[Trade] Let's Go To The Beach Each

Quiet winter mornings on the beaches of Isla Pera were host to some of the most spiritual moments in Amaryllis' life. The silence was unnerving in other places, making her itch to fill the gap with bubbly chatter and laughter; but out here something about the brisk air and the low visibility made everything slow down. She felt like she could inhale lungfuls of the mist and it would cool the frantic buzzing in her chest. It was why she brought Skele here, even her friend's truly unsettling silence felt at home here. They had made their way down to the sand, past the rough pebble stone shores to find softer ground, before the sun had even risen. Not once along the journey had the reticent Theri spoken a single word, but now they were on this grey, still sand it felt like the correct thing to do. Amaryllis would still occasionally point something out, like an interesting bird or the emerging crabs and scallops from the ground, but she did so in a soft tone, like the atmosphere would break under the weight of her words.

Skele wasn't sure why the Shuno was making such an effort to befriend him. The pursuit of friendship had always ended in failure for him and he never felt he had made a great impression on any occasion their paths had crossed. And yet, she persisted. The strange Shuno kept inviting him on different adventures, to sample new foods or just to sit and talk with her doing most of the talking. He liked these beach trips most of all, she didn't talk much and he felt less pressure to respond. The less he spoke, the less he tended to upset people. Though even that didn't save him sometimes, sometimes just standing in place and looking at someone was enough to spark an antagonistic encounter. Amaryllis could be perturbed, she could be awkward, but she was never truly frightened of him or angry with him. It was a strange feeling and he feared relaxing too much into it in case he somehow managed to aggravate even the most patient creature he had ever met.

Amaryllis had been settled for a while now, pushing the grains of sand around with her tail as she watched the silent sea, when she heard the low, sonorous call of a Para come from further up the beach. The sound made her jolt up immediately and she could feel Skele's flinch as she did so. 

"I'm sorry, the sound caught me off guard," she apologised, before turning her gaze down the coast. She could see another figure on the beach, barely visible in the early morning mist that rolled in from the sea in thick waves. The waves of mist almost mimicked the water, pushing in and out, clearing just a moment before rushing back in and swallowing the figure in its cloudy embrace. She kept an eye on the figure but saw no sign that they were coming any closer, just standing there, maybe waiting for something. Either way if she wanted to see who it was, she would have to go to them.

"I suppose we have no choice," she hummed to herself and began to stand.

Amaryllis rose to her feet, a difficult task at the best of times for a Shuno but she seemed to struggle a little more with the soft sand slipping under her. Skele watched her closely as she moved, not sure what she had meant and keen to observe her following actions. Some sand still clung to her sides and he resisted the urge to brush it off her smooth skin, knowing he could accidentally cut her with his claws. Ninnan had often told him to keep his claws to himself whenever he had tried to help the older Theri with his clumsy forelimbs, there was more harm than good to be done with them. Skele made a conscious effort to keep his hands folded in front of him as the Shuno shook herself and looked around the beach. She seemed to be contemplating something beyond the horizon, like she was looking towards the other island perhaps. He tried to follow her eyeline but saw nothing but the shifting fog over the dark water. Instead, he looked back to Amaryllis and waited for her to move. 

Their walk was uneventful, but as the sand shifted to pebbles the sound of the Para's call began to weaken. This only spurred the Shuno on to move faster, not wanting the chance to meet this individual slip out of her grasp. As the mist shrank away, like it was being pushed aside by their advance, the figure of the Para became clearer. He was standing on his hind legs, taking deep breaths in and out until he had enough steam to call out again. Like they had heard, he was getting weaker with every call. That made sense, they had been hearing him calling out for at least an hour now and anyone would be running out of energy by then. His grey, thin coat held the remnants of sea spray, the droplets glinting in the slight rays they managed to catch between the low hanging clouds. It seemed that the mist had cleared enough that the Para could see them approaching, or perhaps heard them instead, as he moved to face them directly.

