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It was a bright and sunny morning, the sun was steadily climbing higher and higher above the horizon as the occasional fluffy white cloud drifted across the sky. A cool breeze was blowing, seagulls flying overhead as the ocean waves could be heard crashing against the shore.
A somewhat small ship could be seen anchored in the bay of a small island, uninhabited by anyone except for three individuals currently lounging on the beach at the edge of the island. There wasn’t much else there aside from a grassy field in the center along with a few trees.
The individuals on the beach weren’t moving around much at all, all of them just relaxing as they soaked in the warmth of the sun. One of them, a blond-haired man wearing a red navy uniform, was sitting in the sand, leaning back with his hands propping himself up as he stared up at the sky, watching the clouds. The second, a man with long dreads tied back in a ponytail and wearing fancy purple merchant’s clothes, was laying on his stomach with his head resting on his arms and his eyes closed, simply relaxing. The third man had brighter golden blond hair than the first man, and he was wearing white sailor’s clothes and a captain’s hat. He was sat criss-cross in the sand trying to build a sandcastle, though he was struggling without any tools to help him. All three of the men were simply enjoying themselves as they took a much needed break from sailing.
Not long after, loud splashing could suddenly be heard from the water, quickly approaching them. As Fail, the man building the sandcastle, looked up from his work, three large shapes could be seen moving quickly through the water towards them. When the shapes got close enough to be made out, Fail broke into a huge grin. He turned to his companions and called out to them.
“Skip! Jay! Wake up sleepyheads, they’re here!” Fail exclaimed. Jay, the man who had been sleeping, immediately opened his eyes and pushed himself upright, and Skip turned his gaze from the sky to the sea, both of them now smiling as well.
As the three of them watched, the mysterious shapes finally burst up from the water, sending more waves up the shore, one of which knocked over Fail’s sandcastle. As it turns out, the large shapes were three mers, all of which sported toothy grins as they spotted the humans on the sand.
The first mer, Rek, had short brown hair and blue ear fins, with a matching blue tail that was yellow at the bottom. The mer in the middle, Branzy, had a dark purple, slightly bioluminescent tail and dark purple ear fins, plus a slightly glowing purple lure poking out from the shock of white hair upon his head. Lastly, the final mer was Sand, who had light blue hair along with bright blue ear fins and tail.
Rek, Sand, and Branzy all made their way up the beach as far as they could, stopping once it was too shallow for them to swim, with Skip, Fail, and Jay coming to meet them at the water’s edge and they all collapsed into a pile of hugs and excited greetings.
“Sand! You made it this time!” Fail exclaimed in excitement, wrapping Sand in a tight hug.
Sand laughed and nodded. “Yeah! I felt so bad about missing the last time that I made sure I wouldn’t miss this one,” he said, awkwardly returning the hug before pulling away quickly, not as much of a fan of physical contact.
“Well we’re happy you’re here!” Fail said, backing away, “Now, do you wanna help me rebuild my sandcastle?”
“Sure,” Sand smiled, dragging himself further up the beach to where Fail’s sandcastle had stood, now sunken and collapsed from the waves made by their entrance.
Back in the water, the other four had already fallen into loud, cheerful conversation and joking around. Branzy used his tail to splash Skip after a particularly unfunny joke, and in retaliation Skip tackled him all the way back into the water. The two began to wrestle beneath the waves, Skip obviously losing since Branzy had the clear advantage in the situation as Rek and Jay watched on in amusement.
While Branzy and Skip bickered like an old married couple who needed relationship counseling, Rek and Jay were excitedly sharing stories about the adventures they had been on since the last time they had all met up like this. Rek talked about the time he and Branzy had gone on an expedition with a few of the other mers from their commune and found a huge sunken ship that they all explored, even showing off a small diamond bracelet he had snatched from a treasure chest. Jay told the story of the time he, Fail, and Skip had to escape from angry pirates after Skip stole something from them, the three of them running across an entire town before eventually losing them in an alleyway.
And so the hours passed, the sun passing its highest point and making its descent back down towards the horizon again as the six figures played under the sun and simply enjoyed each other’s company.
Fail and Sand built up the sandcastle to be even bigger and better than it was before, with the others coming over occasionally as well to add their own touches. Jay helped add a moat around the outside, while Branzy added a little drawbridge that he even made functional somehow. Rek added little flags on top of the towers made from sticks and seaweed and Skip drew a giant smiley face on the front above the drawbridge.
While the castle was being built, those who weren’t helping out were in the water play-fighting and splashing each other with the water. At one point, they split into teams of two, Branzy and Jay on one team and Rek and Skip on the other, and had an all out splash war, making as big of waves as they possibly could and trying to push each other under the water (while being careful not to send any waves towards the now very impressive sandcastle), laughing and shouting the whole time.
At dusk, they all finally took a break from playing in the water to dry off a bit further inland and eat something for dinner. Fail ran back to their boat and retrieved the food that they had packed, being careful not to drop any of it in the ocean as he made his way back over to the others. He handed everyone their food and a bottle of water to drink before settling down himself.
The six of them sat there in the grass, chatting quietly as they ate their food and watched the sun slowly set, setting the sky ablaze with beautiful reds and oranges and yellows and eventually fading to blues and purples as it finally disappeared below the waves.