• PM To Join • Treasure Hunt

[Vivian Shiryu]

60th of Ashan, 716

Vivian sighed as she looked out the windows of House Warrick. She didn't much enjoy the capital city, the crowded streets and general air of political jockeying and corruption that covered the city like a poisonous miasma making her almost feel like she was suffocating. Of course, the reason she was here was even more annoying. Her mother seemed to have gotten into her mind, again, that Vivian needed a husband. She had delayed joining the Skyriders for four years to indulge her mothers attempts at this already, but this time she had made it quite clear that she not only had no intention of marrying, anyone her mother tried to set her up with would live a life of misery and sorrow until they backed out of it and left her alone.

Sighing, the soldier turned away from the window and started to walk aimlessly through the halls. She had been told, in exchange for the dropping of the arranged marriage attempt, that she was to stay for a party hosted by some son of the Andaris. She supposed she should attend a social function every so often, but she wasn't a people person. Stopping another sigh before it escaped into the world, Vivian passed by a pair of the family maids, ignoring them until a particular snipped of conversation caught her ear. "And those children saying they found the Krom treasure, how silly..."

Abruptly turning on her heel, Vivian looked at the two maids. "You there! What is is this about the Krom Treasure?" she asked, her tone as much a demand as a question. The sunken treasure of Lord Gerrard Krom was a popular legend, but no one had found any in decades. Some had been recovered by divers, or recovered from Mer, but if this was true...

"W-well, milady, some of the children living on the city outskirts were squaking about having found some of Lord Krom's lost treasure. It's doubtful, but if they did, they likely hid it on the beach, near the docks. Knowing them though, it's nothing but some old rubble." one the maids said, nervous under Vivian's stare. Vivian nodded and let them return to their duties, altering her course to take her to her room. Once there, she changed out of the dress her mother had talked her into wearing and into her street clothes, throwing on her favored red jacket and belting on her rapier. A search for a lost treasure of the Seven, even if on a simple beach as opposed to a more grandiose location, was the kind of adventure she'd dreamed of even as a child. However, she paused before she left, considering her options. After a moment, she picked up her bow and quiver as well, figuring it was better to have it and not need it, then wind up to need it and not have it.

Now properly geared, Vivian left the Warrick House and made for the docks. She knew she could get to the beach from there, and it seemed like close to the docks would be the best place to start looking. She doubted that children would go very far from the docks, but she widen her search if she had too. She felt confident, certain that she could find the hiding place of a pack of peasant children. Though she'd have to make sure they got compensated for having originally located the treasure, if such it was...

[Kingdom]

The sound of weighted footfalls overhead saw an argument below the docks cease, as a group of children took pause to listen, only to carry on in but a whisper moments later.
“What do you mean you lost it?” A young boy scolded.
“Don’t pick on your sister, Harold!” His friend, Joseph, shoved him.
The two scuffled before the little girl, no more than nine arcs piped up. “I buried it and now I can’t find it!” She squawked and was quickly hushed by one of the boys, finger pressed to lips.
“Which way, Suzy?” Harold asked.
The girl pointed west along the beach towards the caves where footprints weaved back and forth across the sand, dotted in and out of the water for about a mile.

The trio set off down the beach then, retracing their footprints in the sand.

[Seira Shiryu]

As Seira walked along the beach, she couldn't help but wonder if she was insane. What had made her decide to come? When Harold, Joseph, and Suzy had first asked for her help with something, she had assumed that Suzy needed help with history again. Or perhaps Harold needed help with the math test his grade had coming up. But this? This was ridiculous.

I should have gone home the moment I heard them talking about "treasure"... she grumbled to herself.

Treasure, indeed. It was a prank, of course. The younger kids wanted to see if they could fool her into believing their story about finding treasure. And she was falling right into their trap by going along with it. The "treasure"...if any such thing even existed, would be a chest filled with rocks, or sand. Or possibly seaweed. They might even go as far as trying to convince her to carry it back to their house before revealing the big "secret."

Seira was a fool for going along with whatever they had planned. She knew that. And yet...she had her own reasons for doing so. Going on an "adventure," might just be what she needed to inspire an idea for a new song. And what was more adventurous than searching for treasure? So she followed the footsteps in the sand, quickening her pace to join the others when she saw them ahead of her.

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian looked around as she got to the docks. The hustle and bustle of the ship workers did nothing to prevent her eyes from going to the ships and the choppy waves beyond as an instinctual panic begin to set in. Shaking her head, Vivian resolutely turned her back on the ocean, biting down the panic that tried to overwhelm her. There was solid wood beneath her feet, the waters of the bay safely contained beneath them. Once she was calm, the skyrider turned to face the beach, spying the tail end of a group of children moving up the beach. "Thank the Seven..." she muttered turning and running along the docks for a moment before she jumped down to the beach.

