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Rathe consists of only a single continent. In all, it only covered about 20% of the world, with the rest of it almost entirely water. The East and West sides of the continent were both flat coastline, but the North and South sides were rather different from each other. The Southern side was entirely frozen mountains that covered the entire coastline. The North side was raised up high from the ocean, steep cliffs that overlooked the water. Weather-wise, it would get rather cold during certain times of the year, but nowhere near as cold as the south.

The only place colder was a flat expanse of ice on the southernmost tip of the globe. In terms of landmass it was about a tenth the size of the main continent. Expeditions and satellites had already proven there were no inhabitants, not even animals living there. It was considered a strange unexplained phenomenon of this world, right alongside The Drain as one of the biggest scientific mysteries. The science was sound, since logically the coldest place on the planet would have ice. However, the opposite side of the world was just as cold, but there wasn’t a speck of ice to be found.

Aside from the main continent and the strange ice shelf, the only other place humans could set foot upon were a few small islands that bordered the continent, dotted along the sea just past the coastline. The majority of the islands could be found in the North-West, and were the only ones widely inhabited. These islands were the next destination on the Fiends journey, but their plans had to be delayed slightly.

According to the weather report, a massive storm was hitting some of the islands, and would make the waters severely choppy. The Tourist would be able to handle these waters without any risk, but each Fiend agreed that it was a voyage they’d rather not take. Instead, they decided to change course slightly, and hit a few more banks on the main continent before heading out to sea.

Their best efforts to impromptuly plan around this unforeseen event still left them with a day to kill before the waters would allow for smooth sailing. However, the storm had already passed from the mainland, and the coastline was mostly calm. As such, Kada had insisted that they take the day off and go to the beach, citing a specific private one she knew of where they wouldn’t be disturbed.

When Kada came out of the changing room, Drim was already setting things up on the sand near the water. Kada had bought a bunch of supplies for a proper day at the beach on their way. Currently, he was propping up an umbrella and had already set up two chairs. Drim’s swimwear was nothing surprising: black and green trunks with a minimalist floral pattern. It was so obviously something Drim would wear that Kada berated herself since she had been looking forward to seeing it.

“Y’know, this is the part where you’re supposed to compliment me on my swimsuit,” she proclaimed to Drim as she walked over to him. Drim looked her up and down, then just stared with a generally confused expression.

“Is that even a swimsuit?” he voiced his disbelief. Kada was wearing a blue and silver retro-styled swimsuit with horizontal stripes. It was still a tight fit, but left almost everything to the imagination, covering her entire torso and went down past her knees.

“Well, I wear swimsuits every day. So I thought I would mix it up,” she gave her reasoning.

“By the way, didn’t you say this was a secret beach that no one ever comes to?” Drim questioned her.

“Yup, I came here a lot for training, but I never saw a single other person,” Kada answered.

“Doesn’t the fact that there’s a dressing room completely disprove that, though?” Drim rebutted.

“Huh, I didn’t think about that at all,” Kada realized. “It definitely wasn’t here the last time I visited. It’s still really early in the season, though, so I doubt anyone will come. I imagine the water’s too cold for normal people.”

Phon came out of the dressing room a minute later, causing Drim to lean over to Kada and ask, “Am I supposed to compliment her on her swimsuit too? Are the rules different since she’s my sister?” Phon had on a purple bikini top with where the upper lining was frilled with a ribbon in the middle. Her bottom was a purple and black layered skirt. She was also wearing an open white hoodie which looked like something Kada would own.

Before Drim could make the decision on whether to compliment Phon or not, yelling came from the direction of the changing room. Xard erupted out and roared, “Where is she?! I know Kada did this!”

All eyes were immediately drawn to Xard’s lower half, and Kada had to cover her mouth from smirking too much. The longer she stared, the harder it became to not burst out laughing. All Xard was wearing was a red loincloth that matched his hair. While everyone was changing, Kada had snuck in using her curse, and swapped it out with Xard’s swimsuit, taking all of his other clothes with her as well.

However, this was not the only clothing option she had left him, and now she was curious. Since she was already in this deep, she figured she might as well go for the literal gold. She ran up to Xard, and before he could react, she flipped up the front of his loincloth. A glint of gold reflected the early morning sunlight into their eyes as Xard’s skimpy golden swim briefs were exposed for a second.

