The Tides have changed | Neteyam Fanfiction

Part 14

Raeya walked back to her Marui, alone. She was ready for the worst possible outcome.

She stopped right in front of the Marui area, and looked at the big structures in front of her. She could already imagine, how her talk with her father would go down. The thing about the Marui, is the fact that they are all very close to each other and they aren't exactly sound proof.

The one that she and her father lived in was close to the chiefs Marui. And while she was walking on the platform leading up to her home, she could hear muffled arguing coming from the chiefs place.

"How could you let this happen, Payakan is dangerous and you know that,"

"But-," it was Tsireyas voice. Instead of going to her home, she walked towards the voices.

Raeya stood outside the Marui and listened in on the conversation that was happening. She carefully placed her head against the wall, and stood there in silence.

She could recognize all the voices, the first one was Tonowari, the second one Tsireya. And another one was Aonung.

"Father, we couldn't stop him, he doesn't listen to us," Aonung was trying desperately to make his father listen, but Tonowari was angry.

"You allowed him to bond with a killer. A Tulkun that has killed our own." He was in disbelief, never has he had a situation where he has had to explain to his children the danger of killer.

"You especially should know why this isn't good," he talked to Aonung.

"When Raeyas father hears about this, I don't even want to think about what will happen then."

My father? She thought. What does this have to do with my father.

"And Raeya. How do you think she would feel if she found out,"

Raeya furrowed her brows. They were hiding something from her. Trying to cover it up. And she had to find out what it was.

Raeya stepped out from behind the wall of the Marui. She saw Tonowari sitting in the middle of the room, with Tsireya and Aonung sitting in front of him.

"Found out what?" Her voice was calm and innocent. And as soon as she said that, every gaze in the room went to her.

"Raeya, how long have you been listening?" Tonowaris face was giving Raeya an odd feeling. This was serious, she could feel it.

Her eyes dotted between everyone in the room.

"Long enough to hear that you are trying to hide something from me," she looked at Aonung whos face was also making her nervous.

Aonung and Tsireya gave each other a look. Aonung nodded and stood up. The look meant that he had to be the one to tell Raeya.

"Raeya.... Lo'ak met a Tulkun, outside the reef." Aonung started.

"So what?"

"This Tulkun was alone, and it had a missing fin." Tsireya added. She looked at Raeya with teary eyes and saw the exact moment that Raeya realized, what was happening.

All of a sudden, Raeyas vision went blurry. She grabbed the wall in the doorway to keep herself from swaying. Her breath hitched and heart speed up.

Payakan.

"It's the same Tulkun that..." Aonung couldn't finish his sentence. He didn't want to be the one to say it.

He didn't need to. Raeya already knew. And her face gave away that she knew.

"Raeya, your father doesn't know, it needs to stay that way. Do you hear me?" Tonowari was worried that if her father found out, he would lose his mind. The last thing that they needed was a vengeful man in the village.

Raeyas father had been looking for Payakan for years, but he had never been able to find him. And now that Lo'ak had bonded with him, this situation could go south very fast.

"When," was all that Raeya could get out. Her world was spinning. The same Tulkun that was responsible for her mothers death, was now back. After so many years.

"When he was outside the reef.... He says that Payakan saved his life." Tsireya was trying to protect Lo'ak. She wanted to believe him, she wanted it to believe that Lo'ak hadn't made friends with a killer. But the facts spoke for themselves.

"Raeya," Aonung walked towards her to comfort her, but she stepped back when he got to close.

"Don't!"

Raeya wanted to shut herself off again. Like she did when her mother died. Back then, she didn't speak to a singel soul for two whole weeks.

And in her eyes, that was the reason why her and Aonungs relationship started to fall apart.
All the memories poured back to her. The day she found out, the day of her funeral, and the day that she first visited the spirit tree, to speak to her again.

All those painful memories.

Raeya ran off, she ran away from the Marui, away from the living area. She ran into the woods, between all the narrow tree ways, as deep as she could.

She stopped once she couldn't breathe anymore. Her heart was pounding so fast she thought she was gonna have a heart attack. Tiers fell down her face.

Why was this happening now, why just when she had found happiness.

Raeya sat down on the soft grass, she felt like everything was going wrong.

She sat there for hours, it went dark and the forest had started to glow. She just watched as the forest quietly danced in the wind. Listening to how the leaves and branches made sounds.

She was processing her thoughts. Her memories and her feelings.

There was a crack somewhere in the woods. She looked up but couldn't see anything.

She heard another crack. This time it was closer. Someone was coming. She layed closely on a tree and stayed quiet.

Suddenly a small leaf fell in front of her face. Raeya calmly watched as the leaf fell, observing it. And then another one came down.

She looked up and saw a beautiful blue figure laying on a huge tree branch, holding a few leavs in his hands.

He gave her a sneaky smile and laughed.
It was Neteyam. The one person that Raeya had hoped would come and find her.

Raeya stood up and watched in amazement. "How did you get up there?"

Neteyam just smiled and said, "I grew up in the forest dumb ass. I can climb every tree in existence."

He sat up on the branch and jumped down. He landed very gracefully in front of Raeya.

She just stared at him.

"You are crazy, you know that?" She placed her hands over his neck and stepped closer to his body.

"Oh, I'm the crazy one? Aren't you the one that is all alone in the woods at night?" He placed his hands on her hips and smiled at her.

The truth was, Neteyam had heard the conversation between Tonowari and Raeya. And because he knew about Raeyas mother, he totally understood why she was alone in the woods.

But he couldn't say anything, he had promised Tsireya that Raeya wouldn't find out that he knew about it. Neteyam wanted her to feel comfortable and tell him about it when she is ready.

"Aren't you gonn ask what happened?" She asked.

"Do you want to talk about what happened? Because I don't need to know everything," he was being respectful.

But Raeya felt like she needed to share this with someone. So she told him everything.

Every last detail.