Arriving at Sarking-Tar’s butcher shop, the brothers found that the owner was already waiting for them in her usual work attire and a butcher’s apron along with two beak-hounds sitting on their haunches on either side of her.

The beak-hound on her right was a tiny brown sparrow-terrier pup that was a small ball of manic excitement that looked about all over the place. This was up until an errant bout of itching prompted it to furiously scratch it’s ears with its hind leg.

The second hound was an oxymoron of the first. It was a tall, lanky and black crow-wolf sitting to attention with nothing but it’s dark, black eyes darting about as it sat there like a statue. It was as if the first hound was a friendly family pup whilst the second was clearly a working beak-hound that radiated a calm a calculative presence.

The orchish woman greeted the boys by first nodding with a smile on her face before pushing off with her shoulders, from the wall that she was leaning on. She then clicked her tongue as she then used the hunter’s beak-hound codes to command the hounds to come to heel and follow her as she walked over to meet the Brownwhisker boys.

“Morning boys, how’re you doing?” asked Sarking-Tars with the smile still on her face as she folded her arms across her chest.

“Morning miss-tars,” chorused the boys.

“Good,” then added Kano in reply as he smiled whilst Nosal walked over to the butcher to hug her mid-rift.

“Hmmm, so you two boys ready for your first day of work?” she asked whilst rubbing the Capyban boy’s head.

“Yeah of course!” replied Kano with a musk of joy. Nosal also mirrored his brother’s mood as he looked up at the orchish woman he was currently hugging before nodding furiously.

Then after detaching himself, Nosal then walked around the butcher before approaching the little beak-hound pup.

“Aww miss Tars, he’s adorable!” cooed the boy before he bent down to stroke the pup’s head.

“That’s Gelg, and Gelg’s a she… Shesh’s Denishe’s beak-hound and being a sparrow-terrier pup, she’ll be no good in a fight but she’s got a wicked nose oh her like. And this other mean-looking one’s Karl, he’s Hedwigcan’s crow-wolf and a mean one at that, he’ll help you chew through the burrowers with no problem at all,” spoke Sarking-Tars as she introduced both dogs in turn.

Gelg returned Nosal’s little greeting by licking his hand and jumping up onto his knee, whilst Karl only gave the boys a cursory glance before sitting back down beside the butcher.

“Oh and tell that oaf you call a Da’ that his scythe is in my shop if he wants to come pick it up, or you boys can come along to grab it once you’re done at Joantack’s,” she suggested with a nod over her shoulder towards her rustic butchers shop behind her.

“No thanks miss Tars, I’ll just tell dad about it,” replied Kano before walking over to have a look at the hounds himself.

At the sight of the beak-hounds he had never seen before, Dittat chirped before he crawled onto the back of Kano’s neck. He then peeped his face round to give the hounds a dirty look with his little beady eyes, especially at the menacing-looking Karl who paid the wurm no interest whatsoever.

“Yeah I’m not taking it home either, it’s too heavy,” whined Nosal before quickly returning to his petting of the exuberant sparrow-terrier. His hands were glowing green as he communed with the excited little pup that yapped crazily in reply.

“Yeah Lem’s an idiot for leaving it anyways, he should pick it up. I’d come along to help out but there’s work in the tannery to be done.. and I’m about to head along to help,” replied Sarking before clicking her tongue in a rapid series of commands before nodding at Kano.

To which Karl responded by getting up and waking over to the boy before sitting next to him. Gelg on the other hand just continued to lick Nosal and yap away. But soon enough and the little pup also walked over to sit next to Kano whilst whining all the way, after the crow-wolf growled at her and left the sparrow-terrier suitably cowed.

“Alright boys, hope you have a good hunt.. and you can just get Nosal to tell hounds to head home when you’re done alright?” spoke the butcher as she began walking away down the road.

“Wait miss Tars, what are you doing at the tannery?” asked Kano as he cocked his head. Dittat who was also previously on his neck had now relocated to his chest to get away from the black hound that sat beside the boy.

Sarking-Tars then paused in her steps before turning back to answer, “we need to make some leather tarps on account of how there’s to be new buildings in town, and the wood that they will be needing to use will have to be kept out of the rain and such whilst it cures.”

“What are you building?” asked Nosal who had already gotten up and was now walking back to stand beside his own brother.

“It’s not me who’s doing the building Nosal, that’s Maydock’s job… and probably the guard boys and the adventurers too no doubt, considering its Delm’s project,” replied Sarking. “And from what I heard, it’s going to be homes for our new neighbors the Lopordians.”

“Don’t you mean the people who were out on a run today miss Tars?” asked Kano in confusion.

