Watch the Earth swallow me whole / Into Her holy soils / Coating me in treasures of the past / Then spitting me out as golden rays pour out of my skin / As I am reborn in Her divine image.

━━ MAI, 2022

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Memories carry with them moments of impact, shaping a person into who they are. Transcending beyond a mere physical body, in pursuit of crafting a soul.

Legends composed the blank slate soul of Ilyshah Tūrei as she listened to the stories of her tangata whenua ( people of the land ) rolling off the tongue of her grandmother Arapera like a sacred prayer. Of how her Māori ancestors voyaged across the Pacific towards Aotearoa in grand canoes, following Ranginui's creation of celestial bodies dotted in the sky as their divine guide. How in the beginning Māui fished up their island and bound their people to him, and of Paikea who sailed into Whangara on the back of a whale sent by the Gods to save him from the fate of death. Every single one of their souls living on through her.

Earthly goddess tangled in moss and vine, the love she held for the fertile soils of her home on the coastline of Aotearoa coursed deep through her veins. Ichor grounding her in roots wrapped at her ankles, manuka hugged at the waist as hills eroded in the distance. Her birth spelling the last dying gasp for her hapū ( sub-tribe ) as she would one day become Kaitiaki, guardian of their lands. Ilyshah accepted this fate humbly—not knowing what it truly asked of her in the end.

Like a lamb to the slaughter.

             As the truth unraveled, the thread snapped bare across their fingernails as a decade of careful grazing and preparation wasted away. She had never run so fast from home as the clouds rolled in to drain the sun rays and echo the voice of shame over her whanau ( family ). One split second decision, that's all it took to land Ilyshah eight thousand miles away on Kildare Island with her aunt and uncle in their little slice of paradise on Figure Eight. Moment of impact 001.

Exile brought an entirely new meaning to the word homesick for Ilyshah, leaving scars traced on the fault lines of her heart. Salt rubbed into the cavernous wounds with cheap beer and ashes of spliffs shared under palms at the keggers her cousin Lani would drag her to. A silent knife twisted in her gut hidden under a heavenly gaze as teenage fever drowned out the last cries to her parents faces. Once a coronated jewel of her people, now an outsider among strangers in an all American town. Searching for herself and finding nobody home until the ocean drew her into its restless currents as safe refuge.

She dangled like fresh meat above the open jaws of onlookers primed to sink their teeth into her. Exoticism personified to the old, privileged men of The Island Club who rarely tasted their words before spitting them out. The shiny new item to Kook girls wanting to lay claim to her. She felt like easy prey out in the wilderness of the Outerbanks. Especially for guys like JJ Maybank who sowed himself into moment of impact 002.

All JJ remembered when he first laid his bare blue eyes on her was the eclipse of his vision as she oozed of life and light. It dripped from the shores of her curves effortlessly moving with a gentle fluidity to the rhythms of summer. Strappy seafoam bikini pieces clung to her bronzed skin as she scaled the waves and spoke the ocean's native tongue. The salty elixir of life rained down from her long, dark tresses painting mosaics into the sand. So enamored by her that the cardinal rule of no fraternising with Kooks had been thrown out the window as if it never existed in the Pogue rule book.

In turn, Ilyshah noticed him. Quietly, minutely. In moments where she found him tending to the Tūrei's landscaping or their boat: The Paikea. She would catch a glimpse of him pulling up the crayfish pots, golden skin flecked with pearls reflecting off the sun, dimples etched into his cheeks then swore to herself she didn't feel a foreign warmth pooling in her chest or the skip of her heartbeat . . . because she couldn't.

As much as the promise of a summer love filled with nectarine kisses and whispers of sweet nothings wrote love letters to her heart in invisible ink, the possibility of finding it couldn't be entertained in a place like the Outerbanks. It was only a temporary home to her, a shot at redemption.

            But there was only so far the Tūrei girl could run from it once a green stone identical to hers falls into the hands of the Pogues alongside a lucky compass belonging to Big John Routledge . . .

  Leading her straight to a gold rush of unsung tribal secrets, and a summer never to forget.

TIOREORE NGATAI-MELBOURNE . . .

as ILYSHAH TŪREI

XVI          damsel in exile aquarius

RUDY PANKOW . . .

as JJ MAYBANK

XVI      sea cowboy     aries

𖦹

laura benanti . . . claire tūrei
manu bennett . . . kahu tūrei
courtney eaton . . . lani tūrei
lorenzo zurzolo . . . spencer fishers
obx cast . . . themselves

all others as described

Disclaimers !

I do not own the obx series, credits go to the Pate brothers, and all other minds behind it. Elements of my plot and writing are also heavily inspired by Cousins (Patricia Grace, 1992) and The Whale Rider (Witi Ihimaera, 1987). I do however own any ocs of my creation including Ilyshah Tūrei, the Tūrei whanau and Spencer Fishers who I guard with my life. I don't allow any copying of material or translations unless asked beforehand. Layout rightfully belongs to the woman, the myth, the legend soli

Warnings !

Viewer discretion advised / this story will contain explicit language, alcohol & drug use, violence, sexual themes and acts, racism, references to colonisation and deceased indigenous Māori individuals

Dedicated To . . .

vivi soli syd fifi aggie aves
nina cami day jade dara
ella lila elle april june
mina milz

and anyone else who loves outerbanks && supports my writing i'm endlessly thankful for every one of you

SUNEXITS © 2022