After listening to her mother's morning ramblings and discussing her itinerary for the day (her mother was always wary of her as Kailani tended to get into some mischief while she was consulting with the palace advisors until evening), Kaia speedily left her underwater home and swam immediately toward the same spot that she had been the previous night; the beautiful shore of an even more beautiful, natural white-sand beach. Her mother would surely ground her for life if she caught her so close to the coast, especially in broad daylight, but she always felt that the risk was worth the reward.

As Kaia approached the ocean's shining surface, she slowly raised her head up out of the water, searching in every direction with her eyes first before fully allowing her face to be above the waves, being careful to make sure that there were not any humans close enough that they could see her. The only person she saw was a young man jogging swiftly across the sand, about a mile away from where she patiently waded, taking in the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the bright, blue, endless sky above. Off to the right and over the horizon, though, Kailani saw dark clouds forming, and she knew that come afternoon time it would likely be pouring rain.