Telesa - The Covenant Keeper (63 page)

And then there was a splash and Daniel surged up and out of the sea several feet away from me.

He was the most glorious thing I had ever seen. With his arms stretched wide, raven red head thrown back, silver droplets on gleaming skin in the approaching dusk he was a water god. A silver dolphin. He shook his head sending diamond spray scattering. His eyes caught mine and his face lit up in a joyous smile. Again he dove in to the water and power stroked his way swiftly to my side. In less time than it took to exhale, I was in his arms. And he was warm. And real. And solid flesh and muscle against me. And his kiss was hot and salty. I drowned in it. And the waves lapped us in their embrace. I felt a peaceful calm sweep over me as once again the sea felt like a friend. Safe.

Effortlessly, Daniel lifted me and carried me out of the water gently setting me down beside our picnic gear under the trees. He wiped wet strands of hair away from my face and wrapped a thick towel around my shoulders, rubbing my arms in response to my shivering. For several minutes neither of us spoke. Just breathed. I ran my fingers over his face, through his hair, along his tattoo, glorying in his perfection. My eyes drank him in, unwilling to believe that he was alive. Complete. Unhurt. Well, almost unhurt. There was a welt of matted red along the side of his bronzed chest.

“Daniel you’re bleeding. We’ve got to get you to the hospital.”

“Nah, it’s nothing. He didn’t bite me, I got this from his skin, the impact when we collided. Agh, did you know that sharks have skin like toxic sandpaper?” He shook his head with a faint grimace as he gingerly felt his wound.

I jerked out of his embrace and leapt to my feet. What was I thinking sitting here lapping up his hug when he’d been injured? I grabbed the First Aid kit from the car and applied a dressing to his cut, ignoring his assurances that he was fine. Not until he was bandaged and we were both dressed in dry clothing, not until I was really sure that he was alright – did I ask him the questions that had been bubbling underneath the surface.

“Daniel, what happened out there?”

He sat beside me, staring out at the fast sinking sun and his voice was carefully neutral. “I’m not sure.”

“I mean, what was that? You knew that shark was there? How? And when we were out there hanging on to the tire, you talked about it, like you could read its mind or something.” Saying it out loud only made it sound all the more implausible. I laughed weakly, waiting for him to dispel what were surely just fanciful notions.

He shook his head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense. One minute I was half-asleep and then the next I could feel this thing, this presence and I just knew right away that you were in danger. Once I got into the water, the thought came so clearly to me – a shark. A big one.”

He stopped and looked away, out over the waves crashing on a faraway reef. I prompted him. “Yeah, and then?”

“Then what?”

“Then you were talking about its thoughts. You were freaking me out, what was going on out there?”

He said nothing. Shrugged. I persisted. “Daniel, say something! What just happened? Those waves that came out of nowhere, pushing me to shore? Did those come from you? And then when that shark attacked you, how did you get away from it? With only that ‘sandpaper scratch’? This is crazy, you were gone for over twenty minutes, I thought you were dead. It was just like…”

His anger halted my tirade. “Like what Leila?! What?” Roughly he stood and walked away from me, down towards the ocean, throwing curt words over his shoulder at me. “Just leave it okay? Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk about this. Just leave it.”

There was barely controlled rage in his voice and it stunned me. I let him go, watching him stand at the water’s edge while a dying sun bled with orange-red light. I didn’t know what had happened with him as that shark had tried to attack us, but of one thing I was sure – whatever was going on with Daniel – it had everything to do with his crested wave shaped birthmark.

“The mark of Vasa Loloa…all water telesa have them.”

