Laughing voices and the twang of ukuleles drifted on the salty breeze, accented by constant drumbeats. Palm trees laden with bunches of coconuts swayed back and forth, their movements mimicked by the dancers onstage. A large tan man with a jolly face and laughing demeanor called out to the crowd, his booming voice carrying over the music, inviting the tourists to join the performers onstage for the "chance of a lifetime."
"COME ON UP, DANCE WITH NATIVE HAWAIIANS! LEARN FROM OUR BEAUTIFUL DANCERS, THE WAYS OF OUR KUPUNA, THE EXPRESSION OF OUR ANCESTORS!"
Deryn felt a tug on her trouser leg. "Can I go up, mummy? Pleaaase?" Her daughter looked up at her with large, impossibly brown eyes. Deryn froze, her furtive glances travelling all around the lu'au.
"Lilie, I told you, I'm your uncle, here, remember?" She knew she had explained this to the five year old ("None of mummy's old Leviathan friends know that she's actually a girl. Yes, I guess it is a tad bit barking funny. Now run along and grab yourself some of that delicious purple-ish goop and some of that leaf-wrapped meat for your brother,") but she was obviously too excited to remember. Well, at least no one seemed to have heard her.
"Uncle," she giggled, "can I go up and dance with the pretty hula girls? Pleaaase?"
Her mother smiled in spite of herself. "You had better hurry, my little adventurer. Run along while the fat man's still calling!"
Alek came to sit beside her – obviously resisting the urge to put his arm around her waist – and watched Lilie sprint onstage, eliciting a collective, Awww! from the audience. A native girl garbed in a ti-leaf skirt and a coconut top placed a string of brightly colored flowers around Lilie's little neck. She was practically glowing by the time the dancers began to teach her and a handful of other brave audience members the first steps of a simple hula dance.
"This must be the only place, other than our home, where women dressing so scantily is not looked down upon by aristocrats," Alek remarked, slying looking over at Deryn.
"Aye, Alek, but I'm not looking to dress myself in fruits and leaves my whole life."
"I never said you were, leibling. It's not as if I aim to wear this ridiculous aloha shirt for the rest of mine. But America and its colonies are really so much more open-minded about these things than Europe."
"Not to mention that this is a barking nice way to spend a summer afternoon."
Alek nodded in agreement and slipped his hand under the table, discreetly linking his fingers with hers. She smiled and rubbed her thumb along the heel of his palm.
They watched their daughter, eyes alight and face beaming, laugh and dance in paradise.