Ocean's Kiss

by Lani Wendt Young

  The words rankled at Daniel. No, I’m not one of you. The Vasa Loloa rejected my grandmother Salamasina. And because of your stupid laws, my mother had to give up her child and the man she loved.

  Oblivious to his inner turmoil, Ilisapesi continued. “I sent a team to follow up on your movements this morning. To verify your story. I’d hoped to have you proven wrong. But I am deeply saddened to find it true. You were assured safe passage here and my sisters broke that covenant. We have them now. We will carry out judgement so you can see that we have honor and you can trust our word. Then we will do the exchange. The Tangaloa Bone for your father.”

  A group broke through the tree line. Four women – young adults – escorting two prisoners. Hiva and Sola. When Hiva caught sight of Daniel, she tried to break free from her guards, to launch an attack, but her efforts were futile.

  “There’s something you should know,” said Daniel to Ilisapesi as the group approached. “I don’t think Hiva and Sola were working alone. I took these in town this morning.” He showed Ilisapesi the photos of the Ariki that he had taken on his phone and her reaction was immediate.

  “The Ariki? Here?” she breathed.

  “Sola said they were going to hand me over to someone else. I think it may have been them,” said Daniel.

  Ilisapesi motioned to the guards to bring Hiva forward.

  “How could you betray your sisters like this?” demanded Ilisapesi. “With the Ariki? They killed Tavake. Murdered her in cold blood.”

  “Sacrifices must be made,” said Hiva. “If we want to survive, to thrive, to rule? Then we can’t rely on the old ways anymore. We don’t have the numbers. Our Covenant’s weak. You know this.”

  “But with the Tangaloa Bone, we could have all the power we need,” protested Ilisapesi.

  Sole chimed in. “The Ariki know how to take us into the future. With their resources and the Bone combined, Telesā will once again rise to rule Oceania, to be a voice the world listens to.”

  “You know nothing. The Ariki are lionfish. Frilled prettiness hides their deadly venom. They’ve never put our mother Fanua first. They serve themselves. Always. And now you have betrayed us,” said Ilisapesi.

  A sudden gust of wind blew in off the ocean and in the far off distance, a sole spike of lightning lit up the sky.

  Hiva’s smile was triumphant. “The Ariki are coming mother. They’ll be the strong leadership that we need.”

  Ilisapesi’s eyes bled blue and she uttered a single ferocious cry. The ocean answered. A ball of water rose up, spinning rushing azure chaos. It hurtled towards Hiva, and split at the last minute, into multiple razor edged discs that sliced through her body with brutal accuracy. It happened so fast that Daniel barely registered it. Hiva’s head lolled and toppled to the sand, rolled several feet and came to a standstill. Eyes still wide open in surprise, staring out at the sea. The rest of her collapsed into a bloody heap of precision cut pieces. Sola wailed Hiva’s name and collapsed in a heap on the sand, her body wracked with sobs.

  Daniel battled a gut-wrenching surge of nausea at the gruesome sight and turned away.

  “We must prepare for the Ariki,” said Ilisapesi.

  She turned to Daniel. “This is not your fight. You and Ronan. Give us the Tangaloa Bone. Then take the boat and go.”

  She spoke, almost to herself then. “It was wrong of me to make you unearth the Bone and bring it here. Now I have stirred up the sea snake’s nest and brought destruction to my people.”

  Daniel unzipped the duffel bag and took out the Bone pieces, assembled the staff. But he kept the carving on his necklace hidden. For now. He stood and handed Ilisapesi the Bone.

  “For Ronan’s freedom,” said Daniel.

  There were hushed whispers and awed looks from the Vasa Loloa as they got their first look at the ancient weapon that they had only heard of in legend. Perhaps if there had not been an approaching adversary, Ilisapesi would have noticed the missing section where the final piece belonged. But instead she accepted the Bone gratefully and turned to rap out orders for her people, about taking the children to safety inland, those whose powers were not yet ready to hold against an attack, and summoning every Vasa Loloa.

  Already the sisters were gathering. Young women running to take up position on the shore, fear and anticipation written clearly on their faces. Daniel saw that Ronan had been all too right in his summary of the island. Most of the sisters were barely even teenagers. Even if they did have the Gift, he doubted whether they had the skills and mastery of it that they would need for the battle.

