Opposites Attract!

[Ivory]

Akala sighed in relief as she drew away from the mershark, her eyes large and showing only concern as she lingered at his shoulder.  She cradled her hand against her stomach protectively, the cut stinging, red and raw, from the salt water.

She really should wrap it...

Ignoring her self-inflicted wound for the meantime, she concentrated on Ha'aheo, even going so far as to put a gentle hand on his upper arm.  "I didn't have time to warn you," she began, certain that even a Yoreiqi would have found her solution disconcerting...  She paused, then, not sure if he understood what she meant.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly.

[Paradox]

"Not know. Ha'aeho good? Not know why," He stared at her, appearing quite perplexed, " Food no go down. " He had no idea that Akala had just saved his life. His eyes swept over to her bleeding hand and the knife. He tilted his head and grabbed her arm roughly and turned her hand over so he could inspect the bleeding palm.

The smell of he blood made him drool a little , but he shook his head and reminded himself that if he tried to eat her that his tummy would hurt for many moons and that she wouldn't taste good enough to be worth it. " Akala...why?"

He wished his vocabulary were not so limited. He was genuinely curious to know why she hurt herself ...and then spilled her blood on him. He thought about it for a moment and wondered. It was almost like magic. Could magic make him stop choking? He didn't think so, but maybe it was possible. Assuming it was magic, then he wondered why she want to help him. Why was she nice? Did she know he'd eaten a human's limb? His kind were man-eaters.Why didn't she fear? She was a puzzle. She made no sense. And that was what intrigued him but frustrated him as well.   

"Akala not good," He replied, and then looked at the hand on his shoulder. He was not sure whether or not he was comfortable with that or not. The uncertainty showed plain as day on his face.

[Ivory]

Akala smiled at him as he looked over her hand.  "You have to chew.  You can't just swallow everything!"  Her light chastisement, of course, would mean nothing to him; she would just have to show him later so that it didn't happen again!

"You were choking," she answered him softly.  "Your food was stuck.  Here."  Lifting her arm from his shoulder, but not wrenching her hand away from his, she pointed at his throat.  "You could have died.  I had to do something."

And that something was...hard to explain to someone with a limited vocabulary!

"I cut myself so that I could heal you.  Healing makes people feel better.  It's a gift from the Gods."  She paused, wondering if he understood any of it.  "Do you worship gods?"

Gently, she pulled her hand away so that she could unwrap the light piece wrap she was wearing that had formed a sort of top.  It came away from her slender frame easily, and she used this to begin to wrap her hand.

[Paradox]

Ha'aeho listened, but her words washed over his head. He tilted his head at her chastisement. Her tone was unfamiliar. It sounded a little angry. No one had ever dared to scold him. He wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Died? Small food choking it," Ha'aeho used these shiny new words, not entirely certain if he was using them in the correct context. He was determined to be fluent though.

"Not know words. It no dieing. Akala good to it. Not know why." Her behavior made no sense to him and he watched her curiously. Clothing was another thing that confused him. He thought it was part of her so that when she removed it ,he gasped. Why was she peeling off her skin to cover damaged skin?  This was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen. But he didn't have the right words to ask her what  she was doing and why?

He just let himself bleed. Wounds eventually healed and his body was covered with scars.

[Ivory]

If he did worship Gods, he had a different word for it.  It wasn't surprising, really!

She looked up, alarmed, when he gasped -- but he seemed to be more interested in what she was doing than because he was in pain or choking again.  Settling back to her makeshift bandage with a smile, she said, "You seemed friendly."  Not vicious or violent, anyway.  Falling back on his terms, she added with a grin, "You seemed good.  I believe it's important we treat everyone and everything with respect."  That concept, too, was probably mostly over his head.

"There," she said, flexing her hand a bit in the makeshift bandage.  "I think that will do nicely."  Movement from the beach caught her eye, then, and she half-turned to find half a dozen men and women on the shore, each of them armed.  They had no doubt been drawn by the commotion in the water when Ha'aeho was choking.

"Step away from it, Akala!" their leader demanded, lifting up his spear.

Akala's face changed rapidly from the warm and cheerful expression to one of alarm, and she swiftly did precisely the opposite.  She moved in front of the mershark with her arms extended to either side.  She recognized him; it was one of the most celebrated hunters of the village.  "Absolutely not, Kai!  He's done nothing wrong!"

(OOC: Feel free to just jump in to harass Ha'aeho, love!  Yay, plotses and things!)

