The Journey Around The World, In Order To Save Spring

Light Work

About an hour had passed and they had arrived at the front gates of 'Iolani Palace, the residence of the king of Hawai'i. Now the only problem was how to return the cape. "So... do we just go in or..?" Amaruq asked, hesitating. "Nonsense. We can't just waltz in there. The guards'll stop us way before we even get close to the doors," Taggak shot the idea down. This was the home of a very important person. It made sense that they would have amazing security. They didn't know the layout of the castle very much, so breaking into it was out of the question. "Fun fact: The original 'Iolani Palace was destroyed by David. This one right here is the new palace, built right across the street from Aliʻiōlani Hale," Amaruq said.

"Fun, but not very helpful," Taggak said dryly. They had to find a way to get inside. "What if we tell the guards we want to return the cape?" Atsuguk suggested. Being honest was his trademark. "Are you kidding? How would they know we weren't the ones who stole it in the first place?" The black wolf pointed out. There really was not much they could do. "You know what? Forget a plan. I'm just gonna go in there," Amaruq said. The others looked at him like he was crazy. Maybe he was, but he didn't care. This was taking too much time already. He became SS with the 'Ahu 'ula in his hands. Putting two fingers on his forehead, he concentrated on the inside of the royal building.

His senses locked on to someone's chi inside. Focusing on it, he teleported. He ended up in front of an old man, who looked shocked as heck, as if he had seen a ghost. Understandable. Without thinking twice, SS knocked the elderly wolf out with a swift karate chop. As the man fell, he looked at him. Poor old guy. He was probably just a janitor doing his job. But SS couldn't let a witness run off and call the guards. It seemed that he had arrived on the ground floor, which was no good. He couldn't just leave the cape on the floor like that. That would be weird. So he snooped around the place, looking for something, anything. Evading guards stationed everywhere, he finally found a set of stairs.

The staircase facing the grand hall was itself grand, easily dwarfing any he had ever seen before. It was made of koa wood. Seeing as he was in a palace, that was normal, he guessed. With swift steps he climbed the curving stairway and reached the first floor. He had to appreciate the architecture. It was unique and seen nowhere else in the world. If Solar had to take a guess, he would say it was Florentine but with the flair of America mixed into it. He looked into the first room he found. It was a private library! Solar loved those. He looked at all the books kept on the marvellous bookshelves. There were so many, he wished he could take the more interesting ones. But that would be stealing. And from a king, no less!

He looked around and saw a round glass object affixed to the ceiling. It had some sort of wire filament inside. Attached to it was a chain made form metal balls. Curious, he pulled the chain. Without warning, the bulb lit up, lighting the immediate surroundings. Solar had to close his eyes in surprise for a moment. What was this? Artificial lighting? He'd only ever heard of it recently. There were rumours that some physicist named Joseph Swan had invented an incandescent light bulb just 5 years ago. There was also word on the street that a business man, Thomas Edison, had stolen his idea, improved upon it a bit and filed for a US patent just the year after, thus naming him the inventor.

Solar only hoped that they could resolve their differences soon. Maybe join forces or something. His curiosity sated, he pulled the chain again, turning the bulb off. Walking out of the room, he thought about how the bulb got energy. As he knew, the law of the conservation of energy stated that energy could be neither created nor be destroyed. So there had to be a way for them to get energy to and through the light bulb. Hmm... Solar had an idea. Entering a different room, he found that it was a very spacious bedroom. A bedroom for a king. Interesting. After putting the 'Ahu 'ula on the king-sized bed, he proceeded to scan the walls and found knob and tube wiring.

Single conductors were run through cavities between the structural members in the walls and ceilings, with ceramic tubes forming protective channels through joists and ceramic knobs attached to the structural members to provide air between the wire and the lumber and to support the wires. Since air was free to circulate over the wires, smaller conductors could be used than required in cables. Smart, using conductors to circulate electrical energy throughout the building, seeing that electricity was a very convenient way to transfer energy. They had the scientist Michael Faraday to thank for that. He had discovered the method to generate electricity some 50-60 years ago, using magnets, apparently.