  Ronan came to him. A harsh whisper. “We can’t leave. This isn’t right. They’re just children. We have to do something.”

  Daniel looked around. He thought of his promise to Leila, to come home safe. To be careful. And then he felt rather than heard, the whisper of the Bone, his constant companion now.

  These are your people. This is the land of your grandparents. This is the ocean of your mother. This is who you are.

  His first instinct was to fight it. But his protests died away in the face of two searing questions.

  Can you walk away, knowing they need you? What kind of man are you Daniel Tahi?

  He and Ronan exchanged a look that spoke volumes. Agreed.

  Daniel called out. “Ilisapesi! We’re not going anywhere. We’ll stay and fight.”

  The Covenant Keeper was giving instructions to a cluster of Vasa Loloa. She turned to shout back, “This isn’t your fight. Leave while you still can. You have no powers. You can’t help us.”

  “You said it yourself. Your sisters aren’t equipped to fight anyone. Your Covenant doesn’t have the power to stand against the Ariki.”

  She held her head up proud and resolute. “We will not bow down. We won’t just hand over the Tangaloa Bone to them. Not when we know what those vipers will do with it.”

  The Ariki came from above, descending on the wind, wielding jagged bolts of lightning and throwing hammer punches of thunder. They were a fearsome sight. There were eight of them, wearing an array of vivid colors, like birds of paradise.

  Like the true leader that she was, Ilisapesi stepped up to be the front line, the first to defend. She wielded the Tangaloa Bone and brought the tip down to firmly stamp the ground. Blue lines sparked and rippled outward from where the Bone met the earth, running into the sea. The lines tripled and multiplied many times over, like webbing, a vast net that scooped up water and sent it racing upwards, and over, forming an arc over the ragged band of Vasa Loloa on the beach, then stretching further and onward, to cover the entire island.

  “It’s a shield,” said Ronan in awe. “She’s created a water shield of protection for the whole island!”

  As the two men watched, the Ariki sent crackling bolts of lightning hurtling at the Vasa Loloa on the beach – but the bolts only warped and dissipated against Ilisapesi’s safety net. It seemed like the Vasa Loloa would have a fighting chance after all.

  But it was a short-lived reprieve. While everyone’s attention was on the Ariki, Sola sought vengeance for Hiva’s death. Ronan shouted out a warning, but it was too late. Sola came up behind Ilisapesi, and stabbed her with a razor water shard. Once, twice. Ilisapesi’s eyes widened in surprise and she stumbled. Sola was going for a third gouging stab, when Ronan charged and took her down with a precise rugby tackle, knocking the blade from her hand. Two Vasa Loloa ran to help, lacerating Sola with whip coils of water.

  But it was too late for Ilisapesi and her shield. She sank to her knees, still clinging to the Tangaloa Bone, trying to maintain the net, but failing. The shield collapsed, as quickly as the blood gushed from her wounds. Then the Ariki struck.

  The leader razed a line of lightning along the beach, through the gathered Vasa Loloa, scattering them. One was slow to leap out of the path of electrical fire and her scream of agony carried on the wind. A second Ariki sent a blast of howling wind that knocked Vasa Loloa down like bowling pins. A third began hurling lightning bolts at the fallen.r />
  Daniel picked up the Tangaloa Bone and sprinted across the sand. He was majesty in motion, every muscle, every move in perfect symmetry as he ran. It was easy to see why so many called him a panther on the rugby field. He reached the frontline and brandished the Bone with two hands, stepped into the direct line of lightning fire. The Bone acted as a shield and the lightning bounced back to it’s bearer, knocking her out of the sky. She fell. A meteorite descending to the ocean. One down.

  Seeing him take out one of their sisters, drew the Ariki’s full attention and the remaining seven turned their focus on him.

  “Get back!” Daniel shouted to the sisters behind him. He breathed deep, reached within, searched and found that which was Vasa Loloa, son of Moanasina, he who gave his heart so earth might live. He beckoned it, spoke, summoned and it came. Fast, furious and fueled with the fire of Fanua.

