“You wanted to talk to me, Zo'or?”
“Yes, Dru. I noticed that you have birthday soon. It is known to me that this day is a special event for the humans and that for this purpose a gathering is held. Tell me more about it.”
“Uhm, yes. Birthdays. We celebrate the anniversary of the day we were born. It's a tradition. Actually, I've never thought about it. You get presents and a cake. The ‘gathering’ you mentioned is called a party. You took part in such a party once, remember the pizza?”
“Of course I do. But it seems that there are many different types of parties. What kind is the one you are planning?”
Dru became cautious.
“Actually, I wanted to party on the beach...”
“I wish to partake in this party. Please make an appointment with Agent Sandoval.”
“Yes, Zo'or. I will do that.” ‘Damn’

* * *

“Lili! Can I talk to you for a moment?”
Dru came running behind Lili over the parking lot at the Washington Embassy.
“Dru! What's wrong? You look distraught.”
“It's about Zo'or. He wants to partake in my birthday party at all cost. That party has to special! And what will my friends say? They'll think I'm dating Zo'or!”
“Uhm, Dru, you actually _are_ dating Zo'or.”
“Oh. Yes. Right.” Dru seemed to be a little beside herself. She stood rooted to the spot in front of Lili, lost in thought.
“But... what shall I do?”
“Hmm.” Lili thought it over. “Why don't you ask him if he wants to celebrate his own birthday together with you? Then he can invite people, too, fell himself in the focus of interest and is not alone among that many humans.”
“Good idea. But I wanted to invite some members of Liberation, too. That's bound to go wrong!”
“Zo'or knows about most of your friends, as does Da'an. Both of them remained silent about it until now, they will not change that tomorrow. And concerning the others: why don't you make an announcement that, whoever talk about his business will be banished from the party. Something like that. Everybody should relax. Think something up to keep them all busy so they won't have time musing.”
“That's it! And I have some idea to keep them busy...”
Lost in thought Dru turned around and zigzagged her way between the parking cars. Lili could hear her murmur to herself. She was gesticulating, counting something with her fingers and one time she gave a loud laugh.
Without looking right or left she crossed the street under the honking of braking cars.
Lili gazed after her, her face pale.
“God what have I done!”

 
* * *
 

The party was planned on the day before Dru's birthday. She intended to celebrate into the beginning day.
About noon they all gathered on the isolated part of the beach Augur had made available to Dru for the party. The weather showed itself from its best side: all sunny and the temperature of the water perfect for swimming.
Zo'or had welcomed the idea of celebrating his own birthday, too. Dru had assured him, that she would take care of everything necessary, Zo'or had only to invite his guests.
His guest list was short: three humans and two Taelons. Sandoval had been Zo'or's first selection. Next to Dru and Lili he was the only human Zo'or would dare to call a friend. Liam and Lili had been invited by both Zo'or and Dru, as had been Da'an. The second Taelon was Qa'vra, a friend from Da'an's youth. The musician had returned from Taelon to Earth when she had heard about the peace negotiations to support Da'an and Lili with her amicable advice.
Qa'vra was open-minded to humanity and would make friends with Dru's guest quickly.
But the guests of honor were Ter'kozz and Samy'ra.
Since Ter'kozz had called his niece to Earth she lived with Da'an and Lili at the Washington embassy. The little girl had made friends with both Taelons and humans and absorbed every bit of knowledge she could get like a sponge.
Though she was asking everybody's head off and got constantly underfoot nobody could be angry with her. Even Sandoval she had twisted round her little finger.
The Taelons, Ter'kozz, Samy'ra and Sandoval had arrived on the beach with two crammed shuttles. Liam and Lili had been having all hands full with fitting all the stuff and passengers tolerably comfortable in the small vessels.
When finally all guests had arrived Dru climbed upon a rock to make an announcement.
“Hi folks! We have gathered here today for several reasons.
First, we want to celebrate both Zo'or's and my own birthday, which are tomorrow. Well, Zo'or's isn't tomorrow, but we pretend it to be so.
Second, we want to show our alien friends what a real beach party has to look like and third, we want to relax from our daily work and have fun today.”
She shot a meaningful look at Sandoval, who was roasting in the sun, wearing his usual business suit.
“For this purpose I have thought up a little program,” she continued. “We will start with a little contest. Liam?”
Liam nodded to her and dragged a big bag out of one shuttle.
“We will now draw lots and in teams of two people try to find out who...”
Liam opened the bag.
“... who can build the best sand castle!”
Liam had grabbed the bag on its two bottom corners and now shook its contents onto the hot sand: sand shovels, sand sifters, pails and small plastic forms of all seize, colors and shapes.
A wave of laughter washed over the beach. The lots were drawn and the teams met.
Liam and Samy'ra were a team, as were Da'an and Anastasia, Qa'vra and Jenn, Zo'or and Morrigan.
Sandoval stood aside and looked speechless at the heap of toys, which the single teams now started to rummage through. They wouldn't expect him to build a sand castle, or would they?
“Hey! We are a team!” Seven shouted at him and waved. Searchingly Sandoval looked for Zo'or, but the Taelon wasn't much help. He seemed to be fully absorbed in what Morrigan told him about playing with sand.
Then Seven had reached him.
“Hey Ronnie!” Sandoval winced, not ‘Ronnie’, please!
“Get rid of your jacket and come on.” She put a shovel in his hand. “I've found the perfect site for our castle.”
Still speechless Sandoval looked down himself then to the spot of wet sand Seven was pointing at.
“Uhm, I don't think I'm dressed properly for this kind of... activity,” he tried to master the situation.
“Chickening out is not allowed here, Ronnie!” reprimanded Seven. “By the way, what gave you the idea to wear a suit on the beach by this heat?”
“Uh...”
“Doesn't matter. And now come on. Hey! That's our building site!”
Gesticulating wildly she ran away to defend the spot of sand she had chosen against Augur and Jade.
With a resigned sigh Sandoval said goodbye to his suit, grabbed his shovel and a pail and followed his team partner.

