Chapter Twenty – Surfboards & Crystals
Grasiella heard someone run onto the beach. She recognized who it was right away. His swagger gave him away. Kana’i came and dropped down to sit next to her. “What are you doing out here?” He asked her.
“Nothing,” She noticed that his clothing was crumpled, as if he’d been in a fight. Instead of asking him about it, she turned her gaze back out to the sea.
“I was going to hit the water,” he announced.
“Yeah, where’s your surf board?” She didn’t see one with him.
“I keep it around here. There’s a shack just up there.” He pointed down the beach to where it rose up on a mound of sand and foliage.
“Didn’t you hear about Mnemosyne getting out of the crystal?”
“Pele mentioned something about it to me.” He didn’t look concerned.
“Aren’t you worried about Mnemosyne? About what she’s doing right now? She said ‘they were coming’? I’ve been sitting here thinking about it.”
“I can’t tell you what that means. No one will know until she makes her move. It won’t do you any good to worry about it.” Kana’i raised his knees so that he could rest his arms out on them. His hands were clasped together.
“You’re not holding anything back from me are you? Pele doesn’t have some idea? I mean she helped out once before.”
“I can’t speak for Pele.”
“Why don’t you ever call her grandma or something? We call ours ‘G’.”
Laughing, he answered, “Because she’s Pele, it’s her name.”
“Yeah but she is your grandmother.”
“Yes, she is.”
“You might be able to act like it’s no big deal that Mnemosyne is out of the crystal. I can’t. I can’t just wait for Mnemosyne to do something. We need to be ready. Eros didn’t seem too worried about her and now, after talking with you, it looks like you’re not worried about her either. What is wrong with you two?”
“You talked to Eros?” Kana’i seemed concerned by this development.
“Yes, he came by to say goodbye.”
“Oh.” Kana’i visibly relaxed.
“No, it’s not. We could have used his help.” She went on to explain, “G said once that my ancestor’s last battle was at a volcano on the big island. She called it the Volcano Kohala. She said they fought there and that a stone was thrown into it by one of the Cinerians. She said that Pele took it.”
“Pele mentioned something like that to me once.”
“I think, maybe Mnemosyne might have headed there for that stone. G called it a Painite.”
“She might have gone there.”
“I need to go there,” she said. “I need to go to the Big Island.”
Kana’i looked at her head on, “You want to go to my island?”
Grasiella nodded her head, telling him again that he heard her correctly. She wanted to go to the Big Island to look for the stone. “We need to get to it before Mnemosyne. I’d feel better about this if I knew we had it.” Grasiella felt better now that she had formed a plan.
“Do you think you’re up to facing her? We don’t know what she’s able to do.”
“No, but I have an idea.” Grasiella had the Turning Crystal. She was planning on using it against Mnemosyne. If it worked as Eros claimed it did, then she would be able to control Mnemosyne.
“When do you want to leave?”
“You’ll take me, a Haole, to your island?” she said with a small laugh.
Kana’i was serious with his answer, “I would.”
“Tomorrow morning then,” Grasiella responded, sitting up on her knees facing him. “Where can I meet you?”
“Here,” he said. “And pack light.”
“Do you know where to find Volcano Kohala? G had said it had been destroyed.”
Kana’i left the seriousness behind and even cracked a smile at Grasiella before saying, “You’re asking if I can find a volcano on my island? I think it would be safe to say that I should be able to help you out with that.”
“Yeah, sure, it is a volcano right? Those are pretty big!” Grasiella said sarcastically.
“Are we done now?”
“Yes.” Grasiella sat back into the sand. She felt much better. She would leave for the Big Island in the morning. She would go without Tatiana. It would be safer for her here on Kauai.
“Good, be here early.” With that said he stood up, pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the side. “Don’t be late,” he said before heading to the shack to retrieve his surf board.
Grasiella didn’t leave. She watched as he entered the water. Paddling out into the sea, waiting for the waves to come, Kana’i made it seem effortless as he rode the wave in.
Well he should be good at it. He was, after all, the grandson of Pele, the fire goddess of the Hawaiian Islands. There was a little part of Grasiella that hoped she wouldn’t need to go to Pele for help as her ancestor had done thousands of years before.
Grasiella arrived back at G’s late. Everyone had gone to bed. She grabbed something from the fridge before heading upstairs to take a shower and pack. She would need to do both of these things without waking Tatiana.
