Chapter 2.b

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Tāwhiri and the land farmers didn't need any help. Their task was clearing out the demon carcasses and restoring the landscape as much as possible. His mother, high chiefess Manaia, had divided the men assigned to her into teams. Each worked independently of the others, yet all were making steady progress.  They had already removed the demon bodies, and the land farmers were clearing the damaged branches.

"We really could've used you a few minutes ago," Tāwhiri said, "You know how hard it is to move a bird man-eel thing? A lot harder than it looks."

"What did you do with the bodies?" I asked, cursing my luck at being too late again.

Tāwhiri pointed up the mountain, "My mom sent a team inland to make a pyre. At first we thought about dumping them in the ocean, but Mom reminded us that whatever the fish ate would come back to us."

I wrinkled my nose, grateful for the high chiefess's wisdom. Still, a part of me couldn't believe they'd gotten rid of the demons so quickly.  There had been so many, and not much time had passed.

"Are you sure you got rid of all of them?" I tried again, "What about the spot where--where that big demon landed?"

Tāwhiri looked confused, "You mean that one your sister choked out? It's already clean. She said she felt bad about the mess and took care of it herself. You should've seen her--dragging that beast up the mountain. Even came back to take another one." 

"That's...convenient."

"I know, right?" Tāwhiri laughed, "That's some sister you've got, Toa. I wish mine were more like her."

He clapped me on the back playfully.  Then, seeing that I wasn't laughing with him, his smile faltered.

"Toa?  You okay?"

I shook my head, biting back the rage as I forced a smile, "It's nothing.  Thank you.  I'm glad everything worked out."

"Yeah."

Tāwhiri still looked troubled. But like Alani, he decided that whatever it was he wanted to say to me wasn't worth the effort. He gave a small smile as his mother called him back to work.

Everywhere I went in the village was the same.  Masina patched up the broken roof.  Masina straightened the support masts.  Masina scaled up the meeting house with a roll of twine in her mouth and fixed the lashings none of the men could reach with their big hands. I knew Masina was fast, and strong, and perfect, but at times like this it seriously felt like she was rubbing it in.  

Look what I can do, brother, she seemed to be taunting, Try and beat that.

"I don't know what you're so mad about," Ori said, shaking me from my reverie as he swung down from the rafters in the meetinghouse.  The ground shook slightly when he landed, and I hated the way a group of girls giggled as they passed by, all three of them staring as Ori stood up.

Ori was two years older than me.  Before he came of age, protocol meetings had been held in the Navigator Village. Now that he had officially begun his chiefly training, he only came to protocol on special occasions to represent his village. I tried not to stand next to him because he tended to exaggerate my flaws without even trying. With the cool demeanor and toned physique of an experienced wayfinder, Ori was the kind of guy that made the women swoon. Chiseled features, piercing eyes, and hair the same dull yellow as a ginger root--apparently that made him the complete package. 

I scowled, "I never said I was mad."

Ori shrugged as he picked up the leftover twine they had used to patch the roof, "Maybe not with your mouth, but your eyes? Different story there."

I wrinkled my nose and looked away.  Ori always spoke in metaphors. I couldn't tell if he did it on purpose or not, but it made me feel like I had to fish a straight answer out of him whenever he talked.

"I'm not sure what story you're listening to," I said, "But whatever it is, I'm not the one telling it."

Ori raised an eyebrow, the twine working slowly in his fingers. I knew him well enough to know that this would quickly lead to one of his philosophical debates if I stayed, and I was not in the mood for that.  I turned to go.

"She really cares about you, you know."

I looked back at him. Ori was leaning against one of the masts holding up the meetinghouse. He wound the twine absentmindedly, his gaze unfocused.

I frowned, "What?"

"Your sister," Ori said. He started looping the twine into slipknots and pulling them loose, "She looks up to you a lot."

Anger flared inside of me. That was easy for Ori to say; Masina wasn't his sister. She wasn't pulling the curtains up on his hut every morning, nor did Ori have to spar with her where she won every time unless she threw him a pity win. Ori didn't walk around the village with the constant, yet unspoken knowledge that everyone wished he could've been born just a minute after Masina. 

"You don't know her like I do," I said.

I thought about my day in the village, about how everything I was supposed to do, Masina had already done. No matter what I did, she was always one step ahead of me. Nobody needed me in the healer's hut, nobody needed me to clean up the demons. Nobody... nobody needed me.

Ori shook his head, his face impassive, "You're too hard on her. She's your little sister. She needs you. You shame yourself with your jealousy."

He left to join his father, who had taken the rest of his party to drop nets for tonight. The high chief of the Navigator Village was known for making the most savory seafood of all the tribes, and it looked like he was prepared to live up to his reputation.  I imagined high chief Moe leading his group back from the sea, nets sagging with fish ready to be wrapped and cooked.

I stalked back through the village and up to the hills behind our family's encampment, Ori's words ringing in my ears. He must've had too much kava at the last ceremony. Because if there was one thing that I knew, it was that Masina didn't need me. The feeling was mutual; I didn't need her, either. Life would be much simpler if she were some other high chief's daughter and left things the way they had been before she was born.

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