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WC - 836



It turned out that the land walkers were a welcoming group. They had been willing to trade with the people of Kahikina and learn about them while also teaching some of their own ways. Ruehi still had her doubts of course, but what kid wouldn’t when faced with something new and terrifying?

There was so much that had been introduced. Magic. Weapons. Fighting styles. And all of them became available to the people of Kahikina. She had seen several others take up the trade that the earthlings provided, craving for something new and different. Rue wasn’t one of them. She stayed on her own path. A path her people had had for years before the disturbance of the earthlings. The land walkers.

She’d still never seen one in person. Not only did her parents not want her to go to the surface anymore because she was so young but she had no desire to come face to face with one. What would she do anyways? Freeze up and likely panic? Stumble over her words? Scream for help? Ruehi shook her head. All of those options didn’t seem like fun to her and so she remained under the water’s surface where she belonged. While it rubbed at her to not have that freedom so much anymore she understood the need for the limitation. Perhaps when she was older she could go up to the surface again.

“Ruehi! Ruehi!” The voice of her younger brother cut into her thoughts.

She heaved a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes before she turned her head toward him and put on a smile. “Yes, little brat, what do you want?” She teased at him as she spoke.

“Ki’ika said she saw one of the land walkers up by the shore above. We should go see what they really look like.” He sounded the idea. He seemed so excited about the idea and she groaned.

“No. You know mom and dad don’t want us near the surface.” She cautioned him.

“We won’t actually go up, just close. I want to see one!”

Before she could say another word against it or even stop him he was swimming upward to the surface. Ruehi stared after him for a fraction of a second before she scoffed and went after him. Why did little brothers have to be such a pain!?

“Stop that. Get back down here!” Rue called after him to try and change his mind. “What if they see you!?”

Her sibling wasn’t afraid of them, however. He was one of the ones that was utterly fascinated by them and wanted to take one of the new paths they provided. Ruehi didn’t blame him for that. Learning that one suddenly had more options in life would be tempting if you hadn’t already settled on something before hand.

Up by the surface her brother stopped and seemed to float as he stared up at the bright shore. He hadn’t broken the surface but he was too close for Rue’s liking. As she made it up next to him within a minute of him getting there she glared at him. But even through her glare it was hard to miss the look of awe on his face. That caused her to adopted a look of confusion before she turned her head to see what he was gawking at.

What she saw was astonishing. Not just one land walker but several. They were there at the shore alright. Doing something or another. But as she and her brother stared and watched them she noticed that one of the smaller ones was staring back. It looked like a kid had spotted them. Ruehi grabbed her brother’s arm then and pulled him toward her.

If the alarm was sent out then she was going to dive with her brother and take him back home as fast as she could manage. It was said that the land walkers couldn’t breathe in the waters like they could but she wasn’t going to risk that right now.

“Aren’t they cool?” Her brother said in a hushed whisper.

“No. They aren’t.” Rue hissed at him. “Now lets go back down before they attack or something”

“Oh Rue, they aren’t mean.”

“You don’t know that! These ones could be!” She tugged at him again, her eyes never leaving the child on the shore that had spotted them even through the water’s rippling surface.

When it seemed like her brother wasn’t going to argue with her any longer she pulled even harder and angled them downward. The two of them slipped back down into the depths of the river and she sighed with relief.

“Are you crazy!?”

“Rue I want to be like them! I want to use their magic! Wouldn’t that be cool!?” Her brother didn’t seem as worried as she was.

So she gave up on trying to speak reason to him and instead she shook her head. Brothers. What was a sister supposed to do with them when they didn’t listen?