Sand castle building contest

[Patrick]

Patham, taking a break between two rounds of the beauty pageant walked purposefully to an empty spot on the beach. He thanked the two burly looking owls, who had been sending would-be vendors and sunbathers away from the spot. The freshly dug and evened sand looked perfect for this activity.

 

Patham ordered his two helpers to set up the booth. They emptied the boxes and soon a table was on the beach, and a large sign next to it showed what was supposed to happen here, written in big, curving letters.

 

Sand castle building contest!

Entry fee none!

Geld for participation: 10!

Additional geld for winner: 25!

Requirements: minimum 500 words!

Castles shall be judged more by their final state than the way they are built!

 

One of Patham’s helpers took out some paper, then hesitated.

 

“Sorry, but I forgot to bring the pen for people to sign up with.”

 

“Well you’ll have to use a feather then.” – Patham replied.

 

Two minutes later even the apparatus to write with was ready and Patham leant back against the table, awaiting any contestants.

[Wyvern]

The sand beneath Patham shook for a moment, shifting and causing the two owls to let out high-pitched hoots . Patham stared down at the dune, then jumped back when he noticed two familiar-looking horns surfacing from it's depths . The eyes of the "burly" owl guardians grew wider and wider as Wyvern lifted himself from the ground. Patham stared as the overgrown lizard brushed the sand from his wings and coughed up a few sand fleas.

 

"Hi Wyvern. Let me guess... a practical joke?"

 

"Not exxxactly." The reptilian Elder let out a sigh and removed a crab from his right horn. "Long story involving secret sauces and a couple of Special Chef Operatives too bloodthirsty to host a beach BBQ. What'sss going on here?"

 

"Sand castle contest, involving geld-"

 

Wyvern scrawled his name on the sheet before Patham could say another word. The lizard then scratched his chin, and ran off to a nearby palm tree. He disappeared behind the tree for a long moment, then rushed back to the sand castle construction grounds carrying a large brown bag.

 

"Watch this Patham." Wyvern beamed proudly. "Not only will I be the very first to build a sand castle here, I'll also do it in record time. Those other labor-intensive Pen suckers don't stand a chance!"

 

Wyvern began reaching into his bag and tossing out sand, forming a small castle pillar on the ground in front of him. Patham watched in amazement as the pillar quickly dissolved, causing Wyvern to cry out in dismay. The overgrown lizard proceeded to form another pillar to the same result, and repeated the process until he clawed at his scales in frustration.

 

"Some gimmick!" Wyvern held the bag up for Patham to see, and pointed at the label that read "Quick Sand." He then tossed the bag on the ground and began jumping up and down on it. "And they blame me for faulty advertising!"

 

Patham frowned.

 

"Ummm, Wyvern? I think you're sinking..."

[Sweetcherrie]

The sight of Wyvern sunken half away in the sand is rather funny, and Sweet giggles loudly about it.

 

“Hello Mister Lizard, why are you half buried?”

 

But the almost dragon is too busy wondering why his quick sand hasn’t worked, and Patham answers.

 

“He tried to build a sand castle, but something went wrong. You can try if you want, it’ll earn you some geld for candy.”

 

With the word 'candy' Sweet’s eyes grow big, and she nods eagerly.

 

“Can I just start here?”

 

But she doesn’t wait for an answer and starts building. Soon enough she has made a massive pile of sand and has started sculpting it into the right shapes. The pile of sand is bigger than the little girl, and she has to stand on her toes when she shapes the towers. Halfway she steps back and looks at her work. The castle now has a tower on each corner, a real courtyard, and a yet empty moat. Sweet goes back to work, and with the tip of her tongue sticking out she starts on the windows. Slowly the castle gets more and more shape, and when she is finished it looks almost as a real castle, except that it is smaller.

 

Patham looks at it appreciatively; the little girl really did a wonderful job. With a proud look in her eyes Sweet looks at her castle, it has really turned out well; all it needed now were inhabitants. She puts her hand in the pockets of her dungarees and draws out paper and her magic pens. Soon after she has drawn a little princess and a prince, and has even given them very real looking clothes. Now she only needed someone with a little magic. Looking around she sees Venefyxatu in the distance, and without further thinking she starts shouting.

 

“Venefixmetoo!!! Yooohoooo!”

 

The mage looks up, and sees the little girl gesturing at him. With a smile he moves over.

 

“Nice castle.”

 

“Thanks, can you move your fingers…you know to make my people alive?”

 

Looking from the castle to the drawing to the little girl, Venefyxatu chuckles.

 

“Sure.”

 

With a few muttered words the figurines spring to life, and the prince happily hugs the princess before looking around. When they see the castle, both ooooh and aaaah, and walk over to the drawbridge towards the castle. The moat is now filled with water, and tiny crocodiles are swimming around in it. The massive oak doors stand open welcoming and the portcullis is drawn up to receive them. Upon entering the castle they fall silent, and look around. They’re standing in an enormous, candlelit hall (well enormous to them at least).

Hand in hand they walk through the hall and enter a long corridor. The walls are entirely covered with mirrors, and from the ceiling hang crystal chandeliers. The sunlight that falls through the large windows is reflected a million times, and the whole corridor swims in little rainbows.

 

When they walk through the corridor and enter the next room, it starts dazzling them again. All the walls are covered in blue velvet, and there’s an enormous bed standing at one side of the room. The bedspreads are also blue velvet, and on the head of the bed they could see a silver crown.

 

“This must be your room.”

 

The prince says to the princess, and they continue their tour of discovery. The next room is entirely decorated with crimson velvet, and the bed is even bigger. This time there is a golden crown on the head of the bed.

 

“And this must be yours.”

 

The princess says to the prince, and they walk to the next room. A shining bathroom twinkles when they enter; golden taps, and a golden bathtub. The walls are decorated with white marble, and the floors are made of red marble. They return to the big hall, and look at each other.

 

“We can certainly be happy here.” The prince says.

 

“Yes we can, and our children too.” The princess replies.

 

Together they walk back outside, and look up at Sweet. In choir they say thank you, and enter the castle once again. Surprised Venefyxatu and Patham look at each other; Sweet only giggles.

Edited July 28, 2005 by Sweetcherrie

[Patrick]

"Well, well. Not as many as I had expected, but still I'll do this as it has to be done and announce the results!"

 

Patham smiled at Wyvern and Sweetcherrie, who stood before him. Well Wyvern was actually more sinking than standing, but he was still before Patham.

 

"And the winner is: ...." - he paused "wait a moment." - he said reading his paper. "It seems that we have a tie. Well...in that case, I'll have to divide the winner's reward between the two of you."

 

Patham smiled again and handed Wyvern and Sweetcherrie their 12 geld each. He had no idea what to do with the remaining one geld from the reward. As far as he knew there did not exist a half-geld.

 

That is, he tried to hand Wyvern his geld, but the reptilian elder was quickly sinking in the quicksand, so Patham had to just put the geld on the sand in front of him. Wyvern tried clawing for the geld, but was held captive by the sand, and finally gave up, motioning very reluctantly to Patham to give the geld to Sweetcherrie, which he did.

 

OOC: Since there were only two entries I did not want to announce a winner, but then Wyvern pointed out that his piece did not meet the required length, so he can't win. So Sweetcherrie gets the prize geld.

Edited August 31, 2005 by Patrick Durham