Liam and Samy'ra had almost immediately become friends. Liam liked Samy'ra's presence very much since he had found someone about his age around. Both of them were now busy playing in the sand as if it was their natural element.
Da'an and Anastasia were discussing medieval styles of castles and strongholds, Jenn informed Qa'vra on the newest bands in the Billboard charts. Dru was desperately trying to convince Ter'kozz, that playing in the sand would not hurt his honor.
Morrigan tried her best to teach Zo'or how to build a sand castle.
“What sense lies in building buildings with wet sand? When the sand has dried the wind will destroy everything.”
“It's just for fun, Zo'or! Humans enjoy building things, inventing things. Even small children do like nothing better than playing with building blocks or other items to build a house or something like that. It is an urge to live your creativity up.” She looked meaningful at Liam and Samy'ra.
Zo'or looked doubtfully at her.
“Just try it, Zo'or!”
Hesitating Zo'or filled a pail with sand, turned it around and lifted it cautiously. Morrigan searched some short sticks and pressed them into the sand, windows and doors.
“Now try to form pinnacles, Zo'or.” She showed him, how. Carefully and with full concentration he started working.
Morrigan used the pail to form two more sand hills, placed in a triangular form with the first one. She connected them with small sand walls that should serve as ramparts.
Now and then she watched the leader of the Taelon synod, who was carrying out his task with utmost precision.

Meanwhile Seven and Sandoval were experiencing totally different problems. Sandoval had placed his jacket on a rock nearby, apparently the favorite observation point of a seagull.
The bird had landed next to the jacket and was now looking at it critically. Seven looked up and watched as the bird approached the strange object with caution, stepped on it even more carefully to start tugging the cloth to a comfortable nest enthusiastically.
Seven had to pull herself together not to burst out laughing. Sandoval, who hadn't noticed the gull behind him, stared at her blankly.
“What's wrong?”
Seven shook her head-
Suspicious Sandoval turned around and needed not much time to spot the gull that had made itself at home on his jacket.
His first instinct was to lift his arm and shoot at the bird. It was enough that he had to bring his pants to the cleaners.
But Raven thwarted his plans. The skrill increased the pressure of his tentacles on Sandoval's arm until it hurt and showed his host that he would not fire at a peaceful bird.
Stunned Sandoval stared at his skrill; then he jumped up and chased the gull away with wild hand movements
The bird flew away, made a few rounds until it was sure that Sandoval was kneeling in the sand and had turned his back on her, then it settled down on his jacket again.
Seven snorted and then rolled on the sand laughing