She could hardly believe her luck, but then perhaps it wasn't luck. This was, supposedly, the treasure of one of the sacred seven, after all. Perhaps Lord Krom had decided that it was time for his lost treasure to return to the people of Rynmere at long last. Her longer legs brought her up to the children pretty fast, though she stayed a distance back from them so as not to frighten them by appearing too aggressive. "Hi there." she said, actual warmth lending a cheeful note to her tone. Vivian actually liked children well enough, whatever she thought of their parents, so this was actually more to her taste than dealing with even most of her own family.

Waving at the children when they turned to look her at her, Vivian smiled a bit. "My name is Vivian Warrick, I'm with the Skyriders. Are you all out here by yourself?" she asked, her tone legitimately curious. She knew that peasant children frequently wandered around on their own, but didn't their parents know how dangerous the ocean was? Or did they simply not care.

[Seira Shiryu]

So...a treasure hunt, huh? I guess the first thing to decide is whether the "hunt" is successful or not, what the "treasure" will be, and what the consequences of finding it are. Seira mused as she walked.

Happy songs seemed to be more popular than tragic ballads at the moment, so after a few bits of thought, she decided that her song should have a happy ending. With that thought in mind, she decided that the person in her song would find the treasure, and that it would change the character's life in some positive way. But finding nels was so cliche, that she needed the treasure to be something different. Something creative.

When Seira finally caught up to the other kids, she greeted them absently. She was really starting to get into the whole spirit of the adventure. It was exciting, and it really was good fodder for song material. So she smiled as she listened to Harold and Suzy talk about Lord Krom's treasure. If they took her excitement to be about finding the treasure, she was happy to let them. They were just kids, after all. There was no reason to spoil their fun by telling them that she thought their adventure was just a silly game, or a prank on her. Or that there treasure was nothing of the sort. So she went back to working on her song idea while she walked with the others.

Seira was having trouble deciding on just what she wanted the treasure in her song to be, so she switched her focus to the character the song would be about. On a whim, she decided that the song would be about a young girl, kind of like herself. But unlike her, the girl would be deliberately seeking adventure, and treasure, not simply going along for the ride.

She was so caught up in planning out her new song, that she lost track of her surroundings. Seira didn't even notice the woman that had approached them until she offered them a cheerful greeting and introduced herself before starting to question them. She studied the woman warily. In her experience, adults were not to be trusted, and she had no reason to expect that this adult would be any different.

The woman...Vivian Warrick, if that was indeed her real name didn't give off the impression of a fancy Lady, like her family name would suggest. Warrick was one of the noble houses. Didn't the nobles all wear fancy dresses, and such? Seira wondered if this "lady" was really who she said she was. Then again, she figured that it could be true. Wouldn't you get in trouble for pretending to be a noble when you weren't? Seira didn't think that the nobles would like it if they knew someone was pretending to be one of them. So maybe she was telling the truth.

Seira took note of the red jacket the woman was wearing. Then she saw the sword. It was a thin, fancy sword like the ones she had seen some nobles using in a display of skill a few seasons ago. Her eyes widened, and she took an involuntary step back.

"We don't want any trouble." she said, eyes firmly fixed on the woman's sword.

Seira's instincts told her to flee. Instead, she shifted position so she was between the adult, and the younger kids. This Vivian had said she was a skyrider. If it were true, then it wasn't surprising that she would be wearing a sword. But Seira's deep distrust of adults refused to allow her to take the woman's words at face value. Still, she was probably telling the truth about being a noble, since she'd likely get in real trouble if she wasn't. And if she was telling the truth about that, there was less of a reason to suspect she was lying about being a skyrider. On the other hand...what would a noble or a skyrider want with a bunch of kids?

To give herself some time to figure out what was going on, Seira answered the woman's question with one of her own.

"Why do you want to know? We're not doing anything wrong."

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian smiled at what appeared to be the leader, a child a good deal older than the others. "No, you aren't. But it's dangerous around here, especially with the rumors that have been going around. Treasure hunters and such will be looking for children." she said, her tone gentle so as not to scare them, before she looked up the beach behind the kids. "Do you have something you're looking for down here? If you want I can accompany you. Of course, I gather that you're in charge, so you'll lead." she said, gesturing at the apparent leader of the munchkin brigade.

