Fire Maiden

by Terri Farley

  She’d hate for Ann and Megan to think she was a coward, but it was probably best to confess her worries now.

  “Brock, brock,” she said.

  Both her friends laughed out loud and Hoku snorted with pricked ears.

  “Was that a chicken sound?” Ann asked.

  “I’m not real excited about going into the lava tube,” Darby admitted.

  “It’s not creepy and tight around you, like a cave,” Megan said. “Our lava tube has a twelve-foot ceiling and it’s almost that wide. You can ride a horse in there.”

  “Shoot, you could probably ride an elephant in there,” Ann joked.

  “A small elephant,” Megan corrected.

  Swallowing hard, Darby looked up at the cone-shaped peak. Being in confined spaces didn’t scare her, but curtains of flame and rivers of molten rock did.

  “The ohia trees,” Ann said, pointing as they rode on. “It looks like they get scarcer closer to the top of the volcanoes. Is that because of the heat?”

  Darby noticed the trees had fewer red blooms nearer the top, too, and they looked more fragile than the ones around them here.

  “Yeah,” Megan said.

  “The thing that’s weird to me,” Ann went on, “is that the tree and its flower have different names. I mean, that’s like a rosebush having tulips blooming on it, isn’t it?”

  It crossed Darby’s mind that Ann might be trying to distract her from her fear, and she smiled.

  “It’s because of that story,” Megan said. “Pele fell in love with a youth named Ohia…”

  Youth, Darby thought, and her smile grew wider. Megan’s voice shifted into that of a storyteller, and Darby wondered if she’d heard this tale from her father.

  “Ohia was already betrothed—engaged,” Megan said to them, “and even though he knew it was dangerous, he refused Pele’s love.

  “You know Pele has a hot temper, so she turned him into a tree, but not just any tree. It was one she could always keep around her, one that could close its pores when the sulphur gas came from the volcano, and even if it does die from the heat or lava, it’s the first tree to grow back after an eruption.”

  “So, she kept him with her, whether he wanted to be or not,” Ann said.

  “Yeah, but after Pele did Ohia’s makeover,” Megan said, “his girlfriend Lehua came around looking for him. Pele told her the truth, and Lehua’s heart was broken. She couldn’t stop crying. So Pele took pity on her and turned her into a flower—which had to be red, of course, since that’s Pele’s favorite color—and Pele placed her on the Ohia tree. So they would be together forever.”

  “That was kind of nice of her,” Darby said.

  Megan paused in her story as a hot wind blasted down the slope they were ascending.

  Darby saw Biscuit and Sugarfoot close their eyes against the dust and felt Navigator’s walk turn more cautious. She looked back over her shoulder to see Hoku lift her head and flare her nostrils. Maybe there was a new smell on the wind.

  “Pele also discourages you from picking lehua blooms to make a lei or anything,” Megan explained. “You can do it, but you’ll start a rainstorm. Lehua still cries when she’s taken from Ohia.”

  “We’re definitely putting that in our report,” Ann said. “Especially that part about the pores and the sulphur. Science and story coming together. That is too cool.”

  As they rode under a tree so heavily laden with lehua flowers that they brushed the girls’ hair, Ann looked at Darby with an impish grin and reached her hand up.

  “Shall we see if we can really start a rainstorm?”

  “No.” Darby tried to keep the uneasiness out of her voice.

  “I didn’t know you were so superstitious,” Ann said, but she lowered her arm without disturbing the flowers.

  “It’s not superstition,” Megan corrected. “It’s respect for our heritage.”

  “I didn’t mean…” Ann blushed and looked down at her saddle horn.

  “Crusher,” Megan’s voice was affectionate as she used Ann’s soccer nickname, “I know you didn’t mean to—but that’s one of those—wait.” Megan held her hand out in a halt sign and for a full minute, she looked thoughtful. “You know how Ty got up in your face about Pele?”

  Darby and Ann nodded together.

  “He overreacts, but I think he’s just trying to sort out what he believes about ancient customs and stuff like that.” Megan shrugged. “I’ve already figured out what I think. I’m just respectful. That’s all.”