  The Tangaloa Bone lit up with sapphire beauty. Daniel’s tatau answered. He began to spin the Bone like a siva afi fire knife dancer. Grace, skill and fluid strength on brilliant display. As it spun, the Bone called to ocean so that cerulean spirals followed each sweep of the staff. The Ariki were lobbing bolts of attack at him now, a torrent of them, but he met them easily, effortless. He feinted, spun, leapt and twisted as he brandished the Bone, as it sang to him with a song that only he could hear. He and the Tangaloa Bone were one. He met every missile with an answer, either batting it aside to a harmless fizzle on the rocks, or else sending it back to the sender. The Ariki were blasting him with torrents of wind, gusty surges, determined to send him flying. But Daniel stood strong. Relentless. Those nearby could hear him humming under his breath, a little song. See the smile on his face. The light of joy in his emerald eyes.

  Ilisapesi watched awestruck from her where she lay. “As long as I live, I doubt I will ever see such power, such oneness with the ocean’s might.” She had always known that the Bone held tremendous power, but this? This was something more. It was like Daniel and the Bone were one. Like it was part of him, melded in harmony with his thoughts, with his every instinct. With his heart and soul. That’s when she realized, they WERE one. Many had used the Tangaloa Bone to take Fanua’s power from another. To drain them dry. To build their own arsenal. To further their cause. To build their kingdom. Daniel was the first to sacrifice willingly. To ask nothing from the Bone, but to offer instead his Gift, his life. For love of woman and of earth. And so Tangaloalagi gloried in him as the Bone Bearer.

  A determined tempest wind broke through his whirling water defenses, knocked him back, ripping the shirt from his back and sending him smashing against the rocks. An in draw of breath from the watching Vasa Loloa. But he was only momentarily affected and his dance with the might of ocean continued. Only this time, bare-chested, his entire being was lit up with cerulean force as his tatau was clearly displayed. Two more Ariki were blasted from the sky.

  That’s when the storm came. It lashed the island with hurricane force winds, uprooting trees and flattening structures.

  “Get everyone to shelter. Take Ilisapesi,” Daniel shouted at Ronan and the rest of the Vasa Loloa. “Leave the Ariki to me.”

  The strongest Vasa Loloa formed a kind of water stretcher for Ilisapesi and ran alongside her as they transported her away from the battle. Ronan hated to leave his son to face the storm alone, but he knew he would only be a liability if he stayed. So he ran with the women to the research labs, the strongest structures on the island.

  It was when he was passing by a heap of collapsed timber that he heard a faint cry for help. He stopped, looked around, tried to peer through the swirling chaos of the storm. The ocean was whipped to a frenzy now and giant waves were crashing on the shore, flooding the malae grounds with a massive king tide. He ducked just in time as a piece of corrugated iron flew past.

  “Whew, that was way too close!” He heard the cry again. This time he located the source. A small child huddled underneath the timber. “Hold on, I’m coming.”

  Lightning lit up the sky again and again in an unnatural onslaught of electrical fury. Thunder crashed so loud it hurt your ears, as if it would pound the island to dust.

  He went to the child, tugging at debris to clear a path until he reached her. She looked up at him with terror in her eyes. He tried to lift her but her leg was trapped beneath a piece of fallen timber and she screamed. A high pitched cry that scraped like nails on a chalkboard at his heart. Ronan tried to heave the debris out of the way, and failed. It was too heavy. The little girl didn’t take her eyes off him and this time there was trust in them. Wide-eyed appeal. The belief of a child that yes, I know this stranger will save me.

  “Let’s try again,” Ronan shouted, more for his benefit than hers. Another surge of ocean had the water up to his knees now, nearly submerging the child. He had to hurry. He braced his feet in the muddy ground and strained with all his might. The timber moved a fraction, but not enough to free her. A stab of disappointment gutted him. And then there was help. A young fakaleiti, one of the Vasa Loloa scientists from the lab was beside him, shouting over the rain.

  “We push together,” she said. She was tiny, a thin lean girl, but her dark eyes glowed with an azure fire and when they pushed at the timber together, Ronan thought he felt the black water surge with them. The load finally shifted and the little girl scrambled free. Ronan swept her up in his arms and pushed through the ocean floodwaters. He shouted at his co-rescuer, “Let’s get to higher ground!”

