Chapter 5

Beach Episode

With lunch packed, the man and marine iguana walked through the sewers until they reached the spot at which they were to surface. Jake climbed up first, lifting the lid and checking for any nearby humans, and when he saw that the coast was clear, he pushed it aside and climbed out, lending Amber a hand.

"It's just a short walk from here." Amber said as she slid the lid back in place.

"Then let's go." said Jake.

The two hurried, sticking to the shadows, just in case. Despite how late it was, there were still people about, and not all were everyday citizens.

As Jake took the lead through one alleyway, to make sure that there were no humans coming from the other direction, he was stopped by a large thug in gang clothes.

"Hey there, four-eyes." he said, brandishing a knife. "Fork over you wallet and phone, and you won't get hurt."

Jake stared at the thug who threatened him, had it been years earlier he would have been more startled, but since the day he killed Hun, the purple dragon leader, and then joined the Knights, this was just a mere surprise and he smirked slightly eyeing the lone thug behind his glasses.

"Seriously? My friends and I eat punks like you for breakfast." Jake said, not fazed at all by the larger and armed man.

"Cocky little bastard, ain't ya!" the thug replied. "Let's see what you say after I gut ya!"

He pulled back the hand with the knife to plunge it into Jake's stomach, but he never got the chance, as Amber leapt over Jake and planted both her feet in the face of the thug, driving him into the ground and knocking him out.

"'My friends and I eat punks like you for breakfast'?" she said, cocking her head slightly as she looked back at Jake.

"Too cliché?"

"A bit, maybe, but I guess it's true." Amber giggled. "But let's try not to get into any more scuffles, we could both do without this becoming a working vacation."

A short while later, the duo made it to the beach, without any more incidents.

Before them lay a vast sea of sand and water, waves crashing against the beach at a steady pace. During the days, the place was usually packed to the brim with beach-goers, all swimming, sun bathing, and playing, but now, at this hour, it was deserted. Amber and Jake had the place all to themselves.

"This feels almost unreal." Jake said as he placed down his towel.

"I know. It's a bit eerie, but still liberating." said Amber as she did the same and placed down the cooler box with their lunch. "We can do anything we want here now. Well, except tanning. Don't think the moon will give enough light for that."

"Never was much for sun bathing anyway." Jake said, and started to undress, removing his shirt and shoes, leaving him with only his green trunks.

Amber tried not to look too much, but she couldn't deny that he was in good shape. She soon followed suit and removed her top and pants, revealing her one-piece swimsuit in pale lilac with a very low back, which hugged her athletic body pretty nicely.

Now it was Jake's turn to try and not look too much, but it was more difficult than he would have wanted, as he had never seen Amber in swimwear before.

"Come on!" she said and rushed to the water, quickly diving in once it was deep enough. With the aid of her tail, she quickly covered quite the distance before surfacing again, and with the light of the full moon behind her, it looked like a scene from a movie, at least to Jake, who blushed a bit before shaking his head.

'Calm down.' he thought to himself. 'It would never work. It just can't.'

"Jake? You're coming or what?" he heard her call over. "Come on, the water's great!"

"Yeah, just give me a sex- sec!" he quickly added, hoping that she hadn't heard his slip of the tongue. 'Get it together, man!' he scolded himself mentally.

Sighing, he removed his glasses and placed them with his other belongings, and started to walk into the water. Just as Amber said, the water felt great, perfect even, warm enough so that he wouldn't get cold, and yet cool enough to help him cool of.

Once the water reached his waist, he dived in, resurfacing a bit later. As he wiped the water from his face, he was suddenly splashed with more.

"Hey!" he objected, but Amber only giggled and splashed at him again. "Oh, you're asking for it now!"

The two exchanged watery attacks at each other, both laughing as the waves crashed against the shore. Amber had a bit of an advantage, being able to use her tail to splash even more water at Jake, but he didn't let up, trying extra hard to compensate for him being human.

They kept going for quite some time, both moving around in the water, just having a great time together.

Suddenly, a larger wave came crashing down on Jake, making him yelp as he was knocked over and under the surface.

Amber couldn't help but laugh at him being taken by surprise, but her laughter stopped when she saw that he didn't resurface.

"Jake? Jake?"

She looked around, thinking that maybe he was going to sneak up on her underneath the water, but he was nowhere to be seen. A chill went down her spine, then she spotted a figure under the water some distance away.

"Jake!" she cried out, taking a deep breath and diving into the waters as quickly as she could.

The moon light provided some much needed light even under the surface, and Amber quickly spotted the limp form of Jake ahead of her. With the help of her tail, she swam through the water far faster than a human, and that might just have been a deciding factor.

Grabbing Jake, she pulled him with her up to the surface and then to the shore. Her heart pounded like crazy, and she prayed that she wasn't too late as she laid him on the shore and started to perform CPR.

She pressed her lips against his and blew air into his lungs, and was just about to start pressing his chest, when he started coughing, forcing the water out of his system. Amber quickly helped him to get onto his side to ease the process.

"Are you okay?" Amber asked as she sat down next to him, still worried but feeling great relief that he was still alive.

"…yeah… I think so… 'cough'… damned wave caught me by surprise… you saved my life…"

"Well, you saved me when Vulstrun attacked me back then, so I guess we're even now." Amber chuckled, a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Yeah… I guess we are…" Jake said, his fingers tracing his lips briefly. "Including stolen kisses it seems…" he said absent-minded, sitting up.

What followed was a moment of awkward silence, both of them blushing a bit.

"I need to-"

"I'm sorry-"

They both stopped and laughed sheepishly, having both tried to talk at the same time.

"You first." Amber said.

"Okay, well, I'm… I'm sorry about… groping you when we trained…" he couldn't help but look away, still having a hard time looking her in the eyes when he had that event in mind. "It wasn't on purpose, it just… happened. I don't want you to think that I'm some kind of pervert."

"It's okay, Jake, really. And I want to apologise for… putting you on the spot, so to speak…" she adverted her eyes, feeling the same embarrassment as he. "It wasn't your fault that you… got excited… when I pinned you down like that, and I didn't do it on purpose either… I just… I just want to say that I'm sorry for it all."

"Me too… I just hope… the reason that I've been… avoiding you, is that I was afraid that I had ruined our friendship."

"And I was worried about the same, Jake." Amber placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad that that wasn't the case. I care too much about you, Jake."

"Amber…"

Their faces were near each other, the two looking into each other's eyes.

So close together that they could feel their breaths on their faces.

It would take next to nothing for them to lean in just a little closer, for their lips to meet once again.

Amber's heart raced.

Rumbling sounds from Jake's stomach interrupted the tender moment to be, causing them both to pull back, faint blushes on their cheeks.

"Oops. Seems that near death experience took it's toll on me." Jake chuckled sheepishly.

"Maybe we should have our lunch then." Amber chuckle.

"Sounds good. But no more swimming for tonight. I've had my fill of water. Um, pun not intended."

Intended or not, Amber still couldn't help but giggle a bit as she fetched their lunch. But as she did, she thought back on the last few days, and she came to a conclusion.

"Good gods… I am in love with him…"

There's your beach episode. Quite a few close calls here, of different kinds, but it all ended well in the end.

Thanks to Bloodrayne666 for some help with this chapter. Jake Freeman is her original character, used with her permission.