Moonchild | Neteyam

21

CHAPTER 21

       To none of her surprise, Erìhe had found Neteyam on the thickest branch of the tree - their tree, if you will.

She willed her ikran to land beside his before hopping down. Neteyam had seen her approach, so he was not surprised when she suddenly sat down beside him. There was a moment of silence in which Erìhe took off her mask, setting it down on the branch beside her as she sat down.

"So?" She said expectantly, allowing her legs to dangle off the branch.

Neteyam glanced at her briefly before looking back down at the ground far beneath them. She saw his expression - he did not smile and there was not the usual excitement in his eyes.

Erìhe clicked her tongue and nudged him gently, allowing her arm to linger against his for a moment before pulling back again. "Kiri will be just fine," she assured him.

Neteyam sighed and turned his gaze skywards, "I know," he spoke quietly, "I just wished she didn't have it so hard."

Erìhe nodded in understanding. Kiri had always struggled with being.. different. It wasn't a bad different, but the girl had convinced herself that it was - that it set her apart from others and made her weird.

She did not know what to say, so silence ensued. But it was not awkward like all the previous silences between them had been - it was comfortable. Something had changed between the two of them. They both knew it, but perhaps they were not ready to acknowledge it.

Or maybe Neteyam was ready.

Maybe it was Erìhe who was not.

As the silence prolonged, Neteyam found his attention drifting to the girl beside him. Her eyes remained glued on the stars in the sky whereas his were fixated on hers.

Neteyam's eyes strayed from her eyes to her nose - where she had the small scar she'd gotten when they were little. The scar was smooth, it did not have the same skin-like texture that the rest of her face did, and that made it stand out even in the dim light. His hand drifted up to touch his own lip, where he'd gotten a cut in the fight he'd been dragged into thanks to Lo'ak.

He wondered if it would leave a mark, and if he would look as cool as Erìhe with a matching scar.

The silence gave Neteyam time to think.

He thought back to the time when they all lived happily in the forest. He had always ran around with the older kids back then whereas Eríhe liked spending time with his siblings. Due to her close connection with his sisters and brother, her and Neteyam had been forced to get to know each other over the years. And they had been friends - at one point.

After some time Neteyam had felt some feelings toward her develop, but he was at the age when all girls were gross, so naturally, he started picking on her.

Perhaps he took it too far, as she had grown ever more closer to his siblings while drifting apart from him.

Neteyam had hated it - he'd been jealous. But at that age he'd been unable to act mature and go on about his crush the good way, so he'd kept on doing what he'd started. Soon he made everything a competition, stressing her out and forcing her to try to become better.

He was the reason she had become a warrior in the first place. She'd had to prove that she was just as good - if not better - than him.

He sighed audibly as he thought of all this. Erìhe could sense his eyes on her, but she refused to look back at him - it made her nervous.