Final Summer Days

By SonicHomeboy

The final days of summer were approaching rather quickly than anticipated. It seemed just about everyone made their quick getaways to their favorite beach resorts to spend the last remaining days of their summer. Scores of peoples poured in to enjoy the blazing sun while they had fun in the surf and sand. The young ones gathered in groups to form sand castles in what they thought were their greatest masterpieces. Many of the youths, from their teens to early adults, spent most of their time in the waves surfing along the waves or simply crashing into them. The rest of the grown ups stayed with their loved ones as they bathed themselves in the sun while napping, chatting, or reading. A packed beach may have been unbearable at times, but it was worth the trouble for many as a means to unwind from their stressed lives.

One couple had timed it perfectly before the rush began. They were smart to book a reservation a few months before anyone could have a say on what resort to spend their final week. During the first few days, they walked around the streets to visit their favorite spots whenever they’ve gone to their main beach resort in Florida. The places weren’t particularly main stream like many would flock to, but these two didn’t care. What mattered were the rich experiences they knew they were bound to have every summer they went. Everything was very satisfying to the senses wherever there was a place for good, local entertainment.

It was now their last day on the beach resort, and they decided to spend it at the beach. They acknowledged that it was mostly likely to be crowded then, but they didn’t care. As long as the two enjoyed each other’s company, they wouldn’t have a care in the world about their surroundings. As 10am approached, Eddie the Wolf stepped onto the sand from the first floor room at the beach resort. Wearing a white t-shirt and khaki shorts, he carried an umbrella on his right shoulder while grabbing on a cooler with his left hand. A small breeze came blowing into him as the split bangs on his black hair began to sway. Taking a deep breath of the air, he let out a small sigh and smiled. He knew that this was the perfect day to go to the beach. The brown-furred wolf turned his head back and said, “About ready to go, Lucy?”

A brownish gold-furred lioness stepped out from the room closing the door behind her. She wore a pink, sleeveless shirt and blue mini-shorts as her smooth and rather long red hair swayed with the small breeze. Carrying a cooler in her right hand and a bag in her left, Lucy Martinez looked at Eddie with a grin and said, “Ready when you are!”

They both chuckled at each other and soon walked out across the sand into the swarming crowd already at their claimed spots. The young couple managed to find a large enough spot to set their belongings down. Eddie went to work putting up the umbrella as him hummed to a radio nearby playing Spyro Gyra’s “Old San Juan.” Lucy then pulled out two red and white striped towels from her bag and set them underneath the umbrella. Then, they set their coolers on the towels so that they weren’t blown away from the ocean breeze.

Now came the time to strip their clothing articles. Eddie took his white t-shirt off showcasing his soft washboard abs covered by a lighter brown fur color. After setting the shirt aside, he took off his khaki shorts displaying his green bikini briefs. As expected, he got the usual looks from everyone around them. Some of the adults had to turn their children’s heads away from him. Many of the many were, of course, disgusted by it but were soon ticked off as their female companions were eyeing him. Lucy also did the same after taking off her pink shirt and blue mini-shorts. She sported on her blue, strapless top and blue Brazilian-style bikini with abs to show that she was not to be messed with. Like Eddie, received many looks. This time many of the males around the area were being scolded by their female companions both young and old. Some of them either had to cover their faces up before any blood ran through their nostrils or ended up tripping into the sand face first.

Eddie and Lucy didn’t mind if they received the attention. It became natural for them every time they went to a beach. For the two, they were happy with how they looked and saw no harm in showing off. Of course they knew that every beach had its limitations and would rather not tempt to do so if they chose to be any more revealing than they were.

Once they got settled in their spot, Eddie knelt down and reached in the bag to pull out two spray bottles. “Here you go, Lucy,” Eddie said as he passed one of the bottles to her. “One Sunblock for Feline Fur.”

“Awesome!” Lucy exclaimed as she took the bottle. After shaking it, she sprayed it around the front of her body including her legs. She then sprayed some on her hands and rubbed them together to spread the liquid on her face. Once she spread everything on her fur, Lucy spoke to her wolf companion. “Mind if you help spray this on my back?”

“Sure. Just close your eyes for a minute,” Eddie said as he stood up. He grabbed the bottle and sprayed it on his lioness companion’s back. After setting it back in the bag, Eddie began to rub his hands on Lucy’s back as he continued to talk. “You know it never gets old whenever they stare at us.”

