[E-Beach] Arlo's Great Adventure

The sun was already high in the sky that day. A few fluffy clouds drifted lazily through the azure sky as though they hadn’t a care in the world. The slight breeze that carried them gently rustled the tree leaves overhead, dappling the underbrush with soft splotches of sunlight. It was yet another beautiful day on the island, yet the world’s contentedness didn’t seem to carry to everyone.

From within the Daycare, a long sigh could be heard. A small isoling lay on his belly, legs splayed out like a starfish, already-flopped ears drooping even more than usual. “Ughhhhhh...” the isoling murmured. “I’m so booooooored.” Arlo rolled himself onto his back, stretching out his paws towards the sky, gazing up blankly towards the few patches of blue not covered by canopy. He spread his sales as he closed one eye, trying to see if he could see through the membrane in an attempt to find something that wasn’t boring.

Frio seemed to notice the dejected young iso, tilting his head in amusement at Arlo’s interesting pose he’d put himself in. After a moment he padded over, hands on his hips as he stopped just over the iso. “Heya pup, how’s it going?” he said with a smile.

“I’m so bored, Frioooo, there’s nothing to do today…” the iso replied in a sulky tone, flopping his forelegs down rather quickly as Arlo gazed up at him.

“Aww, chin up kiddo! There’s always something you could do! You could go exploring or- wait, no, you’d need someone to go with you for that… hmm… oh, maybe you could-” 

Frio put a hand to his chin thoughtfully as he began coming up with ideas,  but Arlo’s attention had already been captured as he had stopped listening after the first few words. You could go exploring! The tawny iso sat up from his horizontal position. His mind began to race as a grin crossed his features, ears pricking in excitement. ‘I can explore?!’ he thought to himself. ‘Then I can be like the adults! They get to go on soooo many adventures, and they all have so many seashells- wait!’ Arlo jumped to his paws excitedly. ‘I can go look for seashells! The others are gonna be soooo impressed when I come back with lots and lots-’

“-or we could play a game… hmm, what could we play?” Unaware that the young iso was completely not listening, Frio had continued to list ideas of what Arlo could do to entertain himself. “Maybe chase… or hide and seek or-”

“I want to do that!” Arlo replied out loud to his thoughts.

“Orrr- oh! Sure, okay! We can do that!” Frio noticed how excited Arlo had become. Under the impression that the little isoling was excited over his idea, the isomara seemed pleased at getting the pup out of his slump. “Alright then, I’ll go see if the other isolings want to play. I’ll give you a head start, go on!” And with that, Frio left Arlo to go and hide as he went to round up some more players for their game.

Arlo had snapped out of his distracted thoughts in time to hear Frio agree to his ideas. Had he said his idea out loud and not realised? No matter, Frio had told him he could go off before he left, why wait around for any longer when he could be out exploring! As soon as the adult had turned to leave, Arlo sprinted off, tail streaming behind him excitedly. His fortune awaited him, and he was going to find it today!

The little fluffball ran in the direction he believed the beach was; it had been a little while since they’d gone on a beach trip but he was sure he knew the way! After all, he was an explorer now, and all explorers knew exactly which way they were headed, right? Somehow, with enough luck, the young iso managed to find his way out onto the sands. 

“Wow, I’m a great explorer!” he exclaimed with a small hop of joy. “Okay, step one of my super awesome adventure plan complete! Hmm… what’s step two?” Arlo narrowed his eyes in thought, trying to figure out what to do next. “Well… I want to be rich, so I need seashells… oh, I know! Step two of the super awesome adventure plan is to search for seashells!” And with that, he bounded from the border of the forest onto the soft sands by the shoreline as he looked for anything and everything colourful and/or shiny that caught his attention. Being an explorer sure is great!

A fair amount of time had passed as the sun was considerably lower in the sky. Frio was still the seeker, and had found all but one of the isolings who had been playing their little game. “Wow, Arlo sure is good at hiding,” he complimented. The other isos looked bored; they had been found fairly quickly and Frio had been searching exclusively for Arlo for well over an hour. 

“Can we play another game now, Frio? I’m bored” one asked with a yawn. 

“Yes, of course we can,” he replied with a smile. “Hey Arloooo! You win, I give up! You can come out now!” he called out, though to no reply. ‘Hmm, either Arlo is extremely good at hiding, orrrr… uh oh.’ Frio’s ears seemed to droop nervously as he realised he might have lost another isoling… again. ‘Carmen is going to pull my ears off for this if she finds out!’ “Okay kids,” he spun towards them, clapping his hands together decisively. “Let's play a new game. It's called uhhh… ‘Let’s find Arlo!’ Before Carmen gets back and finds out I’ve lost another one” Frio muttered the last part under his breath, before ushering the isos up onto their feet. “First one to find him wins!”