She didn’t want Tatiana to go with her and Kana’i to the Big Island. She didn’t want Tatiana to get hurt. Grasiella knew that if she were to get into any real trouble, she would have Kana’i there and also the assurance from Psyche that Eros would be there should she need him. She didn’t quite understand that, because how would he know if he wasn’t around to see how she was doing?
There was also her ancestor, who had the tendency to jump into her body whenever she was in trouble. Even though Grasiella had asked her not to, she had a feeling her ancestor would do whatever she pleased. Had her eyes really turned green when she was possessed? “Crazy,” she thought.
Tatiana was still sleeping early the next morning, which was fortunate for Grasiella. Outside she ran into Akamu. He had just pulled up in his truck, which was covered in mud.
He gave her a cheerful good morning and told her the mud on his truck was because he had taken some tourists out to do some hiking. They wanted to see where a few movies had been filmed. He told Grasiella he had given them a good price.
“What are you doing out so early?” he asked, noticing the bag she carried.
“I’m just going to the beach,” she replied pleasantly.
“How are the scooters working out for you, good?”
“Yes, thanks. Tatiana and I use them all the time.”
“Good, I came by because your grandmother told me she had some work for me to do around the place. Thought I would get here early and get started.”
“OK great. I will see you, Akamu.”
“Sure. Sure. Go. Go.”
Grasiella ran into the garage for the motorized scooter. She was anxious to get started. She left G a note on her desk in the office. Grasiella hoped to be off the island before G found it and read it. Actually, she hoped to be off the island before Tatiana realized she had gone.
Grasiella waited for Kana’i at Queens Pond. Sitting in the sand, she patiently waited. He kept her waiting twenty minutes. She didn’t hear him as he approached. She had been deep in thought, her dark brown eyes focusing on the waves as they rushed in to meet the shore. “Grasiella,” Kana’i’s voice was soft as he called her name.
She quickly stood as her name was called. She saw him standing a foot away. She brushed back her hair, “Good, you’re here.” She squatted down to retrieve her bag. “How are we going to get to the Big Island?”
Kana’i rested both of his hands on Grasiella’s shoulders as he spoke to her. “Are you sure this is what you want? We can wait for your sister to join us or until you thought it over some more.”
“No. I don’t want her to be a part of this. I know what I have to do. It will be better for her to stay here where she will be safe and out of the way from whatever happens.”
/> “Why are you risking so much?” Kana’i could not conceive of the idea of Grasiella willingly putting herself at risk just because she felt that it was what needed to be done. He didn’t want to let on what his real reasons for helping her were. He wasn’t comfortable with how he was feeling whenever he thought about her or saw her. He liked the way her eyes lit up when she laughed and the way the sunlight touched her dark hair, but she was definitely not what he usually looked for in a girl he wanted to hangout with.
Kana’i would take her to his island and he would help her do whatever was in his power. He could stand on the beach with Grasiella for the rest of the morning and make excuses as to why they shouldn’t go or if they did, why he had to be with her, but the truth was that he was becoming fascinated with her. He wanted to keep her safe.
Grasiella and Kana’i boarded the underwater monorail; the system connected all the islands together. The monorail system made transit comfortable, fast and eco friendly and whisked them to the Big Island of Hawaii, in less than a half hour. The sea life outside the windows was amazing. Grasiella had the window seat. Kana’i sat in the row across from her. He stretched his legs out on the adjoining seats.
He had told her that it would be a short ride and with that said, he settled himself in and shut his eyes for a very short nap. Grasiella admired that he could sleep so easily. On her flight over to Kauai with Tatiana, she had been much more relaxed, more comfortable.
On this ride, every time she closed her eyes she would see Mnemosyne eyes staring directly into her own, mocking her, saying, ‘Come find me, I dare you.’
The steward came by to offer her refreshments. Grasiella helped herself to a soft drink. Thinking about it now, she should have brought along her 3D MVP player for the ride.
The underwater monorail carried a few other passengers. One man sat in the back corner. He kept turning his gaze to Kana’i. The man was Hawaiian. He wore a black tank top with blue jeans. He had a similar tribal tattoo to what Kana’i had on his arm. The man’s black hair was much longer then Kana’i’s. It hung at his shoulders. He looked to be about Kana’i’s age.
Grasiella stood to use the bathroom, which was located at the back of the monorail. She had to pass the man. He looked up at her as she passed by.
Once Grasiella returned and was seated back in her seat, she had noticed that the man was nowhere in sight. The monorail held one bathroom. She wondered where else he could have gone?