Impersonating a goddess

If Tokelani Green of the Pono Commission knew that -- barely a foot below her bootsteps on the pahoehoe lava -- representatives of the king of the Tubers were preparing to greet her as the returning goddess Tokelani, who turns everyone into love fiends for a weekend, she'd have been nervous.

Assuming, that is, she could get past the part about people who took Native Hawaiian culture, religion and language underground to keep it alive and lived in the lava tubes that run beneath and between islands, in the process developing large eyes and pale skin.

Beyond that, Tokelani would have realized that things ended rather badly for the last human to be mistaken for a Hawaiian god. Just a short hop down the coast at Kealakekua, old Captain Cook, unfortunately for him, was mistaken for Lono. You think impersonating an officer is a serious crime for Topside cops, it's jaywalking compared to impersonating a Hawaiian god.

But Tokelani walked ignorant of the movement in the rock beneath her boots, or of the running veneration by members of the Tuber Border Patrol.

She walked with Randy Makapu'u and Pua Makua, Ph.D. They were about to enter the kipuka, four acres of vegetation in the middle of an immense lava flow, mysteriously spared by Pele. Randy pulled aside a branch.

"Stop!" Pua said softly. "You can't just barge in. We have to ask permission."

"Permission? Who's permission? This's my land. About to be anyway."

"We never own land, Mr. Makapu'u, especially us Hawaiians," Pua said. "We merely borrow it from the gods."

Feet away, Tuber Border Patrol agents exchanged glances. There was a Tuber saying, The Tube is Pele's, we lease it. (The Tubers were very business oriented.) "That's a cool Topsider," the captain whispered.

Tokelani was expecting some kind of protest from Randy. He'd been acting very territorial, and the land wasn't even officially his yet. Maybe it had something to do with his life-long belief that he'd never own land, and now he was about to own uku plenty. Or maybe it was his training as a security guard with Portagee Protective. But now he stopped, looking to Pua for what he should do next. Tokelani was fascinated by the change in Randy since he met the stunningly beautiful Hawaiian scientist.

"So how I can explore my land if I no can go in?"

Pua began to chant in Hawaiian, softly, melodically, hypnotically, then repeated it in English, first thanking Pele for creating the kipuka of life and asking her blessing, then introducing them all to the unknown gods of the kipuka, asking their blessing and permission to walk upon the land.

A pueo said "Who."

"Permission granted," Pua said.

Randy whispered, "Ho, you one serious kine Hawaiian, eh?"