A Different Island

Chapter 16: The Beginning of a New Era (Part 1)

"Oh, I'm not going to say anything for now. It's a surprise until we get to my mother's cave."

Just like she did to me all that time ago.

"Alright, but one question. Where exactly are we?" I asked. "Well, I'd say that we're somewhere near the middle or the westernmost point of the island, and with some planned stops along the way, we should be able to get there by sometime tomorrow morning." Shelly explained. "Alright then, let's get going." I said. I turned around to head towards Larry to give us a lift, only to see him flying away.

"Don't worry, I was given something special for my most recent birthday." Shelly said. I turned around to see her standing with large multicolor feathery wings with at least a 1.5 meter wingspan. I was totally amazed and shocked at the same time by this. "Turn around, you have some too."

I looked back and indeed saw two big multicolor wings just as big as Shelly's. And so, I began flapping and I was in the air faster than I thought I was. After getting some short practice with Shelly, we set off after Larry.

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Eventually, after we had been flying around for a while, Larry dived down to a forested area where there also was a clearing and Shelly let me know she saw something down on the ground. She dived down, but when I tried to do it, I was just gliding further and when I finally began diving down, I splashed into a river with a very strong current. I tried to use my webbing, but it wasn't doing much help as the current just wanted to take me further downstream.

However, I felt a hand grab mine as I was lifted out of the river while I was still dripping wet. When I looked up at my rescuer, I very quickly noticed it was a female Gray Nahele member and not Shelly. Except she seemed very different from the rest. Her skin was gray and red, her normally black hair had strands of red in it as well. And those details got me really curious.

"Thanks for saving me, but, who are you?" I asked. It was then that she put on a confined and rather excited smile. "I was once like what you used to be. My name is Scarlet, but my name used to be Sophie." She said. And that's when I finally figured it out, this girl was Sophie, the orphan I met when I got into the mess with the Gray Nahele in the first place.

"My gosh, you must've changed a lot. I like the new name by the way." I complemented. "Heh, I'm not the only thing that's changed. Granted, you have as well." Sophie, or rather Scarlet said as her tone suddenly shifted to a more downcast one. "It's also the place the tribe and I are living in. And we've already spent enough time."

I changed back to human form and Scarlet lead me back over to the area where Larry and Shelly had flown down to. When we made it there, I realized that there had been a lot of changes to the Gray Nahele tribe's home, mainly being that last I knew, their home was further than this. Sure, there was indeed a good supply of both food and water in the area therefore making it a decent place to live, but what bothered me was what had driven them to this area in the first place.

According to the alpha Kai, it all started 6 months ago when a group of hunters encountered strange humans wearing hazmat suits as well as protective armor. Most from the group of hunters managed to get away unharmed, but two of the males had been captured by the humans. There was a big search effort, but unfortunately, nothing was found of the attackers.

However, about 2 weeks later, the strange humans in hazmat suits came back prepared and equipped, managing to capture even more Gray Nahele people, forcing the tribe to flee to another location on Kipoiwa where they were able to settle down and and start over as if it had never happened. The two of us agreed to stay a little longer and try to help out for the time being while Larry flew off, expected to met us at a later date.