The fire dancer twirls his stick as he steps up onto the slightly raised platform of a stage. The band that had been playing previously clears off to make room for him. He sets his stick down. He'd need it later, but not now. A hush falls over the crowd of Pae watching him, though ripples of murmured conversations still reach his ears.
The drums start, and he closes his eyes. His hips sway to the beat in a gentle, but not feminine rhythm.
"Not so long ago," he begins, turning counterclockwise as if turning back time. "A beautiful baby girl was born." His voice is soft and light, and the crowd silences to hear him.
"Even as a very small child, she loved to dance." His movements become more feminine, as a woman dancing. "She danced whenever she could, and wherever she was." He moves around the stage, continuing his woman's hula. "And for this she earned the attention of pirates." Both he and the drumbeat stop suddenly, looking out over the crowd.
"They came one day and took her away," he says as the beat resumes. His movements become more natural, but more sad. He raises his arms over his head, crossed at the wrists. "They bound her hands and made her to dance for them, and only them, until she could no longer stand." He hunches over and slows, as if exhausted. "And this continued for many years." He turns clockwise, slower, and slower, and slower, until he stops with his back turned to the crowd, nearly crouched.
"The dancer had grown up beautiful," he says, resuming his dance, his movements arched and graceful. "So the pirate captain hid her away with the rest of his treasures, either to protect her..." His fingers move past his chest as he looks away, as one gazes away from temptation. "...or to keep her for himself." He crosses his arms over his chest, as if protecting himself.
He bends down and picks up his stick. "One day, a humble hunter happened by the pirate captain's secret hiding place." He uses his stick as a bow and pretends to shoot at invisible quarry. "He found the dancer and was captured by her beauty," his stick lights and blazes merrily. "And by her sad eyes. He vowed to take her away, that very minute, to rescue her from the pirates' grasp." His dance is quicker now, excited, eager to move.
"But at that moment the pirate captain returned, and challenged the hunter to a duel." He pointed his stick like a sword. The hula has become less of a dance and more of a story with his whole body. The dancer leaps around on stage, pantomiming the fight while describing it, his hooves tapping out the rhythm of the fight with the drums.
"By some miracle the hunter bested the pirate captain." He points the tip of his stick toward the ground and smiles victoriously, as if gloating over his win. "He rescued the dancer and took her back to her village. He was hailed as a hero by everyone except the lovely dancer." He holds his hand out toward an invisible person and sways his hips, resuming his dance. "He asked for her hand, and she refused, and retreated into her home." He bows and backs away from the crowd.
"The hunter, so enthralled with the woman he'd rescued, learned to dance, hoping to impress her." He leaps around enthusiastically, twirling his fire stick and generally being as impressive as possible. "But she always rejected him." He trudges off to the side, extinguishing his stick, and begins a more traditional hula after setting it down.
"The beautiful dancer seldom danced after that. The dance filled her with painful memories." He gazes upward as he dances, as if longing to get away. He sighs loudly, so the crowd can hear.
"And that is the story of the lovely woman whom the pirates have recaptured," he says, ceasing his dance and bowing.
