Sullys Stick Together

Chapter 7

I decided to go with Lo'ak to apologize to Ao'nung and Rotxo since it was sort of my fault that there had been a fight in the first place. I called my Swimwing and started my search for my brother. I managed to find him not too far away from the reef edge, "Lo'ak," I said once I got close enough for him to hear me. I looked over at Ao'nung and Rotxo seeing their bruises, and feeling a hint of pride before shrugging it off, "I'm sorry I hit you guys. But you kinda deserved it." I smirked a bit when I heard Lo'ak chuckle. 

"Forget about it, we should be friends," Ao'nung held out his hand to me allowing me to shake it, which I did hesitantly. "Why don't you come fishing with us? Past the reef, where the men hunt." He had a smirk on his face, and I couldn't read it. I turned to Lo'ak hoping that he was able to read it. "No way, we aren't allowed." I heard Rotxo chuckle, "If you're too afraid you can just say it." That must have triggered something in my brother, because the next thing he said was, "Let's do it."

We were soaring through the water for about half an hour before Rotxo stopped and told us all to dive. I followed Lo'ak under and stayed close to him out of instinct. Something didn't feel right about this area, or the two boys being so eager to be friends with us after we fought. We looked at Ao'nung who signed for us to call the fish and showed us how. Lo'ak moved forward a bit to get into a clearing so that he would have a clear shot at the fish, then he made the call. I moved closer to him as he started to aim at a fish. Once I placed my hand on his shoulder, he took the shot and killed the fish. We turned around seeing that the two boys were gone. I looked at Lo'ak and signed, "Where did they go?" He just held up his hands and shrugged looking around. 

Out of nowhere, a huge fish, an Akula I believe they called it, appeared and was swimming straight toward Lo'ak and me. He must have seen it at the same time that I did because he grabbed my arm and pulled me back as he started to swim away. I followed him quickly, narrowly avoiding the Akula's teeth as it tried to eat us. We managed to get into a patch of corals, hoping that it would protect us, but it wasn't long before the creature had broken through and was less than 12 inches from our faces. I looked around for a moment before spotting an exit for us to escape from and tapped Lo'ak's arm and showed it to him. He pushed me forward telling me to go first. I swam through a couple of corals, and quickly searched for another option, seeing a form of rocks. I quickly swam over it, hoping that Lo'ak was behind me. Once I reached the back of the formation, I turned around to see that my brother was in fact behind me. 

I pulled his arm so that he reached the rocks with me faster. A few seconds later, we noticed that the Akula had vanished. We started to look around, trying to figure out where it went, when I realized that I was running out of air. I tapped Lo'ak on the arm and pointed up toward the surface, only for him to grab my hand and shake his head. But then it became clear that he was running out of air too. He looked at me and signed for me to try to slow my heart, so I did. I closed my eyes to calm down, but it was too late. I opened my eyes seeing that he had been trying the same thing and gotten the same result. At the same time, we swam up out of the rocks and tried to reach the surface. Unfortunately, the Akula had come back and seen us. Right as it approached us, a bigger fish came along and pinned it against the rocks and killed it. Lo'ak and I didn't waste time trying to figure out what the creature was, not before going for air first. 

Once we breached the surface, we both gasped for air. "Nelyia," Lo'ak was talking slowly, "Are you alright?" I nodded, "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine, are you-" Before I could finish, whatever had saved us, surfaced beside me. I gasped in shock and felt Lo'ak pull me towards him. I looked at the creature, realizing what it was. A Tulkun. It used its fin to lift Lo'ak and me a bit, so we could sit on it and relax. "Woah, it saved us," I said softly looking at Lo'ak who was watching the creature but nodding to what I had said. I looked behind Lo'ak to see a huge metal tag on its fin, "Oh... They hurt him." I got under the water and saw how big the tag really was. I swam down deeper to unscrew the bottom of it so it would be easier to remove. Once it was off, I swam back up and got on the fin to pull the tag out, with Lo'ak's help. Once it was freed, Lo'ak asked it if it wanted to be friends with us, earning a cheery whine. 

We were out at sea for hours, starting to wonder how we were going to get back since neither of us knew which direction we came from. Suddenly, we heard the calls of the Metkayina clan, a search party for us. The Tulkun left once Lo'ak told him to, and we swam closer to the party, allowing them to pick us up and take us back to the village. Once we got there, mom and dad were there waiting for us. Dad helped us onto the pier and looked at us, inspecting our bodies for any fatal wounds. Meanwhile, Lo'ak and I were death-glaring Ao'nung. I pulled away from dad's grip to watch the boy carefully. Mom walked over to us and glared at us angrily, "I pray for strength that I don't claw the eyes out of my children." She hissed and made a clawing motion at Lo'ak. 

Tonowari pushed Ao'nung to his knees, "No, it is my son's fault. He knew better than to take them out there." 

"No, it was my idea. He tried to talk me out of it," Lo'ak interjected causing both Ao'nung and me to quickly look over at him. "Lo'ak?" I asked softly. He held up his hand, silencing me. Tonowari nodded slowly, and Dad grabbed our arms pulling us away from the crowd that had formed. Once we were far enough away, dad stopped us. "Lo'ak," 

"No... Dad, it wasn't him!" I tried to stop the argument before it started. "Not now, Nelyia," He said firmly shaking his head at me. "But, dad it really wasn't him!"

"You asked me to make friends with them, that's all I was trying to do," Lo'ak finally spoke. Dad shook his head, "You're both lucky Rotxo said something to Neteyam. Otherwise, you would both still be stranded out there. Understand? You both knew you weren't allowed out there, and you went anyway." He paused for a minute, "You've brought shame to this family."

I took in a breath and looked over at Lo'ak who was shaking his head, "I was just trying to make friends. You asked us, to be nice to them. Are we just supposed to let them be mean to us and just be nice to them? Be mad at me all you want, but Nelyia was just following me." He walked off. I felt tears run down my face, as I walked back to the hut in silence, hearing mom and dad talk behind me. 

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A.N.

Hey! I decided that since I wouldn't be posting tomorrow, I would just go ahead and give you guys another chapter today. Enjoy!