Hermes - Scavenger Hunt

When Hermes decided to take part in the scavenger hunt, he knew it would have an easy time of it. With his keen eyes and penchant towards shiny things, he knew he’d spot the hidden gold coin out of the corner of his eye easily. 

For this year and this round, the scavenger hunt was split in its prizes-- easy to find bronze coins, harder silver coins, and the coveted silver and purple gilded coin. The Gold coin guaranteed a win, and Hermes was out to win. 

And easy it was, because the bauble was hidden in plain sight. Right in the middle of a crowd gawking at a few circus performers. 

He moseyed his way to the middle of the crowd, hoping he was generally out of sight, or at least unnoticed by the other finders. Because today, his opponents in this round of the scavenger hunt were Marina and Marvelous. Marvelous was a notorious dragon of a reos, always on the hunt for something new and shiny. But Marina was the tyrian to look out for; once she smelled blood, or saw it rather, she rarely let up until she could claim victory. 

The Tyrian pair were a formidable duo; every once in a while he noticed their winged shadows gliding overhead, and he knew they already racked up quite a few points. He had to force himself not to look up as he was blanketed in shadow for a split second. He just hoped the two didn’t notice that he noticed anything.

Because he still had to turn the coin in. And it was every reos for himself until that point. 

Hermes surreptitiously checked the cloudy sky before inching through the crowd. He just had to evade their eyes… 

The crowd was hugging a fence, and there the coin lay, right at its base slightly hidden in grass. This was the only place the two tyrians hadn’t looked, so he had to act fast. Hermes quickly saw the two make their way to the fence. 

Hermes quickly grabbed the coin as he walked past and started to sneak away from the crowd. As he pocketed the coin in a small pocket on his chest, he went closer to the other booths hosting more games, trying to make it harder for Marina and Marvelous to see him.

But his luck ran out way too quickly, and he was way too far from the turn-in booth. The two pairs of eyes in the skies saw him weave through the crowd, and started to give chase. After all, much like he knew they were participating, they also knew the same. Oh, crap.

As the two tyrians started to fly towards him, Hermes picked up his pace. Or more like, went from zero to sixty in two paces.

Hermes could hear Marina’s screech. “Stop running!” 

“In your dreams!” He shot back, and continued to dodge and weave through the crowd. In the wake of the chaos, he could hear shouts and screams of alarm.

The two airborn reos had a hard time dodging people, and the sly hermes used that to his advantage to make his way closer to the turn-in booth. But frustratingly, it just had to be smack-dab in the middle of a clearing. 

The two tyrians yelled at him, trying to get other reos and people to stop him, but it only made Hermes run faster, with the coin in his pocket clinking against his other effects.

Hermes looked back, seeing the two still in pursuit. He was starting to run out of breath, but his deceptively larger physique was as agile as they came and kept him going. He looked around, trying to find somewhere to dunk under, but the clearing was just too sparse.

It was inevitable that they’d catch up to him. Or dive-bomb him, rather. 

The two crashed into him with a dual crow of delight, and Hermes ate dirt. “Gotcha now! Hand over your coins!” Marina growled playfully. 

Hermes was too busy spitting up dirt to respond, but his adrenaline was high. He groaned as Marvelous loosened the small pouch hanging from his side, and hid it under her wing. Still a bit winded, but mostly playing it up, he stood to his feet. “Y’all are vicious, you know that?”

“Have to be, to win,” Marvelous shot back, smug as can be. 

But before they could react any further, Hermes was quick to zip the few paces left to the turn-in booth. He cackled as he went, knowing it would take far too long for the air-agile tyrians to gain much speed on the ground. And neither tyrian was known for their fast reflexes. “Not very smart, though!” He called back to them. In that flash of an instant, he noticed their twin dumbfounded looks as he sped into the booth, and slammed the coin down on the table.

After all, the only thing in that pouch was some easily-obtained tokens. Not the coveted gold coin in his breast pocket.

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