Wahine's Great Storm

The Part

Thousands of years ago, on an island named Towataho, there was a man, named Tashira. This man loved to fish, and to swim. He just loved to be with the sea, especially while it was calm and beautiful. He learned how to read the waves, and he knew how to speak to the ocean. The chief found out about this, and offered him the betrothal of his daughter, along with becoming chief of his village. All he had to do, is read the waves and tell the fisherman where the fish would be. And of course the man accepted his offer, and the fishermen of the village started catching more than they ever had before. Because of this, the man had been given the biggest house in the village, and servants were assigned to him. But this made a spirit of the sea, named Wahine, angry because this man was being put on a pedestal, for the slaughter of thousands of fish. So, she made the waves so high that no one could get boats out to sea. The chief ran to the man's house, barged in to see him laying down asleep.

"Get out there and tell the sea to be still!" The chief demanded

The man replied with, "No."

"What!" The chief screamed angrily.

Then the man got up, and said, "No, it is a waste of time! Even if I tell the sea to be calm, it will not listen. I have no real power over it."

"Tashira you will do as I say, or you will be executed!" The chief yelled in demand.

Then Tashira said, "Fine. I will speak to the sea."

So they walked down the shore line, and Tashira whispered, "What is wrong? Fair lady."

Then, Wahine replied in the waves, " You have been profiting from killing my children!"

"Your children?" He replied in confusion.

Then she said, "The fish of the sea. They are my children."

Tashira then said, "I am sorry, we didn't know. We will try to stop the fishing."

Then Tashira turned to the chief, and said, "She said that the waves will stop if we stop fishing."

"No!" screamed the chief.

So the fishing continued. But Tashira came back to the sea, when no one was fishing. And he spent time with it, talking, and learning what she wanted. And then he went back the next day, and the day after that. Until he was going every day, for weeks.

"Are you always in the form of water?" he asked.

Then she replied with, "No, but I don't really trust humans enough to get in my other form."

"Why not?"

"Because in that form I am vulnerable, and humans are treacherous," she answered.

"Ok."

He went back to his house, and started thinking about Wahine. He couldn't stop thinking about her.

But the next day, someone was screaming, "It's happening! It's finally happening!"

He rushed out to ask what was happening, and the Chief told him, "We have found a way to kill Wahine."

"What?!"

"Yes. We found an ancient weapon that can kill spirits. It is called Pepehi." the Chief replied.

So Tashira ran down to the shore, hoping that he would make it there before anyone else. And just like he had hoped, he was there when no one else was.

"Wahine! The people they found a weapon, and they're going to kill you!" he yelled into the waves.

She then, turned into her human form, and went with Tashira to hide. He made her stay in his house until, he could convince the Chief out of killing her. But there was no convincing him. When the chief got to the shore he activated the weapon, and fired at the sea.

But, when nothing happened, the Chief started to get mad, and he yelled, "Tashira! Why is she not dead!"

"I don't know," He said softly, hoping the Chief wouldn't realize that he's lying.

"Search his house!" the Chief demanded to his servants.

"No!"

"And why not?!" Screamed the Chief, "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing, my Chief," Tashira replied in fear.

"Chief! We found her!" One of his servants yelled from a distance.

When the chief heard this he immediately had his men, arrest Tashira, and put him in a holding cell.

"Ya'll gonna kill her?" Tashira asked.

"No, she escaped," replied the guard.

"Good."

"No, it's not."

"What do you mean?" Tashira asked with confusion.

Then the guard sadly said, "The Chief's going to execute you instead."

The next day, the chief executed Tashira, and said that anyone who defies him shall die a horrible death. But this made Wahine angrier than ever before. Tashira was the one person that cared for her, so she swallowed up all the water in the sea, and shot it out in a swirling storm to wipe out the Chief's village. There were great winds, and huge waves, that went along with this great storm. But then Wahine remembered, that Tashira had a wife; and so she decided to make on safe spot, right in the middle of the storm. She then called that the eye of the storm, for that is where she watched after Tashira's wife, in respect for her on true human friend. And every time Wahine thinks about this incident, she does it again, and that's how we got hurricanes.