Washed Ashore Part 16

Elana, Kai and Johnathan made their way to a small building that sat next to the barn. "I know you will have to head home soon so I just wanted to at least show Kai what our weapons look like tonight so we can save some time tomorrow by just skipping to the training." Johnathan explained as slide the door open.

"That's a good idea." she responded as they walked inside. "Johnathan you have more junk in here than last time." she sighed looking around at scraps of metal, old stirrups irons, saddles and leather that were piled up throughout the building.

"I'm always busy helping out on the farm, and we've gotten a few more horses to train so I don't have a lot of free time. Plus Gramps likes to pile anything the horses break in here saying we'll use it again." he explained removing cloth that was hanging on the wall to reveal a line of metal objects that were leaning against the wall. "Kai if you would come closer, these are the weapons that are more common. Now I don't use or own every kind of weapon but I do have a few. Is there anything that you've seen before?"

"Hmm..." Kai murmured stepping closer and began to examine the weapons. He was amazed at the craftsmanship on all of these objects, then noticed a weapon. "The one that looks like a big knife." He said pointing towards it.

"Ah, that is a sword." Johnathan said picking it up and showed it to Kai. "Careful of the sides it's sharp... this is used for hand to hand combat and will be the most common weapon you will see." He put it back and picked up a shorter version of the sword. "This is a dagger it's a little bigger than the table knives you've seen but again is another weapon for close combat, although it can also be thrown."

Johnathan then grabbed a strange looking weapon that looked like a bent stick. "As you noticed swords and daggers are made out of metal. This is made out of wood and is bent so when you..." he pulled out something that looked like fishing line and tied it to one end of the stick, he then flipped it over and bent the stick more, then tied the fishing line to the other end. "When you string it, this is used for long range and is called a bow." He explained then picked up another stick that was much smaller. It had a pointed metal object fastened to one end and feathers on the other. "This is an arrow and is a projectile you use with the bow."

Elana glanced outside and noticed the sun had set. "Johnathan we should get going. It's getting late." She interrupted.

Johnathan sighed. "Alright, Kai we'll pick up with his tomorrow. I want to see you bright and early."

Kai nodded, letting his new mentor's words sink in as he stared at the weapons, curious on how they worked.

"Can you say goodbye to your Grandparents for us? I think it would be best for us to just to head home."

"I will, be careful and I will see you both tomorrow." Johnathan said with a smile.

"Goodnight." Elana said with a small wave and turned to head towards the forest.

"Goodnight." Kai mimicked then turned to follow Elana, Johnathan sighed then went back into the building intending on cleaning up before he went to bed.

"Well that was an interesting day." Elana sighed as they entered the forest, and started down the road that would lead them home.

"I had a lot of fun." Kai said with a wide grin on his face. "Learned a lot of new things, got to stretch my tail out and had more delicious human food."

"You also told Johnathan what you are... you will need to be more cautious with that from now on. Aside from Johnathan and myself no one can know. All we need is for you to tell the wrong person who could start a rumor and before you know it you'll end up either dead or a slave." she said quietly avoiding looking at him.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. "I'll be more careful, it was just I saw how concerned he was about you. It was good I told him since he is willing to help train me." Kai looked deep into her eyes his heart felt heavy from the burden of the secret he kept from her. "There is something I need to tell you..." he began.

"What is it?" she asked concerned.

"Well.. it's..." he began but stopped himself afraid of how she might react. He looked up in the sky and noticed it was a full moon. "Why don't we sit on some of the rocks by the water tonight? The whales always sing beautifully when it's a full moon."

"Alright." she said with a smile and continued down the path. It took almost an hour before they reached the clearing near the cottage. Elana was relieved that Kai was now able to keep pace with her without straining himself too much. "I just want to check on Calli before we head to the water."

Kai nodded as Elana rushed to the cottage and unlocked the door only to be nearly knocked over by the furry dog. He walked towards the door as Elana made it inside. "Here Calli!" she called as she placed a bowl of food on the floor. "Alright I think that will keep her quiet for a little while." Elana said as she walked to the door.

"Let's sit on the rocks over there." Kai explained pointing to the rock jetty in the distance, then reached for Elana's hand and lead her towards the sand. They soon made it to the rock jetty, a man-made structure that was designed to help prevent the erosion of sand near the cottage. In essence it was a line of boulders that started above the high tide line on the beach and went approximately forty feet into the water. When it was low tide you could walk on the sand bar that surrounded the jetty. But since it was high tide, water surrounded both sides.

They carefully climbed onto the closest boulder and slowly walked over the top of the jetty to it's furthest point. The rocks were slippery from the crashing waves and Kai had nearly tumbled into the water a few times.

"Are you sure about going through with this?" she asked quietly watching the waves crash against the rocks.

"With what? The training?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"I am. Not only will it make me feel safer knowing what dangers there are in the human world but I can't resist learning new things from other humans." he explained.

Elana sighed and sat down on the damp rocks. Kai sat down as well careful to be as far away from the waves as he could. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Elana looked over at Kai who was staring into the depths of the water that surrounded him. "Do you miss it?"

"Hmm? Miss what?" he asked looking towards her.

"Your home, family and friends." she responded a little sadly.

Kai sighed. "A little... I miss one of my friends in particular but." he reached for her hand "With you around I don't miss much."

Elana blushed as he leaned over to kiss her. As their lips meet they heard someone laughing in the distance. They pulled apart, "Who's there?" Kai questioned first glancing toward the beach the the water around him searching for the source.