A Good Nights Scavenging - AR

Background

Seasonal Bonus

Scavenging

The last days of light brushed over the mountain side, casting the lands into darkness once more. Stars quickly began to glistened overhead, gracing the melting snow with their light, shining out their faint, faded colours as blue, red, green and some even a dull purple graced the darkened sky. It truly was a lovely contrast to their dark surroundings. However, that was soon to change as the cloudless night was broken as the moon rose, a full moon, which cast out its glorious light to the lands below. Creatures of the day turned into rest for the night, unable to see the petals floating gently on the breeze as they slept soundly in their dens and hollows in the trees. The flowers closed for the night, bees unable to pollinate them as they rested in the comfort of their have or hiding in the middle of flowers. But for others... Oh no, it wasn't their time to sleep. It was their time to shine.

Crack!

Talons cracked against the stone, a small hum coming from the gryph as they tilted their head to the side. Their eyes, bred for the darkness around them, could easily see prey around it. Small creatures skittering around at their feet, the fish swimming in the lake a few dozen paces away. The white stryx ruffled his feathers once, tail flicking up behind him as Vyshemir turned his head away from the ground. If wasn't quite the time to fish or hunt, not for this fluffy one. Head held high as if he'd done this a hundred times before, he stretched his wings out wide, wiggled his tail to adjust himself, before springing into the air, his aim taking him towards the forest before him.

Wind swept under Vyshemir's wings, his eyes closed the moment he gave a grateful sigh. He loved the feeling of his feathers slicing through the dark night, the wind ruffling his pristine feathers. As he flew, a faint twinkle in the distance caught his eye. He snapped his head towards it, recognising it as the rock he'd deliberately marked before he went for rest, knowing he'd want to explore the place a little more, having a feeling that it hid it's jewels instead of just giving them up like he wanted it to. It didn't take long for him to reach the rock, and he curved his wings slightly, flapping just a few times as leafs scattered from underneath his glorious white to slow his decent as he landed gracefully on the ground.

With a small, smug look on his face, he strutted forwards a few times, lowering his head to the ground. Then he paused. He always hated how this messed his beautiful feathers up!

Oh well.

Vyshemir dug his claws into the ground, scraping away the leaf litter and dirt from underneath him. Debris were cleared in moments, before he took a step back to admire his handiwork for a few moments, head tilted to the side as he though he'd seen something a little shiny. But alas, not this time! With a partial grimace, he moved himself towards a tree to his left, his claws dragging the dirt back, as he turned to look once more. Even with his keen eyesight, he didn't manage to see anything this time. His technique of scratching, then turning to look repeated time and time again, each time hoping to see something under the leaf litter and thin layer of dirt. Vyshemir was starting to become frustrated at his lack of progress compared to the progress the dirt had made on his pale self. It was in that moment that when he was pulling the dirt back, he felt something against his claws. But SOMETHING was right term. He gave a small chirp in delight as he moved backwards, "Finally!" He cried out as he moved his foot forward, clasping around the buried item as he tilted it back and forth, his eyes glittering. After all this time digging around, almost like a chicken, he FINALLY found something worthwhile! Although he knew he would, it wasn't his first rodeo... But how would he wash this - "Hey! Could you keep it down?"

A voice scolded Vyshemir, and the gryph looked startled as he pulled back a bit, grip tightening on the item as he looked around him. "Uh, sure...? I think I was done anyway." He sniped back, slightly annoyed that he'd been distracted during his scavenge. Surely he wasn't making THAT much noise... Right?

"I hope so! You were making such a racket down there, what were you doing, deciding to make some sort of den in the dirt?" The voice scolded back, and Vyshemir, once more, ruffled his feathers. They were close, but exactly how close, he had no idea, and he continued to look back and forth, the base of that thick tree just to his left, others scattered around... "Big white oaf, if you're looking for me, up here."

Oh.

Vyshemir looked up, anger dancing across his face. Great white oaf?! He was GORGEOUS and whoever this female was just didn't want to accept it! Sighing heavily to himself as he didn't want to come across as too much of a jerk, and figured she was probably awake enough now, he called back. "Well, sorry miss grumpy canary for not looking up straight away, however, if you want to actually come down and take a look, I'd be more than happy to show you what I'm doing."

His offer was met with a frustrated squawk as she grumbled for a few moments, before falling silent. "If I could see, I'd come and look. It's dark."

Vyshemir raised an eyeridge up at her. Then slowly looked back down at the rays of moonlight cutting through the trees, illuminating the ground he'd been scratching up. Even for those active during the day, they'd be able to see what he was doing. "Just, come down here and take a look..." He replied, coming to the end of his rope with this ungrateful ball of yellow stained feathers.

Claws scratching on wood sounded, followed by a heavy thump, squawk, crack and... Vyshemir's eyes went wide as he jumped forward, claw still wrapped around his gem as he turned, in time to see a flock of feathers crash onto the ground. A small groan came from the pile as the canary-bird slowly stood up, ruffling her feathers back into place. Eclipse looked tired, but almost as fluffy as he was. Almost. No one could be quite that fluffy.

"I'm down." She groaned, sighing as she looked around, almost as if she couldn't see too much. Weird... But her eyes would adjust eventually. It was bright, even for a day dweller.

"I can see that." The white grumbled as Eclipse stood up, slowly wandering towards him, squinting at the ground beneath her.

"You scratched it all up?" She sounded... Puzzled, which surprised Vyshemir. The white laughed, "What did you think I was doing? I was looking for stuff!"

"By... Digging?" She asked, looking perplexed.

Vyshemir wanted to groan, but kept it in, instead, taking a surprised approach to the situation. "Yes, digging! You should give it a try!" He said, trying to hide his frustration with encouragement.

"I just... Use my claws and scratch around on the ground?" Eclipse asked, tilting her head to the side, but her tone was frustrated. Vyshemir fluffed his feathers, and nodded. "Yup, give it a try!" He instructed.

The canary looked up at him, flicking her tail once, almost out of frustration, before she slowly moved her claws. They dug into a fresh pile of dirt and leaf, pulling it away. Unlike Vyshemir, she had to rely on her claws brushing against the object. She huffed and jumped to the side, her claws scratching into the ground, pulling up dirt and small rocks, but feeling nothing interesting or odd. Eclipse jumped to the side again, digging her claws into another pile and tearing them apart, scratching viciously on the ground, as if being rough would help anything. "Gentler." Vyshemir instructed, as the canary grumbled and continued doing what she was doing, but gentler. She jumped to a new patch, scratching away at the debris gently, letting her claws feel the tiny rocks shift through the dirt, clearing the leaf litter away. She suddenly squawked, feeling something different than normal. Instinctively, she jumped back, burying her face into the dirt without a second thought and she grabbed SOMETHING and tore it out of the ground, chirping happily. "What's this?" She asked in delight.

Vyshemir laughed softly at the sudden change in tone and the, now covered in mud and dirt, canary. "I'm not sure, why don't we find a pond, clean it and ourselves up, and have a look?" He asked, to which the inexperienced Eclipse nodded, her tiredness faded and excitement of wanting to find out what was in her beak making her heart race from excitement.

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Stryx involved - Vyshemir and Eclipse

AR Payment 1/7 for @Pimsri

Final Word Count - 1500