Chapter One
The children gathered around for a little break from hunting mushrooms.
"Tag!" yelled the youngest, Atepa. She jumped up and down, her black ponytail bouncing with her.
An older girl with long blong hair groaned unpleasantly and walked over to the pond.
"I don't know why," she began, dipping her small feet into the cool water, "you still play with them, Mali. For goodness sake, you're 15 already!"
Mali indeed towered over the little ones. He looked even older than he really was because his hair was greyish-silver, but it twinkled along with his grey eyes.
"They need an extra player, and I don't see you coming over here, Lala."
Lala sniffed and turned her back on them.
"Tag!" Atepa yelled agin.
"No, Teppi, Thema's 'It'. You wait your turn, okay."
corrected another boy. He also had black hair like ATepa, and he also had thick eyebrows and silver patches just above his ears.
"So sorry, Yap." ATepa apologized and got in line to play.
Meanwhile, Lala was trying to wet her hair. After a few minutes of immense frustration, she stood and tried to dry the few places on her head that got wet.
Two unidentified flying objects landed in the pond with two big splashes, wetting Lala from head to toe. She shrieked loudly with annoyance.
the children stopped their game and ran to see what could have caused Lala to shriek this time. Other times had included a spider, a bracelet made of colorful wooden beads, and a toy monkey Atepa owned.
Two figures emerged from the dark blue water. One was a woman with shoulder-length black as the night hair and two large silver hoops attached to her earlobes. Lala watched them jealously. The other was a young man with bushy dark brown hair. Lala turned her attention to him and found that she couldn't take her eyes off him. Too bad the rest o0f the kids, except Mali, were holding onto her legs and it took a lot of willpower to not shake them off.
"Who are you?" Mali asked.
"I'm Hakea Love. This is my friend, Hiji Fire. How about you?"
"I'm Mali Water. This is Lala Song. And this is Yap Land, Thema Heart, and Atepa Run."
"Are there any others? Where are your parents?"
"No, there aren't any others. Our parents left us here several months ago."
"Nine!" Atepa shrieked.
"Yea, thanks. Nine months ago." Mali said.
"Hmm, I guess we'll have to help you kids. Hiji, do you think you could build a fire? Mali, how old are you?" Hakea asked as Hiji left for the woodpile by the south end of the beach.
"Well, uh, I just turned 15 a few weeks ago." Mali answered, scratching his head.
"Good, come with me."
Hakea took his hand and brought him over to the long table by the long hut.
"I'll show you how to research, then I will work on that hut over there."
"Uh, okay, Hakea."
An hour of this, and Hakea was finally able to work on the hut. Hiji, in the meantime, was having some trouble starting the fire, but in the end, a large fire roared in the firepit. Everyone congratulated Hiji, then went to do their own thing. Hiji, with nothing left to do, went to fish, seeing that the food bin had very little food, most of them rotten mushrooms and inedible fish.
Lala approached Hakea. Hiji was fishing in the o0cean, and Lala couldn't help but stare. Finally, she mustered enough courage to talk to that Hakea woman.
"Hakea, can I go work with Hiji in the ocean? Can I?"
"Just one question to pass the test. How old are you?"
"Mmmmm, I'll be 14 next week."
"Then enjoy your last week of youth."
"Fine." Lala mumbled, dragging herself to her favorite spot by the ocean, watching Hiji fish and waiting for her turn next to him.