Parrothead in Paradise

by PastCat

Chapter 17

The eye of the storm overhead made the center of Diamond Head’s caldera strangely calm at ground level. No wind disturbed the wet grass and the sun was visible. It would have been peaceful, but we could hear the howling winds in the surrounding storm. The sky above our heads was a strange color, an almost milky green, like Frankenstein’s monster. I’d seen that color before in the strong storms that sometimes dropped tornadoes back in the Midwest.

The storm was still moving though. By the time we got to the observation deck, it was like being in a wholly different world. The wind played tug-of-war with our feathers as Adam and I took the trail up and by the time we were on the exposed point it was very difficult to keep all four feet on the ground. We looked at each other before getting into takeoff position. We had to clear the rocks before we were dashed to pieces against them by these winds. As one, we both leapt into the air, our wings beating furiously to gain altitude. The rain pounded against us as we fought to get airborne. Eventually I caught an updraft on the edge and pulled Adam into it with me. If we could get into the upper structure of the storm, we might stand a better chance of getting through. It would be tricky.

Adam and I dodged and weaved through the clouds, leaving a trail of holes punched through water vapor and precipitation. The wind tried to throw us off-course again and again, but we managed to catch one of the strong southerly air currents that would force us away from O’ahu. By the time we reached the southern edge of the storm, I was gasping for air at the high altitude and the exertion. Adam was not quite so bad off, but then again he was not carrying the saddlebags. “All right, we made it this far. Now what direction do we need to go?” I panted.

Adam pulled out a tourist map of the Hawaiian Islands and a compass. Fortunately the storm had not turned us around as much as I’d thought it would. We looked to the south and east to follow the trail of shapes below us that were the other islands in the chain. Moloka’i, Lanai, Maui, Kaho’olawe, then, barely visible in the distance, Hawai’i itself. “Ready for some island hopping?” Adam asked.

“Probably not, but let’s go anyway.” I said after catching my breath. We headed east towards Moloka’i first, intending a brief touchdown and rest before tackling the next leg of the flight. I did not think we were likely to meet anyone there; it had not been a big tourist draw. Maui on the other claw was riskier. Lahaina had been big enough for a regional airport and my parents had gone up to Hana on their honeymoon a long time ago.

The landing on Moloka’i was not as rough as I expected. I tried landing with my paws first and bird feet second, with the end result of me falling back onto my butt rather than my face. Progress! Behind us, the storm was still churning, its winds twisting the clouds into a chaotic mass that looked even bigger from out here. If there was someone or something controlling it, they had not noticed that we were gone yet. I checked the saddlebags to be sure. The Artifact was still there. Out of curiosity, I checked the other bag. “Oh great. Emmy is going to kill me.” I said.

Adam looked at me askance. I pulled out what Doc had decided to include as “ballast”: Emmy’s copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. “Yep, if that does not come back, she is definitely going to kill you. Can I watch?” He asked. I rolled my eyes. We rested for a little while longer before taking off again towards Lanai. It was also lightly inhabited before the Event, so we doubted we would find anyone.

There was a mantle of clouds covering the island. It was mostly cumulus: fluffy and low-level with enough water to give the island a healthy dose of “liquid sunshine”. Before we attempted a landing on the actual island, Adam said, “hold up. I want to try something.” He assumed his landing position and carefully touched down on a larger cloud. To my astonishment, it held under his weight. He bounced a little, as though he was walking on a mattress before looking up at me. “Want to try?”

“How do I know it will hold for me? For all I know this is some kind of magic thing that only pegasus ponies can do.” I said.

“Nah, Slickwing mentioned that it is innate for griffons too. Or are you part chicken instead of part parrot?” Adam said.

“Well, seeing as you have finally showed an interest in ponydom, it would be rude of me to not take advantage of that.” I said.

“Hey at least it will be a softer landing.” Adam said.

I rolled my eyes but concentrated on landing on the cloud below me and next to Adam. I nearly took off again as the cloud bounced under my weight. It took a couple tries before I stood comfortably. “Man, why didn’t we try this before when we were practicing back on O’ahu? If nothing else it would have worked nicely as a crash pad.”

“And miss all your lovely one point landings?” Adam asked.

“One point? Are you referring to all the times I landed on my face?” I snarked.

“Nah. More like all the times you landed on somepony else.” Adam replied. He peered over the edge of our cloud to the island below. “Do you think we should go down there to check for Returnees?”

“Not today, I think. Maybe on the way back, you know after we have returned the rock of doom that is making some whatchamacallit from the Black Lagoon want to wipe our friends off the face of the Earth?” I said.

“All right, you made your point. Ready to go again? We have a couple more islands to hop before we tackle getting over the mountains to get your preciousssss to Mount Doom.” Adam asked, making a Golem voice with the last phrase.

“Give me another minute. I think I saw something.” I peered downwards towards the island below us. There was a distinct smell in the air. Smoke, mixed with spices of some kind. “I think there is someone down there. Whoever it is, they have a fire going, with cooking herbs.”

Adam shrugged. “If they are able to cook, that suggests they will survive long enough on their own for us to let them be for now. No offense, but if they are a pony, you would scare the fur off them, and if they are something predatory, they might see me as a free lunch. We can check on the way back.”

I nodded. The smoke had not smelled of meat, but no need to tell Adam that. We took off a little while later, winging our way towards Maui. Our plan was to land if we could and eat something to give us energy for the final stretch of open water that would get us to The Big Island. Unfortunately, the old saw that “no plan survives first contact with the enemy” held true for us. Maui looked… awful. Instead of an island covered in verdant green vegetation, all we saw were the black of oceanic basalt and the same shade of sickening greenish gray that we had seen at Pearl Harbor.

Evidently there had once been a colony here on Maui, but it had not survived the wrath of the Invaders. Unlike on Oahu, the entire island looked to have been infected, even the higher altitude areas. There was no way we were going to land there. Adam managed to commandeer us a cloud, but it was more fragile than the one we had found earlier. We landed cautiously; it held but we did not drop our guard. “I hope no one Returns there any time soon.” Adam said.

“I wonder if it affected the water around the island too.” I said. Molokini Crater just offshore had been one of the prime snorkel and scuba dive destinations in the entire island chain. I had been there a long time ago and remembered the reef there with wonder.

Adam shrugged. I knew it was a stupid question. It was not like any of us had shown any ability towards swimming in these new bodies. Heck, I doubted anyone existed anymore who could build a pony-shaped or griffon-shaped set of scuba gear. It would take some kind of weird magic any ways.

Despite the creeping exhaustion that was beginning to set in, we took flight from our sickly little cloud soon after. Neither of us said anything about what little we had seen of Maui. One thing was for certain: we did not want to see it happen to our home and friends on O’ahu. We flew in silence, the only sound being our occasional wing-beats. Neither of us looked back; if we had, we would have seen that the storm that had targeted our home island had changed course, moving against the trade winds to the east and south. Following us.

Author's Note:

There will be a bit of a hiatus before I can post the last few chapters. I had some issues with rewrites and editing.

Also, this chapter has a bit of a shout-out to a chapter in Starscribe's Bedtime Stories (Hulopoe Bay is on Lanai )