𝐄𝐂𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐘 | neteyam

seven 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒

AYLIKHI POV:

YESTERDAY WAS TRULY A MEMORABLE DAY. But not in a good way, since we all were shocked by Kiri's seizure.

I never saw anything like that before and I really can't explain why she reacted that way after she did her Tsaheylu with the spirit tree.

I still feel extremely bad because we were the ones that brought her to the tree.

Today I decided to have a calmer day, without teaching the Sully kids anything or hunting or collecting food.

Ever since the Sullys got here, I've been quite busy with them. That's why I wanted to spend some time with my best friend again.

Tsireya and me had spent the whole day together. We ate breakfast, just the two of us, collected seashells together and braided each other's hair. I missed this. It felt like old times.

Right now, we were walking down the beach. No one was on this side of the island, since the water was rougher here.

The sun was slowly setting and it got colder.

"So, Ayla," Tsireya started. She's the only one that still calls me Ayla, everyone else stopped, even Lekxyo.

"Yes?", I asked her and turned my head in her direction. A grin appeared on her face.

"So, what is going on between you and the oldest Sully boy?", she asked me while raising her eyebrows.

I stopped walking abruptly. My eyes went wide and the smile I held on my face before dropped.

"What?", I asked her. Maybe I just misunderstood the question?

But Tsireya's smile only grew wider, "I said what is going on between you and the oldest Sully boy," she repeated.

"You mean Neteyam?", I asked her. Dumb question, she obviously means him!

"Yes, Neteyam"

I didn't really know what to say. I never really spoke about boys with anyone before, not even Tsireya. Well, I probably would have if I needed to, but I never really had a crush on someone.

"There's absolutely nothing going on between the two of us! He's a friend, that's it!", I said to her confused. Why did she ask that? Does she think I like him?

Tsireya was smirking while walking down the beach, I quickly followed her.

"If you say so," she said chuckling. What was so funny?

"Why do you ask? Do you think there is something going on between us?", I asked.

She turned around and looked me directly into the eyes, "Yes! Not just me, Lo'ak and Rotxi think so too," she said and when she noticed the shoked expression on my face, she started laughing.

"Aylikhi, please. You guys spend you afternoons and evenings together, we all don't really know where you are and what you're doing. And he's always looking at you with those eyes!", my best friend explained with an excited face.

"What eyes?", I asked her. Tsireya was younger than me, but she knew a lot more about those topics for some reason.

"You know, those eyes someone gives you when they like you! There full of joy and honesty," she said and put her hand on my shoulder.

I started walking again, looking at the sand. "Well, we are just friends. I'm teaching him our ways, that's it. And he doesn't give me those eyes!"

Tsireya was giggling behind me. "If you say so", she just said and hopped onto the next topic.

But my thoughts still were on what she just said. I mean, yes, Neteyam and me were definitely closer than I was with the other Sully kids, and yes, we did spend a lot of time together lately. But that doesn't mean that we like each other! He's just a nice guy in my age! Right?

-

The days went on and I kind of tried to avoid Neteyam. I still spoke to him whenever he came up to me, but overall I really tried to not spend so much time with him anymore.

And I felt extremely bad. I could see that he was a bit confused, because suddenly, I wasn't in the roots anymore and wanted to train with Lo'ak or Kiri more.

But I just didn't want the village to get the wrong idea. I definitely didn't like Neteyam and he didn't like me.

Turns out, being a empathic person isn't always a good trait. My eyes automatically went to Neteyams direction whenever there was a crowd, and when I saw him talking to someone I wished to be a part of the conversation.

Yesterday Neteyam went up to me and asked me to help him with feeding the ilu, but I just answered, "Oh, you can ask Rotxo about that.", and walked away. I looked back to him when he approached Rotxo and could feel a bad feeling in my stomach.

But now that I had more time with myself, I spend more hours with my brother.

He took me with him yesterday evening when he and other hunters of our people went out hunting fish. I just watched and didn't really do anything, but I was very interested in it and I helped to think about something different than the situation with Neteyam.

Me and Tsireya also helped Ronal with healing injured hunters and I spend a lot of time teaching Metkayina kids how to ride an ilu or how to properly breath underwater. But that made me miss the Sully's even more.

Even though I don't know them for very long, they already have a place in my heart.

As I walked to our Marui with Letxyo, I saw the family with Rotxo and Tsireya on the beach. It was a hot evening and they seemed to play something on the sand. I had no idea what there were doing. They were throwing a round object into the air and someone else had to catch it and throw it back.

"Hey Aylikhi!", I suddenly heard Rotxo shout, who probably saw me, "Wanna join us? We are play 'volleyball', Neteyam taught us the rules and it's so much fun!", he asked me.

"What the fuck is 'Volleyball'?", Lekxyo said who was standing next to me. I shrugged.

"I think I'm going to find out," I said to him and ran up to the beach. "Have fun!", he shouted to me and shook his head while smiling.

I approached my friends and a grin automatically appeared on my face.
I truly missed hanging out with them over the past few days.

Rotxo quickly explained me the rules of 'volleyball', which surprisingly were quite easy to understand.

"How come I don't know of this game?", I asked the group, because I feel like I played every game there is before.

Neteyam chuckled, "Well, my dad told us about it. I never heard of it before either," he said and I just nodded as an answer.

Tsireya and Tuk were deciding the teams and in the end I was in Tuk's team along with Neteyam and Tsireya. I tried to keep a distance to Neteyam, but it didn't really work, I bumped into him a few times and whenever that happened, our eyes laid on each other as he asked me if I was alright.

It seemed that we had won the game, mainly because of Neteyam's skills, and Neteyam gave us all a hug. At first I was a bit shocked when I felt his arms around me. I realised that I missed everything about him. Wasn't he mad at me for ignoring him?

His touch was all I could think of all night.

-

Chapter 7 everyoneee

Writing this is so much fun, if you have any ideas for the next chapter write them down in the comments!

I love you all, thank you for a 100 reads!!

Next chapter will be uploaded tomorrow evening! (CET)