[Paradox]

ooc: For friendship!

ic:

"Huh?" Akala was right. Ha'aeho felt very confused. He only understood that she had called him good and that was just enough to assure him that she was not going to take her blade and use it against him. Maybe. He was not accustomed to being treated this way.

He stared at her newly wrapped hand, then at where the wrap used to be. His mind was blown! Skin under skin? Oh...so she shed her skin ? But what kind of creature wanted to use skin they'd recently shed? His questions would have to wait, however. He too noticed the humans approaching. They were armed and Ha'aheo knew how things would end up if he remained here.

He snarled at the man whom dared to raise his spear, spitting out foreign words in his native tongue.  He bared his teeth. They were large, pointy, white and many! He moved away from Akala's protection.  He wanted a fight. He was a hunter, male. He was proud of his strength, his abilities and confident but not against a mob. "Weak." He spat at the humans. " Many come. Ha'aheo no many." He pointed at Kai, "Weak!" He spat with obvious disgust.

However, he was not a fool and survival always came first. He drew back, turned and swam away.

ooc: Feel free to throw a SPEAR at his butt! x3

[Ivory]

"Ha'aeho!" Akala gasped, fearing for the life of everyone involved when it looked like the mershark wanted to fight the hunters.  It didn't matter who was hurt -- if an injury could be avoided, it was her duty to see to it that it was!

The mershark, however, surprised her when he turned and simply...left.  One of the hunters chucked a badly aimed spear at his receding form.

Akala stared after the shark-man for a moment, then glared at the hunters.  "That was entirely uncalled for!"  And she lit into the hunters -- the entire group of them -- with a tongue that was nearly as sharp as her blade.

Poor Ha'aeho!

OOC: Note the badly-aimed!  ;_;  No sharkfin stew!  Bad food!  I'm going to tell you to do the fast-forwarding!

[Paradox]

Ooc: Well, I'll certainly try! Set sail for fail ! (and boredom!)

Ha'aheo didn't look back once.He had expected something like this would happen. It always did. Even so, he couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that their conversation had been cut short. That human female, Akala. She was an interesting distraction. VERY strange, but interesting. He wondered if there were other humans like her or if he might see her again. He did plan to return, after all. For their food, of course. Maybe he'd steal a pineapple next time.

A week would pass before Ha'aeho would return to that particular island though and his next appearance would be where the humans cast their fishing nets.  Ha'aheo was feeling bored, and mischievous. He swam under the boats and bumped up underneath them as he swam past, causing some of the small boats to rock precariously. Some of the fishermen cried out in alarm, a few lost their balance and splashed into the water and Ha'aheo popped his head out above the water's surface to appreciate his handiwork. He snickered as a few of the fishermen pointed at him and shook fists angrily in his direction. The mershark grinned and waved his tail at them and swam away before they could bring trouble.

Once he was far enough away from the humans he swam back into the shallows, cruising the coast lazily and catching any unfortunate fishies in his mouth. He had nothing in mind for today. It would be the same as usual. Eat. Harass hunters. Eat more. Eat again. And again...then maybe harass hunters again and eat more afterwards.

[Ivory]

But it was not to be such a day!

Akala had hoped for a day or two that Ha'aheo would return so that she could show the villagers that the mershark was friendly -- if only they would take a chance and speak to him.  After a few days, however, it seemed her new friend was gone...and so, consumed by the wanderlust that had shaped much of her life, Akala moved on.

It was on a lonely stretch of beach that the Yoreiqi found herself.  A quarter of a hollowed out coconut served her as a sort of bowl, and she had paused to munch on the berries she had found when something big sailed across the horizon.  It was a ship -- larger than any she could recall seeing before -- with mighty sails flapping in the breeze.

It was...fascinating.

And, so, when it dropped anchor, and a much smaller craft left it for the shore, Akala patiently waited -- then, still infinitely curious, she rose to greet the handful of men who disembarked.

It became apparent -- quickly -- that the men did not speak Yoreiqi...and Akala knew no trader's tongue.  Still, they seemed friendly enough that Akala did not feel threatened...until, that is, one grabbed her arm and chattered something in their rough tongue as he pointed to the large ship.

"I don't understand," Akala answered patiently, trying to pull her away.  His grip tightened, and he pointed again.  "Do you want me to go with you?"  There were nicer ways to ask!

