Ocean Girl

The ocean swirled, waves crashed over one another. It was early evening in Oahu, Hawaii. Lola Bernice was watching the water slam against the nearby cliffs and spray the rocky wall. The air was chilled, and Lola was about to head home, when a sound drew her attention back. A girl in a misty white short frilly skirt, light, light blue leggings, and a white shirt with gold embroidery emerged from the sea, completely dry! Her blond hair whipped around her small tan face. And Ice blue silver breastplate. All she needed was a sword and she could be from an action movie.

“Who are y-you.” Lola stammered. The girls piercing blue eyes stabbed through Lola’s confidence, stranding her in a vast sea of monsters, her boat was gone, if she wasn’t careful she might drown in teeth and claws. Lola held her breath waiting for a reply. 48 seconds past before she answered.

“Adora.” her voice was smooth, but jagged like a piece of sea glass and flowed perfectly as though the ocean carried it through the air. Her bare feet looked as though they were levitating, because of the way they glided across the white sand. Lola had a million questions, but could only find enough courage to ask one.

“How?” gosh one question and I asked how, I’m mentally slapping my face. Adora looked confused, so I had to say more, ‘gulp.’

“Dry?” wow i did it again. Though to be fair to myself it’s a valid question, I mean her outfit was... - WAS slightly changing colors as if when the moon light hit it the colors changed, maybe, right sorry - Her dress was completely dry, same with her hair and body. Like the water hadn’t even touched her. 

“You don’t know?” Adora asked, looking both amused and more confused by the moment. I nodded slightly, she cocked her head as though she was trying to understand me better on a deeper level, maybe? I don’t know, her face was hard to read. “I’ve never met a human before, but I guess I should have assumed. I wrap myself in a blanket of dry water and… You look confused.”

“Dry water, Never met a human?” I asked a bit skeptically. I felt my confidence come back, this was all a joke, though she was good.

“Yeah, dry water is water without oxygen in it, very solid, and harder to manipulate, but… oh dear it seems I’ve lost you again.” She had, but this was all very interesting, so I shook my head. “Oh ok, Anyway, the dry water keeps out wet water.” Okay that I had to laugh at, wet water?

“What's so funny?” Adora asked, clearly not understanding.

“Nothing,” I said with as much seriousness as I could muster,”please continue.”

“Okay,” she replied while eyeing me, “Right, dry water keeps wet water out, allowing me to stay dry. Though I suppose humans don’t know that because they can’t do it. Figures, we always have been the stronger race. Oh please don’t look so shocked. Now you know, I have business, so bye.” I cocked my head at her last remark.

“Business?” The word slipped and I let it. I’ll admit I’m curious.

“I lost my sword, If you must know. I can’t return home without it.” she sounded nervous, but that quickly vanished when she added, “You haven't seen it have you, Gold, sleek, and sharp.” Her description didn’t fit any recent memories so I shook my head. Lola could now see the empty sling for the sword slung across Adora’s back. It looked like it was a big sword, 3 inches across near the hilt. Maybe 3 ½ feet long(including the hilt). Like I said bi blade. Couldn’t be too hard to find, right. Maybe that's why I told Adora...

“I’ll help you look though.” wow, hey guys look the idiot volunteered for who knows what kind of adventure. What would her parents think? Adora was nice, but she wouldn’t exactly fit in with all her fancy finery stuff, and Yeah. Wow that was my best reasoning? Maybe I should just help her, maybe for a price though, yeah. That settled it. I would be helping Adora, but what do I want in return? Ugh!

Information maybe? Or umm… oooooh, she could make Adora take her back to wherever Adora lived. she’d decide later. Lola was either about to make the dumbest decision or one of her best.

“You'd do that?” Adora asked, interrupting Lola’s train of thoughts, with a kind of gratitude in her voice.

“Yeah, why not?”

I’ll tell you why not, because I have a curfew, and we can’t walk around town with Adora dressed as a warrior. Okay here's the plan; Step 1, we go home so I don’t get in trouble. Step 2, Adora gets normal clothes so we don’t get caught. Step 3, we look for the sword. Step 4, I get information. That's it, I think, that doesn't sound too hard, right?

“This way, Adora.” She followed me up the winding wooden stairs, across the main road, thankfully it was late enough so there weren’t many cars, across the school's front lawn, and up my driveway.

“You need to be super quiet, and go straight up stairs.” Adora nodded and slunk into the shadows. I opened the door, Shadow our black lab began to bark, mom and dad we're in the family room watching a movie with popcorn spilled all over their laps. “Hi mom, hi dad, I’ll be upstairs reading.”

“Ok honey, love you.” Dad called back.

“Love you too.” I replied, with that I ran up to my room. Adora had flopped down on my bed and was staring at the ceiling. “So, we need to get you something to wear.” I slid open my closet door, and started to go through some of my sweatshirts, Adora was at least a size bigger than me.

“What's wrong with my clothes?” Adora asked, sounding sort of hurt.

“Nothing, it's just you need to blend in and your clothes are kind of flashy.” I said back.

“Oh.” she sounded deflated. “Okay.” I threw her my “wait for the sunset” sweatshirt, Paris t-shirt and some jean shorts. I also set out a pair of flip flops for tomorrow.

“Bathrooms down the hall, you don’t mind sleeping in your clothes?” I asked, “I have p.j.’s if you need them.”

“Nope, it's fine. Back home we sleep in armor in case there's an attack.” This comment had me wondering about where Adora lived.

“That sounds… comfortable.” I retorted.

“Oh it is, our armor is made just for us, and it's very light.” I just shook my head. The moon reached its peak and I was asleep before my head hit my pillow.