Available now on
Amazon

When Water Burns

A Message from the Author

Telesa is young adult fantasy romance with a unique paranormal twist because it’s inspired by Samoan legends about ‘teine Sa’ or ‘spirit women’ that are guardians of specific forests/pools/villages in Samoa. According to legend, they are vengeful, fierce protectors who curse and possess people that trespass against them and the taboos for treating the land. They are hauntingly beautiful and also very jealous women. I grew up listening to the stories which were often used as a way to ‘make us’ young girls behave. For example, teine Sa supposedly didn’t like it when you wore your hair down, put flowers in your hair, laughed loudly, or walked around the streets after dark. The ‘Teine Sa’ I heard the most tales about was one called, ‘Telesa’ from the village of Lepea. I remember our elderly babysitter, covering up all the mirrors in our house at night – because Telesa didn’t like us to gaze at our reflections or admire our appearance. I have seen girls suffer from ‘unknown’ illnesses that were supposedly the result of being cursed by Telesa. The subject of Teine Sa is a somewhat forbidden one in Samoan culture though and people don’t like to talk about them in case it invokes their anger. I’ve always been intrigued by the legends and nobody wanted to answer my questions when I was growing up – so I decided to take what little info we were given and give it my own unique spin. The Telesa women in my books are the result of an (over) active imagination. They are not connected in any way with the legendary figure/spirit woman of Lepea Village. If you wish to learn more about the REAL ‘teine Sa’, or the REAL Telesa – then I invite you to speak with your family elders and discover the rich tapestry of Samoan spiritual mythology.

The Telesa series is first and foremost – a love story. A fantasy romance for the forever young in all of us. But there are many different kinds of love and all of them require sacrifice. Not only do we read of Leila and Daniel – the perfect fantasy of fiery young love. There is also Nafanua and Leila – the often conflicted relationship between a mother and a daughter. There is the love and betrayal of sisterhood. A call for a greater love and reverence for our earth. But there’s also another love story portrayed in these books which I didn’t even realize that I was putting in there.

When the first boxes of Telesa print books were delivered to my house, I was excited - okay, make that ecstatic. I screamed a lot, jumped up and down, and did a crazy dance. But after the screaming I locked myself in the room and sat down to read it from start to finish. My children thought I was nuts. ‘
Mum, you wrote the book, why do you need to read it? Hello!’

I read Telesa like someone who had never seen it before. As I read I had a mini-revelation. Light bulbs going off, the heavens opening, that sort of thing. I realized – the person who wrote this book really loves Samoa. The people, the place, the food ( oh the food) the schools, the music, the dancing, the habits, the customs. You name it. It was all there in richly detailed imagery. One American reviewer has said of the setting, ‘
Samoa was another gorgeous amazing character that I fell in love with and I have a serious urge to go there now
.’ The first Telesa book reads as my very own personal love affair with a country, a people and a heritage. To be honest, this revelation surprised me. I was born and raised in Samoa, but many times in my life I’ve never really felt like I fit. Why? Because many “real” Samoans liked to point out to me that I wasn’t really one of them – because I had a mixed background. As a child, I was often teased as ‘palagi.’ As a young woman, my opinion was often dismissed as a ‘afakasi who doesn’t know much about her Samoan heritage.’ This reflected in my writing, I was always holding my creativity in check because I worried what “real” Samoans would say about it. But here with this book, it seems I have finally found the courage to say, you know what. I AM a Samoan woman and I’m writing about Samoan things but in very fiery and non-traditional ways, reinventing legends and turning our mythology upside down. Here in this book, it may not be the Samoa you grew up with and my Samoan-ness may not fit your definition, but come walk with me in the

Samoa that I know and love. Yes, so unplanned by me, this book about Leila “a girl too brown to be white and too white to be brown” kind of ended up being an angst-ridden love story in more ways than one.

I suspect this may be a reason why the books are resonating with so many young and not so young Pacific people, particularly those living overseas. In Leila’s journey home and even in Daniel’s awareness of his own mixed Tongan and Samoan ancestry, readers can see a part of themselves and see mirrored - something of their own quest for self, their desire to connect or re-connect with their Pacific heritage.

Whatever the reason, whatever has brought you to give this Pacific story a chance – I hope you have enjoyed Leila and Daniel’s journey thus far! The second book, ‘When Water Burns’ is now available on Amazon in both print and e-book format. A novella telling the story from Daniel’s perspective, ‘I Am Daniel Tahi’ is also available. The next book in the journey, ‘The Bone Bearer’ will be released in April 2013.

