"Ali'i Hanai! Wait for me! You're too wikiwiki!"*

A grown male voice whined, catching on the fragrant hawaiian wind and blowing past the face of the half-hawaiian child it was directed towards. The half-hawaiian child was staring out into the open ocean that surrounded their home, only half-hawaiian or not, that boy's name was Hanaiakamalama Kekaulike Kawānanakoa, the youngest prince of Hawaii. The young boy pushed his glasses back up his nose as he slid to his knees in the sand, just watching the ocean as it's waves crashed against the shore.

The royal advisor screeched to a stop as he kneeled beside his charge, about to berate the child for running off. Until he saw what the boy was holding, a single tropical pink flower. The royal advisor gently rested a hand on the boy's shoulder. The child was undoubtably missing his mother.

"Taro? These were always makuahine's* favorite."

The child, Hanai, whimpered and he clutched the flower tightly. Taro, the royal advisor, gently maneuvered the child into his lap until the little boy had his face buried in the grown man's chest. That's where the child let loose with his choking sobs, tiny hands fisted themselves in Taro's shirt and he just let the child cry his heart out. After all, he had just lost his mother and the islands had lost a Queen.

"Ali'i Hanai, are you ready to return to the funeral now?"

Taro crooned softly, running a hand through the child's curly, dark locks. But the boy shook his head, looking up at Taro with watery, tear-filled eyes. He was going to miss the boy, the King was sending both his sons away. He was sending Hanai's older brother, Hokuikekai, to Canada and Hanai himself to America. The Royal family of Hawaii was experiencing death threats, and two threats had already been followed through with the murders of both, Queen Humuhumunukunukuapua'a and the eldest royal child, Princess Kalani.

The King knew that terrorist threats wouldn't stop there, so he would send his remaining children away, somewhere safe until it was safe for them to return home, to the land of their birth. Taro pressed a rough kiss to his Prince's brow, the six year old was to live with a host family, the 'Palmers'. While his brother, Hokuikekai, was to live with a family called the 'Williams'.

"I don't want to leave Hawaii, Taro!"

Hanai whimpered, pitifully in such a way that it made Taro's heart hurt. The royal advisor gently took the child's hand in his own and rested both their hands in the waves that lapped at their toes.

"You may leave Hawaii, Ali'i Hanai. But Hawaii will never leave you. It is in everything you touch, everything you feel, it is as strong as the kami*. The kami of the ocean, the kami of the sand, the kami of Hawaii will always be with you. You are royal, we are as much a part of you, as you are of us."

Taro crooned, repeating the Shinto traditions that they taught the royal family. Hanai just leaned against him, quietly letting the older man speak his fill. The young Prince still did not want to leave his homeland. Hawaii was everything he knew, everything he knew to be the world. Without his homeland anchoring him, who was he?

"But you must never forget, Ali'i Hanai, who you are. You are a prince of Hawaii, you are not an American. Oh, Kami...You...have the royal gift, don't you?"

Taro whispered in horror and Hanai slowly nodded. That was half of the reason that the King was sending his youngest son away. Hanai was a Manō, a shark-man. It began long ago, with a legend that was more truth than myth. The legend of Nanaue the Shark-Man.

Many years ago, back when the volcano kami had yet to grow restless and wild, there was a great white shark called, Ka-moho-alii. He was the shark king. He had all the power and strength that he could've wished for, but he was still just a shark and he wanted a mate. That's how he fell in love with a human girl who would always swim out into the ocean and catch fish for her family. That girl's name was Princess Kalei, of Hawaii.

But soon enough, Ka-moho-alii grew tired of watching her from the confines of the waves, so he shape-shifted into a human form and masqueraded as a chief looking for a bride. Which was when he found Princess Kalei, who's father was more than happy to let her wed to the strong and handsome looking chief, such as he. Over time, Kalei became pregnant with Ka-moho-alii's child. Before the child was to be born, the Shark King knew that his time had come to return to the sea. He never revealed his true identity to Kalei. Instead, he instructed Kalei to give birth alone and to watch over his child, who was to be a son. His heir. Reluctantly he left Kalei, whom he had come to love dearly and returned to the ocean. The lovers never saw each other again.

On a dark night, as the island winds whipped furiously through the valley, beautiful Kalei gave birth to the Shark King's son. She was afraid and saddened to see that he had a deformity on his back, a raised ridge, it almost resembled a fin. She quickly wrapped him up in a blanket to hide his ridge. That night she cried as she rocked her newborn son, for he was as beautiful as she, besides his disturbing deformity. She named him Nanaue.

When the child came of age, his grandfather took him to eat with the men. He was fed fish meat for the first time and developed a voracious and insatiable appetite. The ridge on his back sharpened and thickened, his teeth sharpened and he screamed as gills appeared on each side of his rib cage. This happened each time he ate fish meat or touched the ocean. Once a male child with this dreadful gift came of age, there was no stopping him.

The people of Waipio Valley soon became suspicious – why was Nanaue never harmed in the ocean? They began to suspect that he had special powers or that he was a demon in human disguise. One day the villagers discovered the ridge on the young man's back and they were horrified. The villagers were very angry and decided to capture and kill him. Nanaue then changed into his half-shark form and escaped into the sea.

From Waipio Valley, Nanaue swam to the Hana side of the island of Maui. There he took the form of a man. He married a young princess while on Maui and she soon bore him two children, a girl and a boy. But only the boy inherited his deadly gift. One day, the people of Maui saw Nanaue teaching his young son how to transform. They were terrified and ran for help as Nanaue hid his young son away from harm.

In order to kill, Nanaue. They snared him while in shark form and beat him with clubs until the ocean was red with his blood. The people chanted continuously until Nanaue became weak. His shark body was drug to shore where he was chopped to pieces and incinerated in a large oven. Thus died Nanaue, son of Ka-moho-alii – King of Sharks.

What the villagers didn't realize was that Nanaue's bloodline lived on in his son, who was treated like a prince in the next village he went too.

Nowadays, people just assumed that the legend was just that, a legend to tell little Hawaiian children at night. But Taro knew different, he knew exactly what was true and what was false when he felt the ridge protruding from Hanai's back. The little boy had his head buried in Taro's chest and the man nervously petted the child's hair.

-TimeSkip(PresentDay)-

Jimmy Palmer lurched forwards panting, his curly, dark hair falling over his eyes along with dripping sweat. He hated those dreams, the dreams of the sea, of sharks, of Hawaii.

Of home...and the life he left behind.

-Translations-

-Ali'i Hanai- Prince Hanai

-wikiwiki- fast/quick

-makuahine's- mother's

-kami- spirit/god