Chapter Text
The rolling, mountainous hills of Greece had a fascinating and beautiful mix of rugged terrain and lush greens of the Mediterranean. There were a number of small towns nestled a bit inland from the coastal properties taken up by the super wealthy, places where one could eke out a living and be mostly left alone. A dirt road crested the hill that overlooked one such small community, the houses below seeming run down by time but tended with love in lieu of money. One house near the end of a street had a large garden behind it, painstakingly carved out of the hill behind the house and carefully maintained. In front of the house stood a tall pole, seemingly scavenged from a discarded telephone pole, with a hand made hoop nailed at the appropriate height up.
At the top of the hill, Kyriel pushed her goggles up onto her forehead and grinned. That had to be the place. She revved the engine on her motorbike and headed down the hill, slowing respectfully when driving past the suspicious looks of the locals. She didn’t blame them. The bike was brand new, and her white hair stood out as it streamed out behind her. She was clearly not a local.
Kyrr pulled up and got off the bike in front of the house that matched the address her dad had given her, and she knocked on the front door. There was movement inside, and then it opened to reveal Anthea Nikolaos. She looked so similar to her son that Kyrr burst into a smile.
“Hi! Is Kalisto home?” His mother looked momentarily perplexed, and waved her into the house, calling out for her son in their native tongue. Their home was well lived in, to be tactful, but kept clean and tidy and with the clear touches of love in the décor.
Kalisto rounded a corner and looked startled to see Kyrr in his house. He and his mother exchanged a few words that she didn’t follow before he moved around his mom to grin at his friend. “How did you find me?”
“The magic…. of street maps. Your mom gave my dad your address.” Kyrr threw her arms around him in a tight hug. “I’ve been going absolutely stir crazy this week! Want to come to my place? It’s only like a 45 minute ride, we got super lucky with the distance.”
“Oh.” He made an awkward, apologetic face and scratched at his hair. “I’d like to, but I was going to help my mom-”
Anthea cleared her throat and asked something, which turned into a rapid back and forth until she nudged him towards the door. “Fýge, Canim.”
“Naí, naí.” Kalisto waved her off and ushered Kyrr out the door. “Sorry, I guess I am free.”
“What was that about?” Kyrr grinned, glancing back at the house.
“She thinks we’re dating. Wait, did you come on that?” He pointed to the low powered motorcycle parked out front, looking aghast.
“She what? Correct that!” Kyrr grinned at the bike and nodded. “Dad got it for me so he doesn’t have to drive me around everywhere.”
“I’m not getting on a bike with someone who just got her license!”
“Don’t be a di-ah-jerk. Don’t be a jerk.” Kyrr tied her hair back up and reached into the saddle bags for a pair of goggles for him. “I grew up in Maine. I can ride a two wheeler, four wheeler, drive a car, drive a snowmobile, and solo sail up to an eighteen foot catamaran. You’re gonna love it, we’ve got one parked near the house.” She sat on the bike and started it up.
Kalisto dubiously climbed on behind her, arms around her waist. He winced as the bike began to move, but by the time they were climbing the hill out of the town he relaxed enough to look around. She wasn’t kidding about her experience with driving, it was a smooth run through the countryside towards the coast. She turned past a marina and up a hill towards a dozen or so houses that were barely visible overlooking the bay. Up close they were enormous, sprawling properties. Kyrr drove up to a gate and waved, and the gate opened smoothly to let them in.
“You live here??” Kalisto looked at Kyrr in astonishment as she pulled into a large garage with a fancy car and a black and gray scooter.
“Yeah. Kind of a shock to me too. Dad and I were always pretty comfortable, but Uncle Marcus brought us back into the family and apparently… well now we live here.” She climbed off the bike and grinned. “Come on, I’ll show you around!”
She led him around the house, which had seemed smaller from the outside; part of it was built into the hillside. The back deck overlooked the cliffs and the bay, and a huge in ground pool took up the rear portion of it. A fire pit was recessed into the deck and ringed with comfortable seating, and a large stainless steel grill sat waiting to cook up all manner of foods. Kalisto barely had a chance to appreciate the view before Kyrr grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the basement. A windowless room had been set up as a regulation accurate competition style dueling ring for practice.
“Uncle Marcus registered it and everything, so we can practice as much as we want!” Kyrr was bouncing, and Kal grinned in delight.
“This is going to be fun.”
“I saved the best for last.” Kyrr led him up some steps and back outside, to the lower part of the hill her house was built into. A long chain link corridor sat off to one end, but closer to the doors…
“You have a real basketball court!?” Kalisto rushed over, grabbing a ball off the shelf and testing it out.
“I asked my uncle to put one in. For you. For when we hang out.” Kyrr grinned sheepishly, and shrugged. He gave her an odd smile back, like he wasn’t sure what to say, then tossed her the ball.
“Lets see how you do on a real court.” He grinned and she scoffed, light on her feet.
“Oh, and he issues the first challenge!”
+++
Many hours later a car smoothly drove down the dirt road to Kalisto’s home, pulled up and parked. The door light was on, and Anthea came out to stand under it, smiling.
