Chicken Chasing

Job:

The island of Clover was a place for peaceful tourists, but Cara was sure that its halcyon look did not in the least imply that it was far from well protected. If, from what she had heard, this was the place where most legendary people of Fiore went to retire, then it would be utter foolery to attack this place. And that brought to mind the issue of the job on her hands.

It sounded funny, but Cara was here to catch a chicken. In a place where people with vast power levels that she could only possibly dream of for now resided. It ought to have been easy, too easy in fact, for them to put some huge chicken back in its pen, but come to think of it, who would actually want to use all their great, world-breaking, time-shattering powers to trap a single hen? No, this... delicate job required the special touch of a mage who had hardly gone up the food chain of power. That way, prides would be preserved, and poultry placated.

Without a second to waste, Cara found herself the farm where the incident had happened. She first went to inform the farmer of her arrival, a short nervous man who kept repeating that his prized fowl must not be harmed. "Of course, sir. I'll get your chicken back safe and sound. Do you have an idea where it went?" she asked.

"No," he answered, "but that's why I employed the services of a mage, right? You guys can do all sorts of things..."

"Sure, so finding the chicken is going to be a breeze. Don't worry, I'm off," she concluded for him, and went out to observe the chicken pen. It was smashed to smithereens, and a large, sturdy fence had been recently erected to pen in the rogue chicken, but of course, the pen was empty. Noticing claw marks and scratch patterns, Cara was able to deduce that the chicken had wandered off in a Southerly direction. She returned to the house to ask the farmer for bags of feed, which she laid in a trail, leading outwards from the center of the fenced pen and towards where the chicken had departed. Now that she had prepared herself for her quarry, she could now go looking for it.

The chicken was not difficult to find, because it was no wiser for its size, and at five feet, it would be hard to miss. Cara walked out into its presence, holding a sheet of aluminium foil paper. The reflection of light caught the fowl's attention, and it lumbered towards her, interested in exploring what this shiny thing was. At its size, Cara wisely told herself, the last thing she wanted to do was get pecked by it, so she backed off as it proceeded, and would wave the foil and whistle, if something else seemed to get its attention. She led it to the first bag of feed, then dropped the foil paper beside it and made herself scarce.

The chicken trundled up to the foil paper and pecked at it, then noticed the bag. In about a single gulp, it downed the whole feed and was done with it. It raised its head and noticed another bag, not so far away, waiting to be picked, and so it obliged both itself and the bag of feed. Yet another waited, and the chicken followed. Cara smiled to herself as she quietly tracked the chicken back to the farmyard from which it escaped. The chicken, for its part, played according to plan and pecked its way into the pen, where it began to help itself to the pile of feed stacked in the center of the pen. Quickly, Cara strode over and secured the gate shut.

"Mission accomplished, sir, and your chicken is safe and sound. You have a few bags of feed less, but I guess it's better than the alternative?"

The farmer, who had walked up to observe his large bird, seemed satisfied so far with her results and nodded. "Brilliant! I guess I'll take my pay and be off then," Cara said brightly. Even though this was a far step from the kinds of missions she wanted to get famous doing, she knew that she was getting there, step by step.