"Hail, friend!" Amaryllis called as she noticed, letting Skele hang back behind her in his usual shy fashion. Foggy squinted through the bleak morning to see a large Shunosaurus and a Theri that seemed to be nearly hunched in half behind her. 

"Foggy," he responded.

"Ah, it certainly is," Amaryllis nodded.

"No, I mean, that's my name," he clarified. "What are you two even doing out here on such a miserable morning?"

"Miserable? I could never find the sea miserable," Amaryllis sighed, completely missing the dark look that crossed the Para's face, "Such peace at the edge of the sand, such silence. You can find beauty in the dark out here.”

"Beauty," Foggy scoffed, "there's no beauty in an evil place like this." Amaryllis shot a concerned look towards Skele but her friend was still cowering behind her, not wanting to make direct contact with this Para. 

"I- um, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, I've never found the sea to be evil but I imagine you've found it different," she said softly.

"It took the love of my life from me," Foggy snapped, his thin covering of feathers bristling on end, "It took everything from me. Like some great monster we had no chance to fight back against. Driftwood was there and then... he wasn't"

"Oh, I'm so sorr-"

"It's... sometimes I can hear him," Foggy choked, bringing his sentence to a halt as he tried to catch his breath. Amaryllis raised her tail and lay the blunted club across his back as a gesture of reassurance. He shuddered, shook himself and took in a sharp breath to steady the trembling sobs that threatened to burst forward. "And I can't tell if it's him or a sound from those cursed waters mocking me. I want to stop calling back but... what if it's him? What if he calls and I don't answer? Is he looking for me like I'm looking for him? Is he dead? Swallowed up by this fucking monstrosity," he finished with a bellow, kicking the smooth pebbles into the water with all the force he could muster. His hooves hurt now, and he set them back down to hide what he was sure was blood welling up between the toes. 

Amaryllis let the silence sit for a while, listening to the waves come and go against the stones. It sounded like a great sigh every time, like something huge was exhaling its stress over the land in soft rhythmic breaths. Even if she tried to imagine it as the heavy breathing of a waiting predator she couldn't, and her heart ached for the loneliness Foggy must feel in both his loss and his inability to retreat to this peaceful place. 

"I really am sorry," she repeated, feeling him shrink away at the platitude, "No, genuinely I am. I've found a retreat here, away from the frantic life the islands can throw at you, it allows me to slow down and take life on my own terms. I sincerely hope you have somewhere like that, even if it isn't here."

"Could both be telling the truth?" Skele asked himself, not realising he had spoken out loud until two sets of eyes turned towards him and he shrank back.

"Yes, Skele, I think that could be the case," Amaryllis said slowly, trying to hide her joy at her typically mute friend speaking, "I think that might be the wisest thing I've heard in a long time." Foggy sniffed but he didn't disagree, feeling the fight leave him as he saw the massive Theri trying to disappear from view. It would feel too much like punching down to debate him in any meaningful way. He knew what the sea was, what cruelty it held, and if these two wanted to indulge in some hippy-ish 'we can all get along' nonsense he wouldn't be the one to shake them from their delusion. He hoped quietly that it wouldn't take losing a loved one to make them see the light. 

"I'm Amaryllis by the way," the big Shuno finally introduced herself, "This is Skele, we came for a quiet morning on the beach but we seem to have made a friend instead, how fortuitous!" Skele nodded slightly, still keeping Amaryllis between him and Foggy. "Would you like to join us for breakfast?"

"No, no, I should stay here. I need to keep calling," Foggy mumbled.

"Then we will bring some breakfast back to you," Amaryllis declared cheerfully, "Come along Skele, we'll be gathering for three now!" Foggy watched them walk away, occasionally slipping across the small, smooth stones that made up this stretch of the coastline. When they vanished into the mist he sighed, taking a deep breath and blowing through his crest, letting the sea swallow the sound of his bugle.