For the next three days, it became a new routine to go at night, or in free time during the day, to go with Neteyam to the shack in the small mangrove forest. He would come to the infirmary when my shift was done or I'd come to his marui. Then we would talk a little while we followed the route until we got to the point. Interestingly, we didn't exchange more than a couple of words when we were actually alone. Neteyam took his job as a teacher quite seriously, and so did I.
"Your arm is too low, it has to be like this," he said and moved my arm slightly upward, "so the arrow has more strength to impact."
I shot the arrow at the makeshift target, which was a ball of red seaweed hanging from a tree branch. I nearly hit the edge of it but ended up missing it at the very last second. The arrow stuck to the stem of the tree, dangling from side to side until it stopped.
"You're getting better, but I can't say I'm surprised. It's in your bones, after all. I'm a proud teacher," Neteyam complimented and drew back the arrow.
"So am I, really. You have a good arm to control the spear. There are fewer things to review about that than about the sign language."
I gave him back his bow and he tossed it into the hut.
"At least I'm getting somewhere thanks to you," he smiled, his ears perking up and then pointing back. It was a nice view.
I chuckled. "If you don't mind me, I haven't slept in three days and I think it's been enough activity for now."
"Oh, one more, rutxe."
His eyebrows were raised and he had a small, evil smile plastered on his face. His eyes were shinier than on other occasions, due to the light of the moon reflecting on them. The bioluminescent plants made Neteyam's skin glow. I couldn't resist his childish attempts.
"Fine. Let's do knife combat," I said, knowing fully well he didn't quite fancy that. Maybe he'd end up saying no.
"Sure," he answered instead.
Just like the day before, we both grabbed our knives, handcrafted from the materials of the forest. A hunter usually only carried one knife, so we had to borrow one each to make it more entertaining.
I attacked first, drawing the knife I was holding with my right hand towards his right arm, missing his head. He blocked my strike with one of his knives and used the other to trap my knife in between his. One knife out for me and he still had both of them. The fight continued for as long as it possibly could, both of us taking chances to switch from attack to defense and vice versa.
Neteyam and I were already panting from the effort; controlling the weapons was harder than it looked, particularly because it involved avoiding being cut. We also used our bodies as resources, giving out kicks and nudges.
The amount of harsh and quick physical contact got our limbs entangled in a... weird position. We both tripped and fell to the ground, me on top of Neteyam. His right leg wrapped around my hip while my left leg was only bent, and rested on the floor. My right one was curled around his, as well as my right arm was above his, trapping it. The number of lefts and rights from our bodies that were touching skin-to-skin was confusing. At last, I had my last knife to his throat.
"I think I win," I whispered, looking right into his pale, sage-yellow eyes.
"I don't think you did," he said and pressed the tip of his knife on my belly.
I swallowed audibly and Neteyam mimicked. Our chests gently rubbed against each other when breathing. I licked my lips and looked up. We stared at each other for a while, our breaths mixing from the closeness. There wasn't anything on my mind, just the image of his eyes staring into my soul. If only I could capture that moment forever and not only in my memory, unable to show others how pretty he looked, and risking that any words I used as an approximation would be a dull description of reality. I wouldn't want that moment to depend from the memory of someone who would grow old and eventually forget. But it was better than nothing.
YOU ARE READING
A true seer | Neteyam
Fanfiction"We once used to be friends, Neteyam and I. We were more than that. If only my family had stayed in the forest, it could have remained that way. It must have been Eywa's will that we reunited ten years later, in my home in the Metkayina clan, and th...
