Leyland Adventures Chapter Eight: Part One

The sun eliminated the darkness and replaced with refreshing sunshine. The lakes sparked with the sunshine and the golden skies brought even more light. A fresh breeze rode the wind, pushing some leaves. Tysashi's eyes slowly opened to the sunlight however he noticed something peculiar, Aradressa wasn't in bed this time. The first thought to come to mind was to take a shower to prepare for today's events and accomplish the goal of easing Aradressa despite not having knowledge of what caused her stress in the first place, though if it must be a secret then it shall be.

After a comforting shower, he met Aradressa downstairs who had just finished her breakfast. Her swimsuit was carried in the pink floral bag she had attached to her back. This time, Marissa wasn't preparing breakfast, it was instead Alfred who would take on the duty.

"Tysashi, are you going to eat?" Alfred took his eyes of the stove to face him.

Even though he was certainly hungry, he felt that Aradressa wanted to leave immediately seeing as she was already up and dressed.

"I'm fine, I'm ready to go, Aradressa."

"Are you sure you're able to continue without eating?"

"Of course. Oh wait, I need to get my necklace and watch, just wait outside for me."

With her outside, Tysashi went to receive his items and before he could exit, Alfred stopped him.

"You're not eating anything so you can quickly take Aradressa to the beach, correct?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I'm a psychic-type. Listen, I know your heart is somewhat in the right place but please remember Aradressa cares about you more than herself."

"I'll keep it in mind, I should go now."

Alfred continued to prepare breakfast as Tysashi travelled outside with the princess. The walk to the beach was worth the while as the salty smell of the beach and pleasing appearance of the area brought pleasure.

"Hola, welcome back!" Rico exclaimed joyfully.

Aradressa answered back before asking if the two were able to redeem the ticket. He verified the ticket, checking its authenticity.

"You two are able to enter, I assume you both have your swimsuits."

Aradressa nodded though Tysashi completely forgot about buying a swimsuit.

"No problem, I'll help you find a swimsuit in our multiple huts across the beach. Meanwhile, the princess will be accompanied by my most trusted employee, please allow me to get her."

Minutes later, Rico returned with a familiar face, it was none of than Lily.
Upon her arrival, Tysashi had a slight memory of meeting Lily not too long ago while it only brought slight anger for Aradressa.

"Lily, do you mind taking our lovely princess to the reserved area?"

"Of course, please follow me." As much as Aradressa despised her, she couldn't allow her feelings to consume her so the two walked away.

"Right, please follow me."

Rico guided him to a variety of clothing store huts, with an insanely large amount styles of clothing, it was near impossible to find the perfect one. He tried on numerous amounts of clothing, each felt as if it was missing that 'special charm.'

"Rico, all these outfits just seem bland, I want something unique, something that blows these other outfits out of the water."

"Hmm....I may just know the perfect thing for you. I haven't seen anyone wear it", he went into another section of the hut, leaving Tysashi in mystery.
He could only imagine what outfit Rico had planned for him.

Aradressa was introduced to a beautiful nature trail with palm trees outside of a brown dirt path. Her sparkling blue diamond eyes could only focus on the gorgeous organization of the trees. Lily was soon to break Aradressa out of her thoughts with dialogue.

"This is the P.T.B Nature Trail, as you can see, you and that incredibly handsome boy will walk along the preset path, at the end will await your next activity. I know Rico assigned me to show you every activity you would partake in, but would you like to see the next activity?"

"No thank you, I would prefer experiencing everything with Tysashi."

"I understand, you're lucky to have such a charming man by your side. It's amazing how much he does for you, like how he overcame suffering from severe injuries in the arena."

Aradressa didn't even attempt to correct her, she just accepted the false assumption that she and Tysashi were dating.

"Yes, he is held by a leash of close bonds, trust, affection, and shared values, which doesn't allow more than one person."

"What's his view on having two girlfriends?"

"He isn't open to the option."

Though her face didn't express it, Aradressa was gradually getting annoyed by Lily's persistence, kindly asking her to leave her in peace. Lily flew away, slightly insulted that Aradressa wanted her to leave. She let out a slight sigh as her mind only fixated on Tysashi. She had a sudden flashback of him seeing her covered in dragon blood, why that specific was played in her mind was unknown. Perhaps it reminded her of his expression, seeing a girl who didn't need anyone to play the hero.

