Mutt took his duty with pride. Ever since his master sent him on a mission to oversee the capture of three unfortunate animal couples for the starting of a barn a few days ago, the sabre tooth wolf travelled without a break to return to Noir Province. He needed to catch a lazy lesser vampire for the special mission.

He had no idea how to bring the captive animals back to his master's town alive, but Mutt did not question orders. Maybe his Master would recover his mana entirely to teleport the captured animals back to the town, or he would build something fantastic that could sail in the sea of clouds above, safely away from the dangerous jungle.

Rino assured Mutt that all the sabre tooth wolf and hunting squad commander needed to find him one feathered couple, one furred couple and one meaty couple. Honestly, Mutt asked if king toads counted using the telepathic bond between master and shadow summon. Rino thought for a while before ruling out amphibians. They had to be warm-blooded animals that did not evolve into magic spewing monsters.

As a monster, this was hard to understand. Was there a difference between animals and beasts? They were from the same family, and anything weak could be eaten. Perhaps his master wanted the weakest to domesticate because the strong should be given a chance to fight for their kins' survival and repopulate in the wilderness. If Mutt interpreted his Master's orders to get the weaker animals to domesticate for slaughtering, the sabre tooth wolf could accept this wisdom.

Finally, Mutt saw the edges of Cypress County. He followed the river and stuck close to the shadows, opting for a different path from when they first came. The Woods of No Return was too dangerous for Mutt to travel through alone. He took a longer detour by following the mountain range and a different river that led to the marshlands. From here, it was easy for Mutt to locate the necromancer's village and borrow the teleportation pad to Spudville.

The stone tossing game was still very popular, and even after getting caught for playing it while on duty by Rino, Fowler found himself unable to stop. Mutt found the lesser vampire bragging about his stone catching reflexes and raising the stakes to his bet when he arrived.

Without courtesy, the sabre tooth wolf leapt and landed on the unprepared archer with one paw squishing the braggart.

"Master sent me on official duties. You and your team are to come with me and assist with the sacred quest."

The low growl sent shivers down the hunters' spines literally as they watched Mutt maul their leader with his deadly jaws to remind him that gambling during official duty was unacceptable.

Nobody questioned the monster wolf's authority as they grabbed their cloth armour, quiver and shortbows.

Lined up and in full hunting gear, the hunting squad awaited instructions. Mutt inspected every single skeleton with a critical eye and scrutinised their leader for twice as long. When he found that not a single bone was out of place, the wolf divulged his mission details.

"Master wants to capture wild animals to be domesticated in the new town. We need to find one male and one female of three unique animals with the following requirements. Master wishes for one couple with feathers, one couple with fur and one meaty couple if there are no milky couples."

The description made the hunters pause. The description was very vague, but Mutt insisted they were Rino's words, and they couldn't fail. Fowler thought about the cryptic requirements and tried to rationalise them before they captured the wrong animals. Raising wild animals for their feathers, fur, and meat was a novel idea. Why did they not think of it before?

Then again, Fowler had reservations. If animals were domesticated, a trainer was required, and the caregiver must be familiar with the habits of the animals. Even as a hunter, he barely knew the diet, behaviour and mating habits of animals he hunted. Would wild animals survive under the care of undead and faes?

"Two of each kind," Mutt stressed and insisted that they checked the genders of the animals they captured.

"Only the strongest male and the most fertile females should be chosen. They rest to be killed for feasting or freed for breeding in the wild."

His words made Fowler wonder if the wolf monster had a brain. Strongest male and most fertile female? What were they? Baby factories? It didn't work that way! Animals needed time to breed, and even so, the coupling act only happened during the mating season. The Monarch of Solitude couldn't make them procreate against the course of nature even if he was an overly powerful lich.

Leading the hunting squad to the forest that king toads resided in, Mutt told them to gather all animals that the hunters thought fit their master's description and tossed them into the pit he would dig.

Honestly, Fowler would have come prepared with hemp fibre ropes and some earth faes for the hunt to prepare better fences. How were they going to recover the animals they hunted if Mutt was going to toss everything in one pit? Also, the experienced archer foresaw the deaths of some weaker animals if they put everyone together.

"Boss, what should we find? A feathered animal can be any type of bird. Birds fly easily. They cannot be domesticated in cages for long."

Indeed, the birds that Fowler and his team hunted for fletching and quills tend to be fiercer, and the lesser vampire doubted they could be domesticated. Hunter birds were out of the question. That left the smaller birds like swallows and woodpeckers on the bottom of the food chain. Bigger spiders and medium-sized hunters ate these smaller birds, but Fowler had a feeling their king wasn't interested in these useless birds.

There were only two reasons why anyone would keep a bird. The first was for companionship, which was not the case here. The second would be for eggs. Eggs were a good source of protein, and baby chicks were delicacies that only the rich could afford. As a talented archer and the best of his trade, Fowler had the chance to eat boiled unhatched chicks in their shells once. It was bony, crunchy and salty but way better than the insipid bitter grass that most other villagers ate. He hated the bland sweetness of corn too and the earthy smell of potatoes. Eggs were neutral and went well with just about anything, in Fowler's opinion. The king must be looking for hens more than male cocks.

The forest was bustling with life even at night. The sound of frogs, insects and the occasional rustling of bushes made the hunters proceed with caution. They did not want to wake monsters up or run into any dangerous predators. At the same time, they wanted to avoid confrontation with a king toad. Taking king toads down took a lot of time, and Fowler did not know if they had that luxury. Mutt sounded rather serious and impatient after all.

The first bird that the hunting team came across was a pigeon, and Fowler circled the bird before using some arrows coated in paralysing poison to graze the pigeon's wing, dropping it to the ground.

"Hold it well and tie it up. We need rope," he told his skeleton friend, who agreed before returning to Spudville.

Without Mutt wasn't breathing down their necks, Fowler stepped up to take the leader's position, shooting at three more birds in the next twenty minutes. His arrow never missed, and Fowler wondered if Rino was serious about raising these birds. They were noisy, difficult to feed and flighty, and some of the captured birds were migratory.

"Boss, do you think a bush bird would be better than those that live on trees?" one of the archers asked.

Fowler paused and looked at his loyal friend. Bush birds were often overlooked because they were dull and not as common as birds that lived in trees. Rock birds were also a different type of bird that most hunters did not bother with.

However, they might be perfect for what the ruler of darkness wanted.

"Maybe they will work. Let's try to find some first. Keep your eyes peeled. They hide well."

Chuckling at the lack of eyelids to peel back, the hunters combed the forest of every shrub and bush they saw. It was challenging to find bush birds, but they found many rabbits that Fowler released after he found sixteen. They were running out of ropes for furry animals, and honestly, these rabbits made fine pelts. Mutt should not have a problem with them.

An hour of combing through bushes later, Fowler and his team found two sleeping bush birds they plucked from hidden nests. The birds were tied and tossed into the pit with other animals paralysed from king toad diluted poison. The helpless creatures trembled under Mutt's gaze.

The hunting party was going well until a skeleton screamed. Fowler turned around only to hear grunting noises and some of his friends quickly climbed trees while others played dead.

Shit!