  “Okay, Meggie,” Ann said. “I’m taking you for my role model, even if I’m not Hawaiian.”

  “Me too,” Darby said, “even if I’m only—”

  “Knock it off, you guys,” Megan said, rolling her eyes at their admiration. “Keep your horses on the path. We’re almost to the place where we’ll, uh, set up camp.”

  When Megan’s voice faltered, Darby straightened in the saddle and looked ahead.

  She saw the strange stone trees, and on the ground below them, a scarlet scattering of lehua blossoms from a pair of ohia trees.

  Chapter 16

  Darby’s surprise must have traveled all the way down the tangerine-and-white-striped lead rope to Hoku, because the filly began skittering and shying.

  “No big deal, you guys,” Megan said, and when both younger girls stayed silent, she added jokingly, “Listen to your big sister. Obviously, it was the wind.”

  Darby felt the same little bounce of pleasure she had when Megan proposed sisterhood before, but she just nodded.

  About half of the blossoms blew away as the girls set up the horses’ highline.

  They tied each end of a long rope to the ohia trees.

  It looked like a clothesline, Darby thought.

  They watered and hand-grazed the horses, then put neck ropes on them and tied each one individually to the long rope, making sure the horses were spaced apart and didn’t have enough slack to get a leg over the rope.

  Hands on her hips, Megan surveyed their work.

  “That should hold them, unless all four work together to pull down the trees,” she said.

  “Or a herd of wild horses charges through,” Darby said.

  “I’ve seen tracks up here, but no horses,” Megan said. “And since no one around here shoes their horses, the tracks could have been from domestic ones.”

  Darby watched Hoku. Quiet again, the filly ignored her neck rope to survey the area. She didn’t act like there was a wild herd nearby.

  “Remember, though,” Darby said to Megan, “when Black Lava showed up on ‘Iolani and Kit chased him off? He said he headed them through the fold, in this direction, so that they wouldn’t go back toward Crimson Vale and Manny.”

  Ann made a disapproving noise.

  “Yeah, and Kimo said there used to be wild horses up here,” Megan said.

  “The stories had to come from somewhere,” Darby said.

  “Hey!” Ann clapped her hands to get the other girls’ attention. “I need one of my mom’s candy-bar brownies to build up my energy for exploring. Wanna share?”

  Ann burrowed into her backpack and unwrapped the sweets. Darby and Ann leaned against the stone trees, eating, while Megan searched the area for a twig to use as a pencil. Then she drew a diagram in the dirt while the other girls watched.

  First, Megan drew a wild flow of lines descending from a volcano.

  “This is pahoehoe lava,” Megan said, “the kind that looks more…”

  “Smooth,” Darby said, “not the spiky a’a’ stuff.”

  One of the first things Darby had learned about Hawaii was its two kinds of lava—smooth pahoehoe and rough a’a’.

  “Right,” Megan said, like an approving teacher. “Well, pahoehoe hardens on top, but lava underneath keeps running for a while, and makes it to the beach, over on the north shore where the water is rough and cold. And then…ker-splash!”—Megan slashed geyser-shaped lines sprouting up from the waves she’d drawn—“All the hot lava goes into the sea, leaving t
his kind of lava shell that you can walk through. That’s a lava tube.”

  “The only thing I’m worried about is it gets wet in there sometimes,” Ann said.

  Megan’s gaze darted to Ann’s injured knee.

  “The flashlights should pick up the shine of any water. We’ll be careful. Promise.”

  Darby watched the horses as she packed her fanny pack with her flashlight, water, inhaler, and a granola bar.

  Hoku seemed strangely at ease.

  Could the cone-shaped volcanoes remind the mustang of the Calico Mountains? Samantha Forster had mentioned that the Phantom’s herd of wild horses had galloped into a tunnel through the mountains.

  Darby didn’t know much about Nevada geography and geology, but she supposed it could be something like this.

  The lava tube turned out to be an hour hike from camp.

