🚤Completely normal beach episode – Chapter 3

Magus, having overslept her train to Waterfall, finds herself in Borderbeach instead. What antics will ensue?

Characters: Magus, Dove, Umi

Warnings: N/A

Wordcount: 858

Vibe: raised eyebrow emoji

DA GRAND FINALE………. this is the UA continuity version : p ft vague insight into ~things that happend~ and anomalies. will i ever stop being vague about all that? who knows.

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“Awh, you sure you don’t need the ride? I can only imagine it’d be expensive to pay for two different trips instead of going back together” Magus said with a large stretch.

The light was beginning to fade from the sky, into a wonderful orangey hue. Having made it back to shore safely not too long ago, Dove escorted Magus to a station to make sure she’d get herself home safe.

But… Dove had other plans.

“I’ll be fine, I promise.” Dove nodded reassuringly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Magus flushed up for a second before responding.

“Sure, yeah! I’ll… be there!”

Dove gave a chuckle, before waving Magus off as she left.

Only one thing left to do…

It was mostly intuition, and a little bit of energy tracking. Past the beach town, through a small forested area, squeezing through tight rocky crags… it was a venture that Dove took out of her humanoid visage due to her desire for secrecy.

Thankfully, the woman Dove wanted to meet was exactly where she expected her to be.

“I’m assuming you’ve calmed down quite a bit, then?”

There was a meep from the figure that was partially submerged in the tidepools of the enclave, who seemed to have been caught off-guard by Dove. Still, she greeted Dove with a toothy smile.

“A bit strange for you to come find me. But, yeah? Feels crazy to be able to think as clearly as I am now after so long.”

Dove nodded along.

“I’m glad, Umi.”

“Hey, who was that with you, anyways? I heard you say her name… was it Magus, or something?” Umi asked, proceeding to prop the less fishy half of her body up on the ground above the water.

“…Yes. She’s a neighbor of mine who I happened to bump into, and she wanted to tag along…” Dove sighed.

“Though… I guess it would seem that wasn’t a bad thing after all.”

“She’s pretty gutsy, huh? She wasn’t… involved, was she?”

“She does have quite the gusto do her, doesn’t she? But no, she wasn’t. She’s just… an ‘ordinary magician’, in her words.”

“Huh! Well, good for her, I guess.” Umi nodded.

There was a short pause, before Dove motioned to grab some of the things she’d brought with her.

“Anyways… that was quite generous of you, back there. I know how much that mirror meant to you, despite what it was doing to you.”

“Well, I mean… I guess it was all I had back there, and I felt compelled to repay the gifts I was given. I guess my thoughts were still too muddled at the time to consider it as an ‘important object’…” Umi said with a sigh.

“But I guess the combination of giving up the mirror and that Magus gal’s kindness… was enough to take me back to something more recognizable. It’s absolutely wild how corrupted that dinky thing had become…”

Dove nodded along.

“Well… given how it wouldn’t be safe for Magus or I to keep, or to just throw it away for someone else to deal with… I did purify the mirror.” Dove explained – before displaying the mirror to Umi.

“I figure you could at least use an important memento to help restore things faster.”

Umi was quickly washed over with shock.

“Wait, seriously?! You did all that for me?!”

“I was in a good mood, and the lessened severity of your distortion was a far better outcome than what would’ve happened had Magus not been there.” Dove sighed.

“Heh, I’ll try and not think about that.” Umi snickered, quickly grabbing the mirror to examine it, as if to ensure it was indeed hers.

“Seriously, thank you. You have no idea how much this means…”

Dove gave a subtle smile and nodded again.

“Of course. Oh, also…” Dove paused for a second, and handed over a clear plastic bag filled with various kinds of saltwater taffy – the same one that Magus had sourced from earlier.

“I forgot to give this to Magus before she headed back – I suppose you’d like it?”

“Oh ABSOLUTELY I’d like it! Thanks a billions, holy moly!” Umi replied excitedly.

“Though, it’d be lucky if this even lasted a day, hah!”

“I guess you’ll have to see, then.” Dove nodded.

“You really do seem a lot more… confident and perky, than I remember.”

“Mm, I guess? I suppose an amount of it is to blame on the distortion, you kind of get antsy and lose your mind after a while.” Umi huffed.

“I’m sure I’ll be back to whatever ‘normal’ was in short order, anyways.”

“Right…” Dove mumbled.

“Actually, on that note, how have YOU not totally gone bananas yet?” Umi asked.

“And where the heck is Abner? You two were practically glued at the hip.”

There was a long pause from Dove, who seemed disgruntled.

“It’s not any of your concern.” she sighed.

“I have other things to attend to – you’re out of my hands now.”

Umi seemed confused, but ultimately didn’t want to push.

“Alright! I’ll try my best to get used to everything that’s changed. Nice to see you’re alright, at least!”

“…You too.”

The end