“Heh, tell me about it,” Lucy replied with a small purr from Eddie’s hands on her back. “Think anyone will come up and hit on us?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Eddie said with a chuckle. “Remember that one horse surfer? Guy acted like he had no idea what he was saying.”

Lucy laughed for she remembered that incident. When he was done, Eddie picked up a bottle of Sunblock for Canine Fur and sprayed it on himself. After spraying some on his hands, he spread it on his face and worked his way around his body. He handed it to Lucy who began to spray on his back after he turned around while talking but with a surfer dialect. “Hey there, cutie. Mind riding the waves with a wild stallion at your side? I’ll make the saddle you sit on worth your while.”

Eddie and Lucy burst into laughter and nearly fell on the ground. “Oh, I won’t forget how annoyed you looked when you came out of the waters. I’m sure you so wanted to punch his snout all the way into his face,” Lucy said after she finished spreading the liquid on Eddie’s back.

“I should have done that when I had the chance,” Eddie said, “but word would travel fast back to our home.” He sat down and opened the cooler he carried. He continued to vent more as he opened up a can of soda. “Yeah, that’s the last thing I want to be remembered as after helping the community out for so long.”

Lucy nodded as she sat and snuggled close to him. She accepted a water bottle Eddie handed to her and said, “Same for me with that one vixen.”

Eddie’s ears perked at the sense of some utter contempt in her voice. He chuckled as he recalled the incident rather well.

“Hey there, handsome,” Lucy spoke in a mockingly sexy voice, “how about tangoing with a vulpine? I can show you a thing or two about yourself one wouldn’t even dream of.”

Eddie snorted as he put the empty soda can in a plastic bag he pulled out from Lucy’s bag. “I’m serious. I think that girl was such a ditz!” Lucy said. “But the way she made moves on you made me so irritated I wanted to swipe claws at her face.”

“Oh, I’m sure you wanted to,” Eddie said. “Just the way you looked at her it seemed like you wanted to tear her to shreds even when I tried to avoid her.”

“Yeah… I’ve never seen such a skinnier vixen in my life. And that red thong she was wearing! Ugh, I don’t think it suited her well.”

“Or that surfer with all that hair… I swear he looked like a hippie. I mean the way that his mannerisms were just did not settle with me.”

Again, they both chuckled reflecting on their past beach experiences. Lucy took a sip on her water bottle before handing it back to Eddie, who placed it back in the cooler. At this point, the time almost reached 10:30, and the waves were starting to pick up. Lucy was the first to stand up as she stood on her tip toes and reached for the sky with her arms. The wolf looked up and admired her stretching. It never ceased to amaze him how flexible she was for a kick boxing lioness despite her feline attributes. Eddie often thought about being as flexible but always came back to reality that his free form fighting style wouldn’t allow it. Then again, the hospital was the last place he ever wanted to be if he ever tried to exceed his body more than it’s capable of. Still, he was happy to have Lucy at his side whenever work was to be done.

Eddie decided to stand up and stretch. Being the trickster that she was, Lucy snuck in a finger and playfully scratched at the side of Eddie’s ribs causing the wolf to yelp and pull away.

“Hey!” Eddie exclaimed as he rubbed at his tickled side. “What was that supposed to be?”

“Oh,” Lucy chimed, “I don’t know!”

She grinned at Eddie while trying to hold in a giggle. Placing his knuckles on his hips, Eddie shifted his weight on his left leg. One eyebrow lowered while the other slightly rose, he displayed a smirk. “You don’t know, eh?” he asked. “The saying goes that what goes around comes around.”

Lucy quickly protected her sides in case Eddie decided to do that same to her. She then inched closer to him until their noses were nearly touching. Both were still smirking at each other until Lucy snuck in a lick to Eddie’s left side of his muzzle. Eddie reacted by stumbling backwards as he saw Lucy run off to the ocean yelling out, “Betcha can’t get me long after I’ve touched the waters!”

Big mistake, he thought to himself. He positioned himself until he was centered in the direction Lucy was going in. Eddie knew that Lucy was aware of how fast he could run. The only problem was that with speeds ranging from half to three-quarters of a sonic boom would distract many of the people on the beach. Another issue would be how much sand would fly up from the ground and go in either direction into the surrounding crowd. So he would have to drop his speeds a few notches.

