"Lup."
I groaned, rolling over. "Five minutes, Dad. Jus' need a moment." My hands reached out, grasping futilely for the covers. I felt gritty sand slip through my fingers, and decided it was a problem for later.
"Pip, lup. Piplup pip?" Something soft and warm prodded my nose, and again when I refused to move. "Lup lup- Piplup pip lup."
My body reported in and informed me I was just a bit sore in the everything, especially my nose that was still being poked. Though now the thing poking it was hard and somewhat pointy, but equally insistent. I waited a moment to see if it would stop.
"Pip lup lup pip, lup?" There was also whatever that was, but I got the impression it wasn't going to stop.
Hesitantly, I cracked the sand out of my eyes and saw a small blue penguin. It crossed its flippers, looking proud for a job well done.
"Ah," I said thoughtfully, "That explains it, doesn't it?"
The penguin gave me a sage nod. "Pip."
Arms complaining, I pushed myself up into a sitting position. My hands sank into the sand, which was slightly damp but oddly pleasing. I took a look around, trying to push the rising panic back down my throat.
Palm trees stretched out in either direction, forming an irregular line between the deep greens of a forest and the white sands of the beach. The water- the ocean, given the lack of visible land save a small rocky outcropping- was a crystalline blue that would put the resorts of Bermuda to shame. There was also the blue penguin, whose defiance of reality I was trying to ignore.
A deep breath filled my lungs with warm, salty air. Further from shore, looking into and past the forest, I could see a large hill of sorts that was mostly composed of exposed rock and greenery. Running out of things to look at, I looked back at the penguin, who was waving its flippers in the air.
I flopped back down into the sand. Here I was, in an entirely different reality. "Well, shit."
The penguin- okay, fine, Piplup- bopped me on the nose, waggling a flipper.
"I meant to say darn." And I had just started Persona 5, too.
Author's Notes:
Welcome to the end of the first chapter, however short. Please let me know what you think!
Regards,
Verdin Grey