Moonchild | Neteyam

18

CHAPTER 18

The two teenagers arrived by the edge of the forest in no time and Erìhe was already setting down all the stuff she'd brought by the time that Neteyam was standing next to her. She glanced at him. "Sit down," she told him, pointing to a tree that has fallen sideways at about knee height.

Neteyam nodded and sat down in front of her, the bowl of water still held in his hands. Erìhe sighed tiredly as she crouched down to look through the things she had with her. "What is this?" She held up a leaf.

Neteyam looked down at her, "You're meant to crush it with that," he pointed to an empty bowl and a smooth rock that she had placed on the ground, "And add water to make a paste."

"Where does the paste go?" Erìhe frowned as she reached for the bowl and begun crushing the leaf into a fine powder.

Neteyam gave her a are you serious- look. Erìhe glanced back up at him before laughing. "Maybe my cuts?" He chuckled.

Erìhe snickered, "Yeah, yeah - alright," she reached to take the water bowl from him before pouring a drop of the clean water into the leaf powder she had created. "Kiri would be so much better at this than me," she mumbled as she mixed the suspicious looking mixture. It was less of a complaint and more like wishful thinking - Erìhe would much rather be hanging out with her new friends or Tuk than being stuck there doing this.

"It doesn't matter," Neteyam said with a soft smile as he watched her mixing up the paste.

Erìhe brought the bowl up to her face to sniff it and grimaced as she leaned away. "This stinks - you won't want that on your lip."

Neteyam laughed before holding out his hands to take the bowl from her, "My knuckles then."

Erìhe glanced down at his hand before sitting down next to him. Instead of handing him the bowl, she took his hand and placed it on her knee. Neteyam frowned slightly, confused. When she glanced back up at him to see his eyes already on her, she quickly looked back down at his hand. "It would be tricky for you to do this yourself." She explained.

Neteyam grinned as she leaned over him to grab a cloth. She dipped an edge of the cloth into the water bowl in his lap before moving it over the knuckles of his left hand. Erìhe shifted her hand so that it was under his, holding his hand up as she wiped the cloth over his bloody knuckles.

When the cloth had first made contact with his hand, Neteyam had flinched. After playfully narrowing his eyes at Erìhe when she'd laughed, he focused on the feeling of her hand holding his instead of the pain. It helped a lot - as did watching her face as she grimaced or frowned while working.

The amount of different emotions she could express in the matter of seconds amazed Neteyam, and he found himself smiling whenever she grimaced in disgust. She wasn't too fond of blood.

After wiping off the excess dried blood from the back of his hand, Erìhe used the smooth rock to apply the paste all over the teared skin. His knuckles had stung, but as soon as the paste made contact with his skin, he felt the relief of the cooling effect.

Neteyam looked down at the bracelet that Erìhe had made. Then his eyes fell into his own wrist which showcased the one that he had made. It was not even a competition - his was easily better looking than hers.

"Will you give that bracelet to anyone?" Neteyam suddenly asked.

Erìhe was in the middle of leaning down to get more paste as he said that. She looked up at him. "Maybe," she said as she glanced at her wrist, "Why?"

"Just wondering," Neteyam shrugged. There was silence for a moment as Erìhe went back to applying the paste. Then he spoke again, "Who do you think you'll give it to?" He wasn't curious - he was merely trying to make conversation.