[treasure] Snowy Riches

It was that time of year again.

When symprites and aramelles all over Pangaea celebrated the great Lunisolar Festival. Truly it was one of the biggest festivals of the year, with many hyped about what Ranni had been cooking up at the Black Market all year and for the new peculiar chests that one could find while foraging. They were dubbed Festive Wish chests and if one was lucky, one could find some very valuable items inside.

Ranni apparently would even exchange some of these items for a potion… Not that really concerned Requiem all that much. With him being an Arctic, that potion did nothing for him nor was he interested in the one that turns any symprite into an Imp. He had enough wings on his head, thank you. 

So, why was he out in the cold wastes of the Tundra looking for these chests? Collectibles, of course! He may not be interested in what he can turn them in for but Requiem had always been a collector of all things rare, shiny, or interesting. Despite all his grinding the previous year, he was still missing a few of the items that were supposedly found inside the chests.

As Requiem dug through another suspicious pile of snow, he thought back to the piles of comet candies he had amassed from the year prior. One could only eat so many before feeling sick from their tangy sweetness. As for the caprisol wine? That was his favorite to find. Every bottle was different from each other and Requiem was a lover of wine anyway. He had run out of his stock a while ago much to his disappointment… I should never have shared my last bottles with Silas… he drank so much of it in one go! he thought to himself. 

Another pile… another disappointment. Requiem frowned looking at the now flat pile of snow with no purple-blue festive wish chest at the bottom. “Ugh… did this area get cleared out already?” he muttered to no one. He could have sworn that this part of the Tundra was stocked to the brim last year… did the location get shifted around from year to year? In fact, who was it that made these chests in the first place for them to find?

Requiem shrugged and moved onto the next suspiciously tall pile of snow. Ah, well, not their problem to figure out, right now at least. 

It was times like these, where his body was covered in falling snow, hands tired from gripping his shovel, that he was grateful for being covered in so much fur. He didn’t like swimming often due to it even if he loved being able to… he just always felt like a water-logged byun even attempting it. 

Requiem dug his shovel into the soft, freshly fallen snow pile and quickly began to toss what was on top off to the side, creating its own pile in the process. Maybe some unlucky symprite would mistake it for a pile hiding one of the chests… maybe that’s what he had been doing all along. But he didn't think about that sad thought for long as a harsh CLANG of the end of his shovel hitting something hard, jarred his arms and brain back to reality. 

“Score!” He knew exactly what he had found as he dropped to his knees to dig away at the snow by hand. As more and more snow got flung to the side, Requiem could see that tell-tale purple-ish hue of the festive wish chest at the very bottom of the hole. His greedy hands wrapped around the end of it, dragging it back up to the surface of the snow.

“Hard work pays off,” Requiem said as he cracked open the top, eager to see what his spoils were this time.