Mahingga

Chapter 15: Water

Ako awoke to a cold splash of water across his face. Paired with his dream about drowning, it was a traumatic way to be shocked into consciousness. He flailed about for a moment and gasped for air.

"Yeah, get up," Kita said. "I think you've had enough sleep, and now it's my turn. I didn't get to sleep at all last night, what with you passing out after the storm."

Ako stared at her with wide eyes. In his flailing, he'd managed to tangle himself up in the ropes. He wasn't drowning. The sky was clouded and gray, but the storm had died down. The waves weren't thrashing the boat, and the wind was down to a steady breeze.

Kita had set up the tarp over half of the boat and was presently laying down the blanket as Ako untied himself.

"What happened? What were those things?" Ako asked, still a bit dazed.

"With my skills, I plucked a gem from a beach of sand," Kita said, using an old Mahinggan adage. "Well, I guess in your case, a dull pebble." She wore no smile.

Ako frowned at her and threw the ropes off with a huff.

"Those were Malakida," Kita explained. "They were hunting the stormwhales. The one they attacked must've been far from the other stormwhales."

"Yeah, well I almost got eaten as collateral," Ako grumbled. "All these giant fish don't seem to have any respect for our boat."

"Stormwhales aren't fish," Kita said as she settled down under the tarp. A light rain was falling.

"What, are they giant tortoises or something?" Ako asked.

"Mammals, actually," Kita said with her eyes closed.

Ako rolled his eyes. He'd forgotten that Kita was studying to be a biologist. Best not to argue about animals. He folded his arms and sat on one of the benches. "Did we get off course at all?"

"Sure did," Kita said, "we'd been pushed north a little bit, but I think I've got us in the right direction now."

"You think?" Ako asked, looking down at her incredulously.

Kita returned the look with tired eyes. "I'm absolutely positive we're in the right direction now." She settled back down and closed her eyes. "Maybe."

Ako shook his head and scoured around for the compass. They were headed almost directly east and only slightly north. When were they supposed to even out and steer a little more to the south? He wasn't sure how to gauge that, and part of him worried about hitting the westward flowing current that Kita had talked about. They'd have to use the path of the sun and the stars to figure that out, but as long as the clouds were in the way, they weren't going to know for sure.

With a sigh, Ako adjusted the sails just slightly. If one thing was sure, going directly east was the safest route, at least until the clouds were gone. For a few hours, Ako just sat on the bench, gazing ahead of them as Kita slept beneath the tarp. The wind kept a steady pace, brushing Ako's body with an occasional wet chill.

By the time Kita woke up, the cloud cover and rain remained. In fact, it wasn't until four days later that it started to clear up.

"Finally," Kita said, the sun shining down on her pale skin—though it did look a little darker than when they'd first started out. She started rummaging through the storage compartments, pulling out a few random items. Unfortunately, they'd lost one of the fishing rods during the storm. Either Ako hadn't seen it in the dark, or it was bumped out by the stormwhales before he'd started putting things away. Ako wasn't worried about that. Then he had an excuse for not catching any fish.

Kita put a few items in a pile near the back of the boat and scooped up a bucket of water from the ocean.

"What're you doing?" Ako asked as he placed his brimmed hat on his head. He wasn't going to give the sun a chance to burn his face again.