After most of the sandcastles had been finished, Dru and Lili proceeded to the presentation ceremony.
After long discussions they chose the castle of Augur und Jenn for the first price, followed closely by the work of Liam and Samy'ra.
Dru and Ter'kozz had been ruled out, Ter'kozz had not been persuaded by his partner to forget his honor for the moment. Same had happened to Seven and Sandoval. Form laughing (Seven) and gull chasing (Sandoval) they had only managed to build a heap of sand that with all imagination could not be called a castle.
Sandoval had tried get rid of the gull by putting his jacket back on. To his bad luck that didn't work as expected. Cautiously the bird had followed its object of passion until it stood about one meter away from the agent.
He had tried to grab the gull or to shoo it away, but with little success.
Dru was about to present a small book (“The fine art of sandcastles”) to the winners when Sandoval's patience ended.
He stood up and tried to grab the gull. Screeching loudly and with its wings spread wide the bird started running down the beach, Sandoval at its heels because Raven still refused to obey his host's orders.
Both gull and human paid no attention to any sandy projects in their way.
With a terrified expression Zo'or stared at the remnants of his castle after Sandoval had (unsuccessfully) tried to rush at the bird.
Zo'or's mouth opened and closed a few times wordlessly until he looked at Da'an, searching for comfort.
“Da'an! Sandoval has smashed my sand castle!” he whined.
He pointed accusingly at the offender.
Da'an stared unbelievingly at Zo'or. He sounded so... childish?
Sandoval had risen spitting sand and was now again searching for his opponent. There stood the pest. He set himself for a new spurt.
“No! Don't! Stop!” With lifted hands Augur tried to protect his prizewinning castle, but he had no chance.
In the remains of his project were found a small pail and several other propping elements.
Outraged Lili looked at the hacker.
“This should be a _sand_ castle Augur! You cheated! I thing we should disqualify him.”
“Certainly!” Dru plucked the book from his hands and presented it to Liam.
“You've won. Congrats!”
Cheering Liam picked up his small partner and whirled her around.
Da'an shook his head, smiling. Children!

 
* * *
 

After the first excitement about the sand castles Dru gave her guests free hand with choosing their activities.

Tag and Keeshond were busy setting up a volleyball net, Colette, Sarah, Jenn and Jade rummaged through the shuttles in search for other toys like balls, and air mattresses. After the shuttles had been emptied Lili activated the sun filters of the virtual glass so the crafts could be used as changing cubicles.
Who had remembered that one could actually swim when going to the beach quickly changed into their swimsuits. For the few who had forgotten their suits Dru and Lili had brought some more.
Sandoval had sat down in the shadow of a rock, still panting from the chase. But he kept his eyes on the gull that had landed on another rock not far away.
“Won't you change your clothes, Agent Sandoval?” Liam asked. “You are baked with sand and it has to be quite uncomfortable to wear a business suit in this heat.”
“I haven't brought any swimming trunks,” Sandoval answered and tried to spit out the sand that was crunching between his teeth.
“I thought as much,” Liam said and held up a pair of navy blue briefs. “All service.”
“Don't you have shorts?”
“Sorry. Mine were the last ones.”
Sandoval heaved himself up and looked to the shuttles.
“Change and put your clothes behind one of the rocks over there. It will be to cramped in the shuttles if everybody left their clothes inside.”
After a long last look at the seagull Sandoval turned around and walked over to the shuttles.

When he left the shuttle and placed his pile of neatly folded clothes next to the other piles of more or less neatly folded clothes, Kathryn, Molly and Tag had challenged Loui, Raissa and Carillion for a game of volleyball. Morwen and Mirager stood aside and tried simultaneously to explain the rules toothier alien friends. Augur had made himself at home on a towel and was already roasting in the sun. Not far away Jade was busy digging Jenn in the sand. Jenn made her task difficult by waggling her toes or starting to laugh. The seagull was nowhere to be seen.
“My! Ronnie! You look... yummy!” Seven shouted when she spotted the agent.
Everybody turned to look at him. The girls started giggling and whispering. Sandoval blushed and marched a quickly as his strained dignity would allow in direction of the water.
Zo'or watched the human's reactions with puzzlement.
“Why are you doing this? What is ‘yummy’ about Agent Sandoval had changed his clothes?” he asked Dru.
“Uhm. You can ask questions. He is attractive. And we pay tribute to that.”
Zo'or looked her up and down from head to toes.
“Then you are ‘yummy’, too,” he stated.
Dru blushed. “Thanks. But I meant, uhm, sexual attractiveness.”
Zo'or thought about that.
Sensing doom Dru waved her hands. “Don't say anything, don't say anything. God, this is embarrassing.” All who had overheard the conversation grinned broadly at her. “That goes for you, too!”
Quickly, she turned around and splashed after Sandoval into the water.
Zo'or consulted Da'an: “Have I asked the wrong question?”
Da'an made no reply, but he looked like he was on the brink of bursting out laughing.