A chase then ensued. Xard was vigorously running after Kada with murder in his eyes until he finally tackled her into the sand. He was desperately trying to shove sand into Kada’s mouth until Drim came over and put a hand on his shoulder. “You know, that actually looks pretty good on you Xard,” Drim complimented him. “It really shows off your figure. It’s night and day compared to when you first joined us. I can tell you’ve been working hard. You shouldn’t feel bad about showing it off.”

Xard’s anger was immediately quelled, and it became obvious he no longer had any further intention of retaliating against Kada. However, a daunting look was shared between her and Phon. For the rest of the day, Xard would surely feel a twinge of jealousy being glared at him since he was the only one who received a proper compliment.

“Finally, let our day of beach fun commence!” Kada cheered after they finished setting up everything. “I want to do all the beach stuff: build a sandcastle, play ball, fish, nap, and everything else. If you hadn’t guessed, I really like the beach! First off, though, I’m going to swim to that island and back!” She pointed off in the distance at a barely visible speck of land then charged into the water.

The moment the crisp sea hit her skin, she felt liberated. It had been months since she’d gotten to swim in the ocean. Sure, she’d done lots of swimming in the past few months, but mostly through dirt or rubble. It wasn’t even close to being the same as the open ocean. Kada started moving her limbs and swam through the water, gracefully gliding across the blue. On land, she was definitely the weakest Fiend, and maybe even the slowest now since Xard and Phon had been training diligently. In the water, though, she couldn’t be matched. This was her domain, and no one could take it from her.

As she got further from the shore, the water started to get increasingly choppy, likely a remnant from the storm currently plaguing the outer islands. It was nothing Kada couldn’t handle, but she decided to dive under instead. She flipped down the goggles from her headband, and now she could even see clearly under the water. It was the first time she had properly seen the seafloor at this depth. She saw fish, coral, crustaceans, and a few other things she probably wishes she hadn’t.

It didn’t take her long to reach the island, and she didn’t even pause for a break. When she reached the shore, she flipped around and kicked off of it, zooming back to the mainland. It had taken her a little over twenty minutes to swim the lap, and there was a rather unexpected sight when she returned. Drim had made a large lilypad in the water, and he and Xard were wrestling on top of it. What was even more surprising, is that it was a close match.

Drim was clearly the stronger of the two, but Xard wasn’t giving up any ground. They were locked into each other, with Drim trying to push Xard off, but somehow, Xard was managing to keep both feet firm. If Drim did manage to get him closer to the edge, Xard would skirt around and regain his footing. This seemed like it would go on for a while, so Kada felt the overwhelming urge to intervene.

She slunk back down into the water, and swam to the bottom. She pushed off of the sea floor, and swam as fast as she could go back to the surface. Kada breached from the ocean, and flew over the two boys like a majestic dolphin, drenching them with water in the process. In flight, she had managed to accidentally grapple Drim with her foot, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the sea. Xard joined him a moment later, slipping on the freshly added water. “Looks like I win!” Kada yelled when she came up again. The two boys seemed to take it well as they clung to the lilypad and started to laugh.

“Huh, looks like we do have company after all,” Drim pointed out. Two guys in swim trunks had shown up on the beach.

“Are they crazy? This water would be freezing to them,” Xard questioned their sensibility.

“Oh, looks like they’re hitting on Phon,” Kada said in awe of their bravery. “I feel so bad… for them…”

Phon had simply been sitting on the beach blanket they’d laid out and not doing anything in particular. She ignored the two guys when they first approached her, but a second after the first pickup line came out of one of their mouths, both of their heads were buried firmly into the sand.

“Oh wow, they kind of look like a pair of ostrichroos like that,” Xard laughed again.

“Man, don’t mention ostrichroos,” Kada complained. “You’re gonna make me hungry. They were really tasty. I hope we run into more on the way home.”

“Oi, Phon,” Drim called out to her. “If you leave them like that they’ll suffocate and die. Torture them another way, please!”

“Fiiiine,” Phon called back with a sigh. She put her hands to her eyes and the two men vanished. The Fiends in the water had no idea where she sent them, but knowing her it was somewhere they wouldn’t want to be. When the ordeal was over with, Phon returned to sitting on the blanket with her arms wrapped around her knees.