The iconic sounds of seagulls combined with the calming sound of water brought a feeling of ease to the princess that would soon take control of the land that she was birthed on.

Rico soon came out with a sky blue Hawaiian shirt with white outline of palm trees and tan shorts with the sparkling P.T.B logo on it, written in black, in addition, a necklace with a shark tooth on it, black swimming shorts with a blue outline of sharks, and a straw hat came with it.

"Do you enjoy what you see?"

"I love it, the necklace, the design, the shorts are a little bland, but the shirt makes up for it."

Wasting no time, our hero immediately grabbed the outfit and brought it to the register where the owner, Tess, sat. Tess was muscular with intimidating dark skin with black, lengthy dreadlocks that reached the back of his neck and green eyes. He wore a sleeveless black tank top with shredded blue jean shorts.

"Hello, I would like to purchase this and no rush, but if you could make this quick, I'd appreciate it."

"That'll be fifteen Seaside Shells."

His voice matched his character perfectly, masculine and deep.

"Sure, just let me get my wall- excuse me?"

"Fifteen Seaside Shells."

"Seaside Shells, I don't know that is, can't you accept regular money?"

"I only accept Seaside Shells, if you don't have the shells, then please exit."

"Tysashi, as you can see, Tess, only accepts special seashells that are formed in the waters of Palm Tree Beach, they're sparkling white seashells with a small diamond in the center, very valuable, these shells are very rare but a majority of these them can be found in the sand underwater or aboveground. But don't worry about it, I'll handle it."

Rico exchanged the shells from his pockets for the outfit. Tysashi thanked him for his deed and promised to pay him back. Rico was just glad to help, even if some shells were spent. Tysashi rushed into the changing room and placed his old clothes, the necklace that was given to him by Aradressa, and the swimming shorts in the bag that was provided by Rico.

"Looks great, now you're ready to meet up with your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfr- never mind."

Tysashi ran towards the exit, being stopped by dialogue by the hut owner.

"Thank you for the business, by the way, that outfit is more than what it seems, I would tell you, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

"Hey, don't worry about it now! Run to your lover, head North until you see the sparkling sand! I'll be there," Rico brightly smiled.

Without a word, Tysashi bolted out the store, a sense of excitement ran with him.

After some time he came across the sparkling sand, following it and seeing Aradressa on wooden platform surrounded by tables outside of a closed seafood restaurant. Tysashi exhaled calmly as he put the straw hat on and approached her with confidence. Without warning, the sound of footsteps crunching the sand came to Aradressa's attention. She turned around to find him walking up to her, smiling. Her eyes sparkled gazing upon his figure.

"Well, me and Rico were able to find something nice."

"I admire the cosmetic change. Our first activity is to walk through this trail. Ready?"

"Ready."

Their hands met as they entered. Many exotic plants were in view, some Aradressa had never seen before and for Tysashi, he hasn't seen any of them at all. The leaves stretched out far beyond the wooden barrier and hung themselves by the leaves.

Though Tysashi didn't think much of it, she just couldn't hold on to the thin strings of reality and truth. The idea of the two dating brought only a feeling of jubilation and longing despair, why despair, because she knew that this was all just pretend. Nothing more than a dream. It was a neutral feeling, something she had never often felt when it came to love. It doesn't matter how many times others would refer to them as a 'couple', Aradressa knew it was simply make-believe.

Immediately after rummaging through the trees, Rico and Lily were in plain sight, right next to the water.

"Ahem, your next activity involves the two of you swimming and exploring the P.T.B underwater cavern together.
We'll be going outside the limits of this area, then Rico and I will be waiting for you, you can stay down there for as long as you wish, but that'll prevent you from participating in any other activities."

Shortly after his speech, Rico presented two similar black snorkels before them. He instructed them to change into their swimsuits, afterwards the activity could begin. Tysashi was only required to remove his shirt while Aradressa went to change. She returned shortly.

"Now that you two have your proper swim clothing on, please take these snorkels but don't put them on yet, we must cross the water to arrive at the diving spot."

The four had just reached their destination with power of flight while Tysashi had to be carried over the water.

"Have fun and be sure to come back to the beach you two are done!"

Both Rico and Lily simply smiled at them, taking their bags.

