Chapter Text
"Sapnap! We're gonna be late to the meeting! You want the job, right?" George called.
Sapnap yelled back. "I'm coming! Jeez!" He tied his white bandana around his head and walked to the front door, where George was impatiently waiting. "Alright, let's go." George smiled. "Finally!" He practically sprinted to the place where a potential client had wanted to meet up. Sapnap struggled to keep up. He understood his excitement. They both liked the hunt of an animal and then getting paid for said animal by the person who had wanted it, not to mention it had been a while since they were hired.
------------
When they arrived at the meeting place, the town center fountain, a man in a spotless white tuxedo walked up to them. "Ah, you must be George and Sapnap." When they nodded, he continued, "I'm Skip Theodore, but you may call me Mr. Theo." Mr. Theo introduced himself as the man wanting to hire the two accomplished hunters. Sapnap spoke. "So, Mr. Theo, what do you want us to catch? Blaze, slime, ghast," He paused for effect, "A hybrid, maybe?" He smiled as he said the word 'hybrid'. Hybrids weren't common creatures, but there were many different species of them. Fox, cat, wolf, any mob you could think of, there was a hybrid of it. "An Enderdragon hybrid." Well, except for that one. Both hunters' faces fell.
"But, humans drove that species to extinction 35 years ago!" George exclaimed. "Well, we think." He added on quietly. Mr. Theo only smiled at his sudden outburst. "Exactly." He looked at them. "I want an Enderdragon hybrid for my...zoo. I guess you could call it that." Sapnap looked at the man.
"Your what?"
"Well, it's more of a public collection of all the different species of hybrids. I only need a few more for it to be complete."
"...Why?"
Mr. Theo laughed. "So people can see them! Besides, imagine! An Enderdragon hybrid, once thought to be extinct, in my collection! And you two would be remembered forever as 'the two hunters who did the impossible'. You'd be legends!" Sapnap looked to George, wanting his opinion. His nod was so discreet Sapnap almost didn't see it.
"How much would we get if we managed to find and capture one?" Mr. Theo held out a leather pouch. George took it and looked inside. Sapnap peered over his shoulder to look too. Gold. At least 300 coins. This guy's rich. No wonder he wears that tuxedo.
"Five times the amount in the bag." Mr. Theo responded to their shocked faces. "The pouch is just a down payment. Give me an Enderdragon hybrid and I'll give you the 1,500 gold." He said nonchalantly as if the money was no big deal. Without a moment's hesitation, George held out his hand. "Deal." Mr. Theo grinned and shook it. "Good. You have two months." Wait, what? "Two months? We have a deadline?" Well, obviously there was usually a deadline, just the requested creature could take years to find, much less 2 months. Mr. Theo nodded. "If you do not meet it, the deal is off." A look of determination came across George's face.
"Then we won't disappoint."
"Good."
This task went from having to find not only an extremely powerful hybrid that's extinct, to finding and capturing it in two months. Great. No sweat.
------------
After the meeting, George and Sapnap went home, both wondering how they would find an Enderdragon hybrid. "Okay, what do we do? What's our plan?" Sapnap asked George while they were eating. George thought for a moment. "We pack tonight and leave first thing tomorrow. I think I know how to track one if they're still around." Sapnap gave him a questioning look. "How?"
"You know how Enderdragon hybrids have this 'ender eye' on the end of their tails? They're like homing beacons. The eye glows when it's close to another. It gets brighter as it gets nearer. That's how they found partners. They were solitary creatures for the most part. Some lived in packs, but most didn't." George explained.
"How exactly do you know all this?"
"To be the best hunter, you need to know everything about anything. You don't know when it could come in handy."
Sapnap rolled his eyes. "Nerd." He said jokingly. George playfully smacked him in retaliation. They both laughed as it turned into a smacking battle. "Call me that again and I won't give you the ender eye I got from a wandering trader." George teased as he sat back in his seat. "Okay, okay! Deal." Sapnap replied. He calmed down, then said, "In the next two months, we're gonna catch ourselves a dragon." George corrected him. "A dragon hybrid."