War Set to Peace

Chapter 13

Once all 4 of us girls were finished getting ready, we went outside of the hut to find our families. We walked towards the hut the parents were in to see mom and Ronal already outside of it.

"Oh, my beautiful daughters." Mom said and came up to us to give us a hug.

"You have done well Tsireya." Ronal spoke and have Tsireya a hug. 

"Thank you, mother." Tsireya responded. "We better go get the boys, so they aren't late to the festival." 

"We will see you later children." Mom spoke as we waved goodbye. 

We began walking to the hut that the boys were in and waited Infront of it for them to come out.

"You guys need to hurry or you will be late." Kiri shouted sounding annoyed. 

"Hang on jeez!" one of the boys yelled.

"Who would have thought the boys would have taken longer than the girls to get ready." I said and the others laughed. 

Finally, Neteyam had come out. "Well look at you Tuk, you look like a princess!" Neteyam told Tuk which made her run up to him so he could pick her up. "You other three look beautiful as well." he said to us, I smiled back in response.

"What is taking the others so long." An annoyed Kiri asked.

"Lo'ak and Rotxo are almost finished but Ao'nung is taking his dear sweet time to make sure he looks good." Neteyam said and rolled his eyes.

"Of course, he is." I said which made Tsireya laugh.

Lo'ak and Rotxo were the next to come out of the tent. Lo'ak froze at the sight of Tsireya and stuttered at his words. "Y-you look b-beautiful Tsireya." I looked at Neteyam who was also trying to hold his laugh in at our dumb brother's words. Kiri just rolled her eyes.

"Thank you Lo'ak." Tsireya responded with a cheeky smile on her face. Thats when I noticed Rotxo was in the same situation but with Kiri. I looked in between the two and noticed the light blushed on each of their faces. 

Thats when I noticed Ao'nung hadn't come out yet. "Sorry to break the uh- tension between y'all but, where is Ao'nung." I asked.

"He said not to wait for him, he will come out later." Rotxo replied.

"Oh- alright." I wondered if he was holding off on seeing me because he was anxious on who I would choose. This made me frown and of course Neteyam noticed, like usual, and he placed an assuring hand on my shoulder.

"Your lover boy will be out soon I promise. You're the reason why he's taking so long anyway." Neteyam whispered.

"Call him my lover boy again and I will smack you." I sarcastically said.

"It is only true."

"How do you even know about that?" I whisper yelled.

"I may or may not have been on a walk myself when you two kissed, and I wasn't really asleep in the hut when you were talking about him to mom." He whispered back.

"Whatever let's just go." I said while smacking his arm. "But you mustn't tell anyone."

"You have my word."

We began making our way to the festival when I remembered I had forgotten my dagger in the hut. "Shit, Neteyam I'll catch up with y'all, I forgot my dagger in the hut."

"Do you really need it?"

"Yes, anything could happen."

"Fine, go on. Just don't take too long, I may need help babysitting Lo'ak." He said which made me laugh.

I ran back to my family's hut and sprinted over to my mat where all my supplies lay. I took off the blanket that hid my weapons and chose a smaller dagger that I could attach to one side of my lion cloth, and a slightly bigger one that I could attach to the other side.

"What are you doing in here, the festival starts soon." I heard a voice come from behind me which startled me. I quickly turned around to see that it was only dad.

"Don't scare me like that dad! And I forgot my daggers, so I came to get them."

He stopped for a moment and stared at me. "My little warrior, you look beautiful like your mother."

I stared at him for a moment. "My little warrior? You haven't used that name in years." I almost wanted to shed a tear at the name. He had only called me that when we were either hunting or training. He used to tell of how I reminded him of all of his friends he once had and how they all had the same spirit as me. They were all warriors like me. He told me about Tsu'tey, Trudy, and Grace. What had always caught my attention is that they all died do to being shot. I always wondered if it was a coincidence. He told me how I had the fighting spirit of Tsu'tey, the attitude of Trudy, and the heart of Grace. 

"Oh, I didn't even realize I said that. I hope you don't mind." He said and put his hand on his forehead.

"No, no it fine, I don't mind the name." I said and smiled back at him.

"Thats good. Come here kid." He said and opened up his arms. I didn't hesitate to run in his arms. "Why do you need your daggers anyway?" he asked all of the sudden.

"Because you're the one who told me to always carry one no matter what."

"Oh, that's right" he laughed. 

"Well, we better go before we are late dad."

"I suppose you're right."

He released me from the hug, and I began to walk out of the hut but before I could step out, I was stopped by dad's question. "Where is your headpiece?" He asked softly but sternly. I didn't know what to say so I just turned around slowly with my head down, not wanting to meet his gaze.

"Dad-" I whispered.

"I understand. But can I know who the boy is now?" His question almost made me want to laugh.

"You are going to find out very soon I promise, but im glad you're not mad."

"I would only be hypocrite if I was mad." 

His response made me chuckle and I finally looked up. "Thank you."

"Of course, kid. Now go on." was the last thing he said before I rushed off.

A/N

I decided to add in a dad and daughter moment since I haven't added one of those in for a while, but I promise next chapter will be about Tsalwi and Ao'nung. I also added in something's about Tsu'tey, Trudy, and Grace for future references. You guys aren't ready for what I have planned in the upcoming chapters oomggg!!