About the Author

Lani was born and raised in Samoa. She received her tertiary education in the USA (Georgetown Univ.) and New Zealand (Victoria Univ.) before returning home to work as a secondary school English teacher and writer. Her first book
Pacific Tsunami- Galu Afi
is an account of the 2009 disaster that devastated islands in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. It weaves together the stories of survivors, rescuers, and medical/aid workers. It was commissioned by Hans Joe Keil and published with funding from the Australian Govt. Aid Program. Lani released the first book in the Telesa Series in October 2011 and the second in June 2012. She is currently working on the next in the series,
The Bone Bearer
, which will be released in March 2013. Her collection of short stories,
Afakasi Woman
, won the 2011 USP Press Fiction Award. Lani is married to Darren Young and they have five children. She writes about life as a (slightly demented) Domestic Goddess at:
Sleepless in Samoa
.

For more information about Lani and her books visit:

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The Meaning and Significance of ‘Telesa’ in our Samoan Culture: Zita Martel

I grew up in Faleata, on the boundary of Lepea village, the known seat of Telesa – the spirit woman. I still live there, my open home is built right on the banks of the Fuluasou River and across on the other side of the river is Lepea village.

Who else could be Telesa the Covenant Keeper in a work of fiction, but Nafanua the ferocious war goddess herself? We first meet Nafanua in the novel when Leila hears her talking down to her aunt Matile; “You speak of things you know nothing about. Of things forbidden. Foolish Matile. Still denying your birth right, spitting on your heritage with your ignorance and pseudo-Christianity.”

That’s our introduction to Nafanua. Strong words from a very strong willed woman. On the one hand, Nafanua is described as a successful, sophisticated beautiful woman who drives a sleek red car, wears stiletto heels, carries a Blackberry and wears elegant sexy clothes that show off her malu. On the other hand she is intolerant and contemptuous of those who are not in tune with our Samoan heritage, our ancient traditions and taboos. Thoroughly steeped in her Samoan-ness, so attuned to nature and the elements – that Nafanua in my opinion, becomes the bridge to deeper issues that afflict us now.

Samoa used to have a ‘tapu’ for just about everything in our way of life; how we use the forests, how we use the rivers, how we use the ocean, how we use the land – now, that is virtually lost and forgotten. Our modern-ness and dare I say it in Nafanua’s own words, our “pseudo-Christianity” has buried the pure, the elemental, the basic earthy side of us that we no longer hear the cry of the land, the cry of the rivers, we no longer hear the cry of the ocean, we no longer hear the spirit world of our ancestors – and we desecrate our surroundings without a care in the world.

We just have to look at our rivers, the sides of our roads, the beaches, the forests, everywhere – what used to be beautiful and natural is now marred and desecrated by us and our rubbish. What used to be sacred, is no longer.

Sa Moa means Sacred Earth. Yet Samoa is no longer a sacred earth.

And in Telesa the Covenant Keeper, the message that the author champions through Nafanua, is that of a woman in tune with her instincts, with mother nature. She is nurturing. She is fierce. She is a frightful protector. She destroys, without a thought, that which she thinks will threated her powers and the bigger picture of her realm. We see this in the manner in which she kills her own son to protect that which is sacred in the covenant of the Telesa. Nafanua is at one with the forces within her and she teaches her daughter to tune in to her inner strength and powers, to learn to talk to it and converse with it so that she is not subsumed by it. Nafanua teaches her daughter to use her fiery powers to destroy and burn the rubbish and toxic waste that seeps into the land and the ocean. Just like the spirit woman Telesa with her long hair and distinctive red hibiscus flower who use to drive enormous fear into all the young girls growing up in Lepea and Faleata. She still does…to a lesser extent.

The original, real Telesa made us aware of our surroundings. She made us aware of the spirit world that surrounds us. She was and is the embodiment of our spirit world.

For a carefree girl like me who grew up on the beautiful banks of the Fuluasou River – that river was my childhood playground . The real Telesa, the spirit woman who roamed the Fuluasou River looking for errant girls with long hair, became for me a symbol of grace, of power and of freedom. To do whatever you want to do, as a girl and as a woman. When you are brave enough NOT to listen to what people say and gossip about, but to follow your instincts, be in tune with the power within you and believe in it. For when you do, when you own the fierceness within you – you fly!