CASE [GL]

It seemed like Luna was hungrier than I had imagined at first as she took quite a lot from Eva’s meal, obviously she was being allowed to by Eva. And to be honest, I took a couple of bites from her food as well, less out of hunger and more because it just looked like it tasted very nice. It was a nice casual meal between friends who were on an island holiday together. 

When we were done we put the plates aside at the area that was indicated to us by a message on our holo stick and then called for the drone to come pick it up again. That way everything immediately got cleaned and we barely had to do anything ourself. 

While we were eating the sun had well and truly set beneath the horizon giving us a very nice view of the night sky above. 

“Is it time for that walk around the island I asked about earlier?” I asked my companions. 

“We should totally walk around with flashlights to explore the island, a bit like a mystery series.” Eva proposed as she got off her chair. 

“Won’t that scare Luna off too much?” I looked at my girlfriend. 

“No! I am very brave.” She stated. 

“It’s not like this island is halloween themed, plus there’s still enough lanterns around.” She motioned towards her hut. “Are you girls coming?” 

“You have flashlights in there?” I stood up from my seat too. 

“Yeah, three of them to be precise. I think that’s because the electric fusebox is closest to my hut.” 

“Makes sense.” I nodded and waited for Luna to get up too. Of course I wanted to make use of every second of this holiday to hold hands with her... Or you know… more intimate stuff. 

She grabbed my hand and on we went to Eva’s hut. Eva quickly went inside to go collect the flashlights. From the looks of it the huts were pretty much identical to one another apart from a couple of color accents. 

“Here you go, two flashlights for my friends and one for me.” She handed two flashlights to us. 

“Then it’s time to go exploring.” I smiled. “Maybe we should just follow this path and see where it leads?” 

“Great plan, glorious leader.” Eva joked, which Luna found very funny. 

I just rolled my eyes and let Eva walk out in front of us, following the wooden path that laid in front of us. 

It lead us through the trees to, what I presumed to be, the center of the island where the road split up into 3 other directions. 

“Always go left?” I proposed. 

“Always go left.” Eva nodded. 

“Always go left?” Luna asked. 

“When you are in a dungeon in games or something like that, people often find it easiest to just follow one wall. In most cases you can map the dungeon out rather well like that. It’s just a little thing.” 

“Do keep in mind that there’s tricks so people who follow that tactic get stuck forever. But let's assume the people who own this island are not sadists who build dungeons.” 

“Now you’ve jinxed it Lauren, beware for the evil magicians in the bushes.” Eva chuckled. “They can be anywhere now.” 

I rolled my eyes “Shush.” 

 

The left path snaked through the woods for a little while until we reached an open area close to the beach. What immediately caught my eye was the fenced off tennis court that the path ran next to almost immediately after exiting the forested area. When I shone my flashlight over it a cabinet on the side pulled my attention. From the looks of it that’s where the tennis rackets were stored. 

“Woow. I didn’t know we had a tennis court.” I walked up closer to the fence with Luna still holding my hand. 

“It was on the website.” Luna replied, looking together with me. “Have you ever played it before?” 

I shook my head. “No, I haven't. Tennis is for the rich folks and while we weren’t poor when I was younger, we definitely weren’t rich.” 

“Oh, is it for the rich people down in Antarctica?” Eva asked. 

“Yeah. It’s more a logistical thing. You’d pretty much need to build your own heated court if you wanted to play. As tennis isn’t terribly popular down south, there aren’t really clubs you can play at.” 

“Ah, right.” 

“What about you, Eva?” Luna turned to Eva. 

“I have played a couple of times.” She nodded. “It’s fun, not really my sport per se, but fun nonetheless.” Eva then looked back at me with a smirk. “Does that mean I can beat Lauren at sports?” 

“You very well might.” I laughed. “But I would definitely take up the challenge if you don’t mind.” 

“I want to try too.” Luna nodded. “You’ll need to explain the rules to me though when we do because that’s one part of human culture that I didn’t really read into.” 

“We’ll tell you when we get there.” Eva winked. 

After that we went on to the other sites to see in this location. It looked like this area was designated as a sports and gym kind of area which definitely looked to be my thing. I was a bit surprised to see a pool here as well, but then again, it’s probably easier to swim laps when you are not swimming in the ocean. 

Besides some gym equipment, the pool and a small football/basketball area there also was a little round hut set up at the edge of the beach. It very much looked like a little beach bar to me, chairs included, with in the back a door, presumably a toilet so you didn’t have to run all the way back to your hut when you got a sudden tummy ache or something like that. 

“It’s going to be hard to keep Lauren away from this place, isn’t it?” Eva laughed. 

“Hey, it is a nice area.” I replied. 

“That’s true. And the bar looks pretty stocked as well.” She said while leaning into the small hut. She then looked out to the ocean where a couple of beach chairs were already waiting for us. Albeit that it maybe was a bit too late now to go sunbathing. 

 

“We should continue following the shoreline I think.” Eva used her flashlight to shine on the wooden path that ran somewhat parallel with the shore. “That way we will get to our other destination automatically.” 

“Go ahead.” I smiled, not really needing to go anywhere in particular, and it would be nice to walk along the water with my girlfriend. 

Eva went on and guided us over the path with her flashlight. Although thanks to the very brightly lit moon, we didn’t really need any flashlights to be honest. 

Luna stared across the water at the moon. “It’s funny that we can see the place we met each other for the first time all the way from over here.” 

“It is a rather big base after all.” I looked up at the moon as well. You could just slightly see the gray contouring of the base if you knew what to pay attention to. “I wished we had a somewhat more romantic first meeting spot though.” 

“What, are you saying that a military base on the moon is not a romantic spot? Youth these days. Don’t know what romance is at all!” Eva was clearly taking the piss. 

“You did buy me Sharky there though.” 

“That’s true. I guess it’s not all too bad. But it definitely could have been better.” I took the opportunity to give Luna a kiss on the cheek. “But I will never regret that I met you. You can bet your life on that.” 

“Awh.” Luna blushed and returned my kiss with a kiss on my cheek. 

Our flirtatious ways only got interrupted by a sudden “Woah!” from Eva. When we turned around to look at her, she’d started to pick up the pace to another wooden hut sat down on the beach. In the distance I could also see one more of the beach bars albeit that this one appeared to be quite a bit bigger. In between the two huts a gray stone fire pit was raging with fire, looking terribly inviting if I had to admit.  

“What’s in there?” Luna asked to Eva who was already looking inside of the first hut. 

“Lot’s of water sports gear it seems.” She replied. “Surfboards, equipment for kite and wind-surfing. Some other water related toys too.” Eva peeked back at us and grinned. “This must be the beach beach area I have read about. For general watersports and sunbathing. The classic beach experience.” 

“Well, whatever is in there can wait for tomorrow, I’m going to get a drink and sit at the firepit.” I proclaimed. 

“That does not sound like a bad idea, I’m in.” Eva nodded and closed the door to the hut. 

“And I’m going to join too of course.” Luna squeezed my hand. “It looks very romantic.” 

“Just tell me if you want me to disappear, alright? I will stealth out of here.” Eva winked. 

“Thanks.” I chuckled and started walking towards the beach bar. It looked like it was manned by a robot. Well, at least I didn’t have to pour the drinks myself.