Bending a knee, Eddie placed his right fingertips firmly on the sand. He took a deep breath and muttered, “You’re mine, Lucy!” In an instant, he leapt into the air. After several yards from his starting point, he took another leap and landed several more yards. He was certain that he was well away from the big crowd before running a few notches below half of a sonic boom. It was at this point that Lucy began touching the damper part of the sand before she turned around to see. Eddie gained rapidly on her. She shrieked at her surprise and slipped backwards. However, Eddie gently grabbed her inches from touching the oncoming waters as they crashed into a wave.

They both came up gasping for air, but Eddie laughed hard at a very annoyed Lucy. “See?” he boasted. “I warned you! I warned you!” His laughing forced him to lose his balance from another wave, and he crashed backwards into the ocean. It was Lucy’s turn to laugh at Eddie’s misfortune but even more so when his head popped up with seaweed all over him. Her laugh subsided as she kindly helped Eddie take the seaweed off.

“So tell me,” she began to say, “What was that whole going around and coming back again?”

“Oh hush,” Eddie muttered as he took the last of the seaweed from himself. Then, his arms quickly hugged around Lucy’s waist. They both laughed as he twirled her about in the air before settling back into the water. Eddie still held onto Lucy’s waist as their foreheads softly touched one another. The wolf carried his lioness slowly while they were still in the water without having a care for what was surrounding them. Both were lost in their own little world of affection as Eddie’s nose nuzzled against Lucy’s forehead, causing her to purr.

Without warning, their world was shattered when a wave came crashing on top of them. Eddie was swept off his feet as he let go of Lucy. Soon, they were both being pushed by the wave’s force until they came close enough to the shore. After coughing up the water, Eddie got on his feet and himself nearly dry. He looked behind him and waded in a bit deeper to offer a hand to Lucy. “Need a lift?” he asked with a smile.

“Thanks,” she said and returned a smile as well. Both walked back to their spot in the crowd and sat back down on their towels letting the sun do its work by drying their fur off. “Well,” Lucy said with a chuckle, “that was fun.”

“Indeed, it was,” Eddie replied as he looked through one of the coolers. He pulled out a couple of wrapped sandwiches and handed one to the lioness. He took the wrapping off of his sandwich and took a bite before speaking again, “You know, I think I caught a glimpse of a group playing a bit of Frisbee.”

Lucy looked up after eating a part of her sandwich. She scanned around the area and caught the group. “Ah ha!” she announced. “I’ve spotted them. Maybe we can go introduce ourselves once we’re finished eating.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Eddie said. He finished eating up his sandwich and gulped on some of his bottle water. With a sigh, he laid his back on the towel, placed his hands on his stomach, and closed his eyes. He then mumbled, “First, I want to let our food settle before we do any more activity.”

Lucy grabbed at Eddie’s empty wrap along with hers and placed it in the plastic bag they were keeping for trash. She scooted next to the wolf and rested her head on his chest while being careful not to any of her hair on the sand. The lioness then wrapped her right arm to the wolf’s left side. Eddie obligingly moved his hands for Lucy and placed his left on her head as it stroked on her hair softly. With his right, he clasped her right hand and began to rub her fingers softly with his thumb. He smiled when he felt Lucy’s purring on his chest.

“You know that group may not be there when we wake up shortly,” Lucy said after burying her head deeper into Eddie’s chest.

“I’m aware of that,” Eddie said with a sigh. “But don’t you worry. They may be back afterward or else another group will show up doing something else.”

Lucy hummed in agreement. She then felt her hand being lifted and carried to Eddie’s muzzle. He kissed her hand lightly before setting it back down to his chest while holding onto it. Lucy responded with a kiss to his chest before setting her head back to her resting place. Soon, they both drifted off as their breathing became almost synchronized to each other.

---

It was 12:30 in the afternoon. Eddie was the first to stir from his nap. He sat up and yawned while stretching his arms in separate directions. It had occurred to him that Lucy was not resting on his chest. He looked to his right and saw her still resting. With a smile he leaned in to kiss her forehead. Her eyes opened gently at the touch of his wolf lips. They gazed into each other’s eyes and smiled.

“Have a good nap?” Eddie asked.

Lucy sat up and yawned before saying, “I did. And you?”

“It was refreshing,” he answered. With a sly grin, he asked, “Want to know something?”

The lioness tilted her head and asked, “What?” Before she had enough time to react, Eddie’s hands pounced on Lucy’s stomached and tickled away furiously. Lucy shrieked in laughter as she tried her best to cover herself from Eddie’s fingers. However, the wolf was quick as he let loose with his hands and found every available spot the lioness had trouble covering up.

“Haha, Eddie! Hahahaha! No! Stooooop!” Lucy yelled as she laughed uncontrollably.

