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The ocean receded, cleansing the shoreline of all impurities. All clam-holes, etches, lines, grooves, trudges, footprints, stick-scratches and dune-tracks erased with the ebbing, salt-foaming water. The sand was given a short respite, a moment of what fresh air there was to be had, before another wave smothered it, splaying foam and droplets about.

From the wave that barreled onto shore, two tigers emerged like they had been thrown from the portal of another world. They dashed forward, clambering onto the shore as the water once again pulled away, lingering forces pulling at their weak limbs.

They gasped and panted heavily, their hearts racing and their muscles still clenched with residual strain. The white one turned her head to the other at last, just as a wave met them, and said,

"Man! That was more fun today! I think the ocean was going easy on us before."

"Also maybe cuz we're tired." The orange one responded, rising up on shaky legs.

The white one giggled, "Are you cold?" She said, grasping onto his left leg to keep it from shivering.

"No, I'm just so worn out," he admitted, sitting back down.

"Aww," she footsied him, a little tired herself, "All tuckered out, huh?"

His eyelids flattened. "Well, I didn't sleep too great last night."

Her teasing fell away. "You think the waves will bother you tonight, too?"

"You wanna build something?" He asked, rather quickly.

She blinked. "Build something? Like what?"

"Like a sandcastle."

"You know how?"

"Nope."

She giggled. "Sounds like fun, I brought some buckets and shovels...well, mom made me bring them." They stood, heading back toward the dry sand, past the line of dead seaweed that was now being cleaned up.

"What's wrong with bringing them?" He asked.

"I thought they were too...little," she replied.

Ket rolled his eyes as they approached their parents.

"Oh no," Momma B. huffed. "Here they come."

"Your moms are not here at the moment; please leave a message after the tone."

Both moms beeped.

Emeral tilted her head. "You guys are weird," she mumbled. "Ket and I wanna make a sandcastle."

Momma B. nodded. "That's wonderful, dear, just don't block the sun."

She squinted an eye. "We kinda need stuff from the car."

"Need, need, need," Momma R. said, tilting her head side to side.

The keys jingled as Momma B. got them out of her bag. "C'mon," she beckoned.

"Are you guys even gonna get in the water?" Her daughter asked, as the kids followed to the car.

"Maybe. Us moms are more interested in tanning."

The two tiger cubs exchanged glances.

"I don't get it either," Ket said so only Emeral could hear.

The car chirped as Momma B. unlocked it remotely. The trunk was still full of some dry groceries that they had gotten a couple hours ago, as well as the gear they didn't want to get taken. Emeral knew right where the things she wanted were, and proceeded to collect them, handing them off to Ket.

"Bucket, shovel, spatula, pokey-thingy, ...why is a comb in here?"

Nevertheless, the few supplies they needed were placed in the bucket, which was pink. Car shut and locked, they began to walk back to the beach, with Ket carrying the bucket. Which was pink.

The sun came from behind the clouds. There was no denying just how bright the sand was; a blaring canvas of cream that made the tiger cubs squint like crazy. Thankfully, they'd thought to purchase sunglasses while shopping. Also thankfully, Ket's weren't pink.

"Do you know how to build a sandcastle?" Ket asked as the sand changed from hot and loose to cool and compacted beneath their padded feet.

"Not really," Emeral replied, squatting down and slapping her hand on the smooth sand. The bucket was placed beside her and she immediately took the etching stick as she sat down fully. She traced a design in the sand while Ket took the plastic spade and shoved it unceremoniously into the grit.

He pulled up on it, and the clump of sand came up like flour, crumbling and flaking off the sides of the spade. "It looks kinda tough," he commented glancing over at the white tigress.

She looked up from her drawing, a crude kitty-face. "Well I think we're supposed to put it in the bucket and then dump the bucket over," she stated.

"Well I know that." Ket began scooping spade-fuls of sand and placing it in the bucket colored the bane of his existence. But after a dozen scoops he realized this was getting him nowhere, and instead he laid the bucket on its side and scooped sand in with his hand.

Emeral giggled. "So, what kinda castle are we making?" She asked, and moved over to kneel by Ket, still with the stick in her hand. "I'm thinking four towers," she said, trying to draw it in the sand. "Like a box."

"Sounds easy enough," Ket replied, righting the bucket. "Let's do it."

