Chapter One
The water lapped lazily at his feet, tickling his toes gently. The gentle 'swoosh' of the sea, quiet squawks of seagulls and salty air was so comforting it seemed unreal. And that sun. It was so warm, beating down on his back - sheer heaven after that blizzard. He had never felt so warm in his life. He shifted, digging his toes into the soft sand, chin resting on his folded arms, eyes closed happily.
"Shoo. Shoo! It's my ice cream. Bugger off."
He couldn't help but smile at his friend's voice, and opened one eye, turning his head to the side slightly to look at him. Maes was sitting cross-legged on a red and blue striped blanket, prodding at a large crab with a stick and holding a large ice cream in his other hand. He threw the stick away, giving the crab a few seconds to scurry forwards before grabbing it and lobbing it away, where it landed with a dull 'plop!' in the sea.
"Didn't I tell you this was a good idea, Roy?" He asked, taking a lick of his ice cream which had begun to melt and drip onto his hands. Roy merely nodded a fraction and gave a soft 'mn', nestling his face against his arms. "No one ever comes down this part of the beach," Maes continued to speak, merely filling the silence with some comfortable chat. "And when they do, there's hardly any one here still." Roy, again, merely gave him another 'mn', reaching out a hand to pick up a handful of sand. Purple. How odd.
But it didn't strike him as odd. It seemed perfectly normal. If he cared to look, there were little patches of purple sand all over the place. It was probably just his mind acting up, though. Nothing to worry about. He had nothing to worry about at all. Everything was perfect.
"I'm hot." Hughes complained, flopping down on the blanket and throwing the tip of his cone away. He watched a flock of seaguls for a moment, yawning and throwing a pebble into the sea. A few seaguls flew down, landing a couple of feet away from Maes. He frowned, throwing another pebble at them, just for the heck of it.
"D'you think he's dead?"
The voice echoed around them - a young girl from the sounds of it. Roy's brows furrowed and he lifted his head to stare around, glancing curiously at Maes, who seemed not to have heard it, and was still lightly throwing pebbles at the seagulls.
"Where d'you suppose he came from? What's under that eyepatch?"
Eyepatch? Roy reached up to touch his left eye, only just noticing the missing patch. He could see perfectly out of each eye, as well. He looked at Maes again, who still hadn't heard the voices and was looking at him with a concerned expression. "Something wrong, Roy?"
"Oh ... No, it's nothing."