Evening finally rolled around, and with it, a giant storm. The clouds were thick and a deep grey above her, and the swirling waters were chaotic all around her, imitating a whirlpool. Winds whipped her ebony locks around her face in every direction, and she had to use her hands to keep it away, in order to continue spy- erm, people-watching? Kailani had wasted the day away wading near the shore, and she thought that she saw the same man from earlier that morning taking another jog. She could also spot a young woman ahead, walking slowly along the sand. She was still a few miles out, so Kailani assumed that the two could not return her gaze, and that she would be in the clear. She would head home to her mother soon, she told herself, she only wanted to stay out here above the sea for just a bit longer...
Kaia observed the two separately for a few minutes, analyzing their behaviors, but unfortunately, that meant that she did not see what she really should have been paying attention to: the gigantic wave that built up directly behind her. A wall of dark, ominous water slammed down on top of her, which wouldn't have been such a big deal (sure, the amount of water being forced into her lungs at such great velocity was painful, even for a mermaid, but she could manage) except for the fact that there was something else in the water, too. Before Kailani could dart out of the way, an entire whale came up with the wave and knocked Kailani senseless. She was hit so hard that her limp body was flung across the top of the water, and then tumbled through the more shallow waves, and into a tall stone jutting out from the water near the cove. Her body appeared lifeless, washing up on the shore about equidistance between the two human strangers.
