Tired, exhausted mariners always made their way to the bars in sleepy coastal towns at the end of the day.  This unspoken tradition was never broken, unless you wanted to awaken the Ocean, and she is certainly not a very happy camper when awoken.

The small, fiery bird was a common sight in this town by now, and the local villagers always left the bird a gift of the finest mangoes their vast orchards produced whenever she came to visit.  On the weekend nights, the local bar would become lively, with plenty of glasses of S.P.I.T. going around, and even a song or two, if the bird was feeling especially lively.

This was one of those nights, where Phoenix and the villagers of the town were having their fun at the local tavern, when in steps a very well-dressed man, his boots making a loud click-clack across the wooden floor.  He put away the sword he held into its sheath, grabbing a few gold coins from his pocket and tossing them to the barkeeper.  The room seemed to fall into an uneasy quiet, as all eyes suddenly went to the strange man.

“Oh my gosh, Rom!”  Phoenix chirped, shifting to the humanoid form and jumping over tables to approach the privateer.  “It’s good to see you!”

“Likewise, Phoenix.  How have you been?”  Rom crossed his arms, unable to stop a smile from spreading on his face.  The room seemed to relax a bit when the people realized that the bird and the stranger were friends, resuming their previous chatter, soon becoming unaware of the mariners in the room.

“The Hawks stole the trident from me.”  Phoenix sighed, slipping her hand into her pocket and drawing out the shard that was found two weeks ago.  “I was ambushed, I tried my best to fight them off.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“Well, it is rather unfortunate, but I will do whatever it takes to recover it.”  Phoenix turned her head to face the door, the sight of a tiny baby sea turtle making its way inside the tavern catching her eye.  

“What’s-”  Rom watched Phoenix swoop down and gently pick up the little turtle before someone could step on it.  “... a turtle…?” 

“Yeah, it is about the time of year sea turtles hatch and begin making their way to the sea.  However, bright lights often confuse the little fellas, like this one.”  Phoenix dashed out of the tavern, watching her every step until she reached the shore.  She lowered her hands right up to the ocean’s edge, watching the tiny turtle shuffle its way into the water and disappear.

“The state of this beach is an eyesore.”  Rom walked up to where Phoenix kneeled, carrying a large mug of specially-imported rum.  
“It’s bad for the turtles, too.  If they were to try to eat all the garbage that’s here.”  

Rom snapped his attention to the sudden sound of a horse snorting in the distance, only to wave over to the man riding the unicorn along the beach.

“Fratt?  Hello there!”

“Oh, it’s the messy pirate.”  The man on the unicorn chuckled, sliding off the unicorn and approaching the pair.  “And the tiny fire birb!”

“Good to see you, Fratt.”  Phoenix smiled, standing up to greet the newcomer.

“This beach is a disaster.  This is clearly the work of you two pirates, throwing parties everywhere.”  Fratt surveyed the trash on the beach, equally amused and disappointed.

“You said it’s the sea turtle’s hatching season, right?”  Rom asked, picking up a wrapper from the sand.  “We should clean this beach up.  Help the sea turtles go in the right direction.”

“You read my mind!”  Phoenix exclaimed.

“Ooh, lemme give Atlae a call, see if they want to get in on this.”  Rom pulled out a smartphone, dialing a number rapidly on the phone, only to be beaten by Phoenix on her own phone.

“Heyo Atlae!”  She chirped enthusiastically.  “Wanna come help us clean up this beach?  I’ll send you the directions if you want!”

“Count us in!”  The voice on the other line responded, and very quickly came a dark green van, which came to a stop where the pavement ended, and out came a few guys, donning their tech like badges of pride.  Atlae walked up to the group first, with a gentle wave of his hand and a disgusted side-eye towards a clump of trash.

“Well, we better clean this up.”  Atlae kneeled down to pick up a tiny baby sea turtle that was trying to eat a plastic bottle cap.  “And soon.”

“Everyone, call in your forces, let’s clean this shore up!  We’ll split into teams, the more the merrier.”  Phoenix said, grabbing the conch shell and sounding it loudly.  Rom called his crew over with a sharp whistle, while Fratt mounted his unicorn, commanding the creature to rear up.  Pretty soon, the beach was filled with plenty of recruits.

“Sun’s coming up guys, put on sunscreen.”  Phoenix ordered, passing around a large bottle of sunscreen.  “This stuff is reef safe by the way, so we don’t harm the oceans more.  No Oxybenzone that kills corals.

