A Routine “Break” 2

The sun was beginning its descent from the now colorful sky as it brought down together with it the light of day and its warmth. It was early in the afternoon and everyone had reached their destination, the Balar inn.

“Fuhaaaaaaa! Finally a cozy bed and the exotic smell of the sea! Hey, we’ve got some minutes left before we group with the others at the beach below, right?”

Auriel, Chie, and Sherice, all took a posture like they were sniffing the air at Rosa’s words. Their nostrils noticed a fresh, light, and salty smell, immediately making them feel like the ocean’s waves were touching their heads smoothly.

Everyone was more accustomed to rivers and lakes because Arcadion was full of them, but the sea wasn’t something they got to see and be a lot of times. So, the memories each one had about it were vividly strong.

“Exactly…”, Auriel said while closing her eyes, and after a brief pause, she continued.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the sea. It brings back some bittersweet memories.”

“Was it with your mom and dad, Auriel?”

“…”

Rosa rose and looked at Sherice with a face like telling her to not pursue the subject further.

Sherice, noticing it, tried to pick up where she left off as she was feeling the atmosphere getting heavier.

“I-I-I am sorry Auriel! I didn’t mean to pry into your matter, I was just reminiscing something relevant and I got carried away…”

“It’s ok. I haven’t discussed my stuff with you much, so maybe I should try and open up more and maybe lend you an ear to your story in the meantime.”

“Auriel…”

All of a sudden, a loud voice emerged from the small balcony the room had like it was barging into the girl’s conversation.

“Now, now! We are here to enjoy ourselves and get away from our issues for the first time in a while! Don’t bring the holiday mood doown🎶”

Everyone stared at Chie with a wry smile and nodded their head as they began to make preparations to exit their room to find the boys on the beach.

After some minutes passed, Rosa opened their room’s wooden door and then Sherice followed her suit.

Auriel was prepared to exit as well when she suddenly felt a gentle touch on her shoulder coming from behind her.

“And don’t worry about that. Everyone opens up in their own time and leisure. These things don’t need to forcefully happen; just go with the flow and when the time’s right, you will be able to speak from your heart.”

“Thank you, Chie…that means a lot.”

After Auriel’s words, Rosa’s voice, which was coming from below the staircase leading to the reception, covered the whole inn’s hall.

“Oooooiiii, what’s taking you so long? I can see from afar the boys waiting at the beach already. Chop chop!”

“The only thing chopped is going to be your tongue soon, Rosa🎶”, Chie answered while she started going down the stairs, making an almost demon-like face.

“You really scare me sometimes, Chie.”

Sherice could notice cold sweat slipping down from Rosa’s right side of her neck making her giggle at that sight.

The sand’s delicate touch was tingling everyone’s feet as it made its way to their sandals. Along with that, the sounds of the bubbling water swaying back and forth at the edge of the sea could be easily heard.

“Heyoooo, I hope we didn't make you wait long.”

Rosa was now seen jogging toward Zan’s and Shegnor’s positions while her ponytail swung left and right. She accompanied that look with a crimson bikini with the top side tied on a knot on her back.

Behind her, the rest of the girls followed along at a slower pace than her. Auriel was wearing a white-colored swimsuit, just enough to let her tender and pale skin show up in specific areas.

Sherice, on the other hand, wore a full-suit swimsuit of cobalt blue color that was covering her entirely. Chie, walking on Sherice’s left side, decided to go with an orange bikini, a straw hat, and a white translucent pareo that could be seen getting gently blown by the ocean’s breeze.

The boys were left astonished for a bit, and after a while, Zan took the first speech.

“You all look very beautiful. Nice choice!”

Shegnor then followed along immediately after Zan stopped talking while moving his head up and down like he was evaluating the sight and simultaneously agreeing with Zan's words.

“Uhm, Uhm! Zan is right! Bravo to the girls! So, are you ready to swim? I believe we had talked about a swimming competition on the train…”

Auriel, Sherice, Rosa, and Chie all looked at each other and smiled. Rosa then stepped forward in an effort to represent their thoughts.

“Thank you for your kind words, boys! We wanted you to like them since it took us some time to choose and pick them up! So, I guess it was worth our effort.”

Chie then moved her straw hat down with her right hand to cover the look in her eyes. Underneath that masked expression, everyone could see a wide smile being drawn.

“Sooo…And what is the prize for the winner of our swimming race again?🎶”

Everyone gulped down at Chie’s words since they all thought it might be too dangerous to let her decide, so they needed to be quick on proposing something less violent or teasing.

“T-the first one buys ice-creams for everyone?”, Sherice said in a shaky voice while her left hand was raised.

Everyone exaggeratedly nodded as if a catastrophe has just been averted. Chie, however, had more of a bumped-out kind of face which she accompanied with a click on her tongue.

“Tsch.”

“Soooo, since we are all on the same page now, let’s set some ground rules. Firstly — ”

At the moment Zan was trying to present everyone with the activity’s rules, a loud scream was heard at the far end of the beach’s left side. Everyone immediately switched to survival mode at that sound, as their eyes widened up and a shiver went from their head down to their spine.

Shegnor lifted his head and looked in the direction of the scream and commented on a very serious note.

“What…was that? Don’t tell me…”

“It shouldn’t be easy for them to be here…it’s such a far-out place.”

“Skip the swim for the moment, let’s go quickly to check it out. I believe the sound was coming from near the pine trees.”

Everyone agreed to Zan’s order-like instructions and run toward the viridescent area near the beach.

At that moment —

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

An incredibly loud vibration was cast at such volume that it let out a wave of energy, riling up in its path the specks of sand on the beach as well as the pine trees right across everyone.

“From the sound of it, this isn’t good.”, Chie added after using her right hand to protect her pupils from the dust in the air.

The same move was made by everyone. Auriel, having a complicated expression on her face, quickly followed Chie’s words as if complementing her.

“Regretters…”

Rosa stomped her leg on the soft but firm sand beneath her and continued.

“Shit. We just came for a little time off, but these bastards sure won’t let us have it.”

This is a side story featuring the main cast from my work-in-progress novel, "In The Ashes of Forgiveness", originally published on Medium.

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