“No no, those are the new adventurers. There’s currently two bands in the village with one called the Shattered belts and… I think it’s.. Damien’s Destriers? I’m not too sure, but it’s something like that, anyways I think Delm’s got plans for them, considering he’s also planning to increase the facilities up at the guest lodge to accommodate them,” explained Sarking-Tars with a frown on her own face, for this was all speculation on her part from what she had heard from her apprentices earlier in the morning. “But as too the Leporians, they’re the bunny-eared refugees that are coming to settle here in a few weeks.”

“Bunny ears? Like a Whisperwood-Hare?” asked Kano in amused confusion.

“What so they have lots of hair?” Nosal chimed in as he too, was also confused.

“LEPORIANS boys, they look like just like you and me, BUT also like rabbits, and they’re refugees from the war in the north-eastern front where the Fellclaw’s girl is playing soldier,” explained an exasperated Sarking-Tars. She was starting to see the common trait of stupidity that ran through the men-folk of her family also affecting the poor boys.

“Ohhhh.. okay,” replied Kano before nodding away to show his understanding.

But a look of confusion was still on his little brother’s face who then asked, “What’s a refugee?”

“They’re unfortunately poor people boys,” replied Sarking-tars, who now was pursing her lips with her patience running dangerously low whilst the boys contemplated on this newfound information.

“I’m not going to be a refugee ever, because mister Joantack is going to paying me after I finish this job today!” Kano proudly declared after he had briefly thought about what it meant to be a refugee.

Wait what? thought the butcher-lady in confusion. Wait a sec… do they think refugees are poor.. as in they have no money? What? Why the realms are Lem’s boys so dense?

“No no boys, not poor like that, they are poor because they have their lives destroyed by war. That’s what a refugee is kidsh, a person who hash to run away from where they live due to circumstancesh outside of their control,” explained Sarking-Tars whilst shaking her head in defeat. I’m going to have to have a word with Lem about how he’s bringing up his boys without any lick of common sense one of these days… she added to herself before releasing a sigh.

“Oohhh,” chorused the boys as they finally now understood what a refugee was.

“I knew that, not like Kano over here,” jeered Nosal with a hand on his chin like his father did sometimes.

“No you don’t!” retorted his brother before smacking Nosal on the shoulder with a slap for his little attempt at belittling him.

“Oh I doooiie, my voice told mee,” replied Nosal in a little sing-song voice whilst shaking his hips as he mocked his brother for he knew that Kano wouldn’t dare hit him for real in front of Mrs. Tars.

But much to his surprise and Sarking-Tar’s, Kano then shoved him before tackling the smaller boy to the ground.

Being very well attuned to his partner, the wily little Dittat had already deemed that it would be a wise choice to disembark. So the little snot-colored wurm then proceeded to jump off Kano.

Then for some unknown reason an uneasy truce was made as he now clambered atop the head of the crow-wolf who he had previously show caution against. If Karl cared about his new headpiece, he didn’t show it.

Shaking her head at the ridiculous kids, Sarking-Tars then had to walk back for she would need to break up this little bit of nonsense and give the pair a few cuffs on the ear.

….

Standing at the front of his home in just a pair of worn brown throusers, Joantack watched as the untested boys walked up the path to his abode. The normally calm and relaxed minotaur was not driven too desperation as he really was really running out of options with the Burrowers that were wreaking havoc on his prized Jellant-buds and any option was better than none.

At least the boys brought some backup, he thought with a snort as he appraised the pair of beak-hounds that tailed the boys in their shadow. That one that follows the owl-girl about town looks no bad like, but the other one….

“Good morning boys! I hope you’re ready to help poor old me out today,” he greeted in a deep rumble whilst waving the boys over with a huge hairy arm.

“Morning mister Joan!” greeted back Nosal with a wide smile and his musk of joy. His brother who was beside him did not say anything to the farmer but also smiled as he nodded in greeting. This was due to the fact that Kano knew he was sure to earn that promised silver considering he had his brother’s class, Dittat and the two hounds at his disposal today. Plus the fact that would have to only share a tiny fraction of his earnings with Nosal once the job was done also emboldened the young and enterprising Capyban boy.

“Well, follow me this way boys,” Joantack directed before turning to his right and leading the boys into his productive fields. The fruits of his labors were in full display as a multitude of uniform fields of various crops stretched out for miles to the side of his home and behind it.

This was all due to the fact that Joantack was a very accomplished farmer of a very high rank. The fact that his fields were all so productive was testament to the effort and love he had put into every one of his plants, from the smallest sapling to the biggest stop-nip that were the size of milestones. His high levels then fed into a productive loop as this enabled the minotaur to tirelessly tend to large swaths of farmland and ensure that all of his plants were productive and healthy beyond natural means through the use of a slew of passives he had unlocked through the thresholds of the different ranks in his production class.