And very quickly, everyone got to work, picking up trash and throwing it away in the daytime, and making sure sea turtles made it into the ocean rather than into trouble. 
 



The beach clean-up operation a massive success, Nakari, Phoenix, South Asians, Heaveria, and Swifty sailed back to the main harbor, where the SPSF headquarters stood proud, along with the other government buildings in The South Pacific.  The city itself was bustling, the heart of the region being there.  Many people gathered at the shipyards to watch the SPSF fleets arrive, cheering proudly as they watched everyone onboard disembark.  

The weather was sunny and warm as usual, as Phoenix stepped off the ship, looking around at the pristine oceans, abundant with sea life.  

“I am going to go see if I can figure anything out about the trident.”  Swifty stated, holding out his hand expectantly.  “I’ll need that shard from you.”

“Oh, sure.”  Phoenix nodded, dropping the trident fragment into the soldier’s hand.  Swifty swiftly made his way away from the harbor, off to the SPSF headquarters.

“I am going to check up on other things.  If you need me, give me a call.”  Nakari explained, walking off to the government buildings in the distance.  

“We’ll be around if you need us.”  South Asians and Heaveria stated in unison, each going their own separate ways, proud purpose in their steps.

Phoenix lingered just a little longer to stare into the waters proudly, hearing the lapping waves call to her more.  However, she was wise enough to realize that responding to the ocean’s call without the trident was a bad idea.  Instead, she decided to make her way to the Lampshade Bar and Grill, staring out into the ocean as she ate a sandwich, watching the dolphins jump as the sun started to set.  However, the looming clouds over the horizon became more and more apparent, as if it was building up in intensity.

To her surprise, The First Warden from The Grey Wardens showed up right next to Phoenix, snapping her out of her own admiration of the beauty of the ocean.

“Looks like a storm is brewing.”  He said, the thrill he felt invading his serious demeanor.  

“It’ll be a good idea to see what’s up.”  General Roavin approached the table, staring out at the growing storm.

“Agreed.”  Phoenix jumped up, flinging a bunch of drama llamas at the poor bartender and snatching a bottle of S.P.I.T. from the fridge as she left the Lampshade Bar and Grill, following Tim and Roavin out.

“Your… change… ma’am…”

“You don’t have the trident on you, put on a rain cloak.”  Roavin tossed a large plastic cloak to Phoenix, who slipped it on with a single move, and with another fluid movement, leaped aboard the ship.  She lowered the plank so the talented general could board, and once Roavin was on, raised the plank once again, raised the anchor, and off they went, into the heart of the storm.

The Grey Wardens charged forward with their friends from Lily, followed closely by the unicorn-riding powerhouse that is the Rejected Realms Army.  And looming in the background, was the sheer manpower of the Ten thousand Island Treaty Organization, ready to support whatever storm they would face.

The winds picked up quickly, and the waves proved more and more difficult to navigate.  Even shouting to each other for directions proved to be useless above the howling winds, and the sudden torrent of rain stinging with the sheer force alone, creating loud hissing noises as they hit Phoenix’s exposed humanoid skin.

“OVER THERE!”  Haku shouted at the top of his lungs, gesturing wildly over the distance, to where a group of whalers sat, seemingly fighting a kraken.  But, as they approached closer, it was clear that the kraken was working with the whalers, creating its storm to mask the whaler’s movements.  But, it was too late for whatever the whalers were up to.

Everyone quickly moved into position to take on the whalers and the kraken, flanking the enemy ship on all sides, hidden by the high waves and the torrential downpour.

Roavin tossed a large harpoon to Phoenix, grabbing the other one for himself as he carefully aimed at the enemy ship.  Phoenix did the same, doing her best to keep as much of herself under the cloak as possible despite the winds, the rain, and the crashing waves.

All of the sudden, the whalers shot their harpoons into the water.  And within a few seconds, the defenders stormed aboard the whaler’s ship, the TITO fleet taking the blunt of the whaler’s harpoon, allowing the Sei whale pod to escape safely into the depths.

The skirmish was brief, but the whalers suffered a few losses to their crew before they could beat the defenders back.  And once again, the chase was on, but the rest of the night was uneventful, and they went back home by the end.

The storm subsided, leaving behind a myriad of stars glittering in the night sky, signalling to everyone that it was time to go home.

“Everyone go to the Lampshade Bar and Grill on Government Island, S.P.I.T. is on me!”  Phoenix shouted, turning the ship around back to the harbor.