sounds and silences

Annaleise had managed to find herself all the way out to the beach. She wasn't exactly sure how far she had walked, nor how long it took to get here. Lacking a concern in general for the issue of how to get back home, Annaleise decided to simply make the best of her outing. It was still fairly early in the day, plenty of time for her to have a beach day and figure out how to get home.
As she trudged through the sand to get closer to the shore, Anna picked a good spot close to the tidal line.
Pushing dry sand over to where the wet began, Anna plopped herself down in the middle of her dry patch, and began to build herself a small castle.
It began humbly, with crumbling walls that easily fell with each gentle pat. However, as she built, her castle walls became stronger, and soon, Anna had built a comfortable little wall of sand. Getting on her knees now, Anna bent over her wall to gather more sand, and became enthralled with a mysterious little shell. Clutching it tightly in her fist, her castle was quickly forgotten, as the prospect of a treasure hunt overtook her attention. Kicking her shoes off, Annaleise abandoned them in the privacy of her tiny castle.

Stepping through her wall, Annaleise knocked it over without too much regard for the time she had spent building it, and she trotted to where the water lapped rhythmically at the sand. Splashing through the water, she waded her way deeper into the ocean, until the water reached the bottom of her knees. Her newest dress was a fair mint green, with cream lace trim. Her mother had bought it for some special occasion, and was now ruined by the salty ocean tides. Head down, Annaleise paid no mind to the waves that were slowly drawing her further into the ocean. As she walked, the outgoing tides pulled subtly at her body, changing her direction without her even knowing it. Before she realised, she was up to her waist in water. A little surprised by this development, Annaleise spotted a pretty new shell, and was loathe to correct the problem. Grasping beneath the water for her prize, her fingers met the smooth ridges, and successfully latched on. Wondering what other treasures lie beyond, deeper into the water. Allowing the water to tug her back in, Annaleise soon found herself dog paddling, struggling to both keep herself afloat and hang onto her shells. Bobbing uncertainly, Anna noted with dismay that the sand was slowly floating away, and she paddled determinedly, not wanting to lose to the ocean. As she paddled with her fists tightly shut, Anna surged forward, pushed along by the waves. Tumbled along, she was ducked underwater a couple times, whimpering each time her head broke the water. Her toes finally found purchase on the sand, and she fell forwards in the water, coughing and sputtering. Feeling like an unhappy noodle, Annaleise lay motionless on the sand with her eyes partially closed, the water trying to tug her back in with each wave. Every breath she drew brought on a new round of coughing, and despite her misery, she couldn't find the energy to draw herself out of the water.

Quickly giving up on the idea of dragging herself away from the ocean, Annaleise loosened her grip on her prized shells a little, her fist curling under her chest to protect them from washing back out to sea. Caught in another fit of coughing, it was thrown into a more violent burst when she was suddenly and violently tugged onto dryer sand. Suprised, her head raised, tufts of auburn hair stuck to her forehead and dripping seawater into her eyes.

Blinking against the burn of the salt, Anna stared openly at the little stranger that had dragged her further away from the sea. Her coughing had subsided, and despite being waterlogged, she felt rather fine. She knew it was going to be a long walk back home, though. The salt in the air and water tended to make clothes stiff.
Her rescuer looked about her age, not really what she expected to see after being hauled up from what felt like the depths of the ocean.
Almost immediately, she regained her composure, happy to have some company to talk to. Wriggling her fist out from under her chest, Annaleise crawled towards the stranger on her elbows, providing him with a delighted smile. "You saved me. Look at these pretty shells." Thrusting her hand out towards him, Anna's fingers opened to reveal three pieces of some shell, worn smooth by the constant ocean. They were all variant gradients of pink and white, but Annaleise thought they were all pretty nonetheless. "You want one? You can have one if you like. I'm Ann--" Coughing a bit more, Anna hid her face in her arm as her small body shook with the effort. After it passed, she managed to finish. "Annaleise."

The stranger seemed to be worse off than she was. She sat up now, sand clinging to her skin and crusting off as it dried. With her free hand, she scrubbed the back of her head, trying her best to get most of the sand out. Shaking out her hair, she shifted until she was in a cross-legged position.
At least he managed to smile a little bit. He had a funny little backpack, and it seemed to function as a sort of shield for him. Annaleise couldn't help but wonder if he was hurt, too. He sounded like he had some trouble speaking. Maybe he had gotten seawater in his lungs, too.

"Me okay? I'm okay, are you okay? You don't sound okay." Shivering a little, Anna wished she had waited a couple more months for the ocean to warm up before she took a swim. Edging closer to the boy, Annaleise quickly wrapped her arms around him, squishing her body into his. Clinging tightly, Anna shuffled herself around the backpack, its material pressing awkwardly into her ribs. "You're warm. You never gave me your name, what's your name? D'you like your shell? I thought I saw a couple more, but they were too far under the water... I wish shells weren't so difficult to get. They're so pretty."

"Albus is a nice name." It wasn't very common, that was for sure. She hadn't ever heard a name like that. It sounded like album, a little bit. Annaleise decided that she rather liked it. He was a bit of a quiet fellow, but she didn't mind too terribly-- she could do most of the talking, anyway.
Detaching from Albus, Anna sat back with a mute thump onto the sand. Her eyes widened considerably, and her mouth gaped open. "You're a superhero? A real one? That's neat, I've always wanted to meet a super hero." He looked kinda young to be a super hero, but Annaleise didn't say so.

"D'you wanna? Help, I mean. I've only got two shells here... I'll share them with you if you help me get them! I bet there's lots of really pretty ones down there! This is my first time at a beach, its very exciting. Have you ever been to a beach before? I don't like all this sand, it gets everywhere and ruins my clothes." Talking away, Annaleise managed to bond with this little stranger despite his incredible lack of speech. "I like you. You're neat."

