The rat-girl was several feet deep into her hole in the sand, wiping sweat off her brow, when two shadows were cast over her.
"Hi there," said a tall, topless guy. "I'm Charlie, and this is my brother Mike," he gestured to the tank-top-wearing dude next to him. "What's your name?"
She looked up at them and hesitated. Other than Kai, she was wary of human adults. They were so big and strong by comparison—even under the effects of the Personification spell, she could not match up to them. Her hands shook, and her grip closed tightly around the plastic shovel. "I-I'm Vermallelia."
"Vermallelia?" Mike whispered to Charlie. "Is that European?"
Charlie shrugged. "Dunno, Danish, maybe?"
"Wha-what do you want?" she demanded.
"We just wanted to come over, say hello… ask what you were doing."
"Isn't it obvious?" she asked. "I'm digging a hole."
"Cool," Mike nodded. "Can we help?"
The question caught her off guard, and she stopped to think about it. "You'll help me dig?"
"Yeah, sounds fun," Charlie said.
"But… I only have a shovel and a bucket. How will you dig?"
"I can use my frisbee to dig," Mike held the disk up. "And Charlie here can use your bucket—if that's alright?"
She bit her lip and looked around her hole. She could dig faster and deeper if they worked together. "Alright," she smiled at them.
***
When Kai arrived at the scene several moments later, Bella trailing behind him, the three were already working in perfect unison.
"Vermallelia?" he called, the pitch of his voice elevated by concern. "Are you—"
He blinked as the three looked up at him, and he recognized the faces of the two men. "Wait, I know you guys!"
"Really?" Charlie asked.
"You sure? We don't remember you," Mike said.
"Don't you have any shame?" Kai grimaced. "She is just a little girl," he pointed to Vermallelia.
"Yeah, we know. That's why we wanted to give her a hand," Charlie said.
"What's the big deal, Kai? They're just helping me dig."
"Don't fall for their tricks, little rat," Bella rushed forward with a scowl. "They may act nice, but the truth is—they just want to mate with you!"
"Haeh?!" Her tail spiked in alarm.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Charlie lifted his hands in protest.
"That's slanderous, lady," Mike said. "You can't go around accusing people like that."
The dog-girl's gaze went to the Oathless, seeking approval, but he hesitated.
"Listen, man, we only came to help the girl dig," Charlie told Kai, then turned to the rat-girl. "Honest."
"Yeah, honest," Mike echoed.
Caught between them, Vermallelia lifted her eyes to Kai, seeking similar approval.
Feeling the pressure of their gazes, he scratched his head. Last time, they did back off when they found out Bella was a minor, so… They can't be all that bad. He sighed. "Right, sorry, my bad… We jumped to conclusions."
"So… can we get back to digging?" Vermallelia asked.
"Wait," the dog-girl wagged her tail. "I wanna dig, too."
"You are welcome to join us, but…" the rat-girl shrugged apologetically. "We are out of tools."
"That's no problem. I'll just dig with my hands like I always do."
"In that case, grab a corner."
The dog-girl jumped into the hole, which was growing wider and wider to accommodate the new diggers. "Come on, Kai, let's dig!"
"No," Vermallelia said adamantly.
"No?" he asked.
"I have another job for you," she turned seaward. "The waves can make our work harder and flood our hole. I need you to take the sand we shovel away and use it to make a dam on this side."
"Alright, I can do that."
"Here, take the bucket," Charlie raised it up. "It will make your work easier."
"Thanks," Kai accepted the gift. "But what about you?"
"I'm okay. I'll dig with my hands like she does."
The Oathless nodded and began gathering sand into the bucket.
***
"What are these morons doing?" Felicia asked, watching from her folding lounge chair.
Assuming the question to be rhetorical, Vira only smiled and lay beside the fox-girl on her own chair. A long silence stretched between the two.
"She seems nice," Felicia said.
Vira glanced at her.
"His girlfriend," the fox-girl explained. "She seems nice."
The fairy frowned.
