It was still crowded at the beach as the sun lay low in the sky. Not too crowded immediately around the elf and the dwarf thanks to George who would languidly stretch out his wings any time a family of gophers looked like they wanted to set up their towels near them. Amazingly enough, the area around the three was precisely empty the circumference of George’s wings.
Oh well, people were beginning to leave, though occasionally a new family of stoats showed up late, or yet another elf would join in the volleyballing. Mostly families were returning home tired from a day by the shore.
“Haven’t you had enough ribs?” asked the elf with disgust.
“Mmmphh, what?” asked the dwarf as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “You want more fruit?”
“Ugh, no,” said the elf, “I don’t know how you eat that much. Don’t you want to be lithe and limber like me?”
“What for?” asked the dwarf. “Nobody expects that of a dwarf! They wouldn’t even hire me if:
I was clean shaven
I didn’t wear heavy boots
I was thin”
“I suppose you are right,” said the elf, “the girls like to swoon at my moves, but you are called upon to push through a snowdrift or something.”
“Tell me about it,” bemoaned the dwarf, “my wife gives me all the grunt work around the house, and female dwarfs are as strong as male dwarfs.”
“I thought you said female dwarfs are drop-dead gorgeous.”
“They are, they are! But they are strong too. They give you a run for your money in the swoon department, it just varies who is doing the swooning. Heh, usually me.”
“In any case,” said the elf, “we should start heading back. The sun is going to set soon. We don’t want to be caught on the roads after dark. I might have to do some derring-do to rescue you from robbers.”
“As if!” cried the dwarf indignantly as he gathered up their pack.
“George,” said the elf turning toward the dragon, “we’ll see you back home later.”
George let out a friendly puff of smoke and then stretched his wings and swiftly flew off.
The elf and the dwarf walked across the hot sand, and the hotter field, until they finally found their horses at the very end of the farthest field. The horses were having a spirited conversation with a family of bugs who lived in the field, but turned to the elf and the dwarf as they loaded them up and mounted them.
It wasn’t long before they caught up to the rest of the returning hoards, all of them on horses too, and a long line was formed leading away from the beach.