The orange light bounces off the sea as the sun starts to set. The house is in view, with the wisps on the beach. As they walk closer, Lahar sees a stone campfire constructed and lit on the sand. A blanket is laid out with one picnic basket on it. Another basket is by Pie's head as he lies on his own blanket.
The wisps look over a piece of paper, reading it carefully. They make sure every step is followed. When Arena and Lahar come close, King puts the paper in his flame and burns it to ashes.
"Well, this is a surprise," Lahar says.
Arena sits down on the blanket and reaches over to the basket next to him. He pulls out a disc and tosses it to Lahar.
"You should play with the wisps. Warning, though—they take this a little too seriously," Arena says while making himself comfortable.
"You won't join us?" Lahar asks him.
"No, I think I'll just take it easy. You go have fun," he says as he gets comfortable.
Lahar runs to the wisps and starts tossing the disc. True to Arena's words, the wisps do not hold back.
King turns his legs to stone so that when he jumps, he can touch the sky. Doc undoes the bun on her head. The strands of sand hair twist and stretch together to act like squid tentacles under her control.
Crew creates copies of himself with the sand on the beach. They are exact duplicates except for the fact that they lack a flame. He uses this to outnumber them.
Lahar has yet to touch the disc once since she first tossed it. She walks to the water and begins chanting a spell Arena taught her. As the silver flushes her eyes, a stream of water wraps around her arm. She points to the disc floating in the air. Instantly the water rushes to the disc and pulls it back to her hand.
Everyone stops moving and stares at her. Clapping breaks the silence. Pride exudes from Arena as he applauds her. "Phenomenal job, but now you messed up. The wisps see you as a threat now," he says, grinning.
They play till the sun sets and the moon comes out. Arena watches like a spectator at an intense sporting event. He cheers, and he distracts them while he yells his "tips": "Widen your stance. Annunciate when you say a spell!" he yells.
"Stop helping. Every time I follow your advice, it doesn't work," Lahar shouts.
The game grows more intense when the flaming fur ball joins in the fray. Arena laughs, as the stakes have now risen. For a moment Arena lets himself relax. His mind drifts as his body loosens. Then he looks down to find his right hand shaking slightly. It's small, not noticeable to anyone else, but for him it's as if Atlas himself were shaking the world.
He clenches his hand to stop the shaking.
"You okay there, pup?" he hears in a familiar voice—a voice he hasn't heard in a while.
He feels a sense of warmth fill him. He lets himself get lost in his memories of a comforting voice. A place where he once felt joy. He hears a voice he has promised never to forget.
"Are you just going to keep looking down? Are you even listening?"
He refuses to look up, afraid he will break the illusion his mind is making for him, avoiding reality and indulging in this fantasy for just a moment. "Please be real," he whispers to himself.
Then the voice changes. "Arena, are you with us?"
Those words snap him back to reality. He looks up to see everyone staring at him.
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"You okay? You were gazing out and seemed out of it," Lahar says.
He gives a disheartened smile as he hears Lahar's voice and the other fades away. "I'm all right. Just a little hungry, that's all," Arena says as he reaches for the picnic basket. "I say it's time for us to eat. Of course, I came prepared," he says with a confident grin.
They all sit on the blankets as Arena starts to hand out sandwiches. "Here are turkey provolone sandwiches on pretzel bread, with my signature sauce. Be careful—they're very warm. Perks of the basket keeping everything as fresh as they were when first placed in," he says, changing his mood to a perkier one.
They all eat their fill and relax on the blanket. The stars light up the sky as the fire emits a hollow warmth on his skin. Arena reaches into the picnic basket and pulls out marshmallows, chocolate bars, thin sticks with pointed ends, and graham crackers.
"How about some dessert," Arena says, handing everyone a stick. They all stab marshmallows with their sticks. Arena and Lahar use the fire, while the wisps choose to use Pie, who has decided to turn his back fur into flames.
They take the marshmallows out of the flames and start constructing their s'mores. "Thank you all for this," Lahar says as she squishes the marshmallow and chocolate between two graham crackers. Crew and Doc nod their heads, with Crew not turning around to face her and Doc facing her. King turns and gives a thumbs-up.
"Thank you too, Arena," she says. "I know this was your idea. It means a lot." Arena is shocked momentarily. "What, did you think I wouldn't realize this was your idea? Come on, give me some credit," she says right before taking a bite of her sweet.
"We all need a little break. This is well deserved," Arena says, finishing making his s'more.
Lahar looks up at the sky to see some clouds hiding the stars. Arena notices and raises his hand. With a few whispered words, the clouds drift away, leaving the clearest sky they both have ever seen.
"It's like out of a painting," Lahar says.
"I have only seen a sky this clear three times in my life. One was when my family went on a road trip. We were on a random road at night heading to a place I had never seen. On that night, we were just far enough from everything. I got this gorgeous view of the sky," Arena says, gazing into the sky.
"What was the second?" Lahar asks.
Arena goes silent for a moment as he gazes at the stars above.
"I moved a lot as a kid," Lahar says. "It was always to a big town or a city. I never really got to see a sight like this except in pictures or paintings."
"You like paintings?" Arena says before biting into his s'more.
"That's an odd question. I think everyone likes paintings. They just have different tastes," she says.
Arena finishes his s'more. He starts to put another marshmallow in the fire. "You said the sky was like a painting, and it just got me thinking. I guess you can say I have a deep appreciation for the subject."
"It's good to be passionate about something," she says, finishing her s'more.
Arena smiles as he speaks, but when Lahar looks into his eyes, they tell a sadder story. "Many aspects can alter the beauty of a painting. The concept can be pretty and visually appealing, yet to me the beauty is deeper than that. The longer you stare at a painting, examine the details—the flaws, even—you can see what really makes it beautiful. The ideas and personality of it all become clear by the colors and strokes of the brush. What could be just another painting on a wall for someone else could be your favorite piece of all."
Lahar looks back up at the sky as she places a marshmallow on her stick. "That's true. Normally there is a technique behind working on it. That doesn't mean that is the only thing. That's what first interested me about chemistry. You can look at something and not realize how many different things go into it. Everything reacts differently with everything else. Like art, it is a layered beauty."
Arena finishes making his second s'more. "I like the way you think," he says, nudging her on her side. "I would take your marshmallow out before you burn it," he says.
Lahar looks at her marshmallow, which is completely blackened. She quickly pulls it out and blows out the flames. Arena chuckles as she makes a s'more out of the burnt marshmallow.
He looks at Lahar as she eats the s'more. He then turns to the wisps. He catches them before they turn around to face Pie again, trying to hide the fact that they were eavesdropping. "Don't let this end," he thinks, hoping he can bottle this moment. Then he starts to make his next s'more.
On the beach, the night carries on. In the fields, something is happening as well. Deep in his tomb, a fur Beast appears on Void's island. Its jaw opens, revealing a small seed.
Void walks up to its jaws and grabs the seed. "Thank you for your sacrifice. You were free, but now you are trapped below, here with me," he says while scratching the Beast's head. "As a reward I will craft you a new mask. That way, when we are free, you can stand up there with your three siblings."
Void parts the white sand. In it he places a small seed. He covers the seed. Water rises from the side of the island. A small portion falls on the seed and is absorbed by the sand. "Now we wait," Void says softly.