Akala tried to pull her arm away again, this time a little more sharply.  "Let me go!" she demanded -- then shrieked in surprised alarm as the man picked her up -- as if she weighed no more than a pineapple -- and deposited her in the much smaller boat.  "What are you doing?" she demanded, but to no avail!  The man kept a firm grip on her arm, while his two companions began to row back further away from the shore.

(OOC: Save her, Sharkie!  Save her!)

[Paradox]

Thirty-two fishies down his greedy gullet, thirty-three , thirty-four, thirty-five....

Ha'aheo would have been content to swim lazily with his mouth wide open, catching dumb little fishies all day long. His hunger hardly knew any limits, however his aimless swimming had brought him within uncomfortable range of a large boat. He was about to consume fishie number thirty-six when he became aware of it. Big boat. Ship. Not good. He thought with a scowl.

He was going to swim away when he heard a high-pitched noise, a shriek. Someone was in trouble. Should I care? Ha'aeho didn't really. People screamed all the time over the silliest things, however...because he was bored enough the noise sparked his curiosity enough to get him to investigate.

Up ahead there were small boats in the water. Strange men, foreign men sat in them. They were not the island people. Even Ha'aheo could tell the difference. There was a woman with them as well, but his eyesight was not the best and he couldn't have identified that it was, in fact, Akala that happened to be in the boat with them.

He felt rather cheeky today though and grinned deviously just before he slipped underwater and moved towards the boat. He could swim faster than men could row, but he wanted to screw with them. He swam just close enough to the surface so that his dorsal fin breached the water and proceeded to circle the boat.

One of the men gave a cry of alarm and threw something at the water. It missed Ha'aeho's fin by a wide margin. Ha'aheo felt the missile hit the water and it was close enough to prompt him to submerge himself completely. He swam up beside the boat and knocked his body into it, causing it to rock. Then he knocked it again, harder. And again. He could imagine the human's terror and it tickled him. They probably thought he would eat them or something like that.

ooc: I'll let you decide if they fall into the water or not! I don't want to have all the fun!

[Ivory]

There was no use in trying to escape the men -- they were out in the middle of the ocean, and the only place to go was the water if she did succeed in escaping...  No, it would be better to save her strength -- and to see what they wanted from her first.

The shark fin surprised her as much as it did the men with her.  She didn't recognize the fin -- she hadn't spent a great deal of time looking at it during their previous encounter.  The man who had grabbed her released her to throw something at the fin -- just missing.

"You shouldn't harass the poor creature," Akala told the men -- although, of course, they didn't understand her.  Nor would they have cared if they could!

There was a thud, then, and the boat rocked dangerously to the left.  The man who had tried to throw something at the shark splashed into the water, and even Akala had to hang on tightly to the side or risk joining him!

One of the oarsmen lost his oar completely; the other took a few half-hearted swings at the foul sea monster that was attacking them!

[Paradox]

Something was repeatedly hitting the water directly above him. Was one of the humans trying to hit him? How funny! He knocked into the boat even harder and then swam towards the surface at full speed. As he broke through the surface , he snarled as fiercely as he could . The oarman shrieked and swung the oar at the mershark who caught the oar deftly in his clawed hands and gave it a yank, pulling the man into the water with a scream. He ignored the poor fool who proceeded to thrash and splash behind him.

The other two men began to panic now. They had no idea what Ha'aheo was. He looked like a man, but clearly wasn't. "Hehe." Ha'aheo's blue eyes sparkled mischievously. Scaring people was fun!  He didn't notice Akala since she wasn't panicking nearly as much as the other men. "Come. Swim! Hehe! "

One of the remaining men, a tall skinny fellow with a shiny hairless head and nose ring brandished a scimitar. He lunged forward, attempting to stab Ha'aheo but the mershark laughed and sunk down quickly beneath the water. The boat was hit again, this time from the right, sending the swordsman's companion overboard.

One final hit and the poor boat capsized!

[Ivory]

Akala had jumped slightly at the mershark's sudden appearance -- but while the men were panicking, the shaman smiled brightly.  "Ha'aheo!"

But, then, the mershark was gone again.  Akala rose to her feet, accustomed to riding in boats, with a cautious grace.  She intended to jump into the water herself -- but, before she could even lean to the left side to dive out, the whole boat went over -- and Akala with it!

Akala dropped into the water with a surprised yelp, vanishing beneath the waves -- with the boat flipping itself over and capsizing on top of her!  There was a sharp blow to the head -- not enough to cause blood or crack her skull open -- but she felt (more than heard) a crunch hard enough to set her ears ringing.