“Hey guys, what’s Phon been up to this whole time?” Kada asked.

“Uhh, pretty much that,” Xard answered.

“Hmm… she’s not doing anything… but she’s also not relaxing… Something’s off,” Kada speculated. “I’ll get to the bottom of it!” Kada swam to shore, and immediately marched up to Phon. She got rather close to Phon, inspecting her from every angle.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Phon demanded an explanation, clearly uncomfortable with this invasion of personal space.

Hmm, I see… it’s as I thought. She’s not sitting here doing nothing. She’s sulking… and I think I know why. Kada reached down, pulled off Phon’s jacket, grabbed her by the waist, and hoisted her up off the ground.

“Put me down! You’re wet and smell gross!” Phon tried to resist, hitting Kada’s back.

Kada ignored the blunt pain and planted one of her feet firmly into the sand. She spun around on her heel several times, until Phon was starting to slip away from centrifugal force. Now that Kada had speed, once she was facing the water again, she let go. Phon went soaring through the air, and Kada raised a hand above her eyes to block the sun so she could see just how far Phon would go.

Phon flew right past the two boys who were still floating in the water, and plummeted into the sea. A second later, her head popped back up, but she was clearly in distress. She was flailing her arms wildly, sinking under the water and resubmerging several times. A moment later, Phon reappeared on the beach with her hands covering her eyes. When she removed them, her eyes weren’t angry like Kada expected. They seemed rather upset instead. “Damn it, now my secret’s out…” Phon nearly sobbed.

“Well, it was pretty obvious you couldn’t swim once I stopped and thought about it,” Kada explained.

“So your first thought was to try and drown me?!” Phon shouted back in disbelief. A grimace then slid onto her face. “I can’t bring myself to turn around, how disappointed are Drim’s eyes?”

Kada glanced around Phon to look at Drim who was absolutely glaring at Phon. “Oof… uhhh, it’s not great. If I had to say… It’s around the level of a parent who just found out their child dropped out of college and spent all their money on drugs, and probably got roped into a pyramid scheme or a cult too. Oh, and they almost assuredly found out through a phone call from the police.”

Phon dropped to her knees, and looked like all life had been drained from her. After a few moments of self pity, she finally looked back to Kada. “I really, really hate to ask this from you… but will you teach me how to swim?”

An hour later, Phon managed to swim a full length entirely on her own. It was a stark contrast to the beginning where she had to hold onto Kada’s hands while kicking her legs with Kada having to keep reminding her to put her face under the water. This wasn’t how Kada had been expecting to spend her day at the beach, but it was enjoyable. “Nice job!” Kada clapped her hands together in full support when Phon returned to her.

“I hate to admit it, but you’re a pretty good teacher,” Phon said as she practiced floating properly.

“Well, I used to be a lifeguard, y’know,” Kada reminded her. “Teaching people to swim properly was literally part of my job. Alright, if you can manage to tread water for about ten minutes, that should basically cover all you need to at least survive. The rest will just come down to practice. I’m gonna go pester Drim to set up a net so we can use it to play volleyball once you’re done. Call me if you’re in mortal peril.”

Kada swam back to shore as she dwelled on what had just transpired. It would be nice if this brought her and Phon a little closer together. Ahvra wasn’t exactly easy to talk to, though Kada hadn’t had many opportunities, and Mallea kept their relationship strictly professional. Kada missed having a gal pal, and sadly, Phon was her best chance at that for the foreseeable future. Though, she didn’t exactly have high hopes.

Phon joined the others on the beach soon after. Her legs were a bit wobbly from that intense lesson, as to be expected. They let her rest for a few minutes and then all gathered on the makeshift court Kada had made. All four of them stared at each other fiercely. There had been no spoken agreement, but it was blatantly obvious this was going to be an all out match. It was Phon and Kada vs Drim and Xard. None of them exactly cared about winning for their gender, but it still somehow raised the tension just by being a factor.

Xard tossed the ball into the air, and jumped up after it. He raised his hand, preparing to spike it, and struck it at full force. The ball then popped like a balloon, and slowly and sadly fluttered to the ground. The gang all stared at the wrecked ball. Somehow, they were surprised, but at the same time gave off the feeling that this was to be anticipated. “Uhh, I have a blow up beach ball we could use,” Kada told them.

