The third day on the Sapphire Coast began with a sky so clear it looked like a polished gemstone. The heat was already shimmering off the white sand by 8:00 AM, and the humidity was thick enough to make even the simplest movements feel like a workout. We gathered on the deck of the hotel, nursing drinks made from chilled coconut water, while Sir Vael stood at the edge of the sand, his arms crossed over his chest, staring out at us with a look of extreme boredom.
"You're all too restless," Vael announced, his voice carrying easily over the sound of the crashing waves. "You've spent two days swimming, eating, and burying each other. Today, we play a game to sharpen your instincts—or at least to keep you from annoying me for an hour. Hide and Seek. The entire beach and the rocky cliffs to the north are in play. I am the seeker. If I find you, you're doing one hundred laps in the surf before dinner."
"Wait, you as the seeker?" Lucian asked, his eyes widening. "That's not a game, that's a horror movie! You can smell us from a mile away!"
"Then you'd better find a way to mask your scent or hide somewhere I won't bother to look," Vael countered with a terrifyingly calm smile. "You have five minutes. Go."
The chaos was instantaneous.
"Aria, over here!" Lucian hissed, grabbing her arm and sprinting toward a cluster of palm trees.
"Don't follow me, you idiot! You're too loud!" Aria shouted back, though she followed him anyway, the two of them arguing even as they scrambled for cover.
Vela didn't even run; she simply walked toward a pile of massive driftwood, her expression one of focused calculation. She stepped into the shadows and seemed to vanish into the grey wood. Celdrich and Zane exchanged a silent nod, moving with military precision toward the dense foliage at the edge of the cliffs, likely planning to use the high ground.
Euphyne, meanwhile, was having a crisis. "Hide?! A King does not hide! It is beneath my dignity to crouch in the dirt!" He looked down at Snowball, who was batting at a seashell. "Snowball, we shall find a place of elegance!" He eventually decided to 'hide' behind a single, narrow palm tree, holding his silk cape over his face as if that made him invisible.
I grabbed Elphyete's hand. "The cliffs," I whispered. "Vael won't want to climb the jagged rocks just to find us. He'll stick to the easy spots first."
Elphyete nodded, her face already starting to flush from the sudden contact. We sprinted across the burning sand, our feet kicking up white clouds until we reached the base of the northern cliffs. The rocks were sharp, black volcanic stone that had been carved into strange shapes by centuries of salt and wind.
"There!" Elphyete pointed to a narrow vertical fissure between two massive boulders. It was barely a foot wide and tucked away behind a curtain of hanging sea-vines.
We scrambled inside, the air instantly turning cool and smelling of damp salt. But as soon as we were through the opening, I realized the problem. The "cave" was more of a narrow crack. It was incredibly shallow, maybe only three feet deep.
"We have to go further back," I whispered, pressing myself against the rough stone.
"There's no 'further back', Sogha!" Elphyete breathed, her voice hitching.
I had to pull her in toward me to get her away from the opening. Because the space was so tight, she ended up pressed directly against my chest. I had to wrap my arms around her waist to keep her from stumbling out of the crack, and she had to rest her hands on my shoulders to balance herself. Her long, silver ears were tucked right under my chin, and I could feel the rapid, frantic thudding of her heart against my ribs.
"Sogha... this is... too close," she squeaked, her voice muffled against my neck.
"Shhh," I whispered, my own face burning. "Vael is coming."
Outside, the silence of the beach was broken by the slow, deliberate crunch of boots on sand. Sir Vael wasn't even rushing. He was walking with the terrifying confidence of a predator who knew exactly where the prey was.
"Found you, Euphyne," we heard Vael's voice boom from the distance.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Euphyne's muffled voice shrieked. "My camouflage was flawless!"
"You were holding a kitten that was literally meowing at me, Euphyne. Laps. Now."
A few minutes later, we heard the twins, Elfrich and Elfhine, getting caught. They had tried to hide in the tidal pools, but apparently, their giggling had given them away. Then came Aria and Lucian; they had been found because they started a whispering match about who was taking up more "oxygen" in their bush.
The boots grew louder. They were right outside our rock.
I held my breath, my muscles tensing. Because the space was so cramped, I had to pull Elphyete even closer to ensure no part of her dress was visible from the outside. She let out a tiny, shaky breath, her forehead resting against my collarbone. She was so warm, her skin radiating heat that made the cool cave feel like an oven. I could feel her ears twitching against my skin, a sign of her extreme nervousness.
Vael's shadow fell across the opening of our fissure. He stopped. I could see the edge of his dark coat through the vines. My heart was pounding so loud I was sure he could hear it. Elphyete squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers digging into the fabric of my shirt.
Vael stood there for a long, agonizing minute. I saw him tilt his head, his nostrils flaring as if he were catching a scent. Then, he let out a small, almost imperceptible hum of amusement.
"Must have been the wind," Vael muttered, his voice dripping with a sarcasm that suggested he knew exactly where we were but decided that leaving us in that awkward position was a funnier punishment than making us run laps.
His footsteps eventually faded away, heading toward the high cliffs to hunt down Celdrich and Zane.
We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, neither of us wanting to move and risk being the one to break the silence. The "closeness" was overwhelming. I could smell the faint scent of rain and mountain flowers in her hair, and every time she took a breath, I felt the slight rise and fall of her chest against mine. It was a level of intimacy that made the "Prince and Princess" title feel suddenly, dangerously real.
"Is he... is he gone?" Elphyete whispered, her voice trembling.
"I think so," I said, though I didn't let go of her waist yet. "We... we won, I think."
"We won," she repeated, finally looking up at me. Her face was a deep, steaming crimson, her eyes wide and shimmering in the dim light of the crevice. We stayed frozen for a second longer than necessary, our faces only inches apart, before the reality of the situation crashed back down.
We both scrambled out of the crack at the same time, stumbling onto the sand and looking in opposite directions, frantically dusting off our clothes.
By the time we walked back to the main beach, Vael was standing there with the rest of the class. Celdrich and Zane had been found ten minutes prior, looking thoroughly annoyed.
"And here are our winners," Vael said, gesturing toward us with a dry smirk. "The only ones who managed to stay 'hidden' until the end. Though I suspect you two had your own reasons for staying in that rock for so long."
Lucian let out a loud, suggestive whistle, and Aria smirked. "Smooth, Sogha. Real smooth."
Elphyete looked like she was about to pass out again, her ears practically vibrating. To save her, I quickly pointed toward the water. "Lunch! I'm starving! We need to eat!"
The rest of the afternoon was a blur of beach fun. We organized a massive game of "keep-away" in the water, with the twins trying to out-maneuver Celdrich, and Euphyne spending three hours repairing his sandcastle after a stray volleyball flattened one of the towers. Even Vela joined in, using her incredible reflexes to shut down every attempt Lucian made to score.
As the sun began to set, painting the sky in streaks of violet and gold, we gathered around a massive beach BBQ. We ate grilled lobster tails and spicy corn on the cob until we couldn't move.
Back at the hotel, the routine was the same. We unrolled our bed bags on the floor. The room was quieter tonight, the exhaustion finally catching up to everyone.
I laid down, and as expected, Elphyete dragged her bag until it was right next to mine.
"Sogha?"
"Yeah?"
"In the cave... you didn't have to hold me that tight to win," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the snoring of the twins.
I felt my heart thump. "I just didn't want you to get caught."
"I know," she murmured, a small, shy smile visible in the moonlight. "Thank you."
She reached out, her fingers lacing with mine, and for the first time, she didn't turn away. We fell asleep with our hands intertwined, the sound of the Sapphire Coast humming in the background.