chapter nine
I hummed quietly as it was very early in the morning, only a few were up.
"oe tìyawn kea tíhípey," I sang softly, my hands going over and under. He was down there for four years, his braids were all messy so why not re-braid them.
Everything was crazy at the moment, my mother and father were a little disappointed that I decided to hold off my role as olo'eyktan for now, but I really didn't care.
My first love, my only love was alive again and I was wasting no time for his eyes to open once again, I will not leave his side.
After he died nothing felt worth it, life felt so tiring and I felt far to exhausted to care of something such as being olo'eyktan. It had no real meaning to me after the war.
My ears flickered up, two voices laughing softly but loudly caught my attention. I got up from my spot behind Teyam's head, gently laying his head down. "Come, come!" I perched my head out of the Mauri, seeing two kids running off into the forest part of the island. "It's so early." I chuckled at the two, the girl was dragging the poor boy but he was happy, the hugest smile on his face.
"I remember our first kiss like it was yesterday." I trodded back to Teyam's body, laying his head back on my legs as I continued braiding his hair.
it was around eclipse time when Neteyam and I decided to sneak out and go Ilu riding. We waited for everyone to fall asleep, we met near the shore and then we called for our Ilu's and went into the water.
"Hurry!" I signed to him, looking behind me as I held onto my Ilu. Neteyam then went under my Ilu and I, swirling upwards next to us. We twirled around each other, the water hitting our faces. "Let's go find shells, I wanna make your baby brother or sister something." He signed to me, the baby was most likely to come soon.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, let's go!"
I disconnected my queue from my Ilu and he did the same, I grabbed his hand and led him deeper into the water, where the best seashells were to be found. He's gotten better control of his breath so he wasn't needing air just yet.
"Look!" I pointed to something shimmering a few inches down, we swam down, our feet hitting each other 'cause of how close we were.
"It's perfect!" The shell was unlike what I've seen before which is actually perfect, a new life, a new beauty found.
"Let's go!" I grabbed his hand again and we swam back up. I appeared out of the water, waiting for him to catch his breathe.
"It's perfect." I smiled softly as he looked mesmerized by the shell.
I've been having a funny feeling in my stomach since we've gotten closer, it's been harder to suppress with him getting prettier and more lovable by the day.
"What is it?" I smiled even wider as a confused smiled grew on the Omatikaya's face. "Nothing." I laughed but I could tell it made him more nervous. "One last swim?"
I picked a few more seashells down below, Neteyam waited for me above so I tried to hurry. My eyes glistened as I picked up another shell I've yet to see. I smiled softly before swimming back up, "find what you need?" Neteyam swam down to me, signing to me.
"Yeah, let's go." We swam back to shore and laid our seashells down on the beach, I grabbed the stuff to put the shells onto the bow Neteyam made me and he got some stuff to make whatever he was gonna make for my new sibling.
"What is that?" I crawled to my knees, my loose bun slowly unraveling as I hovered over the boy. "It's—it's a special kind of song cord, mostly only forest Na'vi use it but I thought it would be cool for your sister to be one of the very few Metkayina to use it." I nodded, watching as he made the rope and then put some blue and green beads on, a pattern.
"What kind of song cord?" I asked, sitting back down. "Well this song cord is not used to big things but more for the small." , I nodded, still confused what that meant, the small?
"The small as in: your first tsaheylu. The spirit tree or an ilu, whatever it is. Or for your first weapon. Just small things like that." I nodded, this time understanding what it meant.
"That is cool." I smiled at the thought, she was gonna get two, for the big and small.
We stayed in a comfortable silence for quiet some time, I didn't mind because the silence never felt uncomfortable. It was always just silence, no discomfort, no words needing to ease the tension. Just us. But every now and then my eyes got glued to his lips, eyes, face, every bit of him and it was getting irritating that I wasn't doing anything about it. I just sat there and stayed quite, longing for something that i still didn't know of.
"Hey, no, no!" Suddenly a small creature picked up Neteyam's shell and started running off. "Get it!" We got up and ran after it but the thing was fast, I couldn't tell what creature it was but it was thief for starters.
"Gotcha!" I leaped, grabbing ahold of the creature and once I snatched it I let the creature go and it just ran off. "Yes!" Neteyam straddled me, holding my hand that had the shell. "Haha! Sucker!" I chuckled as he celebrated, his smile widening as he stared at the shell.
"Honestly I thought it—" I don't know what overcame me, maybe it was his enchanting smile, or his yellow bright eyes, maybe his dark but soft voice. I don't know what made me do it but one minute I'm staring at him trying to figure out what's making my stomach flip and turn and then another minute passes and I'm cupping his cheeks, pressing our lips together softly. I waited for him to push me away but I felt him melt into the kiss instead, his small thin hands lifting my head, bringing me up. Everything fell away. All I heard was the sound of the waves crashing, our bodies moving on the sand and our heavy breathing and the small groans escaping our lips. I put one hand on his thigh and let the other stay on his face, our lips moving in sync. It sounded stupid but our lips fit so perfectly it felt like they were made for each other. Just for us to feel.
