Laurel

29

Good afternoon passengers, we are preparing to land in just a few moments, local time is currently 3:37pm, the weather is clear and sunny, if you look out the east side windows you will see Great Blue, an ocean sinkhole along the Lighthouse Reef. We know you had a choice when selecting who to pilot your vacation flight, and we thank you for choosing us ha ha h. Then the intercom switched off.

"I'm pretty sure the guys had fun playing pilot for us judging by the giggles at the end" Damon said to Laurel's back. She was turned away looking out the window at the mysterious ocean sinkhole. It was so strange to see an almost perfectly round pocket of deep sapphire blue water surrounded by the warm blue-green ocean and small juts of rock and coast line.

"It almost doesn't look real, like it's magic." she never turned around or took her eyes off the deep blue pool beneath them, her voice almost reverent.

"Some things on earth are even better than magic, there are some rare ponds around the tropics where the water will glow as you swim in it. It certainly looks like magic, but if you look at the water with a microscope, it turns out it's tiny creatures called diatoms who are able to glow naturally. Bioluminescence. No magic at all." Biodiversity and taxonomy having long been a side hobby for Damon. Earth was indeed wondrous.

"I think I'd like to try swimming somewhere like that sometime." She said as she finally turned around now that they were past the sink hole, and she could feel the plane beginning to descend. Laurel buckled herself into the seat beside Damon and took her hand as she felt the wheels of the plane emerge in anticipation of landing. Marisol also scurried to her jump seat and quickly buckled herself in.

After just a few more moments, the plane touched down on a short air strip on a small private island. There was no airport, no gate service, nothing. The plane's door opened and a small set of stairs were lowered and Laurel stepped out of the climate controlled plane and directly into the humid tropical afternoon sun.

"Shit it's hot! Like super hot out!" she exclaimed excitedly. "I've never been to a beach before, I don't know If I told you that, this is amazing!" The salty air on the breeze teased her curly hair and tickled her nose in a delightful way.

Damon couldn't help but grin as he watched her, he could see her nose crinkle as she smelled the sea air for the first time, watched as the wind blew through her hair, setting individual coils of curls loose in the breeze. The high tropical sun was doing magical things to her auburn hair, all the gold, copper, honey, chocolate, caramel natural highlights shone under the beating sun, almost glowing, making her look like a goddess as she stripped her shoes off to step onto the glittering white sand next to the airstrip. She closed her eyes as she wiggled her toes, burying them in the warm sand. "I'm glad to be here for your first time Laurel, we should get to the villa soon before you start to burn."

"How are we going to get to the villa? I don't see any cars?" Looking at him questioningly.

"Like this" he had closed the space between them, wrapped her in his arms and teleported them across the island to the villa.

"Oh. That is one way to get here. What about our bags?" she asked.

"The guys are going to walk them over before they take off again after Marisol refuels the plane."

"Is it a long walk?" Laurel felt bad that they were making the others do so much work by themselves.

"Not for them, wont take them more than an hour to get the luggage here and themselves back to the plane. Super strength and speed and all of that right?"

"So in less than an hour, we are going to be totally alone on this island" she had never left his arms, but was now snuggling herself into his body even more now.