by Shelby Hild
“You… saw it too?” Aiden asked. “Oomph.” The noise escaped his lips as Brayleigh jumped onto his back.
“Hey, you two,” she said, as she slid back into the water. Ladies Macy, Sarah, Trina, Irene, and Amber weren’t far behind. Lady Clara continued beyond them to swim into the deeper water. The rest of the women on the date stood on the beach. Most of them were taking off their clothing to reveal swimsuits underneath, but two just stood there with their hands blocking the sun above them.
A few cameramen had followed, their cameras in cases that Vivilyn assumed made them waterproof.
Prince Aiden smiled at Vivilyn once more, before shifting his attention to everyone.
He had been right. Now that all her clothing was soaked, Vivilyn wasn’t thinking about the wine stain on her back anymore.
Chapter 7
A little while later, Vivilyn nibbled on a cream cheese and cucumber finger sandwich provided for the women as she watched the birds fly overhead. They were just the normal white seagulls she’d seen pictures of in some of her father’s books. Every so often, a dark colored pelican dove into the water to presumably catch its lunch.
You saw it too. Vivilyn replayed what Prince Aiden had said when she pointed out the bird earlier. What did he mean by that? Of course she saw the bird. It was so large it would have been difficult to miss.
She glanced back towards the spot she’d seen it, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
The sun warmed her face so much as she stood by the tables of food, she wasn’t sure it wouldn’t burn her cheeks. Unlike Maia, Ryso, and even her brother, her skin never burned badly, but rather just turned a deep tan when she spent the day outside in the sun. The thought of her friends and family made her open her eyes as wide as she could. Last time she’d thought of them, she’d been thrown into a vision. She could not risk another one on this date.
Her eyes drifted toward the sun, not directly at it, but to its left and in the clear blue of the sky, she almost thought she saw a dark circle forming, like a reddish-brown moon.
Loud laughter peeled from behind her causing her to turn away from the sky. It was a laughter she only recognized vaguely, so it was either from someone she hadn't met yet, or had only met in passing. Thankfully there weren't too many women on the date so she'd been able to mostly figure out everyone's names. Did any of the women other than Sarah have issues remembering who was who?
“Lady Vivilyn,” Lady Irene called with a smile and a wave. The short, red-haired woman was easy to identify.
Vivilyn smiled and waved back as she finished her sandwich and set the now empty plate in a tray that held dirty dishes. She walked over to Irene at the same time Lady Clara and Lady Trina approached from the other direction.
“Sunscreen?” Clara asked as she squeezed some of the cream out of a tube. “It’s best to keep reapplying it. We do not want to get sunburnt.”
Although nobody said yes to her, Clara wiped a little bit of the sunscreen on the faces and shoulders of everyone around, including two of the cameramen.
“There,” she said as she closed the lid to the sunscreen and put it back in her small bag.
Laughter echoed across the beach again.
“Does anyone want to play some beach ball?” Trina asked.
“Ooooh, that would be fun!” Irene said, pushing her braid behind her. “Or we could make some sandcastles!”
“Yes,” Clara said excitedly. “I love building sandcastles.”
“Well, I’m gonna go play some ball. Wanna join, Vivilyn?”
“Thank you for the offer, but I think I’m going to try helping out with a sandcastle,” Vivilyn said. “I’ve never built one before. Is it hard?”
Trina shrugged and waved as she jogged over to one of the other small clusters of women.
“It’s not difficult at all,” Clara said to answer Vivilyn’s question. “We build them all the time during the midyear solstice along the river. They can be incredibly intricate and beautiful. But they can be simple as well.”
“I’ll go find some buckets,” Irene said. She ran off to where some of the black-clad workers stood. Vivilyn could help but cringe as she thought about how hot they had to be with their uniforms so dark.
“I’m glad I got this date,” Clara said as they started walking down the beach. “I’ve felt a bit lost without the water recently.”
