Teā dug his fingers into the wet cracks of the cliff face and dared himself to look down. Below him at the edge of the limestone shelf stood his friend Kura readying to leap into the dark, cold water of Ulu Waimate falls.

  “Wait Kura!” Teā shouted over the roar, “come up to the clifftop with me and we can both dive together!”

  “One more from here bro!” Kura yelled back before leaping, “Then I’ll climb!”

  Teā watched him fall, dropping like a stone towards the pool below where his other friends swam. He shouted a warning, “Sukey! Ngara! Look out!” But it was lost to the din of the falls.

  Kura dived headfirst, poking out his tongue taunting the waterfall itself. He has no fear, Teā thought. He tracked his friend all the way to the bottom, where just before hitting the surface Kura tucked in his chin and curled his shoulders, bringing his knees up towards his chest. He folds inwards and it is this action that produces the monster wave.

  SLAP-BOOM! When Kura hit the pool he generated an explosion of water around him before it collapsed into a mighty wave.

  “Aue!” Ngara and Sukey, wading in the pool, were caught by the surge and cursed at Kurt before escaping towards the shallows. Teā waited for the water to settle before shouting, “I tried to warn you!”

  Kura broke the surface, smiling as widely as the wave he’d just produced. He shouted back up at Teā, “How big?”

  Teā thought a moment and called out, “As wide as a banyan tree!” He carried on upwards, now determined to be first to the very top of the falls, where he might be able to drop in further and deeper, resulting in an even bigger wave and beating his friend. Kura shouted after him, “Although my island is small, I emanate from a deep pool!”

  Teā put his mind on the climb but repeated the saying to himself, although my island is small, I emanate from a deep pool. The proverb belonged to Kura’s tribe so he didn’t speak it aloud out of respect for those ancestors who might be listening. Teā dug his hand into a new crevice feeling for a finger-hold. He was about six feet from the top and could no longer recognise who owned the laughter and shouting of his friends below, over the voice of the falls.

  Both legs were tiring but it was his arms he felt the most. They were burning the way they would while training with spears, only now there was no chance to rest against the slick rockface. Watea! Give your son more strength! His plea was answered as he launched himself up the final part of the way, grabbing hold of a deep rooted pōhutukawa sapling and pulling himself over.

  After kissing the ground and thanking his father he knelt over the edge sucking in lungfuls of air, surveying the climbing path back down, should he fail to leap. At the bottom he spotted Ngara and Kura swimming while Sukey sat across the pool on a boulder.

  In the safety of distance he could finally let his eyes linger. Her long brown legs dangled off the side while Sukey traced small circles on the stone with a hairpin. Teā wanted to shout something down to her but he couldn’t think of anything clever to say except to boast that he had made it ahead of them all. She was leaned back propped upon her elbows talking to one of the boys, probably growling Kura for wetting her. Kura swam away, towards Ngara, and they began to wrestle while Sukey picked up her flute, shaking it free of water.

  That toy possesses Sukey, Teā thought. There is something else I would like to put in her mouth, but stopped his mind from straying any further. She started to play and he listened to her flute instead of his own while laid out on his stomach, drying. The warmth of his earth mother Paraharaha felt as safe and welcoming as the embrace of his own mother. Again, he ignored a lingering sensation below the waist and dangled his arms over the side to keep them busy, humming along with Sukey while the others swam. She played a famous song about lovers separated by islands, singing to each other over distant shorelines. Soon Kura and Ngara stopped their playfight to listen. Each lingering note lifted beyond the voice of the falls and quickly the birdsong quieted while the wind died too, as if the gods wished to listen themselves. Thank you Tāwhiri, thank you Tāne. It felt in the moment like the distance between them was as wide as the the ocean in the song. If she looks up here I’ll know the song is meant for me. And in another way, something he only realised now while so high above them all, was that his standing in the tribe as the son of a god must feel just as vast to her. He wondered if that is why she was always shy around him, even while Sukey was of ariki bloodline and daughter to one of the most important Kafiki chiefs.