“What do we win?” one of the youngsters asked with narrowed eyes.

“Uhhhhh…” Frio stalled. “Well, you win… uhhhh, what aboutttt an extra helping of dessert tonight!”

The isos cheered in excitement as they all ran off in different directions in search of the missing child. Frio sighed in relief that he had extra eyes to look for him- just before realising if more of them get lost he’s going to be in even bigger trouble! “Wait- don’t go too far!!!” he yelled as he ran off after them all.

Meanwhile, Arlo was having a great time. He had found so many cool things: kelp, feathers, even footprints from someone who had been here before! The little iso played keep-away with the waves, chasing them until they began to approach then running back inland as fast as his little legs could carry him, completely forgetting his little quest for a while.

After what seemed like ages of fun, the youngster began to get a little tired. He let out a yawn as he stretched, spreading his webbed claws into the sand. “I should probably be getting home soon,” he said to himself. “Wait- I forgot all about my quest! No one’s gonna think I’m awesome if I don’t come back with something…”

Just then, out of the corner of his eye he spots something. A small glimmer, a splash of colour. As the waves receded, Arlo spotted what had been hidden by the waves: one giant (in isoling terms) seashell! “WOAHHH!!!” he cried out. “IT’S HUGE!!! This is sure to impress the others back at home!” The shell was a considerable size, it was true, but nothing out of the ordinary. However, to Arlo, it was the biggest shell he had ever seen. He began to dig the sand out from around it before pulling it from its slumber and dragging it further onto the beach. Arlo stepped back to admire it, his eyes sparkling as he gazed upon his fortune. He looked to the sky, which was now beginning to turn golden at the edges. “I’d better get back,” he said to himself. His ‘super awesome adventure’ had been a success.

As Arlo approached the more familiar grounds nearby the daycare, dragging his shell in his mouth, he spotted Frio in the distance. In front of him was Carmen, who had clearly gotten back and… was not too happy with Frio. Upon a closer look, Frio was looking very sorry for himself as Carmen gave him a very loud lecture- even loud for her. Frio was looking at the ground, ears drooped, but as he looked up for a split second, he spotted the small orange-and-white shape of the missing child, and his ears pricked as his eyes widened. Carmen took a moment before she too looked around and noticed Arlo. Both of them came running towards him looking both panicked and relieved. Arlo let go of his shell and smiled at the two of them. “Hi!”

“Where have you been?!” Carmen interrogated after coming to a halt just in front of the young iso.

“I went exploring! Frio said I could, and it was great!” Arlo didn’t seem to realise the danger he could have been in, nor how worried the two adults were for him.

Carmen instantly looked at Frio with an ‘I’ll deal with you later’ glare, before returning her attention to the isoling. “Dear, you shouldn’t go out on your own, even if Frio said it was okay.” Frio double-took, ears pinning, but knew that arguing now would do no good, so stayed quiet as Carmen continued. “If you want to go exploring another day we can, but just make sure one of us is with you, okay? Now, come along, we should get back into the Daycare.”

“Okay…” Arlo said. He wasn’t one to intentionally break the rules, he was just a little easily distracted, especially when something sounded like a lot of fun. He began to follow after Carmen, but stopped suddenly. “-oh! I almost forgot!” he exclaimed as he ran back to collect his prize.

“What’s that you’ve got?” Carmen asked; in her panic she hadn’t noticed the item that had returned with Arlo.

“It's a huuuge seashell- I’m RICH!!!” he squealed in excitement with a happy hop. “I found it hidden under the waves on the beach, I must be the luckiest isoling ever!”

“Ohhh, the beach? You went all the way to the beach by yourself?” Carmen’s voice was laced with anger and spoken through slightly gritted teeth and she slowly looked towards Frio, who quickly stepped back in surprise. 

Arlo however did not notice the tone. “Yeah!” he continued, completely unaware of the looks Carmen was giving Frio. “I had a Super Awesome Adventure Plan and it worked, cause I’m an explorer!” He puffed out his mane proudly.

“Of course you are. Now, let’s go get some food, you must be hungry after your adventure. Do you want me to carry your seashell for you?” Carmen offered.

“Nope, I’ve got it!” Arlo said proudly as he gripped it in his jaw and began to drag it back to Daycare, the two adults following behind him.