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 Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:11 pm
He never thought the ocean would be this painful to him, that the simple touch of its waves against his flesh would send thousands of needles spiraling down his spine. He never though that the mere taste of salt would send his brain into fits that caused him to scream and flail in a mixture of agony and pain.
Did the sun seem to be less yellow now as his eyes gazed upon it? Was the color of the sky fading away and leading him towards an uncertain horizon? It didn't really seem to matter anymore as he heard the faint cries of birds in the far off distance, and the pain that surged through his body was slowly finding itself at an end. This really seemed to be the end for him...until he felt his water-logged hand start to drag the sand.
Sand meant one thing. Sand meant he'd reached the shore, that he'd somehow managed to come from miles off into the deep waters and reach a safe destination. Though the feeling of sand against his hand continued to intensify as the waves seemed to increase in number and strength, he felt no power in his body to even raise his head more than nose-level amidst the surf. Instead he was content to lay among the foams and float along, his mind drifting in and out until a hard contact to his left shoulder stirred him from fantasy into reality.
He'd hit shore.
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:14 pm
Kainalu had found herself more and more restless lately. She'd met two more people, both of them were... 'strange'. She was beginning to honestly wonder if Jack was right. Was there a disease? But no, no... she'd seen Kara change right in front of her. She'd watched the other woman grow that strange lump on her behind and her skin turn gray and rough. Kai was in no position to try and make an educated guess... she knew little of the 'important' stuff beyond middle school.
This train of thought always brought her spirits quite low, however. She tried to cheer herself up with the thought of a swim. She had decided that she was going to try some spear fishing. She was getting sick of what fruit she could find on the trees for meals. So she'd fashioned herself a sharp stick (using a rock to make the end a point) and had traveled down along the beach for a spot that seemed ideal.
She wore only her bikini, she intended to go into the water after all, when she realized that there was something washed up on shore. At first she thought that it was just a rather large piece of driftwood. She rapidly began to realize that it was in fact, a body. A rather small body. She gave an inarticulate shout of dismay, dropping her stick and backpack and running towards it. She came to a stop beside a very small child. Immediately she reached out, grasping for the water-logged folds of thick cloth that she'd first mistaken as wood. ”Hey! Hey! Are you okay?!” Her voice pitched upward in desperation.
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:16 pm
There was a voice echoing in his ear, and hands tugging him painfully awake and out of his daze, yet little did any effect to rouse Michihi. His body did not respond to his pleas, his mouth did not respond to his words. It was as if the ocean itself had taken away every bit of his that was left, every ounce of ability to perform.
One of his eyes rolled in his head as his brain screamed for him to do something, anything, and his other followed suite as they tried to focus on the hysterical savior, the arms that shook him. His jaw slacked a space or two as air pushed its way into his lungs, and with the blurry vision of a young woman coming into his sight, his heart started to pound away in his chest.
There were sounds, there were feelings. The sand, the air, the pain. Her voice, her hair, her desperation. It was like a bubble itself had popped, and with strength and a fear unknown to him he felt himself roll off of his back and onto his stomach, propelling himself into the strangers chest.
"Uwaaa....! Mama, mama!"
Hot tears streamed down his face as he tried to burrow his way into this woman, his head pressed hard against her body as if she could protect him from anything. His mouth opened and closed as he alternated between sobs and gasps, cries for his mother and simple cries of childish terror.
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:26 pm
Kainalu was taken by extreme surprise as the small figure launched into her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly. She felt him press his face a little awkwardly against her chest but it wasn't anything meaningful or suggestive... it was a child seeking comfort.
And it really did seem like a child. Kainalu instinctivly wrapped her arms around the child and held onto him tightly, feeling her throat tighten in dismay. "Oh. Hey. It's okay, shhh... shh..." She rocked him a little bit, petting his hair, hoping to sooth him. She'd ask him questions when he wasn't sobbing into her chest.
"Hey, shh... He nani lua ‘ole; Ku’u wehi o nâ lani; He kilohana ‘oe." She softly began to sing a song that she remembered from elementary school. "Na’u e pûlama mau; Hô’olu i ka poli e; Mehana i ke anu e."
