Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(12) Telu is a Battleground

Taiki looks nervous, my first tip-off that something is amiss. "The Sami just took over, and the Karu are getting ready to attack again."

"So they're fighting over it."

"Yes."

An active battle does not bode at all well for my attempts to get closer. "Do they ever stop fighting?"

He hesitates, and picks his words carefully. "Not really. The fish don't swarm like they used to, so there's less food for both of them. Especially with the island people taking more from the ocean. So the islands and seamounts are becoming more important."

The island people. My people. Telu does fish more than they used to, according to my mother. We started casting more traps after storms drove seaspray so far inland, it ruined our crops. We took the difference from the sea. I know from the stories that Luasa are jealous about what we pull from their territories, but I never would have thought we were actually harming them. Have other islands followed similar patterns?

I also always assumed the gomas' complaints that things "aren't like they used to be" were just sentimental miserating. Everyone always thinks their parents had it easier. But this makes it sound like it might actually be true.

"We have a harder time, too," Taiki continues. "They hunt us more, up here and down in the Shalda-sana. Especially the Sami."

"How do they hunt you in the Shalda-sana?"

"They dive."

I'd been hoping he had lied the first time he said there were sharks in the deep. "So what do we do now?"

Taiki's gaze has slipped away from me, out to the open water past the guard. I try to catch his attention, but he doesn't see it. I wave a hand in front of his face. He startles.

"They dive," he repeats.

"You said that already. What do we do now?"

"We wait."

"For what?"

His eyes keep darting back to the ocean. I resist the urge to shake him. "Taiki!"

He's not even watching something; just staring at nothing. This time, I do shake him. He doesn't startle, but he seems to come back. "Sorry," he signs with an effort.

I block his view of the open water. "What do we wait for?"

"The Sami only need the islands when their kids are small. Then they go back to the ocean, unless they're looking for food. Getting close to the island will be safer then."

"How long will that be?"

"It depends."

I can tell I still don't have him fully here. I take a deep breath to keep myself level-headed. "On what?"

"The species."

"Okay. What species are there now?"

"I don't know."

"What species bit me?"

He blinks, and manages to focus on the bite on my side. What he signs is a mix of shark and something like soft, which seems like a particularly bad combination for something with teeth about as soft as basalt rock and bush thorns. I blend the written forms of the words and dub the species Malu.

"But someone controlled it," Taiki signs. He's told me that already.

"Malu Sami-Kels?"

"They sometimes have good Nekta-singers."