The little crew followed behind the gigantic ginger minotaur as he lead them along neatly tiled fields, full of lush produce and marked by little mounds of Kaholin dung every now and then. With a prevalent earthy and amniotic smell of manure and compost causing the boys to wrinkle their noses as they followed Joantack in silence.

“So boys, you both know why you’re here,” begun Joantack as he gestured towards a weird bit of fencing in the distance whilst he continued to stomp ahead with his mighty hoofs. “I have been plagued with Burrowers as of late, and a bad case of them at that.”

“But thankfully, I was able to detect the problem before I got too bad that it was beyond saving,” he continued as he turned his head back with a shaggy eyebrow raised up into his stout and stubby horn. “But by my luck, those divine-cursed buggers had to go for my buds..” he added with a sigh.

“Is there a lot of them mister Joantack?” Nosal asked nervously whilst bringing up the rear.

“Like a dozen or two Nosal, but I’ve managed to luckily quarantine most of them in one corner of the plot,” replied the minotaur with a half-smile before turning back and continuing to lead them through the fields.

Kano who then had a question on his mind, ran up beside the farmer before asking, “What does quarantine mean?”

“Well it simply means I’ve fenced them in,” Joantack replied with a small mirthful snort escaping from his mightily huge nose.

“How did you do that mister Joan? Dad says they live underground, and you can’ put fences underground..” Nosal added to the conversation as he pointed out the flaws in the famer’s logic.

“Ohhh MOOOO! They dooo boy, they do, but it hasn’t rained for a few days and therefore most of the ground is packed hard and impossible for them to dig through And I have made sure not to water the crops. Then I just follow the bumpy tunnels they make and pierce them with stakes to block them up, and I just grab a few more stakes and fence the whole corner in,” explained Jonatack proudly whilst gesturing with one huge hairy arm towards the haphazard ring of fenced-off farmland ahead.

The whole area that the party was now in was littered with small cabbage-like plants, with many of them blooming to reveal a jelly-like core. With the corner that Joantack was pointing towards filled with massive man-span wooden stakes that were driven into the ground and cordoning off a large patch of Jellant-buds. The plants that were quarantined were also mostly dead or dying as they remained trapped and eaten by the Burrowers whom the whole fencing was meant to prevent from escaping.

“The ones that are outside aren’t an issue, it’s the queen that’s trapped inside that’s making more of them that’s the main problem here,” explained the farmer as they finally reached the edge of the fenced-off area.

The brothers that were now close enough to the impromptu fencing were now able to see the full extent of the colony that lied trapped inside of it, where a whole slew of tunnels crisscrossed across the whole plot inside. Constantly there was also a hive of shoveling sounds and the noise of shifting earth, it was as if a person was constantly rubbing their fingers or throwing dirt against some imaginary wall. But most alarming of all, was how many of the plants were shaking as the creatures ravaged their roots before some of the buds collapsed and were pulled underground, never to be seen again.

“But the Burrowers will get out once it rains and they can freely dig the soft Delmar again. I’m also sure they’re already trying to dig under all my fencing, but so far they’ve been content to just destroy my crops that they are cordoned in with. Which I’m sure will change once they are finished with the poor buds in the little plot,” pointed out the farmer with a heavy pang of sadness underlying his normally low voice as he watched on helplessly at the dying plants. He had carefully and painstaking reared each and every seed and now was only able to watch helplessly as the creatures tore through his precious crops.

“WELL, good luck boys… I’m no a fan of seeing things killed, so I’l be heading back to the house,” declared the Minotaur before making his excuses and heading back towards his home. He paused to give each of the boys a few reaffirming taps on the shoulder and one for Dittat, who sat atop the crow-wolf before waving goodbye and heading back.

“Just kill the queen and put an end to this colony and I’ll consider the job done!” he shouted back before the giant orange farmer was soon out of sight.

This left the just the two brothers, a little wurm and the two beak-hounds on the edge of the makeshift fencing.

The hounds could smell and knew that there were many things to hunt nearby, but didn’t know how to get to them. Gelg who wasn’t able to contain her excitement was sniffing at the stakes with a crazily wagging tail whilst Karl waited for commands beside Kano patiently.

Dittat was looking forwards to his new adventure and the chance to fight something but didn’t know when it would start. So he just waved his feelers about as he sensed the smells of the new foes in the air and he tasted their leaking mana as he waited on his partner and Nosal to act.

And the two brothers didn’t even know how to even begin, with their excitement now fading at the extermination that they were expected to carry out.