It took them a bit longer than half an hour, but eventually they arrived at the beach. To Ike's surprise, the usually crowded place was completely empty today. ''Maybe they thought the thunder storm would come back. Or it's already too cold.'', he tried to explain the phenomenon to himself. Marth on the other hand was simply stunned. He had fought a few battles here, but he had never realized that this was a real beach where you could actually swim. He knew it was stupid, but he never really paid any attention to the scenery while fighting. Ike grinned at Marth's fascinated expression. It seemed to be working... Apparently all he had to do was being there to entertain and distract him.

Once Ike had jumped off the horse, he knelt down to build a bridge in order to help Marth dismount. ''Please allow me to assist you, my prince.'', he joked. When he looked down, Marth blushed as red as fire, creating an interesting contrast to his blue hair. ''I-Ike, it's alright... I can get off Luna by myself...'' ''But it is my duty and wish to guarantee your safety, your highness.'' Even if Ike was obviously just joking around, Marth thought he was hearing a serious undertone in his voice, so he did him that favor. ''Umm... fine...'', Marth shyly agreed. He cautiously stood on Ike's back, putting as less weight as possible on his foot. Once Marth was standing on the sandy ground, his 'want-to-be-servant' jumped up immediately and smiled at him kindly.

''May I teach you how to swim now?'', he asked while pulling his shirt over his head and kicking his boots off. Marth just stared at him with his jaw dropped. ''I...uh...what?'', he stammered, unable to avert his gaze from Ike's perfectly toned muscles. ''Well, I am not THAT well-built...'', he awkwardly, but also a little admiringly thought, ''...Does Roy look like that, too?''

''Swimming! I asked if I...'', Ike broke off as he noticed where Marth's attention had gone. ''Oh. Eh... Excuse me.'', he blushed and unintendedly took a step back while turning away. When Marth realized his rudeness, he quickly looked to the side. ''I-I'm sorry!'', he apologized, his cheeks turning crimson as well.

''No! No, that was totally rude of me. Excuse me.'', Ike repeated and started unsaddling Luna with an awkwardly fast pulse. He tried his best to not look at Marth's beautiful, pale skin when he started undressing as well. Still, he couldn't help but glance at Marth a few times as he took off all of his clothing, except for his shorts, of course. Once they were done undressing and, well, unsaddling, Ike suggested to go into the sea.

They had almost reached the water when Ike suddenly remembered something really important. He suddenly turned to Marth and firmly grasped his shoulders with a serious expression on his face. ''Marth'', Ike said, staring into his eyes with gravity, ''You have to promise me something. Never, ever go even near the water all by yourself. Always go with me. Do you understand that?''

Marth blinked a little. ''Uh... yes, Sir. I promise.'' Ike smiled at that. ''Good boy. Now let's go.'' He let go of Marth's shoulders, just to grab his wrist and laughingly ran into the water. The prince joined the laughter and merrily hopped over the small waves. But then, he suddenly tripped over his own feet and crashed into Ike with a surprised cry, both of them splashing into the water. ''C- cold!!'', Ike yelled and jumped up instantly, shuddering and shaking like a wet dog.

''Sorry...'', Marth mumbled as he got up. Ike smilingly shook his head, even if his teeth were chattering from the sudden frostiness. ''Don't sweat it! Let's walk a few more metres.'', he decided and went a little further with Marth. When the water started to reach their chests, Ike halted. ''Alright. This should be deep enough. You'll finally learn how to swim now!'', he announced. Marth sheepishly took another step forward and tilted his head in confusion. ''How...?'', he asked and curiously looked at Ike.

''First off, watch and learn.'' With a smile, he glided into the water and took a few strong strokes to show Marth how it was done.

The prince secretly admired the graceful look of this action. It looked strange, but at the same time reminded him of a dolphin roaming peacefully through the clear, blue ocean. A gentle smile touched his face as he thought of that. ''Dolphins... aren't they the animals that always smile? If so, Ike would make a great dolphin. They're smart, too...''

Once Ike thought that he had shown him enough, he went back to him to tell him what to do next.

