"Then why didn't you bring a bigger one in the first place? I run a business here, pal! You think I have the time to waste my energy on people like you?"
"A missing pig?" Jesse interjects, gaining the attention of both men. He's glad it did, things looked as if it were about to get bloody.
"What's it to you, shortie?" The butcher glared into his brown eyes, clearly irritated at the interruption. A twinge of annoyance runs down Jesse, but he pushes it away with a calm demeanor. "I just heard really loud yelling and wondered if I could help out in any way."
The farmer sighs in relief. "Yes, yes, you can! My pig ran away, you see, and I needed him to be sold to him." The man gestures to the butcher, slowly removing himself from his loosened hold on his shirt. "You wouldn't mind going into the forest and catching him, would you?"
Jesse thought it over. Going into a probably unexplored part of the woods to find this man's pig didn't sound like a bad way to spend the rest of the afternoon, and Jesse loved helping people! He holds out his hand to man in the hat. "You can count on me!"
He once again sighs in relief. "Thank you, thank you! Now could you please run along now? We have to get this deal over with quickly."
Jesse is slightly taken aback by the rushing, but it's obvious the farmer has no desire to stay in the same proximity of the butcher for much longer. "Does the pig have a name?" he asks.
"We call him Runty."
That's creative, Jesse thinks to himself. The farmer gives him the direction from where he and "Runty" came from and Jesse sets off, still high-spirited. So what if his day took an unexpected turn? He was doing someone a service, and that's all that mattered! With that thought in his head, he ventures out into the woods in search of a pig.
...this was a lot trickier than he expected.
Hours had gone by and Jesse still hadn't seen a pig- not even a wild one! And his throat was starting to become hoarse from calling out the pig's name repeatedly. After a few more minutes of walking, Jesse, who was now a sweatier, dirtier mess, finds a shallow river. The water was shallow, but the current was quick. Ah, this must be that small waterfall people were talking about. Jesse looks up and behold: a miniature waterfall. Sick. He removes his socks and shoes before dipping his sore feet into the water.
This wasn't how he thought his day would go at all. His exhausted feet were aching from the milage he put on today and were in desperate need for a rest. He looks up at the sky. It was going to get dark soon, and Jesse hadn't even thought to bring a torch or a weapon.
His stomach rumbled- he hadn't even noticed his hunger bars went down throughout his search. Jesse kicks his legs in defeat, if there were any fish in the water he would've scared them away by now. Not like he has the materials to start a fire to cook them anyway.
Jesse falls back, groaning in discomfort as his stomach rumbles on before he remembers he was eating carrots from his inventory earlier that morning. The man hopefully reaches into his inventory and voila! He had one carrot left to spare! He was about to shove the vegetable into his mouth when he heard shifting in the bushes.
He listens closely, eyes trained on the tall bushes to his side. They shift again, the ruffling of the leaves louder this time. What's in there, a spider? No, it's still too bright for mobs to come out.
With that thought in mind, Jesse slowly approaches the bushes and holds out his hands to separate the leaves. And there he sees hidden inside is a tini-tiny piglet, staring at his was afraid, wide eyes.
"Awwww." Jesse couldn't help it, the sight of the young pig in front of him was too cute to not get a reaction from the man. "Hey little buddy," he says gently, reaching for the runt. The piglet makes snorts of fearful protest, inching away from the unknown hands. Jesse hums before thinking back to his carrot. He holds it out. "You want this buddy?"
The young pig was now interested, his eyes trained of the vegetable in the stranger's hand. Jesse laughs and starts backing up slowly. "You want it, huh? Come get it, boy, c'mon."
After a small struggle of beckoning the runt towards him, the piglet was now happily gnawing on the carrot, perfectly comfortable in Jesse's hold. It was an adorable sight that Jesse couldn't help but coo over. "That's it, that’s a good boy," he praises, earning a pleased oink in response.
He holds out the piglet to get a better look at him. He truly did live up to his name. The little pink animal, now finished with his carrot, stared into Jesse's brown eyes. It was as if he was being inspected by a guard, because the little pig had such a skeptic face that he couldn't help but laugh.
Finally it seems that Jesse passed his test because the piglet oinks happily at him, squirming closer. Jesse is certainly surprised, no animal has ever acted this way with him before. His heart feels warm and light and he feels a strong connection between the two of them, despite this being the first time they've ever seen each other.
"My name is Jesse." There's truly no point in telling an animal his name, but "Runty" seemed to understand him as he snorts in response. "I assume you're Runty?" A scowl crosses the pig's face, which makes Jesse laugh harder. "You and me both, buddy! What kind of name is that? You need something more creative." The man goes silent in thought, thinking of names for the delicate pig in his hold.
Porky? No, Bacon. Uggghhh! Why could he only think of food names! Jesse slaps his face in defeat. "It'll come to me," he assures the piglet, who snorts patiently.
