A Thousand Salt Kisses (Book 1 of Salt Kiss series)

><> Chapter Twenty-Five <><

It was another beautiful day and Llyr, and I rowed over the waves. Today we were in George's blue boat, which was slightly more relaxing than 'borrowing' from strangers, albeit much slower.

I could not believe how wonderful the weather was in this part of the world and was beginning to think Coney and Starfish had its very own microclimate. Since that wild storm last month, there had been nothing but ferocious sunshine.

Today I wore huge sunglasses and a headscarf, which was tied over my hair. I did not want anybody to see me out with Llyr, as this would quite possibly result in a lot of explaining on my behalf.

On second thoughts, given Llyr's tendencies to not even be visible, I may instead just appear as though I were sitting on my own in a boat, in the middle of the ocean.

I watched him row through my sunglasses, and secretly admired the way his strong arms sliced the oars through the water as though each one was a knife through melted butter.

"You're watching me?" he asked.

"Yep," I admitted and giggled, "You're a good rower."

"Thank you," he said. "What are those things on your face, by the way?"

"Sunglasses?" I laughed. "How can you not know what sunglasses are?"

He stopped rowing. "I've watched people wearing them before, but I often wondered what they were. Can I see?"

I handed them to him, and he put them unsurely over his eyes. "They make things darker," he proclaimed, pulling the glasses off again and examining them.

"Yes that's the whole point," I said.

"So at night time you complain that you can't see, but then when it is the day you want to make everything dark again like it is the night?" he said looking very confused.

"Well, not exactly. It's just we don't like things too dark, or too bright." I explained. feeling a little defensive. "I mean, we can't all just gaze into the sun, like you."

It was true; sometimes this man just stared up at the sky without so much a blink or a squint. It was as though nature and all its extremities were of no complication or hindrance to Llyr whatsoever.

"Ah, well it wasn't always this way for us," said Llyr, handing me back the sunglasses and picking up the oars.

"No?" I asked, putting them back on over my eyes.

Llyr looked ahead and sighed. "We're not too far now."

I looked around us and saw that, as usual, we were in the middle of a vast expanse of water.

"Really?" I asked. I hoped that we were going to be near some land, and not some underwater spectacle that I could neither view nor visit. "Is it a place I will be able to see?" I asked.

"Yes," he promised. "You will love it."


***


The waves brought us closer into the cove, and we relaxed and let them carry us.

As we drifted inland, I gazed at my surroundings with awe. Mauve-coloured cliffs jutted out into the waters around us. I took my sunglasses off and leaned closer. It was as though they were made up of thousands of jagged chunks of marble.

I turned my head to the left so that I could see where we were heading. To my surprise, I saw white, sprawling sands. Why was this incredible beach so deserted? And why on earth had I never seen postcards of it before?

When we were near enough Llyr jumped into the sea, and began to pull the boat into the shore.

"Do you want some help?" I shouted over the roar of the breaking waves.

"No," replied Llyr, "just hold on."

"Are you s-"

I cut off mid-sentence as I felt the boat lift high out of the emerald water and into the air.

"Llyr?" I asked peeking up over the edge, wondering what in God's name was happening now. The boat appeared toland on the beach, and then there was Llyr again, standing on the same side as before.

"Did you... just... pick up... the boat?" I asked slowly.

Llyr did not answer but held out his hand to me, and I took it in a daze.Seriously, I think he just placed the boat on the beach - in a similar fashion to which one might place a bowl of salad on a dining room table or something. Flipping hell.

I used his hand to pull myself up and stepped onto the beach. The sand was warm on my toes, and I felt joy and happiness wash over me. It was beautiful.

He wrapped his arms around me. "It's called Crystal Bay."