 
* * *
 

While most of the humans were disporting themselves in the water, Lili walked with Ter'kozz a few steps along the beach.
“Do you have beaches like this on your planet, too? Do you swim? I don't remember anyone talking about it, when I visited your family.”
“We have beaches, but nobody would think of swimming there. In the shallow water there are dangerous animals.”
“Not here. At least not in shallow water.”
Without noticing Ter'kozz stepped on a dead jellyfish that had been washed ashore and slipped.
*Splash!*
Dazed, he sat in the water and stared at the slimy slice of jelly that had remained totally innocent at the same spot it had been lying before.
“I'm not so sure about that,” he remarked.
Lili nearly died laughing.
Ter'kozz got up and had just reached dry land when his niece nearly knocked him down again. Liam was hard on her heels.
“Gotcha! Well, almost!” he panted. “Then you'll have to catch me!”
Samy'ra tried to hide behind her uncle's back. Finally she spotted a gap in Liam's tactics to catch her and escaped.
With another *splash* Ter'kozz again lost his balance.
“I think I will remain down here. It's definitely safer.”
Only seconds later he got hit with a stray volleyball.

Jade had finally managed to bury Jenn as far in the sand that she could escape with her strength alone.
When now Samy'ra rushed past, followed by Liam, who was running directly up to the defenseless Jenn she stood up and raised her hands. Liam stopped, looked at her, and then tapped her lightly. “You are it!”
Bewildered, Jade stood there for a moment, then she decided to run after him.
“Hey! What about me?” Jenn wobbled her head.
“Back soon!” she heard Jade shouting, then her friend was out of sight.
“Great!”
It took about a quarter of an hour until Qa'vra came by and rescued her.

Colette had been swimming a few minutes, then decided to let herself roast in the sun. Unsuccessfully she tried to oil her own back with sun tan lotion, when she spotted Zo'or nearby.
“Hey Zo'or! Can you help me please?”
Curious, the Taelon came over to her.
“What can I do for you?” he asked.
“Could you be so nice to oil my back? I can't reach it.”
She turned onto her stomach and pointed at the bottle of lotion.
Zo'or examined it closely before opening it. He squeezed a blob of oil in his hand.
“Where?”
“Just massage it into my skin. That would be nice.”
Hesitating, Zo'or touched her back with his palms. In slow circles he spread the oil on Colette's skin.
“Oh, wait. This is interfering.” With that she opened the back clasp of her bikini top.
Zo'or started to like his task. Human skin felt... good.
“What have we here?” a voice boomed behind him.
Her hand on her hips and with flashing eyes Dru stared at scene in front of her.
“I am helping Colette,” explained Zo'or.
“I see that. And it's enough!”
She pulled Zo'or up and pushed him away from Colette.
“This is _my_ Taelon! Go get your own one!” she snarled at Colette.
“None available. Da'an is with Lili and Qa'vra is too female.”
“Zo'or is mine!”
“Oho!”
“Not what you think!”
“What am I thinking?”
“That's not your business!”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, ‘mine'?” Zo'or joined in.
“Forget it.”
“Have I asked the wrong question again?”
“YES!”
“Oh. How will I know if I ask a wrong question?”
“Later Zo'or. I'll explain it all to you when we are alone.”
“OHO!!!”
“QUIET!!!”!
Dru turned around and dragged Zo'or along.
What a birthday!

