Why should I worry: Why should I care

After hours of walking in the desert heat, Akbar flapped his wings to refresh everyone and then went his way towards the sky, the best vantage point to see if anything of interest was ahead. 

Wellen wiped the sweat of xeir brow and put a hand up to shade xeir eyes to better see if they could find something worth the trouble. Akbar's Kirin showed up beside xem holding a seemingly lost necklace of pearls. Wellen opened the bag they brought so it could let go of it and it landed with a slight noise.

Akbar huffed. The place was mostly dotted of sparse vegetation, but not much else. It wasn't the best environment for scavenging, especially as there were others willing to fight them for their finds. The desert was an unforgiving place. 

On the way, they had been met with dunes, dunes, and more dunes, along with snakes and occasionally other wild animals, as one traveling through the desert would.

Spying something out of the corner of his eye, Akbar glided towards it. On the ground again, he pressed closer and looked at...

...A carcass.
The Chiro quickly backed away from it, but not before a bone fell from it and was swept by his tail.

Wellen hesitated, then picked it up, deciding it would be useful enough at some point, though in such modern times, it wasn't that usual.

The Kirin however, was content with picking from grass and bushes. 

Akbar took to the sky again, this time met with hostile Gryphs. They surrounded him, flying around and scoffing at him.

"Didn't you know lad? This is our territory!"

"And OUR carcass down there."

Akbar sneezed, suddenly becoming a little anxious. "Is it? Sorry, we're going to leave." 

He flew down with urgency and, flying right behind Wellen's knees, made xem sit on his back and without needing any prompting, the Kirin galloped with them.

"You're right, it's better up here. Wellen commented. 

Akbar didn't want to even try to explain his little encounter, so he just smiled.
A while in the air did them good, while they scanned the vicinity for things they could bring home, perhaps craft things into.

Finally after a few minutes, Akbar landed. 

There wasn't really set things the trio was looking for, but there weren't many options either. The Kirin stopped in front of the human and xeir Chiro and set something down in front of them. 
A rope. Hm. Yeah, Wellen supposed. This could be useful. And so in the bag it went.

Akbar's feet twitched. He sniffed the ground and thought to dig. So with one of his feet and his wing claws, he went to work. Buried in the sand, a few things offered themselves to him. Baubles, a feather, fool's gold! 

A Mortmoth batted its wings at the Kirin, who snapped teeth at it. Akbar shook his head to signal to leave it alone. 

Besides, he looked up ahead. There was one more place they could go.

Once more, Wellen sat on the Kirin, who ran fast, and for once Akbar was the one to follow. There was a mountain ahead where they could look. 

Landing first, Akbar grabbed the Kirin in his paws and Wellen in his mouth as he scaled the mountain. 

Arrived at the top, they gasped. The trio had found a vein of ore. The Kirin walked up and licked it, while Akbar found a small chest that he immediately opened. 

Inside of it were multiple shiny gems. 

Wellen peered into it and picked two.

"This trip was definitely worth it." Xe said.