  “Stay on the path,” Megan reminded them as they walked toward the lava tube, but she also pointed out interesting landmarks, like a lava formation that looked like lions’ paws, but was really lava that had hardened before it got very far.

  “That’s Pele’s hair and tears,” Megan said, pointing to the right side of the path. “Don’t step on them.”

  When lava was flung into the air, tiny beads of it became glassy comets. Most shattered when they hit the ground, Megan explained, but some broke apart and the “comets’” heads became Pele’s tears, while the tails became Pele’s hair.

  “When we get inside, I’ll show you Pele’s tears,” Megan said. “Shine your flashlights up on the ceiling, and you’ll see them. They look like baby stalactites, but they’re hollow, made by the river of lava melting the ceiling.”

  “Our big sister knows everything,” Darby teased, and then Ann grabbed her hand and they skipped after Megan as if they were kindergartners.

  “You guys”—Megan was laughing as she looked over her shoulder at them—“be sure—”

  “To stay on the path,” the girls chanted together.

  Darby felt giddy with delight. This new part of her Hawaiian home was amazing.

  The girls kept walking until they came to a steam vent.

  “I’ve seen one of these before,” Darby said. “Not far from the kipuka.”

  A crack in the earth yawned open, its lips powdered with yellow sulphur, like the mouth of a messy eater.

  “That’s Pigtail Fault, isn’t it?” Ann asked.

  “It is? Cade told me about it, but I thought it was just like a crack.” Darby peered into the opening. The bright yellow at the surface shaded to a peachy color the deeper she looked, and heat snakes wavered everywhere.

  Megan was strangely silent, surveying the terrain around them until Ann asked again, “Is it Pigtail Fault?”

  “It is,” she admitted.

  “It was closed, just a crack, when I saw it before,” Ann said.

  “They change,” Megan said, walking on, but Darby would bet they were all three wondering if the earthquake had shaken it open wider.

  When they reached the opening of the lava tube, Darby’s bravery had wilted a bit. It was a good thing Ann and Megan couldn’t see inside her imagination, because it held a fearful image of them running down the lava tube with a scalding flood of molten rock chasing after them.

  “I’ll go first,” Ann offered. She whirled her flashlight over her head like she was wielding a cutlass, advancing into battle.

  As soon as she disappeared, Darby felt the urge to follow, and it wasn’t fear of being left alone. She didn’t want to be left out.

  “Me next?” she asked. Megan made an after-you gesture, and Darby followed her flashlight’s beam into the dark.

  As soon as they stepped inside, the coolness and scent reminded Darby of Black Lava’s hiding place behind the Crimson Vale waterfall.

  She smelled wet stone and animals, and something else.

  “Don’t you love this?” Ann’s voice echoed.

  “Yeah,” Darby said. “I really do!”

  She stepped along carefully behind Ann, engulfed by the elation of being in a secret place. She heard the whisper of far-off waves. Leaning her head back, she spotlighted smooth globes that had once dripped like wax.

  “I would have named them Pele’s pearls,” Darby said.

  And Megan murmured, “Nice.”

  “Water’s dripped from the roof.” Ann’s echo came back to them from farther down the tunnel.

  “Watch your step,” Megan called.

  “I will,” Ann shouted back, but just then she yelped.

  For an instant, Darby held her ears against the echo, but then she let her hands drop and she could hear Ann breathing heavily.

  “What’s wrong?” Darby saw whirling brightness. It must be Ann’s flashlight making crazy shadows all around them.

  “What was that about?” Megan asked, stepping past Darby to hurry after Ann.

  Darby lengthened her stride. She wasn’t really afraid, but there was something about being the last one in line that gave her the creeps.

  Ann had slipped on a smooth, wet piece of the lava-rock floor, but she was already back on her feet when Darby saw something black sweep through the air.

  Or maybe she’d just blinked. Darby wasn’t sure.

  “Are there bats in here?” she asked.

  “What do I look like, the Discovery Channel?” Megan grumbled, but there was a hint of worry in her tone as she said, “My dad always said Hawaii had no cave bats, only tree bats.”

  “Bats don’t really dive into your hair,” Ann protested.