He lifted the bucket up to turn it over, but as it hovered in the air for only a second, the bottom edge of the sand fell away in a clump, followed by another clump from the middle. The two tigers watched as, clump by clump, the bucket emptied.

"Well," Emeral shrugged, "that didn't quite work."

"S'cuse me?"

Emeral turned, leaning backward a little, toward the voice that requested her attention. She was met with a pair of skinny, brown-furred legs, and then looked upward.

Standing a comfortable distance away was a doe. She was a teenager, probably somewhere around sixteen. She was athletically toned, slender and very pretty. She wore a tan-colored bikini that almost matched the color of her belly-fur.

Emeral noticed that she was rather... endowed.

Standing beside her was a young buck, closer to the tigers' own ages. His legs were oddly skinny for his upper-body, like one of those trick-costumes where one person is the torso and the other person is the legs. He lacked antlers, and there were still just a few small spots on his head.

"Are you guys trying to build a castle, too?" The doe asked, twitching the hand that held their orange bucket, which wasn't pink.

For a second the tigers were quiet, until Ket answered while he let his sunglasses dangle around his neck. Emeral glanced at him as he did, and then moved to be next to him as he stood.

"Cool," the doe said with a smile, "Can we help? We've built a few and it's fun building with new people sometimes."

Ket smiled, nodding. "Sure." An elbow nudged him. He glanced at Emeral.

"Stop staring." She instructed.

"Something wrong?" The doe asked.

Ket squinted an eye at Emmy. "No," he said, but it was almost like a question.

"Don't you have to do some partying or something?" Emeral asked.

The doe shook her head. "No, I'm not a party-er. Besides," she easily placed her hand on the buck's head, rubbing it. "I got this guy to look after," she said with affection.

"Cut it out Cass," the buck grumbled, ducking away.

She chuckled, setting the bucket down. "By the way, my name's Cassie, and this is my baby brother, James."

"How old are you?" Emeral asked the doe.

Ket flicked an ear. "...Why?" He asked her.

"I'm just curious," she said.

Cassie shrugged. "I'm seventeen, but I'm still just a kid at heart," she replied with a little charm. She leaned forward, and spoke in a whisper. "My brother is ten, but pretend he's thirteen, okay?"

"Cass!" He grumbled.

"What?" She said, shrugging dramatically, "I thought you wanted people to pretend like you were thirteen."

"No!" He groaned. "I wanted you to tell people I was thirteen if they asked."

"Oh," she smiled sarcastically, "Oopsie."

Ket chuckled. "Don't sweat it, James, I'm not thirteen either. My name is Ket, and this is Emmy."

"Hi Ket and Emmy," Cassie greeted formally. "Is Emmy short for something?"

"It's short for Emeral," Ket replied.

"Oh, that's such a lovely name."

Emeral stated, almost defensively, "Ket and I are boyfriend-girlfriend."

"Oh really?" Cassie said with a coo, "That's sweet. I remember when I had my first boyfriend in first grade."

Emeral muttered something under her breath.

"Huh?" Ket asked, his hackles still twitching.

"Ket's name is short for something, too." She continued, still sounding a little different to the tiger she was talking about; "His full name is Arkethius, and I'm one of the few people that know."

"Uh oh," Cassie commented, "is it a deep secret? Are we not supposed to know?"

Ket shrugged, finding himself struggling with how to respond. "It's not a big deal. I just think it's a weird name."

"It's not weird, it's unique, right James?"

The buck rolled his eyes.

"Be nice to them." She admonished. "Well, we'll pretend like we don't know."

"Well," Ket rolled his hand, "We're also kind of keeping being boyfriend-girlfriend a secret..." he said, emphasizing the last words while giving Emeral an eyeball.

"You can trust that our lips are sealed," Cassie stated. "Right, James?"

"Sure," the buck replied with an apathetic shrug.

"Now that all that introductory stuff is out of the way," Cassie said, dusting her hands off like she had sand on them. "What's say we build a castle, huh?"

"It's just kind of weird," Emeral stated.

"What is?" Ket asked softly.

"Well, like--" Emeral huffed. "I thought we weren't s'posta talk to strangers."

Ket shook his head. "I don't see a problem with it," he replied, "Our moms are right there." He turned a bit to look at them and waved. His mom waved back.

I can think of two really big problems. Emeral thought, glancing at Cassie.

"If you guys don't want us to help we don't have to," the doe chimed.

"No, no," the boy tiger insisted, "It's okay. We don't know what we're doing."