She could tell they were still nervous, so she guessed of a way to hopefully earn some trust from their leader. Unbelting her rapier, she held it up for the leader to take. "Look, just in case, why don't you hang on to this while we're here?" she said, holding out her sword. She still had her bow, so she wouldn't be completely defenseless, but she thought the leader might feel better about allowing her to accompany them if she let her use the sword.

[Seira Shiryu]

Seira simply stared at the woman for several trills, trying to figure out what she wanted. Then she nodded, and took the offered sword. It was heavy. Much heavier than Seira had expected such a thin sword to be. She couldn't even imagine trying to swing it about while fighting someone. Seira knew nothing of how to use a sword, but it didn't take any real knowledge to know that the blade was sharp, and that you shouldn't touch it if you didn't want to get cut. So she kept her hands well away from the blade.

The woman had said that there were rumors going around, and that treasure hunters would be looking for children. That was just wonderful. More adults. And if anything, these other adults might be more dangerous than this skyrider. Treasure hunters were often ruthless people who were willing to do anything to find the treasure they sought...no matter who got hurt in the process. At least this woman probably had to follow rules about not hurting innocent kids since she was a skyrider. The news meant something else as well. Harold, Suzy, and Joseph may actually have found something. Or at least they might think they had. Whether what they had found was actually a real treasure or not was debatable, but at least it looked like this wasn't some kind of prank the younger kids were playing on her.

Vivian had said that she was the leader, likely because she was the oldest. But in fact, she was just here to help the others. They were the ones who had found the treasure, after all. So Seira turned to them.

"What do you guys think? Do you want her to come with us? She is right, you know. If there are treasure hunters around, this could be dangerous." she cautioned.

[Kingdom]

The nobles offer of giving up her sword was accompanied by excited whispers from the children, wide-eyed and delighted by the thought that their friend now had what they assumed was total power over the group and the smelly adult who wanted to accompany them. This excitement was short lived, however, as Joseph's father tracked up the beach from the post he had just finished tying his fishing boat to. "Joe!" He waved, summoning the boy. "Time to go home!"

Joseph sighed crossly and folded his arms before stalking off. "But father!" He whined. "We were going hunting for treasure."
The man acknowledged Vivian with a wave, assuming she was somehow related to the group. "You kids don't go too far," he warned and turned to head for home with a disgruntled Joseph in tow.

Harold, somewhat put out that he hadn't been offered the sword and now down a friend, turned and ran in the direction that the footprints led, calling out for his sister Suzy to try and keep pace. Suzy waved for the pair to follow announcing gleefully that the treasure was, "right this way!"

The children ran down the beach to where the soft yellow sand ended and climbed the grassy dunes, covered in a rough, dry grass that felt sticky to touch, and weaved though the small hills of sand, making their own tracks. Suzy led the way to a small, private beach that was covered in soft, smooth, tiny stones which appeared almost pastel in colour, mixed in with dull, grey pebbles that made up the majority. The ground crunched underfoot and up ahead the beach was jagged and rocky, forming shallow rock pools that were picked clean by birds during the day.
The sea was rough here and crashed across the rocks and in the distance, two men could be seen dragging a massive chest from the earth, which took the strength of both of them to pull from its pit. The pair were far enough away that they hadn't noticed the children yet and started moving the chest towards the caves, tugging it over the rocks. Suzy pointed and squawked. "They're taking our treasure!"
Harold turned to their leader and growled. "Go after them! Get the treasure, use the sword!"

A closer look might reveal the glinting daggers strapped to the back of one of the men, and a long, leather whip wound about the chest and shoulder of his partner in crime. They didn't look heavily armed, but prepared enough that they might not be so inclined to hand over their find to a group of children.

[Seira Shiryu]

Seira watched in bemusement as Joseph's father called him home. The younger boy was clearly reluctant. He wanted to stay, and look for the treasure with the others. Seira could understand that to some degree. She hated it when people tried to make her do something she didn't want to do. But her independence was born out of necessity. If she had parents who loved her, and wanted to take care of her, she didn't think that she would ever defy them. Not knowing how lonely and terrifying the alternative could be at times.

"Joseph doesn't know how lucky he is." she muttered softly as he stalked away.

Harold dashed off, calling for his sister to catch up with him. Suzy hesitated long enough to tell them to follow. Seira started to, but paused, and looked back at Vivian.

"Looks like they don't mind if you come with us. We'd better hurry, or we'll lose them."

And with that, Seira was running after the younger kids. The woman's sword was heavy, and its weight slowed her down. But it felt comforting to be the one holding it. If she was the one holding the woman's sword, then Vivian couldn't decide to attack anyone with it. Before long, Seira's sides began to ache from the extra weight she was lugging around. Despite that, she paid close attention to her surroundings. The firmer sand of the dunes was easier to run on because it didn't slide under her feet the way the softer sand on the beach did. When they got to a small, private beach, the first thing Seira noticed was that they weren't alone.

