Mercury was off pestering the local pheasant population... again. This time he found an even more efficient way of attracting their aggro than just throwing rocks. The mage scooped up an armful of pheasant eggs from a large nest. Every pheasant around instantly honed in on him. "Catch me if you can!" he taunted and sprinted away. Mercury wondered if there were enough pheasants in the game for him to hit the level cap this way. He doubted their respawn rate accounted for pheasant genocide.

A pheasant ruched out of the underbrush just ahead of him, and Mercury held his sheathed sword out in front of him. He jumped, moving the sword underneath him, and shot over the enraged bird from hell by the force of Time's Backhand. The lone pheasant was almost trampled by the hoard as it turned to join them in their pursuit of the caped magician.

Mercury looked behind him at all of the stupid birds and laughed. This was fun! He turned back around to the sight of a massive snake inched from his face, using its head like a battering ram. He was dead before he knew what was happening. The hoard of pheasants, blinded by rage, didn't even register that their tormentor was no longer ahead of them; they just continued their mad dash towards the village. 

"Snakes are bad." Those were the first three words out of Mercury's mouth as he revived inside the village. Pheasants he could understand, but what had he done to piss of the snake? "Maybe it wanted the eggs." Mercury marched right back towards the village gate to go find his feathered friends again.