“…Wow!”
The fox-dragon held a paw up, squinting out across the beach against the bright noon sunshine – it was… perfect! A whole day and most of the beach just to himself, with nothing to do until dinnertime… really, who could ask for more than that?
Finding a particularly nice spot to stick their umbrella and roll out a towel, Beeps decided to lounge around in the shade and listen to the surf and gulls, sunglasses on and the sounds of the seaside lulling him off to an almost-nap… until, with one big gust of wind, something bumped up against him.
Well.
Bumped up against all of their things, the warm sunshine tinged… orange?
As Beeps opened his eyes, lifting his sunglasses to get a better look, he was greeted by the sheepish decal face of an enormous inflatable otter, trying their best to stand back up after toppling to the sand in the wind! They were easily a story tall, big tail trying to regain their balance… until Beeps reached up, bracing the toy’s tummy with his own paws until they could stand back up.
“W-Woah…” Beeps managed as the big otter brushed a little sand off of their tummy with a squeaky paw, offering a sheepish shrug as an apology. “You’re… you’re really big, huh?”
The otter nodded! It was true, after all.
“…How’d you get so big?”
Again, a small shrug. A pump, probably.
Beeps stared up at the big, big otter, and wondered for a moment about what it would even be like to be a pooltoy. Probably great at the beach, he imagined.
“Could, uh…?”
The rest went unspoken, as Beeps had second thoughts, but Drift seemed to connect the dots, rubbing their chin for a second before nodding.
The huge toy squatted down, holding out a paw invitingly as if they were going to pick the foxdragon up, and, well, Beeps wasn’t passing that up.
Gently, Drift lifted him into the air, before with a speed surprising from air-filled plastic, pressing their snout to his… and blowing!
Instantly, Beeps felt his cheeks blow up – then keep blowing up, tummy beginning to swell as all four limbs and his tail stuck out straight! His fur began to smooth over, patterns simplifying into printed facsimiles of themselves, and, with one final big puff, a cute little valve popped out of the new toy’s tummy!
Lowering Beeps back to the ground, Drift clapped their paws together with a loud sqrk, before taking a little bow – just low enough to knock the umbrella over, something they seemed not to notice.
Beeps, however, was feeling airheaded – but he giggled all the same, squeaking his new tummy with his mitten-y paws.
“Perfect!” He squeaked, pointing out at the crashing waves and sun-speckled sea.
“Let’s go swimming!”