Aleki stood at the edge of an elevated piece of land above the surf. He unfurled his enormous wings and jumped, allowing the updraft to carry him high into the air. A few wing beats later had him flying out over the crystal blue water.
It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in sight; the warm wind felt good in Aleki's feathers. He wasn't supposed to be all the way out here--he was supposed to be helping his mother prepare dinner. But he wanted to bring back something even better than the vegetables they usually had.
Aleki scanned the waves for any fish or birds he might catch. Maybe he would impress the others with something even bigger, like a seal! Well, that was probably out of the question. He knew he couldn't drag it back to shore by himself.
A dark shadow beneath the waves alerted the boy to a shoal of fish. "Perfect!" he thought. The boy gripped the spear in his hand tightly before flying closer to the water. He trained his eye on a particularly large fish and threw, the spear making a satisfying 'thunk' as it hit its target. The end of the spear was attached to Aleki's wrist by a long rope. This way, he wouldn't lose it in the water.
Aleki caught two more fish in this way before having too much in his net. He'd spent long enough in the air, and even he was starting to get tired. He flew back to shore in a much less graceful way than he'd come, bogged down by the heavy load he was carrying.
A nasty gust of wind suddenly knocked the boy aside just as he was about to reach shore. With his heavy net, Aleki couldn't right himself in time.
It looked like this was going to be another crash landing.
In a spray of sand, he landed face down, wings thrashing and fish flying. Aleki lay there for a second and then sat up, rubbing his nose. "Well, that was...mostly successful. Now where are all my fish?"