After Liam, Samy'ra and Jenn were tired of playing tag and had cooled themselves off in the water they were now searching for a new game to play.
Dru, who wanted to keep Zo'or busy, suggested a game of playing tag blindfolded.
It didn't take long until she had conjured up a scarf from God knew where. Without hesitation she blindfolded Liam. She spun him around a few times and then hid herself among the others.
Curious, Da'an, Qa'vra and Zo'or had come nearer. These attitudes of the humans became stranger with the minute. Why didn't took Liam that silly scarf off?
“This is about catching somebody while blindfolded and then find out who it is,” Lili whispered to Qa'vra.
Liam heard them whispering and quickly turned in their direction. Lili grabbed Qa'vra's arm and pulled her away.
Zo'or gazed after them and over that forgot completely that Liam was approaching.
With a startled “Iiiek!” he winced, when Liam grabbed his hips and held tight.
“Hmm. With the clothing and the voice I would say I've caught a Taelon. The question is which one!” Liam murmured to himself.
With one hand he grabbed Zo'or's wrist while searching his face with the other one.
Zo'or tried to struggle free. How dared this human...
“Let - me - go!” he ordered.
“Aha! Zo'or!”
Liam pulled off the scarf and grinned triumphantly at the Taelon.
“I won. You're next!”
“What?”
Zo'or didn't understand what was happening to him when Liam turned him around and blindfolded him with the scarf.
“How many fingers?” he waved his hand in front of Zo'or's face.
“What?”
“Okay. I don't know that much about Taelons, but I would think that you can look with your eyes only. So don't cheat!”
He spun the still speechless Taelon around and slipped away.
Zo'or stood swaying at the spot Liam had left him and wondered what to do next.
“Try to catch one of us, Zo'or!” Da'an shouted, then he quickly changed his place.
Zo'or fumbled for the scarf.
“And stop fumbling!” Dru's voice cane from somewhere right.
Zo'or dropped his hands, turned in Dru's direction and started walking.
After a few meters he was nearly knocked over by a huge wave.
“Merd'e!” he swore in Eunoia.
“Zo'or!” reprimanded Da'an. “Don't say something like that! Ooops!”
Zo'or had whirled around when he heard Da'an's voice. Around him he heard people giggling.
He was sure that Da'an had moved. It was FRUSTRATING!
Slowly he walked forward to suddenly turn left and dash off.
The still growing crowd of spectators scattered squealing and giggling in all directions.
Even the volleyball players had stooped the match to watch the slowly getting annoyed Zo'or.
He had heard them whispering and was now walking purposefully towards them, only to be stopped by the net.
After more unsuccessful attempts he finally succeeded in catching Foxfeather. (Morrigan had insisted on inviting her, too.)
What Zo'or hadn't expected was that Foxfeather belonged to that kind of humans that was starting to laugh even on the slightest chance to being tickled.
Even when it had dawned on her that she couldn't escape the Taelon she had started to giggle hysterically.
Zo'or had to take some strong pokes and scratches before he had her in a strong grip. And he had learned that ticklish humans had no control over their movements whatsoever.
With her laughter and her begs for mercy in her German accent it was no hard task to identify her.
Relieved he got rid of the pesky scarf and frowned at the still giggling girl that was lying crouched to a defensive ball in front of him.
After she had calmed down a little she took the scarf from Zo'or and blindfolded herself. She turned around a few times and then stood motionless to listen. To her left she sensed someone's presence.
“Zo'or? You still there?” She turned in his direction.
“NO, I'M NOT!!!!!”
She heard running noises, first on sand then in the water.
“I think I'll go swimming!” she heard Zo'or's voice.
“Spoilsport! Taelons can swim? I hope without electric shocks for the others!”
The she set to work to catch another Taelon, or maybe a human.

Zo'or paddled in secure distance to the beach in the water. Here they wouldn't catch him. He hoped. He had lost his façade partly and felt the mud beneath his feet. In an unexplainable way it reminded him of his childhood. Cautiously he pushed his feet through the mud when he bumped against something unexpectedly hard that was untraceable only moments later. Zo'or thought. On Taelon there once had been living stones. He searched his memories. Was there something equal on Earth? He couldn't remember.
To be on the safe side he stabilized his façade again. It was extremely unpleasant to share with a living stone when one stepped on one. It had something... petrifying. Shuddering he remembered a childhood experience when he had touched one of the last specimen of that species, though Da'an had forbid him to.
On Taelon the living stones had died out by now. But if here on Earth were some existing still...
He searched on in the mud for this strange stone.
There. There had been something. Slowly, Zo'or placed his foot upon it. Beneath his sole he felt something hard and wriggling.
He dove for it and tried to get a grip on that stone.
What he hadn't expected was that the stone had forceps and much strength.
Snorting and spitting he came up again, wobbling his hand.
On closer inspection the stone turned out to be a fairly big crawfish, which was with all his strength and determined not to let go of it clutched his index finger.
Sandoval, who was not far away still swimming his circles, saw Zo'or shaking his arm wildly.
“What's wrong? What has happened?”
Accusingly, Zo'or held his hand out to him.
“Oh.”
Trying not to laugh Sandoval grabbed the claw fish at his forceps and bent them apart. When he had freed Zo'or he held the animal out to him, holding him at his forceps to be on the safe side.
“What did you want with this, Zo'or?”
“I thought it was a stone. It had moved and I wanted to catch it.”
Sandoval frowned. What was Zo'or talking about? Rolling stones?
“Uhm, perhaps saltwater is not good for Taelons. You should go sitting in the shadows,” he suggested.
Now it was Zo'or's turn to frown. What a change of topic!
With a look at the beach where Ter'kozz had forgotten his honor “to train tactical skills” and tried to catch Lili while blindfolded with the scarf, Zo'or pointed at the other end of the beach.
“I agree, Sandoval. But we should better go over there.”
The corner Zo'or was pointing at was deserted, except for Augur who had fallen asleep on his towel.
Sandoval remembered the girl's reactions to his clothing and nodded in agreement.
“I take that for an excellent idea.”
Back on the beach Sandoval noticed, he still held the claw fish in his hand.
“What do we do with the little one here?”
“Put it down somewhere it will have it good.”
After some thinking Sandoval put it down next to Augur. Of course he had recognized the hacker instantly and he had not forgiven him the many times he had slipped through Sandoval's fingers in the past. Zo'or and Da'an had strictly ordered not to bother the man, but he just couldn't resist playing him this prank.
The claw fish turned around a few times and then crawled sideways over to Augur's shadow.
Waiting, Sandoval stared at the animal. Nothing happened. Shrugging his shoulders he finally turned away. The claw fish would fulfill its task sometimes.
By the look of the claw fish Sandoval remembered the seagull. Where was the pest?
Searching for some towels for Zo'or and himself Sandoval made an excursion towards his pile of clothes. And what he had expected came true. The gull was sitting right in the middle of his clothes and slept.
“You just wait! Now you're in for it!”
Quietly he tiptoed towards the bird, but before he could grab it, it woke up and started screeching to pick at his hands.
Startled by this sudden and unforeseen move Sandoval lost his balance and sat down in the sand.
Liam had watched this and several others of Sandoval's attempts to regain his clothes.
“Problems?”
“What makes you think that? Ouch!”
“Och, just looked like it.”
Liam stood there, waiting.
“What else do you want?”
Grinning Liam held up a T-shirt and shorts.
“Thought you could use these.”
Sandoval stared at the clothes, then at Liam. Gruffly he plucked them out of his hands.
“And we both will have a talk!” he threatened the gull. Then he trudged away.

