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Jester groaned, stretching out vir limbs and tail, before curling back in vir nest sleepily. Despite being used to Torini’s usual lively buzz outside, this morning everyone seemed to be especially noisy. Flicking zir ears in slight frustration, Jester blindly pawed around at the side of zir nest until his hand found his holophone, and grabbed it to check the time and notifications, squinting at the screen’s brightness.

Still way too early! Even in preparation for and during events like the current Twilight Carnival, it was unusually early for such hustle and bustle. Many lazier xeros like wyrm would still be asleep at this hour, peacefully snoozing away in their nests.

“So what’s up then?” Jester wondered, unlocking wyrms holophone and tapping the icon for the news app.

What it got met with instead of the usual columns of most recent topics was a full-screen popup, Alurizan letters big and bright on a nicely illustrated poster in dark blues – where do they even find these artists? – informing everybody about an urgent rescue mission. Tapping the popup led to an article, Rescue, Rehabilitate, Release, describing the plight of a species called koronoks inhabiting Jurupa Forest, with pictures of a few captured specimens, and of the lead person in charge of the rescue operation – one of the prototype xeros. It also encouraged those willing to contribute to the cause to join the team, or help in other ways, with several examples listed throughout.

Jester let out a heavy sigh, dropping zir holophone down on zir chest, and stared at the ceiling. No wonder everybody has been so raucous outside – things were probably a bit of a mess, there was bound to be chaos all over until the xeros figured out how to organize themselves. Ve couldn’t lie – the article made the mission sound quite tempting. The creatures were absolutely adorable – something Jester was pretty weak for; and very important to the environment – something xeros were very familiar with and educated on.

But what could ve do, really? Jester closed vir eyes in thought. Sure, ze was pretty agile and was good at climbing and crawling around – ze even wasn’t half bad at sneaking up without a sound. But he wasn’t really “sporty” enough to count as the ranger type, and he never even really left Torini – because, why would he? There’s enough here to live a fulfilling life, and Jester wasn’t feeling like leaving the comforts behind for some travel.

There seemed to be options of researching whatever is affecting the poor little creatures, examining them, or helping their treatment and rehabilitation – but Jester didn’t really have any fitting education to qualify for something so.. science-y? Medical?

It picked its holophone back up, scrolling down to check again the list of ways to volunteer, trying to see if there is anything at all ze could do. There certainly were a few options ze could be considered for – collecting mushrooms that would be used as bait or for medicine sounded like just the right amount of “fun enough” and “not too complicated”. But was wy ready just yet to leave Torini for somewhere wy’s never been to before? Jester bit vir lip anxiously, feeling vemself subconsciously pressing vir body into the nest – where he’s always safe. Perhaps if he had friends to go with, it wouldn’t be so intimidating – but he didn’t at this time, not really.

With that train of thought, Jester focused back on the list – there was also a campaign raising funds to support all of the ongoing operations, since none of these things are cheap even with all the volunteering forces behind it. Feeling a little guilty in the back of their mind, they tapped the link to it, following the instructions on how the donation process works. “This still helps,” Jester thought to themself in an attempt to hush the feeling of shame in the pit of their stomach for being so cowardly, “It is just as necessary as the other options, and if there’s anything I’ve got, it’s at least some spare prestige I can contribute.”

It pressed its thumb to the screen, confirming the transaction, and stared at the thank you message that popped up after. Maybe someday in the future he can try to do something more efficient for a cause.