Pomaika'i's Furious Trail

Chapter 9

The Trade negotiations had ended an hour ago, and The Captain had gone back to his cabin, where a young woman, only 19, waited for him. She lay lounging on his bed, wearing very little, with her dark hair spilling onto the covers. The Captain returned with his First Mate, and all discussions ceased when he caught sight of the young woman lying on his bed. "Reporting for duty, Captain," she said in a sultry voice. The Captain smiled, entered the bedroom and closed the door. The next sounds for the next ten minutes were the sounds of the Captain and the young woman grunting and groaning, before going silent.

The Captain walked out of his bedroom, re-buckling his trousers while two of his crewmen carried a dazed young woman out of it. First Mate watched her being carried off, then strolled up to the Captain.

"The next purity ritual starts in an hour," said the First Mate. "And we suspect Hilo is planning an escape."

"Thank you for reminding me," said The Captain. "And then the luau. Make sure our guests don't leave."

"And if they try to leave?"

The Captain shrugged and patted First Mate's shoulder. "Then we do it the old-fashioned way. The Commandant will have his concubines back, don't worry. It's Julie, Kainak and Hilo that I'm worried about."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Julie looked out the cabin's window, looking for any sort of activity outside that meant they were being spied on. All she saw for the last several minutes were the usual foot traffic criss-crossing the "street", for lack of a better term. Most of the women who were not with men had to step out of their path, not the other way around. It did irritate Julie to an extent, but she kept her irritation to a minimum so as not to startle anyone with a sudden movement. As much as she hated it, she could not smash this patriarchy, for that would cause too much trouble.

Then she remembered that she was supposed to be spying on everyone else, and mentally shifted back to that mindset.

Now that she remembered what she was supposed to be looking for, she shifted her eyes from left to right for any person wearing the village's armor. So far, she saw no warriors, just some regular pedestrians and some boys playing warrior, which deeply concerned her, and she'd seen Teo boys playing warrior. But the Teo are a different culture from these boys, who were probably born somewhere else. Besides that, nothing seemed suspicious, besides the obvious cult feeling.

"Anyone out there?" Hilo asked.

She turned away from the window in case someone was watching. "No," she said. "At least, none that I can see."

"Cover the windows," he said. "We need to plan our escape."

She drew the blinds closed and stood up from the chair she sat in. Everyone sat in a circle on the floor around some squares of kapa cloth. Julie knelt behind Kainak and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Feeling a little friskier, she rubbed his pecs and washboard abs, which were all flat, since he's a low MMA middleweight, unlike the stereotypical image of the bodybuilder jungle hero.

Hilo saw this and cleared his throat. "Focus," he said. He spread the kapa pages around the circle. The others crowded around him to listen better and to block the outside from seeing their plans.

"Since I must be diplomatic for the luau—"

"Can't we just leave?" Kimi interrupted.

"No, we cannot," Hilo said through grit teeth. "That is not the way we do things on Pomaika'i."

"No, we just deceive them," said Huli.

"Remind me how you've defeated some of your enemies?" Hilo asked. Huli glared at him.