Jungle Pond Mishap: Chapter 1

The night was mostly clear, save for the few clouds scattered here and there across the sky. Not that it could be seen under the thick tree canopy that covered the jungle floor below, where a strange group of scavengers made their way through the undergrowth.

 

“What exactly are we looking for, Ezekiel?” A red and yellow colored raptor asked the grumpy looking lycan leading the group.

 

“Will you stop asking that?” Ezekiel, the lycan, snapped at the raptor. The microstryx sitting on Ezekiel’s back stirred awake at the disturbance, chirruping quietly. Ezekiel merely kept his vision focused ahead, ignoring all the noise the others were making.

 

“It’s alright, Red, he’s just like that.” A silver-coated raptor came up next to the first raptor, one with a white and blue streak spanning the length of her body all the way down to the tip of her tail on each side.

Red shrugged at Bleu, not seeming fazed by the lycan’s rudeness. The fourth member of the party, a thin-tailed corva, kept quiet, taking in his surroundings as best he could. His feathers shone in some places, even with the little light they had on the jungle floor.

 

Ezekiel climbed over a particularly large fallen tree, merely watching as the others struggled to clamber up to the topside of the rotting tree. Being much bigger than the others, Ezekiel had little trouble making it up, but with the raptors being ground-bound and smaller, they had a bit more trouble. Vidar, the corva, simply fluttered up the tree’s roots, coming to stand beside Ezekiel and lower his tail to help the others up.

Looking out over the landscape on the other side of the tree, Ezekiel spotted something rather interesting. He turned around to prod his microstryx with his nose, getting his attention.

 

“Equinox, you see that little hill over there?” Ezekiel lifted a wing and gestured to a sharp incline going up quite a bit, but stopping well below the treeline that was off in the distance. “Go over and investigate for me. I think it might be somewhere we’d want to stop and look around.” Equinox chattered in response, leaping off Ezekiel’s shoulder and flapping off into the distance, heading in the direction of the incline Ezekiel had pointed out.

 

“Find anything yet?” Bleu had made it up the log first, and was now standing too close to Ezekiel for his liking. Then again, almost any proximity to anyone was a little close for his liking.

 

“Yeah, that incline over there, I think we should stop and look around.” Bleu squinted and followed Ezekiel’s eyes, finally picking the incline out from the darkness.

 

“Damn, don’t know how you saw that so far away, it’s so dark here that it’s messing with my sight.” Bleu snorted. 

Red heaved one last time and managed to get a foothold on the side of the log, and with the help of Vidar, was able to climb to the top of the log with the others.

 

“What’s the plan?” Red asked, a bit out of breath.

Just then, Equinox returned to Ezekiel, perching on the lycan’s shoulder once more and chittering in his ear. Ezekiel nodded once he was done, humming as he did so.

 

“He says it’s definitely a place worthy of checking. Let’s go, hopefully we can be out of this place before the sun rises, it’s already so muggy in the air, even at night.” Ezekiel shook the droplets of condensation from his fur, forcing the others to back away in disgust.

 

The group leapt down from the log, which was much easier than climbing it, and followed Ezekiel until they were close enough to the incline that they could split up and start looking for anything of interest.

Red veered off towards a rotting tree stump, probably hoping to find a stash of valuables or something hidden inside.

Bleu began to climb the steep hill, using her claws to dig into the soft, wet moss clinging to the ground it was made of.

Vidar fluttered up into a series of tree branches in order to get to a hole in the tree, sticking his head inside and rooting around.

Ezekiel and Equinox rounded the base of the incline, surprised at what they found on the opposite side. The incline arched over, bending the earth across a pool of water underneath it. The moss and lichen hanging from its underside was dripping with the air’s collected condensation, small ripples being made on the pond’s surface every time they dropped into the water. Ezekiel dipped his talons into the water. It was lukewarm, but a bit cooler the further he stuck his foot into it. Large ripples spanned the water as soon as he lifted his foot out, disturbing the calmness of its surface. Looking at the pond further, there was something shiny sunken at the bottom.

Just as Ezekiel leaned closer to the surface of the water, he was startled by debris falling into the center of the pond. He jumped, head darting up to find the source of the disturbance.

Up on the topside of the leaning incline was Bleu, crouched over the side and looking down into the water.

“You see that shiny thing too, right?” She asked, not looking up from the unknown treasure at the bottom of the pond.

Ezekiel didn’t answer, he simply scowled at her for scaring him.

 

“You guys find anything?” Red’s voice called from behind Ezekiel.

 

“Yeah, there’s something at the bottom of this pond!” Bleu called back. Ezekiel cringed at how loud her voice was, so loud all the surrounding bugs and nightlife went silent for a beat.

Ezekiel could then hear footsteps approaching rapidly, as well as wingbeats, then a thud next to him. Looking up revealed that Vidar had descended from the tree he’d been exploring, face covered in mulch and wet leaves. Red then appeared in his vision as well, carrying a small, orbicular stone-like object.

 

“What’s that?” Vidar asked, tilting his head at her. Red proudly lifted the stone up, smiling as she rolled it over in her wing-claws.

