Seth and I strolled down the beach. The rain had let up a little, and now it was only misting. It was just like being back home.

Except for the fact that it was cold, everything was gray, and there were no hot people lounging on the beach getting tans.

Still, the waves were a comforting sound to hear, now that I was so far from home.

"E ke hoa o ke ahe lau makani Halihali`ala o ku`u `âina..." I sang, breathing in the salty air.

"English, please?" Seth chuckled, smiling at me. He smiled a lot.

I smiled back. "It's called Ahe Lau Makani. It's an old Hawaiian song, and I think it's about two lovers enjoying the moment together, but..." I shrugged. "We learned it in music class, and it just kinda stuck with me."

"It's nice. You sound good speaking Hawaiian." he said.

I grinned. "You've never heard me get mad."

"You can get mad in Hawaiian?" he asked. "I thought it was the lazy language of peace and harmony and all that jazz."

I started walking backwards in front of him and put on my best mad face. "'Oe pa pela moe lepo!" I exclaimed in a thick, angry voice.

He looked impressed. "I have a feeling you just called me something awful."

I fell into step beside him again. "I just said that you were so dead. Nothing special. I can get technical if you want."

"Spare me the humiliation." he laughed. "Come on. There's a great cliff over – No! Crap!"

"Seth!" I screeched. Just down the beach was a massive, shaggy wolf with teeth the size of my forearm. I knew there were wolves here. I even got a tiny glimpse of one in the forest. But this... This was a bit too much.

"Nani? Nani, just calm down, it's okay." he whispered. "Just stay quiet."

I had a feeling I was going to black out from fear soon, so I just did what he said. I curled up on the ground next to a formation of rocks, Seth right beside me. "I won't let him hurt you." he whispered.

The wolf seemed to be looking for something. It was wandering on the sand, sniffing here and there. Suddenly, when it was ten feet away from us, it jerked its head up and became very still.

Before I knew what was happening, another wolf dove over our heads straight at the first one. I was so terrified, I couldn't even scream. My breath caught in my chest, and, for a moment, I was suffocating. "Akua lawelawe a'u." I whispered.

God help me.

"Stay quiet." said Seth as the wolves circled each other. I was almost mad. He didn't seem as scared as he did interested and confused. Like he was wondering what would happen rather than if he would get eaten.

Then one lunged. He clamped a hand over my mouth just before I screamed and dragged me away from our hiding spot. The wolves were too distracted to notice, and I could hear them fighting all the way up the beach. Our feet pounded the sand, Seth nearly flying next to me because of his long legs. But I knew how to run, too. Oh, could I run. I ended up actually pulling ahead of him by the time we got to Sam and Emily's.

"What's going on?" Embry asked, walking outside.

"Wolves," I panted, hands on my knees and hardly able to breathe. "On the beach... attacking each other..." My knees were shaking so badly that I collapsed to the ground.

"Seth, stay here." Embry ordered. "Twice today, what the hell..." he muttered as he ran off in the direction of the beach.

"Can you get up?" Seth asked, panting less heavily than me.

I couldn't speak, so I just shook my head. He lifted me easily and dropped me on the couch once we were inside. "You're not hurt, are you?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

I shook my head, still shaking. He got up and made some tea, then brought it back to the couch. "I'm sorry you had to see that." he said. "I wanted to show you the cliffs."

"I can't stand wolves." I said quietly, gripping my warm mug. "They way they make me feel... I just..."

For some reason, this seemed to sadden him. "The wolves around here normally aren't so violent-"

I heard myself snort derisively. "And you would know?" I asked harshly. Suddenly, I realized how I sounded. "Kaumaha..." I muttered. "I'm sorry. You would know. You live here."

"No, it's alright." he said, though he wouldn't look at me. We sat in silence for a moment. I was calming down, and my tea was half gone. I vaguely wondered where Sam and Emily had gone, but then I figured they probably needed some alone time.

"You wanna watch a movie?" Seth asked hesitantly.

I nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Leah told me you like Lilo and Stitch. You wanna watch that?"

I nodded, smiling a little. The movie reminded me a lot of home, in a good way. "Yeah. Alien dogs aren't anywhere near as scary as wolves."

We were about halfway through the movie on one of the beach scenes, and I was growing sleepy. The day had taken a lot out of me. I leaned on Seth's shoulder, my feet bare on the hardwood floor. It felt just like home in Hawaii, like Seth was my best friend David. He was the youngest ranch hand working for us, and my other friends would tease us about being together, since his name was David and mine was Nani, like in Lilo and Stitch.

"You know, you're lucky to have this cold weather with your beach." I said drowsily, eyes half closed.

"Why?" he asked, sounding equally sleepy.

"Because you don't have all these half-naked, fat, sunburnt people truckin' around." I said. "You've got fully-dressed pretty people all over the place."

He burst out laughing harder than I'd seen him laugh yet. "That was awesome," he said, still chuckling. "Great way to describe tourists, really."