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The sun beat down on the lively crowd below, and fine, rough sand particles made their way further and further onto the towels they had laid on it. Joyous children ran back and forth under their families' umbrellas and then back to the ocean.
An energetic Coco found herself shoveling these particles into a castle-shaped bucket at the edge of the water, where the sand was wet and firm. Her knees sunk into the muddy abyss, creating a dent where she rested. She often had to put her hair behind her ears as it kept falling out due to the length. She kept digging into the sand until her bucket was full. She hastily, yet precisely, flipped the bucket over, tapped the top of it with her shovel, and removed it, revealing a perfectly shaped and stable mini-castle.
“I finally did it without it falling apart!” Coco shouted in excitement.
Richeh and Tetia looked over at Coco who was half a yard from them, then down at her castle.
“Woah,” Tetia let out in awe. “How is it so nice?”
“I like it,” Richeh said.
“Oh, it’s not like I made it myself…” Coco suddenly looked down at what the two of them were making, which quickly distracted her from what she was going to originally say. “What the heck, guys?!”
To the left of her, in front of Tetia and Richeh, lay an immaculately flawless and polished castle, double the size of Coco’s.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” Richeh blankly used the side of her hand to continue shaping the outside walls of the castle into perfectly straight lines. Tetia eagerly grabbed a shell out of a bucket next to her, rinsed it off with a little water, and put it on top of the refined castle.
“Admire the beauty of the masterful and skillful Richeh, and amazing decorator Tetia!” Tetia stood up and stepped back in order to get a better look at their creation. “Wow, Richeh, we are so good!” She jumped back and forth behind Richeh.
“It looks so good…” Coco marveled.
“Says you, Coco! How did you get yours so nice alone?” Tetia looked over her shoulder at her.
“Well, it’s just the mold of the bucket… I thought I was doing really well just being able to hold it together, but I guess not.”
“What?!” Yelped Tetia. “That would have been so much easier!”
“But didn’t we have fun making this?” commented Richeh.
“True, but Coco! Yours still looks so good…”
The girls came to a silence whilst the water in front of them swooshed back and forth, into the vast sea and back out to the shore, until it started inching closer to the girls.
“Uhm, shouldn’t we move?” Richeh began to warn, but it was too late.
A small wave hit the girls and their castles. Tetia and Coco were pushed back, getting a punch of sand right into their faces. Richeh managed to get up in the nick of time.
“Our castles!” Tetia got up and brushed sand away from her eyes with the back of her hand, which was safe from impact. Coco did the same.
“Well, I guess it happens sometimes.” Coco winced, and then sighed. She then wiped herself off free of sand, cupping her hands in order to collect the water of the receding tide which she had to chase.
Qifrey and Agott watched the girls from the safety of their towels.
“Ouch,” Agott sympathized. Qifrey released a soft chuckle.
He wore swim shorts and a black T-shirt, which he refused to take off. Agott wore a dark shirt with a pair of shorts that spanned down her mid-leg. Usually when they went out to do things, she would spend the time studying. Unable to do that in such a large public area with outsiders, she instead resorted to people watching.
Qifrey kept his eyes on the girls the entire time, watching them play and laugh. He kept watch over their picnic basket and a small backpack filled with notepads and conjuring ink, making sure that nobody was able to snatch it. Typically, he would be out there with the girls–but this wasn’t a typical time.
He purposefully picked out a location next to a lifeguard tower to station, giving him a larger sense of safety for the girls if anything happened. Of course he would leap into action as well, but if it was possible that somebody else could get wet instead of him, he preferred that, especially since he was unable to use his spells. Well, he could if he wanted to. They all could, as they had already passed the second test. But Qifrey wanted the girls to go out and play like normal children, unscathed by the title of “witch,” which children around their age fawned over.
But that was unlikely. The girls barely went into the water, and if they did it was only up to their hips. Tetia alarmed Qifrey when she tried to go deeper, ignoring the danger on accident because of how excited she was to come. Richeh, without prompting, yelled at her to come back to the rest of them.
“Agott, why don’t you go over there with them?” Qifery suggested.
“If I go then my hair will get all messed up. It’s already hard enough to deal with,” she twirled a strand of her thick, curly hair with her index finger. She knew that Tetia had the same issue, but Tetia was Tetia. She had an endless amount of energy. Agott did not. She wanted to reserve every inch of energy she had to become better at magic, whether it was the magic she enjoyed or the fundamental magic she wanted to improve.
Qifrey smiled and then patted her head. Her head was, expectantly, very hot. She was obviously sweaty, as was he. They had been both frying in the harsh and oppressive sun for an hour now. Agott turned her head to look at him, seemingly surprised by this gesture.
“Your hair is already messed up,” he started, “go be with them.”
He patted her on the back, signaling her to get up and have fun with the girls. She stood up rather fast, as if she had wanted to. In the distance, she spotted the three girls looking out into the horizon.
As Agott walked off, he wished that Olly would have been able to come, especially on such a nice day. It would have been perfect company, he thought to himself. Instead, now he leans back on a bundle of their belongings watching over the girls.
Back at the shore, the defeated girls stood above the now piles of wet sand. The seashell that was once on top of Richeh and Tetias’ castle now goes back and forth with the tide.
“Our castle…” Tetia spoke under her breath, obviously upset. As the ocean approached the girl's feet, she leaned over to pick up her seashell, returning it to the bucket with the rest. Richeh assisted Tetia. Coco kicked what sand was still intact back to the Earth as her feet were getting buried deeper into the sand with each wave that passed.
“Doesn’t the water feel so good on your feet on such a hot day?” She remarked out of the blue.
“Yeah,” Richeh replied. She walked ahead until her knees vanished into the light blue, endless sea. From behind her, large splishing noises followed, until a large array of water came right for her back.