"You don't think so?"
She shook her head. "She isn't good for him."
"How do you know?"
"It's not true love."
"True love?" Felicia scoffed. "What does that even mean?"
Vira scowled. "True love is when you know someone completely and love them as they are, along with all their faults and their flaws."
"Why would you love someone's flaws?"
"It's not about loving the flaws; it's more like… accepting them, loving them despite the flaws… because, after all, no one's perfect."
The fox-girl considered that for a moment. "Evelyn is perfect."
"You… love her?"
"Yes, I suppose I do…"
"Can I ask why? What made you…"
Felicia nodded, but it took her a while to speak the words out. "She saved my life," she started. "It was a few winters back… I was ill with something, and it was raining and cold, so… I snuck into her store through an open window and made a mess of the place, breaking a few things… in the morning after, she found me. I was terrified, thought she was going to kill me, but I was too sick to run or hide… the best I could do was whimper and hiss at her."
"But she took care of you?"
"Mhm… took me to the vet, cared for me as I recovered, and replaced all the things I broke—which I am sure cost her a small fortune… Even then, she left the window open, so I'd have a place to stay. She didn't have to do that. She didn't have to do any of that. She should have grabbed me by the pelt and thrown me out to die in the cold… I'm only a fox; I could never have repaid her kindness, and she knew that, but she did it anyway…" Her lips stretched in a wistful smile. "And she was so beautiful… I remember it so vividly, the scent of her perfume, the warmth of her coat—which is made of synthetic fur, mind you…
"She donates money to charities for animal rights, because of course she does…
"Because she is Evelyn, and she is perfect…"
"You only say that because you don't know her, not completely. I assure you she has flaws; we all do…"
"Maybe… but in that case, I don't want to know her completely. I don't need to. What I know is enough."
Vira pursed her lips. Challenging the fox-girl on this wasn't necessarily in anyone's best interest. "I don't know about you and her, but with Kai and Maria, it isn't good… He is hiding himself from her, pretending to be someone he isn't, exposing himself only when he thinks it will make her like him more… In a way, I guess he did as he had intended; he became a… 'better manipulator.' But he isn't the only problem.
"Maria might be a nice girl—as you say—but she has her own problems. Much like Kai, she thinks of relationships as transactional, and she only remains in one as long as it's easy and fun. The moment it becomes too hard, she runs away. I don't know why she is like that. I'm sure she has a reason, and if I could, I would call for a fairy godmother to help her become someone worthy of true love, because, stars know, as she is right now—she isn't."
"Is it really that wrong to leave a relationship when it becomes too much trouble? Shouldn't she value her own well-being above others'?"
The fairy sat up in her chair. "Is there anything that could make you abandon Evelyn?"
Felicia's lips parted, then closed, recognizing the contradiction. "I would give my life for Evelyn," she admitted.
Vira lay back down in her chair. "Now imagine that you know her completely and still feel that way about her."
The fox-girl felt a rush at the thought—a mix of excitement and fear.
"Then go a step further and imagine she knows you completely and feels the same about you."
Felicia's breath caught.
"That—is true love."
"It sounds… impossible."
Vira chuckled. "If it were easy, there'd be no need for fairy godmothers like myself… but it's not impossible."
The silence returned between them as they looked off into the horizon, lost in deep thought.
The fox-girl's eyes eventually landed on the five diggers by the shore, and she lowered her sunglasses. "Seriously, what are these morons doing?"
"Why don't you go ask them?" Vira smirked.
Felicia pushed the shades back up her nose and rose from her chair. "You know, I think I'll do that."
***
The digging operation had reached full force by the time Felicia arrived. The dam stood tall from the seaside, protecting the hole from the waves. A ramp was shaped at the side, allowing easy descent into the ever-expanding excavation site, where the four diggers worked efficiently to delve deeper into the earth.
"Ah… Hi, Felicia," Kai called from beside the dam.
The two brothers looked up from within the hole, and their brows rose at the sight of the woman. "Hi there, lady. I'm Charlie, and this is my brother, Mike."
