[Welcome to Meadow Beach!] The wooden sign announced with surprising cheer as it stood hammered into the side of the small valley between cliff and ocean. The path lead from the cove into the real deal of Meadow Beach. It was slightly sloped and walking past the sign Threy and Mako were greeted with the Land’s beautiful scenery.
The white sand beach stretched out into the ocean before them, small islands poking out of the calm shimmer of the azure waves with rivers and small lakes separating them. Its titular meadow interspersed the beach with lush green grass, the occasional vibrant flower garden and random palm tree swaying gently in the breeze. Small fields like this dotted the sandbanks and beautiful coral formations rose scattered from the waters between.
The way inland was barred by the sloped cliffside. If it had just been a slope that it would have been easy to climb but the whole cliff was shimmering with constantly moving and snapping spike crabs. One poor bird and been plucked bare within moment after being dumb enough to land there.
“Hey, there’s a map here!” Mako grinned at the back of the sign.
“Looks like we’ve got to reach the end of the beach and make our way through the Cliffside Ravine. I guess the old harbour there is where we can find the skeleton’s fleet.” Threy mused after inspecting the map.
“Yeh, but I wonder what kinda awesome stuff we can find around here~” Mako twirled around, eyes roaming the vast scenery of Meadow beach. “Betcha all this space isn’t for nothing!”
Threy nodded thoughtfully in agreement, stroking his chin, and dropped the map plus sign into his inventory for later. Pushing his hat up, he poked his wig for answers. Key was supposed to be their guide after all.
“So, anything we should be on the lookout for, Key?” Blazing eye bent over the rim.
The small dragon bean didn’t waste any time to make herself look importan and puffed out her chest with a proud smile, clearing her throat to begin. Amused Threy and and Mako glanced at each other as they hopped down the edge of the overlook while Key started talking.
“With that dumb skeleton pirate king taking over, he has probably sent out his minions all over Meadow Beach to lock away important stuff in chests or lock away anyone in his skeleton cages. And we should definitely smash any skeleton camps we come across!” Key nodded firmly with a cute: “Hn, hn!”
“Heh, sounds like a plan.” Threy smirked and readied his revolvers, because they had just encountered their first non-skeleton mob.
“Oh, they’re adorable!” Mako laughed at the trio of green-blue slimes with shells on their heads that made it look like they were wearing little, spiral party hats. One of them bounced towards her to poke her with its shell but she easily just walked out of the way.
“Slime Shells! Take away their shell and they’re just useless.” Key chirped unprompted. “…not that they are even all that with their shell.”
Mako tilted her head and kneeled down besides the wobbling slime. Lightly she took hold of the shell and tugged. With a plop it separated and the slime melted sadly into the sand, a swirling star of blue rising from its body to soar back into the sky.
“Aw, that was kinda sad…” Mako said, feeling a bit bad about how easy that slime had been to defeat, and looked after the star. “I guess that’s one from the con freed…?”
“Looks like it.” Threy said, sweatdropping as he put away his revolvers again. Less than ten seconds later the slimes were dealt with and their shells had puffed into gold and skill refills.
———
Their journey across the beach was rather uneventful, all things considered. Sure, there were more monsters they encountered but all of them were still pretty weak. Most annoying had to be the Coral Spitters as they hid within the water surrounding the coral formations. And then there was that time a few had hitched ride with some Water Wisps.
But there had also been some more exciting bits throughout their nice beach stroll.
—Their first Skeleton Camp—
It had been plain sight shortly into their walk. A stranded ship wreck surrounded and supported by structures made from large whale bones. Skeletons patrolled around it and were on the lookout for anyone coming close.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Let’s see how much they are worth~!” Mako grinned wide and rushed ahead towards the stronghold already at high alert.
Threy was right behind her, keeping an eye on the lookout as the skeletons now had archers on their side. But the arrows turned out to be rather ineffective as neither he nor Mako had to do much to dodge them. By the time they reached the stronghold itself, a scatter group of skeletons met their charge wielding shields in addition to their sabres. It could’ve been dangerous there with the archer but it had been right in Threy’s range, a single shot blowing up its torso.
“Looks like that one didn’t get the extra armour.” Threy smirked, ducking under the strike of another skeleton missing one arm and part of its ribs. A second shot took care of it.
Meanwhile Mako had easily plowed through initial group of skeletons and into the centre of their camp. With a sharp strike, she send one skeleton flying backwards and smashed a second with a twirl into the side. She was bit reckless in her charge and taken a few hits of her own.
“They’re definitely stronger now!” She called out with a grin, leapt backwards and pounded another skeletons skull down into its ribs.