''Lay on your stomach. I'll hold you so that you don't go under.'', he instructed. Marth did what he said and looked at the crystal clear, turquoise water beneath him as he felt Ike's strong arm supporting him. ''Now, do this motion with both of your arms.'' Ike repeated the spreading motion from before with his free arm on the water surface. Marth eagerly tried to imitate it, but failed ridiculously.

''Like this?'', he asked, looking up at Ike who was trying to suppress a giggle under all circumstances. Of course, Marth had never tried to swim before, but that just looked too funny. He was doing it way too fast and short, and the cool water splashed all around them, making Ike shiver.

He smilingly shook his head a little and then reached out to Marth's arm. ''More like this.'' With fond caution, Ike took his arm and repeated the motion while slowing him down. Marth smiled with enthusiasm. ''Ah! That's a lot more comfortable.'' Letting go of his arm, Ike nodded contently. ''See? That's the right way.'', he praised.

They kept on practicing until Ike felt that Marth was ready for the next step. ''Okay. Now you add the legs. It's really not that hard.'' Marth smiled happily. ''I can do it! Just wait and see!''

''That's the spirit.'', Ike smiled and started holding him again and let him practice. It wasn't too hard to see that Marth obviously had grave problems coordinating his movements. It wasn't like Ike hadn't expected that it would take Marth a lot longer to learn swimming than a regular person. After all, he had a brain disease, so it wasn't abnormal, was it?

Ike bit his lip from the emotional pain that came back to him as he remembered 'it' again.

Even if it was really difficult for him, Marth's desire to learn swimming was strong, and he practiced for hours with fierce determination. It had taken all of Ike's powers of persuasion to get him out of the water and have some lunch.

Due to Marth's constant begging, and his sweet, heartwarming puppy eyes, of course, Ike had helped him to practice until sundown, but when his movements started to become extremely clumsy, he decided that it was about time for them to stop.

''Alright, let's quit for today. You did a great job, Marth.'', Ike decided with a heavy heart then and pulled his friend out of the water. ''I... I'm not tired...'', Marth weakly protested, but once Ike had pulled him out of the sea and onto the sandy beach again, he sank to the ground and instantly fell asleep.

Ike smiled lovingly and laid down next to him. ''Fine, if you want to sleep here...'', he whispered and put his arm around Marth protectively, pulling him close in order to warm him, ''...I guess it can't be helped.'' It didn't take too long until Ike drifted off into a deep, exhausted sleep as well.

When Marth opened his eyes again, everything around him was dark. Only the full moon shone down brightly onto the black sea. Marth sat up with a gasp and looked around him nervously. ''Where... What am I doing here?!'', he thought, jumping up in surprise. Observing the area distrustfully, he jumped to conclusions. ''I don't remember any of this... I must be dreaming.''

Suddenly, Marth stopped feeling scared and admired the beauty of this place. The atmosphere was beyond enchanting. Huge, silvery waves were beating the heavy rocks while the smaller waves were lapping against Marth's feet excitedly, luring him into the water. He smiled serenely. It had been so long since he last had such a beautiful dream. Thousands of stars sparkled on the water surface, making it look like a sea of diamonds. He longed to touch them, even if he knew that they were just a reflection. As if in a trance, he walked past the shore, towards the magical white glitter.

The wild waves were already starting to reach his upper arms, but Marth kept on walking further and further, until all of a sudden, he couldn't stand anymore.

Gasping surprisedly, he fumbled for the ground with his feet, but nothing was there. His heart began pounding, louder than the sound of the mighty waves. ''Help!'', he tried to scream, but his vocal cords could only produce a dry whisper because of his fear. Marth tried his best to stay on the surface, but he knew that he wouldn't last very long.

When he turned around, a giant wave was towering right in front of him, obscuring the silver moon. With one final scream, Marth was swallowed by the irate ocean.

Luna was prancing around nervously, feeling that something was wrong. She stepped onto the little waves at the shore in an irritated manner but didn't dare to cross the dreadful border between land and sea. When she suddenly heard a bloodcurdling scream, the horse jumped back out of fear with a shrill neigh.

Ike startled up. Trying to orient himself, he frantically looked around him. Besides the upset horse, no one was there... No one? Where on earth was Marth? Looking from the horse to the ocean and back again, he realised what was going on.

''Marth!'', Ike yelled and jumped into the ocean with a forward dive.