“Tetia!” Richeh shouted and looked behind her. “I thought we agreed to no splashing!"
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it!” She giggled.
“Then you will have to be punished!” Coco ran into the water and used her two hands to bring up a large amount of water directed straight at Tetia.
The girls burst into an explosion of infinite water moves, shutting their eyes and aimlessly kicking and splashing water around, hoping to hit someone.
From the entrance of the sea, Agott stood high like the castles that were once there. She slowly and sneakily approached where they were having their fight. From behind the girls with their sight impaired, she splattered a bucket full of water over their heads.
“Isn’t it better to do aerial attacks?” She joked.
The girls turned around towards the slightly deep and obviously smiling voice.
“Agott!” all of them screamed in unison. They hurried to meet with her.
“Woah, Agott is here!” Coco enthusiastically hugged her, leaving a trail of water drops that slowly dripped down Agott’s upper arms and back as she retreated.
“It’s so cold in the water…” Agott noted as she nonchalantly brushed off all of the comments about her sudden appearance.
“Well, wasn’t she planning to come into the water anyways? Look, she had her swimsuit on under her clothes!” Tetia exclaimed.
Agott looked away to her side, where a little girl was dipping her hair into the water. “It’s just good to come prepared,” she answered.
Agott dipped her entire body into the ocean in an attempt to get her body used to the temperature. Coco, noticing her discomfort, wondered why she would feel that way considering the scorching heat.
“Whatever! Now’s payback time,” Richeh stated, starting to hit water in the direction of Agott. Soon, all of the girls joined in on the assault against her.
“Guys…!” Agott barely managed to get out as a vast amount of salty seawater entered her mouth every time she dared to open it. In order to stay safe, she ran deeper into the water and ducked down under it.
“Hey, that’s totally against the rules!” Tetia giggled and pulled her up with one hand, using the other to give her a whiff of water straight into her face. Immediately upon her release, another wave of violence terrorized her.
“Okay, enough, I’m sorry! I just got here.” Agott pleaded through her laughter, her eyes starting to burn.
The girls looked at each other, laughed, and then gave a nod of approval, agreeing to her proposed truce. Coco half-stood in the water, her knees bent but spine straight. She ducked slightly more, her chin submerged, and opened her mouth in order to collect water. She then looked at Agott and released a fountain of water right at her.
“Coco! That’s gross!” Agott retaliated. “Hey… didn’t we just call a truce? Stop it!”
Coco laughed at Agott. “I used to do that all the time when I was little and I never got sick, even without a purification spell.”
The two of them dozed off into their own little world, as did Tetia and Richeh.
“Do you miss it…?” Agott asked hesitantly.
Coco stopped in her tracks. It wasn’t an unprompted question regarding where they were and how they got there. If Coco had never appeared, why would they ever come to this lousy beach with a bunch of “outsiders”?
“I mean, of course I do.” Coco moved strands of her hair away from her face. “That’s why I wanted to come back. When Master Qifrey suggested going, I was afraid. I was afraid that my grief would resurface, or that I wouldn’t be able to handle it. But that isn’t what happened. Instead, I’m just happy…”
“Happy?” She questioned.
“Yeah, I’m happy. I’m happy that I get to spend time with all of you. I’m happy that you guys have enjoyed the place I wanted to show you all. I’m happy that Master Qifrey, knowing how he is, didn’t hesitate at all to accommodate me here. I’m just so happy that I have so many great people in my life who are ready to support me.”
Agott couldn’t tell if she was wiping a tear or residual water away from her slightly sandy and wet face. She thought about what was said, and then replied diligently.
“Who wouldn’t like a place like this? It’s so pretty.” She looked back towards the sand. “Look, over there. It’s a bushel of flowers; I heard they only grow around this area. In Kalhn, they are used for special occasions due to their stunning nature. And over that way, you will be able to see the town glow behind the sunset. It’s really beautiful. I can’t wait to see it in the evening.”
“Because it’s an outsider area!” Coco blurted out.
“Well, yeah.” Agott tilted her head. “Obviously it is. If Master Qifrey would have taken us here a year ago, before you first came, we would have been outraged. Instead of an educational or purposeful trip, just taking us out to play in the sand with a bunch of outsiders… kind of disgraceful.”
Coco’s eyes widened as they listened to Agott, her worries fading away at every word she spoke.
“But you showed us that we can’t have that kind of narrow view on the world. Or you showed me, at least. It’s really pretty here. I like it a lot,” Agott admitted.
Coco took in a deep inhale and then a soft exhale. “That makes me really happy, Agott.” Coco’s eyes turned slightly blurry as she looked at Agott, knees deep in the water, behind a beautiful sky with birds flying over and the sun glistening, creating sparkles in the clear water.
Not far from them, Tetia and Richeh seemed to be heading back towards the sand. Coco stared at them stomping their way through the deep ocean before she took Agott's hand and pulled her the same direction they were going.
“Hey…!” Agott blushed, taken off guard.
Coco looked behind her, smiling.
“Let’s go eat! I’m sure Master Qifrey is starting to feel lonely all alone over there, too.”
And so they did. Tetia’s thick hair dripping all over the sandy towel as she tried to keep her sandwich balanced on her knee; Richeh trying to brush sand off her at any given moment (just for it to stick right back), hogging all of the chips; Coco trying to find a way to sit criss-cross, but still on the towel without obstructing anyone's comfort; and Agott happily leaning on Coco’s shoulder, waiting for her turn to pig in.
I’m really glad we came, Qifrey thought to himself, watching the girls have the time of their lives–without any magic. I mean, after Coco’s heartfelt confession, pouring out how she truly felt, how was he supposed to not take her back?