Out of This World Gaming [~ read description]

Chapter 8: Fishing

"Five frozen shops on the street, five frozen shops! Go in one, stab the ground, six frozen shops on the street~" Iris sang happily as she carried her Frost Cutlass on her back while Clover pulled a wagon. It carried a couple of fishing poles and a box of live worms. Joining them were paper bags of snacks consisting of chips, plastic-boxed cupcakes, bagged cookies, and so on. 

"Oh, I think I see the beach!" Iris giggled, giddily hopping off of the stash of snacks and fish bait and ran upon the sand. 

"Hey, be careful! Hot sand is dangerous on any skin!" Clover shouted, trying to warn her as she picked up the pace. 

Iris, however, wasn't paying her guardian any attention, but rather decided to keep haphazardly running towards the oceanfront and jumped into the sand. Clover kept her distance between her and the grainy material, taking the time to swap her running shoes out for water shoes. 

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. It's all soft and feels weird between my toes. I'm also detecting rising temperature.." Her enthusiasm began to trail off into concern when she reached the end of her thought. "Overheating. Overheating. Overheating."

Gasping, Clover wasted no time in getting the child out of the sand. She used Iris's hand to stab the ground with the Frost Cutlass for her to stand on, only needing to worry about unsticking her water shoed feet by squirming. Iris rubbed her neck sheepishly. "Oops, I forgot that my body doesn't like heat as much as everyone else like me."

Clover and Iris turned their attention to a group of people in bikinis and swim trunks briskly walking over the sunbathed sand and yelping with pain with each step they took. "Humans don't like hot sand either?"

"As I said, hot sand is skin's worst enemy." 

Clover, seeing no other option, placed her youthful companion in the wagon and dragged it through the sand to one of the more secluded piers. There, there would be a cooler breeze and no hot sand to worry about, plus fishing from a higher vantage point would yield better results. What better first fishing experience could they want than fair weather and a mountain of snacks to eat? 

The young Consoleoid hopped and skipped through the small waves as her protector kept dragging the wagon, and many times the juvenile tripped, but kept finding a myriad of sea life such as starfish, algae, and many different shells to make up for her clumsiness. 

Sometimes, she'd wind up with a fish in her mouth in due part to always opening it when she suddenly fell in an attempt to yelp for assistance. Aside from Iris's playful antics, it didn't take them long to arrive at the pier. 

"Now this is what I call a satisfying lunch. The sun is shining, a soothing sea breeze, and the sound of birds singing is just beautiful." Clover fished out two folding chairs from the wagon, placing one for Iris before setting out hers. 

"If only they were here to see this." Iris mused whilst looking up at the cloud-dotted, cerulean sky. 

Larkspur swallowed and cleared her throat. "Your friends, right?" 

"I'm worried," Iris's eyes welled up with tears that had yet to fall down her cheeks, yet her voice remained solid and composed, albeit full of grief. "I wonder if they're okay."  Clover didn't have much to offer in the moment, so she kept quiet to listen. "We promised we'd get out and make it to the same universe together - all five of us, and yet I'm alone." 

"You can't blame yourself, Iris, I'm sure they're all okay." 

"I should've just listened to grandma. Maybe we'd all be together." Clover turned to Iris and held her close. Memories of the exploding facility, being chased by gunmen, being flung out into space - all real memories passing by her mind only to make her quietly sob in Clover's arms. The contrast between then and the cerulean skies and gentle waves lapping the beach and the warmth of Clover's arms were so stark that she was just waiting to wake up any moment. Any moment now.