Making out on the beach on a beautiful moonlit night is terribly romantic. So romantic that Sam and I stay there, kissing one another for at least half an hour. After that Sam takes my hand in hers and together with me, she just stares at the stars above.

“Do you think one day people from this planet will start visiting the stars as well?” She asks.

“I don’t see why not. If we can, why couldn’t they?”

“Mhmm.” Sam hums in agreement which then suddenly turns into a big yawn.

“Are you tired?” I ask.

“Aren’t you?” Sam chuckles. “It’s been quite the day today. First day back into Turn of Destiny and immediately we are chased by a huge dino dragon chicken.”

I yawn as well. “I guess I’m a tiny bit tired.” I chuckle. “It has indeed been quite a crazy day. Did you notice the monster had wings by the way?”

“I did. And I’m very happy it couldn’t use them.” Sam chuckles as well. “Can you imagine what that thing could do if it could fly as well? It was already hard enough to hit it.”

“Mhmm.” I nod. “I think I very much prefered the giant angry spirit… even though how it came to be was incredibly gruesome.”

“I would be more than happy if we could fight fluffy pink unicorns or stuff like that for once.”

“Really? I would never be able to fight something that fluffy. I might just let it impale me if it’s a cute enough fluffy unicorn.”

“Fair enough.” Sam and I start laughing.

We lay down for about ten more minutes before Sam sits upright. “I think we should head back now.” She stares down the beach towards our campfire. It’s still going and I’m pretty sure I can still see someone sitting by the fire. “It’s getting a bit colder already.”

Now that she mentions it… The wind has started picking up a bit and the sand definitely isn’t as warm as it used to be when we first laid down on it. “Yeah… let’s go…”

“You will need to get up for that though.”

“Couldn’t you carry me?”

Sam rolls her eyes with a smile on her face. “Sure thing.” Sam picks me up into a princess carry and starts walking down the beach with me in her arms.

I just huggle up close to her while she carries me. Sadly, it doesn’t take her very long to get back to the campfire. The figure I’d seen from our make-out spot was Hilda. She’s still sitting there, snacking on some dried meat.

“It looks like you two had fun on your walk down the beach?” Hilda smiles and talks softly as we approach.

“Just a little. How could you tell?” I ask as, also lowering my voice as Sam puts me gently down on one of the tree logs.

“Because both of you are completely covered in sand.” She chuckles softly.

“Oh…” I start patting my back off as it’s there where most of the sand stayed behind.

“Did Brianna already go to bed?” Sam asks as she sits down next to me, putting her arm around my shoulder.

“Yes, I stayed up to make sure you two got home safely.”

“You should not have.” I reply.

“Hmm.” Hilda shrugs. “Just in case. You never know if some kind of undiscovered huge land shark suddenly attacks you out of nowhere. With you two nothing is a sure deal.” She smiles and gives us a wink. “In all seriousness, I would probably not be able to sleep if I didn’t know everyone was safe and sound back here. Not after the dino thing attacked us.”

“Well, we are here now.” Sam smiles. “We’re also going to head to bed soon, we’re pretty tired too after all.”

Hilda smiles. “In that case I’m already going to turn in for the night. If you hear any big black winged chicken approach us. Please do wake me up. I will be pretty miffed if you don’t.”

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“We’ll keep it in mind.” I giggle. “Do we need to put out the fire?”

“Nah, it’s safe enough in the fire pit. It’ll give us a bit of heat too while we are sleeping.”

“Oki. Good night Hilda.” I say.

“Good night.” Sam follows suit.

“Good night, girls.” Hilda waves at us and then heads over to her own lean-to.

“You heard the lady.” Sam gives me a pat on the head. “We don’t have to worry about the fire. So let’s get to bed as well.”

“Aye aye.” I give my girlfriend a kiss on the cheek and together we then head for our own little shelter.

With some very soft dry grass and leaves Hilda and Sam prepared for some makeshift bedding, the shelter does feel very cozy, especially with the combined softness of our bed rolls as well.

