Glinty Jay

The Glinty Jay is a bird native to the Northeastern continent, mutated by Earth Magic. It commonly feeds on seed and large nuts, but is opportunistic, and will feed on eggs from other bird nests, and even on other birds. However, the food that is this Jay’s favourite is gems and ores, which it is unable to access on its own. To do so, it enlists the help of others.

Unique Methods of Finding Food

Like many creatures mutated by Earth magic, the Glinty Jay is able to detect mineral and ore deposits through its magic. Doing so while flying through the air, the Jay is able to find the deposits, but being so small and limited in its ability to use Earth magic for any physical acts, it instead attracts the attention of larger creatures. This is generally a local stone-hog, a larger beast covered in rock formations capable of using its powers to shatter the ground and create crevices to expose the formations of ore. Which it too loves to consume.

Sitting on a low branch, the Jay provides a call of three sharp chirps, before flying to another branch, watching to make sure that the hog is following it. If it does, the Jay slowly moves through the trees, guiding the hog towards the located ores. Once it has reached the location, the Jay provides a short whistle sound, signalling to its compatriot that they have reached their destination. The hog then begins to smash through the ground, boring deep. More often than not it is a large group of hogs that end up following the Jay, making the work faster. Once they have smashed enough ore or minerals to small enough pieces that the bird is able to consume, it swoops in, grabbing what it can, and leaving the rest of the larger amounts to the hogs. In this way, the relationship between the hogs and the Glinty Jay is considered to be symbiotic.

Working with Elementals

Of course, the Jay is capable of providing its signals to other species, and is happy to do so if said species can show they can uncover the minerals it is looking to eat. This includes Elementals, especially miners looking for pockets of ores, or enigma crystals. While Earth Elementals are capable of doing the same searching as the Jay, most miners happily take the Jay’s signals to better find what they are trying to find. For the cost of a couple pieces of scrap, the Jay will look much further, and faster, than a single person simply on foot is able to.

Appearance

The Glinty Jay is a black bird with almost sparkling purple feathers on its wings and its body. They have a triangular crest on their heads that they can raise and flatten to signal their mood.