“Where is Riverton?” Vivilyn asked. She was relatively familiar with the bigger provinces of the kingdom, but the smaller cities and towns within each of those all seemed to mix together.
“It’s on the edge of the Dragon’s Crown Mountains,” Clara said. She stopped near one of the larger dunes still close enough to the water for the sand to be wet from the ocean. “Situated directly in between the Dragon’s Horn Peaks.”
“Dragon’s Horn Peaks?” Vivilyn said. Unlike Riverton, she had heard of Dragon’s Horn Peaks. They were mentioned in Magnar’s history books, but Vivilyn couldn’t place why.
“They have the healing springs,” Irene said as she joined again. Hanging from her arms were eight different sized buckets, and in three of those buckets, little shovels rattled as Irene walked. “My Papa took Mama there before little Ilene was born. He said the springs saved both their lives.”
Vivilyn’s mind turned to a vision as Irene continued speaking. She saw a small group in a cavern on the edge of what appeared to be boiling water. Steam rose in the air around the people like a heavy fog early in the morning.
“I think we can get through at the other side,” she heard her own voice call over noise the water. “If we can get the water here to move through to them, I think it will provide enough energy to revive them.”
“You think?” Prince Ethan’s voice sounded harsh as he questioned what she’d said.
The vision went by so quickly, thankfully, by the time her mind returned to what was actually in front of her, she’d not missed much. Irene and Clara were still discussing Riverton.
“The healing springs and the night lake are two of the many things that bring people from all over to Riverton. If we don’t go there for the tour of the kingdom, then I’ll be shocked.”
For the next two hours, Vivilyn, Irene, and Clara worked to create an entire city of sand. Although it began as a simple castle, the more they worked on it together, the more it grew, until finally it was so elaborate and detailed that Vivilyn felt it could rival some of her best paintings.
“We should have it surrounded by a moat,” Clara said, as she took a step back to examine their work. “Not just for the castle either. The whole city can be surrounded.”
Vivilyn looked up from where she was adding small designs in the sand to symbolize a garden between the keep of the castle and the walls separating it from the rest of the city.
“We could have it connected to the dune like if the dune was a mountain,” Irene said excitedly as she went to where the city approached the dune. Clara started digging at the front of the city so Vivilyn moved to the other side of the dune.
Another quick vision flashed in her mind of a snow-covered city. It was a fortress connected to the mountain beside it, similar to what they were creating with their city of sand.
“Get them out!” A voice she didn’t recognize called in her mind before everything burst into flames. It wasn’t like the explosion where the wall had fallen on her, but it seemed like every stone used to create the main building of the keep spontaneously combusted.
“Oh my goodness,” Irene exclaimed, pulling Vivilyn out of the vision before it could even really begin. She straightened up as Irene continued, “Guys, I found something.”
Both Vivilyn and Clara moved next to her.
“Look here,” she said as she brushed gently next to the dune, revealing white spheres.
“Eggs?” Vivilyn said as she moved closer.
“Are they turtle eggs?” Clara asked, shifting in closer as well.
“They’re bigger than any turtle egg I’ve ever heard of,” Irene re
plied. Vivilyn had never seen any turtle eggs before, but these eggs were easily triple the size of a chicken’s egg. There were at least fifty in the hole.
Sand shifted above them on the dune and Vivilyn looked up in time to see something burrow in the sand. Looking at the eggs again, she reached a hand forward and lightly touched one. The shell was hard and warm. It was almost hot to the touch. Either it pulsed lightly under her fingers, or Vivilyn’s heart was beating heavier than she thought. In her mind, she could almost see little balls of fire spinning rapidly within each egg.
“Should we cover them back up?” Clara asked.
“I think so,” Irene responded hesitantly. Together the three of them covered the eggs thoroughly with the sand.
