Scavenger Hunt

Vapor was sleeping in his bed, soft snores filling the room until he heard a small yelp, his ears flickered and he woke up to look at his pet seal pup trying to wake him up for a swim. Vapor yawns before stretching on his kelp bed. He got up to give his pup a walk before seeing two of his fellow Aqualoxes walking together somewhere. He put his pup onto his back before jumping out of the water to greet his friends. 

One was a female presenting Aqualox. She had a chunky fishtail with her soul gems connected on the back of her neck and tail, acting as a mini armor for the back of her neck. She had brown fur with a few stripes, and her fins and water were a light sandy yellow. Unlike most Aqualoxs, she was unfortunately born without three legs, though despite it, it never really gave her trouble to walk around. In fact the Aqualox always somehow found ways to get herself into danger and came out without a scratch. It scared Vapor on how tough she was. That Aqualox is named Sandbox, an interesting name for a terrifying Aqualox.

The Aqualox next to her was named Jungle. He was bigger than him and Sandbox together. In fact, he was the biggest he ever met so far. Vapor always wondered where WAS he made? Vapor and Sandbox always made the joke that he consumed a tiger. Jungle was brown like Sandbox, but he was much lighter. He had darker brown stripes that matched one of a tiger alongside a lighter brown under belly. His water hair and Axolotl-like tail were orange because of the season being autumn. He had matching soul gems on his feet that acted like claws. His mouth poked out small fangs that were too big for his mouth, giving him a bit of a rough accent.

"Vapor! Ey' what brings cha here, Bossman?" Churred Jungle, his thin green eyes looking at the blue, dragon-like Aqualox.

"I was giving Bubblepop a walk until I saw you two at the shore. What about you?" Vapor sat down with a yawn.

Sandbox hummed, her sharp eyes going into her bag to pull out a list for Vapor to read. "Jungle and I were going to a haunted scavenger hunt. Would you like to come?" She'd purr, her small paws kneading into the sand floor to share her affection towards her friend. 

Vapor reads the list, thinking for a moment before nodding. "Of course. I'd love to." He'd say with a smile before joining his friends for the hunt. The three would meet some other Aqualoxes who are also trying to figure out the hunt, and they wished each other good luck. A few scares happened. They would find a few things that was on the list, like a skull, a witch hat, etc. 

Sandbox wasn't easy to scare as she'd wouldn't give the scares a side eye, Jungle on the other hand was the opposite, he would hop and yelp like a cat, even hissing and arching his back. Vapor would flinch, giving laughs every time he got jumpscared, it was totally scary but he's not going to admit that.

Eventually they finished the quest, starting out with nothing and coming out with many new things. Oh how Vapor enjoyed his time with his friends.

As Jungle and Sandbox talk to each other in a distance, Vapor's soft eyes hardened as he would look away to glance at an Aqualox shaped figure hiding in the woods, it's eyes glowing in the shadows. It'd large size creeping around as it held a gem in it's mouth.

Those screams were too real to be fake. Vapor knew that much. 

It looked into Vapor's eyes before backing up and walked away with a wobble, vanishing into the dark.

"Vapor…."

Huh?

"Vapor!" Sandbox called, worried for her friend spacing out. Shaking him with her claws digging into his smooth scales.

"Whoa! Whoa! Yeah?"

He said, surprised. Had he really just blanked out again. Was he seeing things again.

"My gosh! Don't snap out like that. You need sleep!

"No no. I'm good-"

"You will sleep willingly or I will knock you out again."

"....Alright."

And sleep did Vapor go to.