And as the pirates around her swam for the surface, she only stared blearily around herself in a daze as the impact from the boat pushed her, first, downwards, before her limp body began to ascend at a slow, lazy speed...

[Paradox]

Ha'aheo circled the boat, taunting the fleeing pirates and pretending like he was going to eat them, snapping at their heels . He was enjoying himself until he smelt blood. It was an intoxicating, delicious smell that he couldn't ignore. He turned around and noticed the limp form of the woman. He hadn't killed her had he?

He swam over to her and when he was close enough he recognized her. He knew humans couldn't breathe underwater let alone hold their breaths for very long. He gathered her in his arms and quickly broke to the surface, holding her head up so she could breathe. 

He brought her to shore and set her down on her back in  the sand just beyond the tide's reach. He normally did not beach himself because it meant that he couldn't get away quickly should he be attacked, but he did not want to kill the strange woman that intrigued him and had introduced him to delicious pineapple,  "Akala?'

ooc: He's not going to sing her a song. Sorry!

[Ivory]

OOC: But but but!  You said!  D:

Akala stirred at the sound of her name with a small sound of complaint -- and, then, suddenly, there was a pressure against her lungs.  Coughing hard, she half-sat up, half-flopped over to cough up the little water she had managed to swallow.

Hoping that most of the salt water had come up, she groaned a moment later and flopped back down on the sand.  She caught her breath, then, and smiled slightly at the mershark.  "Hi, Ha'aheo.  Thank you.  I think you saved my life."

[Paradox]

ooc: I know. I lied!

ic:

Ha'aheo did not know what to do. He could only sit there and watch the human splutter and empty her lungs of fluid. Concern for another being aside from himself was a foreign feeling to him , but he knew that was what he felt towards this woman. He would have been a little sad if the water had claimed her life.

When she sat up, Ha'aheo backed away a little to give her some space. Relief washed over his usually hard and cruel features, " It greets. Akala no die. Good."  He sounded happy. 

ooc: This is a tiny post and I'm ashamed!

[Ivory]

Akala's smile was as ready to return as always, in spite of her aching lungs and head.  She glanced over the mershark towards the floundering men, feeling just a little bitter towards them for their treatment of her...  Which she simply still could not fathom!  The trio were splashing around the boat, now, apparently trying to all clamber onto the underside of the small craft.  Were they afraid Ha'aheo was still there and might try to eat them?

"I guess that makes us about even," she murmured appreciatively.  "Would you like to know how Yoreiqi greet our friends?"

[Paradox]

Ha'ahaeo followed her gaze as well and couldn't help himself, "Hehehe," he snickered , quite pleased with his antics. But he sobered a bit when he reminded himself that his humor had almost killed the pineapple lady and that would have been sad!

He nodded enthusiastically at her words. Words he mostly understood. "How greet Yoreiqi? " However he wrinkled his nose at this new word. He looked quite perplexed, "Akala, what word? Word 'friends'. It not know 'friends'. "


ooc: So short. I feel great shame!

[Ivory]

Akala, naturally, assumed that Ha'ahaeo didn't recognize the word translated from his own -- she could not possibly conceive of someone not understanding the concept as a whole!

So, for a moment, she thought of how to best describe a friend without falling back on a series of synonyms which would probably mean equally as little.  At last, she said, "A friend is someone you like.  It's someone you are happy to see.  And someone who helps you."

All of which applied to the mershark so far!  Of course, Akala was never terribly picky about her friends -- she tended to think of just about everyone as a friend!

"And this is how we greet our friends."  Pushing herself up onto her knees, she leaned forward to press her nose gently against his.

[Paradox]

Ha'aheo tilted his head, "Ohhh." He still did not quite grasp the concept  , but it now held some meaning for him. "Like friend. Like food. Food make...happy. Food help. Food friend?" Well, okay. So maybe he didn't quite get it. He frowned at this, "Akala bad food. No food. Bad. Akala good. Make it no die. Ha'aheo no die." Perhaps someday he'd get it. Maybe, possibly....who could really say?

He sat there attentively , watching her rise to her knees. He waited to see this greeting and then her face was in his face and their faces- their noses were touching ... He had a sensitive nose. A VERY sensitive nose. He fell back with a splash and his expression was one of bewilderment. What was she DOING? She was not allowed to invade his personal space like this, his bubble,and she was definitely not allowed to touch his nose. "What !?" He sounded exasperated. Most who DARED to touch him or his nose-they died. Horribly.