“The beach!” Fiona shouted as she skipped to the water. The waves gently splashed against her bare, blue legs as she shuddered from the sensation of wet sand pressing through her toes. Looking back, the princess could see the others were not as excited. They walked with various lacks of pep in their step onto the sandy landscape. Gwyn in particular looked as if he wanted to go back to bed. She wondered how he could sleep so much.

  Either way, the princess wasn’t about to let everyone else not have any fun either. She bent down and splashed at the Nonpareil as he came close. He wiped his deadpan face as the blue Needaimus on his shoulder laughed so hard it fell into the sand.

  “Ah, the sand, it’s getting in my joints!” Mem shouted while wiggling on the ground.

  “The other Needaimus are going to wait over in the shade. Why don’t you?” Fiona chirped. Mem rolled over, and made some comment about them not being any fun, or something, the blue girl didn’t listen, then hopped over to meet with the other mechanical creatures on a blanket she rolled out before the others arrived. Fiona beamed at Gwyn, who returned her stare with a blank face. “Oh, come on, you don’t look like you’re having any fun!” She cupped more water and threw it at Gwyn. This time he dodged just enough so that Harlan, who had just approached from behind, was hit. Rosemary, a few steps away, laughed so hard she seemed like she might fall over.

  The lizard girl wiped her face and sighed. “The others have picked us to get snacks from the hut that way,” she pointed down the beach where a small hut was wrapped around by a line of people. “Do you have a preference?”

  “Not at all!” Fiona said. Gwyn nodded in agreement. When they were gone, he spoke up.

  “She said they were picked, but I don’t recall anyone saying anything.”

  “Harlan’s just trying to get away from the crowd!” Fiona replied.

  “By waiting in a line?”

  “Zenototes are weird, you know. She probably doesn’t want to go swimming too, sadly.” Zenototes were not keen on getting in water, especially with other races around, as many people would make comments about them being amphibious. “They like to avoid those Xenotote stories and such, you know.”

  Gwyn looked like he didn’t know, but he didn’t press the issue. Instead, he looked over to where Odell and Cecilia had started pushing sand into a perimeter. Hal’s younger twin sisters were assisting the Hobusians, and the older sister half hid behind a tree to stare at them. The earthling didn’t seem to notice the elder sister but instead turned to the Bentulousian ladies. All three looked uncomfortable in the heat, yet Rheba led them in a march up and down the sand while keeping cadence for the other two to match.

  “The younger two look like they want to die,” Gwyn muttered softly. Fiona elbowed him in the side.

  “Never mind how they have fun, we are at the beach! And there are no sea monsters this time,” she spun around to check the wider ocean just to be sure before turning back to Gwyn, “let’s have some fun!”

  “And what kind of fun are we supposed to be having?” Gwyn asked.

  “What about swimming?”

  “Not in the mood.”

  “Collecting seashells?

  “You don’t need me to help with that.”

  Fiona frowned. The earthling was being especially difficult. She had half a mind to run off without him and have fun on her own. Only stopped by the nagging thought questioning if being alone would truly be fun for her. She scanned the shoreline, trying her best to pick out some sort of activity between all the other tourists. Purple eyes locked on a net setup for beachtoss, and she grinned.

  “How about something sporting then, look there is an open beachtoss court over there!”

  “No, I don’t….” Gwyn turned around as he spoke to follow where the blue princess pointed, and paused as he looked at the court. Fiona nodded to herself, even if someone from another world couldn’t resist a good sporting competition, of that she was sure. “So, this beachtoss, do you play two-player teams on either side of the net?”

  “Oh yes! It’s a pretty new sport too, I’m surprised you already knew!”

  “It’s just beach volleyball?”? Gwyn muttered.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, where did this sport come from?”

  Fiona laughed and waved her hand. “I don’t know the history of the sport. Anyway, do you want to play? You look like you’re interested. I’ll take that as a yes! Let me find us some opponents!”

  Fiona blasted across the sand before Gwyn could say no. Though she was sure she heard some complaint from him, he would never find out that she picked up on it. What she needed right away were two more players to battle. Odell and Cecilia were too tied up in forming walls from sand, Harlan and Rosemary still waited in a line, and Rheba and company would crush them too much. That only left Hal’s eldest sister as an available one in view. She stared daggers at Fiona from behind the tree, but the blue princess had seen worse in the castle.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Come, we’re going to play beachtoss!” she said without giving the green-haired girl a chance to reply.

  “What?” the sister muttered before blue hands grabbed her own and dragged her back to Gwyn.

  “Okay, so we have one, now if only we could find Hal….” Using a hand as a visor, Fiona scanned the crowd. “Where did he go?”

  “Probably off with that biaskylo girlfriend of his,” his sister spat while crossing her arms. “I wish he had better taste.”

  “Oohhh!” Fiona wasn’t sure what sound she made, but kept going as if nothing happened. “We’ll leave him alone then, wouldn’t want to ruin anything! But what to do about another player….”

  Of those who came, most were taken up. She could probably solo Gwyn and this green-haired girl, but was hoping to team up with the Nonpareil.

  Gwyn spoke rapidly, “Guess, we can’t play. That’s too bad, sorry she dragged you out here, Haliegh.”

