Brilliant sunlight glittered off the aquamarine waters of the ocean cove and made the white-sand beach shine. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves on the trees that shaded the villa's patio. Cressidor Blan-Virgine let out a long, wistful sigh at the sight.
"It was a fun vacation, wasn't it?" Cress's aunt Tahlea said.
"I wish we could stay another week," Cress agreed.
"I had fun," remarked the elven servant, Gaff, as he carried a bag behind them to the traveling coach. One might expect the household of Mage Consul Lillet Blan to travel by dragonback or something equally exotic, but those who did neglected to consider the amount of baggage one magician, two homunculi, a ten-year-old girl, and elven majordomo, a fairy, and a very large dog required for a two-week holiday. The dragons would have been claiming wing cramps while still being saddled. "Still, it'll be good to get home. I bet it'll take half a week just to get those slackers back up to speed."
Lillet chuckled.
"You've become a serious person since the old days, Gaff."
"Hey, that was more than sixteen years ago! A guy can grow up, right? And besides, a man's got to take his work seriously."
"A woman, too," Lillet said. "I suspect there'll be two crises, five disasters, and a veritable mountain of paperwork waiting for me when we get back."
"I still wish that we could stay," Cress said.
"It was a pleasant holiday," agreed Cress's other mother, the homunculus Amoretta. "But there are a lot of things that we can't do here that we can only do at home. After all, your friends aren't here, so you can't play with Marcia and Jenny. And you finished the last book that you brought with you two days ago. You'll be able to sleep in your own bed, catch up on your cooking lessons with Lillet, and lots of other things."
"We can't go sea-bathing at home, though," Cress pointed out. "You and Mama had a lot of fun sea-bathing, didn't you?"
"I have to agree." Amoretta looked over their daughter's head at Lillet and shared a knowing smile, a twinkle in her crimson eyes. "Lillet and I did enjoy ourselves quite a bit while sea-bathing."
Lillet, being a woman in her thirties (give or take a millennium or two that may or may not have counted), did not blush like a maiden. She did, however, fail to resist a smirk that was almost as obvious a sign.
"We still have to go home, though. And since I think that's all the baggage," she concluded, "I think we ought to get started before it gets any later. So if you'd be so kind as to call Shuck, Cress, we can get going."
Cressidor blinked.
"Call him? But he was right behind me." She turned around and looked back at the villa, but there was no sign of her dog.
"How do you misplace something that weighs six hundred pounds?" Gaff boggled.
"Five hundred and fifty!" Cress protested. "I've been making sure to give him lots of exercise and cut down on his between-meal treats even when he whimpers and looks really cute!"
"That wasn't—" Gaff began to say, but was interrupted by Tahlea.
"There he is." She pointed towards the cove, where they all could see the huge black barghest happily splashing in the surf.
"He does like to swim," Lillet said. Streams, rivers, ponds, swimming holes, and now the sea, Shuck was definitely the kind of dog who would happily plunge into any nearby body of water (and on one occasion, a particularly unlucky horse trough). With really only one notable exception, getting him out of the water before he got tired took far more time.
"He was half an hour late for his own supper yesterday," Tahlea agreed. "Though I think he may have caught himself a fish while he was out there."
"Since we're going to be late leaving anyway, could I put on my bathing-dress and go for one last dip?" Cress suggested hopefully.
"No," Lillet said, "but do go into the baggage and fetch out the soap, please."
"Why do you want the soap, Mama?"
Lillet deftly traced a Rune that enhanced her voice, allowing it to carry much further than usual, such as down the beach and out to a swimming dog.
"Because if Shuck is going to be in the water anyway, I had might as well go in after him and give him a bath!"
He not only was out of the water in ten seconds flat, but even stood dripping politely and waited for everyone to get into the coach before shaking himself dry.