  “Who said they did?” Megan still sounded edgy.

  “And they’re mammals,” Darby put in, “like dogs and—”

  “I like my mammals without wings, thank you,” Megan said.

  They giggled as all three flashlight beams joined together, searching cracks in the lava around them, but they didn’t see anything on the rock ceiling except trailing roots that had forced through from the surface.

  Navigator neighed a welcome when he saw the girls coming back to camp.

  Sugarfoot came as close to Ann as his tie rope would allow.

  Hoku vibrated with alertness, ears pricked toward the summit of Two Sisters.

  Biscuit looked like a giraffe. His neck strained against his rope, and when he looked back guiltily, he was chewing, his usually black muzzle purple.

  “What have you got?” Megan asked, stepping ahead of Ann and Darby.

  Dozens of berries that looked like a cross between cranberries and coffee beans were scattered around him. Some rolled in reach of the other horses, but they weren’t interested.

  “‘Ohelo berries?” Ann said.

  “Of course,” Megan said, “although I thought only goats ate them.” Megan took Biscuit’s muzzle in her hands and looked into his brown eyes. “Not a good idea, Biscuit.”

  The buckskin swished his tail, pulled his head away from Megan, and looked around for more berries.

  Darby squatted to examine them.

  “Tutu told me they’re Pele’s favorites,” Darby said. She could see her reflection in the berries’ reddish sheen. “Just hope he offered some to Pele before he ate them.”

  Bending from the waist, Megan plucked off a few ‘ohelo berries and placed them on a nearby rock.

  “He has now,” she said. Then she looked at Darby. “You should try one. They’re good.”

  Darby hesitated.

  “Maybe later,” she said.

  “We’ve got plenty of food,” Ann added.

  While Megan moved Biscuit away from the berries, but still only a few yards from the other horses, Darby and Ann finished setting up their camp. They spread out a ground cloth, then took the rolled sleeping bags from behind the saddles they’d already stripped from the horses.

  “Are we going to arrange rocks in a circle for a fire ring?” Ann asked.

  “We don’t have anything that needs to be cooked,” Megan said, “and if our main goal is to see the wild horses, I don’t think it’s a good idea. It seems
like the smell of smoke would drift farther than our human scent, don’t you think?”

  Ann nodded.

  “Now I kind of wish we’d brought the lantern,” Darby said.

  “We have our flashlights, and plenty of batteries,” Ann told her.

  “Yeah, and if we see the horses, we’ll have a cool connection to the Fire Maiden story that Tutu told me,” Darby agreed.

  “Let’s eat now,” Megan said. “When the sun goes down, it’s like someone turned off the lights. It’s way dark,” Ann said.

  Darby measured out grain they’d brought for the horses, Megan fed them, and Ann set out dinner for humans—a feast of cashews, plums, salami, cheese, and water.

  They were in their sleeping bags by the time darkness fell. No insects buzzed or birds called. Wind strummed the branches, and the horses shifted drowsily.

  Lulled by bedding down near the horses, Darby was almost asleep when Ann said, “In the morning, we’d better make some notes.”

  “Umm-hmm,” Darby said.

  “And then let’s hike up the cold sister and look for mustangs,” Ann added.

  “Okay,” Darby answered through a yawn.

  “I think we should leave our horses here, don’t you?”

  “Sure,” Darby said.

  She heard her friend turn in her sleeping bag and say, “I’ve never been up here at night.”

  But Darby didn’t have the strength to raise her eyelids.

  Darby woke once during the night, unsure of where she was. She’d been dreaming that she was staring into a campfire, hypnotized by a face she saw there.

  She turned over in her sleeping bag and Hoku must have heard her stir, because the filly gave a gentle nicker.

  Darby smiled into the darkness. Warm and comfortable, she was surprised when she was able to distinguish the volcano from the blackness all around.

  Veins of gold glimmered near the top.

  “What do you think? Is it lit from inside? Or are those streams of lava?”

  Darby heard herself speak, but she wasn’t sure whether she was talking to the other girls or to Hoku.