Ska'i Malamalama
"You said there are six of them?"
"Yes, papa."
Sak'i forgot who she was talking to for a minute, and almost corrected herself, but he didn't order her to. Instead, he seemed to let it go. Odd. Wait - and after a casual glance around, Ohhh, because I'm the only one here. Ah yeah, that makes sense. This was a casual meeting, made special for her. Mhmm. How special she was supposed to feel, indeed.
"And, according to Kanaka's recordings of the sketches he has, you also say they each washed up on our shores . . . with a dragon?"
"Yes, papa," she repeated, ever the dutiful soldier.
He stroked the rough stubble on his chin; a mannerism that told he didn't know the next plan of action. She knew what he was torn about; Whether it was intentional or not, there were invaders on their land. But they weren't in the business of killing animals for no reason, and dragons are animals. Albeit, dangerous animals. Animals that they don't have, and ones that they've never encountered before, let alone know how to handle.
"If I may suggest something, papa?"
Letting his hand fall over the arm of his chair, he gave her a slight nod.
"Well, Kanaka told me the other day that he and his apprentice, Mele, went out gathering the other day. And they found something they managed to identify as 'dragon nip.' They could try that out on them, somehow. See what it'll do."
Pause. Then, he agreed with a deep sigh, "alright then. Go," was his final command.
Ska'i visited Kanakas' hut, to tell him his essential part of the plan. "Grab your masks," she concluded.
Only after they hid amongst the trees waiting for these trespassers to fall asleep with the sun setting, did they finally emerge. On steady footsteps across the sand, they made their way to these strangers' puny campsite. One of the trespassers was out of the distorted circle a bit, presumably assigned as a type of watch guard. He was doing a great job of it, by the way. Passed out, and snoring as heavy as the dragons.
The plan was to sneak up to their campfire without detection and drop the dried-out bundle of dragon nip into their fire. If there were coals, that'd be even more of a plus for them; the more smoke, the better. They had pieces of thin animal skin tied around our noses and mouths. It was the best way to filter out the worst of the smoke, in case burning this dragon nip, affected them.
One of the Ula warriors, Kolohe, in his shark skull mask, was the first to climb out of the treetops. He was entrusted to be the one to execute this part. It all went according to plan; the smoke unfurled around everyone like a type of unnatural, thick fog.
Ska'i in her wolf skull mask and her best friend, Ahue in her goat skull mask, poked through the saddles of the dragons. They wanted to see what kind of supplies they traveled with, and were lowkey disappointed that they didn't find anything of importance to them. Their handwoven nets are made from coconut husks and certain plant fibers, and they helped the other Ula warriors toss them over the trespassers. Next, they staked three spears in the sand for each one, as far in as they could after crossing over the opposing ends of the nets. When they tugged a certain way, they ended up swinging in a nice little sack-shaped type of cocoon.
Ska'i recognized the male look-alike-blond as the one who freaked out when he tried to grab her leg thinking it was a piece of a random old log. Her lungs had ached in attempts to hold back laughter when he got scared, and the soft bottoms of his shoes repeatedly slipped on the jungle floor. Now, she subconsciously lifted up her mask in near disbelief as she was able to get a good, close-up look of him. He was beautiful, in a different way than the men here on the island. Long, blond hair, with a long, strong jawline. And he had a type of lean muscle, not the bulk that all of these guys thought they had to make up for being skinny-boned.
