Dark World

Chapter 1 - Bliss

Pacifica sat in a comfy lounge chair on the ocean view deck at a quarter to six in the morning enjoying the mild warm salty breeze. The sunrise in Bora Bora was just minutes away. It had not crested the horizon yet. Nevertheless, from behind the southern Pacific ocean, its light radiated up into the atmosphere. It reflected off the lower clouds, now transfigured a golden band of rose pink fluffy clouds dipped in gold. As the clouds reached further away from the horizon they changed to a rogue or taffy pink mixed along with a heather and mauve purple and in the backdrop behind Pacifica a deep gray purple. The sunlight was starting to show through the stilted straw-covered bungalows amidst the sea of palms and sand that crested the shore on one side. The winding wooden docks snaked between the bungalows and loop back to the sandy shoreline obscured mostly by verdant palms as the tropical sunlight began to glow through the palm fronds.

The birds were becoming very active as they made out a short staccato of calls from either the palms or over the spanning seashore. From the shrill insisting chirps of the Pacific Swallow to the strange and foreign sounds of the White Tern as it made quick low repetitive noises. She could see Black-winged Petrels as they swooped over the waters. They reminded her of seagulls but with a black border around their wings and body.

 The sun was starting to break the horizon as the first insipient rays of golden light reached her fair skin. Dipper had told  Pacifica that the seasons were the opposite from home in the southern hemisphere. So January for them in the pacific northwest was mid-summer. Pacifica had already known from jet-setting across the world on numerous occasions. What she was curious was as to why Dipper knew this.

Pacifica looked over at him. A smile covered her face. He had fallen asleep again. Dipper had been dedicated enough to rise with her to watch the sunrise but was probably exhausted after last night she thought with a soft blush. She would have said their honeymoon had been everything she could have dreamed for, but even in her lofty and most ambitious dreams, she had never been so happy...so content. She wove her fingers through his as his hand lay on the lounge chair. He stirred now rubbing his eyes with his free hand before looking over at his wife. By now they needed no words to convey their deep love for one another. Her eyes said more than her words ever could as she stared into the deep chestnut brown pools of his as his soft brown hair was made even curlier by the salty tropical humidity. It cascaded down his handsome facial features and stubbled chin. He looked back at her with a soft smile that was replaced with a strong gaze that radiated confidence and un-sequestered love.

Pacifica mouthed 'I love you' as Dipper smiled and said, "I love you too babe." He squeezed her hand. She smiled and looked back at the sunrise taking in the beauty of the morning and this moment of bliss. She reflected on the wedding and the joys she had encapsulated in precious memories. Some of the memories her magic sapphire engagement ring had recorded after it glowed and held the memory within for later viewing. The radiant cut stone setting looked like a large sapphire. Any time she wished to recall these precious memories she could rub the side of the ring a few times and it would show the memories within the flat face of the large open-faced flat-topped cut of the gemstone. It was like a mini-viewing screen.

The wedding had been a blur of memories she was still trying to process. The most precious ones she drew readily to the surface of her mind. She remembered dancing with her father. She had not expected him to be so tender. She would have been lying if she had said it was not something she deeply desired in some remote hidden part of her mind she kept secret and buried deep. However, she had long since given that dream up as a child. So imagine her surprise when he showed his soft side at the wedding. Maybe age really had started to rearrange his priorities. Preston had paid more attention to her over the last year and a half than over her entire lifespan that she could remember consciously.