Kaya Stormchild Read Free

back so she could
rub the silvery fur on his belly.
    “ I seem to be
able to talk to just about anyone,” said Kaya. “Grandmother says I
have the Speech. Only a few people - Human people, I mean - do.
Long ago, it was different. All the Folk of the Salish Sea could
communicate freely with one another. But for many years now, says
Grandmother, humans have mostly been deaf to other creatures. No
one knows quite why. The animals still understand them , of course, but it
doesn’t work both ways….”
    Kaya shrugged.
Josh was listening intently, an awed look on his face.
    “ Most humans
are just, well, ignorant ,” muttered Tike scornfully,
as he rolled over so Kaya could scratch his back.
    “ I didn’t
know I had the Speech until I came to live here,” she said, musing.
“But it’s funny - I remember a squirrel telling me a whole long
story when I was very small, and I understood every word.
Grandmother kind of taught me how to use the Speech. Now I can
speak most of the local languages.”
    Josh whistled
in amazement.
    “ I can’t
believe it,” he muttered.
    Just then, a
shrill, high call pierced the air from above the nest. Kaya removed
the covering over the skylight, poked her head through the opening
and called into the rain.
    “ It’s
alright. Josh is in here with me. Yes, I’ll make sure he gets
warm.” She closed the cover and sat down once more. Tike returned
to her lap.
    “ Was that the
eagle?” Josh asked in a hushed voice.
    “ Who else
would it be?” grumbled Tike. “Kaya, when is he going to
leave?”
    Kaya
laughed.
    “ Let me
introduce Tike,” she said to Josh. “He’s not sure about you, about
whether you’re safe. You see, Grandmother warned me that if people
ever found out I lived here, all on my own, with just animals for
company, they would come and take me away.”
    Josh sat up.
“Tell him that I promise I’ll keep your secret. I’d never give you
away. Never. Only - can I come and visit sometimes? I wish I could
live here, too. It’s so much better than…”
    Josh paused,
then shrugged his shoulders.
    “ Do you live
in Campbell Harbour?” asked Kaya.
    “ I do now. My
Dad and I just moved there.” Josh looked across at Kaya, as if
uncertain whether to continue. But suddenly the words came tumbling
out. “I hate it. The kids at school are all mean. There’s nothing
to do except row around in the boat. We’ve got to stay here two
whole years while my dad writes his book. He’s always writing. He never has any
time for anything.”
    “ And your
mother?”
    “ She’s…she
died. She got sick… Cancer.”
    They sat
silently for a moment. The rain had stopped pelting down upon the
roof of the nest. Thin slivers of wet sunlight began to penetrate
the walls. Outside, they heard the soft drip, drip of water seeping
from nearby branches.
    “ Well,” said
Kaya brightly, after a pause. “You can come exploring with me. I
know all sorts of secret places we can get to by boat. I have an
extra paddle for my canoe. It would go faster with two
people.”
    Josh looked at
her with shining eyes. “Sweet!” he said. “Thanks!”
    A quarter of
an hour later it was as if the storm had never happened. Kaya
opened the skylight and the sun shone in warmly, sending down thick
shafts of gold, which made the mossy floor of the nest glow. Kaya
and Josh scrambled out the door, and down the maple
trunk.
    “ Come on,
I’ll show you around Tangle Island before you go back,” said
Kaya.
    She was proud
of her home. Tangle was small enough to be empty of summer cabins
and boat docks, but large enough for exploring. Kaya showed Josh
the marsh jungle, a large swampy patch of bulrushes, which dried up
in the summer and became perfect for games of hide and
seek.
    “ Tike loves
to play,” Kaya said, laughing. “But he always gets mad in the end.
You see, I’m so much taller, I get a better view when I’m
searching.”
    She showed him
the place she called “the Window.” It was a rounded