Sullys Stick Together

Chapter 12

The next morning I woke up, and mom and dad were nowhere to be found. I walked out of our hut and found Neteyam talking with Rotxo. "Neteyam, where's mom and dad?" I asked when I approached them both. He turned to face me, "They went out with Tonowari and Ronal. It sounded important." I nodded, "Oh, okay." It was only a few moments later when the small party of four returned. I walked over to where they would dock, seeing that Ronal had been crying and that Tonowari was angry.  "Dad?" I looked at his face and saw that he had a worried expression. Without saying anything, mom grabbed my arm and we all walked into a large hut where Tonowari had called on the entire tribe to meet them. Neteyam walked up behind me to stand beside me in the crowd. 

The room was engulfed in angry yells, everyone was talking over each other. Tonowari told his people how Ronal's tulkun and her baby had been slaughtered, then, "We've known about this war, but it has stayed far away from here. Now, it is here and we shall fight!"

"No! You don't understand how the sky people think! They don't care about the great balance! If you fight them now, you will die! They will destroy everything you love!" Dad yelled over the shouts of the Metkayina clan. Ronal looked at my father, and I could see how dark her expression was. "You live among us, and yet you learn nothing!" She hissed at him and was followed up by one of the others in the clan saying they would fight to protect their brothers and sisters. Neteyam joined in now, telling everyone to listen to our father. It was then that I noticed he was holding a spear that had been used to kill the tulkun, but right as it processed in my mind what it was, dad snatched it out of his hands and held it up in the air for everyone to see. To my surprise, the room went silent. 

"You tell the tulkun, that if they're hit with this, they're marked for death," Dad spoke again once everyone had gone quiet and he was sure that he had their attention. Ronal and Tonowari looked at each other, communicating without speaking, before Tonowari finally spoke, "Go. Tell the Tulkun." The room broke into chaos as the Metkayina people scrambled to leave and find their brother or sister. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Lo'ak had joined them in the act. I whipped my head around back to Neteyam and tapped his arm as I went to follow after Lo'ak. 

It wasn't until we were back to our hut that I managed to catch up with Lo'ak. "What are you doing?" I asked when I approached him. He turned, seeing Neteyam and me, and shook his head, "You heard them. Payakan is an outcast, there isn't anyone to warn him but me, I have to go warn him!" As Lo'ak turned around to leave, Neteyam grabbed his arm, "No, you need to keep your skxawng ass here." The two started arguing, and I couldn't keep up. But I finally heard Lo'ak say that Payakan was his brother and I whipped my head back to look at Neteyam, "Lo'ak. I'm your brother." Before I knew it, Lo'ak had already jumped in the water, and Tsireya, Rotxo, and Ao'nung had run over right when he had. "Where is he going?" Tsireya asked, I could hear the worry in her voice. "He's going to warn Payakan, come on!" Neteyam called out as he called his hands calling his tsurak. I called my own tsurak and hopped on her as soon as she arrived. 

I followed Neteyam out to see, passing by Kiri and Tuk and telling them what was happening. We all reached Lo'ak who had already been with Payakan and noticed that he had a spear in his fin. Oh shit, I thought as I approached and got off of the tsurak and onto Payakan, trying to help Lo'ak get the spear out. We all were fighting to get it off when I heard a strange sound. I stopped pulling and got onto Payakan's back and looked off into the distance. My stomach dropped when I saw a boat rounding a corner. 

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To Be Continued