This was my life, long before I became Robin. It is maybe an hour before dawn, and my two sisters are already up, getting ready for a day of work and play at the beach. My oldest sister Saydira is about twenty-one years old, Ashlea whom I am a little closer to is nineteen and I have just turned eighteen. Ashlea is whispering in my ear. “Come on Taylan we are heading out soon, get up.”

“Yes Ash, where is Saydira?” I whisper.

“She is getting some breakfast and snacks ready for the day ahead of us.” Ashlea climbs into my bed, deciding to rest on her stomach, supporting herself on her elbows, looking warmly at me as I become more awake and alert.

“What is she putting together?” I let a yawn escape when I ask as I rub my eyes open.

“I think I saw some dried sugar kelp, berries and some dried fish chips for the afternoon,” Ashlea says with a twinkle in her eyes. She is looking forward to the day. I have no idea where she gets all her energy from this early in the morning and I can tell she has been awake for a bit because her hair is a warm honey brown color. The color of our home.

“Oh, wonderful” I reply. I love sugar kelp; in fact, I love anything that is sweet. Ashlea gets up off my bed, convinced that I am awake, and rejoins Saydira downstairs.

Saydira is a great sister and a natural leader. She has grown into a matriarch of our family. My mother is still heavily involved too, but she and Saydira have more of a partnership that works very well. Saydira manages my sister and me with gathering, and my mom works exclusively with the sales and trade of what we gather.

I roll out of my comfortable satin sheet covered bed that is surrounded in netting to keep the bugs out in the night. I brush my teeth in the bathroom, tie my hair back, get into a t-shirt and shorts, and head down the staircase that spirals around a massive tree trunk to the kitchen area where Ashlea and Saydira are. Mom usually is not up for another couple of hours as her workday starts when the rest of the community opens their shops.

Saydira sees me as I am descending the stairs, “Hey sleepy head.” She says in a teasing voice.

“Morning Saydira, which areas of the beach do you have in mind for us to visit today?” I ask as I sit down at the table.

“Ash and I were just discussing that; I think today we are going to visit the North Shore; it has been a while and who knows? I was just telling Ash that we could keep an eye open for oysters; my guess is there are some beautiful pearls to be captured. Hopefully today we will be in luck?” She turns her back to me as she grabs a dish from the cupboard.

I say, “Sounds like a plan.” Ashlea and Saydira join me to eat.

After about ten minutes, the three of us are finished breakfast, packed and ready for the day ahead. Saydira locks up, and we are off to the beach. It is a short walk to our destination. My family lives in an area that is sort of the equivalent to a suburb, well sort of. It has a very lush and dense forest that we live in and the homes are different, instead of tearing down the vegetation the community, has sort of built around it. Our home is one of many massive tree homes. It is built from the ground up and around the trunk of the tree. The trunk is the main support of the structure. The tree is a great insulator to our home, and the canopy of leaves provides added shading and protection to the roof. The home is a two-story structure like many of the homes in the community.

It couldn’t be a more perfect morning. We approach the clearing of the forest and step through the dew-covered grass. We are approaching the North Shore cliffs, and I can start to feel the light fresh morning breeze that is coming from the ocean. What a sight. After clearing the trees, and there it is nothing, but sky and water. The sun is just coming up in the East, along the cliff line and the sky is a bright orange. The water is sparkling with the sun hitting its ripples. This world Airus; has that in common with Earth, this planet orbits around its sun the same way Earth does with its own sun.

“I think I am going to catch me a couple of pearls girls,” Ashlea says with such certainty and playfulness in her voice, while skipping along the path.

“How long did it take you to come up with that rhyme?” I reply. Ashlea just sticks her tongue out at me.

“I hope you do!” Saydira winks at her. We make our way down the cliff path stepping carefully on the worn-down rocks to the North Shore.

The sand here is beautiful. It is the whitest sand I have ever seen, and it is so fine that when you walk barefoot on it, it feels as though you are walking on soft cushions. The one thing about it that always makes me laugh; it’s childish really, but when you run on this sand it makes a squeaky noise, it kind of sounds like a toot, or to put it more bluntly, a fart. We often kid with each other while making farting sounds with the sand and tease each other with fart jokes.

This morning there isn’t anyone at the beach yet, except for the three of us, it is still very early. We find a good spot next to the base of the cliff in the shade, away from the water to store our clothes and bags. We all strip down to our bare skin in the morning sun; our hair has turned to a whitish color because of the abundance of sand. We all strap on a couple of pouches.

Saydira says, “Okay so the plan is we are going to spend the entire morning treasure hunting, focusing on finding oysters. Fill your bags and by noon we will stop for lunch, head back to the beach, open them and have a snack.”

One thing that I love is the taste of a fresh oyster, oh so yummy. We walk down to the water’s edge, happily playing and teasing each other. The one thing that I do have a hard time with is, getting used to the water. Don’t get me wrong, the water is always warm, but it is the first shock of entering, it is always cooler than your body temperature.

“It’s so cold!” I protest.

“Taylan you’re just being a baby.” Ashlea chirps back. She is already in up to her neck in the sandy water.

“I hate this part,” I whine. Getting into cold water is the worst.

“Taylan, do you want some help getting in?” Ash hollers, she is starting to get under my skin. Ashlea is making her way back to me. I am only ankle-deep, and she is starting to threaten me with a few playful splashes.

“Come on Ash; let me ease my way into it,” I beg.

“Taylan you’re just dragging it out just get in and be over with the shock already. The water is so nice and warm, it feels like a bath.” Ashlea encourages.

“Yah Ash, just leave me alone for a few minutes. Hey, did you hear that? I think Saydira is calling for you?” I lie to get her to go away. Ash looks over her shoulder and spots Saydira in the distance, who has made her way up to a sand dune and is now waist-deep and re-adjusting her bag. Ash then turns away from me and makes a splashy dive along with some playful kicks in my direction. Oh, she is so annoying. Ashlea drenches me, and I growl in reaction, I wanted to go in on my own terms. Ah well, I walk out and dive into the fresh open water, following Ashlea who is swimming over to Saydira. Ash and I swim up onto the sand dune and re-adjust our bags, just as Saydira and we are all ready for the descent.

“Ready girls,” Saydira encourages. Even though Saydira is the oldest and generally is the one looking out for my sister and me, she does have a playful side to her, and I know that treasure diving is one of her favorite things to do. It is more of a passion than a chore. We all dive down together; down to the depths to the ocean floor, my guess is that it is about thirty feet. As I mentioned earlier, we don’t have the ability to breathe underwater, but our bodies can hold our breath easily for a few minutes at a time before needing to re-surface.