“We should mark the nest,” Clara said. “Make sure no one else bothers it.” Where Clara found the bright orange ribbon, Vivilyn didn’t know, but it was just long enough to mark the outline of the nest. She assumed one of the people wearing black had given it to her. They seemed to have everything that one of the women could even think about asking for. She took a few extra seconds to wonder about whether they might be able to provide her with a bunch of art supplies if she asked.
“I wonder what kind of turtles they will become,” Irene asked as the three of them backed away from their sand city and the nest.
“Lady Clara, Lady Irene, Lady Vivilyn,” Adontus yelled to them from a short distance away while waving for them to join the rest of the group. “Let’s take a still with all of you lovely ladies and the prince to mark the first date of the Trials!”
Her mind flashed her a picture of the Administrations Office in Treelyn. Beside the large red door with its gold trim, three stills of the first date hung. Underneath the stills, a paper with the headline Prince Aiden’s Enchanted Trials are Sizzling in the Sun sat. She vaguely remembered seeing things like that for Princess Elissa’s Trials. Each of the weekly papers had highlights of the Trials for the week, in case anyone had missed something on the screens. Knowing that was how people used to get all of their information about the Trials made Vivilyn a bit more thankful for living in a time where technology wasn’t solely hoarded by those of Rank.
How had the Trials been viewed before magic was eliminated? Vivilyn thought as the flash of the vision faded away.
“A still?” Clara complained loudly. “Now? We should have taken one right after we got off the rail! You know, when we still looked nice!”
They had all been there for the better part of the day. Between the water, the sun, and the wind, no one looked as fresh and put together as they did when they’d first arrived. Vivilyn herself had removed the brown shirt she’d worn and just had the light blue high-necked swim top on with her finally dry shorts.
A cameraman took a quick shot of the sandcastle-turned-city and followed them over to Prince Aiden and the other women.
Prince Aiden stood in the middle of the group guzzling fresh water out of a canteen as though he didn’t know when he’d get another sip. When he saw Vivilyn and the other two join the group he said something to one of the workers near him. Quickly, the worker brought them large canteens of water.
It was cold and fresh. Vivilyn couldn’t think of anything more refreshing. As the three of them drank up, they were placed in the middle of the group of women, right next to Prince Aiden.
“I haven’t seen much of you three,” the prince said as everyone else was being arranged. “What have you been up to?”
“We built this incredible sand city,” Irene said. “It’s a sandcastle but much bigger and much better. It has towers and a castle and warehouses.”
“Vivilyn even made a garden.” Clara jumped in.
“Well, it was Irene’s idea for the moat, an—” Vivilyn started to say.
“The eggs,” Irene said excitedly. “We found a nest of giant turtle eggs. There were so many eggs too! Like three hundred at least.”
“Three hundred giant turtle eggs?” Prince Aiden said as Adontus directed him to put his arms around Clara and Irene. His hand rested gently on the left side of Vivilyn’s back.
“There might not have been that many,” Clara said, shifting to an angle so that Trina could fit better between her and Macy.
“They were at least twice as big as my hand,” Irene said holding her hand out so everyone could see. “Probably bigger.”
Vivilyn couldn’t keep from smiling as Irene embellished the size of the eggs.
“It’s not the season for turtles,” Brayleigh said from the back of the group. “If you did find a nest, it is probably a dud. None of them will hatch.”
Prince Aiden looked over at Brayleigh before catching the disappointment evident on Irene’s face. He said, “Even if it is a dud nest, I’d still love to see it, along with this sand city you’ve built.”
“Quiet down, quiet down, everyone,” Adontus said as he moved beside the still machine. He stepped slightly to the side as the stilltaker took his place behind the machine.
“It has been a long, fun day,” Adontus stated. “Now freeze and say ‘beach date!’”
The whole group said “beach date” and smiled as the stills were taken. It felt like they stood there for an entire hour. In the distance, birds loudly shrieked. For a moment, Vivilyn’s smile faltered as the shrieks sounded like someone screaming.
No one else moved until the stilltaker stood straight again.