Kalisto climbed out of the back seat, yawning, and waved goodbye to the tall man standing beside the car. “Thank you for the ride, Mr. Kestrele.”
“Think nothing of it. Tell your mother we’ll always get you home safe.” Alastair smiled and waved, as Anthea looked up at her son for a translation.
“He said something flirty,” Kalisto muttered with a yawn. He walked to his bed and flopped on it, asleep in minutes, missing the brief exchange of laughing smiles between the two single parents under the front door light.
+++
Ophelia stepped into green fire after calling out the complicated address on the postcard she was given, and out into a large, spacious room with windows on either side of the fireplace. She looked around, and then out the window, and her breath caught in her throat. The sight below was like a painting. The cliffs were green and white, and she was nearly 80 meters above the crisp teal and blue waters of a bay below. Birds rode thermals around the cliff, and the sky was perfectly clear.
Behind her, someone cleared their throat. Lia spun around to see a portrait of a kindly woman sitting at a reading desk with a book. She smiled at Lia. “You’ll want to go through those doors to the left, love. Easy to find the way.”
“Thank you.” Lia took her advice and walked through the doors, into a beautiful greenhouse that opened onto a massive back deck that overlooked the bay. She took it all in and slowly shook her head in wonder.
“It takes some getting used to, doesn’t it?” Kyrr’s dad’s voice startled her, and she jumped and turned around.
“It’s beautiful.” She smiled, sheepish.
“Don’t worry, I gaped the first time too.” He laughed and gestured to her bags. “I’ll put these in your guest room. If you head to that tunnel there, you’ll find the staircase down to the bay. Kyrr is on her way back now.” He pointed to a tiny smudge of white and green on the horizon.
“Oh. Okay, thank you!” Lia followed his directions and walked past the pool into a short tunnel that led to a spiral staircase. It seemed to go on forever, but when she reached the bottom she let out a little cry of delight. The cliff had been carved out long ago, or a natural cave enlarged at least, to create a sheltered cove with a wide dock at the bottom. Several small sailboats were secured with their masts down and tied, but the front of the dock was clearly designed for a larger boat. In the time she was descending, the smudge of green in the distance had gotten closer and she could now make out two sails. One was striped green and yellow, and as it started to turn into the cove she saw an image of a badger and a snake on the other one.
The boat had two large hulls on either side of a wide platform of black canvas, and the sheer number of ropes around the tall mast made Lia’s head spin. It slowed on its approach and she heard a familiar voice call her name. Kyriel waved, but kept working alongside Kalisto as they brought it into the dock. Once it came in close Kyrr jumped off the boat with a rope in hand and helped guide it into place, then hugged Lia hard enough to stagger her.
“I missed you!” Kyrr grinned as Kalisto leapt to the dock and began securing the back end of the boat with further ropes.
“I missed you too! Wow. You look different.” She looked up and tilted her head. Kyrr had tanned a darker shade than Lia would have expected, and a sea of freckles ran up one side of her face, across her cheeks, and down the other side. She’d stopped plucking her black eyebrow hair, and what Lia thought was one had apparently been six or so. The black slash in Kyrr’s left brow somehow suited her perfectly.
“Lots of time in the sun.” The taller girl leaned over to secure a rope as Kalisto came around and gave Lia a hug too. She hid an expression of surprise; Kyrr seemed like she might have gotten taller but Kalisto certainly had shot up in height and strength in the last two months. Both of them were in tank tops under black harness style inflatable life vests, Kyrr in the shortest cutoff jeans imaginable (the white shape of her pockets peeked out under the hem) and Kal in long cargo shorts. Both had grown their hair out some, and between her chaotic white ponytail and his wind whipped black spikes the two looked like a pair of giddy castaways. As relaxing as her summer had been rebuilding time with her family, Lia wished she’d been able to visit her friends sooner. They looked like they had fun.
“You’re just in time!” Kalisto smiled as Kyrr shouted something in Greek. “You will come out with us, Naí?”
“Oh. Well, I don’t know how…” Lia took back the thought about wishing she’d come sooner, and looked at the boat that suddenly seemed much bigger and more dangerous. Kyrr handed her a yellow life vest, and grinned.
“It’s safe. We’ve been at this all summer. We even won a race!” She helped Lia put it on, a slightly different design than the ones she and Kalisto wore. “It activates in water, you’ll be fine. You couldn’t be safer. Not sure about those shoes though.” She made a face at Lia’s sandals. She was barefoot, and Kalisto wore a pair of well worn sneakers.
“You said it was going to be hot here! I did bring proper sneakers for the hiking trip.” Lia wobbled a bit as they helped her onto the boat and instructed her where to sit and how to secure herself.
“Good for the heat, bad for boats. But fortunately, you’re not doing the work.” Kyrr grinned as Kalisto cast them off and moved to the rudder, using a small motor to get them moved out of the stillness of their sheltered cave. Kyrr worked the sails, and as they entered the sun again, the breeze picked up and the sailboat picked up speed. Lia gave a nervous laugh, but her friends seemed at ease as they skimmed over the teal water. Kalisto said something and Kyrr looked up with a laugh, Lia biting back annoyance at being left out of the Greek parts of their discussion.