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:46 pm
As gentle arms seemed to encircle his frame and pull him closer towards the stranger, Michihi felt his body hiccup with a bit more terror and weariness than it had moments before. Someone unknown was holding him close, never mind the fact that he was the one who'd first held on without hesitation, and the tears that flowed from his eyes only seemed to increase in number. They were bitter and salty, tasting like his flesh which had been soaked for however long, and he felt spit trickle from his chin as his sobs increased.
It was when the figure that held him started to sing a song in a tongue he didn't understand that he felt another wave of terror slide down his spine...only to have it replaced by something akin to comfort. This stranger was rocking him back and forth, touching his hair and singing to him. Her voice was soft in his ears, the words echoing inside his brain though he didn't know the meaning. It was reassuring to say the least, and he felt the heavy sobs his body was experiencing once or twice every few seconds slow themselves down and mellow to a dull rumble.
When his head had finally cleared enough that his sniffles were mild and his tears silent, Michihi lifted his head and looked up from the chest he'd been messing towards the face of its own.
"Kimi wa...dare?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:39 am
Kai sighed as the child began to relax. Her arms loosened as he pulled back to look up at her. It was a little boy, his hair was a deep red color and his eyes were innocent and terrified. He spoke in a language she couldn't begin to fathom.
"Do you speak English?" She let go of him fully, letting him continue to hold onto her or let go as he wished. She looked around, expecting to find some sort of adult that he'd been with. There was no way a child could have...
...have been...
She felt a hollow pain in her stomach as she looked back at the child. The thought of changing into some beast was not first on her mind, it wasn't on her mind at all. It was the mystery and growing sureness that there would be no way off this place. Ever.
She spoke very carefully, very gently. She didn't want to upset him any further, and there was still the chance that he didn't speak English. "Is anyone here with you?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:47 pm
Michihi flinched a little as the woman started to speak to him, and from the way her tone was he concluded that she probably couldn't understand him any more than he was understanding her. That is, until he realized she was speaking English.
Although he wasn't perfect in English he could speak it none the less, as his mother had insisted he learn English alongside the family tongues of German and Japanese. One could say his English level was elementary, which was acceptable considering he was barely nine years old himself and still in the primary school system.
So, with what he could muster and understand from her, Michihi gave his best at a response.
"English, yes. Anyone else...no. I..."
His words were heavily accented, though there wasn't the stereotypical lent on his l-syllables as one would expect there to be. That came from hours and hours of speech practice with his mother and father, as well as the time spent at school or the language teacher's home.
At the mention of there being no one else with him, Michihi's tears again increased and he buried his face into Kainalu's chest once more. Her scent and warmth were comforting at best, but for now he was beyond that.
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:35 pm
Kai sighed, biting her lower lip as she realized her question had set the boy off again. She soothed him as best as she could, reamining sitting in the damp sand with the boy pressing against her, as though he wished to meld completely into her.
She took it this meant that he wasn't sure if anyone was here with him, but it just... he just couldn't be alone. That was too cruel. For the first time she gained a sense of what this mysterious being named Light was.
"Shh, shh, shh. Alright, it's okay. Are you thirsty? Hey, come on." It made her heart throb each time a wracking sob of pure grief escaped the boy's mouth and muffled against her skin. She had to get his mind off of his sorrow and fear. "Are you hungry? Hey, the forest is really pretty, do you wanna go see?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:05 pm
As more and more questions came towards Michihi in English he hiccuped inwardly, his mind doing his best to translate what she was saying amidst his confusion, exhaustion, and terror. From what he could outwardly grasp it seemed that she wanted to help him by getting him some water to drink, but it also seemed like she wanted to lead him away from the beach and someone else.
The fact that she was trying to get him to leave a place he had just come to sent up warning flags in his brain, and Michihi bit his lower lip as he tried to think of what to do. His face will still pressed against her bosom for comfort and his arms were still embedded against the sun kissed feeling of her skin, so he wasn't sure if letting her go now and running for it was the better idea.
Should he follow her for food and water, or stay here at the ocean's edge and have feelings of false hope that his mother or father would come for him? Either way thinking was hurting his head as his tongue ran against the roof of his mouth, the taste of salt and snot the main staples he sampled. He would indeed need water soon, his throat was hurting, adn eventually the desire for food would come crawling in as well.
Feeling that it was best to trust Kainalu, even though he didn't know her name or anything about her, Michihi nodded his head against her. Whether she read that as him rubbing her from sadness (as he was still crying) or nodding yes was up to debate, and he didn't feel like pushing it further.
