Through The Valley • Ao'nung

Chapter XXII

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̶̶̶̶  «̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ «̶ ̶̶̶ 　 Incredulous       ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ »̶ ̶̶̶  

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At'anau trudged to the coast where she watched one single boy unload a canoe. Seeing him hoisting up the bags from a distance her muscles begged her to turn back and rest, but her dignity to owning up to her mistake dominated over the exhaustion in her head and bones. 

She didn't know if the boy was deep in thought and unaware of her arrival or simply ignoring her, but the closer she made it to the boat the more the latter turned out to be the answer. 

Only a small distance away, a man stood in an open shed, gutting the creatures Ao'nung delivered him. 

Without words shared, the girl looked in the canoe and grabbed on to two filled nets in each hand, her raw skin of her palms almost catching fire, reminding her of her leather reins she rode the tsurak on that day. 

Eyeing where the boy dropped the bags she copied his actions, missing the way he would side eye her in silence. At'anau still had an unspoken apology down her throat, as she was waiting for the right time. 

Underestimating the next net of fish the basket slipped out her her hand roughly, grazing her palm and almost tugging her shoulder out of lock. 

She repositioned her knees and heaved the net with both hands, but just as she was about to turn around and put it against all the others it was snagged out of her hands. 

She looked at the back of the boys head and watched him lay the bag of fish next to the wide table the older man was cleaning the insides of them. Ao'nung stood at the table connected with the one the man was already working on and pulled out thick cords before weaving a couple of the emptied out creatures together to hang them for what she presumed the drying process. 

Standing opposite of the boy she cut herself a long strip of the material and watched his fingers carefully, intentionally messing up herself, and taking her time, sensing the boy getting agitated by the amount of work they still had and the tempo she was working in. 

The girl wondered if the boy had been scolded by his father before, or was, just like her, demanded to work at this hour of the day as he didn't radiate the mischievous energy she was normalised receiving from him, but had a rather dejected posture.

Ao'nung who stood facing the girl, only watched her through his eyelashes and couldn't hold his commentary anymore. 

"you act like a child." He spoke lowly and the girl had just caught it over the different sounds of cutting next to her.

"you mean as someone who isn't taught," At'anau corrected the boy, not meeting his eyes  "figures" she accidentally thought out loud. No response came from the boy before he sighed. 

"Watch," 

At'anau knew well enough how to tie a fish to dry by he way she had watched it done, but she needed him to interact with her first to be able to read him. The girl watched the boy tie a piece of rope to the end of the fish, wrapping it in between the created loops and attaching the other end of the rope to the line tied around the shack they stood in. 

At'anau did exactly as she was shown, with the boys eyes close on her finger tips, "no," the boy interrupted, "under, not in between." which the girl complied, eyeing  the boy who seemed less bothered teaching her about his ways than she'd thought he'd be, Eyeing the boy who was scanning her hands she tied the knot blindly and averted her eyes once he tried meeting hers. 

She looked at the tied rope and turned it to show him to which he nodded in validation. She tied the fish above her head to the wire and continued on the second one, only quite faster now.

"I apologise for my absence during the hunt." She girl finally spat to the table, wiping the remaining blood on her hand to a piece of cloth only to rub her palms too roughly and bite her tongue in affliction. 

The boy had kept quiet for a second and didn't look up to her as he worked fast so he could leave. "we managed perfectly." he stated obviously to which in response the girl nodded, being reminded of her stance with the boy. 

"Did not expect any less." her throbbing hands helped her focus on something else than the foul fishy odour of blood and intestines filling her head. She had thought the conversation would have ended there and would have been content as she could tick off the list of two things her father had asked from her, but to her dismay the boy was not done. 

"We Metkayina don't count on people who consider hunting a side quest." He reminded the girl she was not part of that, and her clan continued being very different to his. He wasn't very much off the facts as the girl did think everything she was asked to do by someone other than herself was a side quest. But fulfilling them she usually did, expect this one time, and therefore she held on to her responsibility rather than her ego to stand where she did today.  

"That's good." The girl agreed, nodding her head once as she was starting to work around the fish with only the tip of her fingers which burned a little less. Throwing the attempt to stab her with his words over her head. 

She wondered if she had any cuts and if the seawater fish's juices would contaminate her potential wounds. 

Buckets of water were next to her and she dunked her hands in them, cleaning them off every now and then after she got them dirty.

When they were clean Ao'nung would steal glimpses of them, noticing her frail fingers and damaged palms, wondering what she could've been doing that would leave such marks. However he did not want to sound interested in the girl's doing as much as he did want to keep an eye on her actions to avoid a stunt like the one with her Uhu to never be pulled again. 

To his dismay she wasn't a girl who stayed safely to the land and in her comfort zone, so whatever she was doing wouldn't be nothing. 

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I've been so busy yall goddamnit I hope I get to write a lot more upcoming week tho 

tysm for all the nice comments and messages ily