The wet sand was strong enough that their shoes didn't sink too far into it as they walked across the sand bar to the island. Jango shrugged to her musings on Jalung and her children's intentions. He was never an avid listener when the elders told the old stories. It was only repetition that had drove home the major points to him over the years. While the stories were rooted in their origins and he couldn't deny that there was certainly something mystical at play, he was unsure how retellings over the generations had warped and altered the legends and how much was allegory or truth.<br/><br/>"All good questions that I don't really know how to answer," he commented. "Apparently Nakiki and Jalung dislike each other so she made these creatures to hurt us, Nakiki's chosen. But they haven't been seen in forever. I don't know why they would come back now or if that was just a fluke. I'll bring it up to my parents next time I see them. They're part of the elder's council."<br/><br/>They made it to the island and Jango led the way among the tall rocks, past close knit trees toward the center of the island itself. "Low tide usually lasts about an hour. We might get our feet a little wet but I think we'll be alright. Come on. There's a cool old shrine over here."<br/><br/>They reached the far side of the island in a matter of minutes, coming out beside a sheer outcropping of volcanic rock worn smooth by ocean winds and crusted with salt. On the side facing inland was a carved out hollow, the stone hewn into a rough monolith inside with faded paintings and carvings of various sea life and what looked like scenes from old stories. In the center was a pile of rocks that acted as a sort of pedestal atop which was situated a vaguely shark shaped chunk of stone. The way the shrine was situated, wind currents from the ocean were able to curve in through the hollow and had eroded every surface over the years, turning what used to be crisp, fine crafted carvings into lumpy, indistinct reliefs. Much of it was formless or eroded entirely but some places had escaped the ravages of time.<br/><br/>"This is the oldest shrine to Nakiki on the island. It's so old, we don't have any records of who made it exactly or when. The carvings on the walls taught us a lot about the legend of Nakiki and Jalung but most of Jalung's story is eroded so all we really know is that she was an octopus, probably, and spawned the dark ones." He pointed out the section, a vaguely octopus shaped blob with a bunch of strange other blobs surrounding it that were supposedly her children. "It's hard to make out a lot of it but I still like coming here. I don't know how much of this I believe but... it's really beautiful..."<br/><br/>He was standing at the mouth to the hollow when the sky opened up, causing him to tense as fat drops of water began falling, pelting them as the sky darkened in an instant. It seemed that storm that was supposed to pass them by had traveled inland a bit and would be sweeping over the island itself. "Damn," he said, cursing as he rushed further into the hollow. The rain came so fast and so hard that the whole island was drenched in seconds. He shook his head, droplets falling all around him from his sopping hair.