After another water break, Prince Aiden hopped up again as though he hadn’t spent the whole day out in the sun. The sun was just beginning to set.
“Let’s go look at your city,” he said, pulling Ladies Clara, Irene, and Vivilyn back to their feet. Then he looked to the other women.
He called to everyone, “I’ll be back. You all rest up and drink some water. The date isn’t over yet.”
The four of them, along with three cameramen and two people dressed in the all-black uniform, walked toward where the city had been created.
“That bird has the ribbon,” Clara yelled as a large orange and yellow bird flew into the distance and then dove into the sand, burying itself completely. Clara tried to run to where the bird dove into the sand, but she couldn’t find where it went in.
“Maybe it was too bright?” Irene suggested as they walked.
“We’ve passed it,” Vivilyn suggested quietly after a few more moments. They’d walked for longer than she remembered going initially. The pier was no longer in the distance, but instead practically right in front of them.
“No,” Irene said. “There’s no way we could have missed it.”
“She’s right,” Clara said, shaking her head. “We had to have passed it. We are way too close to the pier.”
“If it’s as big as you say,” Prince Aiden said with a raised eyebrow, “then how did we pass it?”
“Maybe the bird distracted us?” Vivilyn suggested.
They backtracked but to no avail. Even when they spread out, they could not find their sand city.
“I think this is part of the moat,” Irene said as she found an area that had been dug out. All around, though, the sand had been smoothed out. The only indication that perhaps it was where their city had been was bird tracks large enough for the orange and yellow bird to have made.
“There’s no way a bird could have done this,” Clara said. She shook her head in disbelief.
“Perhaps there was more than one?” Vivilyn suggested.
“We should return to the group,” Prince Aiden said. His voice had a slight edge to it as though he was concerned about something. Vivilyn followed his gaze to the next dune over, wondering if perhaps he had seen something.
Standing at the very top of the dune, head up high was the largest bird Vivilyn had ever seen. It seemed to be staring at them with its piercing black eyes. It was the color of flames dancing on the wind, including the small ribbon it held in its long beak like a worm. The same ribbon they’d used to designate where the nest was.
Loudly it shrieked and then dove into the sand, as though it was
saying that it had indeed destroyed their sand city and stolen the ribbon.
One bird could do that.
They all ran to the dune it had dived into.
As the other women attempted to dig the bird out, Vivilyn’s mind shifted into another vision.
Behind them, where she was relatively sure the eggs laid in the sand, small balls of fire rose up, creating a hole in the dune. It took her a moment to realize they were actually tiny versions of the large bird she’d just seen.
“I give up,” Irene said with a huff as she plopped backwards onto her butt. “The bird wins.”
Aiden had remained next to Vivilyn as Clara and Irene tried and failed to find the bird. As the two gave up, he reached both hands out and drew them back to their feet.
“We really should get back to everyone else for a bit,” he said. Vivilyn noticed his face seemed paler than it had been earlier, despite the extra red on his nose, cheeks, and forehead from being out in the sun the entire afternoon.
The rest of the evening went by quickly. Nothing interesting really stood out to Vivilyn until they had all collected on the pier for Prince Aiden’s promised surprise. In the distance, rising above the smooth stones near where they’d taken the group still, Vivilyn could almost see the giant bird glowing in the last of the light from the setting sun.
“I just don’t understand,” Irene said, shaking her head. She’d been unable to let the destruction of their city of sand go.
All the women stood along the railing on the pier as night fully set in. Complete darkness surrounded them except for the little red lights on all of the cameras.
“Maybe the bird didn’t like our city,” Clara said half laughing. “Besides, it was sand. It wouldn’t have lasted any way. They never do.”
Something loud boomed in the distance over the water, causing Vivilyn to jump and take a few steps away from the edge of the pier. In her mind she saw the smoke of more explosions build in front of her, but in front of her eyes different colors exploded in the sky in patterns. A few seconds after each boom, different colors filled the sky.