  But Sukey never looked up, remaining loyal to her instrument instead, and he admired her for her commitment. It wasn’t long before he saw Ngara tire of the music and return to play, yanking Kura’s hair and dragging him underwater while laughing insanely. Finally, Teā lost interest in the song too once Sukey played it through a second time. For a new desire began to grow, exciting and difficult to ignore. And when Sukey started her song over for the third time Teā got to his feet, deciding it was now or never. She could hardly ignore him once he dived from above like some god, like his father. Stepping to the edge he guessed the distance to the pool at about sixty feet, or the height of the tallest Kauri in the forest. His stomach cramped when he considered the drop, keenly aware of the dangers lurking under the surface. A short run before his leap was the way to go else he’d smash his head on the hidden rock shelf jutting from the waters edge. He’d been warned about it the day they left for the falls by a sharp-eared slave. ‘Keep away from the rocks! Run and jump nearer the pōhutukawa or you’ll smash your head in like the boy Maloo.’ Maloo was a champion diver too, and almost a friend had it not been for his low status.

  An afternoon breeze washed over his face and through his hair and Teā breathed deeply trying to empty his head of the warning. He stepped ten paces towards the second set of falls before turning back to the cliff edge. Should be enough of a run-up, he decided.

  Teā offered up a final prayer to his tribal god and father, Watea. “Father in the heavens, Watea, thank you for giving me life and guiding me here to the summit of Ulu Waimate falls. Father give me courage to dive to my friends below. Have Sukey… have them see the fearless and skilful nature of me… and of your Matavai people.” And to feel like he wasn’t just praying for himself he added, “to be a great leader, I will unite the other tribes who share Kafiki and her treasures, else we fail together.”

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  The last part of his prayer was a maxim from the powerful tohunga Faturaki, spoken whenever he visited their region from his home atop the volcano. It didn’t make sense to him but it sounded wise and generous and worth adding.

  “Enough with the delays Teā,” he told himself, “time to jump.” Teā launched himself towards the cliff but lost heart when he blinked at a breeze and a vision of Maloo’s head smashing apart on the rocks took hold. He stopped dead at the edge and cursed. “You are afraid! You are like a child! You are nothing Teā! You aren’t good enough to be the son of Watea!”

  He repeated words his mother would say whenever he angered her or when he disobeyed and failed to listen, which were the same things to her. He stared out into the abyss before him and screamed in anger before checking to see if he’d been heard beneath. Nothing. Sukey hadn’t reacted, neither Ngara or Kura, busy diving off the larger boulders near the southern end. Teā returned to his piteous thoughts, why am I so weak? Why am I so afraid of everything?

  Falling to his knees he began to wail for his father, “Where are you Watea, namu? Why do you ignore me?” He screamed again cursing himself, his mother and Sukey, and finally Watea, a father who had yet to acknowledge him, before laughing bitterly.

  Teā wiped at tears recoiling a loosened spirit, breathing deeply. Lifting his head he began to feel better while he considered what was in sight; the beauty of his island. Across the valley, rows of karāka, kamala, and wiriwiri trees, swayed in the afternoon breeze carrying a sweet scent of decayed fronds. Pressing over it all was the blue of godess Mailagu, ceaseless and clear. Beyond the forest, a four-day journey northwest, sat another god in Takali Foto. It billowed grey and black smoke like a drowning campfire. The hungry Volcano was visible from every position on the Island. Its base and surrounding foothills crossed borders of four of the seven tribes of Kafiki. The Ahukai, where Sukey was from, even claimed the volcano as their tribal god. The children of Ahukai throw themselves into the fires of Takali Foto and you can’t even throw yourself into water, he thought before laughing again.

  Teā crawled up onto his feet and turned his attention east, to where the Mahana ranges snaked their way towards the volcano, flanked by his own tribal river the mighty Matavai. All else in his sights were darker shades of green as they entered the new year and the colder season. Giving up on thoughts of diving he walked away from the edge while his anger and self-hatred wilted to the warmth of his surroundings, reminding himself that no-one had witnessed his failing today, I don’t need to feel shamed.