Evening was approaching slowly and the first gathered, becoming hungry, by the shuttles.
“Hey Dru! What's for dinner?” Shadow Walker wanted to know.
“I prepared BBQ, baked potatoes and I bought marshmallows, too, along with a stack of other fine things.
“Great! I haven't had BBQ for a loooong time!” Beth was happy.
“Then let's go. Da'an I understood you know how to build a campfire?” Dru asked the Taelon.
Lili grinned.
“Yes, I have... tried that once,” Da'an answered the question.
“Fine. Then go to work. For I have not the slightest idea how to do that. Liam and Ronnie... Hey Ronnie! Cool outfit!”
Sandoval winced.
“Would you two be so nice and install the grill?”
Liam nodded enthusiastically and pulled Sandoval along.
Da'an shooed a flock of guests together and sent them for collecting some wood.
“Zo'or, can you help me to collect some stones, please?” he asked his child.
Zo'or stared at him in panic, looked over at Augur and asked again to be on the safe side.
“Stones? Simple, normal... stones?”
“Yes, Zo'or. Is something wrong with that?” Da'an darted Zo'or a searching glance.
Zo'or blushed blue. “No, no. It is all okay. I just wanted...”
“What?”
“Oh, nothing!”
“If you say so. On this occasion you can go an wake Augur.”
“All right!”
Zo'or toddled off.
“What's wrong with him?” Da'an wondered.

In the meantime Lili helped Dru and Morrigan to set up some drop-leaf tables and stack them with plates of bread and cheese and bowls filled with several sorts of salad.
“Boy, this looks yummy!” Molly pinched a slice of bread.
“Hey! Wait 'til the others are here, too,” Kathryn griped. Then, with a hungry look at Molly's bread, she grabbed a roll.
Suddenly Molly started to grin nervously.
“Must be off!”
Kathryn turned around to face a censorious looking Dru, who was impatiently tapping her foot.
“See you later!”

“Mr. Augur?”
Zo'or looked down at the sleeping human.
“Hello?”
Augur blinked with one eye, then yawned and stretched.
“What's up? Where has the sun gone? How late is it? Never mind.”
He sat up.
“Oh, who have we here?”
Carefully he picked up the claw fish that was still sitting next to him on the towel.
“Look at this, Zo'or! Isn't it a sweetie?”
Augur seated the small animal onto his hand and tenderly rubbed it's shell.
“Well, have we taken a shadow bath? Isn't it cute, Zo'or? Zo'or!”
There was only a cloud of dust remaining from the Taelon.
“What's wrong with him?”

About a quarter of an hour later all guests had gathered around the campfire Da'an had built.
Zo'or sat as far away as possible from Augur, who still cradled the claw fish in his hand and showed it to everyone who wanted to see it.
Sandoval had, after a last - and unsuccessful - attempt given up to regain his clothes and was now sitting rather relaxed between Anastasia and Colette.
Seven and Liam took care of the grill.

