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Keralis met him at the ocean. A strange man meeting another strange man. How odd. The man was tangled in a net, it wrapped around his inhuman fins and ears. "Hello!" the man chirped.
Both of them made no sense. Both of them did not fit in to the box made by others. The tiny box that Keralis was pretty sure he couldn't even fit his hand into.
"Who are you?" The man asked.
"I'm not sure," Was Keralis's only reply, he shrugged. "You?"
"Someone," His reply made Keralis smile. Both of them didn't fit in yes, but at least they had each other.
Who know it would lead to this? Keralis wouldn't of, it was a sunny day. The sand glowed under the sun rays. Today was Friday. The afternoon to be exact. And to be honest? Keralis's favorite day.
Today was well- one day before the weekends (No more hailing heavy boxes- score!) and two the mer named Xb would come join him on the beach. Double score! A friend and no work. What could be better? Well a lot of things that included No work and Xb but still.
The sand beneath Keralis's feet crunched after each step. The pale dirty yellow turned darker the closer that he got to the ocean. He could taste the salt in the air. The familiar soothing sound of the waves crashing into the land filled the air.
"Keralis?" Calls the ocean- well it seemed like that, if he didn't know better he would of thought he was going crazy and was hallucinating the ocean being alive. No, that voice belonged to the man who was peeking out from the water. His beady eyes trailing Keralis's every moment.
"I'm here princess," Keralis replies, standing as close to the water as he could get before getting his socks wet. Believe him when he says this. Wet socks suck. Xb pulls the rest of himself out of the deep water, sitting the best he could with the massive tail of his in the shallow water.
"I haven't seen you in a week Keralis, hows it going?" Xb asks after a moment, dipping his head in question.
Keralis shrugs in reply, "work was boring," he dramatically leans himself back, "they forced me to work Princess. work! Do you believe that?"
Xb giggles, "Well yeah its a job." he gives Keralis an exasperated look, shaking his head teasingly.
"Oh!" Keralis sits himself straight, "And there was this new face today! Oh sweetface, he was so derpy and a bit shy," he waves one of his hands, "but still a new face!"
"You said they don't recruit new people often?"
"Well they said he was different! And he does seem different." Keralis leans closer to Xb, his voice dropping low, "Princess I think just maybe he is like us!" He couldn't control the little squeal that was in his voice due to excitement. Xb's eyes go wide at Keralis's words.
"Like us?" Xb whispers. Keralis nods leaning away again. Shaking his wet hand that he had dipped into the cold water off.
"But enough of that, what do you wanna do Princess?"
Xb shrugs in response, "Build a sandcastle?" He suggests after a moment. Keralis's eyes lighten after a moment, clasping his hands together.
"Of course who doesn't," Keralis smirks, pushing himself closer to Xb before grabbing some of the wet sand in his hand, "Sadly, I didn't bring any of my sandcastle supplies," he dramatically puts his head down.
"Mhm sure,' Xb just nods, giggling a bit, "Well luck for you Keralis I am an expert builder," He takes the offered wet sand from Keralis's hand and gently shapes it.
"Beautiful," Keralis gently prods the wet lump that Xb makes, "You would earn a reward for it!" Xb giggles again before gently throwing the sand back into the water. It gets swept away with the next wave. "Yeah forget the supplies so we can't really make any sand castles-"
"Its fine Keralis," Xb waves a hand dismissively, "building lumps of clay is way more fun," To empathsis his point he picks up another lump of sand and shapes it into a ball before tossing it far into the water. "I bet I can get it farther then you can,"
"No you can't,"
"Yes I can,"
"Watch!" Keralis picks up some sand and forms it into a seemly ball? It was more bumps and ridges then Xb's smoother ball, and tosses it towards the water. "It was farther," Xb squints his eyes, pulling himself away to shore to see where the sand landed.
"I'll admit it was," He reaches down into the still shallow water and picks up the lump of sand that Keralis threw, tossing it back towards him, who catches it.
Keralis looked down towards the lump of clay in his hand before smirking.
"Oh your on,"