War Set to Peace

Chapter 7

    After about a week of constant treatment on my rib, I was back on my feet training. I was restricted from doing most things such as, swimming, running, climbing, and anything that would cause me to put pressure on my rib.
Through the week, me and Ao'nung had talked a lot to the point were I started to trust him again. I had also started to bond with Tsireya, we always hung out and did a lot of things together. She was my best friend. We did each others hair, dressed up together, told each other's secrets, and stayed by each other. This feeling kind of reminded me of what I had with Norm.
Me and Tsireya had tried to make Lo'ak and Ao'nung befriend each other, but they always refused. It was the most annoying thing ever when we would all meet up, and the two boys would keep glaring at each other. I understand why Lo'ak was still mad at Ao'nung for what he did too me, but I knew that Ao'nung wouldn't do such a thing again.
When I was finally allowed to start training on how to hunt, I was always supervised by dad to make sure I didn't hurt myself. Dad always stood beside Tonowari when training was happening, so he had a good view of me.
It was my second day of learning how to shoot a fishing bow, it was tricky at first but I got the hang of it. One thing I forgot to mention was that Ao'nung was worse than my father when it come to watching over me.
"Be careful, don't pull to hard, you might hurt yourself."
"Go take a break, you don't need to be over working yourself."
"You shouldn't be doing this you might hurt yourself even more."
I knew that he cared for me, which I thought was nice, but after time it got pretty annoying. So I decided I would take matters into my own hands.
"Break time before you strain yourself." Ao'nung said while coming up to me and placing his hands on my hunting bow, lowering it.
"Ao'nung I know you care about my health, but please stop acting like my dad, I'm fine." I said while lowering my bow all the way down and looking at him annoyed. I heard chuckling in the background and turned around to see dad and Tonowari trying not to bust out laughing.
"Fine, but when you get hurt just know I warned you." He said with a snarky attitude. I rolled my eyes at him and got back into position to shoot my bow.
"Let me at-least help you with your stance." He said while walking infront of me, and positioning the bow to where it should be. I was caught off guard by how close we were, faces were inches apart. I turned my head towards him and stared into his big blue eyes. My gaze softened at how beautiful his eyes were. He then looked back up, making eye contact with me. I let out a light gasp and turned my head, fast towards my target. I could feel my face getting hot in embarrassment. He just giggled at my reaction.
"Okay, shoot." He told me, and I did. I made the bullseye and looked at him with a smile, he returned one. "Good job."
I turned towards dad and saw him and Tonowari looking in between me and Ao'nung with a lifted eyebrow. They had seen me staring at him. Wonderful.
"Um, thanks for the help, I think I'm gonna go back to my hut now." I said fast, and walked towards dad. "Let's go" I told him and he laughed while following behind me.
When we arrived to the hut I turned around and stopped my dad.
"Not a word." I told him.
"Got it Sargent" he said while holding back a laugh. I just rolled my eyes and walked over to my mat and sat down.
After a while Tsireya had showed up at the door of the hut, and waited for me to come out.
"Took you long enough" Tsireya said sarcastically to me as I walked out.
"Come on!" She said while dragging me away.
"Where are we going?" I asked her.
"To our hangout place of course!" She said excitedly.
Our hangout place was an abandoned hut out behind the rest of the village. We had fixed it up into a more comfortable hangout place for us to go and hangout together. Once we got inside she told me to sit, and she sat down infront of me.
"I have something to tell, but promise me you won't get mad." She told me while grabbing my hands and holding them in hers.
"I promise, now spill!" I said excitedly.
"I-I think I like Lo'ak." She said while looking down. A smirk had formed on my face.
"Really. You came here to tell me this. Girl I already knew that, it's so obvious. I was just waiting for you to tell me." I told her as she looked up with a smile on her face.
"Really?! So you're not mad?!" She said shockingly.
"No of course not, me and Rotxo always shipped you two!"I said excitedly and she hugged me. "Wait. Have you told him yet?" I asked her.
"No, but I was planning on telling him tonight!" She responded back with a smile.
"We'll come on, you need to right now!" I shouted while pulling her up and we ran out of the hut.
When we got back to the village we noticed that there was a huge gathering infront of my family's hut.
"What's happening?" I asked Tsireya but she just shrugged.
"Let's go find out." She told me and pulled me along.
We ran threw the crowd and when we got to the front I noticed Ao'nung being held on his knee by his dad, and Mom was hugging Lo'ak.
"What happened?" I asked outload, wanting an answer. Ao'nung looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. I was so confused. Tsireya was standing right beside me and was as confused as I was. Neteyam then walked over over to me and stood beside me.
"Ao'nung brought Lo'ak outside of the reef and left him there all by himself. He was nearly killed." Neteyam put his hands on my shoulders.
I looked at Ao'nung who had regret in his eyes.
"You promised." I said to Ao'nung with anger in my eyes. Neteyam put his hand on my shoulder when he noticed how mad I was. I looked over to dad who shook his head at me telling me to not do anything. I began walking towards Ao'nung ready to put my fist in his face but I was stopped by Neteyam, who grabbed me and held me back as I screamed at him.
"I TRUSTED YOU, AND YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULDN'T TOUCH MY FAMILY." I shouted at him as tears began running down my face. I was betrayed again, and it hurt like a bitch. Tsireya had started crying because of Lo'ak almost being killed. I was crying because I was betrayed, but I was also crying because I almost got my brother killed. I shouldn't have ran off with Tsireya, I should have stayed and watched over my family to make sure they didn't do anything dumb.
I had pushed Neteyam off of me and ran threw the crowd, I had to get out of there before I killed someone. I had so much anger flowing through my body, it was overwhelming. I ran as far as I could until I came to a stop and fell to my knees. I was mad at Ao'nung and mad at myself. All I could do was cry, I buried my face into my hands and screamed. Why did it hurt so much?
I realized that I started having a panic attack which made it hard to breathe, I began gasping for air.
When I was younger I always had panic attacks, the only person that could help me through them was dad. I wish he was here with me to help.
"Hey take a deep breath" I heard someone say from behind me, as they put their hand on my back. It was dad. I began getting control over my breathing again. He squatted down beside me and I hugged him tightly, and he laid his cheek on the top of my head. I silently sobbed into his chest.
"I know baby" he whispered to me while rubbing my back.
One thing was for certain and it was that I would always be a daddies girl, no matter how old I got.
"Why" I whisper to dad.
"I don't know sweetheart, I don't know."
"This is my fault, Lo'ak could have been killed because of me, I should have been there." I said to dad while continuing to weep into his chest.
"You need to stop taking the blame for your brothers actions, it's not your fault. You deserve to have free time." Dad told me. His words comforted me.
"If it's not my fault then why am I still crying." I asked dad.
"Because you are hurt by the actions of Ao'nung" dad said to me.
"He promised he wouldn't hurt anyone, but he lied." I told dad.
"I know. you are strong though. You will get through this and figure it out." Dad told me before kissing my head.
The last thing I remembered from that night was laying in dads arms before drifting to sleep

A/N
Sorry this chapter took so long, but I hope y'all enjoy!