Two men were dragging a huge chest out of the ground. For several trills, all Seira could do was stare. There really was a treasure? Even with Vivian mentioning that other treasure hunters would be looking for them, Seira hadn't truly believed that the younger kids had found any real treasure. But the evidence was right in front of her.

Suzy cried out that the men were taking their treasure. This caused Harold to turn to her and demand that she get their treasure back. With the sword. Right. Seira glanced down at the long metal thing that she was having difficulty carrying, never mind swinging it around. And that didn't even begin to address the fact that she had no idea how to use the ridiculously heavy thing. Use the sword. Yeah...and if she was really lucky, the only damage she'd do was to drop the thing, and stab herself in the foot with it. Instead of chopping her foot off, or something worse.

And yet...what if Suzy's shouts had alerted the men to their presence? They didn't look like then had noticed. One of the men had a vicious looking dagger strapped to his back, and the other had a whip. Wouldn't they be preparing to attack with those weapons if they had seen them? But...what if they were just pretending not to notice them? Adults were sneaky like that. Seira was the oldest kid there. She didn't trust Vivian to help them. She was an adult. What if she decided to help the bandits instead? Even if she didn't, it would be much easier for her to do nothing, and not risk her own life than it would be for her to help them. No. It was up to Seira to protect the younger kids. Seira turned to Harold.

"I want you to take Suzy, and hide, okay? Please? Or better yet, run away. I'll try to get your treasure back, but I can't do that if I'm worried about you guys. This is really dangerous. Those men have weapons, and if they catch you, they will kill you. You need to protect your sister while I try to get your treasure. I can't do both."

Seira didn't really think that she had any chance of getting the treasure back, but she said what she thought would make the younger kids do what she said. She hoped that Harold and Suzy would do what she had asked. But she couldn't wait to find out. If the men had heard Harold and Suzy, they could decide to attack at any moment. So she tightened her grip on Vivian's sword, and eyed the men warily. Then she moved away from the others.

She circled around so she would be coming from a different direction when she made her move. With luck, she would be enough of a distraction for the younger kids to get away unnoticed. When she thought she was in a good position, she began creeping up on the men as quietly as she could. The small stones made some noise beneath her feet as she walked, but she was lighter than most kids her age, so she made less noise than she might have. Once she thought she was close enough, she glanced down at Vivian's sword. It was long, and thin, rather than having a wider blade like some swords she'd seen guards carry. But the point looked sharp. If she could stab one of the men with it, she might actually do some damage. That was an awfully big if, though.

Seira tightened her grip on the sword once more. Then she raised it up to chest height, and pointed it at the nearest man.

I am an idiot. It's stupid to think I have a chance of getting the treasure back...and I don't. Not really. But maybe I can help Harold and Suzy get away. And if I'm really lucky, I might even survive this...

"Give me my treasure back!" she screamed as she charged at the nearest of the two men, sword pointed out straight in front of her as she ran.

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian watched as one of the boys got dragged away by his parents, then looked over at the leader as she said that the boy, Joseph apparently, didn't know how lucky he was. She felt a surge of pity for the girl, whether for being dragged off on an adventure she wasn't keen on or being alone, she didn't know for sure. And in either case, it was a pitiable state to be in. She nodded as the girl ran off, following after her. She could tell that her sword was heavy for her, but she didn't want to ask for it back in case it made the girl distrust her.

It didn't take them long to arrive at the place the kids were leading them too, only to find some rough looking men digging it up. The two other children, Harold and Suzy, she gathered, were ordered away by the older girl, who proceeded to try to circle around the men. Vivian was about to speak up when the girl held out her rapier in an absolutely terrible fashion and charged. Swearing, Vivian bolted after the girl as the men turned around, the one with the dagger taking it off of his back and throwing it at the girl before he noticed Vivian. Fortunately, Vivian's legs were longer than the girls and the soldier was able to catch up to her and knock her aside, the knife that had been aimed at her catching instead in Vivian's shield, as that had been the arm Vivian had knocked the girl aside with.

"I admire your courage, but why don't you leave this to a professional, alright. After all, I get paid to keep you safe from animals like this bunch." she said to the girl she had knocked to the ground, before yanking the dagger out of her shield and taking a step towards the brigands. "As for you, lovely bunch of cowards you are, attacking people so much smaller than you. Why don't you animals try your hand with me?" she said, her typically haughty demeanor in full force as she taunted the brigands, holding the dagger like a short sword.