During the meal Augur got informed of all the events he had missed. Qa'vra had taken care of the claw fish and then returned with it to Da'an, Lili and Zo'or.
Since then Zo'or had become oddly silent.
Lili made eye contact with Sandoval and then pointed with her head questioningly at Zo'or.
Sandoval grinned, pointed first at Qa'vra and the claw fish then at Zo'or and shook his hand.
Lili stared unbelievingly at him, then started giggling soundlessly.
Da'an looked at her in worry, took her hand and was soon grinning widely, too.
Pooooor Zo'or!

Soon the sun had set behind the cliffs and the guest's faces were only lit by the pale moonlight and the flickering light of the fire.
“What do we do now?” Seven asked.
“Story!” Morrigan demanded.
“Make that a ghost story!”
“Au ja!”
“Ghosts?”
“Yes, ghosts, Da'an. Something to give you the creeps!”
“But... there are no ghosts!”
“Yes, I know. But if...?”
“That is highly illogic.
“Illogical? What are you? A Taelon or a Vulcan?”
“Vulcan?”
“Never mind.”
“The ones with pointed ears and green blood? We have met them once, but they were just too cold. Lili would call them... fishy.”
Tag stared at him.
“They... are real?”
“Of course. They live on a desert planet...”
“Uuuhhnng! This is... creepy!”
“I thought you feel things that are unreal as creepy? Vulcans are real! Then why are they creepy? I do not understand this.”
“Once there was a TV series... few years ago... oh my GOD!”
After minutes of silence Augur took the floor.
“I'll try to give you an example of what is creepy. A story. To be exact, the world's shortest horror story.
It goes like this...
The last man of the world sits in a room at a table. Then there is a knock at the door.”
Waiting, he looked around.
“So what?”
“Oh boy! He's the last living man on earth! How could someone possibly knock at the door?”
Qa'vra thought. “Perhaps it is a Taelon?”
Augur stared at her.
“Ha, ha.”
He stopped short.
“Just a moment, please. A Taelon with humor?”
“I'm told there can be such a thing, Augur,” Lili said.
“Qa'vra _is_ special.”
“Indeed. Enough of that. Does anybody know a good story, then?”
Sandoval thought for a moment and then started telling a story he had read a few months ago.
“There a some occasions a CVI comes in handy, aren't there?” Lili whispered to Liam.
With closed eyes Sandoval told a story of a father and his teenage daughter who had moved to a haunted house. Four ghosts were haunting there and the girl made friends with the youngest of them, who was called Casper.
Sandoval was a talented storyteller and had spellbound everybody within minutes. As Seven noticed even the seagull, that had padded over to sit down next to Sandoval, resting the tip of it's beak oh so lightly on his thigh.
Raven started to hum quietly. It looked like he had made friends with the gull.
Sandoval had noticed nothing of it; he was totally absorbed in telling his story.