"Charmed," she purred, then turned to the Oathless. "What are you all doing?"
"What does it look like?" The rat-girl dug her shovel into the sand. "We are digging."
The fox-girl blinked. "I can see that, but why are you digging?"
The Oathless chuckled at the question, then frowned as he realized he didn't have an answer.
"To see how deep we can go," Vermallelia said without a second's hesitation.
Felicia squinted at her. "So, you are digging… to dig?"
"Pretty much."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Sure it does," Kai cut in. "You just don't get it."
"It's not that complicated…" Bella added, her arms caked in sand. "We do it because it's fun!"
"Hm…" She smirked, noticing the brothers' gazes were still fixed on her. "What about you two?"
"U-us?" Mike stammered. "What about us?"
"Would you like to stay here, or… come with me?"
"That depends," Charlie matched her smirk. "Where are we going?"
"I've been wanting to sunbathe," she removed her sunglasses and bent down. "But there are places on my back I just can't reach with the sunscreen," she hung the shades on the thong of her bikini, drawing the men's attention to her breasts—not that they needed the encouragement. "Think you could help me with that?"
They were out of the hole in the blink of an eye.
"Of course," said Charlie. "It'd be our pleasure."
"Lead the way, lady," Mike added. "We'll be right behind you."
"Wait, you're leaving?" Vermallelia asked.
"Sorry, Danish girl," Charlie smiled. "But good luck with your hole."
"Yeah," Mike gave her a thumbs up. "It's really awesome."
The fox-girl put her shades back on and flashed the Oathless a winning smile. "See you later." She walked away, the brothers close behind her.
The dog-girl narrowed her eyes at them as they left, her mind racing. Her eyes went wide as the realization struck her, and she turned to the Oathless. "They want to mate with her!"
Kai winced. "Probably, yeah."
"Then…" she shook her head. "Even though I don't like the fox… we have to warn her."
"Ah, I think she knows."
"What?! Then… that means… Is she going to…"
"No, she won't—at least, I don't think she will."
She blinked in confusion. "Then, why—"
"I see…" The rat-girl crossed her arms.
"Little rat?"
"It's a trap. She lured them with the sunglasses, and now that she has them in her claws, she will take what she wants and leave them high and dry."
Kai's brow went up. "Ah, yeah, that's fairly accurate."
"In that case…" the dog-girl cupped her chin. "Shouldn't we warn them?"
Vermallelia nodded. "I agree, we should go now, before it's too—"
"No. We should probably stay out of it."
"But we can't just let them step unknowingly into a trap!"
"Ah, I think they know."
"What?!"
"Haeh?!"
The two were livid.
"Why would they walk into a trap if they know it's a trap?" The rat-girl pointed to the group of three walking away with her shovel.
"Because they hope there's a chance it isn't."
"And is there?"
"Slim to none."
"Then, we should warn them," Bella insisted.
"Look, why don't we just let them be and go eat some popsicles?"
"You brought popsicles?" the rat-girl beamed.
"In my cooler bag," he pointed. "There, beside Vira."
"What about our hole?" the dog-girl asked.
"We can get back to it later if you want… either way, we're gonna have to leave it at some point; it's not like we can take it home with us."
The rat-girl stepped out of the pit. "The sea will take it eventually… and all our hard work will be for nothing."
"Don't be like that," Kai patted her back. "We had fun digging it, right?"
She shrugged. "I guess."
"Come on, cheer up," he grabbed the rat and lifted her over his head. She yelped, her legs locking around his chest and her arms wrapping around his head.
"Ah! I can't see."
"Serves you right!"
He tried to walk and lost his balance, causing her to yelp again and remove her hands from his eyes. He recovered, stabilizing.
"Careful, if I fall, I'm taking you down with me," he warned her with a smile.
"Wait, carry me too!" The dog-girl leapt on his back, causing him to stumble, and they all fell into the sand, rolling, moaning, and laughing.