  “Now hold on.” Fiona shot back, “We can’t go giving up that easily when we’re trying to have some fun!” She nudged Gwyn in the side. He groaned.

  “Now, we will just have to pull a stranger in if everyone else is too preoccupied….” She began to scan the crowd again.

  “Well, well,” a woman’s breathy voice came from behind, “imagine running into you here.” The blue princess whipped around to see who had walked up to Gwyn.

  Gwyn was sure Fiona was beyond adamant about playing the beach volleyball game no matter what. He, on the other hand, only held onto his bum arm in a display that the princess was too wrapped in her own world not to notice. While the earthling was sure mentioning it outright would stop the plans, he didn’t want to acknowledge it out loud either.

  As he mulled over the best way to get out of this situation, Fiona eagerly scanned the crowd again, and Haliegh looked a bit confused. A familiar face waved at him from down the beach. Kako, the writer he seemed to run into multiple times already, was crossing his path once again. He squinted his eyes as she approached and greeted him.

  “I know, crazy to run into you again?” Gwyn replied. “What brings you here, you don’t look like you came for swimming.” He waved at her clothes. The writer that looked somewhere between an Aqueenian and Hobusian laughed softly. She wore a sun dress, and had hair braided back.

  “You are dressed for it, but your expression doesn’t match very well.”

  “You!” Fiona chimed in. She pointed at Kako intensely. “You… I’ve seen you somewhere before….”

  “Yes, dear, I helped you fight the Japhinth.”

  “Ah!” Fiona smacked a hand on her palm. “I remember now the wit….” She glanced over at Haliegh, “the one with those cool Needaimus powers….”

  Kako’s magical prowess was almost given away by the princess with a loudmouth, but surprisingly she held it in. Though Gwyn wasn’t sure why it required careful treading, he took note not to say too much for his part.

  “Anyway,” the earthling chimed in, “what brings you here?” He wasn’t sure if he was being paranoid—much as he didn’t want to admit, that happened a lot lately—but Kako’s repeated appearances seemed suspicious at best. She winked as if his thoughts were plain as day.

  “Well, while this resort was doing some expansion, it dug up what is the first statue of Klanussul—one of the Ancients. I am a sort of collector of the original works, so I came to purchase it and arrange transport to my private quarters in Nun.”

  Gwyn had not completely wasted his time locked within his room, using some of it to read up on Resh, and recognized the classification of Ancients as something between a race or gods who lived on the planet before the modern races came to be. From what he could tell, they were an old people who had achieved divinity for the modern readers.

  “How can you be sure it’s the original?” Gwyn asked. A hand latched onto his shoulder, and green hair entered his periphery.

  “Yes, that would be a major discovery! The whole balance of the Zenotote Absolutism would be thrown into question too!” Haliegh spoke with eagerness, which surprised Gwyn but was not unwelcome. They locked eyes for a moment, and the green haired girl—red faced from what must have been too much sun—released his shoulder and shuffled a few steps away. She shook her head and eagerly stared at Kako, who only rubbed her chin with a grin.

  “Well,” the author replied in a confident tone. “I suppose you could say some of it is my speculation, but this territory was originally under the control of the Zenototes, and such an artifact would not be out of place.”

  “But this has always been neutral territory,” Haliegh replied. Gwyn was happy to have someone else who was just as interested, but was having trouble keeping up without stopping the conversation to ask more questions. Clearly, he had much more reading to do.

  “After the proto-Bent-Zeno war, it predates the first one you are familiar with by about a hundred years.”

  “I’ve never heard of this war.”

  Fiona, apparently having had enough, shouted, “Ah, are we just going to go back and forth about ancient history? What about the beachtoss game?” Gwyn wasn’t too upset with the princess; he was losing pace as well and would need time to get more details before they resumed at a later point.

  “Ah, what a lovely event!” Kako said with a grin.

  “Is this old lady going to play?” Haliegh asked. Kako laughed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude!”

  “Oh, no worries, I am very old after all. Enjoy your youth while you have it, young one. I do know someone who might be interested in joining, however.”

  From the waves just beyond the shore, an elf girl burst up, gasping for air and coughing. Fiona and Haliegh remained still, but the Nonpareil jumped before coming to his senses. Obviously, Kako wouldn’t have made her appear in front of everyone, but under the water was a bit much. Her blonde hair was a long mess, and to say she was bursting from the green bikini would have implied there was enough fabric to do so. The elf, Mina as Gwyn recalled, looked down at what was supposed to pass as her swimsuit and, with red face, sank neck deep into the water. Gwyn glared at Kako, who seemed to be amused in her own little world.

  “Mina, dear, I told you not to try holding your breath that long. You’ll have to forgive her, she’s very stupid, but would be an excellent addition to your game.”

  “You were right mis…. Ms. Kako,” the elf girl said from the water. She took a deep breath and trudged from the water to join the others, one arm crossing over her chest to grab her free arm. She stared at her feet more than the others. Gwyn wasn’t sure if to feel sympathy for what was supposed to be a fictional character, but he couldn’t help but do so.

  “Well!” Fiona added as she stepped between the other girls and Gwyn,” It looks like you two have your team! Let’s play!”

  Kako laughed and crossed her arms. Gwyn expected she was about to get some humorous writing material.