She was flying through the air in an ocean breeze, the smell of the sea salt strong, and the spray refreshing in the hot sun. Orion loved flying the Sams, they were compared to Earth’s pterodactyls, just not as vicious, and much prettier; their wings were iridescent and glowed in the midday sun, which made Bangor look incredible from up above. She could see for miles, from the domed city in the west to the woods that stretched as far as the ocean in the east, she felt happy and contented.

She came to land on the beach near the rocks, she liked looking in the rock pools, and at this time of year, they were full of life, from the purple crabs to yellow coral, a myriad of colour. A shell caught her eye, it was different from the rest, it was blue with iridescent features that were brought out by the sunlight and shone a spectrum of colours, from bright pinks to the orange of the sand. On closer inspection, she could see a raised part that didn’t look like it was natural erosion from the sea. She was curious, was this natural, or did someone make it. Something made her look up, and she saw a barnacle man, completely natural on the coast, they mainly hibernated on the edge of the reef, except this one was walking straight towards her. Staring at him against the glare of the sun Orion thought him handsome, despite the obvious barnacles on his shoulders and legs; his muscles were still apparent, and his long shiny hair and blue eyes were definitely helping, she smiled dreamily as he came closer.

‘Hi,’ she said with a Cheshire cat grin that she couldn’t prevent.

‘Hi,’ he said back with a grin to match hers as he walked past her.

‘Great thermals today, the ocean looks beautiful from above.’

‘Cool’ he said as he was looking for something in the rock pools. Ok, she thought a man of little words, she could work with this.

‘Are you looking for something specific or just studying the crabs?’

‘I’m looking for a shell, my father is imprisoned by the evil sea king Bognor and only this shell can buy his freedom, apparently, it can grant one wish to whoever it ‘likes,’ whatever that means’.

‘Wow, and all this before lunch, bummer’

‘Yeh, it sucks, what have you found?’

‘Not sure, I think it’s just a shell, but there’s something about it like it’s looking at me.’

‘It might be what I’m looking for, can I have a look?’

‘Sure’ she said as she passed over the iridescent shell. Orion avoided looking up at him as his muscles tightened and glistened in the sun’s rays. She blushed and turned her head away.

‘I don’t feel anything, it’s just another shell, useless’ he said tossing it away onto the sand. She retrieved it and in her head, she could swear it said thank you, dismissing it she said,

‘What’s your name anyway, mine’s Orion.’

‘My name is Abe for what it’s worth, we probably won’t meet again.’

Well, she thought, that’s put me in my place. It was strange, he was a handsome stranger, which definitely appealed, but he came across as quite arrogant, why were all the good-looking ones not nice. Not realising she was still holding the shell she wished to find a nice man, who was kind, sympathetic, and with a body like his. In her head, she heard ‘wish granted.’ Orion turned around and there was no one there.

‘Did you say something?’

‘No, why?’

‘No reason’ she said and put the shell down, at which moment it changed colour, and what was beautiful was now grey with black spots. At this point, she noticed her Sams was restless and trying to get her attention.

‘Well, nice to meet you Abe, I’m off’ ‘Good luck with finding your shell,’ and with that, she picked up the shell and threw it back into the sea.

‘Whatever’ he said with a cursory hand gesture not even looking at her.

‘Oh, quick question, I’ve never heard of Bongor, I thought the sea king was called Rebanor?’

‘Ok, you caught me, I heard there was a wishing shell around here somewhere, I just wasn’t sure where there are you happy.’

‘Ok, don’t bite my head off, I don’t matter remember.’

As she turned to walk back to her Sams, she looked back at him getting more frustrated and thought it was a shame. She holstered her Sams and flew back into the sky away from the water and back home to the Bangornest City. As she flew over the forests she noticed another Sams that had obviously crashed into one of the trees, she flew down to see if she could help, the creature was injured and a man was lying on the forest floor, he was breathing and seemed ok, his eyes opened and they were a beautiful green, and his hair matched the colour of the bark on the surrounding trees.

‘Hi,’ she said, ‘Are you OK?’

‘I am now’ he said smiling.

As they both got up from the floor looking into each other’s eyes a terrible distant noise filled them both with dread.

‘Now what?’ she said to herself. And they ran.