Standing as well, Annaleise shook out her own clothes, making sure to kick out each leg to get as much sand off as she could. "Sea dragons! How do they breathe fire if they're underwater?" The idea that there were other dragons besides fire-breathing ones was completely beyond her. She had never heard about such a thing.

"Oh. Thank you." Following Albus' lead, Anna hopped into the water as well. Splashing happily, the ocean didn't seem as intimidating when you had someone else beside you. Stomping around, Anna's nose wrinkled up at the gritty feeling of sand between her toes. Her feet curled into the little dimples that she made, and she sank half an inch beneath the surface of the sand, the water quickly smoothing over the surface. Soon, it looked like she never owned a pair of feet, only a stumpy pair of ankles.
Reaching over, Anna grasped Albus' hand tightly, still a little worried from her ordeal with the water. She didn't much like being half-drowned. "Together! How far out should we go, do you think?" She had seen those other shells a good distance away from the shore, but she wasn't entirely certain that she wanted to go all the way back out there again, even if she had someone else with her.

Hm. Poison breath made a bit more sense than fire breathing dragons being underwater, but it was still wrong. Dragons were supposed to breathe fire, not poison. Perhaps these underwater dragons were sick. Or really over grown lizards that kept being called dragons.
Being led into the water, Annaleise stomped around, prancing even as her dress got soaked once more. Her stockings clung to her legs, and she felt the uncomfortable chafing of salty fabric against her legs. As the fabric became more immersed in the water, it began to hurt less for some reason.

The pair went further and further into the water, and the waves dipped and pulled easily around her chest. Up to her armpits in seawater, her courage failed her. Annaleise shuffled closer to her new companion, her hand dropping his to wrap completely around his chest. Her other arm came up, and she was soon hugging Albus tightly around the middle, relying on a strange boy for comfort and safety. On this new perch, she felt herself growing brave once more, and began to look around for shells. "Do you see any yet? I ..." The flash of silver caught her eye in the distance, and it looked like a medium sized fish. "Look at that fish over there. I wonder if we can capture it."

Her gaze fixed on the fish, Annaleise determined that she wanted it. Albus reached for it, but was deterred by the wave that had been coming up on them. Before she realised, she was wrapped into an embrace and pulled underwater. Holding her breath automatically, her eyes squeezed shut and her face bunched up into a grimace as she fought to try to get closer to the surface. Breaking back over the water, she gasped and coughed, unhappy to have seawater back in her face once more.

"Gone...?" Pouting a little bit, Annaleise attempted to stomp her foot in defiance, but the resistance of the water only made an unsatisfactory little puff of sand waft up around the impact. Huffing instead, Annaleise broke away from Albus, absolutely determined to capture a fish now. Another, smaller one had swam close by now, and she stared intently. She had watched bears on the nature channel lash out with their paws, swooping in to slap the fish out of the water.
Positioning her hand above the fish, Annaleise sliced her hand through the water, grasping for a fish that was no longer there. Frustrated, she growled low in her throat as she whipped around, looking for another fish now. She had no means to transport a fish back home, but the goal to catch a fish still occupied the most space in her mind. "I want to catch a fiiish." Whining now, Annaleise was hungry, tired, and a little sunsick. It didn't help that the sea salt was chafing against her soft skin, rubbing it raw and burning as the water irritated it.

Ignoring the apology to try to catch a fish, Anna poised herself once more, hand flat and ready to strike. A fish had just started to swim under her hand when a large splashing frightened it away. Turning around savagely, Annaleise was ready to snap at the source of the splash when she realised that Albus seemed to be having issues. Concerned, Annaleise waded after her friend, watching as his shirt wriggled and jumped. Her eyes wide, Anna's mouth gaped open, trotting a bit faster in Albus' wake.

Facing Albus, Annaleise giggled when a fish slapped him in the face, leaving a wet slimy trail across the boy's face. He didn't seem to be enjoying the thrashing, though, and she quickly moved in, her fingers digging into the slick flesh of the creature. Grasping it firmly, Anna hauled it out from Albus' shirt, and held it at arms length, her fingers tightening their grip with each thrash the fish made. Looking to Albus for help, Annaleise suddenly didn't know what to do with such a large fish once they had acquired it.

Annaleise gaped at the thing, her hands covered in fish slime. Albus relieved her of her burden, and he clutched the fish.
"Um." Now that they had gotten a fish, Anna wasn't really sure what she wanted to do with it. She didn't want to kill the thing, nor did she think she would be allowed to take it home. "I suppose... You can release it now..." Next time, she would have to drag Albus back out here with a bucket of some kind.

"Next time, let's bring buckets and catch fish! We'll be more prepared next time." Leaning in, Annaleise captured Albus' face with her sticky, slimy fish hands and pressed a kiss to his cheek."Thank you for the fish!" Even though they couldn't keep the fish, she was grateful for being able to catch one.

Annaleise gave a sleepy mumble in response. It was a good idea, and she would have to think of appropriate fish names for their next outing. As well as ask her parents for fish materials like a tank. It would probably be much easier to simply go out to a pet store and buy a regular fish, but this way was much more fun.

Trudging after Albus, Annaleise couldn't find the energy to splash around like she normally might have. The sand on her skin was beginning to chaf in the most uncomfortable way, and bouncing around would probably just make it hurt more. Plopping down next to her new friend, Anna turned her head at the noise he produced. Leaning her head in, Annaleise examined the pretty shell that Albus held. It was unique, almost looking like a complete rainbow. It was much nicer than the pink one she had found earlier. "It's pretty, thank you." Plucking it delicately from his hand, Anna cupped it inside her palm, stroking the smooth exterior with a finger. "I wonder if there's more? One for the both of us."