by Kate Tenbeth
Burly sat down and a minor sandstorm blew up around him. King stopped wheezing and started to cough. “Oi, mind what you’re doing, great big lump like you, blowing sand all over the place.”
“Sorry,” said Burly. “Er, would you like to have a late morning snack with us?” he asked. “We’ve got lots of food, you’re more than welcome to have some.”
King considered. “Maybe.”
“Are you hungry Grum? It’s probably about time you got out of the sun anyway - Mike mentioned something about getting burnt and you have to be careful - I really don’t want your mother angry with me.”
Grum grinned and threw down his spade. “She is pretty scary isn’t she? Mum in a million.”
“What have you got to eat?” King interrupted. “I have to be careful, I have a delicate stomach and can only eat the best type of food.”
Burly raised his eyebrows.
“Nah, you’ll love everything,” said Grum and picked King up.
“Stop! Stop!” commanded King but it was too late, Grum was running up the beach with King tucked under his arm like a rugby ball. Burly plodded behind them laughing.
When they got to the ice cream van Grum grabbed a mat, shook it and then placed King on it. “There you go,” he said. “You wait here, I’ll go get some grub.”
King stood as tall as he could waved his front claws. “How dare you carry me like that!” he shouted.
“He doesn’t mean being rough,” said Burly soothingly as he sat down on the mat next to King. “He just doesn’t think things through sometimes.”
“Youngsters,” muttered the crab using his claws to wipe some of the sand off his shell. “They’re all the same, think they own the beach, well they don’t, I do!”
“It seems quite deserted,” said Burly. “Do many other creatures like yourself live here?”
“Oh it can get quite busy sometimes,” said King. “It looks quiet but it isn’t, there’s stuff happening all the time. Birds are always hanging around trying to catch worms that live in the sand, turtles visit regularly and when they do there are thousands of them, there are lots of starfish and jellyfish that get washed up but I avoid the jellyfish. Been particularly busy though in recent days. There are more like you in the next cove, tramping about destroying things they don’t know about. Delicate ecosystem this beach is - delicate!”
Burly sat as still as stone. “You say there are more like us?”
“Oh yes, another green creature with no respect for his betters and two other things called humans.”
“Have you seen them?” asked Burly.
“No. I’ve only heard about them - we’ve got an alarm system here and anything new gets reported fast so we can deal with it. Most of the creatures hide, but I don’t.” King snapped his claws in a show of defiance. “Just let them come into my cove, I’ll sort them out.”
Grum staggered out of the van with a large bag of food and tipped it all out onto the mat. Burly was momentarily distracted by the sweet smell of chocolate chip cookie wafting through the air.
“Hey Burly, that’s your stuff,” said Grum. “I’ll go get mine.”
“Grum,” said Burly. “King says there’s someone else like you on the island.”
Grum stopped in his tracks. “What? You mean another groblin? Cool.... Can we go and say hello?”
“Hold on,” said Burly. “There are two humans as well, they could be hunters like the ones who shot me.” Burly rubbed his hindquarter as he remembered where the dart had hit him.
“Well, whatever they are they’d better not be hunting any relative of mine or they’ll be in trouble,” said Grum hotly. Like Burly, he did not have good memories of the hunters.
“Hmmm,” considered Burly. “Let’s just sit down quietly and think about what to do shall we? We came to have some peace and quiet, not to get involved in anything.”
“Maybe we should call Mike,” suggested Grum.
Burly chewed on a cookie and thought. The last time he’d promised to call Mike and hadn’t, he and Grum had got into a lot of trouble and had been chased by a policeman. He nodded briskly. “You’re right, we should call Mike, he’ll sort all this out without any problem.”
“MIKE!!” yelled Grum at the top of his voice.
King cringed. “Don’t shout so loud, I won’t be able to hear the latest updates on the alarm system.”
“We have to call our friend, he’s an angel, he’ll sort this all out,” said Burly.
“An angel? Oh really, and I’m Elvis,” King snapped back. “This is my beach and when you’re on my beach you’ll do as I say.”
Grum gave Burly a straight look. “MIKE!” he yelled again.
The air shimmered around them but there was no reply and then they heard a voice. “’ello, ‘ello - blimey, how does this thing work?” It was Tyre, Mike’s assistant.
“Hi Tyre,” said Burly. “Is Mike around?”
“Er Burly, ‘ello, Tyre ‘ere - sorry mate, Mike was ‘ere but his boss called ‘im in - some sort of problem.”
“Ah,” said Burly. “Well, listen, don’t worry.”
“You in trouble?” Tyre sounded concerned.
“Trouble? No, no, just checking in. Can you tell him we called though?”
“Yeah, will do. I’ll bet it’s nice there - nothin’ like a bit of sun to cheer you up.”
“It’s lovely here - are you coming along later with Mike? We’re having a beach party and everyone’s invited.”
“Yeah, I’m lookin’ forward to it. Listen gotta go - that deer with the sore throat is feeling better and keeps stealing the peanut butter, and both of the goats are playing up, but I’ll see you later and ‘appy birthday by the way... now, how does this thing turn off?”
“No idea,” said Burly who’d been talking randomly into the air. He looked at Grum who shook his head. “Er... bye... Tyre.”
Silence greeted him. “I think he figured it out,” said Grum after a few seconds.
“Well,” said Burly, “there’s nothing we can do. These groblins and humans are in another cove - as long as they leave us alone, that’s fine with me.”
“The alarm system we have here will tell us if they’re headed this way,” said King, “so we don’t have to worry.”
Burly was impressed. “That’s a very efficient system you have there.”
“Yeah, well, I’m starving. Let’s eat and forget about it all shall we?” suggested Grum.
“Good idea,” said Burly and they settled down for their late morning snack.
