That night was probably the worst night I ever weathered. All night my new pancho kept opening his shell and slamming it shut. Quite annoying, actually. It got to the point where I was ready to tape the thing shut.

The next day, I took him back to the shrine to get him registered, checked for diseases, all those important things that must be attended to. The sneaky little devil opened his shell briefly, but when I tried to pat him, he slammed down the shell. Amongst my cursing, I could hear a quiet little snicker from within the shell. After filling out the forms, I was asked what to name him. I looked over at him, to see him hanging from a tree. Upon further inspection, there was a squirrel hanging onto a branch for dear life with it's tail in the hungry little pancho's mouth. The shrine keeper and I, along with the help of a recently shrined golem, finally managed to get the shell open... revealing a pancho messily gobbling down what appeared to be the squrrel's nut. Although it caused much disturbance, you couldn't help but laugh when the squirrel dived into the shell, trying desperately to get the nut back. I decided to let pancho and the squirrel duke it out themselves, while I thought for a moment. After a few minutes or so of this thinking, I found that the best name for him would be Picott. Many a time had I seen a strange pumpkin battle in tournaments. When I first saw my pancho, this reminded me of it. TO a lesser extent, the name also reminded me of pecan, which turns out to be a nut. I turned to the shrine keeper.

"I'd like to name it Picott, please."

"Alright, Picott it is. No offense, but would you mind well... separating your pancho from that tiger's horn?"

I turned, to find that somehow Picott had found a nice resting spot on a tiger's horn. The top half of the shell was hooked on it while a sleeping Picott lay inside. This posed a problem, as there was a growling and snarling tiger, which was mad as all it could see was pumpkin. The tiger's owner was shouting at it to stop, but the second before as he could say that, Picott was flying over the trees. I ran into the forest, and about 30 minutes later, came back out with many bruises and a pancho with a bunch more.

The shrine keeper laughed, sitting on the platform which the newly shrined monsters were created. Luckily nobody else was there to laugh, as the shrine had closed by that time. The shrine keeper said to me:

"Well, now that you have a monster, I suppose I'll have to hire a new helper?"

"Yes, I suppose you will! Now as for Picott..." I tuned and looked at him sternly, but that soon changed. He looked very sorry, but more so tired and aching. I guessed that a baby monster would be hurt a lot easier, as they couldn't toughen up yet. "As for Picott, I guess we'll be taking him home."

This time around, Picott actually followed me, without me having to carry him. This was a huge relief, especially for my back. We finally got home, and Picott started sulking in a corner. I stepped out of the room for a second, and came back with bandages and a warm cloth. This time, Picott actually let me inside his pumpkin shell. I dabbed him with the cloth and bandaged him, and in the end, he looked happy, but was still very tired. I put a pillow down on the floor for him, but instead of rolling onto it, he grabbed it and put it inside his shell. 'Hmm... That makes sense, actually.' I thought, and went to bed.

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You like? Comments are greatly appreciated! Wow, this was a long one! I didn't think I could write this much as a time! :P Weell, I'm gonna stop here.

Neat. A bit longer this time, which is good. I love the personality that you have created for your pancho! He's timid, but very much an extravert. LOL I look forward to seeing what develops. Keep 'em up!