Beautiful Eyes (Aonunete)

Ao'nung's special place

Neteyam and Ao'nung rode together with the illus, laughing out loud. Sometimes Ao'nung would get too close to Neteyam's ilu to unsettle him, trying to make the dark blue-skinned boy fall off his own animal. But that never happened, apparently he had taught him well to ride that slippery aquatic animal. Neteyam had missed playing with Ao'nung, the boy was really fun once he stopped being rude. He knew that Ao'nung had been like that at first as a coping mechanism against the unknown, but ever since they both apologized and trained together, they had begun to get along.

Although, no one knew that they were "friends". In the eyes of the others, Tsireya, Kiri and Lo'ak, they still got along badly, they had never seen them play or spend time together before. And they kept thinking that they were not friendly with each other because in the last few weeks neither Ao'nung nor Neteyam exchanged a single word. Neteyam knew that it would be a surprise when they realized that they had already made peace and that sometimes, they spent time together, but not enough to be called friends yet.

The Metkayina's ilu was a couple of meters ahead of his, winning the race to Ao'nung's special place. Neteyam knew that he could never beat him in the water because he was still learning and even though Ao'nung knew that, that cheater liked that advantage to always beat Neteyam and then make fun of him when he lost. The light blue boy was arrogant and Neteyam one day wanted to remove that smug smile from his face.

"Hey, loser, you will never beat me." Ao'nung howled, with a wide grin on his face. He laugh even more when he heard Neteyam growl in frustration behind him.

Ao'nung turned to look at the Omatikaya to see how much distance was left for him to be able to reach him with his ilu. Despite having growled in response to the tallest joke, a competitive smile could be seen on Neteyam's face. When he was looking at the boy behind him, he felt how his heart began to beat quickly in a way that gave him a strange pain in his chest and he gaped, erasing his own smile. He could appreciate that beautiful smile that displayed the Neteyam's white fangs, his eyes were narrowed, ignoring that Ao'nung couldn't stop staring at him and the Metkayina boy was able to notice that the yellow color that his eyes had shone more when the sunlight hit his face. Neteyam's long braided hair moved to the beat of the wind and then Ao'nung spent more time looking at the alluring dark blue skin that was being splashed by the sea water.

He wondered if his skin would be as soft as it looks, what his hair would be without the braids and if his eyes could change color under the moonlight. Ao'nung suddenly wanted to confirm all of that, wondering if one day he could have the opportunity to do it. He looked away from Neteyam, realizing his impure thoughts, those kinds of thoughts that he had not been able to stop having since Neteyam arrived, he did not understand why he thought such things. He forced himself to focus on getting to his special place and catching the main meal for the feast the two families would have for dinner.

A couple of minutes later, Ao'nung's ilu slowed down while he was clicking his tongue, which Neteyam did too, guessing they were not going to race anymore. Everything seemed to indicate that they had already reached the special fishing spot. The dark blue skinned boy looked around, trying to figure out what was different about that place and why the fish would be easier to catch there. He managed to look at some enormous rocks ahead, they were huge, full of green moss. He guessed that they would go there as Ao'nung was moving slowly towards that direction.

"Follow me, Forest boy." Ao'nung said, chuckling.

Neteyam did, he watched as Ao'nung got off his ilu and swam a bit to start climbing those rocks, without a doubt, they looked somewhat dangerous with that green moss and with the sea water hitting it directly and the concerning height the rocks had. Of course, Neteyam would know how to easily climb those rocks, but he didn't know how well Ao'nung can manage it. He watched as Ao'nung's foot slipped a bit as he stepped on the moss and bit his lip in concern. It didn't seem like a very safe place for the inexperienced Metkayina boy to climb and he didn't know how they would fish from above the rocks. Neteyam got closer, keeping an eye on Ao'nung in case he fell or hurt himself.