Natural Enemy 1-5A

Aloha ʻoe…

A warm, wet blanket made of light pressed Kai down into the wax of his board as he drifted with eyes half-closed. Lids glued together with so much dried salt, he did nothing but watch the inside of his own skull turn orange under the sun. 

Aloha ʻoe…

The ocean was playing nice today, lazy bumps of water picking up the board he laid on top of and rocked it like a cradle. One hand trailed the water, cool seeping into his fingers and sending little shivers up and down his arm. It was always there, humming under his skin, waiting for an excuse for that static to turn into more than noise. 

Today, though? Today was quiet. Today was chill.

Kai kicked his legs, just enough to push him back to shore. No need to drift over toward the reef, when he wasn’t surfing anyway. Maybe it was because he was sleepy or tired, but the water was almost thick to the touch for some reason. 

Syrupy, even. 

Like blue Gatorade that had been left out in the sun too long.

Mmmm… Gatorade.

His stomach growled, a wet, angry grumble that vibrated all the way through and against his spine. Wait… One eye creaked open as a single hand rose from the water and slapped on his belly. Did I eat today?

He knew the answer like he knew the back of his hand. Kai knew he’d never miss a meal unless he literally had no choice and maybe not even if his life depended on it. I guess second breakfast wasn’t enough.

A dry tongue scraped salt-chapped lips as he thought about first lunch. Pork. Sticky sweet pork with burnt edges.

Another growl roared out and Kai groaned with it as he rolled off the board and splashed into the shallows. Waist-deep water claimed him as he dragged the board by the end, trudging his way up the white sand. 

His legs were getting thicker and heavier every day, the good kind of heavy. Island insulation…

 That’s what Auntie called it, at least. 

Fat, it was just fat though. 

Something rumbled again and, this time, it wasn’t his stomach.

Kai looked up, blinking as the postcard he knew and loved started to burn at the edges. The sky, which had been the normal fake video-game blue all morning, was bruising. 

Fast.

Nasty purple welts were spreading quick from the horizon, all of them bleeding into the blue and turning the white clouds the color of an old scab. Kai barely had a second to catch a breath as the wind changed.

Heavy beats of air tore at the roofs and through the palm leaves above the tree line, the jungle hissing like angry cats as sand began to whip into the air. Storm?

There was only one thing it could be. This was no squall or even a sprinkle. A freak storm out of nowhere was heading their way; a real, big, ugly, messy bitch of one was coming in fast to wreck the island vibe.

Kai kept moving, pulling his board further in with one sandy hand shielding his eyes as the village already started moving around him. Fishermen were hauling their boats higher up the beach, muscles thick and ropy on their bare backs as they scraped over sand and shouted instructions that got snatched up by the wind before they could land.

The rest of the village was a blur of… well, not panic. Panic was a messy thing. He’d seen panic back home, people trampling each other to get food or get out of a burning building. This was just people moving fast to do what they had to.

“Kiana!” A mother yelled for her daughter, one of many sharp cutting voices that sliced right through the growing howl that was the rising wind. “Get inside now!”

Shutters slammed themselves shut, bolts to doors sliding home as the village did its best to brace for a punch right to the face. Smart.

Kai just stood there, board tucked under his arm and sand sticking to his legs, a grin growing wide on his face. He couldn’t help it, almost.

Nothing about the grin he wore was nice and the idea forming in his head matched it pretty well too. Storm surf.

He heard the older guys talk about it before; the waves that came with a powerful storm, the type of water that was sick and fun without any care for reefs or physics. “Insane.” The word tasted like salt as he whispered it out, eyes firmly on the already-churning waters.

“What ya thinking, Kai-boy?” The voice was almost a wall for his thoughts, everything in his head crashing right into it. “Ya not going out in that.”

Kai flinched, shoulderblades almost meeting his ears as he slowly turned.

A sudden, floral-patterned mountain stood there exactly where he expected her to be, hands buried in the folds of her muumuu, hips squared, and wearing a scowl that could probably send a typhoon running back to where it came from.

“Hi, Aunt-”

“Look at that sky, boyo!” One hand pointed high at the darkening bruise above them all. “That is not a surfing sky! That is a ‘get your behind inside and eat’ sky.” Auntie Loa may have been a mountain but she was a soft one; not old, not young, but somewhere in the middle where she’d decided she was happy and wasn’t moving.

So, Kai knew she was only looking out for him, more than anyone else on the island even. So, he also knew what he was doing when he flashed her a smile, board dropping onto the sand at his feet. 

That lazy, easy, ‘I’m just a dumb kid’ smile that usually worked. “Who, me?” His shoulders slumped, head tilting to the side as he tried to look as small as possible. “Nah, Auntie, I’m done with surfing for today. I was… just gonna watch, yeah?” He nodded slowly as the excuse came to him. “From the cove. S’alright, just wanna see the water angry.”

A lie, stupid and greasy as any that ever left his lips.

But Kai needed to see this. Hell, he needed to be close to it.

Narrowed eyes fixed on him with a glare that was more threat than anything else as she looked him up and down. “Hmph.”

She lowered her hand. “You come eat. Then you hide. No foolishness.”

“Yes, Auntie.”

She didn’t move until he walked first, all the way into her house. Kai breathed in, the scent of roasting pig fat thick and sweet and dense enough to chew on.

The wind kept screaming outside, the sound a shriek both high and thin as the roof of the house groaned and the walls complained. Kai sat at the wooden table just outside Auntie’s kitchen, right across from her husband; a man he called Uncle Haku.

Uncle was the opposite of Auntie, a stringy silent man made of sun-dried leather and wiry muscle who spent most of his time out on the water pulling in fish. He sat hunched over his bowl, not bothering to look up or speak as he shoveled food into his furnace.

“Eat.” A plate slammed down in front of Kai; a mountain of pork, sweet potatoes and fish fresh and hot from Auntie Loa’s cooking pot. “Storm like this takes your strength.”

Kai didn’t argue; the same way you didn’t argue with Auntie Loa was exactly the same way you didn’t argue with the hole in your gut.

A hunk of pork shoved itself into his mouth, grease coating his tongue as he chewed, swallowed and shoveled in more. Even as his belly got more full and his body got warmer, he could still feel the monster calling him from outside.

The pressure drop was in his ears, the hum under his skin, and a deep roaring song of water that vibrated deep in his bones; all of it was enough to make him twitchy, a battery in his body that he could do so much with.

By the time he finished the plate, wiping grease off his mouth with the back of his hand, the energy outside was still building with the storm; Kai’s leg tapping the floor as he tried his best not to look outside. “That was awesome, Auntie. Best ever.”

“Course it was, Kai-boy.” She beamed back at him, sweat shining on her forehead. “Now, you stay here. Help Haku tie down the shutters. No going out, y’hear?”

“Yeah.” Kai nodded as he stood up. “Yeah, totally.” Food sat heavy in his stomach but it only made him more amped instead of making him sleepy like usual. “Just gonna head back to my hut and… sleep, y’know?”

He wrapped his arms around Auntie Loa as best he could and waved at Uncle Haku, the man grunting back with a sound that could have meant anything, before rushing out the door. 

Immediately, the wind hit him like a fist. Whoa.

Air ripped free from his lungs and tried to shove him back inside the door even as it swung closed behind Kai. The teenager staggered, sandaled feet digging into the dirt as he ducked his head. Okay… Squinting against the grit and leaves flying sideways in the howling winds, Kai turned his face forward and towards the roar.