Playing at the beach

[Falkner van der Sluijs]

The weather has begun to get warmer, and with it comes vacationers to the beach. Few take their trips so early, leaving them plenty of space on the sand and in the water.

A small boy is walking at the water's edge, searching for treasures. He is startled when a swnndyrrr man emerges suddenly from the bordering trees, slightly panicked and searching for something. As he gets closer to the waves, he turns, holding his arm out at full length with his thumb sticking out, measuring distance and angle. At the place he thinks his treasure is located, he drops to his knees and closes his eyes.

The boy walks up to him, "Hey mister, whatcha doin'?" The man doesn't seem to notice. The boy gives a light tug on one of the mans floppy, fox-like ears, causing him to jump and yelp.

"Woah! What do you think you're doing?" the man asked.

"I was just wondering what you were doing here in the sand all alone," the boy explain, tilting his head to the side inquisitively.

"Kid, I'm busy looking for something, so don't bother me," the man said, waving the boy off.

"Did you lose something?" The boy really wanted to know.

"No, now will you leave me alone?", he yelled, trying to have a little peace.

"But I wanna know!" the boy pleaded.

The man's frustration grew. "Look! Kid! If I show you, will you go away? Go stand over there!"

It was a tempting bargain. "Ok, but no boring stuffs!" He went a few meters up the beach and stood on a rock to get a better look.

The man dropped back down to his knees and closed his eyes, breathing very deeply. After a few breaths, he put his hands down into the sand, until his arms were buried nearly up to his elbows. With one more deep breath, the sand around him rose up, and began swirling around him like a great twister of silica. The boy stared in wonder, eyes wide, both excited and terrified at once. As the cloud of sand subsided, there was left only a hole in the sand where the man had been. The boy looked around, and then looked in the hole, but saw no more of the swnndyrrr.

The boy ran back to his mother, who was sunbathing, and developing a crisp, golden tan. He tugged on her arm, "Mommy! Mommy! There was a fox man! And he made a sand tornado! And he dissappeared in a hole in the beach! And it was so cool!"

"That's nice, honey. Now let mommy lay down in the sun while you go play more make believe."

"But it was real! I saw it!"

"That's nice, honey."

[Icebreaker]

LOL, FURRY

[Falkner van der Sluijs]

Nice to see you still have a crush on me, Isaac. I would have thought we'd be over this by now, hmm?

[Icebreaker]

<3

[Falkner van der Sluijs]

Falkner leaned back against a tree at the edge of the grove of trees by the beach, panting and holding a small wooden box. That bit of shifting took a lot out of him, but it seemed to have gotten the kid go away. This was important business in which children had no business.

He let out a great sigh and walked back inland.

He made his way through the resort town of Tasherrin, a place founded by the local swnndyrrr population, but which quickly became a popular vacation spot due to it's relatively southern location compared to the rest of the county, and returned to the hotel in which he was staying. It was a very simple place, but he didn't intend to stay very long.

In his room, he closed the shades on the windows and dead-bolted the door, then pulled a note from his pocket, which read:

Come to find a lock and key, the lock in the south and the key in the north, three degrees at arms length from his trees on the shore.

He was given the note one night by an oddly hued fox. He had recently been fired from his job, and decided a short trip would do him good anyway. Hopefully it would lead to a fortune or something.

He had found the "lock", the box which was buried in the sand. He decided there were ways to open a lock without a key, and so was preparing to saw the wooden box open.

He was shaking. Who knew what lie inside? This could make him rich! He placed the saw on the long side of the box. He pulled back, letting out a horrible sound as the metal scraped against something otherworldly. Falkner dropped the saw and covered his ears. They rang terribly for ten minutes before silence fell again.

"Apparently I do need a key."

[Erik Mortis]

Yay! Magical boxes!

[Falkner van der Sluijs]

Falkner stood on a rocky northern Asantelian beach. The air was colder here, despite spring turning into summer. He performed the same ritual as before, holding his thumb at arms length. Luckily, no one was around to disturb him this time.

He found the spot and dropped to his knees. Shifting the rocks around his hands, he reached into the earth.

Unlike last time, however, there was no treasure hidden underneath the beach. "What the hell? Where's my key! This is exactly the spot!" He stood again, checking and rechecking his distance and angle. "I don't understand, who could have gotten to it before me?" He left the beach, and leaned upon a linden tree, the same one he had used to measure his position, and grumbled. "How the hell am I supposed to open that damn box if I can't find the key and the saw causes all that racket to no goal?"

"Can I help you?" A police officer had approached, inquiring about the swnndyrrr's intentions. The beaches were oft empty here, so a strange man digging holes was quite out of the ordinary.

"I'm just looking for something I lost. I thought it would be out in the rocks, but I was mistaken."

"Hmm...yes, I see...You wouldn't happen to be related to one Santelran Rottsaa, would you?"

"Why would you ask such a thing?"

"We saw a oddly coloured fox a few days ago, wandering through our streets. According to a local of your...ahem...ilk, it has strong connections to the family that ruled these lands many years ago."

"Aye, I am of the same family, what of it?"

"Follow me," the officer ordered. He walked a few meters parallel to the sea, then looked up into another linden tree. Pointing into the main fork of the tree, he said, "There. You have something to do with that then."

His eyes following the officers finger, Falkner peered upwards to see a key firmly situated between the branches. "MY KEY!"

"So it is yours?"

"Well...kinda, I guess."

"That's a shame then, since no one can removed the key from that tree without damaging it, and damaging trees on township public property is against the law."

"No kidding...Well I guess I'll be off then. There are other ways of opening locks." Falkner jogged back to his room at the inn.

At 2AM, he gathered all his things, the box included, and sneaked out of this building, and made his way to the tree.

Noticing no one around, he began his work. "Guess there's no other way of doing this," he muttered to himself as he began to shift the tree. I turned out to be quite straining, but after a few seconds' effort, the great branch came crashing down, releasing the key.

Falkner could already hear people approaching to investigate, so he grabbed the key and bolted down the street. He hadn't run more than ten meters before he stumbled, landing flat on his face. He looked up, and was peering into the eyes of the officer he had met only hours earlier.