But aside from being slightly tougher there hadn’t been any further surprised and the camp was quickly cleared. A rumble went through the structure and all the bones began to disintegrate, transforming the camp into a bundle of palm trees surrounded by lush grass. And more importantly, a pair of treasure chests had appeared in their shadow!
Threy rushed to the closest one before Mako could pounce at them both. The shark girl stuck her tongue out playfully as she glomped her own and after a nod they opened them in synch.
*Daran Dan*
With a chime Threy and Mako each received a small, obsidian pyramid with a glowing sphere of iridescent light at its centre.
“Any idea what those are for…?” Threy turned to their resident expert on all things of this world.
“I dunno, probably for a shop. But they are called Rastal Pieces and hold a ton of magical potential.” Key cheerfully replied.
“Let’s just ask Lisa when we finally meet her again.” Mako grinned.
And they continued on their walk.
—That Dang Chest—
The ways connecting the sandbanks and the beach was a total maze. Sometimes the water was shallow enough to walk through while at other parts you couldn’t see the bottom. There were dangerous currents but also gentle rivers. And as good as Mako was now at swimming, even she couldn’t get through those while also carrying Threy with her. Especially when his coat started to get caught in the currents. Thankfully it didn’t absorb the water.
“AGH!!! WHY ARE YOU JUST OUT OF REACH???” Mako screamed aggravated, throwing her arms up as she was swept back to Threy for the nth time now.
Both he and Key sweatdropped as she immediately rushed for another jump across the turbulent current towards the chest so tantalisingly plain in sight but just slightly too out of reach for her in a single leap.
“…I want to get back to do actual stuff…” Key sobbed comically on her back, the dragon bean sprawled out on the sand. Sadly she had learned first hand how stubborn Mako could be when she wanted to get something now and not later.
She blinked as Threy held out a deck of cards that he had found after idly rummaging through the insanity that were his pockets. There was a ton of useless stuff inside there and he had no idea why it was there.
“Wanna play?” He offered.
A few games later with neither Key nor Threy actually knowing what they were playing, just that they were both definitely losing, Mako finally had a flash of genius.
“What’s she doing now?” Key looked up from her cards, that Golden Dragon just wasn’t good enough to make Hand able to beat Threy’s current Stable Tower, as the shark girl started cackling evilly.
Water of the deepest abyss began roil above her palm and with a victorious laugh Mako unleashed her skill onto the tumultuous currents. Cheerfully Mako now walked over the massive, moonlit lake that had taken over the ocean current and opened the chest before walking.
“Now I feel much better.” She smiled cheerfully, bouncing a beautiful sapphire gemstone in her hands. It was cut like an emerald and nearly as big as her hand and twice as thick.
“Glad to hear that…” Threy sweatdropped as she handed it to him, joining everything else in his Realm of Darkness.
“Planned Festival! I win!” Key laid out her cards in victory.
“Why Viper.” Threy replied amused and Key’s jaw dropped in horror as he snatched the victory right out of her adorable, little paws.
“What were you playing?” Mako curiously peeked over his shoulder.
““We have no idea.”” Key and Threy deadpanned in perfect synch.
—Pickles—
They had still not found any skeleton cages and after crushing a third skeleton camp Mako suddenly had a completely random thought.
“You know, Skeleton Pirate King’s a bit of a mouthful…” She began and already Threy knew where this was going.
“Yes.” He replied neutrally, wondering how she would go about this and glanced at Key as she stirred under his hat. Cutely the dragon bean poked her head out and then slipped onto his shoulder.
“So… we should come up with a dumb nickname for him!” Mako grinned.
“Noodle! Uhm, Rotten Fish, Trout! Stinky… uhm, something with dumb, idiot or moron?” The dragon bean was quick to jump in with ideas… not all too good ideas which Mako didn’t even listen to.
“Hm… Skeleton Pirate King… Skel… Pir… Kin… Pi…Ki…. Pickle! No, Pickles! Let’s call him Pickles!” Mako punched her palm cheerfully.
Threy slowly blinked as he looked at her and had no idea what to say to that. Key, however, was already fully on board to call the evil skeleton monster Pickles.
“Pickles the Pirate! Hehe, I love it.” The dragon bean giggled and she and Mako started to make fun all about Pickles the Pirate.
Threy just shook his head and took the lead, hiding an amused smile.
They had managed to finish up good half of the beach and it was starting to turn late towards the afternoon, closing in on evening. It looked like they wouldn’t be able to meet Felicia again before reaching the Cliffside Ravine.