Chapter 27: Sandcastles

Stone spends some time at a beach festival and tells his best friend about something that happened when he was a child.

This chapter's song is "Castles in the Sand" by Zoee.

It was the weekend of the annual Sand Art Festival, and the fennec fox named Stone Kole walked along the busy beach with his best friend, Cooper. Both the fox and the wallaby were admiring the many amazing sand sculptures crafted by talented professionals and amateurs. They paused at one enormous sculpture, at least to someone their size, of a dragon whose mouth was wide enough for them both to stand inside. Just down the beach, they halted in front of a sandy creation of what appeared to be a large-eared fox on a surfboard, which was perched on the nose of a great white shark.

"Brah, you've got to be kidding me!" Stone exclaimed as he stared up at the sculpture.

"That bloke looks familiar, didn't I see him in the movie Beach SpyJinks?" Cooper laughed.

"Nope, his ears are too small and his tail isn't bushy enough."

"Right, mate, keep telling yourself that!"

"Seriously, I'm much better looking."

"Sure you are."

"You were in the movie too!"

"Yeah, but I didn't do the voice promo for the advertisement," the wallaby scoffed. "You know, 'Dude, the Sahara coast is always cranking. They're always coming at me, like 'Raaahh', and I'm amped in the pit. And then I'm like 'Boom, boom, boom! Shaaaaaah!' They're the most awesome-possum waves in Zootopia. Paws down, dude. Paws down'." Cooper tried to sound like his friend spoke in the movie ad as he mockingly jumped around trying to act like the fox.

A crowd had gathered, for Cooper wasn't the only one who saw a striking resemblance, and several fans wanted photos with the champion surfer in front of the sculpture. After several photographs, the fox and the wallaby finally managed to slip away and continue their way along the beach. They stopped to admire a row of sandcastles of various sizes.

"Those castles remind me of something that happened when I was just a kit. One summer, we had a problem with a tourist's bratty calf who would charge down the beach, kicking and stomping on the sandcastles that a number of us children had made. When we objected, the young rhino just laughed and kept running, leaving a trail of upset and sobbing children in his wake. The next day, he appeared and once again left a path of malicious destruction behind him. I was mad because I had spent hours building what I considered a sandy masterpiece with Storm. My brother watched the whole thing be destroyed while he listened to me whining, shook his head, and walked away, leaving me pouting amongst the flattened sandy remains," Stone told his friend.

"Where were his parents? I can't believe they allowed him to bully everyone like that," Cooper commented.

"It was only his father, who just ignored his son. In fact, he would tell him to stop hanging around where he was sitting and to go play somewhere else. When some of the children's parents would complain about his son's actions, he would just curse them out."

"Not much of a dad, was he?"

"Nope. Anyway, after leaving me to rebuild our sandcastle by myself, Storm showed up with a wad of cash in his paws. I asked him where he got the money, and he told me he swiped it from the rhino bully's dad's wallet. I told him that wasn't right, but he just smirked and asked me if I wanted revenge."

"Revenge?"

"Yup. On our way home, we gathered a bunch of our friends and made a quick stop at the hardware store to buy some supplies. We then hauled the stuff back to the beach. After dinner, Storm and I sneaked out the bedroom window and returned to the beach to start working. It took us all night, but by the time the sun rose, we had built a huge sandcastle that towered over us. It was majestic, standing well over three feet tall and just as wide. We even placed sticks with flags on the sandy battlements."

"Wow!"

"That morning, almost like clockwork, the bully showed up. We watched from the boardwalk as he gave a hearty laugh before he gleefully charged forward toward our huge sandcastle."

"All that work for bloody nothing."

"Nope, he charged up to the castle and gave it a big kick, which was followed by a painful scream and crying."

"Crikey, what happened? Did you put a rock in the middle of the castle?"

"No, Storm and I had sculpted the entire castle from quick set concrete. He kicked it so hard that he broke his right hoof."

"Did you get in trouble?"

"After finding out that the bully had been terrorizing the other children, the police really were not that motivated to do much investigating. Besides, we were Strandies...locals, and we Strandies look out for each other."

"What happens on the beach, stays on the beach," the wallaby replied as they continued walking through the festival.

"Yep."

After a few moments, Stone paused in front of a large sand model of the city hall and gave his best friend a mischievous grin before he asked, "Did I ever tell you about the time Storm and I buried Larry up to his head in sand?"

"Wait...you two buried a giraffe all the way up to his head?" Cooper exclaimed.

"You should know that we fennec foxes are really good at digging," Stone laughed.