Energy Eater
130 – Beach Episode

Everybody ran towards the ocean, ignoring completely the fact that the sand was starting to get into our clothes. There was no one else around. It was just the five of us, and thanks to our lucky break, it was a very hot day, which made the idea of getting to the water even more appealing. But thankfully, Riley had the presence of mind to yell for all of us to stop. So instead of just diving in while wearing all of our clothes, we halted and removed most of them, going back to where everyone was before stepping closer to the water.

I had felt sand before, but it was the first time I felt sand between my toes that was this soft. The sky was such a beautiful shade of blue, and the sun shining made everything seem to be okay.

We used a piece of old wood as a landmark to leave our stuff, making sure that the [Pelt of Frost] that Astrid and I were wearing was almost like a towel protecting the rest of our belongings before slowly walking towards the ocean.

And that sight was something that I knew I would never be able to forget. I had seen lakes before. I had seen large bodies of water. But this was different. The smell of saltwater flooded my nostrils, and the waves crashing towards us covered most of the view. It was so peaceful, so calm. Even though I knew that the ocean was supposed to be dangerous and scary, I couldn't help but being awed by the immensity of it all.

"I think I'm going to stay on the beach if that's okay with everybody," Riley spoke up.

"What? You came all this way and you're not even dipping your toes in the water?" Michael turned to them.

"I mean, yeah. I've never been to the ocean, but I know how currents work. The last thing I want is to be dragged down below just because I wanted to test the waters," they replied.

"Come on, it's safe. You just don't go in the deep end," he pressed.

"I'm not going," Riley shook their head.

"Michael, let them be. If they're too scared to go into the water, there's nothing we can do about it," I said, gaining a glare from Riley, who huffed and started to approach after pulling up their pants.

Ever since we left the fortress, Riley had been using a different set of clothes. There was this large cape that almost looked like a dress covering their entire body. But below that was a pair of linen pants with a shirt, something that their master used to use.

"It's fine if you're scared. But I mean, you're going to be scared of something that even a giant rat isn't?" I tilted my head towardsa Rex, who was already in the water, jumping up and down.

The little Rodenti had removed all his clothes but kept his shorts, strangely enough, while Astrid was by his side already feeling the waves up to her waist.

"Astrid, be careful not to get too deep. There are some sandbanks and you might end up stepping where there's no ground?" Rex turned to Astrid.

"Astrid can't swim?" The Frosted Lumberjack shook her head, although I should be calling her the Husk Carver now.

"Do I really have to?" Riley groaned, and I shook my head.

"No, you don't. But I have a feeling that knowing how to swim could be very useful in the future. We don't know when it's going to be the next time a giant crab is going to come out of a lake to try to eat us."

"Wait, what now?" Riley asked.

"Yeah, I don't think we ever talked to you about that one, which seems a bit stupid," Michael chimed in, "That's kind of how I joined the team.

"Yeah, we just mentioned the village of people who were sacrificing people to a monster, but we didn't specify which type of monster it was. Right?" I turned to the archer.

"Care to clarify now?" Riley asked, with a confused expression.

"In that case, I'm tagging you in. I'm going to help Astrid and Rex," Michael said and started walking away,

"Might be a good call. I'm not entirely sure Rex is going to be able to hold on to Astrid in case something goes wrong," I replied, "Although, I'm 90% sure you are going there because you want to swim."

"Me? I would never," Michael was stepping backwards away from us, and his voice slowly became softer until he could no longer be heard. That's when he turned around and, dashing towards the water and, called, "Hey, wait up! Wait up! I want to swim too!"

I just shook my head and turned back to Riley, giving them a quick rundown of the monsters we faced so far: the Ice Devil, the Emperor Flathead, the Dread Wing, and the Rodenti in the cave. The last one was a conversation that we already had before.

"Speaking of the Rodenti," Riley turned to the ocean where Rex, Michael, and Astrid were already playing, "Do you think they Lumerin really hate us or something?"

I paused for a moment. "Honestly, I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe it's just a situation where the Lumerin are forced to hate everybody who was not one of them. Remember how we heard that there was a queen involved, and the queen was the one calling all the shots? It could be that."

"Right, and in there, I suppose you're right."

"By the way, are you really not going to go in the water? I mean, Astrid is learning how to swim from Rex. Are you really going to be the only one that won't join?"

Riley stared at me before rolling their eyes. "Fine. Fine. Just don't force me to go too deep. I don't mind lakes, but the idea of going to the ocean kind of freaks me out a little bit."

