Chapter 2 Shona

Shona stacked as many round shells as she could find starting with the biggest on bottom. She hunted the sand around her searching for the small Chinese hat shells that she liked to poke a hole in and thread on a string. She was busy on the beach most hours of the day and had chocolate brown skin with long curly straw colored hair. She was the child of a non-native couple, Maita and Christopher.
The two had arrived when they were brought to the Island by some sort of fortuitous current. Their arrival had initially been a shock to the isolated Leumer tribe who had previously viewed off island humans as a dangerously savage and greedy, a race of devils capable of the most heinous crimes against nature, and of course, they were not completely wrong.
In the case of Shonas parents however, this description of outsiders was wholly inaccurate. They had worked as part of a team that had been traveling the world to document the breakdown of the reefs due to ocean acidification and other forms of pollution. They had been swept overboard mysteriously during a night watch by a rogue wave and though their ship searched for them for hours, they were eventually given up as lost to the sea.
Strange lights had been witnessed and reported by the crew in the days around the time of their disappearance although nobody ever suspected the two events were connected.
Shonas parents had lived on the island for about 3 months before they conceived her. When her mother Maita started to show, the Leumer began leaving gifts just outside the little makeshift camp as was their tradition for the expecting. They had observed the couple and sensed that contrary to other experiences of humans these two were not a threat.
Maita and Christopher were startled at first but warmed that they were obviously not alone. Maita had deep black skin. Her grandparents had come from Zimbabwe and Christopher was a blond and blue eyed Swede. Among the gifts they found was a mixture of aloe and coconut oil which Christopher found to be a great remedy for his relentless sunburning.
Just before Shona was born, the Leumer began to be more bold about revealing themselves and finally let the couple find them dropping off a batch of oysters near the beach trail that led to their camp. Maita saw a slim youth and his mother and called out to them.
“Hello? Thank you” she said.
Christopher beckoned to them with his hands smiling and patted the area next to him in invitation to sit. The mother smiled and waved back, but turned with her son back down the trail. Maita and Chris got up to follow them but only found their footprints in the sand that led to the waters edge and disappeared into the waves.

[Some years pass, Shona grows into a youth]

Shona stood up first to share her dream. All of the Leumer tribe were gathered for the daily breakfast Dream Feast. She sensed upon waking that her last dream of the night was particularly significant and that it held power and promise for the tribe and more importantly, for the seas and the planet in general. Now in her teens, she had shared many dreams and had long since been recognized for her powerful sight as a dreamer. Her lens was clear, the elders would say and they payed close attention whenever she stood to speak.
“I’m out in the water with Daddy and we’re talking with Guet Tut (Grandfather Turtle), he’s telling us that someone new has arrived at the island and we will need to help her. He says she comes from the Machine World but that she has been brought here on purpose by Ama”
Some of the tribe shifted and whispered as usually Ama was only spoken of in high ritual for transformations and healing. Ama was their creator and was the Leumer name for the spirit of the planet who had originally come from Galactic Center. She was a creator spirit who formed worlds and seeded life on them. The Leumer legends told that Ama had fallen in love with one of her creations and had chosen to leave Galactic Center to incarnate inside of her creation so that she could be intimate with it, so she could embody it literally. It was normally forbidden to say her name outside of ritual out of respect and so as not to dilute her attention when they truly needed to call upon her. Shona continued.
“Guet Tut said Ama told him to help her get to shore or she would drown and that she needed her to be given sea breath as soon as we find her.”
She waited a few seconds to let the whispers die down and continued,
“He said to take her through the Shark Cave straight to the Merkama, and that she would no longer have a heartbeat, so we needed to hurry, he said Do Not take her over land....and to have everyone there ready to start the whirlpool and call the Lika, um…” Shona paused, “and, she is coming when the sun hits water this evening.” Whispers filled the chamber.
When everyone was silent again, she added,
“I woke up in the dream and remembered I was dreaming and Guet Tut said ‘good now you know that this dream is important and you will remember to take it back with you when you wake’.”
The elders nodded quietly while others rustled again, whispering and shushhhhing
“and so Daddy and me are going out to find her if you want to help, and I want to ask if you’ll give us permission to bring her through Shark Cave.”
Shona’s father looked at her strangely, realizing more and more about her as she spoke, especially when sharing these dreams. The child only stood when her dreams had truth. He had no choice but to believe her. Re-animating a lost soul was not the tribes’ way as far as he knew, but she seemed to know so much beyond what they had been taught so far.. and, though it had been years, he was still adjusting to her new physical form.
The Elder Zon, who was holding leader title this moon stood and turning first with a nod to Shona’s parents and then to Shona said, “Dearest child, speaker of language from many worlds, we grant you permission if you find such a girl out in the water to bring her to our treasured Merkama, to bring her through Shark Cave, we will speak with our brothers there and arrange your passage.”
She turned to sit, and spun back round at Shona, adding with unexpected warmth,
“I look forward to swimming with our new friend.”