Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick walked along the beach, barefoot and happy, sporting shorts and sunglasses. It was a good day, and feeling the hot sand between his toes was a good feeling. He would have liked to have actual beachwear, but they only sold stuff like that in certain markets, like for the pearl divers of Portal, or for other underwater professions. Beachwear for leisure didn’t really exist on Veird. ‘Shorts’ didn’t really exist, either, but getting a pair of those only required the sacrifice of some pants and an application of [Fabricate].

Jane wore a bikini made from an extra pair of her own clothes. She kicked the surf as she walked beside Erick. It was just the two of them, right now. Poi and Teressa were back in the shelter, sleeping inside a [Prismatic Ward], while a few Ophiel played in the dunes atop the shelter and kept a lookout. Other Ophiel flew high in the sky, or played in the surf beside Jane. One sat on Erick’s shoulder, twittering in contented violin sounds, while a pair watched over the Imaging, vigilant for the appearance of new blue dots. They watched for monsters and people, switching the map back and forth whenever they felt the need, which was every 5 minutes or so, apparently.

The map was only there as a normal precaution, but this place was rather empty of everything. Monsters or people, neither were here. It was nice. Even Yggdrasil’s eye had managed to find Erick again, though it had taken him a while to do so. Erick was glad that he hadn’t accidentally gotten out of range of the big guy, and had Yggdrasil pop like the Ophiel had, though he suspected that ‘getting too far from Yggdrasil’ was a feat that might be literally impossible.

Erick and Jane had walked a good kilometer down the beach, talking about nothing in particular; just enjoying each other’s company. Erick’s soul was slightly damaged, but nothing too bad. It was mostly healed, too, which was good. He wasn’t done making magic today.

And because of that thought, he turned the conversation toward magic, asking, “How’s your [Shadow Replication] working out?”

“A few problems to fix, yet. Failed to make it exactly how I wanted, but I can make it again tomorrow.” Jane said, “But since we’re talking about magic and it’s just you and me, Poi said that one of your spells made you float.” Jane walked closer, then matched his stride. “Said you looked like you were supporting yourself on a [Thunder Wave Aura]. When that spell dropped, he said he had to pull you out of the water and you almost drowned.”

“… Yeah. I probably shouldn’t have done that so close to the beach.” Erick asked, “Are you mad at me?”

“Yes,” Jane said, without anger. “You need to pick up the Quests for [Greater Treat Wounds] and [Regeneration]. That way, Ophiel can heal you the next time you almost kill yourself. By the way, you counted for 1 person out of the 5000 that I need to ‘rescue from death’ in order to get [Regeneration].”

She had said the words casually, but she was just hiding her hurt.

“Sorry,” Erick said.

“I love you, dad, but just like how I have my own life and that hurts you, I know you have your own life and that hurts me, too.” Jane looked away, saying, “I’m not… I’m not actually mad at you. It’s just a part of life to watch the people you love get hurt. I’m more mad at that fact, but you are the one hurting yourself, so there’s some obvious overlap.”

They walked together, down the beach, atop the wet part of the white sand. There was no separating line of broken shells between the dry part and the wet part, as there would have been back on Earth. Erick distinctly recalled from his time in Florida that there should have been a line of jumbled shells up on this beach, but this world was too young, and not many seashell-type animals had been made. That realization did not hit him as hard as realizing that he was hurting his daughter just by exploring this world, and that her plan would have visited that same hurt upon him.

And that there was no way to avoid that.

Jane matched her stride to Erick, and Erick did the same for her. She grabbed his hand, and he squeezed hers. Both of them smiled for a little while, ignoring the truth of reality. They walked hand in hand in the sun, across the sand. And then Jane broke away.

The wind blew warmth across the beach.

Soon enough, Erick broke the silence, asking, “What’s the difference between [Greater Treat Wounds] and [Regeneration]?”

Jane handed Erick a blue box.