The two submerged. The sun penetrated the water, making everything so clear and easy to see, even the little bubbles underneath the water. He took her hand as the duo dived deeper into the sea. Many aquatic animals and plants were able to be spotted, some of which that have never been encountered before.

Her eyes focused heavily on their skin and outside appearance. Rainbow scales long, sharp fins, and a tiny mouth. She attempted to touch the creature, but it swam away from her grasp.

The unknown organism moved as efficiently as butter, its movements were sharp and precise. Seeing her failure, Tysashi managed to grab the tail and hold the fish so she could invite her finger to its skin. As she grazed the scales of the creature, more came to circle around the two. The relaxed fairy tried to touch as many as she could, which weren't much.

Aradressa exchanged the desire to connect with fish for something that wouldn't and couldn't swim away, plants. Leyland was indeed a planet inhabited by strange beings, and the same goes for the plants. From undersea flowers with tentacles to a miniature tree with spikey limbs, the plants were something unique. However, time couldn't be wasted on plants, Aradressa took Tysashi's hand and lead him deeper into the sea. At this point, the temperature began to drop, only those who control the element of ice or fire could resist the cold.

The sunlight gradually decreased and so did the number of harmless creatures. The only light source was from other creatures, creatures that were large in size and a force to be reckoned with. Even Tysashi was a little nervous about entering but she squeezed his hand tighter, signifying that everything will be fine. She looked him in the eyes as he exhaled, continuing to submerge until they came across the underwater cavern. The two stayed afloat before the entrance, one is unable to fathom what lies inside, except for the ones who have previously explored it.

Tysashi's grip tightened on her hand. With oozing confidence and an itching curiosity, the two swam into the undersea cavern full of discovery and mystery. Inside was a glowing path of aquatic Luminous Mushrooms, leading them to a small population of creatures that gave their own light, many of which who gave off green light were friendly, whist the ones who emitted a red glow were aggressive.

Unfortunately, this was something that our heroes did not know, a fact that Rico completely overlooked. Out of the two, Aradressa was the unlucky soul that swam over to the few red, piranha-like fish that collected themselves in a separate area.

She extended her arm to touch the small creature, but was nearly gifted with a penetrating bite. The lovely heroine drew her hand back in response as the class of fish grouped together to form a circle of small, bloodthirsty creatures. Sensing immediate danger, Aradressa swam over to Tysashi, who was surrounded by green light creatures, and grabbed him by the hand. The shirtless boy tightly grasped her hand as the aggressive creatures pursued them with unexpected speed. Aradressa pushed her wings extremely hard to make the dream of escaping unscathed a reality.

Though speed was definitely an important factor for outpacing the school of fish, body size could also be viewed as an important factor. Due to the weight of both their bodies, Aradressa had some difficulty maneuvering in and out of other creatures, while the red glowing organisms had no trouble due to their much more compact body size.

She did escape from the cavern, but this was only the beginning as she and Tysashi still had to remove themselves from the deep sea and resurface. With that in mind, Aradressa expeditiously swam upwards as the red light followed. The carnivorous fish would attempt to bite at Tysashi's feet, but to no avail as Aradressa reached warmer temperatures which the pursuers couldn't tolerate.

Eventually, our pink haired heroine was able to resurface to the shore without any sort of injury to herself and Tysashi, with their eyes locked on Rico.

"Hey, are you two alright, I kinda forgot to tell you that when you enter the cavern, you'll see groups of fish that are separated by color, green fish are friendly and the red ones are not so friendly."

Both of them stared at him blankly, the information that he had just been passed on to them was already learned the hard way.

"Anyway, let's advance to the next activity."

Moving forward, Rico, and his partner Lily, brought our heroes to a near vacant space of sand and water, only a volleyball that was slightly submerged in the sand could be seen.

"In this activity, you'll have to play a six point game of volleyball while riding on waves. The boys will be against the girls. The purpose of this is to acknowledge how powerful you both are separately and understanding each other's limits."

"Sounds fun."

Just then, Rico formed four waves out in the water.

"Please step on your wave and I'll explain."

Once everyone was on their wave, he delivered his speech.

"All right, these waves are controlled by pelvic movement, just move your body in any direction and the wave will respond, got it. In order to score a point, the ball must land in the water. Ok then, Lily, it's all you!"

With both teams ready, this match would become unforgettable. Surprises would be thrown left and right just as the ball would. Aradressa hardly participated in sports and the reason would be uncovered soon.