Sandoval's voice had soon lulled Samy'ra to sleep.
Dru and some of the others where yawning, too, when Sandoval finally finished his story.
Sleepy-eyed, Lili rose from the towel she had been sitting on.
“Who else wants coffee?”
“Me! Definitely!” Morrigan shouted.
“Me, too,” Dru added.
Most of the others wanted a cup, too, and so Lili and Morrigan, who volunteered to help her, were busy carrying coffee pots and thermos flasks to the campfire.
Zo'or glanced curiously into Dru's cup.
“You humans are very fond of this liquid?” he asked.
With a sidelong glance to Morrigan who just finished her third pot she nodded.
“Some of us are not only fond of but rather addicted to it.”
“How does it taste like?” Zo'or asked on.
“Uhm, it's bitter and... Zo'or, you _can_ ask questions. How do you describe coffee to someone who doesn't drink?”
“If you can't explain, show.”
Zo'or held out his hand, palm up.
Dru looked at it hesitantly.
“I don't think you'll like it. It needs time to get used to the taste.”
“But I want to know!”
“Then don't say I didn't warn you!”
She clasped hands with the Taelon and took a sip of her coffee.
Zo'or jerked back and shook his hand as if it had been burned. A wave of blue light flowed from his head to his toes.
“I told you so!”
Da'an and Qa'vra looked worriedly at the scene.
“I am okay. I just learned what coffee tastes like.” Zo'or's voice trembled a bit.
“Curiosity killed the cat!” Qa'vra whispered to Da'an.
“I like these human sayings!”
“Hey, before you all go to the land of dreams, what about some music?”
Augur jumped up and got a ghetto blaster out of nowhere.
“Thousands of mp3's here. Whaddaya want?”
“BSB!” “Stones!” “Take Two!” “Celine Dion!” “Tschaikowsky!” “Vengagirls!” “Moby Duck!” he was bombarded with requests.
“Tschaikowsky?!? Who said that?”
Nobody answered first, then Da'an spoke up.
“I have heard that Tschaikowsky is ‘cool’.”
Foxfeather stared at him.
“You're right, but you can't dance to Tschaikowsky.” She remembered the ‘Nutcracker Suite’. “Well, not what we dance, anyway,” she corrected herself.
“Oh. Yes. Well, it was worth a try.”
“I'll just try the shuffle function.” Augur announced.
The first song playing was...
“I know that!” Qa'vra blurted out.
“It is called ‘Macarena’. It is also a dance. I've seen it on MTV.”
She jumped up.
“Does anybody want to join in?”
She started to do the Macarena.
Everybody stared at her openmouthed. That was... groovaliscous. A Taelon doing the Macarena. Who has ever heard of that?
Lili tugged at Da'an's arm.
“Come on?”
Da'an blushed blue.
Liam had joined Qa'vra and grasped Da'an's hand.
“I'll show you. Don't be a spoilsport!”
With a deep sigh Da'an stood up and started with minimal movements to imitate the others.
Soon he got the hang on it.
Most of the guests had now joined in and danced enthusiastically, sleepiness forgotten.
Zo'or had remained silent and seemed not to notice the happy dancing around him. He felt... odd. Light, and at the same time strangely heavy. Sedate. Dru would have recognized that feeling as a major symptom of being drunk, had she shared his feelings and were he human, not Taelon. Zo'or swayed at bit and stared into nothingness.
“Must be a side effect of the coffee,” he decided for himself. Strange brew. But somehow he liked it.
The Macarena had ended; the next song was a flamenco.
Zo'or looked up.
Carillion had started to dance to it like she had done it forever.
“You can... do that? Cool!” Lili was amazed.
Zo'or watched a few bars long then stood up. If Da'an and Qa'vra could do that Macarena thing, he could surely do that Flamenco thing.
Sandoval stared. Da'an stared. To be precise, everybody stared, even Carillion.
Zo'or danced the Flamenco. Not bad. To be precise, very well. And getting better every second.
“Uhng, Zo'or, did you do that before?” Carillion asked.
Zo'or shook his head to the music.
“Well, if you ever need a job...”

Midnight came. Time for birthday presents and birthday cakes.
“10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!”
Lili and Liam appeared, each one carrying a huge cake, one with x candles (How old are you, Dru?), the other one with one.
“It's your first birthday here,” Lili explained.
They sung “Happy Birthday”, loudly and more than just off-key.
“Now you have to blow out the candle!”
Zo'or did as he was told. The candle glowed and smoked. After a few seconds, it lit up again.
Zo'or stopped short. Candles shouldn't be able to do that. More side effects of the coffee?
Liam giggled.
“Magical candles,” he whispered to Dru. “Couldn't resist.”
Zo'or blew out the candle again. And again it lit up seconds later to impossible life.
“Stop thinking about it. It is a joke.” Da'an told Zo'or after the fourth attempt.
Zo'or stopped and looked at the candle a last time. With a silent ‘whoosh’ it lit up again. Then he shot the still laughing Liam a meaningful look.
In the meantime Dru had opened her presents. Books, “The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fanfiction” and “Spherite's ABC to the Taelon race”, sweets and all three parts of “Matrix” on DVD. From the Taelons she had got a cube of virtual glass that held a beautiful bunch of Taelon flowers inside, frozen to eternal beauty.
“Time to open your presents, honey.” Dru fluted and gave Zo'or a huge and oddly shaped thing, wrapped in colorful paper. It felt soft.
“Open it! It's from Qa'vra, Da'an, Lili and me.”
Zo'or looked suspiciously at the four, then at his gift.
Carefully he opened it, afraid that it might bite.
It was...
“A stuffed Teletubbie???”
“Hey! It's your _first_ birthday, remember?”
Zo'or looked at the cuddly toy again, then smiled.
“You know what? I like it.”
“Hope you like this, too!” Augur, who had vanished discreetly a few minutes ago, reappeared again, carrying a small cube.
“This is from us all to you, Zo'or. Just press the button.”
Zo'or did as what been requested.
A small hologram appeared, a film of the events of the day: Sandcastles, Sandoval's run, the swimsuit problem, Ter'kozz’ encounter with the jellyfish and Zo'or's encounter with Colette, the play of tag, Zo'or's attempts to tickle Foxfeather to death, an extreme close-up of the claw fish and, of course, the whole Macarena/Flamenco scene.
“You didn't do that, Augur!” Lili gasped.
“Have you really thought I slept the whole day through?”