The sun shone through my window, when I finally opened my eyes though, Adora was standing at my window sill watching the birds sing and fly.

“The sun is so different here, much brighter than home.” she whispered, so I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or herself. I walked over to stand next to her. On her pointer finger sat a rose-ringed parakeet. “Good morning Lola, this is Olive.” The bird chirped.

“You can understand it?” I asked, puzzled.

“Yes. and not it, but her.” Adora said.

“You ready to go out and look for your sword, my parents are just waking up, so now would be a good time.” Adora nodded, and set Olive on her shoulder. As we slunk past my parents bedroom I could hear one of them pouring their coffee. I signaled for Adora to wait for me downstairs.

“Hey mom, morning dad, I was going to go out and get breakfast with some friends, I’d be back around noon.” I told them.

“Go have fun honey, thank you for telling us.” mom said.

“Thanks.” on my way out of the room my dad called

“No boys!”

“I know, I know.” I said over my shoulder. I ran down stairs and threw on my flip flops, Adora did the same. We headed toward the cafe, what, I’m not going to lie to my parents, plus I’m hungry. I ordered 1 Acai bowl, and 1 pitaya bowl. We walked and ate. Adora shared some of her fruit with Olive, before asking her to fly around and look for her sword, promising more fruit afterwards. We walked to all the closest beaches, Olive returned in the next half an hour, exhausted. She gobbled down her fruit and sadly hadn’t seen the sword. We brainstormed where it might be and came up with several locations.

“My kind has always been inspired by mountains and large rock formations, that's why we built our city on one.” Adora told me, ok is anyone else curious?

“We could check Diamond Head, but I don’t have enough to get in.” I told her.

“Could we climb up the back side?” Adora asked.

“In theory yes, but it’s a little steep in some parts and kind of a long hike.” I informed her. “Plus if it's not up there, that's gonna be an hour, maybe two hours of wasted time. I say we go to the lighthouse and have Olive take a look, if it’s up there we can go get it, if not we look somewhere else. Who knows could be at the lighthouse.” I reassured her. I called up one of my older friends, Hannah, who drove us to the lighthouse.

“Who’s that?” Hannah pointed at Adora. Quick, Lola think, think, think, got it! A lie spilled from my lips, who was I.

“Oh Adora, she’s my cousin, visiting from Atlanta, georgia.” I shot Adora a look as if to say ‘go with it’ and turned back to Hannah. “Thanks for driving us, bye.” I waved and turned back to Adora, as Hannah drove off down the road.

“Ready?” she chirped a musical instruction to Olive, while she lifted up her arm to the air. Once the parakeet flew off, me and Adora circled the lighthouse, twice, when Olive returned. She’d seen something shiny near the bunker. And so the climb began. Up, and up, with 761 feet to go. Around 400 feet, I started to slip, I slid a little before pulling myself up. Adora was running up the thing, that's probably why she hadn’t been afraid of the climb. She slowed down and looked back.

“Come on we're halfway there.” she urged, I crawled up to where she had taken a seat. I could now see the bunker. The sun’s heat was searing, sweat trickled down my back, dust and dirt swept across my face. My vision blurred, I felt my feet start to slip. A handle, I grabbed it, holding on for dear life. 

“Adora, help!” I yelled but my voice was raw, and dry from lack of water. I rubbed my eyes. Not a handle, a hilt. A gold and silver hilt! I started to lose my hold, Adora’s sword. The reason why they we're up there. “Adora!” I called out again. “I found it, I found your sword! Adora! Please.” everything went black, I collapsed. The last thing I remembered was a strong set of arms grabbing me.

“Lola. Lola. Lola!” I sat up, my head pounding, we were still on the side of Diamond Head. sitting by the hilt of the sword. “Are you okay.”

“Yeah, why haven’t you pulled your sword out? I asked, rubbing my still throbbing head.

“I I-I… can’t.” Adora looked down, Olive sat on her shoulder cooing.

“I’ll help.” She looked up.

“You’d do that?” She asked.

“Yeah, why not?” I held her gaze so she knew I was serious.

“Thanks.” I got on the right of the hilt, Adora on the left, and Olive flying above us.

“1,” I glanced at Adora out of the corner of my eye.

“2,” She said. Looking my way.

“3, pull!” I yelled, we yanked and it shifted. “Olive, we need your help.” She flew down and snatched me and Adora’s shirts, flapping. We pulled with everything we had. ‘Cling’ the sword came out with one last good yank. Adora held it with pride. Adora tapped Olive on each side of her tiny Parakeet body, which had now grown to be larger than me. Adora grabbed my hand and pulled me on to Olive. With a snap we vanished, and soared back down, we landed right outside the cafe. We reappeared, Olive back to her normal size. I ran in and got us a large fruit bowl. Olive gobbled down several pieces of fruit before perching on Adora’s shoulder. After we finished eating our treat, we headed back to my house, Adora changed and we headed to the beach where we first met, to watch the sunset.

“I'm gonna miss you.” Adora hugged me, “and thanks for your help.”

“Anytime, you promise to visit?” I asked. 

“Of course.” Adora promised.

“So where do you live?” I’d held up my end, her turn.

“Atlantis, it's a sunken mountain and I’m a water warrior.” Atlanta, Atlantis, I was close. “The stars are really beautiful tonight. Bye Lola. Take care of Olive for me. See you soon.” Adora waded into the water, she turned around and smiled, before she was engulfed by a wave.

“Bye Adora.” I lay back in the sand, gazing up at the stars, thinking about my new friend.