Sam and I practically combine our two bedrolls again so we can share one big one instead.

“Nini, Ami.” Sam pulls me close against her body.

“Night night, Sam.” I give her a kiss and softly start purring. Sam’s body reacts to that in kind.

“Love you.”

“Love you too.” With the crackling of the fire, and the soft sound of the waves, it doesn’t take very long for me to drift into a vast sleep.

I wake up by the movement of Sam next to me. When I open my eyes I see that she’s trying to get out of the bedroll.

“Sam?”

“Ah, Ami… I didn’t mean to wake you.”

That’s when I start noticing rain… actually a lot of it. It’s pretty strange that I didn’t notice that before. “It’s raining?”

“Yeah.” Sam nods as she crawls back inside of the bedroll. “Now that you are awake I might as well tell you what we are going to do.”

“From the comfyness of the bedroll?”

“I might as well, right?” Sam winks and gives me a kiss on my nose. “Hilda thinks it’s going to stop raining soon so when that happens she and I are going to start constructing the first actual hut. These lean-to’s are okay but if it starts raining harder or if the wind picks up this won’t really do anymore.”

“Can I help out with that?”

“Probably. Let’s talk to Hilda, there’s definitely something that we can get you to do.”

“Yay.”

Sam kisses me and a bit later we both get out of our bedroll, and get into some clothes. Just as we are about to leave my sister walks by and sees us. She’s wearing a dark green rain cloak, or at least something that looks like it.

“Oh, good morning you two. Would you like a couple of these as well?”

“Yeah, sure.” Sam replies.

“Here you go.” My sister puts two rain cloaks in my girlfriend’s arms. “At least you won’t have to go and dry your clothes every time it starts to clear up again.”

“Maybe going to a tropical beach wasn’t the best of ideas.” Sam chuckles.

“Ah, don’t worry about it, it’s probably going to clear up later.” My sister waves Sam’s point away with a smile on her face.

“If you say so.” Sam smiles and starts putting on the rain cloak. I do the same and then we both walk out of the tent in the direction my sister walked to.

We find the others already standing around underneath one of the bigger trees at the treeline, it’s providing quite good cover against the rain.

“Good morning.” Hilda smiles as she sees us walk over. Both Nikki and Brianna echo her sentence.

“Hey.” I smile. “What’s the plan?”

Hilda points at the forest behind her. “Before we get some breakfast, I want to gather up a thing or two first, as we probably don’t want to have our breakfast in the rain.”

“Fair enough.” Nikki nods.

“Yesterday Sam and I saw some trees with very big leaves, pretty much the size of your sister and then almost just as wide.”

“That’s definitely a chonky leaf.” My sister laughs.

“As they weren’t our priority at the time we didn’t climb up the tree to gather them. But today I’d like to cut down a couple of those trees, both for wood for construction as for a nice watertight roof.”

“This sounds like a job for you, Sam and Élise again, where do me, Ami and Brianna come in?” Nikki asks.

“I wanted to ask the same thing.” I nod.

“As for the three of you, we could use some plants that have good fiber structures to make some ropes with. If you are willing, that is.”

“Yeah sure, sounds cool.” Nikki nods. “Any idea on where to find those kinds of plants?”

“I’ve not seen many around myself but Brianna knows this area a lot better than we do.” Hilda looks over at our botanical guide.

“I think I might know a place.” Brianna nods with a smile. “There’s probably going to be a couple of different kinds but I don’t know which ones work best for your purposes.”

“You can always bring a couple, we can always find a purpose for the less usable ones.”

“Okay.” Brianna nods.

“Since we still need to have breakfast I’d say to return here in an hour and a half tops?”

“Sure.” Nikki nods and waits for Brianna to take the lead. Brianna agrees as well and starts walking off with Nikki behind her.

“Stay safe, okay?” I quickly grab my girlfriend in for a kiss.

“Same goes to you, babe.” She kisses me back.

And with that sweet goodbye, I quickly run after my companions.

-Let’s go gather some vines!-