“No… one murder is enough for today.” Drim stopped her.

“Alright, well it seems like a good time to go get started on some food,” Phon announced to them and headed back over to their spot. They had set up a portable grill ahead of time and had bought the ingredients for a barbecue on their way over.

“Oh, the rest of us should go fish then!” Kada suggested. “Maybe we can catch something yummy.” Drim created a pier for them so they could get out further into the water to fish. They each tried a different method to increase their chances of getting results. Drim had a standard fishing pole, and seemed to be trying his best to not doze off. Xard had a piece of meat tied to a string, and was dipping it into the water. Kada was swimming around below the surface, trying to corral something into a net.

The first to achieve success was Xard. He pulled the string back up slowly once he felt resistance. “Oh, you caught a crabster,” Drim informed him. “A cross between a crab and lobster, pretty boring as mutated creatures go.”

“I can’t tell if it’s a fat lobster, or a long crab,” Xard debated as he stared at it. It had a mix of attributes from both, but it essentially was just a basic crustacean with the length of a lobster and the width of a crab. It was on the skinnier side, closer to being a crab in that regard.

“I don’t care what it is, does it taste good?!” Kada demanded to know.

“Yeah, I’d say they’re pretty good,” Drim responded. “They’re even safe for humans, though I doubt many would try eating one. Also, they’re really easy to prepare.” Drim took the creature from Xard, and poked it with a long needle to kill it instantly. He then ribbed off the back of its shell, exposing a pink meat inside. Drim then grabbed the meat firmly, and pulled hard. The entirety of the meat was pulled out in one complete chunk, including the meat from every limb. “Alright, I’ll go give this to Phon to cook.”

In the end, they caught around two dozen various sea creatures. It was plenty of food for both lunch and dinner, leaving enough for leftovers as well. After their meal, Kada spent a brief amount of time tanning before realizing how pointless that was. She then spent most of the afternoon trying to build a sand castle, but eventually got fed up with the limitedness of her tools. “How am I supposed to make great art with only a bucket and a shovel?!” she whined before kicking over her mediocre creation.

Kada shoved both of her hands deep into the sand, which then turned into a brown pool. The liquid rose up, and began to twist and turn in the air, molding into something new entirely. A few minutes later, she had a perfect replica of a casino they had robbed in Shindig. Kada couldn’t help but admire her work after, not even knowing herself that she was now capable of using her curse to this extent.

That night, the four of them laid under the stars after having set up camp on the beach. They had decided to just stay there in tents instead of heading back into town to get a hotel or sleeping in The Tourist. This would make it easier to depart for the islands in the morning since they could embark straight from where they were. “Our journey’s almost over, huh?” Kada murmured somberly.

“Yeah, just about a week to go,” Drim responded.

“While this was definitely a heavy divergence from our initial objectives, I’ll admit… There have been times when I’ve enjoyed it,” Phon confessed to them.

“I’m just looking forward to sleeping in a good bed again,” Xard remarked. “And by that I mean Drim’s bed. I call first dibs when we get back.”

“Hey, you just can’t call dibs like that!” Kada disputed. “I’ll fight you over it! We’ll have a… a sleep-off! Yeah! See who really deserves it more.”

“Well, that bed is pretty big. Just once I’ll allow us all to sleep on it together when we get back,” Phon put forth, not doing a good job of hiding her own longing.

“Actually, I asked Mallea to make one for each of you as well,” Drim let them know. “She said they’d be done by the time we got back.”

“Hahhh…” Phon sighed. “We’ll never get anything done…”

Kada lifted her hand towards the stars and conveyed whimsically, “Since we’ve already seen everything in this world, maybe someday we can explore what’s up there too.” The other three chuckled slightly at this notion.

“Yeah, that would be interesting,” Drim agreed. “But don’t worry Kada. We’ve journeyed to almost everywhere on Rathe, but there is still so much more to see. I’ve traveled the world before, but I’d say this time around I didn’t repeat a single step. And I’m glad I’ve had you guys with me, it’s been all the better for it.

Heaving sounds could then be heard from Drim. “Guhh, that was way too sweet. I’m going to vomit… I mean, I’m going to make Drim vomit,” Eleen gurgled.

“Wow, way to ruin the moment, mother,” Phon slapped some sand over at Drim. “Even I was getting into it.”

 

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