On a partner's desk near the window, he found a newspaper, the Saturday Press. What caught his eye was the headline. It wrote 'King Kalākaua's Coronation Ceremony' and was dated February 12. That was weird. According to Solar's knowledge, The Merrie Monarch had reigned for nine years already. Hmm. Another thing on the desk was a peculiar invention. It looked like a black funnel inside a wheel attached to a varnished wooden base. He gasped. He recognised this from science periodicals he had read. If he was right, this was a telephone! It was an apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound.

It probably utilised amplitude modulation and depended on the electrical system in this building. Solar had to give Alexander Bell a pat on his back. How ingenious of him to invent and patent this kind of technology, and only seven years ago! It would be nice to see what other things wolfkind can invent in the future. With his objective complete, Solar gathered energy in his legs. Once there was enough, he performed a Solar Leap, turning his body into photons and transmitting them outside before turning the particles back into his body. "What took you so long?" Taggak asked him. "Well... you could say I was distracted by Science," Amaruq chuckled. He couldn't help it. It was so interesting! "Let's get back to Hawai'i," the black said after rolling his eyes.

Just like before, they rode on Ice's Wave Surfer from the sandy beach on this island to Kapa'a Beach on the other. Touching down on the shore, they travelled through the tropical jungle again. But this time, slightly more leisurely. Not long after, they reached a waterfall that Amaruq had noticed on their first trip though here. He had suggested that they took a bath there, seeing as they hadn't had a bath in ages staying on ships. And so, they did. They took off all their clothings and jumped into the the cool, refreshing hill-stream water. It was so nice to actually take care of their hygiene for once.

However, Amaruq noticed one of them not enjoying the water. Kamak was standing idly where they left him beside the river. As usual, he was staring at nothing. Not wanting to leave him out of the experience, the alien waded to the edge and climbed out of the river. His friends watched as he approached the unresponsive beige wolf. He carefully held the other's hands. "Hey. You should join us, you're probably pretty dirty," he said, and was given no answer. "I'm gonna go ahead and undress you now, okay?" He continued before doing so, gently removing the tattered pieces of fabric. Once he was done, he led their prisoner... no, he led their charge to the water and slowly pulled him into it.

Kamak did not react even as he was submerged up to his chest. But it did not matter. Amaruq still scrubbed his fur for him to get rid of all the dirt and grime that he had accumulated. Being here, washing this guy, reminded him of Qimmiq. His canine companion would also get dirty a lot and his mom would make him bathe him. She didn't want anyone getting dirt in their hut. He hummed as he finished untangling the knots in the fur. "There. All clean!" He cheerfully said to his charge, who only looked at him blankly. Satisfied, he left the wolf alone to swim in the fresh water. One of his favourite things to do at streams was to look for any fish.

For some reason, he could only find three species of gobies, which he caught using a net to look at. All three were discovered around 20-30 years ago by ichthyologists. Maybe he could be an ichthyologist when he grew up. He did like fish. But then... he lived in Canada. There weren't many species to study there, especially somewhere as North as Tuktut Nogait. Hmm. Oh, well. You can't miss what you never had, as his dad said. And it was true. Besides not missing being an ichthyologist, he also didn't miss his biological parents. Because he never met them. Not when he was old enough to remember. But that didn't mean he didn't want to meet them. Of course not.

When everyone was clean and Amaruq's fingers had wrinkled, they exited the waterfall. Before wearing his clothes, Amaruq blowdried his underwear using his wind element. He was the only one who was wearing anything while bathing. He just didn't like being fully naked out in the open. Not that the others cared. He could do whatever he wanted as long as his strange habits didn't bother them. Fully clothed (Kamak had to be dressed by Amaruq and Atsuguk), the quartet headed back to Hilo, the largest town in Hawai'i and the town they left their ship in.