Disclaimer: not my characters, just my ideas.
To That One
The cool, crisp morning air warmed as the sun rose over the endless beauty of the ocean. The sky turned from a midnight blue, to an intense purple, fading into a bright pink, slowly tuning into a calm orange. Mack walked from his home to walk on the miles of beach that laid not even one mile from his house. The red ranger often walked along the beach before the hectic day caught up with him to collect his thoughts. Usually he was bothered with thoughts of enemies or conflicts within the team. However, this particular morning, Mack felt calm, thinking of nothing more than the beauty that laid in front of his eyes. Walking barefoot along the white sanded beach, Mack closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to smell the soothing salt water mix with the cool sea weed. It was one of his favorite smells. A lot of people believed that the smell of low tide often sickened them, but it just soothed Mack oddly; probably because it reminded him of his mom. She had always spent much of her time at the beach, painting, or just enjoying the sound of the waves crashing onto the nearby rocks. Once Mack opened his eyes again, he saw something that he didn't expect to see. There, about a football field away was a figure that appeared to be dancing along the beach; bending, then outstretching its arms, as if to greet the coming day. Startled by his new found company, Mack set out on a light jog to meet up with his new found companion on the beach. Once the two people were about fifty yards apart, he realized that the person dancing to the sound of the waves of the ocean was a woman. And as he got even closer, he realized that it was one of his own teammates; it was Ronny. When just feet separated them, Mack stopped to see that she wasn't dancing at all. She was simply throwing something into the ocean. She turned to face Mack for a brief moment, then flashed him a small, soft smile, then continued to throw something back into the ocean.
"Ronny, what are you doing out here at five in the morning?" Mack asked, wondering why she was up so early. She was usually one of the last to go to bed at night. He had caught her watching the moon rise and the stars appear several times in their existence on the same team. She would lay out on the beach for hours and just stare at the white moon and sparkling stars.
"I could ask you the same thing." was her only response.
"But you were up till' at least 12:30 last night. Don't you ever sleep?"
"Again, I could ask you the same thing. You wouldn't have known that unless you too were up till' 12:30, right?" She again replied with a playful smirk on her face.
"Ok, you win. But may I ask what you are doing?" He finally gave in. He could argue that he was the team leader and that it was his duty to make sure that the team was in good condition and to watch over everyone. However, he knew she would come back with some cheeky, yet clever, answer to rebuttal his explanation.
"Well, I'm throwing starfish into the ocean, isn't that obvious."
"Ok, I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean."
"As you know, the tide is going out, and if they don't go back into the ocean, they will die." And with a plop, another starfish landed into the ocean.
"Ronny, you know this beach is miles and miles long right? You can't save all of them, so how do you expect to make a difference?" Mack questioned, not able to understand why she wasn't inside getting rest for the coming day. She stopped for a moment and stared at Mack, with almost confusion. Her eyes were almost screaming' you of all people should understand this concept'. She shook her head and proceeded to pick up another starfish. With a forceful throw, the starfish landed far away from the reaches of low tide, able to see the sun rise to another day. She turned back to Mack and gave him a small smile.
"It made a difference to that one starfish." Mack stared at her dumbfounded as she continued to throw the starfish into the ocean, past the danger of the breaking waves. After about seven more throws, Mack caught back up to her. She stopped for a brief moment to see what he was about to do. In exchange for the smiles that Ronny had given him, Mack gave a small, understanding smile as he reached down to pick up a starfish. With a light toss, the starfish was out of the reaches of harm. Ronny's confused frown then turned to a small grateful smile as the two continued to throw the starfish into the depths of the blue ocean. Still, after months of being around Ronny, almost day and night, she continued to surprise him in her understanding of life and the purity of her soul. How had no one realized her deep and mature thoughts before? How had none of them understood her complexity? Mack looked up to the sky to see all the stars were chased away, only to be replaced with large orange clouds, fading into a pure white. Looking back to the ocean, he saw the surface sparkle, almost in satisfaction to their good deed.