It's your favourite colour on a flat disc of fine spines. Sea urchins that have abandoned the reef for richer substrates, sand dollars lead a life of buried dreams under soft mud and loose silt. These velvet medallions are probably more common than they seem, for living animals have few reasons to visit the world above. Thus, pale tests unearthed by predators or invasive waves are usually the only signs that a population of fossorial echinoderms is ploughing through the sediment in search of juicy meiofauna.
But at times, careless individuals might pop out from an unexpected cleft or betray their presence in tell-tale silhouettes on rippled sand. Were it not for such accidents, shores such as Sekudu's would be reckoned poorer for want of such tokens of garish colour and the allure of discrete enquiries into figures of speech that constantly threaten to sink forever out of sight.
Fuller orbs in fancy dress graze on the meadow that surrounds this isle of wild legend. Not nearly as abundant here compared to a nearby shore, these fashionable urchins somehow get away with random accessories that do little to sharpen the hide of a pale, prickly beauty.
Every footstep on the coarse sand of this shore is a tragedy of minute proportions. Shrimp and fish easily weave out of the way. Shells and carapaces sink to rise again. But creatures of brittler build can hope for little more than a smashing end or a badly battered future.
Pencil urchins attain a size that cannot fail to skirt passing sights, but this miniature globe of medieval armour barely half an inch in diameter can count itself lucky to escape the pain of a predawn crush hour. Too small to be even a pinprick, the urchin could do little more than endure the thorn of unwanted attention from visitors who offer the clumsy mercy of a survey that lasts just long enough to glimpse the faint spirit of a small, tidal strand.
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