  After all, he was Teā Watea, a child of a god and future chief, possessed with ancestry and an abundance of mana. As of now only a new challenge lay ahead and that is what mattered most. For the hunters in the tribe, legendary tohunga, and even some of the braver slave children had all spoken of the falls and finally he was here. Even the prohibition by the his step-father Chief Kuanua, placed on Ulu Waimate due to the many recent deaths, failed to hinder Teā. The cascades had two levels and they said if you got to the top of the first you would find another pool with even sweeter and clearer waters. A place where nymphs and water spirits made residence, attracted to the mana of the land.

  Now before him lay that famous pool, shaped like a gourd and bordered by flowering flax and toi toi. The trees looked heavy with fruit. Large forest pigeons gulped whole guava. Water lizards leaped across lily pads, hunting hovering insects over the bubbling waters. The pool was fed by the second set of giant falls, half as tall but wider in stream as those he’d just climbed. A thick cascade tailed from the pool twisting out of view between boulders falling again somewhere down to his friends all that way below.

  I am alone, he remembered. It struck him to go back and wait for the others so they could experience this place together but when he returned to the edge he saw an empty pool. Teā guessed they were right now climbing towards him so leaned out to gauge their progress. Again Maloo and his flattened face appeared in mind and again and he drew away from the edge. They are on the way, he assured himself. He turned and ran and dived into cool, clear waters, swimming a couple of lengths under before breaking near the middle, wading through a fine mist spraying off the plunging waters.

  Strong decay beckoned his nose towards a cave entrance hidden behind the falls, about fifteen feet up the cliff face. Teā traced a path from the entrance along the craggy basin down to the pool, where he could easily swim. He kicked off a few lengths then stopped when he approached the rocks noticing a familiar shape. Laying over the cave opening against the limestone was a large green taniwha. The hair stood on his neck while his skin pimpled. This place is tapu.

  Then, from behind the sheet of water, a wavy shadow of a girl walked into view. She was pale and naked with long red hair draped over shoulders down to her waist. Teā forgot about the taniwha for the moment while he fixed his concentration on the girl. She smiled shyly and walked towards the clear flow separating them. She was lighter-skinned like he was; taller than Sukey. Her body looked very good to him while she hid one side of a sharp face with thick, wet hair. She gestured, ‘Follow me’ through the waterfall, and without really thinking Teā followed.

  He tripped entering the cave splitting his knee on a weathered rock. The pain was terrible and he wanted to curse Paraharaha for placing rocks to trip over but stopped himself, aware of the girl. Do you want to act like a child in front of her? Don’t fail again as you did at the cliff. He got up but remained waiting for his sight to adjust, rubbing his eyes to hurry it up. She is real; he could see her further down the chamber leaned on a boulder squeezing water out of her hair. He stood bleeding, unsure of what to do next. She’d exposed her chest straining out the remaining water and when he looked at her face again she was smiling back at him.

  Teā staggered a couple of steps towards her then stammered out his introduction, “I’m Teā, son of Wateā the god of the cosmos… my tribe is Matavai and my river…” He trailed off losing confidence in his formal, practised words. His echo repeated everything back to him and suddenly it sounded very wrong.

  A thin stream of water trickled down her forearms, dripped off her elbows and splattered onto the rock floor. Her eyes fastened to his while she continued to wring, willing something into being between them. Teā was unable to hold her gaze, his cheeks reddening.

  “I’ve never met anyone the same colour skin like me,” he stammered while staring at his feet.

  Blood streamed down his knee yet he felt no pain, just the urgency of his heartbeat and a tightness in his throat.

  When Teā next raised his eyes she had turned and headed off down the tunnel providing a final glimpse of her slick back and bottom. She gave him a knowing look before disappearing around the dark corner.

  Provoked, Teā called out after her, “are you a nymph?”

  The only reply was his echo again sounding wrong, sounding childlike. He tripped after a few steps, this time over loose bone, twisting his ankle. I barely feel any pain, he thought, and limped around the corner after her.

  _________________________

  Her hair fell away to reveal a heavily twisted face. Teā recoiled in disgust and pushed at it trying to direct it away from his. Sharpened teeth snapped at his fingers while claws punctured his throat, pinning the boy in place. She shrieked long and loud and Teā could see she was no nymph at all but instead some kind of goblin.