Kaya Stormchild Read Free Page A

rocky bluff
overlooking the sea. When you stood on the edge of the bluff,
beneath the twisting red-gold trunks of the few arbutus trees which
grew there, and looked down at the water, you felt as if you were
standing on your own small round world.
    Kaya called it
her dreaming place. It was here that she sometimes came with
Grandmother, to hear the old stories, and to learn about the
special powers of each plant and animal. At the high point of the
bluff, where the earth sloped away on all sides down towards the
sea, a great, smooth stone emerged from the grass. Kaya liked to
sit on the stone while the eagle perched on a low arbutus branch
nearby. Somehow, Grandmother’s deep, windy voice was more resonant
here than anywhere, as if the window itself spoke the ancient lore
through her.
    Josh leapt
excitedly up onto the stone.
    “ You can see
for miles from up here,” he said, beaming. “I should bring my
binoculars next time!”
    “ Your what ?” asked
Kaya.
    While Josh
explained the powers of binoculars, Kaya led him down from the
Window, to another of her favorite places, the hidden cave by the
spring. Tangle was one of the few smaller islands that had fresh
water. In the very center of the island was a steep hill, almost a
cliff, and at its base a freshwater spring filled a small pool. It
was dark and mysterious here, and Josh looked about him nervously
as he followed Kaya into shadowy trees at the base of the cliff.
The pool was rimmed with deep green moss. Kaya bent to scoop water
into her hands and drink.
    “ Go on,” she
said to Josh. “It’s clean.”
    Josh stooped
and tasted the water. “It’s good!” he said. “It almost tastes
sweet.”
    “ It comes
from inside the hill. And look. Up there. Can you see it? There’s a
dark patch - that’s a hidden cave. I’ll show you.”
    They scrambled
through the underbrush and up the rocky slope a short way until
they came to an opening in the hill. It was a wide crack in the
rock, just big enough for children their age to squeeze through.
Kaya went first, gesturing for Josh to follow her. At first it
seemed as if the crack would come to a dead end, but after a minute
or two of panting and pushing, the children found themselves in a
wider cave, which was lit by a fissure in the rock
above.
    Josh whistled
to himself. “Imagine, he breathed. “What a great hiding place this
would be. If any one was ever chasing you, you could hole up in
here and they’d never find you.”
    “ Yeah,” said
Kaya, nodding proudly. “You could even camp here, because this half
of the cave is dry. The rain would only come in on that
side.”
    There were a
few more places to show Josh. Kaya took him to the meadow where she
gathered stinging nettle and dock leaves and oregon grape berries
to make tonics, and another one where she picked wild mint and rose
hips and blackberry leaves to steep for tea. She took him to her
driftwood beach house, with its covered stack of dry wood for
burning at the back, and its small fire pit out front. Large
strands of a seaweed called kelp had been spread out to dry on the
roof of the little house. Once it was dried, Kaya explained, she
would grind the kelp to a powder and use it for salting her
food.
    Kaya showed
Josh the “balancing log,” a thirty-foot-long tree trunk that had
fallen one year and wedged itself among some rocks high over the
shore. She liked to perform tricks on the log, like hopping across
on one foot.
    Lastly, she
had him try out her rope swing. The swing was a thick, knotted rope
that Kelpie had salvaged, and which Kaya had suspended from a high
arbutus branch. The rope could swing across the pebbly beach and
right out over the sea. In the summer, explained Kaya, you could
let go and somersault into the water.
    Josh was
entranced with everything he saw. At last, however, he glanced down
at his watch.
    “ I gotta go!”
he said anxiously. “Dad’ll be worried about me. He didn’t even know
I went out in the boat. But can I