>>5300601>>5300890>>5301927{Photo Credit: Daniel Ramirez. Models Unknown}
After Kaiali’i left, you sit alone in your thoughts. You think of the horrors of the sea, and how they could be avoided if you just had more control.
You know you’re pushing your crew hard, but this needs to be done.
Standing before the assembled fleet crew, with Keoki and Elite Guards beside you, you give your speech.
“Members of the Great Fleet! You have suffered, and you have bled, but you have been rewarded! The Loa and the Island will favor us for all eternity for the treasure we have claimed!"
The Guards raise their Anyaten weapons and the crowd cheers.
“Yet our mission is not done. There are those on this Island who would deny our honor. Who say we were a waste of time and money. So tell me, with our wounds fresh and our comrade's ashes in the sea, were they a waste?!"
Screams of no roar through Ke Awa.
“So my siblings, as your Captain, I give us one final mission. We will tour The Island, and ensure every tribe that breathes will bear witness to our worth, our sacrifice. Our. Great. Fleet!"
The applause washes over you like a warm bath. In the morning march, there will be grumbling and hardship.
But for now, a crew of Seven Tribes, countless classes, genders, and all manner of backgrounds, is unified in grand purpose.
____
The march to Pāʻeleʻele was full of enough pomp for the Loa themselves.
Flowers were thrown, music was played, and pigeons announced the coming of the Great Fleet to villages small and wide.
At the head, you and your elite guard, Anyaten weapons shining in the sun, the divine made firm.
Children and braver adults who dare to get close are rewarded with flakes of a broken shield, the tribute owed to the smaller villages along the way.
While Ke Awa has decayed, Pāʻeleʻele has never been better.
Wines, fine food, and perfumes waft through the atoll and smiles grow on the faces of your weary crew.
Kasi: Now I know why we went here first instead of Ahido.
“Something like that.”