It didn’t take them long to get down to the beach and there wasn’t an empty spot on the sand, not even enough to lay a towel down. The water looked refreshing to Tatiana, but it would have to wait until they had some food in their stomachs. Tatiana remembered what the faerie had said to them. She would return if she didn’t get what she wanted and she wouldn’t come back alone.
She spotted Kye and he was with his friends out in the water. Each one of them sat on their surf boards in a group, they seemed to be in deep conversation.
Kye seemed to have sensed Tatiana and Grasiella were on the beach as he looked over the moment she spotted him out in the water. He gave her a quick wave with his hand, inviting them to join in.
Tatiana wanted to as she would much rather spend the day with him and his friends than worrying about just who may or may not be arriving at their home later that night. He waved her over one more time. All Tatiana could do was give him a quick wave back as Grasiella motioned her along the stretch of the beach.
Kye was not one to give up. Leaving his friends, he paddled his way onto the beach. He caught up to them with a quick run. “Not going to come over and say hi, Tatiana?” His handsome face smiled at her as he asked the question.
“I would have,” she said. “But we were on our way to get something to eat.” It was not what she had wanted to tell him but she didn’t feel she had any other choice and it was partly true.
“Oh.” His arm was holding his surf board up next to him. “Are you ready for your next lesson? The water’s good.”
“Yeah sure,” she said quickly. She glanced over at Grasiella who she knew was impatient to leave. Grasiella was always in a hurry once she made up her mind about something. “Hey send me a text.”
“Yeah, I will.” He watched her walk off with her sister. The sky above seemed to grumble as the rain began to fall. Ignoring the weather, he made his way back into the water. The waves were going to be huge with the extra rain they would be getting. They rolled in as he tackled the first wave.
He was at home. This was his element. He was raised in the belief to be respectful of the sea and it would be respectful back. He had told Tatiana that he lived with his family, but that had been a lie. Kye lived alone; he had lost his family in a fire on the Big Island. He had been four years old when it happened.
One of his uncles took him in and moved them to this island; Kauai. After his uncle drowned in an accident, Kye had been on his own, spending every free moment he had in the water, the only place that ever felt like home.
Not one of his friends knew that Kye had lost his family in a fire; they knew he had an uncle and that he had drowned, but Kye never told them much about himself. If they knew who he was and who his grandmother was they would look at him differently. Kye preferred that they just saw him for the guy he tried so hard to be.
It was nice of them to never ask him questions. They never did ask Kye about the times he would disappear and they didn’t question why he would be gone for days or sometimes weeks. They knew he lived high up on the mountain tucked away. He liked the quiet and he needed the space.
It began to rain, his eyes glowed as deep as amber as the rain touched his skin. The water sizzled, creating a light steam. He needed to harness the fire within him. Most days it was easy to keep dormant and when it wasn’t he would escape up into the mountain until he could gain control over it.
He inhaled deeply to calm the fire as he rode the wave in. He had deep ties to the Islands of Hawaii. Kye knew the old ways well.