Linda had almost managed to find her feet again and had almost caught up to his pace, when they arrived. Before her eyes a large clearing untangled itself from the line of trees, covered in the greenest grass she had ever seen. Well, at least she guessed the grass was there, because it was mostly hidden by all the blankets, towels, mats and all manner of covers, strewn across the ground. For an instant Linda thought she had stumbled upon an American high-school party in the woods. The average age of the Alaians in attendance fit the comparison and so did the massive quantities of local beer which was flowing from the kegs into the cardboard cups, but most typical were the couples lying around, thinking no one could see what they were doing, simply because they had covered themselves with whatever was available.

Kay didn’t slow his pace one bit and with enviable precision managed to make his way through the clearing, without stepping on anyone. Linda tried to follow exactly in his footsteps, while at the same time still looking around. It had only just occurred to her that the women and men on the beach were more or less around Wint’s age, with the youngest being around Wotar’s. Whereas the girls and boys in this group were closer the her age group and even a few years younger. Apparently, generation gaps were a universal experience such that not even the beautiful beach and waves could convince the young people from the Fringes to tolerate their seniors even for an hour. Not that Linda was complaining, of course. After all, she herself felt at this moment that he actions were to a great extent fuelled by her rebellion of sorts against the authority of the two older women she was travelling with.

“There ya go!” Kay suddenly stopped a boy, carrying an impressively sized tray with at least twenty beer cups, took one and gave it to her.

“Oh, thanks!” Linda took it with a smile and nodded towards the tray. “What about you?”

“Nah, beer is a ladies’ drink”, he grinned at her. “We boys drink softer stuff.”

Without slowing down, he grabbed a clear cup from another tray – its contents were pale pink and reminded Linda of some form of wine. They had made their way to the main event, so to speak, where a few girls had surrounded a rather large leather sac, apparently filled with beer. On top of it was sat a beautiful young boy, who, to the delight of Linda’s hungry eyes, was just as barely dressed as Kay.

Her gorgeous escort followed her gaze with a barely concealed sour expressing dimming his features, but whatever had passed through that pretty little head of his, he chose to keep to himself and instead waved a hand towards the curious sight and explained:

“The game’s called the Beer pick up, ‘cuz he’s sat on the sac, see and whichever girl manages to drink the last gulp of beer gets to pick ‘im up and take ‘im to the woods and…” He suddenly cut himself off and Linda could guess the rest from the blush which reappeared on his cheeks. “Do ye wanna… ye know – try?”

She thought about laughing at the irony of the fact that she was usually on his end of conversations like these, but decided against it - he probably wouldn’t understand what exactly seemed funny to her. So instead she decided to respond the way she had wished guys from Earth would, when she would ask them in a roundabout way if they preferred another girl, namely by squeezing his hand and smiling to him:

“Only if you’re on top of the sac.”

His face lit up in that smile that was quickly becoming her favourite thing in the whole world.

“Shall we go sit somewhere?” She asked, pulling him gently towards an empty square of grass, just big enough for the two of them.

“See, they’re done – let’s go!”

Kay however seemed to have other ideas for life. Before Linda could protest, he’d run up to the circle of girls and said something to the one who had just drank the last gulp of beer from the sac and was now blissfully grinning with her arms around the boy she had picked up, literally and metaphorically. They had a brief exchange in the time it took her to get to them and before she knew it, the group rushed around the sac, filling it up again. Linda’s eyes nearly turned the size of saucers when she figured out what they were doing.

For a moment she wondered if she could still pull Kay by the hand and make for the trees. Then she made the unfortunate mistake of looking at him and the expression on his face managed to dissipate her resolve completely. She shrugged, and partially aware of the fact that she was falling for the oldest form of emotional blackmail in the Universe, helped him get on top of the already full sac.

The local beer was truly something special. This particular brew was a dark one, which she found odd, because she was mostly used to drinking bock during autumn and winter, whereas the temperatures on the island were close to tropical. Not that it was in any way unpleasant – the drink was thick but refreshing in a strange way. And went down so easily…

With the edges of her line of sight she could see the gaping expressions of the youngsters around her and she could feel their bewildered stares like a rain of pine needless on her neck and back. With her lips still tightly sealed around the opening of the sac, she smiled to herself. She was going to teach these natives a thing or two about beer drinking.

Her last gulp was met by a round of thunderous applause from her now large audience. The wave of adrenaline in combination with the large amount of ingested alcohol made her head spin a bit, but she managed to compose herself quickly enough to stretch her hand out to Kay, who was now sitting almost on the ground on the now empty sac, and she helped him up.

A wide grin lit his face up when it levelled with hers and before she could react, he threw his hands around her neck and kissed her with all he had. The applause from the young people around them thundered again, even louder this time, if that was even possible. Linda half-opened her eyes to look at him through her lashes. He looked exactly the way she wanted him – slightly out of breath and definitely flustered. Without giving him the chance to pull himself back together, she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the line of trees, amidst the jeers and cat-calls from the others on the clearing.

When they finally stopped under the thick shadow of one large tree, she wasn’t quite sure which one of them was more eager to remove the annoying barriers of cloth from the other’s body. Although in theory she should’ve had an easier time removing his semblance of clothing, it turned out to be tied with the most complex knot she had ever encountered. He threw his head back and gave out a jingle of a laugh at her intense expression, but then mercifully helped her out.

She sized his naked body with an approving stare and pushed him to lie down on her clothes. From then on everything became a thick mist of pleasure, accompanied by the soundtrack of his heavy breathing and quiet moans.