{DS} pirate's booty: {DS} pirate's booty

The smell of the ocean on the breeze was simply so pleasant, light of the new sunrise cresting against hills and creating long, golden shadows. The beach was ringed by short, rounded mountains, where three silhouettes flocked above the beaches and sandy grasses, eventually coming to alight on the ground with a large WHUMPF of their wings. It was a long way down from the skies, but eventually, everyone was settled.

 

They sat in a small group, looking around the area before deciding a direction to move - It was a moment before Yunyue gestured towards the beach proper with her beak, wordlessly asking Xingyue and Kanir to follow her close behind. While there wasn't much to see on the beach yet, Yunyue had a feeling something would be here. They split up, Yunyue moving through the beach, Kanir diving into the ocean, and Xingyue taking to the skies.

 

The sand clung to Yunyue's overly feathered feet, and she vibrated the spines running down her back as she searched, long trail dragging behind her as she walked. She was a little frustrated to be out here, instead of just being able to relax. However, there were many pieces of driftwood and long-forgotten hulls and masts of shipwrecks that she turned over with her beak - or ducked under the larger fragments. She was focused entirely on her task and not on what her fellow Stryx were doing.

 

While there was not much to see under the driftwood, Yunyue eventually came to find a few pebbles that shone with small sparkles of mica, deciding to keep them. She walked the shoreline where the waves lapped up against her webbed feet, staring into the water and looking for more little treasures. The water was clear, and she could see more fragments of wood, little homes for small fish. Sighing, Yunyue found nothing, and swiveled her head to look for the other birds - Xingyue had taken to the skies again, searching from above.

 

Xingyue was indeed flying high above, scanning the ground below with his sharp Harpia eyes, striped tail and wings like a banner above his friends as he soared. He watched Yunyue pick through beach litter, and Kanir dive through waves and crest above them. He stayed underwater for a few minutes longer in some areas, until he started diving and circling around a specific spot.

 

He had found nothing yet, and did not want to go back over the mountains. So, he banked right and moved over to where Kanir was, tucking his wings and diving lower over cerulean water, where the Gryph surfaced and chirruped at him, his blue feathers and similarly colored fur slicked down from the water that reflected the same color.

 

He waved Xingyue closer with one wing, and, curious, Xingyue dove further, alighting on the surface of the water. Peering below, Xingyue could see that there was a dark, murky shape. Kanir turned his head to Xingyue, who had called Yunyue over now, waving at her with his wings until she nodded in his direction.

 

The Gryph pointed downwards, under the surface of the water. "Look!" he sang, filled with delight as their Anseri friend landed beside the duo. Both of the other Stryx looked down once again at the unfamiliar shape in the water, and then turned their confused gazes to Kanir.

 

"What is it?" Xingyue asked, paddling quickly. Harpia were not quite made for water, but he was determined to stay with his friends and help however he could.

 

Yunyue mirrored the Harpia, also turning her blue gaze on Kanir, tilting her head. Kanir huffed a frustrated sigh, and paddled to the side so that Yunyue could peer into the water, where - once it had cleared and stilled a bit, showed her that the murky shape sitting on the ocean floor was, in fact, a treasure chest.

 

“Ah! So it is treasure, then.” Yunyue ruffled the purple feathers on her neck happily, and without a thought, dove under the waves, her sleek feathers shedding the moisture like it simply wasn’t there. She came up soon after, holding a long chain, her long neck arched with the weight of it. Xingyue took to the air, beating his wings rapidly against the water with the effort. The other two Stryx grabbed the chain with the beaks, and dragged it through the sandbar to the shore - halfway along their trip, it snagged against a fragmented reef, and Kanir dove down, plucking the chain from the coral.

 

With their treasure, and now on dry land, the trio of birds pecked and poked at the chest, the lock crusted shut with barnacles and anemones. Mussels clung to the rotting wood, and Kanir stepped back for a moment, calling the other birds away from the chest. "I have an idea!" he exclaimed, and then dashed off down the beach, coming back with a huge rock in his mouth. Without further ado, he dropped it on the rotted wood and cracked the chest open, spilling its contents - gold spilled out across the beach sand, yellows blending in together. He cheered, the other Stryx cheering along with him, and they carried the half-broken treasure chest home.