The next village was a large and open farmland surrounded by jungle. It’s hard to tell if it was cleared out or if it was always here. We went and asked the locals where we could find their chief. They responded with redneck accents and exaggerated S’s. They pointed us towards a large farmhouse. We knocked on the door but no one answered. I checked to see if the door was unlocked and it was.

I cracked it open and yelled, “Hello, is anyone home?” 

I saw an old lizard lady sitting in a rocking chair knitting something.

“Yes darling, how can I help you?” She said 

“We’re looking for the chief.” I replied.

“Honey! You have visitors!” She screamed. 

An old man came hobbling down the stairs. “Holy cow! Humans! And an elf too!? What brings y’all way out here?” He said. 

“Alaya sent us on a quest to help each of the nine tribes. We’ll do anything you need.” I told him. 

“That’s wonderful! Lady Alaya is always blessing us. It just so happens that recently we’ve had some runaway qukuru’s. One of the new guys didn’t close the gate properly. We were able to bring most of them back but there are still a few missing deep in the jungle. I don’t expect you to find them all, but if you could go look it’d be a great help.” The chief said. 

“Alright, but, what’s a qukuru? And how many are missing?” I asked.

“They’re large flightless birds with long, bright, colorful beaks. They’re fast so catching them will be tough. And there’s 6 missing.” The chief replied. 

“Got it, we’ll go look for them right away.” I said. 

“Are you sure? The sun will set in just a few hours.” The chief replied.

“We’ll try to get it done quick.” I said. 

“Alrighty then, take these with you, and best of luck!” The chief handed us some collars and leashes made of rope. 

We left the chief's house and made our way towards the jungle. I told Voyd to use her life detection magic to locate the qukuru’s but there were too many life forms in the jungle and she couldn’t distinguish which was which. We started by heading towards the closed life form that was about the size of the birds we’re looking for. It wasn’t a qukuru, it was a large snake balled up in a tree a few feet off the ground. 

“That’s not it, let’s go to the next.” As soon as I said that, Killer sprinted towards the snake with his weapon drawn. 

The snake tried to strike at him, but Killer slid underneath it and swung his flail upwards, sending it flying. 

“At least that was quick.” I said. 

Killer celebrated his kill and then we moved onto the next life form. This one was one of the qukuru's we’re looking for. 

“Alright, now how do we catch it?” As soon as I said that, Killer sprinted towards the bird and it took off running. 

The girls and I ran after both of them, but we quickly lost sight of them. 

“Let’s just leave ‘em. He can find his way back to the village, and if he dies, who cares.” Ro said. 

“Y’know what? I actually agree with you.” I replied. 

Now that Voyd knows what to look for, finding the rest will be easy. We went onto the next one. Before we got close to it we heard a loud noise that sounded like a bird squawking in pain. We ran to the noise and saw a qukuru tied up in some plant thing.

When we approached it, we noticed that the plant was actually alive and it was intentionally tangling itself around the bird and tightening its grip trying to strangle it. Ro took out a knife and cut it loose. As she cut into the plant, it snapped back and struck her arm leaving a small cut. I instantly pulled my gun out and started shooting the plant and it quickly shriveled up and let go of the qukuru. 

When the qukuru was released, it calmed down and then I went over to put one of the collars on him. As I was doing so, I looked to my left and saw one of the dead qukuru’s wrapped in vines and covered in beautiful purpleish-red flowers. We’re lucky we got here before they both turned out like that.

It was getting late and the sun was starting to set. We quickly went over to find one more. This one was pecking seeds off the ground with no clue we were nearby. 

“How do we catch this one?” I asked.

“I got it.” Voyd said.

She used her wind magic to lift the bird off the ground. 

“Quick, put the collar on!” She said. 

I ran over and leashed him up. When Voyd released her wind magic the qukuru panicked for a moment but quickly calmed down.

“Let’s hurry up before it gets dark.” Ro said. 

We went back to the village with two qukuru’s in tow. Killer was at the village waiting for us with a screaming qukuru thrown over his shoulder.

“Put it down Killer.” I told him 

He placed the qukuru down gently and I threw the collar on him. We took all three back to the farmers and then went to the chief's house. I told him a recap of what we did and offered to go out to look for the rest tomorrow. 

“Ah, that won’t be necessary pal. It’s a miracle y’all found any at all.” The chief replied.

He handed us a letter of approval and we thanked him. The chief let us crash in his living room. Ro and Voyd slept on the couch while Killer and I had to take the floor. When I woke up my back was killing me, but at least we won’t have to walk to the next village.