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Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:14 am
Kai sighed, she couldn't know what was going on in the child's mind, she was just trying to comfort him and make him feel better. Perhaps taking him off somewhere else wasn't the right thing to do just yet, he didnt' seem to want to move. So instead she tugged away from him, not pulling away completly, but enough so that she could see his face. "My name is Kainalu." She touched her chest, feeling the slipperyness of tears, spit and most likely snot. She grimaced only a little in disgust. "You can just call me Kai if you want to. What's your name?"
She'd get him to stop crying first. Or at least try her hardest.
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Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:30 pm
When Kainalu pushed him backwards and off a look of terror and confusion once again masked the youth's features, only to be replaced a moment later by one solely of intense concentration.
She, this stranger, had introduced herself as Kainalu Palu, and she'd asked Michihi his name. He opened his mouth to answer her in the typical Japanese fashion, though he stopped when he recalled she had asked if he spoke English.
"Mi...Michihi."
He answered her question without any further hesitation, his small frame shivering as an ocean breeze picked up slightly and swept by the pair. His jacket was heavy and waterlogged as it clung to his frame yet he pulled it closer to himself despite the water that soaked back onto his desperately drying skin. The jacket made him feel safe, or at least safer at the moment, and he wrapped it about himself in a protective embrace.
"My...my name is Michihi."
Michihi repeated it for an added effect, though he paused a bit afterwards and looked around. His vision was blurry from his tears, and he still had a few leaking down his cheeks, but for the most part his sniffles had seemed to mellow away into nothing.
"Kainalu-san...where am I?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:25 pm
"Michi?" She smiled warmly and pated his shoulder, happy to see that his tears were stopping, though gradually. She only faultered a little bit when he asked where they were. "We're near Hawaii. Not too far away from it, I bet."
She noticed the way he clung to his waterlogged jacket, deciding she'd let him hold onto it. The sun would quickly dry it, at least most of it. "Ah.. just call me Kai, okay?" She smiled and hunched forward so she could see his face, her long blond hair falling over her shoulders.
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Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:03 pm
"H...Hawaii? Is that near Hokkaido?"
The word 'Hawaii' was strained on his lips as he tried to pronounce it as it seemed he'd never used that word before or hadn't learned about it yet, and in comparison saying 'Hokkaido' flowed out naturally. It even had it's naturally accent on it, but that was beside the point.
"I...I'm from Hokkaido."
Michihi trembled a bit as the sea breeze blew over his wet jacket once more, and he knew that if he didn't shed it soon and let it dry out he'd probably catch a cold. Still, he didn't want to part with it yet. Not this soon. His fingers bunched against the fabric and squeezed a bit of water out and onto the sand, and he looked down at the puddle before looking back up at Kainalu.
"Kai-oneesan, are you from here? Is my mama here?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:07 pm
Hokaido? That sounded strange... she shook her head in reply to his question, then spoke. "Hawaii is near the equator, where everything is very, very warm. I've never seen snow, believe it or not!" She hoped that interesting little tid-bit might interest the kid, hoped even more that wherever Hokaido was located meant it saw snow so she wouldn't sound dumb.
She winced softly, brows pushing upward in concern and worry. "No, I don't live here. Just... mm.. visiting. I don't know if your mother is here, she might be! We can look for her together, okay?" She stood up finally, reaching down so Michihi could take her hand if he wanted to.
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Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:16 pm
"There is snow in Hokkaido, lots of it. We are the farthest island north for Japan."
Michihi hesitated at first when Kai stood up away from him and reached down towards him, his hands staying against his jacket with a frenzied passion. It was only when he understood that she said she would help look for his mother that he softly took her hand into his own.
He marveled at how large and tan it was, also how thin and pretty. His mother's hands were small and pale, often scarred from cleaning the fish and doing other chores. He never remembered seeing such pretty hands, and he stared for a moment before actually pulling himself to his feet.
As he did Michihi's jacket finally rolled down to its main length, past his knees, and the water weight of being drenched made him sway a little bit before he could correct his balance.
"You'll help me find Mama? Th..thank you..."
Tears slowly started to drop down Michihi's cheeks again, but he quickly wiped them away with the back of his sleeve before he once more looked at Kainalu. He would trust her, for now, as she was the only one who seemed to be able to help him...
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