You've made your first choice in "A Trinket for a King". What events await you in the next Storyline prompt "Eyes of Ruby and Greed"?

Story

"You’ve chosen to keep the trinket a secret. No one can know about what you’ve found. They might try to steal it, or they may find you crazy, or for one of the other million reasons boiling in your mind. But the whispering is restless, rushing through your ears like the winds through a stone cavern. What was once a hushed murmur evolved into a whistle, and now a scream. Your ears ring and your mind burns with the weight of ten thousand syllables.

"It has become nearly unbearable, but still, the glow is too alluring. You bury the serpent and its jewel deep into the furthest recesses of your hoard, where the only hint of its presence is the earthly-glow. No one can know. No one will know. No one, except for you.

"But even as you distance yourself from your hoard and the whispers emanating from within, whether leaving for the market or tending your gardens or wandering for a stroll, the strange words still drone in your mind.

"Suddenly your heart stops, as your mind clinks into a memory. You recognize a word. Without thinking, your paw extends, etching the word into the water-soaked soil. , the word for "reclaim". Suddenly, the whispers disappear, and you are pushed back by the wave of silence. You grab your head, ears ringing, head stinging. Something is coiling inside of you, wrapping its tendrils through you like roots. You flinch, looking up to feel a wrenching tug in your gut.

"Something tells you that you must return to your hoard.

"Without taking a moment to ponder why, you dash back to your home, paws thundering beneath you. When you reach the entrance, you see nothing amiss, but your whiskers retch in the magic fumigating your home. Your stomach churns as you blast through the entryway, streaking through the halls and into your hoard. Your lungs pool with rancid magic while the tang of bile nips your tongue. You wrench a cough from your throat, sliding into the hoard, glaring through squinted eyes.

"Your adrenaline mixes with the sands of time, clogging the hourglass and petrifying the world before you. Your heart pounds in your chest like a drum, echoing through your bones and numbing your skull. Your body slows with each foggy breath you cast. Foggy breath. The room is cold, and a shiver traces up your spine when your eyes settle on what’s amiss.

"A pair of beady red eyes vacantly stare back at you from the shadows, the glint of your trinket resting in its jowls.

"Suddenly, the hourglass sand breaks free from its frozen prison, grains crashing down like a waterfall. Energy surges through your muscles, launching yourself towards the creature in the shadows. Suddenly, the creature shouts an incantation and disappears as you tackle, not into them, but onto your hoard’s floor. You look up, dust glittering all around you. The creature is gone, teleporting far, far away. And with them, so went your trinket.

"The world slips away, falling eerily silent and still. Only your heavy breath and pounding heart accompany you as you stare into the nothing. You take a step back, a crunch sounding beneath your paws. You look down to see an insect, no larger than your thumbnail, twitching feebly. A lobster mite.

"You look back up into the remnants of dust floating down, a sense of dread plummeting in your stomach. Whoever just took off was searching for you – your trinket, specifically — and they just got what they wanted."

Updates

And so it begins, Island Dwellers!

You did what you thought was safest for your newly found trinket, but somehow, it was both discovered and stolen. But, hey, you’re not empty handed! The thief was kind enough to leave behind a Forged Serpent Trinket in its place. (All user inventories have had their Serpent Trinkets renamed to Forged Serpent Trinket). It seems they weren’t expecting you back so soon. But now you're filled with even more curiosity. Whatever could make that trinket so valuable that a forgery would be made to slow the discovery of the item being stolen?

You must get it back, or at least, find out why such a thing was taken from you.

Once again, you are faced with many choices. What will you choose to do in the next storyline prompt: Eyes of Ruby and Greed?

And as a reminder, you do not need to complete the previous prompt (A Trinket for a King) in order to participate in Eyes of Ruby and Greed. Members, new and old, are welcome to join in on the Storyline at any time!

Current storyline hub

To keep Storlines organized, we have created a new Current Storline Hub! Here, you can find all chapters of the current storyline, from their stories to their final tallied results! This page can be found under our site's Encyclodpedia > Historic Events > Recent Occurences. When a Storyline concludes, it will be migrated out of the Storyline Hub and onto it's own page, which can also be found under Historic Events.

Reminders

• The Rainfall Festival is currently ongoing! Parcipate in the event's prompts before it closes on the 16^th.
• If you haven't gotten to them yet, our monthly prompts all refreshed on the first, including Generous Spirit, Poco Discovery, and an fish-and-food-themed Activity Corner!