Boom. Chapter 6. Enjoy!
Shout out to Phoebe Miller for beta reading!
Fact #6: Beach days are fun no matter the species.
Season: Mid-late Season 1
Danny sank back onto the foldout camping chair with a deep sigh. He sipped from the ice cold beer he had just pulled out of the cooler, allowing a grin to appear.
"You're lookin' chill," Chin said as he sat in the chair next to him.
"No one's shooting at me at the moment, so I feel like I can actually breathe and enjoy myself," Danny gestured to the secluded area they were in.
It was a well hidden beach that the cousins used to get up to mischief in with their friends. There was no one there on the shore with them, the ocean flowed into their private cove and was calm, and they had two coolers full of beer and a portable grill for the hamburgers that they were going to eat for dinner. This was everything that Steve had told him in order to convince him to join them instead of struggling to find something to do on his weekend with his daughter.
Of course, Steve knew what he was doing. He had told Danny all about their plans for the day while Grace was standing right there. He couldn't say no to the big brown puppy dog eyes that had been turned on him.
"My friends and I used to come down here when we were in middle school to go spear fishing," Chin reminisced. He snorted. "Remember my cousin Sid? One time while we were swimming out here I snuck up on him and grabbed his ankle. He freaked out and released his spear, barely missing our friend Akamu. So Akamu punches Sid and Sid turns to punch me, so I start swimming as fast as I can to shore and as soon as my feet hit the sand I start running."
Danny grinned. "He catch up with you?"
"We both eventually ran out of breath and got back in the water to just float around," Chin said. His face straightened suddenly. "I wasn't prepared for his revenge."
Danny scratched at his chin, wondering what this revenge was that had made him sober.
"We're walking down the road to where Akamu's brother parked his car, and out of nowhere Sid swings the fish he had speared and smacks me right in the face with it," Chin's face may have been straight, but his eyes twinkled with mirth. "I think I still occasionally snort scales out of my nose."
Danny busted up laughing. It seemed like Chin and Sid had been so close, and after the whole incident with the asset forfeiture locker it was like they barely knew each other. He stilled as he thought about his brother Matt. They had been close growing up. Now? Now, who knew where Matt was. It was like they weren't even brothers anymore. He wasn't sure what had happened, where that relationship got lost.
He heard his baby girl squeal.
"Grace! You okay, Monkey?" He shifted in his chair, ready to spring from it if he needed to.
But it seemed that his worries were unfounded.
"This is so fun, Danno! You should see this!" she called.
"Yeah, Danno! Get in the water!" Steve called as well.
Grace had a hold of Steve's hand so she didn't float away in the gently rolling waves. Normally, Danny would be scared to death letting his daughter out in the ocean with anyone, even himself. However, his Navy SEAL of a partner had promised to not let her out of his sight. Not only that, but Steve was fully shifted into his dragon form and was practically a sea monster.
"Don't you Danno me, too, Steven. I'll get in the water after I finish my beer," Danny sat back slightly, taking another swig.
Grace pointed at Steve. "Danno, you have to watch this! Do it again, Uncle Steve."
Danny had watched his partner make a cloud of steam before. Being a crossbreed he may have had the body build of an Arboreal dragon, but he had a boiling chamber that a few Amphibious dragons had. It was similar to his stoking chamber, but instead of burning wood and melting rocks, it superheated water until it evaporated into steam which he could then breathe out like smoke.
That is not what he did.
Instead, he shot a stream of water out of his mouth like a squirt gun. It had to have gone forty or fifty feet from where it started.
"Woah, babe, what are you? A super soaker or somethin'?" Danny waved a hand around as if measuring the distance he had spit.
"They call that the Archerfish trick," Chin said.
"Yeah? I call that the Mr. Jones trick," Danny shook his head. Chin raised a brow at him. He explained, "Mr. Jones lived on the corner of our block back in Jersey when I was growing up. He was from Alabama and chewed. One time Matty and I saw him spit from the end of his porch into his yard and then we had spitting contests seeing who could spit the farthest. Our mother finally beat us when she found watermelon seeds all over the living room floor and that was the end of that."
"I'll tell you something now. Never let him hit you with that, because that stings like a paintball does," Chin said with a tone that suggested he knew from experience.
"I'll keep that in mind," Danny said. Not that he would let Steve do that, because if he did he would show him something that stung.
Grace laughed as his partner hoisted her up on his shoulders. She held onto his neck as he plowed through the water, and Danny felt a bit irked watching them. He could swim. He used to play in the ocean. He just didn't have the urge to swim ever since what happened with Billy, but he was sort of jealous of the fact that Steve was so easily wowing Grace. Maybe he should get out there before his partner hogged all of his time with his daughter.
A shape just passed them caught his eye.
He frowned and asked, "Hey Chin, are there sharks here in Hawaii?"
Chin nodded. "Got some White Tips, Hammerheads, Tigers, Sandbars, Galapagos, and Grays. It's cool, brah. Most of them are pretty mild."
The shape reappeared, taller this time before diving again.
"And all of those have got the big fin on the back, right?" he started to stand up.
"Yeah, they've all got dorsal fins," Chin frowned at him. "Why?"
The shape was definitely a triangular fin cutting through the waves towards his partner and daughter.
"Steve! Steve!" Danny yelled. "Shark!"
Steve's head whipped around, but the fin had disappeared below the waves again. Grace clung to him tighter.
"Danny, I don't see a shark," Steve hollered back.
"You know sharks don't actually do the whole fin above the water thing while they're stalking," Chin said, getting to his feet, too.
Danny's eyes widened as it surfaced behind Steve's open back and this time Chin did see it. "Behind you!"
His partner glanced over his shoulder just as the creature flung itself from the water, mouth peeled open to reveal gleaming white teeth. Grace yelped, Steve cursed, Danny turned white, and Chin hooted with laughter.
"Rawr!"
"Kono!"
"Auntie Kono!"
"She got you guys good!" Chin wiped his eyes.
"You should've seen your faces!" Kono said between bouts of breathless laughter.
Danny was going to kill their rookie, fully shifted or not. She was an Amphibious dragon with all of the fins to prove it, namely the two dorsal fins on her back that looked like they belonged on a rather familiar sea creature. Sunlight caught on her amber and tawny scales, setting off the reds and coffee browns in her fins and markings.
He sat down in his chair heavily.
"You okay there?" Chin asked, getting a little more serious.
"Well, it feels like my heart just beat its way out of my ribcage and fluttered off somewhere and I may need a clean pair of pants, but sure, I'm just peachy," Danny summarized. He tipped his bottle back and drained half of it.
"I'm sorry. Kono wanted to see if she could fool you and Steve," Chin sat back down and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. Grace is safe with those two out there."
He turned his eyes towards the ocean again. Grace was cruising around on Kono's back now while Steve dove under the waves. Afternoon sunshine shimmered on the turquoise water and set ablaze the scales of the two dragons. The sound of laughter carried across to the shore.
Even though he had uprooted from his home and traveled from one end of the states to the other, even though he worried about his baby girl being on this island with its criminals and tsunamis, right at the moment he wasn't worried. His ohana had become hers. Uncle Steve, Auntie Kono, Uncle Chin, and even Kamekona would never let something happen to her. She was safe around them, no matter what Rachel said.
But he was still going to kill Kono.
Want to see artwork of Kono's dragon form? Review or PM me for the link! I may have to email it, if the link doesn't work. Just let me know if the link I send is a bust. Also, guys, I have to send the link through the PM system, so I can't send it to guest reviewers. Sorry!
Thursday on "Dragons", we take a peek at the elusive dragon market where outsiders are not welcome.
Thanks for reading!