Welcome to Gaia! ::

All of Na'au's cousins had scrambled out of the reef and onto the beach tonight, and Na'au had followed reluctantly, more out of a feeling of obligation than any real desire to watch stars shoot across the sky. There was much else she wanted to do - things that she considered less frivolous, less of a time suck than sitting on the beach and staring at the sky. But her mother had given her a look and booted her right out of the reef, and that had been the end of that.

She'd never really felt she fit in, and in all her years of living among the Hapuna, she'd met few souls she would call friends. Nobody who understood her way of seeing things. So she wandered a ways from the main group, which had gathered on one end of the beach, giggling and laughing their troubles away as they awaited the spectacle.

Instead, she found herself walking farther from their home, her lure casting a soft coral glow on the ground before her as she went, until she spotted an unfamiliar figure sitting close to the shore. Huh. Curious. He had the general look of a Menehune, but bright, brilliant blue hair that seemed quite out of place for a swamp dweller.

Na'au moved closer. "Hello," she said with a soft smile. "Are you waiting for the meteor shower on your own?"

"Are you new here?" she asked, curious. No family, at his age... she felt a stab of empathy for him, though she knew she shouldn't be too hasty to assume anything about his life.

"Oh, well, I..." Na'au began, turning momentarily back toward the cluster of young Hapuna gathered rowdily on the beach. Even here, the sounds of their laughter and chatter were readily audible. They were still her people, in a way, and none of them would ever tell her that she wasn't welcome. She could walk right back over and join the group, and they would greet her happily. But Na'au couldn't help but feel that she had never really belonged with them, could never truly relate to their happy-go-lucky nature.

She exhaled forcefully, with a little laugh that was not particularly mirthful, turning back to the Menehune. "Yea, I guess I am. Do you mind if I join you?"

"New to the beach?" Na'au asked, picking her way over and settling herself onto the sand next to him. "Where are you from?"

She propped her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, scrunching down to rest her chin atop her knees as she peered up at the sky. The stars were out in force, as they usually were, seeming particularly bright in anticipation of the meteor shower they were about to see.

"My name is Na'au," she added with a smile. "I'm from... sort of here, I guess. My father is from the deep ocean, but I live here." For now. She didn't say it though, because voicing it out loud would have made it a little too much of a reality.