"Well it's not just that," Cassie said with a smile, "I just like meeting people. And James needs to get out of his little shell and start making friends."

"I have friends." The buck retorted.

"Yeah but you need friends that don't spend all day playing videogames." She told him, moving to her knees. "There's more to life than X-Box."

James rolled his eyes again.

"So," Ket began, pointing at the drawing. "Emmy and I were trying to do like four towers in a square, but when I tried to do it all the sand fell out of the bucket before I set it down."

Cassie leaned forward and examined the drawing. "Well, the best sand to use is the sand that's closer to the water," she suggested. She dug her hand into the sand where they were and pulled it up. "See how this is all crumbly like a cookie? It's a little too dry. So let's you and me go take our buckets and fill them with the right kind of sand, okay?"

"Okay," Ket said, standing up along with the doe, grasping his bucket, which was pink.

"I'm coming with you," Emeral insisted, standing up and brushing sand off of her rear and tail.

"Oh, of course," Cassie said, "James, you coming too?"

The buck quietly stood and followed.

The water caressed their feet and hooves as they stepped onto the compacted sand, and as it pulled away, tugging at their ankles like it desperately did not want to leave, they began to fill their buckets.

"Get as much as you can," Cassie advised, scraping her hand along the surface of the sand to try and bull-doze a nice amount into her bucket's maw. "The water's coming back so lift the bucket up..."

They waited until the water receded again, Emeral got distracted for a moment by a fish breaching the surface. But she quickly brought focus back to the task at hand, keeping a sharp eye on her boyfriend.

"Is this enough?" Ket asked, his voice a little loud to accommodate the rushing sea.

"Maybe, try pressing it down." The response came from James this time, which surprised Emeral at least. The buck moved to the pink bucket and pressed his palm into the sand, pushing it further in and compacting it, squeezing the air-bubbles out. When he was finished, there was room for another couple inches of sand yet.

Once satisfied, the group went back to shore.

"Now's the fun part," Cassie said, as they set their buckets down on the cookie-crumbly sand where their picture was. "Flip your bucket over, but be quick or the sand could still dump out."

"Kay," the tigers said, and worked together to flip the bucket over quickly. It was almost like a small adrenaline rush, a race against gravity. The bucket sank into the soft sand a little from the force of their actions, to the point where it tilted slightly.

After righting it, James took a turn in the instruction, helping them pull the bucket away while at the same time not disturbing the shape. Ket kept his hands on the structure while Emeral and James gently twisted the bucket as they pulled upward, all the while the orange tiger smoothing out any flaws left behind.

When the bucket was halfway up, it lifted away with ease. Left behind was a pristine structure, if you could overlook the grooves from the lip of the bucket spiraling up the base.

Ket and Emeral watched as the deer siblings placed the second tower without a hitch. They had clearly done it at least several times before. They didn't even really talk to each other while doing it, not that they had enough time to talk anyway. In just a moment the second tower, more pristine than the first and without spiral-grooves, was constructed.

They filled their buckets up in pairs again, the tigers now confident in the task. They set up the last set of towers in tandem, except that this time Emeral was the spotter for Ket, and she accidentally pressed too hard and caused their tower to fall.

"That's okay," Cassie said tenderly, "It happens. You can just pack the sand back in and try it again, it's still wet enough."

Their next attempt proved successful, and Emeral's vision was realized. They stood, gazing down at their ten minutes of work. The towers were set up in an uneven rhombus shape, with one tower placed a little farther from the other three, or the other three placed a little too close together. They were about half a foot apart, more or less, and already the first pair of towers was beginning to dry at the top, changing color from golden-brown to coffee-with-cream brown.

"Looks good so far," James said, leaning over to correct a few flaws he saw at the base of one of the towers with careful fingers.

"So far?" Emeral asked.

"Our castle needs walls," Cassie explained. "Can't defend a castle that doesn't have walls."

"How are we going to do that?" Ket asked. "Won't they start falling on us?"

"Well I'm thinking," James began, walking around the castle, "We can fill the inside with sand so that it's solid, and smooth it out on top and on the sides."

"Sounds like a plan, little bro."

Ket considered it, and ultimately nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good."

"Of course it does." Emeral muttered so no one could hear, glaring at Cassie.

The group set about taking surrounding sand and placing it in the center of the rhombus. Once they had a nice amount, James got to work smoothing out the top while they continued to fill in the sides.