 

“It’s a geode! At least I think it is, an uncracked one. All sorts of wonders could be inside, who knows how old it is too! And it was just sitting in that tree stump back there! Sure, it was half buried in the ground so I had to dig it out, but y’know.” Red shuffled around a bit, trying to distract from the fact that her talons were covered in dirt and pulled-up plant roots.

 

Ezekiel sighed, returning his attention to the object at the bottom of the pond. He tried to strategize a way to retrieve the item, but he really didn’t want to get his fur wet. With how humid this jungle was, it would most likely never dry.

 

“Hey Red, Vidar! Come up here will you? I have an idea.” Bleu’s voice cut through Ezekiel’s thoughts, forcing him to turn to the other two and watch as they hurried to obey.

Vidar flapped up to the overhang, causing more dirt to crumble from beneath the structure as he landed. Ezekiel knew exactly what was going to happen, but simply sat back and watched the chaos unfold.

Red clawed her way up the backside, even more dirt being knocked loose and diluting the pond’s clear water. Finally the three of them were all up on the edge of the overhang, Bleu whispering her plan to them as the two nodded in agreement.

 

“Alright, Vidar! You stay put up on the edge here,” Bleu placed her feet where she wanted him to stand. “And dangle your tail over the edge. Red, you’ll climb down his tail, and I’ll hang onto your legs, so I can reach into the water and grab the shiny!” Bleu explained her formulated plan, and Ezekiel had to hold back a hollering laugh. This was going to end disastrously.

 

The three executed the plan as Bleu instructed, Vidar struggling to hold the two raptors up and not drop them into the water. Red gripped Vidar’s tail for dear life, while Bleu hooked her own talons with Red’s, dangling precariously over the water’s rippling surface. Just as she reached her wing talons into the water and scraped them against the item at the bottom, the ledge Vidar was gripping crumbled under his feet.

Before anyone could comprehend the situation, they were plummeting into the water with a splash, Ezekiel shielding himself and Equinox with his wing. Once the carnage was over, Ezekiel lowered his wing to quite the sight. The three stryx were now sputtering water from their beaks, paddling back to the pond’s edges. Equinox swooped from Ezekiel’s shoulder and fluttered around the dissipating group in concern, but soon returned to Ezekiel once he realized they were laughing, not crying.

 

“Ahhhh, what the hell.” Bleu’s laugh trailed off once she was out of the water, rejoined by Red and Vidar.

 

“Idiots. Absolute idiots. It would’ve been easier to grab a stick and pull the artifact across the bottom until it was within reach. Now we’ll have to do that anyway.” Ezekiel snorted, turning to reach for a nearby stick.

 

“No need my bone-headed friend, look at this!” Bleu joked, holding up a golden locket in her talons. Ezekiel eyed it with suspicion, before attempting to snatch it from Bleu once realizing it was the real thing. Bleu swiftly pulled it out of his reach, waggling her wing at him.

 

“Ah ah ah, not so fast big guy. It’s not just yours, it’s ours. Besides, who were the ones to risk their lives, nobly, to get this little trinket? Not you, that’s for sure.” Bleu nudged Ezekiel’s chest. The lycan didn’t budge.

 

“What even is it?” Vidar asked. Bleu shrugged.

 

“Dunno, like a necklace of some kind? It’s got a chain and everything.” Bleu lifted it by the chain, spinning it around gently.

 

“It’s a locket, morons.” Ezekiel spat. “You open it. Y’know, put something inside? Like a picture?” He cocked his head at the group as they realized.

 

“Ahhh, ok.” Red replied, inching closer to get a better look at the locket.

 

“Do you think there’s anything inside?” Vidar mused. Ezekiel rolled his eyes.

 

“Won’t know till we open it, will we?” Bleu said, prying the moss-covered locket open with her talons. Its hinge squeaked as it pulled apart, revealing a very soggy portrait of an unfamiliar stryx, and a little rusty bracelet charm squished into the frame on top of the image.

 

“Aww, a bit anticlimactic, don’t you think?” Bleu sighed upon seeing the contents of the locket.

 

“What did you expect, some grand prophecy written on a locket-sized piece of paper?” Ezekiel chuckled condescendingly. Bleu glared at him playfully.

 

Equinox’s squeak got the group’s attention, the little micro pointing his wing up at the tree canopy. The group looked up, spotting the moon beginning to approach the horizon, able to be seen through one of the bigger holes in the foliage.

 

“Not good. I wanted to be out of here by morning.” Ezekiel cursed himself internally.

 

“Oh it’ll be fine, big guy. Let’s get moving, maybe we can still reach the end of the jungle by the time the sun starts rising.” Bleu patted Ezekiel on the shoulder, taking the lead and motioning for the others to follow. Ezekiel sighed, but followed anyway. This was going to be a long trip.

 

 

Ezekiel

1909 words-38

Microstryx-2

Scavenging-3

Extra stryx (Vidar)-3

Personal-3

Total= 49 AP

 

Bleu

1909 words-38

Scavenging-3

Extra stryx (Vidar)-3

Personal-3

Total= 47 AP

 

Red

1909 words-38

Scavenging-3

Extra stryx (Vidar)-3

Personal-3

Total= 47 AP

 

Vidar

1909 words-38

Scavenging-3

Extra stryx (Ezekiel)-3

Total= 44 AP