"Hey, I'm not trying to push you. I'm just asking a genuine question. If you don't want to, you don't want to."

"No, no, I want to. It's just not something that I thought was going to happen this soon," Riley held their arms up. "The last few days were wild, and I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe the ocean was frozen or was just a giant lake of fire. I don't know."

I chuckled softly before we started heading towards the water, even though it was clear they were a bit on edge. Still, we put our feet in the ocean and slowly approached the rest of the group. Astrid had water up to her waist, which meant that Michael was covered up to his stomach, and Rex had to swim around them to be able to breathe. But everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves.

After making sure Riley was okay where they were, I stepped forward and went to a deeper side of the ocean. I liked swimming too. Back in the hidden horn village, it was one of the things I enjoyed doing on my own and I had no intention of not taking advantage of this situation. I knew that there were some things I had to watch out for, currents and things like that, but I wasn't going to let that stuff ruin my fun.

We spent most of the day in the water. Astrid slowly started to learn, and by the time we got hungry, she was even able to paddle her way around the ocean, even though she was making a point of not going too deep just in case. Riley was slowly becoming more comfortable in the water and even trying to learn at least the very basic of swimming. Maybe they were not going to be going on a boat anytime soon, but they would at least be able to move around if they got themselves in a lake or in the middle of the sea.

We eventually started to get hungry and decided to fish since there was a school of fish nearby. Although fishing wasn't really the right word for it. Michael fired a few arrows at the school and managed to hit a few of the larger fish, while I did a similar thing but using {Compression}, making my staff suddenly grow and hit it before pulling back in my direction. It was kind of like spearfishing, but not really.

After we finished eating, everybody just lay down on the beach enjoying the sun for a couple of hours. No one was really talking about anything of importance. It was just random conversations about strange things we saw here and there and how much we were enjoying the ocean. Never in my life had I felt at such peace. Well, maybe when I was little and still didn't understand things. But since my first memory was that of my parents being killed, it was hard to remember a time where I was not already battered by the world.

Still, we stayed there enjoying the weather and the waves until the sun started to set. There was a good hour before the light would completely vanish, so we decided to camp here. Astrid used {Emerging Glacier} to create a small area where we would be protected, or at least we could protect the bonfire from being seen by Eaters, and we got ourselves ready to sleep. At least, that was the plan.

For some reason, the moonlight made Rex really excited, and the Rodenti started jumping around and decided to swim even though it was dark and the ocean became much scarier. We did our best to pull him back, calling him out and trying to just make him go to bed, but the Rodenti insisted on going for a swim in the middle of the night. Worried that he might be pulled by the currents that would be stronger under the moonlight, we all went along with him despite not really liking that idea.

Initially, nothing happened. We were just four grumbling people and one giant rat swimming in the water. But Michael noticed a strange glow on the ocean, a pinkish blue shade that appeared and vanished only to repeat that process a couple of times. He first noticed it all the way on the horizon, but then it started to approach closer and closer, worrying us more and more. He mentioned that to me and to Riley since the three of us were the ones with the best eyesight of the group, but eventually the lights vanished completely and we relaxed a bit more. After all, we all understood that if monsters could exist on the surface, there was nothing stopping them from existing in waters.

But even after our warning, Rex insisted on continuing to swim. I started to get more and more frustrated with the Rodenti, and it came to a point where I decided that enough was enough. Approaching our companion, I grabbed him and said, "Rex, I know you like this, but we can't be here anymore. It's late, we're tired, and you are being a bad friend right now. We're just trying to look out for you."

Rex paused and stared at me with wide eyes. "Rex bad friend?"

"You're not a bad friend. You are being a bad friend. Those are different. You can be a good friend and still do bad things," I explained.

Rex gave a very intense nod. "Okay. Sorry. Cassandra right. Rex doesn't want to be bad friend. Friends and Rex can leave water."

"Thank you," I said with a smile, and we turned back to leave the ocean. But it was already too late.

The moment I turned around, I saw my companions looking in our direction, all with more or less satisfied expressions, considering Rex's decision. But the surrounding water was different. It was shallow, much more shallow than it should be, and the beach was much farther away than I was expecting. To the sides where the ocean was supposed to be, I noticed that the wall of water was taller than I was expecting, and that we were in fact in the middle of a crater in the ocean.

Before I could understand how this was happening, countless pinkish blue lights appeared around us, circular and elongated with tendrils that had been going on for who knows how long. As I opened my mouth to yell for everybody to run, the waves crashed around us, coming from all directions.