Once the walls of the castle reached halfway around each tower, each person took a wall and began smoothing it out at the base. Emeral made sure to get the spot between Ket and Cassie, and focused only the minimal amount on the task. The work was finished rather quickly, and once again the group stood to look at their creation.

And then Ket spoke.

"Do you think we can put another tower in the middle?"

Cassie smiled. "Great minds think alike."

Then why did you think of it, too?

Emeral wrinkled her nose and fanned her left whiskers.

"We'll want to wet the middle a little so the sand sets better," the doe stated, "and it'll be tricky, but I think we can pull it off."

So once again, the group set forth to get the compacted sand from the shoreline. Emeral scraped her hands into the muck and plopped it into the bucket, only to have the water come up and fill the hole she made with more of it as it ran away, like it was laughing at a prank it pulled on her.

One bucket for the tower, the other bucket to moisten the surface it would be affixed to, they returned to their structure. Very carefully they scooped water into cupped hands and spread it about the top of the sand, making it coffee-dark and ready for the tower. They had to be rather quick before it dried.

Cassie and James, being the more experienced sand builders, put the bucket on top of the sand. It was mostly because Cassie's height made it easier for her to lift the bucket over, and James's hands were smallest and could aim the bucket without hitting the other towers.

But that was the easy part.

"Okay. Emmy, James; you guys help me lift. Ket, can you be the spotter?"

"Sure."

"Can I spot?" Emeral chimed, and then insisted; "I wanna spot."

Cassie nodded, "Okay, you and Ket switch roles."

Emeral positioned her hands to begin spotting. It wasn't that hard of a task, despite her earlier slip-up, and plus she wanted Ket to concentrate on his hands and not what was in front of him.

Cassie was standing opposite the boy tiger. She leaned forward, grasping the top of the bucket, counting to three. She began to lift it, and the two boys slowly nudged the lip up with the tips of their fingers from underneath.

Emeral glanced up at Cassie for a second. Ket was looking down, and if he knew what was good for him he'd keep his eyes on his fingers. That doe, coming in with her...things and now she was dangling them all around in front of him. She looked to her boyfriend, and saw his eyes twitch up very quickly.

She squinted hers just as quickly.

"Almost...there..." Cassie said, and then sighed as she lifted the bucket all the way off, exposing the final tower in all its glory. "Phew," she said, stepping back and raising a hand to wipe her brow.

Emeral's eyes were still on Ket. And thankfully his eyes were also on the castle.

"Great job guys," Cassie said, dusting her hands. "Nice spotting, Emmy."

"Huh?" The tigress flinched as her name was spoken. "Oh, uh...thanks." Was Cassie mocking her? She didn't really have her eyes on the tower at all.

"So..." Ket said, his brain churning. "How about we make a moat? And maybe carve some crenellations on the towers..."

"Crene-what-ums?" Cassie asked.

"Crenellations," Ket repeated, "The posts that archers use to hide behind." He still received a blank stare. He drew the jagged-tooth pattern in the air.

"Oh," Cassie slapped her bare thigh, "Tower-teeth," she giggled, using the immature word. "Wow, you know words that even I don't."

Ket shrugged. "I read a lot of books," he replied bashfully.

"I knew what he meant," Emeral stated, crossing her arms. She was amazed at how she even convinced herself with her tone.

"Well," Cassie smiled. "At least our edjumacation system is helping some people. I think that half of the teachers in my school don't even know what--crenellations?--are." She looked at the castle. "Well, I think those are some nice ideas. Let's get started."

"Actually, I think I need to take a break," Emeral said.

"A break?" Ket questioned. He thought this was fun; you took a break from something that was not fun. Like carrying a pink bucket.

"Yeah..." Emeral searched for an excuse. "I'm...I'm hungry."

"Oh..." He looked disappointedly at the structure. "Well...okay. Um..." He looked back at Cassie.

She smiled. "Oh go ahead, you guys go eat. We can pick this up later, we'll be here. Maybe James and I will go do some swimming--we'll keep an eye on the castle and make sure no one stomps it."

Ket smiled back. "Okay, thanks a lot. It was nice meeting you." He stuck his hand out.

The doe shook it. "Nice meetin' you, too."

When he turned to Emeral, she took that hand in hers.

"We'll be back soon," Ket said as she began leading him away. "Hey, loosen up a little, Miss Jiu-Jitsu."