“We have another surprise for you, look up.” Kyrr pointed to the sky, where white gulls flew over the bay. One feathered form didn’t match them, and it dove toward the sailboat, sleek brown feathers unmistakable.
“Talbott?” Lia startled in delight as he flew alongside them.
“He got here yesterday.” Kalisto grinned. “I think he wants to race.” Kyrr shot him a manic grin and leapt across to the other hull, starting to shift the configuration of the sails. As it picked up speed one hull started to dip lower as the other lifted higher out of the water, and Lia cleared her throat.
“What if the boat flips?” She looked at Kal, who grinned.
“Then we flip it back. It’s fun!” Lia felt immense concern at the fact that his surface thought indicated he wasn’t joking. She squared her shoulders and hunkered down, refusing to let the anxiety of the unknown get to her.
Kyrr tied off some of the lines and clipped the front of her harness to one that was attached to the mast as Kal did the same, and Lia became very grateful for the ropes securing her to the boat in case of emergency. She watched her friends as they brought the boat in line with the wind and it took off like a bird in flight, both hulls raising out of the water as the two stood braced against the one that was higher in the air, pulling on ropes to keep the sails full and the boat moving in a straight line. Talbott gave a shrill eagle cry and raced along with them through the air.
It felt like racing on a broom but without the security of magic, sea spray and deafening wind washing over them as the catamaran reached nearly forty kilometers an hour. Lia lost track of how long they sailed that way before the two sailors started to change course, slowing and bringing them back around the bay. The hulls were more or less settled in the water, not that they were moving slowly, when Kalisto unclipped his harness and slid under the mainsail to the other hull. He stood up and reached for the lines, but an unexpected wave hit the hull. His sneakers slipped on the wet plastic and he fell backward off the side of the boat.
Lia cried out in horror and spun around as one of her sandals came loose and was lost to the wind. “Kalisto!”
Kyriel bent over laughing hysterically, which slowed the panic in Lia’s chest, and she moved around through the ropes and sails to shed speed and bring them back around to pick him up. “How many times…” She grinned at Lia, and shook her head.
“He can swim?” Lia still felt alarmed, but Kyrr nodded as they slowly approached their fallen comrade.
“He’s been a lifeguard all summer, he swims better than I do now.” Kyrr wrapped an arm around a line and leaned all the way off the side of the hull, arm outstretched. Kalisto caught her hand as they passed and together they hauled him back up out of the water. He laughed and shook water out of his hair.
“See? Fun!"
“If you say so.” Lia shook her head, mildly dismayed at how chaotic her own hair was and at the faint sting of windburn on her face. “Okay, actually, I’ll admit that was a lot of fun".
Kalisto offered her lost sandal, dropping the soaked footwear onto her lap. "Your shoe hit me in the head, Cinderella."
Lia flushed in embarrassment, shaking water off of it. "No sandals next time, message received." She looked at the two of them as Kyrr pulled a towel out of one of the storage compartments and Kalisto dried himself off. "You’ve been doing this all summer?” She smiled up at Talbott, who had perched on the top of the mast and was watching them all.
“When the weather is good. Or playing basketball. Or baseball. Or dueling, my uncle has a practice ring. This guy can kick my ass.” Kyrr grinned as they brought the boat back in line with home, taking a more leisurely speed back.
“I annoy her a lot. Many pumpkins.” Kalisto snickered and took over the rudder, knocking water out of his ears.
“You basically spent all summer together.” Lia couldn’t help but notice Kalisto’s English pronunciation had improved, and Kyrr spoke more than a little Greek.
“My dad and his mom are dating.” Kyrr grinned and shook her head. “It was weird at first, but they seem happy.”
“Weird? Worse than weird.” Kal made a face at her. “YOUR house doesn’t have thin walls.” He shuddered as Kyrr giggled.
“Wouldn’t matter if it did. Still deaf.” She gestured to her hearing aid, the design shifted to a more compact one to prevent losing it to the sea.
“Augh I always forget that.” Kalisto grinned at Lia, who grinned back and settled in to enjoy the trip back to the house.
+++
Talbott waited on the dock when the catamaran pulled in, lit by the angle of the setting sun. He helped Ophelia off the boat and into a hug as their friends secured the boat for the night.
“I’ve missed you this summer.” He gave her a little smile as Lia nuzzled into his arms with a contented sigh.
“Not as much as I missed you.” She looked up as he leaned down to kiss her, the moment broken almost immediately.
“Booo.” Kyrr snorted. “Get a room.”
“You’re just jealous.” Lia made a face at her. “And you have no room to talk.”
“Yeah yeah.” Kyrr sniffed the air and lit up. “Dad is grilling.” She looked at Kal and all hell broke loose as they raced to be the first one up the staircase. Talbott watched them go and offered Lia his arm.
“Presuming they don’t eat everything, join me for dinner?” Lia took his arm and smiled, heading up the stairs.