Against the Tide: The Cursed Twins (On Hold)

3

Atua had been practicing more and more over the years with her mother. As a surprise for her tenth birthday Atua's parents took her back home to Hawaii to see her father's side of the family. It had been so long since they were on the islands themselves since they traveled a lot as Atua got older. They had finally made it in and even though it was in the wee hours of the morning her entire family was there waiting for them to dock. Their family owned a massive portion of private land on one of the smaller islands and lived like a community caring for eachother and the land. "Atua!" her grandmother called outas the soon to be ten year old sprinted off the docks and into her grandmother's arms. "GRANDMA, GRANDPAS!" she squealed in excitement as her three grandfathers tried to pry Atua away from one another. "No I'm her favorite!" one of them yelled playfully and the other two rolled their eyes before they all burst into laughter.

"My boys set up the big pit and were making your favorite. I marinated it for two days and it's been cooking since this morning so it will be ready for the party tonight!" her grandmother informed her and Atua nearly fainted with joy. "PAPA! I demand we come home more often. I am being starved of good food! Uh and family of course" Atua said with a cheesy grin making everyone laugh.

Having three husbands helped with making a rather large family. Beside her father there were seven other boys and four girls. Most of them had a relationship like her grandmother. The brothers that were close in age had shared a wife while an older and younger one were monogamous like her parents. All the girls somehow ended up in poly relationships and it always made Atua wonder how she would end up. She was fine either way, just curious.

"So how's life on the seas brother?" one of her uncles asked. "Well it's great when you don't count the sea urchin trying to poach my wife." he replied with a humourless laugh as he rested his hand on his hips. Waiata slapped him upside his head. "It's our girls birthday. Positivity only!" she said eyeing everyone who nodded. "Atua!" they heard a small squeal as some of the younger kids came in from the water and ran to greet their cousin.

Day bled into night and everything seemed perfect, like nothing could go wrong. Her little girl was growing up to be a strong woman and even strong mermaid despite her human DNA. Granted her mother was an ancient mer on par with the gods themselves. "She's perfect. Just like you." Kaitiaki whispered to Waiata as he held her from behind. "My love, does it bother you that she seems so..." Waiata trailed off not sure how to finish. "Much like you and not even partially human?" he finished for her and she nodded. "Not at all. You are perfect to me and I love you with everything that I am. So it would make sense that regardless of how her phenotypes worked out that I love her with everything that I am too." he replied with a smile and it made Waiata tear up.

They were pulled out of their romantic moment when they heard Atua's screams from the water. Waiata''s eyes shifted as she and Kaitiaki both saw their daught simply having fun as she whipped out in the water as her older cousins taught her how to surf. But then there was a pinging sound coming from the water. Waiata hoped she was hearing things but Atua had turned to look for the sound source as well. Waiata turned to grab one of their bags from their rest place next to the patio seats and Kaitiaki whistled and waved everyone in from the water. Atua had stayed afloat, staring into the sea until one of her old cousins broke her out of her trance and led her back to shore.

Waiata quickly powered on the equipment she pulled from the bag and started entering commands before putting on her headset. She heard the frequency and patterns of the sound and threw her headphones off, nearly breaking them with the force she used. "Mom, get Atua inside and make sure she can't hear anything going on out here." Kaitiaki instructed and his mother nodded ushering the smaller children inside with her husbands and the women. "The girls will stay inside and protect them, what do you need us to do?" his brother asked.