[Trade] Fetch Quest

The foliage of Atlantis' jungle began to shake violently. The leaves rustled viciously against each other like furious bugs swarming, chelicerae clicking and wings chafing. It was the only sound that filled the ears of the traveling dinosaurs until one of them finally snapped.

"Sunny!" Luna hissed, "Stop shaking!" The large ochre Cryo clasped his claws anxiously as his trembling body continued to make the leaves dance.

"S-sorry Luna, it's scary in here," he whispered back, looking pathetic enough that it drained the anger from the Utahraptor.

"I know, but you making a racket isn't making it any less scary, we need to be quiet," she insisted. Winter turned from where he was leading the group and tried to give the Cryo his most reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Sunny, Oviraptors know the way through this place from the moment we're born," he said emphatically, "Just follow me and keep quiet and we won't have any trouble, promise." Sunny seemed convinced by the sincere words and the trembling of his body gradually ceased, leaving them in peace for the first time since leaving the court. The Iguanodons were demanding, but going on a fetch quest for them was preferable to ending up in their weird prison, a mix of stone cells and holes in the ground. They had given Winter the name of a location, a place that had made the Oviraptor go even paler, and told them all to bring back pieces of armour that had been abandoned there. 

"Armour, did the Iggys make the armour?" Luna asked.

"I'm... not actually sure, it was before my time. The Site D compound is sort of a bedtime scary story to keep kids out of this part of the woods," Winter said, thinking out loud.

"To k-keep them out?" Sunny asked nervously, the leaves brushing his feathers beginning to shake again. 

"There's some swamp type areas around here," the Ovi explained quickly, "It's fine if you know where they are, but youngsters running around out here might end up falling in." That was enough to reassure the Cryo again and Sunny followed them both through the jungle, watching his feet carefully as they went. 

"Are there gonna be those freaky plants around here?" Luna asked. Winter bristled a little but smoothed himself out and answered in an even tone.

"Probably, this is their jungle after all. We'll be fine!" he added sharply as he heard the leaves begin to rustle again. Luna shrugged and climbed over a fallen log, waiting on top for Sunny to catch up.

"Well, you seem to know what you're doing, we'll let you deal with the plants when we get there," she said casually, but her hard stare at Winter conveyed a different emotion entirely. He wasn't sure of the motivation of the Iguanodons, and it wasn't his place to question them, but he had wondered if he was meant to use these outsiders as bait to successfully retrieve the old armour. The thought sent a chill down his spine and he shook it off. They wouldn't expect him to carry full armour sets back to the court, they knew the outsiders would be fine.

Luna stared a hole in the back of Winter's head as the Ovi continued to bring them along a winding, overgrown path. She didn't trust the smaller raptor as far as she could throw him but she felt she had to come along for Sunny's sake. You could tell that Cryo that gullible was written on the ceiling and he wouldn't even look up to check, he'd just believe you. The sweet trusting nature that had led to the two of them being friends did often end up leading him to trouble, Luna liked to consider herself a barrier to that. She wouldn't call herself mean, but she certainly wouldn't have volunteered to fetch armour for these stuck-up Iguanodons. Unfortunately, Sunny had offered to help, Winter had offered to be their guide and now the three of them were fighting through the foliage to get to this mysterious 'Site D'.

The sludgy, swampy pits the Winter had forewarned about began to spring up around every corner. Winter was stepping carefully now, testing the sponginess of the ground to determine where they were hidden in the jungle. Sunny followed him closely, almost overlapping his smaller footprints with his own. Luna was more lackadaisical with her approach but she still kept a sharp eye on both the ground and the Oviraptor, and was therefore the first to notice him stopping dead in the trail.

"What is it?" she snapped, braced for attack.

"We're here," he replied in breathy reverence. Luna ducked around him to see the fabled sight but was disappointed to see an old human bunker, swallowed by various plant life. She held her tongue from making an 'is that it?' remark and turned to Sunny instead.

"See, big guy? We made it," she said brightly. The Cryo didn't look cheered by the sight and she couldn't really blame him.

"We have to go in there?" he asked, clicking his claws together.

"It's far less dangerous than it is out here, don't worry," Winter said cheerfully, strutting off towards the bunker. Sunny seemed unconvinced this time, eyes now darting around the jungle like he was waiting for the danger to jump right out at him.

"C'mon, we'll be in and out, no time at all," Luna reassured him. She had no idea if they would be but it was a better alternative than just leaving Sunny standing outside like the world's biggest target for vicious plants. He nodded and followed her to the door, where Winter had stripped back the vines and pushed it open. 

"Ah, not even far inside," he said, pointing at the discarded armour piles littered around the room.

"How many do we have to bring back?" Sunny asked, lifting up what looked like chest armour from the pile.

"Just what we can carry, Luna and I can take helmets and things, you can get the big stuff," Winter said, taking charge like a little drill sergeant. Luna rolled her eyes but loaded up on whatever looked like it could be a helmet. Once she gathered all she could, she helped balance various larger pieces on Sunny's back for the return journey to the court. Once Winter was satisfied with the Cryo being made into a beast of burden, he directed them both to the door and back onto the trail they had walked to get there.

"It should be easier on the way back, right?" Luna grunted, hauling her pack along.

"Should be, as long as the plants didn't change the path!"