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"Ah hah ah hah.." Tybalt rolled his eyes and kicked at the sand beneath him. How they ended up having to build sand castles as a part of a trial would forever stump the black dog.

"Here's a suggestion," He changed his tone, looking thoughtful. "why don't we dig a huge a** mote around the sand castle, hang you over the water and lure out a giant shark for said mote? Hmm? How about it? I think its a brilliant idea. What about you guys?" Despite the grin, the black dog was squinting against the sunlight. It was bad enough being exposed to it on the boat ride during that one field trip--which he'd rather not re-call, and though he didn't feel the heat as the others might, it felt like his energy was draining just by standing here.

"Seriously though... How should we go about this?" He asked, crouching down to observe and poke at a small crab wandering the miniature dunes of sand. "I've never built one before."

LW was clearly enjoying this.

Clearly.

"What?" said Ren, ever so innocently, even as he had Tybalt wrapped in a headlock (wtf, when had had even grabbed him?) and was giving his ghoulfriend the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Which probably weren't very puppy-like or innocent, but whatever.

Dropping Tybalt's head (and ignoring the very familiar voice he could hear in from a short distance away that said something that sounded along the lines of "Renaissance what are you even doing - "), Ren reached around, ruffled Jove's hair affectionately (he could almost here his mother's disapproval from this distance away), and proceeded to drop back down in the sand and began pushing piles into a big heap.

After about five minutes he said proudly "I FINISHED."



Clearly he wasn't, but it was, at the very least, a start.

"So Jove can flatten that side, LW can work over there on the left, and Tybalt can be on that side - yes all the way over there. We have to start with a flat base, and then we can work up from there."

Jove had never been to the beach before. He had heard of other students going to one, having parties, playing howleyball in the sand, setting up huge bonfires at night... But the pup had never been one for parties. So the feel of sand sinking under his heeled boots was still a rather new sensation, and the brightness of the sky made him want to shield his eyes.

He glanced around, examining the scenery before feeling a hand land on his head. The scowl was automatic.

And... Ren thought that was a castle? Seriously?

The scowl grew as he stomped over, tottering slightly as the sand gave way under him, and then fell to his knees next to the pile of sand. Without a word the pup began to methodically pat the side of the lump with his little hands. If they were building a castle, it would need to be more solid than this!

"IT IS TOO A SANDCASTLE," Ren protested, sounding very much like a petulant child even as he was trying desperately to hold back a smile.

Especially since now both Jove and LW were giving him Looks.

"What."

After a few moments of shoving, he finally was able to make the base level smooth and flat - with help from Jove, of course, and all the while still ignoring The People in the audience (who he was not going to name because that would be acknowledging their presence), after all.

And then Tybalt had to show up with -

....

"LW. Honey. What did I teach you about staying away from creepy people? Creepy people just make you creepy."

Jove snorted at them all, and focused more determinedly on the castle in progress. Clearly they had never seen a castle before, or they would know it had to be stronger than this! He was almost done pushing the one side into a sturdy flat face, removing the little dents left by his palms, and finally kneeling up so he could start working the sand at the top into the vague shape of a sturdy sand rampart.

All his reading about castles said they had an outer wall, with buildings in the center. Whereas Ren's pile was... all building? Maybe? Or perhaps it was a castle for moles, and the gryphon was simply bluffing some intricate rooms and corridors hiding in there.

His fluffy ears flattened back as he listened to the others banter, it looked like he would have to do all the work around here!

While Jove was doing most of the work, Ren was attempting to figure out what on earth was going through LW's mind.

She was drawing on him.

Drawing.

On.

Him.

"LW. Honey." It seemed like all of his Specific Sentences started like this now. " What have I told you about drawing constellations with my freckles?"

Nothing, of course, but that was beside the point.

Laughing, he gave her a grin, waggled his eyebrows obnoxiously, then went back to help Jove and the rest of them finish their sandcastle within the time limit. And, twenty minutes later -

"I think we're done! TYBALT WHERE ARE YOU quit playing with those coconuts and put them on our sandcastle."

Except instead of shutting a door in Tybalt's face he just smashed some sand in it instead.