“Hey, this is to make up for what you did to me earlier!” Eddie replied. He then stopped and helped himself up before pulling Lucy to her feet. Feeling refreshed and ready to take on the beach more, Eddie and Lucy jogged hand-in-hand out in the open.

“Let’s see if we can find ourselves a group to play a game with!” Eddie yelled behind him.

“Look!” Lucy exclaimed and pointed ahead. “The same group is still playing Frisbee! Watch out!”

Eddie looked ahead in time to snatch a Frisbee coming at him. Catching it caused him to trip in the sand as his body slammed on the ground. He sat on his knees and wiped away some of the sand that got stuck on his fur. Lucy came rushing behind to help him up and brushed away the sand on his tail. A group of four walked towards Eddie and Lucy as a young badger picked up the Frisbee lying on the sand.

“Heh, sorry about that,” the badger chuckled. “Danny here threw it too hard and went towards you guys.”

A ferret merely waved and nodded feeling a bit embarrassed by his mistake.

“Eh, it’s no problem,” Eddie said with a smile. “Good thing my Lucy was quick to warn me about it. Otherwise, I may have lost my head.”

They all laughed and then greeted one another. The ferret, Danny, was slim-built with curly, dark-blonde hair and grey eyes and wore white board shorts with gold trimmings. Standing next to him was a female river otter named Rose with soft, blue eyes and long, jet-black hair that reached just above the elbows, and her red one-piece swimsuit with light-blue floral decorations accentuated her curves.

In front of Danny and Rose, a lithe calico cat, named Sarah, stood near the badger. She wore a matching pink bikini with white stripes as the bangs from her short, copper hair partially covered her turquoise eyes. Finally, there was Ben, the badger who picked up the Frisbee. He was slightly muscular-built with dark purple eyes and very short light-blonde hair as he wore black board shorts with red and white trimmings.

When Eddie and Lucy mentioned their names, the four were completely taken by surprise.

“Whoa! Are you guys serious?” Ben exclaimed. “The Eddie the Wolf and Lucy Martinez? Cool!”

“Eh… Hope this doesn’t bring any hard feelings about that Frisbee,” Danny said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

Sarah swished her head about to get one of her bangs out of her eyes and stepped back a bit to be next to Rose. “They look so adorable together,” she said while hiding her mouth as she giggled softly.

“I know,” Rose cooed. She then walked up to Ben and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, how about inviting them to play volleyball with us?”

“Oh, yeah!” exclaimed Ben. “You guys are more than welcome to join us. We were about to put up this Frisbee anyway.”

Eddie and Lucy looked at each other before giving their attention to Ben. When they did, they both nodded with a smile and followed the group to one of the five open volleyball courts behind the crowd. Danny had rushed away to go grab the volleyball from the group’s tent. He returned to see that they had already split up into teams: the guys on one side while the girls on the other.

“Right, so who’s serving?” asked Danny as he tossed the ball between hands.

“That would be us,” said Rose waving high.

The ferret tossed the ball towards her and jogged to his position in the middle of his side. When they were all set, Rose tossed the ball in the air and smacked it over the net with the palm of her hand. The serve was strong enough to reach Eddie in the back. The wolf quickly walked close enough to hit it high in the air with his clamped fists. The ball reached close enough to the net for Ben to rush up and strike it towards the girls’ ground. However, Lucy leaped out for the save and sent the ball high in the air as she landed front first on the sand. Sarah simply rushed over while looking up to position herself under the ball. Once it came down, she lightly tapped it up again to set Rose up for the spike. The female otter came rushing up but saw Ben charging at the net for the block. With a smirk, the otter quickly leapt up before Ben had time to react and smacked the ball over the net. It was that moment the badger was certain he was going to lose his head after he launched himself to block the ball. It sailed quickly over his head that it knocked Danny off of his feet after it impacted on his head. He fell on his back with a loud thud as the ball landed on the ground.

“What! Already?!” exclaimed Eddie. Annoyed, he looked over and saw the girls cheering for their first point of the game.

Danny got up and returned the ball to the girls before brushing off the sand on his fur. When he was finished, Rose served once again and sent the ball toward the ferret. He jumped up and hit it across the net and saw it sailing toward Sarah. The calico prepared herself for the ball and passed it on back to the other side. To the girls’ surprise, Eddie quickly rushed up from the back and spiked the ball toward the ground. It hit in front of Lucy’s toes by a few inches. The lioness looked to see a smirking Eddie, and she responded with a light glare and a smirk.

