Bayang
Bayang knew the ocean well, from the depths where no light ever reached to the sunny surface, but she had never ridden a tidal wave.
It swept her along as if on a giant, sudsy hand.
“Remember what you told me about the surfers,” Scirye yelled.
Yes, Bayang said to herself. Don’t fight the waves. Ride with them.
Roland’s huge mansion lay far beneath them. On the roof the Menehune were waiting, tied to the makeshift rafts. From this distance, they looked like ants on discarded crackers.
Then the little men and the mansion disappeared as the bottom of the wave engulfed them.
Bayang got ready even though her wings were so drenched now that they felt as heavy as stone.
The giant wave rolled over the mansion’s courtyard and gardens, on and on, smashing the city’s buildings into rubble.
In the distance, a black cloud now hid the top of the volcano. Every now and then the red light from an eruption flared within the cloud, outlining its rolling edges with a bloody glow. Lava fell down the volcano’s slopes like brilliant yellow and crimson waterfalls, and streamed on, wriggling through the rocky folds across the island as if the volcano were snatching up everything in its fiery tentacles.
Some of the lava streams plunged into the ocean, sending plumes of steam jetting upward. Other lava flows wormed their way across the land, crushing the walls of houses and carrying away their roofs until the timbers caught fire, creating beds of flaming flowers. Cinders blown from the volcano had rained all over the island so that trees and other buildings were already burning. The whole city had caught fire; it looked like chains of bright, glowing beads.
Beneath her, Bayang felt the sea crest begin to drop. The tidal wave was coming down.
“Now, fly!” Pele commanded.
Bayang brought her wings down on top of the tidal wave with loud splashes. She hadn’t been able to get a full beat so she moved forward rather than up. And now that insufferable little pest, Leech, was nearby again, but this time he was shouting encouragement rather than insults.
Scirye and Kles joined him in urging her on, and soon Koko and Pele were doing the same. As Bayang flapped her wings determinedly, they seemed to rise with agonizing slowness.
She felt the ocean make one last grab at her tail as if trying to yank her downward into the wave, but still she fought on. And then her tail was free, and the noise was growing softer as the tidal wave finally reached its end and began to crash down.
She watched the sea wave smash against the land, covering the burning buildings and then flooding on in a dozen streams through the streets and leaving behind steaming blackened frames. On and on the sea charged until it collided head-to-head with the lava.
There was a huge, hissing explosion like a thousand boilers rupturing. Steam tumbled upward like a misty hill springing from the ground. And from out of the white cloud sailed lumps and slabs of burning rock as the lava cooled and then burst like bombs.
“Well done, mo-o,” Pele crowed excitedly. “I’ll go surfing with you anytime.”
Leech flew in front of Bayang again. On his back was a very sick badger.
“I’m sorry that I said the things that I did,” the hatchling said as he struggled against the winds to stay in place.
“Yes, well, I’ve been called worse things. And I realize you were just trying to motivate me.” Bayang clashed her fangs together. “But even so, never, never do that again.”
Koko was so dizzy that he was resting his head on Leech’s shoulder. “Yeah, buddy. That goes double for me.”
“Why didn’t you listen to me when I told you to leave us?” Bayang demanded, puzzlement now replacing her anger.
“And leave you behind?” Leech asked, surprised. “What kind of person do you think I…?” He paused. “Oh, that’s right. I do know.”
“You’ve just proved how wrong the dragons were all those centuries,” Bayang said gently.
Leech smiled shyly. “So we made a good start at trusting one another?”
“I’d like to think so,” she said, hooking a talon toward her back. “So hop on board.”
The boy laughed. “Does that invitation include one airsick badger?”
Bayang rolled her eyes in mock resignation. “Even him.”
Scirye reached out to clasp his forearm. “Welcome home.”
“There’s no place like it.” Leech grinned as he eased in behind her.
As the boy took off his flight disks, Bayang surveyed the sea. She was glad to notice there were several makeshift rafts filled with Menehune bobbing up and down on the surface where the mansion had once been. A little farther away were dozens more. On these were more of the little men, as well as their prisoners. There were even large platforms with metal sheets on which the fire giants sat, looking seasick and miserable. Already, the industrious Menehune had gotten their tools and were improving their vessels.
Bayang tried to hold herself steady in the increasingly turbulent air. The air, heated by the inferno below, rose in strong, twisting winds. When she glanced up, she saw that they were shoving the huge black cloud westward toward the other Hawaiian islands. In those clouds were enough ash and gases to smother and suffocate thousands.
And if that didn’t kill the poor islanders, there was more trouble. The ocean below was churning like a boiling pot as the island’s edges began to crumble and fall. New tidal waves would soon be smashing through towns and cities.
“What do we do?” Leech gulped.
“I’ll fix it,” Pele shrugged. “What else?”
Throwing back her head, the goddess began to sing a series of deep clacking notes, like polished stones tumbling against one another. The music was lovely in its own way, like the streaks of black in a sheet of white marble that seemed to make a picture but never quite did.
It was impossible not to listen to it. The song swept the mind along as irresistibly as a tide of lava carried huge boulders swiftly toward the sea.
And then she stopped and folded her arms, tapping her heel anxiously against Bayang’s side.