The earlier argument between the butcher and farmer fills his head again. Right, that's not even his pig to name, he can't get attached.
Sadness also hit him at that realization. A selfish thought came to him, he didn't want to return the piglet to his rightful owner. He wanted to keep and care for the young animal. He sighs, disappointed. "I'm sorry," he mumbles to the runt, "but I have to return you now."
The reaction is immediate. "Runty" starts flailing and squirming, squealing loudly in distress- and it hurt Jesse's heart to listen to. How could he just give the little guy up to die now? He holds the piglet still, muttering sad apologies to the poor thing. But then an idea pops in his head. "Do you know if there are other pigs around?"
The piglet stops squirming, interested in what Jesse has asked him. He smartly nods his head and Jesse releases him. "Lead the way, then!" the human encourages.
The two walk for a couple minutes before the stop in front of a small drift of pigs. They were all meaty and plump, something Jesse remembered the butcher favored from animals he was given to turn into goods.
"It's too bad I no longer have that carrot," Jesse whispers, as to not alert the pigs of his presence. He gives the piglet a side-glance, the runt returning it to him, an idea shared between the two. "One," he whispers, "two, three!" Jesse jumps onto the nearest pig he could reach and wraps his arms around it's neck, feeling guilty at its squeals of shock and fear. He looks down for a second to see "Runty" snapping at the pig's hooves.
Jesse turns his attention back to the wild pig and tries to shush it up, watching as the others in the group left the three alone to deal with their situation. Finally, Jesse is able to get the pig calm enough to follow him- leading with his arm wrapped around his head- without that much struggle.
The walk back to EnderCon is full of Jesse talking on and on to the piglet about his plan, which he smiles and nods to. Smart little guy.
Finally the trio arrives at the town and Jesse heads straight to the butcher, holding the shaking piglet close to himself. He greets the farmer and the butcher, who both looked annoyed with him. Jesse shrinks into himself, he left at noon and it was night now. Of course they would be mad at him.
"Okay, I know you said you were promised "Runty"," Jesse begins, "but I ended up finding this bigger pig and wanted to know if we could do a trade?"
The butcher, finally tearing away his glare from the younger man, inspects the wild pig. Surprisingly, it wasn't dirty. It didn't even look sick. "Hmmm, we I guess it is an upgrade from this runt," the butcher says, dragging the wild pig away and shutting the lights off for his shop. All without a single "thank you". Rude.
Jesse turns to the farmer, who held his hands out expectantly. "Actually," he says nervously, "I was hoping he could stay with me. I'll pay you, if you'd like! Just please, please let me keep him!"
The farmer waves his hands dismissively. "No, no. Keep him! He's the runt of the litter anyway. If that piece of work wasn't kill him, something else would've." The man shudders at the thought of the butcher before running off, not letting Jesse give him his gratitude.
Jesse turns his gaze to the piglet, feeling more excited than he ever has before. "Isn't that great? I get to take you home with me, Reuben!" The piglet decides the name that blurted out of Jesse's mouth before nodding, Jesse grinned.
"Reuben it is! You're going to love it back home! I just really hope Axel and Olivia are okay with a pig around now..."
"...you got a WHAT?!" The two exclaim at the same time.
Jesse shrank back from his friends' volume level, Reuben still in his hold. "I...yeeeaaaahhh," he confirms.
Axel and Olivia were both shocked at the sight of the piglet in Jesse's arms. Axel was focused more on the fact a pig was in their build while Olivia was worried about the expenses to keep him.
"Are you sure, Jesse?" she asks. "Yeah, it was good of you to save uh- what's his name?"
"Reuben."
"-Reuben like that, but this is an entire pet. The three of us are just getting by already!"
Jesse sighs, he knew what she said was true. "I get it, I really do, but he's not just a pet. He's my friend. Can I pleeeeeeaassse keep him?" He starts batting his puppy-dog eyes at the two. "Pleeeeeaassssee? I swear I'll take great care of him- you won't even know he's there!"
Olivia turned her face away, willing herself to not look at Jesse. "Not the face, Jesse, stop with the face- you're making me feel bad!" Axel was already caving to it. "Well...Reuben is cute."
Olivia groans loudly. "Fine. But you're in charge of him!" She says sternly pointing at Jesse, who cheers in relief. He didn't want to have to turn Reuben away after coming this far. Reuben was no pet, he was family.
The night is filled with introductions and a tour. Axel playfully teases Olivia once she shows off some of her redstone books to Reuben. Jesse grins widely, he's growing on them already!
That night when Jesse pulls the covers over himself, he feels a small body curling himself into his stomach. He smiles at Reuben. "Night Reuben." He kisses the piglet's head and falls back onto his pillow, closing his eyes.
Today was a good day.