“You do realize what you’re in for, wolf,” she said mockingly.

“Bring it on, lioness,” he said mockingly as well.

The game continued on as both teams gave it their all with each round. All of them managed to score a point each, but it was Eddie and Lucy that were fiercely competitive toward each other. The other four were a bit concerned at first by the couple’s behavior, but they soon realized that it was all in fun when the two complimented each other’s efforts after a round. For the most part, they were all having a blast. Ben, Danny, Rose, and Sarah were very grateful to have invited Eddie and Lucy for their volleyball game.

It then came to the final showdown. It was now anyone’s game as to who would get the fifteenth point. All of their furs were now covered in perspiration with some sand grime. Eddie was ready to serve for the last game of the day. He looked around and saw that everyone was anticipating him to start. After taking a deep breath, he launched the ball in the air and struck it across the net. Rose did a slide and hit the ball back up before it was inches away from touching the ground. Sarah then hit it over the net as it made its way to Danny. The ferret was quick to hit it but suddenly collided with Ben, who was also trying to get the ball. Fortunately for them, it was sent over the net. Lucy was quick to rush up toward the ball. However, Eddie saw her approaching the net and made a quick dash to spike the ball. The timing of the impact couldn’t have been any perfect for the two simultaneously struck the ball in the air only for it to make a loud pop. The volleyball quickly deflated and landed dangling on the net.

Both teams gathered around close to the net for further inspection. The deflated ball dangled every so still. There was no sign of it ever moving, and no one dared to touch it.

“Well, I guess that’s the end of this game,” Ben said with a sigh.

Eddie kicked a bit of sand away from him and said, “I’m very sorry about the ball, you guys.”

“Guess we weren’t aware of our strengths at that point,” Lucy said with a sheepish grin.

“Oh, it’s no matter,” the badger chuckled as he decided to take the flattened ball off of the net. “This ball was cheaply made to begin with.”

“Yeah, we had to do some last minute shopping,” Rose chimed in. “That ball was something Danny and Sarah found before the checkout.”

Shifting her weight to one side, Sarah crossed her arms and looked at Rose with a smirk. “Hey, you were the one who begged about getting a volleyball,” she said.

Danny scratched the back of his head and said, “She does have a point.”

“Again, it’s no matter,” Ben said. “Next time, we’ll bring in a real volleyball.”

Danny, Rose, and Sarah nodded in agreement. Then, the badger looked at the couple and said, “Well, we do appreciate you guys joining us. You two were really awesome! I’ve never seen anyone with such enthusiasm over anything.”

“Oh, it was our pleasure!” Eddie said with a smile.

“We’re so glad we could join you guys,” Lucy said grinning.

Both groups said their good byes and went about their ways. Eddie and Lucy decided to walk hand in hand along the shore line as they went back to their spot. They noticed that a vast majority of the crowd had already left for the day. It was almost 3:45 in the afternoon, and it was usually around this time that more people would eventually show up. However, that wasn’t going to be the case as rumbling was heard in the distance. The couple looked into the horizon and saw dark clouds coming closer to the beach.

“Looks like a storm is coming,” Eddie said as he stopped to admire the dark clouds.

“We’d best go grab our stuff and head inside our hotel room,” Lucy said while trying to drag the wolf with her.

Eddie obliged in following her back to their spot and helped clean up their area. After they had set everything to be carried away, Eddie pulled Lucy to the side and looked into her eyes.

“You know,” he said with a smile, “I had a very fun day.”

Lucy smile back and said, “So have I. Glad we could have this week for ourselves.”

Eddie brought her in closer and tilted his head slightly as he moved in to lock his lips with hers. Lucy wrapped her arms around the wolf’s neck and accepted his kiss. She gave a soft purr, but it grew louder once Eddie wrapped his arms around her waist. The kiss felt like it lasted a very long time even though it was a good thirty seconds. When they pulled away, the rain has started to inch closer, but that didn’t bother them much.

Eddie leaned his forehead on Lucy’s, and he whispered, “I love you.”

The lioness tilted her head to feel his forehead brush against hers, and she whispered, “I love you too.”

Suddenly, they found themselves getting drenched by the heavy downpour. They both laughed and danced around without a care in the world before they quickly grabbed their things and scurried off inside their hotel room.

The summer may have been over for both Eddie the Wolf and Lucy Martinez, but they will always anticipate what each summer will bring. Whether it’s at the beach or at home, they will find ways to make the next summer even better than the last.