  Just then, a tree next to them took a lightning bolt direct hit, and exploded in a cacophony of shards and sound. The blast knocked Ronan several feet in the air. He clung tightly to the child though refusing to let her go, even when he smashed into a tangle of branches and crates. The young woman ran to them, “Are you alright?”

  Ronan was dazed and couldn’t speak for a few minutes. Then he rasped, “Yes. Here.” He handed the child to her. “Take her. Get her to lab on the hill. Go.”

  The young woman looked undecided about leaving him but Ronan urged her on. “Get out of here. There’s no time. I’ll follow. Go!”

  She took the child and ran without looking back. Only then did Ronan feel for the spike that had pierced his midsection, through his back and now protruding from his stomach. He coughed and tasted blood. He tried to get up but staggered and fell again, a dry husk in the raging winds. There was something wrong with his left leg. It wasn’t working. Even as his vision dimmed, Ronan watched after the receding figure of the fakaleiti taking the child to safety and was glad. “At least somebody’s getting outta here alive today…” Then another wave hit him from behind and his world went dark.

  That’s when she came to him. Like a silver specter of light, she walked through the storm, bringing calm to the raging water with her every footstep. She raised him up in her arms, easily, cradled him against her, wiped the mud from his face. Without any command, the water surged to form a protective bubble around them. An oasis of peace. Deep within the swirling chaos of pain, Ronan thought he heard a familiar voice say, with smoky roughness, “Don’t you dare die on me.”

  He wanted to smile, to utter her name. But the darkness claimed him.

  Back at the beach, it was time to go on the offensive.

  Daniel ran and leapt nimbly from the black rocks that edged the shore, brandishing the Bone like a spear. The ocean moved to receive him, raising him up on the crest of a wave, taking him to meet the Telesā Matagi in a midair elemental battle. The winds tore at him, trying to dash him from his surfer stance on the silver water that twisted and writhed like a living thing. But you cannot separate a Vasa Loloa from the ocean when they are truly one. Daniel only laughed at their attempts.

  One Ariki stabbed at him with a daggered bolt but Daniel swerved and leapt, executing a perfect flip and roll, before summoning an ocean tornado, an intense columna vortex that dashed her blow away. He stood poised, surfing the crest of a wave that obeyed his every command, bending and twisting impossibly as he surrounded the Ariki with churning vortexes
and knocked them from the air.

  They hit the water and immediately he had them tossing and spinning in a washing machine broil of angry surf that knocked the air out of them before spitting them out on the reef. Raking them across the sharp coral. One by one, Daniel took them on, matching their every attack with effortless grace and deadly accuracy. One by one, the Ariki fell.

  As quickly as it had begun, the battle was over. The storm died with a whimper, leaving a battered and bruised island in its wake. Daniel stood triumphant, elevated on a spinning platform of water, the Tangaloa Bone held aloft in his right hand. In that moment, he felt like his grandparents stood with him, their pride and love a cloak of warmth and peace that he would wear always. In that moment, Daniel gloried in being a son of the ocean, a champion chosen by Vasa Loloa. He wished Leila was there with him so he could tell her that maybe she was right. Maybe, just maybe, being Telesā wasn’t a curse?

  Then it happened. A great white shark breached, a massive behemoth that seemed to defy gravity as it leapt from the water beneath Daniel, jaws wide open, rows of teeth gleaming in the afternoon sun. Daniel turned, saw the predator’s gaping mouth beneath him. It was a sight he would never forget. He tried to sidestep, to leap, to block –anything. The shark’s bulk smashed into the platform and knocked Daniel from his airborne position. The staff was dislodged from his grip and the last thing Daniel saw before hitting the water, was the shark twist so it could chomp down on the Bone in midair.

  The impact was juddering and forced all the air out of Daniel’s lungs. The giant shark hit the water right after he did and the wake sent Daniel careening and tumbling in a mini-tsunami of panic. He couldn’t breathe, his ribs hurt, he didn’t know which way was up, and THERE’S A SHARK OUT TO GET ME!! He thrashed around in terror as he tried to remember every shark-attack article he’d ever read, but then his fingers closed around the Bone carving he wore around his neck. Calming him. Speaking to him with the firm reminder.