Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 18: Blistering Headaches

Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past

Bold - sign language

After Norm got off the phone with Jake, he went straight into panic mode. All of the other scientists were asking the distraught man what was wrong, but he ignored their concerns and continued to grab the items he would need for his departure.

It wasn't until his best friend Max came in and finally calmed him down enough for him to be able to tell everyone what happened. When the news spread that Kiri and Marali had suffered seizures, everyone jumped in to help gather the necessary materials, such as medical supplies, food, and water.

Once all the items were ready to go, the group of human scientists put them into the chopper and wished Norm and Max safe travels.

Norm was worried sick about his daughter because nothing like this had ever happened before. It was especially weird that both the girls seized at the exact same time. It confused Norm, and he wanted to do everything he could to find out the cause.

Because Norm and Max were traveling by helicopter, they arrived at the clan faster than the Sully family and Marali had. Instead of a few days of travel, the men made it to the clan in one day.

After the chopper landed, Norm and Max quickly followed Jake to where Kiri and Marali were. As they walked to the pod, groups of curious villagers would curiously look at them in wonder and fear. They had never had human visitors before, and they weren't sure how to feel about it. All the villagers knew was that these humans were supposed to help.

At the sight of Norm's daughter, he immediately rushed to her side and grabbed her hand.

"My sweet girl." He whispered as he rubbed circles on his hand with his thumb.

Max immediately got to work and started to hook Kiri up to all of their machines and placed an IV in her. "Norm?" Max called out. Norm looked over at Max with a blank stare and then saw that he was handing him the other kit to also hook Marali up.

Norm placed some stickers on her head that would show him the activity of her brain, then he placed an IV in her arm, and lastly, he hooked her up to the machine that would let him know the rest of her vitals.

As Norm and Max were viewing the two girls' vitals, Neteyam, Lo'ak, Ao'nung, and Rotxo were patiently waiting outside to hear any news about the girls. Tuk had refused to leave the girl's side, and Tsireya had to go help her mother bring materials so that Ronal could also do her duty as the Tsahik.

"I should've been there," Lo'ak said. All three boys looked at him and frowned. "Even if you were there, there was nothing you could have done," Neteyam assured. Ao'nung and Rotxo nodded in agreement with Neteyam.

"You don't know that." Lo'ak snapped. Rotxo and Ao'nung shared a glance before sighing.

"Lo'ak. Believe me when I say that there was nothing you could have done to prevent it." Neteyam said as he put his hand on his brother's head.

However, Neteyam's words did nothing to ease Lo'ak's guilt. Kiri was his sister, and he considered Marali to also be his sister.

Neteyam understood his brother's guilt because he felt the same way. He felt that there had to have been some sign he missed that would have told him to not go to the spirit tree that day. If they wouldn't have gone to the spirit tree, nobody would have gotten hurt.

Back in the pod, Norm and Max were perplexed at the vitals before them. "I don't understand. I mean, their vitals are completely normal." Norm said with his brows furrowed.