Back To Underwood City

"Goodbye Minos, visit soon!" Tinka said as Minos entered the Underwood Mountain Range.

"I will!" Minos said with a wave, his body soon disappearing among the thick vegetation, finally leaving for real.

…

Goodbyes were always hard, but the planet never stopped moving, and neither did Minos. His journey back was uninteresting, and after a half day's journey, Underwood City was within sight.

The familiar sight helped alleviate his slightly sour emotions. Entering the city, Minos was embraced by the dense crowd of people, reminding him that in a way, he was home.

He only relished in the sensation for a moment before heading deeper into the city, keeping his eye out for Rubella.

He already knew how street rats like Rubella operated, so after checking a few alley ways, he found a dirty little girl surrounded by a dozen other children, laughing loudly.

"Rubella, is it true that your master was going out to slay a dragon?" One snotty nosed child asked, eyes shining with curiosity.

"Yep, my master said it'll only take a single swing of his to slaughter a thousand dragons! Soon, I'll be as strong as him." Rubella said with a loud laugh, relishing in the feeling of admiration.

"But I thought dragons weren't real?" Another little girl said, clearly a little sharper than her peers.

"Well that's only because my master killed so many of them! Back in the day they were everywhere, but now they are rare." Rubella said with a smirk, feeling good about coming up with such a smart lie.

"Woah, awesome! You should ask your master to tame a dragon for you, that way you'll be able to fly one around!" The same snotty-nosed child from earlier said.

"Kid, what do you know about dragons? They'd sooner die than submit to a human." Rubella said as she knocked him heavily over his head, causing him to apologize about his ignorance.

"There's also another interesting thing about dragons, you guys want to hear it?" Suddenly asked a foreign voice.

"Interesting? I want to hear!" Yelled out one little boy, not at all concerned about the strange voice he had never heard before.

"It's said that a dragon's eye has the special ability to see through a person's heart, knowing whether they are lying or not with a single glance." Said the voice.

"Really? That's amazing! Good thing humans don't have that power, or else I'd be in a lot of trouble." Replied the little boy.

"There's another thing about dragons, and it's that they hate liars. In fact, when a dragon finds out a person is lying, they'll spit fire at them." The voice added.

"Good thing there's no dragons here."

"Yeah, that would be trouble."

"But none of us are liars anyways, so it would be fine either way!"

"That's true."

The little children discussed among themselves, but suddenly, one of them noticed a small flame falling from the sky.

"What's that?"

Before anyone could react, the flame landed on Rubella's waist, igniting the back of her pants.

"Ahhh! Help, get this off me!" Rubella screamed as she ran around trying to put out the fire.

Suddenly Minos appeared, kicking Rubella hard in the rear. The kick put the fire out, but it also sent Rubella flying, causing her to land in a pile of garbage.

"Ow ow ow! Which one of you little brats kicked me? I promise I won't beat you to death if you're honest with me." Rubella said with anger as she dusted the garbage off her body.

"It was me." The foreign voice said, but the voice seemed familiar to Rubella's ears.

"Oh yeah? Come here kid, I'll only break one leg instead of two, don't worry." Rubella said, causing the person with the foreign voice to step out from the crowd of children.

"M-master! What are you doing here?" Rubella said, as she began slowly backing away with fear.

"Naturally I'm done killing the dragon, so I decided to come back." Minos said with a smile, as he stepped closer to Rubella.

"Master, don't be angry! It was just a miscommunication!" Rubella said.

"Miscommunication, huh?"

"Yeah!"

"So it's my fault then?" Minos said with a smirk.

"N-no, that's not what I mean!" Rubella shouted.

"Alright just come here, I'll only break one leg instead of two, so you'll still be able to hop around to get places." Minos said with an evil grin, causing Rubella's face to go white.

"Okay, enough with the games. What have you been doing while I was gone?" Minos asked, causing Rubella to let out a sigh of relief.

"Master, I did exactly what you asked me too. Look, these are my men, we've established a gang called the Rubella Squad." Rubella said with a smug grin on her face, ready to be praised.

Minos couldn't help but look around at the group of young children aged between 5-13, some of who's heights couldn't even reach Minos's waist. He tried his hardest to hold back his laughter, but ended up letting a small laugh escape.

"What are you laughing about master?" Rubella asked with a confused look.

"Nothing, nothing. You did good." Minos said.

As the two were talking, a boy with more courage popped his head up, pointing at Minos with amazement as he asked. "Your Rubella's master?"

"You can call me that." Minos replied

"You don't look that old, how could you be a master?" The boy asked with suspicion, the other children nodding their heads in agreement.

"Don't you know that if you bathe in the blood of a dragon, you'll gain eternal youth?" Minos asked, as if he expected Rubella to have already told the children this 'fact.'

"Amazing, Rubella never told us that! Do you by chance have any of that blood left over?" One of the older girls asked, eyes glimmering.

"Unfortunately I used it all, but maybe next time." Minos said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

As the group accepted Minos as Rubella's master, they started to crowd closer, asking him all sorts of questions. He suddenly regretted finding Rubella, since he never planned on being asked a thousand and one questions.

Fortunately as the vein on Minos's forehead was about to burst from annoyance, a large man suddenly popped up from the end of the alley, his loud voice reverberating between the alley walls.

"Big Sis Rubella, I'm back!" Beetus said, causing all the children to release Minos immediately as they cheered and gathered around Beetus.

Beetus had yet to notice Minos at this point, and instead was fully focused on the children who had begun to crowd him.

It seemed he already knew exactly what they wanted, hence he wasted no time in pulling out a large paper bag that had a grease stain at the bottom.

If Beetus wasn't so large, Minos would have sworn he'd have been torn to pieces by those ravenous kids, luckily he managed to keep them away with his strength.

Beetus soon began reaching into the paper bag, pulling out meat buns and handing them off to the children, who would only back off once they got their meal.

"Thank you Uncle Beetus." The children said one by one as they got their buns.

Beetus would return their thank you's with a big smile as he rubbed their hair with his palm that was as big as their heads.

Once all the children got their food, Rubella walked up. Seeing Rubella, Beetus pulled out another paper bag, this one with red stains on the bottom.

"I got you the extra spicy meat buns, like you asked." Beetus said as he handed the bag over.

"Good man, I'll give my master a good word for you later." Rubella said with a smile as she patted his shoulder.

Before she could dig in however, Minos grabbed the bun out of her hand, devouring it in a few bites.

"Tasty, could use more spice though." Minos said.

It was only then did Beetus finally notice Minos, his eyes shining in joy as he finally confirmed that he hadn't been abandoned.

"Boss, you're finally back! I missed you." Beetus said, as he tried to come in for a hug.

Looking at Beetus's greasy fingers and dirty shirt, Minos pushed back, keeping the man from touching him.

"How about you take a shower before you go in for a hug." Minos said, slightly disgusted.

"Oh sorry about that master, but Rubella refused to give me any money to use the bath houses." Beetus said as he scratched his head naively.

Hearing that, Minos looked back at the filthy Rubella, who's naturally reddish hair had turned black from all the ash and dirt that had gathered in it.