Kestrel Ch 4
#5 of Cadi, Volume 3: Kestrel
The Morgans quickly set to work plying the waters around the island. Nothing did a very good job of providing most foods to the people, but they were able to add freshly caught, native fish to the new local diet. It was very well received. Over the next day or two, Kestrel, Cadi, and the family managed to retrieve the rest of the family's boats from the dock, where they had been sitting idle for years now. Idle, but well cared for, true to the other sailor's word, with crates of Bran's brew and spirits left in their place, with letters of gratitude from Kestrel.
It was quite the experience, especially as more and more of the Morgan clan found each other on the island, including many of the brewers and distillers. "Were none of us spared?" From their tallies, it seemed that, no, none of them had been spared from the transformation. Still, it filled them with joy to reunite with the family that had scattered across the world.
The family agreed, though, that while the main city was all well and good, they would like to have a spot for themselves, and it was agreed that Kestrel would be the one to lead the expedition to find a spot for them to settle in her Sparrowhawk. She set sail beginning the work of thoroughly charting the island. Oh, she knew that the tech-heads had used drones to digitally map the island shortly after getting there, but a drone's map was little use to a sailor.
She set off around the north end of the island, seeing plenty of good plains and rolling hills as they went up it to the northern point of the island before continuing on down toward the east point. It was a curious aspect of the geography that the cardinal points of the island were all very well defined, and quite distinct from one another. She'd even noticed it on her first circumnavigation of the island, though sailing so much closer in to shore made it all the more obvious.
As she neared the eastern point of the island, though, she got an odd twitch in her whiskers and a shiver running down her tail. The eastern point, itself, was a tall, rocky promontory, rising up from inland. She could feel the winds howling around it... she could hear their music in her heart. She found a good bit of sandy beach toward the base of the incline. "I'm going to take a walk inland. You're welcome to come with me," she said to Aldrich and her father.
They both thought it would be nice to stretch their legs a little on land, and they anchored the boat in a nice, quiet spot, taking a dinghy the last little bit in to shore. Once she was on dry land, the feeling she'd been getting only got stronger as they made their way inland. They worked their way up the slope, wanting to get a view from the top of the promontory, but as they walked, they were starting to find that they were struggling to keep up with Kestrel, who was walking with far more purpose.
When they got up to the top of the rise, there was a windswept tree, which Kestrel walked up to without hesitation. "Kestrel?" Kaiden called out to his daughter, unsure quite what was going on. But... he hadn't been there when Cadi had found the stone, or when Christine had found the pool of water that had become the fountain.
When she got to the tree, she smiled distantly and seemed to be listening to something, though they could hear nothing but the wind. Though, the conversation that Kestrel had was quite interesting. "Wonderful, you've found me," a voice said to her from the wind, "I've been waiting for you since the storm."
Kestrel tipped her head a little to one side, "You're... the reason the wind has always been on my side, aren't you?"
"That's right. I'm a fragment of Nothing. But, when the window was made here, there were no people to focus his presence... just the elements of the island. I am tied to the wind and air... and with your heroism that day, I knew that you were the one I needed to connect with," he said, and she felt the wind swirl playfully around her.
She laughed and smiled, shaking her head and letting out a sigh, "So... as Christine is the water guardian... I am the air guardian?" She couldn't help but giggle at the thought. "I'm still wrestling with being the de-facto head of my family!"
"And yet, you are doing very well with that. Let me help you continue to do your work... help the family flourish."
She thought for a moment before she nodded and pressed her hand, which she had been holding out just inches from the tree's trunk, pressing it against the living wood. "I accept," she said, her voice filled with confidence, even if her family couldn't hear a word that she was saying for all of the wind rushing around her.
They had even moved back a little, finding sturdy bushes to grip hold of as the wind whipped around the promontory's peak. As she put her hand to the wood, though, they cried out, and if they had been able to let go of the shrubs without being whipped off of the cliff, they would have rushed to Kestrel as the wind whipped around her, lifting her up off of the ground.
To their amazement, the wind didn't toss her around, it was simply lifting her aloft before they felt the wind rushing around them start to weaken, even as it whipped around her even more fiercely. It was almost like... the wind was getting drawn into her... but that was impossible. Still, she looked calm as could be as she gently lowered down onto the grass, her feet softly settling back down onto the earth.
With the wind having subsided, the two men rushed to Kestrel, taking hold of her arms, as though they were having to hold her down to the earth against the wind, not yet having really registered that the wind had actually become... far more of a gentle breeze.
Kestrel laughed as they grabbed her, shaking her head and smiling, "It's alright, I'm not just going to fly off, you two," she said, sighing as she stretched her arms once they'd let go.
"This is where we're going to build our home, though. Maybe more of it down to the water... but still. We'll also build a lighthouse up here," she said.
Aldrich, who was far more accustomed to the supernatural than Kaiden was raised his eyebrow. "Alright? Going to fill us in, little one?"
She smirked at him. "Yes, old man. So, you know how Christine found the water node of the island and became the water guardian? Well, the air node chose me. Hell, it did that years ago, after the storm. It's why I never had trouble with the winds, even sailing into a storm to rescue people. So, this spot... is the spot that my magic is connected to."
The two men stared at her for a moment, blinking before Aldrich said, "Oh." He thought for a moment before he brought his hand up to his head, rubbing his forehead slowly. "I guess... we're going to have another family member that we're going to have to keep records of," he said with a laugh and a big grin.
"Yes... one who is lucky that a lot of her embarrassing childhood photos were lost years ago at the bottom of Lake Michigan," her father added with a smirk.
Kestrel sighed and said, "Oh thank God..."
They made their way back to the ship, and finished their circuit of the island, noting that the smaller mountain at the south end, almost more of a hill, looked as though it had a volcanic peak. Still, it didn't seem active, and Kestrel had a theory there, given where the air and water nodes had been, but she kept that to herself. They returned to the family, and shared the news with them.
There was a chorus of cheers, and that night was spent celebrating among themselves, and the next morning, they set off to the east point of the island, where they began work building their harbors and their town, which was nestled in the slop of the promontory. At the peak was Kestrel's lighthouse, which would be the new family repository and lookout - a place to watch for any ships that were in danger during storms.
Kestrel knew how to handle that kind of a responsibility, though.
Tropico would have its guardian angel of the winds.